Ultimate quiz games (asking for nocd)

[Myloch]

Hi guys, I bought these 3 little (and crappy) quiz games for a few bucks on the web: Ultimate Quiz Sport, Ultimate quiz World cup and italian soccer.

Unlike the digital delivery version (protected by Activemark), using protectionID they seem to be NOT protected but they ask for cdrom.

In every installation directory, there is a launcher.exe file (same CRC for every game), so I'll include only the necessary.

[TippeX]

well first test would be to try and make a mini image, mount with daemon tools, see if that works... as well as perhaps running filemon and regmon to see what files and registry keys are accessed... from the sounds of it it seems like a simple dvd check though, but mini image is a good first start..

[Myloch]

I never did mini images, I think I'll try doing a simple cd image (everyone of the 3 cds is more or less 100mb only lol), I'll mount it on daemon and I'll see if that works. thanks for the advice.

edit1: made a cd image for test for one of the games and it starts without problems.

[TippeX]

okies, so its probably a simple cd/dvd check as suspected...
i can look at it for you if you want, or attempt to help you make a mini image etc..

alternatively you could load a hex editor and patch file offset 0x1940 (thats 1940 HEX)
with 33 C0 40 C3 (xor eax, eax.. inc eax.. ret).. aka return TRUE;

that might work (no idea, because if i run the launcher here i get prompted to install), i think
the actual exe is the sport.dat or similar.. and the cd/dvd check may not actually be in this
launcher.. but you have all the files so you can test

[Myloch]

I created a new launcher.exe with the hex mods you suggested and it worked (for the other 2 cdroms too). thanks!

[TippeX]

np, happy to help, was a bit of an educated guess but im glad it worked