The Thing "Damn Thing"

Alright, very peculiar occurence I must say. I made my own copy of "The Thing" with Clone CD using "Regenerate Data Sectors" option. Now, the backup works on my machine, and one other. I try it on other machines and it does not load. Any ideas? Perhaps a change of software?

Odd.

Try with alcohol using securom new (not securom 4.x) settings and see how that goes.

Should work but then so should ccd though it does sometimes have problems with Liteys.

Remember that this is the last securom game that can be copied without emulation or twinsector image patching (which is what blindwrite does when using a bwa file with later versions of securom).

As I mentioned in another recent thread, I just nailed a backup using ALCOHOL 1.4.0 (114) and the SECUROM *NEW (V4.X) Profile ... no probs. But my burner is a LITE-ON LTR-48246S SS06 - what burner do you have??

I have Liteon LTR-48125W w/ VS02.

I know that this is the last version of securom that can be copied without extra measures, but that should not matter. I just do not understand why it should make a difference in different CD drives.

Yes CD Drives (CD-ROMs) should not make any difference to the copy if it is a 1:1 copy ... actually, based on your post I tried installing my "Thing" copy on a friend's PC this afternoon - 100%.

It seems tho what does make a difference is the burner you use as well as its firmware, then what software you copy with, and what profile you use. Later firmwares seem to improve burners' abilities to read copy-protections, so check how recent your LTR-48125W's firmware is ... but I have seen even from just this forum that a backup technique that works for someone may not necessarily work for someone else - I had read to use CLONECD with its SECUROM *NEW profile to backup my "Thing", and I made a coaster (my coffee's sitting on it now! ). But then I used ALCOHOL as I wrote above and voila! No probs.

Try ALCOHOL with its SECUROM *NEW (V4.X) Profile (no EMU needed tho) - and let us know how the copy goes on different PCs then!

Bzzzt. Wrong (no offence). Search and search some more. Reader/writer can make a difference, particularly how it manages weak sectors - ask alexnoe (who is suspiciously quiet at the moment....) who owns a cantankerous Toshi 1502. And there's no such thing as 1:1 anymore.

Bzzzt. Wrong again (sorry!), it's all emulated, tho you can't see that (incl SD2.8x) except if you have a particular writer (certain Liteys and ASUS and a glad-bag of misc writers).

At the end of the day, if you don't choose emulation, then it's not emulated (what you can't see can't hurt, I guess).

None taken. Readers/Writers of course make a difference in the copy-process, but my point was that if the copy is perfect (and "The Thing" can be copied 1:1 from what I understand), it should then make no diff what CD-ROM (not Writer) you install and play it on thereafter - tho there will understandably be a small %age of models that don't work - always.
When I backed-up "The Thing" using ALCOHOL with the SECUROM *NEW (4.x) profile, I switched-off "Burn RMPS to recordable media", as I had heard "The Thing" doesn't need emulation. And it worked. "And there was much rejoicing." (Monty Python)

But have I missed something? I'm pretty new to 'copy-protection', so feel free to (continue to) correct me!

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Last edited by Nebuchadnezzar; 22-01-2003 at 11:12.

It's complicated. I'm privileged to be a beta user for CD Mate, CloneCD, burnatonce, Alcohol, GameJack and some others.

SecuROM 4.8x contains a Mode 2 sector at the end (second last 'informational'), in most cases, of the Mode 1 track (game data). Readers and writers deal with this in different ways; so it is that different systems react in different ways at odd times.The pre-gap with SD2.8x is also tricky. what you check and what actually happens can be two different things.

Alcohol is actually user friendly without stating it. CloneCD has the main intent of being user friendly BUT remaining tweakable.

There are very, very recent threads where apparently remarkable behaviour is observed but philamber asks "...is Alcohol is installed...?", and of course it is, and the behaviour is understandable. Sometimes it's another app responsible. Alcohol takes many liberties with your system, but I don't mind because I know what it's doing and it's a great app. Many don't and it's hard to understand until a pattern becomes obvious.

I blow 50 CD-Rs a month (a spindle), easy, testing all these apps and trying to reproduce your problems. I blew 25 in an hour getting GameJack up to speed last month (went thru 6 or so revisions in a night with Kasra. I blow at least ten every time MartinX brings out another Alcohol Beta - it's great fun (!).

Point is that CloneCD, or any other app can do the job you want with the right gear. This is the CloneCD Forum and I'll answere appropriately for this forum.

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Last edited by FutureProof; 22-01-2003 at 12:00.

Cheers for that. Yep I understand SecuROM 4.8+ has special protection, but "The Thing" is SecuROM 4.77.00.0029 - and it is the last of the 1:1 back-ups apparently ...(?) but I understand if you mean different CD units deal differently with different copy-protections - some good, some not-so-good.

Being aware of how many games are now using ATIP plus 'blacklisting' copy-software, I make use of my dual-boot PC and install CLONECD, ALCOHOL etc in my Win98SE (FAT32) Partition, but then play the games when I'm in WinXP (NTFS) ... so therefore anything I install in Win98SE can't see the XP Partition and install anything on it - so I assume that's good? And if I need emulation, I'll play the game under 98SE ...

Cheers for your info and time - your testing and coasters are much appreciated!

LMAO!!! I'm the INDIGO KID!!! Bawhawhawhawhaw!!! Hilarious!! Who did that????? Tops!

Hey FutureProof, noticed your locale - everything ok with you and the fires??? It's the most terrible tragedy, and it happened so quickly too ... I'm in the Blue Mountains here in Sydney so I've had a couple of nervous summers recently, and last year we almost lost our recording studio ... but it's just so hard to contain when it gets going ... hope all's good for you and yours.

never, ever, let it be said, that we are slow or dull.

You have got to get yourself some ultra-speed cdrws.