Rise And Fall: CaW - Starforce 3.7

[ronson49]

This is fuckin rude,

I installed this a while back, and recently i have been having massive problems with my system for no real reason. If i fired up a game, the screen would shift in res and freeze. No task manager, no options. As bad a blue screen of death.

After checking pretty much every running process it came to the attention my winlogon icon had changed to that very much the same as "install/remove protection drivers" found in the midway group section under my start menu.

After removing them all my problems ceased to exsist.

I have to admit, im a big fan of the No-CD due to the fact i never look after my games. I was offended that SF was installed in the first place, basically calling me a thief for buying the product, but i didnt know it could go as far as creating a plathora of issues where the last place you expect to find them is on a GAME you PURCHASED.

I did what any person with any kind of pride should do, i took the enjoyment from the purchase by covering the item in magnesium ribbon and watching through sunglasses as it bubbled.

I will purchase a game from Midway again one day, however im going to hold off a bit until im dead

This games pish anyways lads.

[Zulu]

Originally Posted by Morglum007

Plextools for PLex drives for example do the job in Plextor, cause they used crypted access to drive, and SF cannot interfere with.

Booktype is set while burning, how could SF affect that ?

Do you think it's possible to edit standard Firmwares of DVD-ROM drives to report DVD-ROM for DVD+R bypassing ADIP ?

[Morglum007]

Originally Posted by Zulu

Booktype is set while burning, how could SF affect that ?

Do you think it's possible to edit standard Firmwares of DVD-ROM drives to report DVD-ROM for DVD+R bypassing ADIP ?

When u burn u can make the resulting DVD be considered as a DVD-ROM if u set such booktype. If DVD-ROM, ADIP & ATIP check will be OVERRIDED by unit itself automatically.

Remember only RECORDERS READS ATIP & ADIP. Standart drives does not need to read it, and therefore, CANT, so SF cant do anything in such drives about such check.

So at the end, i think ur question is replied, no need to modify firm in standart drives.

[neptun]

So if i burn the DVD with DVD-ROM booktype setting i can play the game from recorders and not only from readers?

[Zulu]

Originally Posted by Morglum007

Standart drives does not need to read it, and therefore, CANT, so SF cant do anything in such drives about such check.

Why does SF tell the opposite ? LINK

When i burn to DVD+R (Booktype ROM) and try to run in ROM drive the "illegal copy" message comes as fast as without set booktype
...yes, i know, you first need SF4 title to test

[Morglum007]

Originally Posted by Zulu

Why does SF tell the opposite ? LINK

When i burn to DVD+R (Booktype ROM) and try to run in ROM drive the "illegal copy" message comes as fast as without set booktype
...yes, i know, you first need SF4 title to test

ATIP: Absolute Time In Pregroove, most times shorted to Pregroove.

Recorders uses this Pre-mastered track to write data. All CD-R/DVD-R media contains it as it is the way a recorder "knows" where it is in every moment when recording. This is the so called "Pre-pits area". Read laser beam is going ahead from writing, and thats the main speed issue with -R format. Read and write beam goes so close, and read one inserts errors cause wave lenght interferes with the also red writing beam. Even having a black case, errors are so important. Thats why PLEXTOR QUALITY drives have the inner core black. Black adsorb all wave lenght making writing beam to get less-influenced by read one. As READERS does not NEED to WRITE ANY DISC, WHY THEY SHOULD READ SUCH DATA?. Simply, they dont, and firmware is more efficient, and simple.

ANYONE saying standart drives reads ATIP is LYING.

ADIP: ADress In Pregroove. Drive does not need a premastered track to write to. Drive itself chooses block data size and speed depending on error and disc quality. This is the native +R format. Only RECORDERS KNOWS how the disc is and how the disc should be WRITEN.

Both ATIP and ADIP info are in PREGAP, DIFFERENT from media to media. SF can include a PreGAP check, as SD does, but CANT DETECT ATIP & ADIP by brute force if drive DOES NOT SUPPORT IT.

