Dummy Files in this day and age?
 

I was scanning a very recent 4 cd game woth CLONEY XXL, and CDs 2 and 3 were listed as having Dummy File protection. I read the FAQ at Cd Media world but it said that basically this can be overcome with a 80 minute CDR. I dont understand why somebody would use something like that in a new game since I havent even seen a 74 min blank cd for sale for years. Is there some other Dummy File trick companies use now as cd protections?

Mainly I want to know how to burn a working backup, the fact that I can bypass the cd protection if I just use a 80 min cd on a new and popular game released by a very wealthy company seems too good to be true.

The dummy files are often (but not always) combined with some other protection. The trouble may occur when you try to remaster your copy, i.e adding a NoCD/crack and copy the files to harddrive.
You may end up with files over 2 GB which may be hard to fit on a 80 min CD....of course, this can be "dealt with" and the trick is pretty lame, but it can be annoying.:D

NovaLogic often (always?) use the Dummy-File-Protection in the Delta Force Games. Also in Comanche 4.

The last Delta Force (Black Hawk Down) was combined with Securom New 4.8 .

I found Delta Force BHD easy to copy with CloneCd on a 700Mb CD-R.

Is there a way to detect what other protections (if any) are used? Cloney XXL only says Dummy Files.

Try protection ID from cdkiller. Go here

Novalogics attempt is pretty useless, you get the correct sizes AND the necessary files if you install the game. However, they like to mess the cd-check...you can often start the game with a remastered copy, but Single player or hosting multiplayer is disabled...

This is from Squaresoft, its Final Fantasy XI

I just want to make a backup since if the original disks break I would have to import another from japan

I dont want to just burn ISO images, I want to burn the actual disks

Anyone Else?