Sorry if this is asked a lot before, but I'm working on a laptop, and it's not always doable to bring all my game cd's with me. All the other games I play don't need a CD or can work with a no-CD patch, but Worms Armageddon actually needs to get info from the CD.
Is there a way to play without needing the CD? Making an image or something?

Sorry if this is asked a lot before, but I'm working on a laptop, and it's not always doable to bring all my game cd's with me. All the other games I play don't need a CD or can work with a no-CD patch, but Worms Armageddon actually needs to get info from the CD.
Is there a way to play without needing the CD? Making an image or something?

NoCD crack, forget it. Waste of time.

Making a CD image, then mounting it (via PowerISO CD/DVD, Alcohol 52/120, etc) on a CD Image program like those ones is the best way.

Make a CD image:
http://worms2d.info/Running_WA_without_the_CD

Using no-CD cracks is against the forum rules here. Don't do it.

Make a CD image:
http://worms2d.info/Running_WA_without_the_CD

Using no-CD cracks is against the forum rules here. Don't do it.


I guessed as much, just mentioning a few options.
So you guys say a CD image should work?
I'll try that then...

Yup, I've got WA and many other games working just fine with Alcohol 52%

Would it be possible to make WA run without a CD in a future update? Sort of like an official way to run it off the harddrive? It'd be kinda like what Blizzard did with Starcraft, Warcraft3 and Diablo 2, since you can run the game without a cd using the latest patch.
Cos that'd be awesome :).

I doubt that will ever happen in the near future.

Blizzards Starcraft, Warcraft 3 and Diablo 2 games haven't really recieved much in terms of new features or functions for a very long time now while W:A still does! Why make it easier to pirate the game that is still being devloped beyond future proofing fixes?

I doubt that will ever happen in the near future.
Awwww :(. Why's that?

Blizzards Starcraft, Warcraft 3 and Diablo 2 games haven't really recieved much in terms of new features or functions for a very long time now while W:A still does! Why make it easier to pirate the game that is still being devloped beyond future proofing fixes?

Actually, the last Starcraft patch was January 2009, and the last Warcraft 3 patch was August 2009. WA's last patch was July 2008. Both games are evolving, not necessarily in mechanics, but in user-made content. Both games are extremely popular and widely played today.
In any case, it's already easy to pirate Worms Armageddon, since you can share the .iso file. It's already an issue, and I don't think it's going to make the problem much worse by making the game run from the hard drive without having to create a virtual cd drive.

... It's already an issue, and I don't think it's going to make the problem much worse by making the game run from the hard drive without having to create a virtual cd drive.

It is pretty easy to make Starcraft and Diablo 2 running without CD. Since Blizzard packed most of the game files in the MPQ archives, users just needs to copy those (one or two) MPQs to the game directory to make no-CD work.

But WA is different. First, WA have many of the files left unpacked in the CD, so it'll need some work copying them. Second, there're multiple releases of WA (http://worms2d.info/Releases) - each having different directory structures and different WA versions (even installers are different). So, it'll be impossible to make it without CD like Blizzard did.

EDIT: One more thing,
I am guessing that Blizzard made them running without CD is because they will be able to sell digital version of games. Of course, they are aware of piracy - the forthcoming Starcraft II has LAN multiplayer disabled for this reason.

I doubt it would be hard to make a program that analyzes the contents of any discs in optical drives disc to determine what version it is and to then search the local hard drives for WA.exe unless the user specifies a path.

The whole thing (except the need to download and run the exe) could be automated.


The no-cd Blizzard incorporated has nothing to do with piracy, it doesn't increase or decrease it since it was always only protected by a CD-Key that requires server side authentication in order to play online. There never was any server side checks for offline play. People exploited this for online play by playing over LAN with Hamachi (simulating a local network through the internet) avoiding the server side checks. Blizzard is countering this by adding server side checks to LAN mode in Starcraft 2.

Im not sure if they are adding server side checks for offline play too (to access the campaigns), wouldn't surprise me to be honest and wouldn't bother me at all.

I actually posted this to the feedback section, and got a good explanation here:
http://feedback.worms2d.info/forums/5998-worms-armageddon/suggestions/452169-allow-worms-armageddon-to-run-without-the-cd

Yeah, I think a NO-CD update could technically be done, regardless of the version of the user's CD. But I guess if the game is still widely played today, still playable on today's systems (through updates), and is still available to consumers, then it stands to reason that it requires at least some sort of copy protection. Maybe eventually they'll make it into some sort of digital download somehow, but not yet.

