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- ┌────────────────────────────────────┐
- │ CDROM Cheating Tools Version 1.0 │
- │ Shareware programs │
- └────────────────────────────────────┘
-
-
- TABLE OF CONTENTS
- =================
-
- 1)....................................Disclaimer
- 2)....................................General introduction
- 2.1)....................................CDROM CHEATER introduction
- 2.2)....................................VIRTUAL CDROM introduction
- 2.3)....................................CD-UTILS introduction
- 3)....................................Important features
- 3.1)....................................CDROM CHEATER important features
- 3.2)....................................VIRTUAL CDROM important features
- 3.3)....................................CD-UTILS important features
- 4)....................................Limitations
- 4.1)....................................CDROM CHEATER limitations
- 4.2)....................................VIRTUAL CDROM limitations
- 4.3)....................................CD-UTILS limitations
- 5)....................................Features on the future versions
- 5.1)....................................CDROM CHEATER future features
- 5.2)....................................VIRTUAL CDROM future features
- 5.3)....................................CD-UTILS future features
- 6)....................................CDCT vs other CD emulators
- 7)....................................Programs options
- 7.1)....................................CDROM CHEATER options
- 7.2)....................................VIRTUAL CDROM options
- 7.3)....................................CD-UTILS options
- 8)....................................Instalation of programs
- 8.1)....................................CDROM CHEATER instalation
- 8.2)....................................VIRTUAL CDROM instalation
- 9)....................................Troubleshoting
- 9.1)....................................CDROM CHEATER troubleshoting
- 9.2)....................................VIRTUAL CDROM troubleshoting
- 9.3)....................................CD-UTILS troubleshoting
- 10)...................................INTERNET sites where CDCT can be found
-
-
-
-
- 1) Disclaimer
- ──────────
-
- In this document I will talk a lot about copying programs onto harddisks,
- avoiding copy protections of games but i do not encourage the use of these
- programs as pirate tools, because it's imoral and mostly because it's illegal.
- So, any use that is against copyright laws is not my responsibility and the
- user is the only responsibil for it's illegal actions.
- Even if i've tested these programs with many games and even if i'm trying
- to improve them it could exist some games that will not work fine or not work
- at all. Normaly, these tools will not damage data from your HDD but if they
- will do so i decline any responsibility.
-
- ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
- │ All program names or companies names that i will use in this │
- │ document are registered trademarks of they owner companies or persons │
- └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
-
-
-
- 2) General introduction
- ────────────────────
-
- This programs are helping you to emulate CD from a HDD in order to gain
- speed, more reliability and much more. The package consists of three programs,
- CDROM CHEATER v2.2, VIRTUAL CDROM v1.0 and CD-UTILS v1.0. On this document
- i'll use CDCR for CDROM CHEATER, VCD for VIRTUAL CDROM and CDU for CD-UTILS.
- Please read very carefuly every section and especially troubleshoting
- sections, and if you still have problems running a game or these tools please
- send an e-mail, a snail or make a phone call to:
-
- Snail: Andrei Gavra
- Str. Victor Eftimiu, nr. 5-7, ap. 10
- Bucharest, Romania
-
- E-mail: argavra@pcnet.pcnet.ro
-
- Phone number: (040)-(01)-6156831
-
- PLEASE DO NOT SEND REGISTRATION REQUESTS TO THE ABOVE ADDRESS!
-
- All three programs are shareware, so you are allowed to use them for free
- only 30 days and after this time period you should register or stop using
- them. See more information about how to register on CDCRINFO.REG file.
- In the document i'll use the term image file fragments. For those who do
- not know what it means, when you copy a file, especially a large file (like
- the CD image file), the DOS is writing it on the HDD in data fragments because
- of the uncontignous HDD space. Of course, the user can't see it directly but
- if you use a defragmenter program (like Speed Disk or Defragmenter) you'll
- see what i mean.
