🚀 go-pugleaf

Hey folks,

I have successfully backed up my original, store-bought PC games using my
Yamaha CD burner for over a year now.  Things were great until just a few
weeks ago, when Eidos released Commandos with anti CD burning copy
protection.

Eidos started this type of copy protection with Commandos, and now Westwood
followed suit with Dune 2000.

The Commandos protection is a bit different from that in D2k.  Whereas Dune
2000 contains just over 650MB of *real* data (around 652MB), Eidos put, in
addition to real game files, four 680MB dummy files that are checked by the
Commandos .exe program file.

The end result is the same.  Older (and some new) CD-ROM drives may have
trouble with this technically illegal disc.  Thankfully, my second
generation DVD drive read Dune 2000 (and Commandos) just fine.

Apparently, for Commandos, a CD copy protection crack exists.  However, one
for Dune 2000 has not yet surfaced.

I have tried messing with the Dune 2000 CD layout to reduce the size of the
disc to no avail.  While the disc *can* be created on a CD recorder just
fine without the "Internet" directory, which contains 90MB of useless ISP
files for those of us that already have an internet connection, the newly
burned CD *cannot* be used in multiplayer mode on Westwood online - just
before launching the game in Westwood Chat, you get an Invalid CD error
message that sends you all the way back to the main Dune 2000 game menu.

Note that the Internet directory does NOT contain any files necessary for
playing Dune 2000 in any mode.  The directory just has files for three
different Internet Service Providers.

The only option left, that I can see, is backing up your original copy of
Dune 2000 with an 80 minute CDR blank (as opposed to a standard, 74 minute
disc).  I checked into these discs and found some rather alarming
information.

Normal 74 minute/650MB discs can be had at many retailers for as little as
75 cents per disc.  It is a far different story for 80 minute discs.

You might think that an extra 6 minutes shouldn't cost too much more, but
because so few 80 minute blanks are actually produced and sold, their price
is atronomical.  After calling 10 storage media mail order retailers, only 2
even carried this type of blank disc.  One store sold them for a whopping
$49 per disc!! The other sold them at $38 per disc.

Needless to say, if you purchase Dune 2000 at Electronics Boutique for
$39.99 and then send in your mail-in rebate, the $29.99 purchase price for
the game is actually cheaper than making a backup copy of the original!!!

So much for backing up my games if publishers keep this up,

Vinod Nagubadi