I'm quite angry and upset at this point. Angry at EA, and upset with myself for not running Regmon earlier (the thought had crossed my mind several times...).
The issue? BF2 complained about "CD/DVD emulation software". I uninstalled Daemon Tools (only thing I could think of) and still no go. I contacted EA, and they simply told me that Windows 2003 was not supported. They were quite pleased when I told them that the noCD crack helped.
Unfortunately nobody bothered with a noCD crack for 1.01. EA pulling the patch wasn't much of an incentive to put one out I guess.
In any case, when I finally looked at Regmon and realised it was reading HKCU\SOFTWARE\ELABORATE BYTES\CLONECD\ plus subkeys. I tested CloneCD a long time ago (years), and it probably left its settings behind (which is normally not a bad thing to do). I removed the registry key in question, and lo and behold -- the thing finally works!
But here's the rub: The packaging (albeit I haven't studied all the small writing) doesn't state that one requirement is that you've never installed CloneCD. If I had tried to exchange the game in the shop, they would have laughed and told me that because games are so easy to copy, they would refuse to take it back.
So why is the copyprotection there? In order to stuff Macrovision's pockets? To piss off paying customers? (who here really enjoys swapping CDs only to play a simple game? I have three CD drives, and even then there's a fair share of DJ work involved)
I can't help but think that the smart thing to do is to bill EA for the hours I have spent troubleshooting this problem. Either that or hire a lawyer. I do not like the idea of EA dictating what software I can run or not run on my own PC.
I used to buy many games, but I do not have time for all the hassle involved. E.g. Splinter Cell's copyprotection doesn't support 64-bit Windows at all. So I bought Swat 4 instead (which actually works like a charm! Kudos Sierra!). But the research I have to perform prior to buying a game is now so extensive that it is no longer feasible buying more than one or two games per year.
The funny thing is this: If more people start doing what I did (use regmon to find out what keys Safedisc is allergic to), then next thing you know: Regmon will be on the list of processes that will cause Safedisc to bail. And you can bet that Safedisc will never tell the user what it chokes on -- it'll continue to force the user to play the guessing game (instead of playing the game you thought you had purchased).
The issue? BF2 complained about "CD/DVD emulation software". I uninstalled Daemon Tools (only thing I could think of) and still no go. I contacted EA, and they simply told me that Windows 2003 was not supported. They were quite pleased when I told them that the noCD crack helped.
Unfortunately nobody bothered with a noCD crack for 1.01. EA pulling the patch wasn't much of an incentive to put one out I guess.
In any case, when I finally looked at Regmon and realised it was reading HKCU\SOFTWARE\ELABORATE BYTES\CLONECD\ plus subkeys. I tested CloneCD a long time ago (years), and it probably left its settings behind (which is normally not a bad thing to do). I removed the registry key in question, and lo and behold -- the thing finally works!
But here's the rub: The packaging (albeit I haven't studied all the small writing) doesn't state that one requirement is that you've never installed CloneCD. If I had tried to exchange the game in the shop, they would have laughed and told me that because games are so easy to copy, they would refuse to take it back.
So why is the copyprotection there? In order to stuff Macrovision's pockets? To piss off paying customers? (who here really enjoys swapping CDs only to play a simple game? I have three CD drives, and even then there's a fair share of DJ work involved)
I can't help but think that the smart thing to do is to bill EA for the hours I have spent troubleshooting this problem. Either that or hire a lawyer. I do not like the idea of EA dictating what software I can run or not run on my own PC.
I used to buy many games, but I do not have time for all the hassle involved. E.g. Splinter Cell's copyprotection doesn't support 64-bit Windows at all. So I bought Swat 4 instead (which actually works like a charm! Kudos Sierra!). But the research I have to perform prior to buying a game is now so extensive that it is no longer feasible buying more than one or two games per year.
The funny thing is this: If more people start doing what I did (use regmon to find out what keys Safedisc is allergic to), then next thing you know: Regmon will be on the list of processes that will cause Safedisc to bail. And you can bet that Safedisc will never tell the user what it chokes on -- it'll continue to force the user to play the guessing game (instead of playing the game you thought you had purchased).
(it naturally wouldn't work before)
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