-
-
- 2.1) CDROM CHEATER introduction
- ──────────────────────────
-
- This program is designed to cheat games that are not using special
- copy protection routines, to be able to copy onto HDD only some of the
- CD files and still run the program and to be a lot quicker in executing
- programs. CDCR is emulating a CD by creating a new logical drive from a
- specified directory and by emulating some MSCDEX functions and its behaviours
- in DOS and Windows OS.
-
-
-
- 2.2) VIRTUAL CDROM introduction
- ──────────────────────────
-
- This program it should cheat any CD program because it is a fake device
- driver with behaviour like any normal CD device driver. VCD is using MSCDEX
- or CORELCDX (the last program is much prefered to be used than MSCDEX) and
- a CD image file created with CDU program. Because VCD is accessing image file
- sectors directly through BIOS using the BAFAS algorythm, all CD programs will
- run at the speed of HDD and even better. Why even better? Because, for example
- DIABLO game, some CD programs contains large data files (DIABDAT.MPQ from
- DIABLO game has above 500Mb) and because these files reside on HDD the DOS
- is reading files data through READ+SEEK DOS functions which are very slowly
- (because DOS needs to find the requested cluster in the chain), while VCD
- is returning to DOS, like any other CD device driver, the data sector(s).
-
-
-
-
- 2.3) CD-UTILS introduction
- ─────────────────────
-
- This program is useful for CDCR program and needed for VCD program. Also,
- it can be used as a CD tool ( to get CD information, to enable/disable some
- CD functions etc.).
-
-
-
- 3) Important features
- ──────────────────
-
- Below are the features which distinguish them from other CD emulators and
- some needed important features in order to work with CD programs.
-
-
-
- 3.1) CDROM CHEATER important features
- ────────────────────────────────
-
- - Supports volume label obtained through INT21 or INT2F
- - Principal CD specifications can be modified by user
- ■ emualated CD drives
- ■ MSCDEX version
- ■ volume label of CD disk
- ■ copyright file name of CD disk
- ■ abstract file name of CD disk
- ■ bibliographic file name of CD disk
- ■ creation date of CD disk
- ■ first track and last track of CD disk
- - Can create logical drives (with CD attributes or SUBST attributes
- in order to work under WINDOWS GUI)
- - Program is supporting FAT32 specifications
- - Emulated drives are write-protected and report 0 bytes free, but this
- features can be disabled through command line options
- - CDCR is able to use a .CDU file for more CD information emulated
- - Multiple VTOCs are supported even if .CDU file is missing
- - Sector access is supported even if .CDU file is missing
- - Supports CD transfer rate feature
- - Loaded before entering to Windows GUI, CDCR may work very well
- - Ability to be activated from its GUI or by command line options
- - From CDCR GUI you can launch up to 20 different CD programs
- - It can be activated through TSR or EXECUTE CD FILE features
- - While running a CD game from HDD that supports audio tracks
- (e.g. DESCENT II) you are able to play a CD audio in order to have some
- music
- - It will display your desired registration name
- (only registered version)
-
-
-
- 3.2) VIRTUAL CDROM important features
- ────────────────────────────────
-
- - Because of slowly access file DOS functions it is used the BAFAS
- (Bogdan and Andrei File Access System) algorithm to access CD file
- image
- - BAFAS special features
- ■ the file sectors are read directly through BIOS (through INT13) so
- the resulted speed is the same as the HDD speed
- ■ even FAT32 is supported (only registered version)
- ■ is compatible with Windows 95 (see installation section)
- ■ for greater speed and less memory allocation is using an internal
- dynamical cache algorithm
- - CD positions can be specified as sector numbers (HSG mode)
- - CD positions can be specified as MM:SS:FF (Red Book mode)
- - Is supporting CD-XA format (only registered version)
- (without this feature some games, e.g. CIVILIZATION 2, will not work)
- - It will display your desired registration name
- (only registered version)
-
-
-
- 3.3) CD-UTILS important features
- ───────────────────────────
-
- - Displays CD drives and CD device driver informations
- - Makes CDCR.CDU supplemental information file for CDCR
- - Makes needed CD image file for VCD
- - It will display your desired registration name
- (only registered version)
-
-
-
- 4) Limitations
- ───────────
-
- Below are the limits of programs features and some imposible (or at least
- not in my knowledge how to make them) needed features.
