Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri NoCD fix

[whoeverxxx]

Originally Posted by Joe Forster/STA

Hmmm, interesting. Can you, please, zip up the main EXE, along with the necessary DLL's, to be able to launch the game to the point of displaying the copy protection message, and send it to me in an E-mail?

Sent to [email protected].

[leezer3]

@Whoeverxxx:
You want the Windows XP patch (Top one) to fix the CPU type crash.

I think I'm now getting very confused, according to what I seem to be seeing, the basic Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire patches seem to have been unprotected, but the Planetary Pack remains protected?!
Edit: Oh, and the patch to V2.0 of the Planetary Pack seems to have gone missing (I know I had one earlier to fix a whole load of Windoze XP issues, not least not starting)
Have a try at installing the most recent updates for both SMAC & SMACX and seeing what this does!
From a bit of net prodding, this may well have come about as the US & UK versions used different protections, Securom R4 & Safedisc V2 respectively, and the current patches are multi-reigonal.

Very confused!!

-Leezer-

[ByteMare]

Originally Posted by leezer3

From a bit of net prodding, this may well have come about as the US & UK versions used different protections, Securom R4 & Safedisc V2 respectively, and the current patches are multi-reigonal.

If that's still true, then there should be no problem to remove the protections

[Felar Furlong]

all what you need, is to open "Alpha Centauri.ini" file with notepad and change "ForceOldVoxelAlgoritm=0" to "ForceOldVoxelAlgoritm=1". it will still complain about cpu and no cd in drive, but will work without flaws. all latest patches to smac and smacx? are unprotected.

[Joe Forster/STA]

Hi whoeverxxx,

Sorry, the package you've sent to me does not seem to be enough for testing the copy protection. When I launch the main executable, all I get is a black screen and then crashing back to the desktop. Please, test your package on your PC (or, even better, another one where the game is not installed!) and send it to me when it displays an error message or does something that can clearly be attributed to the copy protection kicking in. Thanks!

[whoeverxxx]

Originally Posted by Joe Forster/STA

Hi whoeverxxx,

Sorry, the package you've sent to me does not seem to be enough for testing the copy protection. When I launch the main executable, all I get is a black screen and then crashing back to the desktop. Please, test your package on your PC (or, even better, another one where the game is not installed!) and send it to me when it displays an error message or does something that can clearly be attributed to the copy protection kicking in. Thanks!

Yeah, I noticed that also. I'm not sure what files triggers the CPU message but as I stated before, ProtectionID states that the game has no know protection on it and the game seems to work fine without the original CD thanks to Felar Furlong post, although I do get an annoying message stating that some features of the game will not funtion properly without the CD or a Full install even with a Full install.

[Joe Forster/STA]

Ahhh, ahhh, gimme the exact message that talks about the lack of the CD. That should be something to start working with...

[whoeverxxx]

Originally Posted by Felar Furlong

all what you need, is to open "Alpha Centauri.ini" file with notepad and change "ForceOldVoxelAlgoritm=0" to "ForceOldVoxelAlgoritm=1". it will still complain about cpu and no cd in drive, but will work without flaws. all latest patches to smac and smacx? are unprotected.

Thanks, that worked! My sound is a little distorted but sound isn't that important on a game like this.