CONFIRMED - Race Driver 2 workaround guide.

[The Gauge]

Hello everyone. I've been picking up bits and pieces of potential workarounds for TOCA Race Driver 2 but each one I've found has been either incomplete or wrong in places. I thought I'd cobble this quick guide together to illustrate how to play TRD2 with no dvd and no crack. The requirements are a bitch, I realise, but if you're fortunate enough to have 2 PCs on a network then you're in business.


Requirements:

Alcohol 120%
2 computers on your network; referred to as "game" PC and "second" PC.
Second PC must have a shared folder.
All harddrives on your primary IDE controller and all CD/DVD drives on your secondary IDE controller.
BIOS capable of disabling your secondary IDE controller.


Procedure:

1. Install latest version of Alcohol 120%.
2. Rip the TRD2 DVD to .mds image file.
3. Copy image into the shared folder on the second PC on your LAN.
4. In Alcohol 120% on game PC, go to Emulation configuration and tick ALL emulation types under "Emulation" and "Emulation Extra".
5. In My Computer, right-click on your virtual drive and choose "Mount Image..."
6. In the dialogue box that opens, navigate to Network Neighbourhood / My Network Places and open the TRD2 image off the second PC across the network.
7. Install TRD2 on your game PC across the network.
8. When the installation is complete the computer will need to reboot. (You may need to click "Play" on the TRD2 menu to get the reboot prompt). This is the Copy Protection System finishing its install.

IMPORTANT: Before you attempt to play the game you MUST do the following:

9. Reboot your computer and enter the BIOS setup.
10. Navigate through your BIOS settings and DISABLE your secondary IDE controller.
11. Save your BIOS settings and reboot your computer.

12. The computer will reboot without any of your CD/DVD drives available.
13. Remount the networked image and click "Play" from the menu.
14. Enter your TRD2 DVD-key, wait for the disk check to complete and the game should boot up.


Some points to note:

If your BIOS doesn't support disabling of the IDE controllers, replace steps 9-11 with "open your PC case and unplug your CD/DVD drives". The Copy Protection System will instruct you to place the game CD in another drive if it detects ANY IDE-based CD-Rom on your system. For the workaround to be successful using Alcohol, the Protection system must not be able to see any IDE optical drives whatsoever and your DVD image must not be mounted on a local IDE device.

Due to StarForce's hidden device drivers, which monitor and modify system IDE access, the game MUST be installed from the second PC. I don't believe you can install the game locally and then use the remote image to start the game.

Only the first installation of TRD2 installs the Copy Protection System on your computer (characterised by the reboot) and this installation must be done across the network. To the best of my knowledge, uninstalling and reinstalling the game over the network will not fix this but I've not fully tested this.

If the Copy Protection System says "invalid disk" when you start the game, try several more times. So far, in my experience, the game boots up about 1 in 4 attempts.

It's possible that System Restore may be able to rollback your system prior to the installation and remove the StarForce Protection drivers, but I haven't tested this. A removal tool can be found on Codemaster's website.

This may seem like a massive process to go through for one game, but when you've done everything correctly, each time you want to play TRD2, you just need to reboot to disable your 2nd IDE controller, mount the image across the network and you're away.

More information, LOTS of griping and the driver removal tool can be found here:
http://community.codemasters.com/for...threadid=41263


Hope this helps.

[dusted]

i have an easier solution:

1) push the eject button on your dvd-rom (or dvd burner whichever you prefer)

2) pop the RD2 disc on the tray

3) push the drive tray shut, or if you prefer press the eject button again.

4) wait for game to load and click on the play button.

[BaumDoktor]

Originally Posted by dusted

i have an easier solution:

1) push the eject button on your dvd-rom (or dvd burner whichever you prefer)

2) pop the RD2 disc on the tray

3) push the drive tray shut, or if you prefer press the eject button again.

4) wait for game to load and click on the play button.

EVER HEARD OF CD's getting scratches and stop working? (do you have children? i don't think so ;-))

[t.foster73]

This is for a backup of the game then? Well done for finding this workaround. I would be interested if other users would try this as well, and report the results. Why does it only work with a Network install? If we can find out why, then perhaps a solution could be found for the host machine only.

[The Gauge]

I've no idea why this only works over a network install.

I've tried creating a shared folder on the local computer and mounting the image through Network Neighbourhood just as I did from the remote computer. It still doesn't work.

