As the title says I have MOO3 and it contains SecuROM - 4.84.50 0030 (only Disc 2 is protected, it's the Play CD), this was the version reported by Yates scanner. I used Alcohol 1.4.1.221 and converted the MDS file to a BWA file, I got the MDS file at 1x. (Alcohol gives me a better looking graph) I read the image of the CD at 8x and burned it with BlindWrite 4.3.0 (Autoplay off and on) either option does not work. Any suggestions or anyone that has gotten this game to run from a backup without using emulation?

If I were to use emulation what would be needed to be done with Alcohol and Blindwrite?

Have you tried Blindwrite 4.2.5? Its the reccommended verion to backp Securom 4.8X. Its available in the Golden Oldies section.

Savannah is right .. works.

Why .. well I take it that in fixing other problems in Blindwrite that it caused it to not work in other areas ..

Whats the deal here. Will we always have to use 4.2.5 ????

Unless the blindwrite team abandons their present direction, unfortunately the answer is yes.

For reasons known only to themselves the blindwrite team has abandoned twinsector copying in favour of autoplay emulation.

The most recent version(s) can't make a copy that works without emulation.

Is it a great game or not?

I used to play MOO I a few years ago quit frequently.
A good game at that time (my own opinion).

Is it good?

I guess it's to make it work for all (1 sheep burners) ...
Bummer ... I don't like that emulation crap.

With DVD on the rise, guess it will all go by the way side sooner or later.

I never played any of the other MOO games but I'll say it's addicting....you want to go onto the next turn every time . It has a decent AI for micromanaging your planets.....At times I do find it very tedious even with the managing AI, I was looking for a game to replace Birth of the Federation (Any recommendations anyone? Will Galactic Civilizations be like it?). But even with the "flaw" I mentioned I still like it....Also it's only 800x600 wish you could at least go to 1280x1024, the requirements are VERY minimal, a PII 300 is min spec....I wouldn't doubt if it could even run on Pentium I.


Oh well guess I'll give blindwrite 4.2.5 a spin. Also really weird...after I posted this I tried both copies several more times and the autoplay one decided to work....How do I know if autoplay emulation is on or is it ALWAYS on even if I untick the Autoplay option?

One more thing, is there anyway to enjoy 1:1 copy with Blindwrite 4.3.0, like in 4.2.5? Do you have to run twinpeak on the file? If so what option to use on twinpeak?


***edit

Hmmm Philamber would following your instructions on this post http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread....threadid=64732 using clonecd and Twinpeak work?

Those instructions are generic for Securom NEW 4.8X, and as such if your drives are capable fo producing a twinpeaks backup then it will work fine.

Yes.

I'll give the clonecd/twinpeak way a try, so I don't have to uninstall Blindwrite, etc. Since I have all the usual programs...

I'll report back on success or failure.

*sigh* well I did it via the CloneCD/Twinpeak method and the game would verify and run...but theres a problem . The game at times goes looking for files on the cd to play an animation of in the ambassador screen and one of them ends up locking up the game....seems the file may be/is unreadable there...BTW I burned it at 8x and used the default options in TwinPeak. Will trying to do the copy with Blindwrite 4.2.5 have the same problem of the section being unreadable?


Any help will definately be appreciated.

Dont know much about the twinpeaks method, but Ive read that it may not work on all drives. Especially the picky ones.

Either Im lucky or my hardware is in a sort of nirvana as Ive never once had anyproblems making a Securom NEW 4.8X backup. And Ive only ever used Blindwrite 4.2.5

But before you try another method, if there is an official patch out? Try that as it may only be a bug in the game itself.

First, does this problem occur (as Savannah suggests it might) with the original cd? If so, it's a bug in the original program that, no doubt, will be the subject of a game update patch sooner or later.

Second, which drive are you playing the game from? If the problem lies in reading the twin sectors and it's not just a bug in the program, you're less likely to have problems if you run the game from your Lite-on cdrw rather than your NEC dvd.

Third, you can try using a different twin sector step (either 6 or 50; try 50 first) and see if that fixes the problem.

