Scummvm + German Version Of Monkey Island 3

[MiniSinisterMinister]

I have the two original CDs of the German version of Curse of Monkey Island (3) here. And they work from CD with Vista using the '98 compatibility option. However, I would like to get the full game on my hard disk so that I can play it without the CDs and on the Pandora in the future.

The German version seems to have copy protection because everytime I try to copy the files from the CD, windows explorer freezes and crashes. It is no coincidence then, that the developers forgot to include a full-installtion feature <_< .

I tried several things:

* an alternative setup program for the game for Windows XP & Vista => seems to accept only the English CDS

* MagicIso => read errors

* Nero Burning Rom copy tool=> read errors

* alcohol52% => read errors

* edonkey download => I tried it twice and it took forever to download and in the end the archives were damaged

Can someone help me?

 

[ledow]

I think it's more likely that you just have a damaged CD.

Although some copy protections can generate read-errors, they are not normally on the program data or visible files, and don't normally affected a simple copy/paste in windows. They certainly shouldn't affect direct reading programs like the MagicISO, Alcohol etc. because they will always have an option to ignore read errors.

You'll probably find that at some point in the game, you will reach a point where even the Vista machine can't read the disk because it's corrupted. It's just that you haven't got to the part of the game that needs to read from the broken bit of the disk yet.

You've damaged the CD, that's all. It's not some elaborate security mechanism if the drive can't read it at all. It's just scratched.

 

[MiniSinisterMinister]

You may be right. But I bought the game in 2000 from ebay and finished it. I am certain that it worked 100% until the end screen at that time. I stored the two CDs in the original case in my cellar. And there are also no visible scratches or something.

Also the windows explorer doesn't crash some time into the copy process but right at the time when I try to open the menu via the right mouse button. In Germany people have never had much respect for software copy rights and that is why some games have a copy protection in the German version but not in the US version. I also discoverd that I own a later version of the game from 2000 that was sold cheaper in a CD case without a printed manual. Maybe they added a copy protection only in the later version.

Maybe I should buy the German version from 1997 of Monkey 3 from ebay. Can someone confirm that I can copy all the files from this version onto my hard disk?

 

[MiniSinisterMinister]

I have found a solution.

The German Version does have a copy protection! It is called "SafDisc". Among other mechanisms a CD protected by it has 5% unreadable sectors.

I started the alcohol 52% tool. And, before I dumped the CD, I selected the safedisc-option. So the tool ignored and fast skipped all unreadable sectors. It took longer than usual but was successful. After I had dumped both CDs, I mounted them in my virtual CD drive and copied all the files from both discs to a folder on my hard disc. This resulted in 2,4 GB of data. I think the CD.IDX and MI3ENABL.DAT were articifally "blown-up" so I deleted them. The folder was then only 1,16 GB and I could have used a tool to compress the files for ScummVM. But I am too lazy. By using ScummVM with these files on my hard disc I can now play the Curse of Monkey Island without the CDs.

 

[Creature XL]

Nice to hear you found a spolution. I am from germany too and you are right software here was always copyproteccted even back then on the 8-Bit ATARI And I see no reason why they shouldn't imlement copy protection on PC games when the industry had even problems on the small home compters.

I just want to add that if you or someone else have DAMAGED disks the tool CloneCD can read them in most cases. It takes forever (maybe like alcohole xx%) but it works.

 

[bomberman]

Since you only need these files for SCUMMVM to work with COMI so you can save some space.

* RESOURCE folder
* COMI.LA0
* COMI.LA1
* COMI.LA2

If you haven't already, check the WIKI