Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri NoCD fix

[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...

[leezer3]

Hi there Joe,
Just tried a reinstall & update to the latest versions- This is what I get: (Both vanilla Alpha Centauri & Planetary Pack)
Protection ID states that no protection was detected/ unknown protection.
On loading I get the generic Safedisc message that no disc is inserted, Abort retry or continue. Pressing continue about 5 times gets rid of this.
Then I get this:

The Alpha Centauri CD-ROM was not detected. Some game features will not function without the CD in the drive unless you have performed a "Complete Install".
Retry OK

Small note- The text for the CD check string is called by this section of the jackal.txt file:

#FILEFIND_NOCD
#xs 320
#caption Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
#button Retry
The Alpha Centauri CD-ROM was not detected. Some game features
will not function without the CD in the drive unless you have
performed a "Complete Install".

(I assume that this means that you could make the CD-Check message say whatever you want )

Another edit!!: The Safedisc message will come up unless ANY disc is in the drive, no matter what it is.
Small edit: Safedisc version on untwiddled exes from the Planetary Pack is 1.4.004.

Totally confused (And no-longer amused!)

-Leezer-

[Joe Forster/STA]

It seems the message is displayed at two parts of the program: when the opening movie (movies\virtualWorld.wve on the CD) is played and when the DirectX DLL (directx\dsetup.dll on the CD) is loaded.

If you don't have the CD inserted or you have a different CD inserted then neither the movie will be played nor the DirectX DLL will be loaded, because the file the game needs is not there. I think the "ForceOldVoxelAlgoritm=1" config setting, recommended by Felar Furlong, disables DirectX usage ("old voxel algorithm" as a fancy name for the "software renderer"?) and that's why the game works at all... (?)

leezer3, please, drop me an E-mail. I'll send you and whoeverxxx a no-CD patch next Monday or something for testing.

[hotsauce]

I'm not entirely good with computers but I'm trying to get this to work. So far I've unzipped it, updated it, added the game fix/cd crack. It still says No cd detected etc.. So how exactly do I find the Alpha centauri.ini file. Where will I find it and what will it look like? Thanks for your time.

[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.