Fourth, if you've got the problem with a clonecd/twinpeak copy, in all probability, you'll have exactly the same problem with a blindwrite 4.2.5 copy since (Savannah take note) blindwrite 4.2.5 also uses the twinpeak method. It's just that it's embedded into the program and the patching is done on-the-fly while burning (if you look at the log file after burning with a bwa file, you'll see that twinsectors have been inserted and written onto the burnt cd.) Of course, you should feel free to give it a try and see how it goes.

Finally, if MOO3 is anything like MOO2, you can turn the ambassador animations off at one of the options screens. (A lot of people find them both time consuming and tiresome. )

Off topic: Is the game worth buying when released downunder next week? MOO2 is one of my all time favourites. Is this version better?

hi...
i am a new member here ...
I was looking for a method to copy my Moo3 cd's (especially the 2th cd who can not be copied) so i found these forums...

i have tryed to write the 2th cd with the latest version of blindwrite but the copy does not work...
i shall try today with version 2.5 ...
i shall inform you with my (hopely) success...

I have also a question??
Why does the game producing companies not give a set of cd's when you buy your original game???
Is it not fare??
I always make immediatly a backup of my original games and play with the backup cd's because of that...

Serious? Fair enough then. Just out of curiosity, when then is there more reports of people having problems (reading and such) with a clonecd/twinpeak copy than a blindwrite copy?

I had read my log file but never associated it with the twinpeak method. Ill keep this in mind. Thanks philamber

---SirMathew

Just look at this entire thread....I've related in detail as to how to make a successful backup. I've reported what has and hasn't worked for me.



No this does not occur with the original, I took it for granted that folks would understand this was a problem with the backup.



You are correct I humble myself before thy wisdom, I was running it off the DVD, but as you stated I ran it off the LiteOn (with Hide CDR media on) and the problem did NOT show up....seems the NEC DVD is elitist and won't accept a mere backup of the program. (Why is this Phil?) Luckily seems alot of companies now allow the programs to check all CD/DVD drives for the media check, since I installed it off the DVD but can now run it off a completely different drive (the CDRW).



I feel enough CDRs have fallen by the wayside and would like to keep my "latest and greatest" BlindWrite installed....but as I've stated I got the backup working with a combo of BW, CloneCD, and Twinpeak, as shown in that nice tutorial of yours.

Don't think theres an option to remove the animation, actually it was looking for music, not the animation.


Off topic:

As I stated in a few posts ago, it is an addictive game, I have never played MOO I or II so I don't know how it compares. What I do know is that it is more intricate/complex than Birth of the Federation and Civ III: PTW. (Anyone know a new or upcoming game space based that is like Birth of the Federation?) It also only runs at 800x600, you can't alt-tab and if you get an IM or something in the background pops up it could pop up a "DirectX Surface not Available" message (You'll have to CTRL ALT DELETE and use taskmanager to terminate Moo3.) It does have a few bugs which have plagued me. i.e. I leave my system on turn 1 and one Alien civ gets pissed at me and threatens me ( I haven't done anything to them) in a few turns they declare war. They later call the war off but declare again a few turns later, each time I've never been attacked. So as you can see it has some wrinkles that need ironing. If anything I'd recommend playing at a friend's if he/she has it before buying it, since it does cost a pretty penny at $49, but if you wait a 2-3 weeks it'll be down to $39 probably.

Most people don't try clonecd/twinpeak unless they've already flopped with blindwrite. Actually, blindwrite, even 4.2.5 is horribly unreliable for me (only works with one of my writers and then only sometimes) whereas the ccd/twinpeak method has always worked first time every time no matter which reader/writer combo I use.

Different drives have different tolerance levels for non-standard cds. Liteys are very tolerant, plex and tosh devices highly intolerant. Seems that your NEC dvd lies somewhere in between.

Ah, OK gotcha. Thanks for that

Has anyone worked on posting a bwa file? I cannot seem to backup my copy well, and my BWAs don't look good.