Not all drives supports reading PreGap, and not all software supports it. (See Padus discjuggler info about Pregap disc and drive suppporting)

In this case, SF MUST correct its info, as the info it gives is technically INCORRECT AND FALSE. We have a saying in Spain that sounds like: "Ignorance is so daring"

Clearer now?

CdS

Unfortunatelly in Spain some games got released a little far away from rest of the the world release date. Just to say Spellforce - The Phoenix shadow got released at the same time Spellforce 2 was released. I'll wait a lot till a SF 4.0 game arrives here.
In the other way i can download by a P2P net, but, this is considered warez and illegal so i usually dont do it. I enjoy having original discs in hand.

[Zulu]

@Morglum007
Have found another solution for the moment, full image runs under Windows Vista Beta 2

[Maffi]

how is vista ? stable , fast , nice ?
i fear new things hehehe


Greetz

[CaptainSnake]

Uhhhhhhhhh I don't feel like downloading vista... Any other solutions ?

[the patriot]

yeah plz

[AnonyRU]

There is an working solution for Starforce protected games :
We have tested it with nearly 10 SF Games and different SF versions, also with some burners. Tested with "low budget" burners aka "Speer" and on the other hand with Plextor 716, 750, 755, everytimes successfull.

Buy VSO´s Blindwrite 6.00.6 or newer. Read the SF infected Game by default settings. After, take an - important - rewritetable Medium, we try Sony, TDK and Platinium, and burn the b6 image with 4x. You can play the game as original. Only the SF-Dectection time took a little bit longer. In 2 cases we are able to speed up this procedure by activating "CloneCD Tray" to hid media.
May this solution works not 100% with every possible combinations between Hard/Software installed, or with the millions of PC-Systems, but give them a try. May somebody will open a bottle of champagne...

Good luck and remember : Before burning buy your software.

Forget : Don´t use an "normal" media, you will get nice coasters. Works ONLY with ReWritetable media

[Zulu]

Originally Posted by AnonyRU

Works ONLY with ReWritetable media

Why this ?

[Morglum007]

The ez-play Blindwrite's feature seems to be working with latest SF (4.0) available in Micromachines for example. In this case, AnnonyRu is correct.

The CloneCD hide media option is so interesting, we didnt notice that, and will test, thanks.

Respecting the only only rewritable afirmation, well, dont know why u say that, many people reports success in just +R media, but u get some risk doing so, unless u were completelly sure it will work... Anyway, i live in a free and democratic country, so, if u want to do so, do iT!

CdS

[AnonyRU]

Sorry, i don´t know. We tryed it with different medias, no one works. Nevertheless, we test both ,-r /+r ; no success. Seems, the miracle is in the Atip sector. Otherwise we´re not the programmers from Blindwrite/ Starshit ,so don´t blow up your head for the "why". The only important thing is, you may have a chance to safe your original game and play it with an copy. RW media is also cheap, isn´t it ?

AnonyRU

[Morglum007]

Originally Posted by AnonyRU

Sorry, i don´t know. We tryed it with different medias, no one works. Nevertheless, we test both ,-r /+r ; no success. Seems, the miracle is in the Atip sector. Otherwise we´re not the programmers from Blindwrite/ Starshit ,so don´t blow up your head for the "why". The only important thing is, you may have a chance to safe your original game and play it with an copy. RW media is also cheap, isn´t it ?

AnonyRU

In this case i fully agree with you. The problem is in the ADIP check (DVD+R/RW). ATIP check is only done in DVD-R/RW). Thats what Ez-play seems to hide to SF. The driver is like the slysoft AnyDVD one, filtering some data. Because i havent seen an ADIP hider yet, seems Blindwrite is the first one i have seen. Even plextools fails in hiding ADIP. I think someone should code such a tool to do it in order to execute SF clone copies without third paying programs.

CdS.