-
-
-
- 4.1) CDROM CHEATER limitations
- ─────────────────────────
-
- - CDCR is not running very well with MSCDEX already installed
- - You cannot emulated CD drives from a MSCDEX CD directory
- - This program has been tested with MS-DOS 6.xx, Windows 95 OSs
- (4.00.950, OSR 2.x and Memphis) and under any other OSs, such as OS/2,
- the program may not work
- - In TSR mode the program takes 12k of memory and in EXEC mode takes 14k
- of memory, but in EXEC mode it is a lot easer to use (check out PgDn
- key) and besides that a real CDROM device driver + MSCDEX takes at
- about 40k of memory
-
-
-
- 4.2) VIRTUAL CDROM limitations
- ─────────────────────────
-
- - VCD is supporting only ISO 9660 format
- - VCD is supporting only one CD session
- - Multiple CD drives are not suported
- - VCD is not supporting anything besides FAT16 and FAT32 systems
- - VCD is supporting maximum 4 physical drives on a system
- - Registered version of VCD is able to manage maximum 4000 image file
- fragments
- - Shareware version of VCD is able to manage only 10 image file fragments
- - Registered version of VCD is able to manage maximum 200 tracks data
- - Shareware version of VCD is able to manage only 10 tracks data
- - VCD has been tested only under MS-DOS 6.xx and Windows 95 systems
- - The program will take at least 3k of memory, the amount of taken
- memory depends of the number of image file fragments of HDD. The
- formula of how much memory is taken is the following:
-
- Amount_of_memory = 3400bytes + (8bytes * number_of_file_fragments)
-
- NOTE: It is recommended to defragment your HDD (with programs like
- Defragmenter, Speed Disk) after you created the CD image file
- (this way your program will take only 3400bytes + 8bytes = 3408bytes)
-
-
- 4.3) CD-UTILS limitations
- ────────────────────
-
- - CDU is supporting only ISO 9660 format
- - CDU is making the CD image file using only one CD session
- (CD disks with more than one session are very, very, very rare)_
- - This program is not working very well under WINDOWS 95 GUI; use it
- only under the MS-DOS 7.x session (the session before entering GUI)
-
-
-
- 5) Features on the future versions
- ───────────────────────────────
-
- Below i've written some features that i want to implement in the future
- releases, some of them are already in developement.
-
-
-
- 5.1) CDROM CHEATER future features
- ─────────────────────────────
-
- - New and more useful GUI
- - New TSR engine
- - More powerful supplemental information file
- - More informations about how to use and how is working
-
-
-
- 5.2) VIRTUAL CDROM future features
- ─────────────────────────────
-
- - Full support for all 'books' (Orange, Yellow, White etc.)
- - Support for multiple image files in order to manage multiple
- CD games (e.g. Privateer 2)
- - The allocation of memory will be done through HIMEM.SYS, so it will
- take only 3k of base memory and the rest from XMS
- - More informations about how to use it and how is working
- - Full support for RAW reading mode
-
-
- 5.3) CD-UTILS future features
- ────────────────────────
-
- - In order to create the image file you will be able to specify a
- directory where are hold all CD file and directories (you'll not need
- the CD disk anymore)
- - More informations about how to use it and how is working
-
-
-
- 6) CDCT vs other CD emulators
- ──────────────────────────
-
- Here i've tried to make a comparasion of my emulators with the most
- known CD emulators, such as 0CD, FakeCD etc. In process of makeing these
- tops i was considering only the power to cheat the programs because i think
- that the friendly shell or the easy-to-use options are relative from a person
- to other. The number of points can be from 1 to 15, 12 is meaning that the
- emulation is like MSCDEX and 15 is meaning that besides perfect MSCDEX
- emulation is working as the speed of HDD, is working very good under
- Windows 95, it doens't need the CD drive and stuff like that.