I was thinking of other games that had been made into freeware, but there are usually good reasons for it.
-Gta1 and GTA2: The original versions had compatibility issues with current version of windows (xp and up I think).
-Death Rally: Was a DOS-only game that couldn't be run without emulation.
-Netstorm: Never made that much money due to design flaw that allowed people to download the full version via the demo. Activision wouldn't be able to make any money from this game nowadays, since the graphics are dated and no-one would be interested. Actually I don't think this game was officially released for free. It's more abandonware, but meh.
-Allegience. Didn't make that much money from it.
There are probably a few other examples that I can't think of right now.

it is pretty easy to make starcraft and diablo 2 running without cd. Since blizzard packed most of the game files in the mpq archives, users just needs to copy those (one or two) mpqs to the game directory to make no-cd work.

But wa is different. First, wa have many of the files left unpacked in the cd, so it'll need some work copying them. Second, there're multiple releases of wa (http://worms2d.info/releases) - each having different directory structures and different wa versions (even installers are different). So, it'll be impossible to make it without cd like blizzard did.

Edit: One more thing,
i am guessing that blizzard made them running without cd is because they will be able to sell digital version of games. Of course, they are aware of piracy - the forthcoming starcraft ii has lan multiplayer disabled for this reason.


you are a little bad

first, blizzard does not make mpq files

the 'mpq' files are the installation ones

Actually, the last Starcraft patch was January 2009, and the last Warcraft 3 patch was August 2009. WA's last patch was July 2008. Both games are evolving, not necessarily in mechanics, but in user-made content. Both games are extremely popular and widely played today.

How many patches have they made recently that affect user made content? (excluding exploit fixes)

you are a little bad
first, blizzard does not make mpq files
the 'mpq' files are the installation ones

How much do you know about the MPQ formats (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPQ)? I'm doubting you do.

All blizzard games released after Warcraft 2 used MPQ for archiving game data. AFAIK, all those game installers are self-extracting MPQ archives, all Starcraft and Warcraft 3 maps (.scm .w3m) are MPQ archives.

The installer just extract the files within itself. The reason why you see MPQ files are being installed is that those MPQ files are packed in the MPQ installer.
(MPQ in MPQ, you know)

How many patches have they made recently that affect user made content? (excluding exploit fixes)

You should see the changelog yourself before asking this question. If you have a copy of Starcraft, open the file "patch.txt" in the Starcraft folder.

How many patches have they made recently that affect user made content? (excluding exploit fixes)

All the MAJOR patches and too happens with wc 3 because they release patches that make the version look like this:
1.532.1563 not exactle but very close

Prefer Daemon Tools. It's a good program for cd images. Make .ISO from your Worms Armageddon CD and have fun ;)

Patch 1.13 is actually now on the battle.net BETA realms for Diablo 2 being tested by the community, with it comes ladder reset. Secondly, the reason those three games can be run without a CD officialy is because anyone who wants to pirate them will anyway and will not have access to the CD KEY bond online features (which is why most people buy the games to begin with) - meaning that buying the actual game has actual features over downloading an image or pirating it in any way, this is something WA doesn't have.

Therefore Blizzard has a valid reason to allow their games to run without the CD without any third party, Team17 doesn't have any reason so why should they?

the reason those three games can be run without a CD officialy is because anyone who wants to pirate them will anyway and will not have access to the CD KEY bond online features (which is why most people buy the games to begin with) - meaning that buying the actual game has actual features over downloading an image or pirating it in any way
This is the simple truth!
If only publisher would invest more in supplying good online features, which are supported for many years, they would have a much smaller piracy problem.

But no, all they do is add more DRM and remove more LAN support. :rolleyes:

Mind you, all this of course implies that the actually game and it's offline/single-player parts are also good in the first place. :D

Yes but there are not many alternatives for many games.

Look at what Ubisoft is trying to pull off with Assasins creed 2, you get disconnected from the internet and it turns off the game. Really annoying.

This is the simple truth!
If only publisher would invest more in supplying good online features, which are supported for many years, they would have a much smaller piracy problem.

But no, all they do is add more DRM and remove more LAN support. :rolleyes

LAN was never removed in StarCraft 2, at least it wasn't for very long and they've made it require an online check. Elaborate on how LAN support would combat piracy? people can just use Hamachi + LAN unless there's a way to specifically detect such software on a computer (I'm sure there is a way, since DRM can detect virtual drive software etc. but not always the actual virtual drives themselves.).

Look at what Ubisoft is trying to pull off with Assasins creed 2, you get disconnected from the internet and it turns off the game. Really annoying.I don't think Bonz would consider that a good online protection feature, at least not for the end consumers and won't help against piracy as it will push people to pirate the game which will very likely lack that limitation.