Create a cd for running game without installing?

Software & Apps
#1

I’ve been considering trying to make a DVD-ROM that has 4 things:

Image file of original game CD
cd-rom drive emulator (deamon tools, i doupt one exists that doesnt require to be installed)
The files which are installed into the game directory
A simple script which stores save files to a temporary directory

If it works, I should be able to run the game directly (although more slowly than from HD) fom the dvd drive.
This would be extremely handy for LAN party’s where there are no install permissions on the machines.

Does anyone imagine this would work?

#2

Hi there and welcome aboard!

For about 75% of the games, this won’t work! Why?

  1. When installing a game, entries are set in the registry of your Windows
  2. Some games install parts that are specific for the hardware your system contains
  3. Copy protections: you’d need a NoCD crack to make this work, and these are illegal…
  4. Many games need write access to your system in order to work, and you can’t write to a DVDROM…

Too bad!

#3

If there’s no install permission on the machines,you can’t install DaemonTools either…

#4

It worked for me with Diablo II. The only thing you need to ‘install’ are the registry settings so the game saves on hdd location instead of on cd/ dvd.

The purpose was not to only to bypass the whole installation of several discs, applying the update patch again and entering a cdkey but also to save space on hdd. (2 GB)

I installed Diablo II (3 discs) and the Expansion (another disc), I updated and patched the game folder to latest and replaced the executable with a NO-CD patch and copied needed files from the Expansion disc to the gamefolder to run all files from its installed directory instead of part from disc.

Now locate the game’s registry settings that indicates where to save gamesavings and export these to a regfile. Burn the gamefolder to DVD and start the executable from the disc.

Next time you reinstall windows or an image or would like to play Diablo on a other pc, you only have to install the regfile.

The game runs slow and choppy from dvd but at least you dont have to go to the whole installation process next time and you can just copy the whole dvd to hardrive.

#5

I also 've heard of redirection solution once. If an application tries to save to cdrom you enter settings in windows config, autoexec or ini file that tells the program where else to save them as alternate location. I cant remember wich settings and where to put them in.