-
- - CDEMU2 = 1 point
-
- - FAKECD v1.0c = 2 points
-
- - BCD v1.386 = 2 points
-
- - TBNCD v1.7 = 3 points
-
- - 0CD v9.7.4 = 4 points
-
- - CDCR v2.2 = 5 points
-
- - FAKEDR v0.9 = 10 points
-
- - VCD v1.0 = 13 points
-
-
-
- 7) Programs options
- ────────────────
-
- This section explain in detail all programs options and make some
- observations about how to use some of them.
-
-
-
- 7.1) CDROM CHEATER options
- ─────────────────────
-
- Main menu options:
-
- F1 = displays two help screens, where you can find a very short
- description of menu options
-
- F2 = displays 'About' screen, where you can see the version number
- and your name if you have registered the program
-
- F3 = reads short useful information from the CD and saves them in
- CDCR.CFG; because of the 20 different posible configurations the
- saved information differs from one configuration to another; the
- 'Drives available' field and the 'MSCDEX version' field are the
- same for all 20 configurations; if you launch CDCR with command
- line options the program is using current configuration information
-
- F4 = first creates one or more drives specified in 'Drives available'
- field using the directory specified in 'File to execute' field
- (after the '[' character) and after this executes the specified
- file in 'File to execute' field; 'File to execute' field data is
- overwritten by command line data
-
- F8 = removes the program from memory if it was installed as TSR; if you
- are in executing COMMAND.COM this function will not work
-
- F9 = installs the program as TSR if it is not installed and if it is,
- updates all informations in the CDCR copy from memory
-
- F10 = exits from GUI to DOS
-
- PgDn = displays a window from which you can select a configuration which
- is known from the specific filepath and/or directory path
-
- f = activates 'File to execute' field; if you want to execute a file
- with F4 function you have to have a filepath specified; you must
- specify a directory path from which a new drive will be created;
- CDCR will know to consider entered text as a directory path if
- you will put '[' character at the beginning
-
- d = activates 'Drives available' field; this field must have at least
- one drive letter specified; if you specify an already existent
- drive, CDCR will overwrite it but the recover of it when you
- remove CDCR from memory may not work very well
-
- s = activates 'First track' field
-
- t = activates 'Last track' field
-
- v = activates 'MSCDEX version' field; this tells CDCR to return
- specified version; there are not differences between versions
-
- n = activates 'Creation date' field; this tells CDCR to return
- specified date of the CD creation; this option is not very important
- (i didn't find any CD program that check it)
-
- v = activates 'Volume label' field; this tells CDCR to return to
- CD functions the name wanted; if you use the 'v' command line
- option this label will be returned to DOS functions too; this name
- is not usualy needed by a program
-
- c = activates 'Copyright filename' field; this tells CDCR to return to
- CD functions the name wanted; this name function is not usualy
- needed by a program
-
- a = activates 'Abstract filename' field; this tells CDCR to return to
- CD functions the name wanted; this name function is not usualy
- needed by a program
-
- b = activates 'Bibliographic filename' field; this tells CDCR to return
- to CD functions the name wanted; this name function is not usualy
- needed by a program
-
-
- Field menu options:
-
- Enter = accepts entered text
-
- Escape = renounces entered text
-
- Delete = deletes current character
-
- Insert = toggles insert mode to off in order to overwrite characters
-
- Home = moves cursor position to the begining of text
-
- End = moves cursor position to the end of text
-
- Backspace = deletes previous character
-
- Cursor keys = moves cursor position forward or backward
-
-
- Command line options:
-
- i = disables hook on INT21; through this interrupt CDCR is fooling
- programs in order to think that the drive is write-protected,
- it returns 0 bytes free and stuff like that; is useful if
- you wish to write or delete something from the CD emulated
- drive, but only if CD program is not checking the access to
- the drive, 0 bytes free and stuff like that
-
- c = disable create drive(s) feature; if this command is specified
- CDCR will emulate only CD functions and don't try to create
- the logical drive(s); is useful for some systems in which
- the CDCR create drive(s) routine is not working and is useful
- if you copied the CD files to the root of an existent drive and
- want to use this drive as a CD drive.
