GTA3 is NOT protected!

Living Room
#1

I have stumbled upon a newsflash on CDFreaks.com and I read ablot that Safedisk 3 protection supposedly being released together with GTA3. Well it’s not true. I have bought the original version of the game TWICE just to compare the CDs, no difference. I’ve CRC checked and compared BOTH the Executables and the Datafiles, they look the same.

After applying the Official Patch found on http://dlh.net I was able to duplicate the GTA3 Cds without problems, the game works just fine.

Furthermore, I’ve created a Custom CD1 of the game like this:

Step 1: I’ve copied the entire CD1 to my HDD;
Step 2: I’ve created a subdirectory on the HDD and added the patch;
Step 3: I’ve burned the CD with Nero Burning Rom while keeping the CD Label unchanged.

The game works perfectly after installing and running the patch.

Note: you can try changing the label of CD1, I didn’t, the Install Disk is not required for playing, only disk 2 is, and the Patch removes all fancy checking of CD2.

Note 2: Don’t think of the Patch as being an illegal crack or something, I repeat, it’s Official, you can use it, it has been released because lotsa people had trouble playing this buggy release (you may also need a D3D Update found on microsoft.com, read the game’s readme.txt for details).

#2

My GTA3 original discs are both protected with SafeDisc v2.51.021… The news on CD Freaks was a rumour and untrue since GTA3 uses a standard SafeDisc version (well at least in most cases since yours are unprotected it seems). More information on future SafeDisc 2 versions (2.90 [release Feb. 2003?] and 3.00 [release May 2003?]) can be found here.

Ps. Wrong forum, moved the thread.

#3

the cd itself is protected. in all likelyhood, your backups arent 1:1. but it doesnt matter, as they have removed the check, apparently.

bought the game twice?

#4

Yes, I bought the game twice… doesn’t matter anyway, I’ve sold one copy to a friend at the same price. Was it stupid? Was it not? I dunno, the thing is I use almost no tools to check the CDs, only the good ol’ method of ‘duplicate and see what happens’. And yes, they removed the checks 'cause the executable was crappy :slight_smile:

#5

I bought it. (lives in USA) the first installation CD has no protectionl The Second CD which has the Music files in has Safe Disk 2.51. The reason this is,is because people will need to insert the audio CD to play the radio stations and audio while playing the game. Simple just copy the Music Files to the GTAIII folder it will play right off the Hard Drive no problem. The GTAIII EXE also does to CD checks one before start up of the game and one before it goes into the main menu. Need I say more

#6

Good to see that they caved in and realised there’s no point - copy protection would just cause a lot of cdfreaks hassle but ultimately serve no purpose.:bigsmile:

#7

they didn’t just remove the check you have always been able to copy the 2nd cd to the hdd to play without the cd in the drive. This method has been advertised on the official gta3 site since the game came out so its nothing new.