I Lost My CD

[DrSpike]

I haven't tried to copy a cd in years - last time I did though (for backup purposes of course) they had made it tricky.

[Metaliturtle]

just press alt+F4 after you start the game and it will make a backup copy and bring you back to your desktop...

[Sabre2th]

I make a backup of nearly everything I buy. It saves the original CDs. Unforunately, they have made it significantly more difficult these past couple of years. Makes me miss the old days of looking for word 4, line 7, on page 26 of the manual.

[DrSpike]

I still remember transcribing a codewheel for Premier Manager on my Amiga.

I wonder why that form of copy protection died out.

[patcon]

Disney software used to use a code sheet which used black ink on dark magenta paper which was impossible to photocopy with the necessary resolution.

I remember taking apart the code wheel for Arnold Palmer Golf and photocopying the individual wheels, cutting out the little windows and then building a copy of the code wheel. You had to line up two or three randomly-selected code words to reveal the required password each time you wanted to play.

[lange17]

I dealt with the random copy protection methods like everyone else. I fondly remember the black-on-dark-red population figures for world cities from my original Sim City game. However, my favorite was a military strategy game called Command HQ for the Tandy I had when I was growing up that used the "Page 17, line 21, word 3" method. What's great is, last year I came across the game as a download off the internet, and wouldn't you know it still had the copy protection attached. I was frustrated at missing a chance to play a game I loved when I was young and was about to quit and give up, but as I looked at the page, line, and word numbers it asked for I was hit with the faintest glimmer of a memory. Despite not having played the game in maybe a dozen years, I figured "what the hell" and typed the word that apparently randomly came to mind...

Nailed it. First try. I was more psyched over that than I'd ever been excited about the game itself!

[DrSpike]

It was probably disabled.