-
- a = sets SUBST drive attributes instead of CD attributes; this
- function is mandatory under WINDOWS 95 GUI (and not under
- MS-DOS 7.x) because if you'll not use it the CD emulated drive
- will display the root contents of the source drive and not
- the directory contents of the source drive
-
- v = tells CDCR to use entered name in 'Volume label' field from GUI
- not only as the volume label obtained through CD functions but
- as volume label obtained through DOS functions too
-
- mf = tells CDCR to use some of the basics features of the already
- installed MSCDEX (audio support, tracks info support etc.)
-
- ma = tells CDCR to use only audio support feature of the already
- installed MSCDEX
-
- w = tells CDCR not to use Windows 95 specific features; usualy CDCR
- should know when to use Windows 95 specific features, but if
- you're having running problems please use this option
-
- s = tells CDCR not to use MS-DOS 7.x specific features; usualy CDCR
- should know when to use MS-DOS 7.x specific features, but if
- you're having running problems please use this option
-
- e{FILE [DIR}= tells CDCR to creates a new CD drive using DIR as source
- directory and then to execute FILE; if it is used 'C' option
- than the source directory after '[' character is ignored and
- CDCR is only executing FILE without creating a new CD drive
- (if the drive doesn't exists than it must be created with
- 'SUBST' program); instead of using fullpath of FILE or DIR you
- can enter only the filename of FILE, CDCR will look for this
- file in current directory, and you can enter only '.' character,
- in this case CDCR will use as source directory the current
- directory; between '{' and '}' are allowed maximum 54 characters
-
- t{ [DIR}= tells CDCR to creates a new CD drive using DIR as source
- directory and to remain resident in memory (TSR); if it is
- used 'C' option than the source directory after '[' character
- is ignored and CDCR is only remaining resident in memory without
- creating a new CD drive (if the drive doesn't exists than it
- must be created with 'SUBST' program); instead of using DIR you
- can enter only '.' character, in this case CDCR will use as
- source directory the current directory; between '{' and '}' are
- allowed maximum 54 characters
-
- u = removes CDCR from memory if it is has been installed as TSR
-
- drv:LETTER = instead of using specified drive in 'Drives available' field
- from CDCR GUI it is used LETTER as the new drive
-
- f{FILE} = uses FILE as the supplemental information file created with
- CDU program
-
- ?|h = displays command line help
-
-
-
- 7.2) VIRTUAL CDROM options
- ─────────────────────
-
- f{filename} = uses specified filename as the CD image file; this option must
- exists and filename can be at maximum 59 characters long; VCD
- needs the fullpath of image file
-
- d{name} = uses specified name as the device name (MSCDEX is use it)
- instead of default name, VCD001; the name can be at maximum
- 8 characters long
-
-
-
- 7.3) CD-UTILS options
- ────────────────
-
- do:? = opens the CD door of drive ?
-
- dc:? = closes the CD door of drive ?
-
- dl:? = locks the CD door of drive ?
-
- du:? = unlocks the CD door of drive ?
-
- di:? = displays CD door status of drive ?