I can only assume it's something to do with the file transport system for Microsoft Networking. Something subtle must get lost during the transfer that still remains when the image is mounted locally. It's most bizarre, though. I'd understand if you could install locally and just mount remotely to boot the game, but it doesn't work unless you INSTALL remotely as well.

I'd be most interested to know why, though.

[Morglum007]

Why SF only works with tricks like that is because its special drivers. SF hides and modifies the Windows IDE accesing in order to control the whole operation. Every way that hides GENUINE IDE conected to optical drives ( where the alcohol image is) will result in an image launching. This is why alcohol needs not to have IDE conected to a drive in order to work, or why by networking it works. (SF compares "spin" test on every drive in order to "know" if a drive is virtual or not, so no optical must be present in order to fool that test)

good luck!

[The Gauge]

Originally Posted by Morglum007

Why SF only works with tricks like that is because its special drivers. SF hides and modifies the Windows IDE accesing in order to control the whole operation. Every way that hides GENUINE IDE conected to optical drives ( where the alcohol image is) will result in an image launching. This is why alcohol needs not to have IDE conected to a drive in order to work, or why by networking it works. (SF compares "spin" test on every drive in order to "know" if a drive is virtual or not, so no optical must be present in order to fool that test)

good luck!

Hmmm... could you explain that last bit again, please? Are you saying that the SF protection modifies ALL your IDE drivers so, aside from controlling the access method on optical drives, it also knows if the "image" that's being run is coming off one of the other IDE devices, i.e. your harddrives? Presumably then, the SF protection runs, sees no optical drives, sees that it's not being accessed from one of the other IDE devices (harddrive), and proceeds as there are no other IDE devices to check? Hence the network image working?

This is very interesting stuff.

[t.foster73]

For all you electronics guys out there a question. Is it safe to wire an on/off switch into the 12v input of the IDE drive? Would this fool the Starforce drivers? (The drive will not appear in windows without 12 power).

[RincewindTheWiz]

Yes, it would fool the drivers, NO, I wouldn't recommend this. IDE devices are not hot pluggable, you might destroy the drives by doing it too much.

[KingPickle]

For all you electronics guys out there a question. Is it safe to wire an on/off switch into the 12v input of the IDE drive? Would this fool the Starforce drivers? (The drive will not appear in windows without 12 power).

You can test that out quickly. Just leave the side of your case open with the 12v unpluged. When you boot to windows, try puttin that molex back on the drive

[The Gauge]

Originally Posted by KingPickle

You can test that out quickly. Just leave the side of your case open with the 12v unpluged. When you boot to windows, try puttin that molex back on the drive

Heh... I'd seriously avoid doing something like this unless you're prepared to power-down the PC before you flick the switch.

[Morglum007]

@The gauge:

Well, i don't really know what do you want to hear about.
What i'm meaning is that SF ONLY patches the Windows Kernell if it finds optical drives connected to IDE. When remotely mounting, SF looks for another devices searching the SAME "protocol", and because is across a lan, no other devices are found to compare with. The same thing happens with SCSI drives. SF hides almost every CDB commnad for reading CD, cause most computers on this world have drives conected to standart IDE. I think Windows IDE drivers are not safe enough to SF, so it patches it in order to properly hide what it is doing.

Secondly, respecting what some people call "spin" test, SF can send some commands to any drive ( mounted or not) about speed. Remember SF loads even before Windows loading is complete, so SF can easyly find which unit is virtual and which no.

Well, about that electronics i have seen ( with some laughts (excuse me, it's only so funny for me ), well, the problem is windows, not the IDE (hehe) If you neutralize that, how will windows recognice your HD and so one? Only by avoiding SF loading with windows, you could try something that (:?) I do not recommand it.

Well, don't think if properly replied to.

good luck!

[Hawk404]

@dusted:

*lol*

I tried it with my original and it workz

greetz

[NoS]

Originally Posted by Morglum007

SF ONLY patches the Windows Kernell if it finds optical drives connected to IDE

does anyone try an 5 1/4 external USB box to put a Rom-drive in ?

i´ll would try it, but dont have one


greets alot

[BaumDoktor]

anybody tried that method on 1.2? seems they changed the sf version again .... ill keep trying for the fun of it but i think im back to my orginal with 1.2