Pac-Man World 2 not working on Windows 7 - due to Starforce, any crack available?

[FahrenheitDegree]

Dear FileForums community,

I would like to play Pac-Man World 2 on my laptop but I cannot - simply because the StarForce copy protection driver cannot be installed properly and demands a new installation of itself after every required system restart.

Having searched to whole fix index on gcw, I have not come across any real solution to this issue - the mini images offered still require the driver to be on the system - which is simply impossible.

StarForce itself is well aware of its old drivers' incompatibility with Windows 7 and recommends to get in contact with the publisher of the protected software in such cases:

Protection versions below 5.5 do not support Windows 7.
Users of products that protected with 3.x/4.x/5.0 versions should contact the protected program developers or publishers to obtain Windows 7 patches, or use previous Windows version to run the products.

StarForce offers FREE re-protection for all the developers and publishers of the programs that utilize version below 5.50 to release the appropriate patches. Please contact your sales manager for re-protection and further details.*

Protection versions 5.5/5.6 partially support Windows 7.
Due to constant changes within Windows 7 during its development process some 5.5/5.6 builds may not fully support this OS. In case of failure please update the protection driver through the protect.exe utility or use a protected program developer's patch to be able to run the protected programs in Windows 7.

StarForce offers FREE re-protection for all the developers and publishers of the programs that utilize version below 5.50 to release the appropriate patches. Please contact your sales manager for re-protection and further details.*

Protection versions 5.7 and above are fully support Windows 7.
There is no need for any additional actions.

Windows 7 support is implemented for both 32 and 64-bit versions.

http://www.star-force.com/support/users/windows7/

The problem now is that Hip Interactive who published Namco's game for PC does not appear to exist any longer - whom should I contact now?

Is there anyone out on these boards who could probably take a look at this issue and remove the protection?

[Joe Forster/STA]

Pac-Man World 2 never had a crack. And since a crack for Pac-Man World 3 is already out, there will probably never be.

[FahrenheitDegree]

Originally Posted by Joe Forster/STA

Pac-Man World 2 never had a crack. And since a crack for Pac-Man World 3 is already out, there will probably never be.

In this case, however, it is not that crack would only make it more comfortable to play the game (without the CD in drive), it would actually be totally essential to run it on newer OS because of Starforce's older versions' total incompatibility with them.

Any ideas whether DRM-free portals such as gog.com might offer Pac-Man World 2 and possibly other titles published by Hit Interactive in the future?
The publisher does not seem to exist any longer but the original franchise is property of Namco Bandai who have already added some of their (actually Atari's but it is now the same company) titles to their portfolio.

[Joe Forster/STA]

Well, from a cracker's point of view, there's not much reason for cracking something other than the mental challenge. I think if there was a "factory unprotected" version of this game then its executable, if also compatible with the original release, would've been uploaded to GCW years ago/right away.

This problem shows very well what a blatant lie DRM is: a euphemism covering the fact that publishers don't give a shit about their user's rights, only their own. (At least, civilized developers/publishers release a final, fully unprotected update of the game within X years or before/after they go bankrupt.)

[pacgamer]

Is there any chance the European version of PMW2 does not use StarForce?

I ask this because I have the U.S. version of PMW2 and know that it uses StarForce. However, I have both the U.S. and European versions of PMW3 and can tell you only the U.S. version of PMW3 uses StarForce - the European version did not.

[Siggy12]

it is amazing to see that I'm out of this forum exatly 3 years (today) and got banned for this game here around 5 / 6 years ago.... and now that I come back see someone have problem with this game (pacman world 2) in the first page is this fate ????? ....ok never mind my crazy head let's talk about your problem... a good workaround can be that assuming you have a machine 3 maximum 4 years old (newer obviously are better....) with a vmware virtual machine with XP 32 bit that enabling 3d.

[TippeX]

tried latest daemon tools to emulate the drive?...

[Zollex]

Why you removed the definitive cure for pacman world 2?

[Joe Forster/STA]

Originally Posted by Zollex

Why you removed the definitive cure for pacman world 2?

Sorry, I think the publisher explicitly requested its removal.

[Zollex]

Namco?!

[Joe Forster/STA]

Probably, yeah. (More precisely, the copyright holder.)

[pakrat2k2]

try this one, see if it works for you.. of course remove the spaces & replace the (dot) with a period...

w w w (dot) g a m e b u r n w o r l d(dot)com/d l / d l(dot)p h p ? f I l e = P a c m a n W o r l d 2 v 1 (dot)0 M I n I B a c k u p I m a g e E n g (dot) r a r

[Zollex]

Thanks, but already have the patch for make work Pacman world 2 on Win7.

[Myloch]

lol, really? Namco on the grudge because someone cr@cked a frickin old crappy game that, without a cure, no one would be able to run on modern systems from now to eternity? Facepalm!

[Joe Forster/STA]

Originally Posted by Myloch

lol, really? Namco on the grudge because someone cr@cked a frickin old crappy game that, without a cure, no one would be able to run on modern systems from now to eternity? Facepalm!

As far as I remember, there are countries where the copyright holder must actively protect his copyright, otherwise he'll lose it. (And I think it's a good idea.) Whatever the copyrighted work is doesn't matter, in principle. In practice, if it's worth less than the cost of a legal case then they'll let it go. (And I don't think it's a good idea.)