Sims 2 Blocked by CD Copying Software

bairy writes "EA says The Sims 2 will refuse to run if you have Nero, CloneCD or Roxio's EasyCD installed on the same PC. Although they link to a patch to bypass this, a lot of people are upset by this."

Comments

misleading

[Scottarius]

The original post is a little misleading. the software isn't blocked by cd burning software... it conflicts with cd emulation software, which is a compltely different thing. CD Emulation just happens to be included with a lot of cd burning software but can usually be disabled without uninstalling the program.

Re:misleading

[(H)elix1]

Except in this case, just having it disabled is not enough. Got to be removed before Sims 'no longer has a conflict'.

CloneCD Current Version is Directly Causing Issues

[Necromancyr]

Having CloneCD installed (the current version as of this posting) is one of the biggest issues people are having. Simply changing the Reg Entry for CloneCD allows you to run the Sims no problem - of course, you have to change it back for CloneCD to work correctly.

Basically, it's checking for a registry entry. That's it. Very effective. :/

so what

[Anonymous Coward]

daemon tools works fine

Re:so what

[MachDelta]

Only certain versions of Daemon tools work. I've got 3.46, and it works perfectly, but i've heard reports of older versions being blocked.

DOOM 3 has this problem too!

[antdude]

I had an old version of CloneCD installed and had to uninstall it. :(

DOOM 3 as well!

[antdude]

I had this problem with DOOM 3 as well because I had an old version of CloneCD installed. Its emulation feature was disabled as well. A lot of people experienced this problem.

Works like a charm

[Dark Lord Seth]

Currently got "The Sims 2" up and running -- Illegally. Works fine with CD-burning tools. Mounted the images with the latest version of Daemon Tools, installed it and can play it just fine as well. ( It is currently running in the background ) It even works fine with Nero still installed, though for the record it SHOULD be noted that this version of Nero is an OEM-handicapped version taht came with my Plextor burner. Won't burn anything on any other burner. Maybe it won't conflict because I use CD-drive emulation software? Don't know. Bottom line is, this protection is MASSIVELY uneffective. A large site that I frequent has counted at LEAST 10k hits so far on people who downloaded the game. Works fine for the majority of them, let's assume 80%.

Personally, I really like the game though. I'm not going in depth on that; this ain't no damn review. Suffice to say, I'm going to wait a few years, then pick up the fully patched and complete game ( What EA calls expansion packs ) on 2 DVDs for EUR 29,95 in 2006. Untill then, I'll just hobble about with this pirated version. :)

It ain't the first and won't be the last

[spyrochaete]

True Crime: Streets of L.A. for PC did the exact same thing. Wouldn't load until I removed Daemon Tools and CloneCD. It wouldn't even tell me what the offending software was! Like one poster above, I just cracked the software.

P.S., if you use a No-CD crack in The Sims 2, you can't change flooring! Double whammy!

You know it's a sad day when you start missing those Monkey Island code wheels!

Re:Just another example of why copy protection los

[Marc_Hawke]

Almost all games now-a-days come with the requirement that the CD be in the drive. UT(99) was like this. I wrote in to Epic, and the publisher (GT Interactive) and complained, and listed 5 legitimate reasons why that requirement made it impossible for a valid customer to play the game.

Epic, the developer said it was a requirement forced by the publisher. The tech support for the publisher actually pointed me at www.gamecopyworld.com to download the 'NoCD fix.' (That was good customer service. :) )

In other news, when Tribes 2 came out it didn't have a CD check. However, it also flat out didn't work on a great number of PCs. And, on the PCs where the game actually worked, the online component (the whole game) was in very poor condition, and many of the features simply 'weren't in yet.' There was a massive public backlash and a mass 'returning' of the game to the retail outlets.

In the first patch, they implemented a CD-check. The reasoning..."Our retail partners are concerned with the large amount of returns they are getting on this game, and they feel it's because people are simply copying it to their harddrives because there was no CD-check."

Sure..it has nothing to do with the game simply NOT WORKING!!!

But I've guess we've seen that kind of attitude before in different industries. (RIAA)

It's none of their damn business...

[Kozar_The_Malignant]

What I have on my hard drive. I have three different sector editors as well as CD copy software. Are they going to scan for the editors, because I might use them to edit their executables? If I buy a program, I expect it to run with whatever I have on my hard drive. If there are conflicts with common software, I expect the publishers to fix it and issue a free patch. I definitely don't expect them to be scanning my registry for keys that they think might indicate that I might be thinking about maybe making a perfectly legal backup copy of my legally purchased software. There are a couple of RTS games coming out this fall that I'm interested in buying, but if they have this bullshit in them, they'll go right back to the store, or never be purchased if I know ahead of time.