-
- vt:? = saves all VTOCs of drive ? to CDVTOC.CDU in current directory;
- maximum 100 VTOCs are allowed
-
- cr:? = saves supplemental data of drive ? used by CDCR v2.2 to
- CDCR.CDU in current directory; maximum 100 VTOCs are allowed
-
- i = displays information about CD device and drive(s); CDU displays
- device informations only for the first device driver
-
- ap:?:XX-YY = plays audio tracks of ? drive from XX track to YY track;
-
- ap:? = plays all audio tracks of ? drive
-
- as:? = stops playing audio tracks of ? drive
-
- ar:? = resumes playing audio tracks of ? drive
-
- ti:? = displays tracks information of ? drive
-
- v = verifies the integrity of IMAGE.VCD image file; blocks of
- 2048000 bytes are checked and errors occured are shown at the
- positions in image file
-
- f:? = saves CD data of ? drive to IMAGE.VCD file in order to be
- used with VCD v1.0; because some CDs are poorly written the
- LEAD-OUT track is not at the end of CD data track and therefore
- CDU could report some errors in reading the last blocks but do
- not worry because all is OK; usually at the end the errors are
- not real but in some cases (like a scratch on your CD) they
- could be real
-
- ?|h = displays help screens
-
-
-
- 8) Instalation of programs
- ───────────────────────
-
- This section explains how to use all three programs, using an example, and
- how to get and use all needed supplemental CD information.
-
-
-
- 8.1) CDROM CHEATER instalation
- ─────────────────────────
-
- Instalation for a DOS game called Descent 2:
-
- - Make sure you're under the real MS-DOS session
- (not under 'MS-DOS Prompt' from Windows GUI)
- - Copy CD files to a directory, let's say C:\DESC2CD
- - Rename HDD label (the C: drive in this case) to the CD label you see
- with 'dir' command or Norton Commander, Dos Navigator II (in this case
- DESCENT_II)
- - Press F3 to read some CD data
- - Use CDU program to obtain a supplemental CD data file called CDCR.CDU
- and place it to the directory where you will install DESCENT 2, let's
- say to C:\GAMES\DESCENT2 (this step is not needed for the most of
- games and for DESCENT 2 too). The command line of CDU is (if the D:
- is the CD drive) :
-
- CDU CR:D
-
- - Remove the CD disc from drive (you do not need it anymore)
- - Boot without CD device driver + MSCDEX installed,or if boot with them
- make sure you do not have any CD disc inserted in drive
- - Enter in CDCR GUI, activate 'File to execute' field (press 'F'),
- insert the following text and press ENTER:
-
- [C:\DESC2CD
-
- - Activate 'Drives available' field (press 'D') and enter, for example,
- G: as the new drive
- - Press F9 to remain resident
- - Go to G: drive and install the program, let's say to C:\GAMES\DESCENT2
- - From now you can run it from C:\GAMES\DESCENT2, if i remeber well with
- DESCENT.BAT file
- - In order to be much quicker in running DESCENT 2, instead of use TSR
- feature from CDCR GUI and so on, you can create a batch file with the
- following command line and run it before entering to the game:
-
- CDCR E{C:\GAMES\DESCENT2\DESCENT.BAT [C:\DESC2CD} DRV:G
-
- WARNING: Usualy CDCR is working with MSCDEX if you move MSCDEX letter above
- CDCR letter, but sometimes programs may try to find with which
- device driver MSCDEX is communicating (in this case the CD device
- driver) and use it
-
- NOTE: Usualy you do not have to rename the HDD label the same as CD label
- because F3 command is reading it and, even if is activated by
- command line, CDCR knows to use it, but in some cases it couldn't
- work and if you change the current selection field from CDCR GUI
- the program doesn't use it
-
-
-
- Instalation for a WINDOWS game called Entomorph:
-
- - Make sure you're under the real MS-DOS session
- (not under 'MS-DOS Prompt' from Windows GUI)
- - Copy CD files to a directory, let's say C:\ENTOCD
- - Press F3 to read some CD data
- - Use CDU program to obtain a supplemental CD data file called CDCR.CDU
- and place it to the directory where you will install ENTOMORPH, let's
- say to C:\GAMES\ENTOMPH (this step is not needed for the most of
- games). The command line of CDU is (if the D: is the CD drive) :
-
- CDU CR:D
-
- - Remove the CD disc from drive (you do not need it anymore)