Tucsontier

Sure I'll send it to a site or if a moderator would point me in the right direction as to where or who to send the BWA file for MOO3.



Off topic:

As I predicted Best Buy this week has MOO3 for $39.99
(I'm getting almost as good as the way I predict wrestling storylines, maybe I should do a Psycho network.....I mean Psychic network )

Send bwa files to FutureProof as set out in the first post in the bwa sticky.

i uninstalled the latest version of blindread-write and installes the 2.5 version,i maked a bwa file from my original moo3 play disc ,maked an image,saved both the image and the bwa file in the same folder with the same name and after that i burned a cd including the bwa file...

When i wrote the image i used nibble extraction method,i used max X 24 speed (i used my X 40 plextor cdrw)
when i burned the image i used the DA0 Pw method again a X24 and i had checked "use bwa if available" and "enchance weak sectors" ...

The copy works,it enter moo3 normally and i play a few turns...
the problem is here,i play only A FEW TURNS,in most cases game freezes after a few turns (or some times randomly in different screens) something that i not see with my original play disc...

so it seems that:
1) i have not a good bwa file maybe?
2)i must use a cd with more quality to burn?? (i use samsung wich are very cheap,i can use verbatim or mitsumi)
3)have i done something wrong in the procedure (da0 Pw,high speeds)??

i know that if i wait 1-2 weeks that i shall found a crack and solve the problem with the backup (at least i hope it) but if somebody have some answer i shall like to hear it...
i know that many shall say,write 6-7 discs to see

No. It seems that you have the same problem as Cyn. See above. Your dopy has passed the verification check so the game runs. However, it seems that the game accesses the cd/dvd drive from time to time when the game is played so you need a drive that can read twinsectors without difficulties,

If you're trying to play the back-up from your plex, then it's not surprising that there are problems when the game accesses the cd as plexxies are intolerant of twinsectors.

Do you have another drive from which you can play the copy? If so, try the copy from that.

First you don't need the "enhance weak sectors" option, the protection is SecuRom, not Safedisk.

Your problem about "freezes" is very similar to what I had stated a few posts ago to Philamber, try running the backup in the Plex Writer, however to do so you will need the Hide CDR media option checked from CloneCD

The question of "cheap" cdr media is completely bogus in my opinion, I use Imation/3M 100 CDR Spindles that you get either free or for $2-$5 after rebates, that I see people always say they are bad and have not had one fail me at their rated speed, if it "fails" it's b/c I did something wrong, and not the media. Also I also "underclock" the media usually 4x below what it's rated and especially if it's doing a complex copy protection like SecuRom 4.8x or Safedisc 2.8x. It's not like we NEED to go at 40x, we aren't a CD pressing factory.


As a side note to this whole copy protection thing and how they cause problems in some systems I'll quote the Infogrames site and show how stupid they are or how stupid they think we are:
This is from their support site http://www.ina-support.com/faq/moo3_pc.asp

And I quote:

----------------

Unexplained Lockups & Crashes

"During launch the game simply crashes back to the Windows desktop with no error message."

-- OR --

"After the game launches it locks up on a black screen."


This most often has to do with issues with the style of copy protection used on the game disc.

If you have certain CD-burning software installed, such as Nero Burning Rom, or other system tools like Inseektors, Daemon Tools, or others, you may need to disable any processes the software installs, such as the NeroCheck utility installed with Nero.

----------------


Ok someone correct me if I'm wrong doesn't the NeroCheck utility just check to make sure the registry settings for Nero are correct and then it unloads itself? Because unless it changes it's name to something else I never see it running in my taskmanager.

[sarcasm] Also I wonder what that "Inseektors" utility is, what is it seeking? [/sarcasm]

i play the backup cd from my dvd (hitachi 7500),i have not tried to play it from my plextor...
i shall try when i am back at home (i write now from my work)...
also i shall burn again a cd with X8 speed now...
until now i have maked 7 copys (1 with nero,1 with clonecd,3 with the newest version of burnwrite,and 1 with ver 2.5 of burnwrite)

as for the nerocheck option/utility,where is that...
never noticed it...