Running games from the ISO

Spudley · Post by **Spudley** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 7:20 am

Hi.

I've downloaded the original Red Alert Command & Conquer from the company's website -- they're being very generous and giving the old game away for free, presumably to try to drum up sales for the new RA game (which does look very good).

The download consists of two ISOs; one for the Allied missions and one for the Soviets, which I've burnt to disc, and the game plays beautifully under Wine. But it does insist on the CD being in the drive.

What I'd really like to do is play the game on the train using my netbook, but it doesn't have a CD drive so I obviously can't insert the CD when the game asks for it.

I have managed to mount the ISO as a filesystem, and then add that as a drive letter in Wine, but the game still asks for the CD to be inserted, so it doesn't seem to recognising it the way I've done it. I assume it's seeing it, but realising it's not a real CD.

Is what I'm trying to do possible? Can I mount an ISO in a way that will fool Wine (and the game) into thinking it's a real CD? Will I be able to play the game without a CD drive? Can anyone give me any pointers?

Thank you!

(ps - I'll say again that this game is a legitimate download from the official site; I am *not* trying to run anything pirated or cracked. And please don't suggest getting a cracked version as a solution!)

Post by **dimesio** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 8:11 am

Spudley wrote:
I have managed to mount the ISO as a filesystem, and then add that as a drive letter in Wine, but the game still asks for the CD to be inserted, so it doesn't seem to recognising it the way I've done it. I assume it's seeing it, but realising it's not a real CD.

Did you set the drive type when you added it? (You have to click on "Show Advanced" to do it.)

Gert van den Berg · Post by **Gert van den Berg** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 2:20 pm

On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 2:20 PM, Spudley <[email protected]> wrote:

Hi.

I've downloaded the original Red Alert Command & Conquer from the company's website -- they're being very generous and giving the old game away for free, presumably to try to drum up sales for the new RA game (which does look very good).

The download consists of two ISOs; one for the Allied missions and one for the Soviets, which I've burnt to disc, and the game plays beautifully under Wine. But it does insist on the CD being in the drive.

What I'd really like to do is play the game on the train using my netbook, but it doesn't have a CD drive so I obviously can't insert the CD when the game asks for it.

I have managed to mount the ISO as a filesystem, and then add that as a drive letter in Wine, but the game still asks for the CD to be inserted, so it doesn't seem to recognising it the way I've done it. I assume it's seeing it, but realising it's not a real CD.

Is what I'm trying to do possible? Can I mount an ISO in a way that will fool Wine (and the game) into thinking it's a real CD? Will I be able to play the game without a CD drive? Can anyone give me any pointers?

You might have better luck with CDEMU....

IIRC It is possible to copy some files from the CD to the HDD and have
it run (maybe with some parameters), let someone with a first decade
install have a look...

Gert

Das Letzte Einhorn · Post by **Das Letzte Einhorn** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 6:59 am

You might want to have a look here : http://www.commandandpatch.com/ . I use The First Decade bundle, so there is a 1.03 patch which removes the requirement for a CD for every single game in the package. However, there are individual patches for the games in this repository as well. My guess is that they have the no-cd patch included as well: http://commandandpatch.com/forums/index ... ds%3bcat=2

Have fun.

Spudley · Post by **Spudley** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 7:53 am

Thank you so much for all the response -- three totally different answers, and all potentially useful.

(1) Simply telling Wine to think it's a CD-Rom.
Wahey! Thanks for pointing it out. Your suggestion has worked! ....Albeit for a different game (Championship Manager 01/02 Season from Eidos, also released for free download on their site much like Red Alert).

Sadly, however, it doesn't seem to have worked for C&C Red Alert.

Oh well. It's a good start anyway. Thank you very much!

(2) This is the suggestion I've had from a few other sources as well, and does seem likely to be the best way forward. I've tried installing CDEMU and found it very hard to get working. I've installed all the packages, but have struggled with the docs, and google didn't seem to turn up much in the way of info. So unless someone can provide an idiots guide, I'm going to give up on this.

(FWIW, I'm running Kubuntu 8.04 -- if I understand correctly, CDEMU is included by default in 8.10, so if I upgrade at some point, it may all come right)

(3) I'll have a look into this. Assuming the patch is legal and legit, I'll install it and hopefully solve the problem for C&C RA. (I'm guessing it'll be easy enough to install via Wine?)

So in summary, thank you all for the suggestions. The problem is partly solved (ie for a different game), and I've got some good leads to follow up. Thank you. Very much appreciated.