- - Boot without CD device driver + MSCDEX installed,or if boot with them
- make sure you do not have any CD disc inserted in drive
- - Enter in CDCR GUI, activate 'File to execute' field (press 'F'),
- insert the following text and press ENTER:
-
- [C:\ENTOCD
-
- - Activate 'Drives available' field (press 'D') and enter, for example,
- G: as the new drive
- - Press F9 to remain resident
- - Enter in Windows GUI (with 'WIN.COM' command)
- - Go to G: drive and install the program, let's say to C:\GAMES\ENTOMPH
- - Now you can run the game
- - In order to be much quicker in running ENTOMORPH, instead of use TSR
- feature from CDCR GUI and so on, you can create a batch file with the
- following command line and run it before entering to the game
- (assuming that you have Windows installed in C:\WINDOWS directory) :
-
- CDCR E{C:\WINDOWS\WIN.COM [C:\ENTO2CD} DRV:G
-
- WARNING: Usualy CDCR is working with MSCDEX if you move MSCDEX letter above
- CDCR letter, but sometimes programs may try to find with which
- device driver MSCDEX is communicating (in this case the CD device
- driver) and use it
-
-
-
- 8.2) VIRTUAL CDROM instalation
- ─────────────────────────
-
- Instalation for a DOS game called Daggerfall (Arena 2):
-
- - Make sure you're under the real MS-DOS session
- (not under 'MS-DOS Prompt' from Windows GUI)
- - Install your CD device driver + MSCDEX in order to see your CD drive
- (let's say D: is your CD drive letter)
- - Place in CD drive Daggerfall CD
- - Use CDU to make the CD image file:
-
- CDU F:D
-
- - Remove the CD disc from drive (you do not need it anymore)
- - Rename the IMAGE.VCD created file to a more specific name,
- like ARENA2.VCD
- - Put VCD.SYS line in your CONFIG.SYS with the specification of using
- ARENA2.VCD as the image file:
-
- DEVICE=C:\VCD.SYS F{C:\ARENA2.VCD}
-
- - Put MSCDEX.EXE in your AUTOEXEC.BAT with the specification of using
- VCD001 as the device name:
-
- MSCDEX.EXE /D:VCD001
-
- - Boot in order to install VCD and MSCDEX
- - From now everything will behave like ARENA2 CD
-
- WARNING: While you're running VCD.SYS do not move the image file to
- another directory or defragmentate your hard disk (boot without
- VCD installed and then you can do the above operations)
-
- NOTE: VCD and the CD drive can co-exist if you make sure that CD
- drive letter is greater than VCD emulated drive letter, but do
- not let ARENA2 CD inserted in CD drive
-
-
-
- Instalation for a WINDOWS 95 game called Diablo:
-
- - Make sure you're under the real MS-DOS session
- (not under 'MS-DOS Prompt' from Windows GUI)
- - Install your CD device driver + MSCDEX in order to see your CD drive
- (let's say H: is your CD drive letter)
- - Place in CD drive Diablo CD
- - Use CDU to make the CD image file:
-
- CDU F:H
-
- - Remove DIABLO CD from CD drive
- - Rename the IMAGE.VCD created file to a more specific name,
- like DIABLO.VCD
- - Put VCD.SYS line in your CONFIG.SYS with the specification of using
- DIABLO.VCD as the image file:
-
- DEVICE=C:\VCD.SYS F{C:\DIABLO.VCD}
-
- - Put MSCDEX.EXE in your AUTOEXEC.BAT with the specification of using
- VCD001 as the device name:
-
- MSCDEX.EXE /D:VCD001
-
- - Boot in order to install VCD and MSCDEX
- - Enter to Windows 95 GUI with the following line:
-
- WIN.COM
-
- - From now everything will behave like DIABLO CD
-
- WARNING: Because Windows 95 is looking for CD drive every time you're
- entering in it you can remove CD cable data in order not to be
- detected the CD drive or, and this is much better, VCD and the
- CD drive can co-exist if you make sure that CD drive letter
- is greater than VCD emulated drive letter, but do not let
- DIABLO CD inserted in CD drive
-
- WARNING: While you're running VCD.SYS do not move the image file to
- another directory or defragmentate your hard disk (boot without
- VCD installed and then you can do the above operations)
-
- NOTE: Do not worry about the speed of the emulated drive (Windows
- tells that is using MS-DOS file access to this drive) because
- VCD is accessing the image file through BIOS (INT13)
-
-
-
- 9) Troubleshoting
- ──────────────
-
- This section explains some strange behaviours in some system configurations
- and the special requirements of programs to run well with some CD programs.
-
-
-
- 9.1) CDROM CHEATER troubleshoting
- ────────────────────────────
-
- - This program supports multiple CDROM drives but because of poor
- programming some games will read only from the first CD emulated drive
- - Use the functions EXEC, REM, RES/UPD only under the real DOS sessions
- from Windows 3.xx or Windows 95 (use these functions before running
- Windows 3.xx or Windows 95 GUIs)
- - If some installs games will execute some special routines, such as CD
- speed, and CDROM CHEATER will not be enough to foolish them run install
- from CD and after that copy the CDROM games to hard disk
- - Make sure you have enough drives available for the OS
- (command LASTDRIVE=x from CONFIG.SYS)
- - DO NOT CONFUSE first track and the last one with first AUDIO track the
- last one (tracks data from the CD will be read through READ function or will
- be set to default)
- - SUBST drive attributes is needed for programs under Windows GUI
- - If you will execute a batch file the program will use another copy of
- COMMAND.COM to run it which means another 8k of memory will be used (it will
- not be used the first copy of COMMAND.COM because the sistem might crash)
- - Volume label of DOS functions could be read through READ function and
- it is put into a hidden buffer, different from the buffer for volume label
- of CDROM functions (the one you can modify in main menu) and it is used
- separated in CDROM emulation; anyway, if you don't have the CD from which
- you have to read the volume label of DOS functions (e.g. DESCENT II) but you
- do know the volume label of DOS functions (e.g. for DESCENT II is DESCENT_II)
- than you have to use DOS LABEL command to label the hard disk with DESCENT_II;
- in some cases you cannot modify the label of hard disk but you do know
- the 'bad INT21 label'(function 4Eh of INT21 has an error), for example
- volume label for DESCENT II DESCENT_.II, than you have to run CDCR.EXE with
- 'v' or 'V' option and write at volume label field from main menu DESCENT_.II
- - Be sure to have read-only attribute on all CD-files; be careful because
- Dos Navigator II is removing read-only attributes on all copied files to HDD
- - For a full support of a CD program please use CDU.EXE for creating .CDU
- file and use READ function from CDCR.EXE too
- - The following data fields will be modified by .CDU file: volume label,
- creation date, copyright filename, abtract filename, bibliographic filename;
- - It is recommended that CDCR should not be activated from any file and
- directory navigator; for example, DOS Navigator II is not giving full system
- access to any program under memory managers like EMM, QEMM.
- - Sometimes for a better emulation, if you use MSCDEX, you better specify
- the CDCR drive letter the same as MSCDEX letter
-
-
-
- 9.2) VIRTUAL CDROM troubleshoting
- ────────────────────────────
-
- - Do not move any CD image files from their current directory or drive
- while you're running VCD.SYS
- - If you have the shareware version you'll have to defragmentate your
- HDD every time you make a new CD image file or move it from a place to another
-
-
-
- 9.3) CD-UTILS troubleshoting
- ───────────────────────
-
- - CDU is not working very well under Windows 95 GUI, so please use it
- under the real MS-DOS prompt
-
-
-
- 10) INTERNET sites where CDCT can be found
- ──────────────────────────────────────
-
- Latest version can be obtained through my e-mail address or it can be
- found on FTP sites:
-
- ftp.elf.stuba.sk/pub/pc/utildisk/
- ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/cdrom/
- on WWW site:
- www.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/cdrom/
-
- The archive name is CDCTxxS.ZIP, where xx is the version number and 'S'
- means shareware version. When you will receive the registered version instead
- of 'S' character it will appeat 'R' character.
-
-
-
-
-
-