1.Insert CD, back up with Alchohol 120% Starforce 3 profile. Creating a ISO.
2.Mount the iso to a virtual drive (Daemon tools,Elby)
3.Install the game.
4.Now heres the tricky part. Follow this and you SHOULD be ok.
5.Before starting the game, run WMP9.
6.Quickly start Singles (1 second - yes that quick)
7.If you have no luck first time, try and try again.
8.If it dont work for you im sorry, a few other mates of mine have tried it some worked, some didnt.

Best of luck

LoL wtf is this

Lol does that actually work?

its a starforce pí55-over, starforce has got a security-hole through it.

um... may I ask just HOW you figured this out?

"6.Quickly start Singles (1 second - yes that quick) "

Whats singles?

Its the game Singles:Flirt Up Your Life i discovered this on.

Merther02,

Sorry, could you actually repeat the steps needed to be taken in more detail?

I'm actually quite interested to see if this works and I am getting a copy off my mate to test it...

Could you please expand therefore and tell me exactly what I will need to do - the instructions posted are a little vague...?

Cheers

wtf, wat WMP got to do with it?

Well if it works, then I would assume their is a hole in the protection. And Windows Media Player exploits that hole.

I dont know what the connection between WMP and Starforce 3 is, i didnt develop either!

Ok, here it is in a bit in a bit more detail. I used 'Singles Flirt Up Your Life' to discover this, which is protected with Starforce 3. You will need to shut down all background apps beforce proceding.

1.Press the cd eject button on your cd-rom drive, then placed cd in drive, then push the button again and the cd-rom tray will slide back in.

2.Load up Alcohol 120%, Click 'Image Making Wizard', then select the drive the cd is in, then select 'Starforce 1/2/3' under 'datatype'. Some people call the 'datatype' the profile. Then select the lowest read speed possible.

3.Click next, then under 'Image format' select 'Standard ISO Image file'. Click start. Leave your PC while it is reading, grab something to eat and come back in about 20-25 mins and it should be complete.

4.When it is complete, mount it using Alcohol 120%'s virtual drive, or mount it using Daemon Tools, which ever suits you.

5.Install the game. No you cant have my Singles Flirt Up Your Life keycode

6.Before you start your game, load up WMP9 and then start your game (you have to be very quick loading up your game, start your game in about 1 second after starting up WMP9.).

7.If you have no luck first time, keep trying dont give up. .

If it dont work for you im sorry, a few other mates of mine have tried it some worked, some didnt.

I cant be more simple than that, ive even put in an extra big effort to not use any slang.

Starforce 3 is dead

Mether 02

When you say quickly start Singles, do you still need the image file to be mounted? or do you have to unmount it? and do you start singles from the virtual drive or your real drive?

Lisa x

You still have to have singles(or whatever game) mounted when starting up the game. the orginal singles cd can stay in its case

Cheers Merther02 - appreciate it - I just needed more info around the whole launching process - you will see from my 'musings' below:

Also POINT 5) - I doubt that is a unique key-code to you for Singles - if it is StarForce protected, then the StarForce key-code is basically the same for each batch of discs produced... - Unless in this case it is a game cd-key and not related to the protection system - all that's left is for me to get a copy and test this theory!

=============================

Just looking at your original post - it could be coincidental - that the number of times you try it - a random element in the disc checking guard module could allow a succesful run - it might not be directly tied to WMP9?

What are the ratios of success / failure? - Did any other programs running cause a higher or lower success rate?

==== Potential Idea?====

The only potential I can see from this, is that a request to an IDE Channel from WMP9 must be confusing the StarForce IDE Driver and triggering a FALSE Positive - if this is the case, then surely this request can be built into an emulation option - so that the IDE Driver is initially confused then the game launches?

Anybody else have any ideas? - Or am I talking complete....

Cheers,

MC

I think you are right the wmp9 is probably checking also all the ide drives and then the starforce3 checks is confused can't find the ide drivers and works ,and perhaps its even better if you copy wmp9 player into the singles directory and then create an .bat file so that it runs automaticly wmp9 and immidiatly Singles , i am gonna try it with gangland will post results

these sound like good ideas guys, but remember others, if their method doesnt work, just stick with the orginal

Wonder if it has anything to do with the default prefetch command WMP uses, in its exe shortcut icon. Nobody truley understands hwo prefecth really works, its just known it makes apps start faster.

cobrar22, xtacydima,

Hmm sounds like it could be a possibility then...

Cobrar22 - can you let us know how you get on with your attempts - as I won't have Singles until this weekend.

Xtacydima - Ok, so the pre-fetch command as part of the improved start-up process - must be querying the IDE channel in a non-standard way - which the StarForce IDE driver misinterprets.

This is pretty positive stuff guys - just wish I knew more to do some real testing - hope the resident experts on this board have a look at the post soon and see if it is possible.. As StarForce is becoming legendary in its ability to repel backup copies!

Cheers,

MC

I have an problem with Gangland i can't get this game to run anymore weird shit , the last time the game worked i didn't had alcohol 120% installed and The Cleaner (its an anti virus program) , i have removed these programs and still Gangland does not work it will reboot my pc , i can't format my HD now i have to much data ,i first have to burn that on dvd's.


perhaps sf3 detected that i have copyed wmp9 in the Gangland directory and detects "unknown dll's" and unknown .bat file and stopped working..., installed an secret file in somewhere in my windows dir to tell sf3 this is an haxorer. with SF3 you can expect anything ?

if someone else is gonna try it using an .bat file don't copy anything in the Gangland directory just configure the location in youre .bat file and also don't copy the bat file in the Gangland directory.. i am gonna try this within an hour on another pc , and i can only try it with Gangland because i don't have Singles...

/edited/

LOL. Good luck. I am gonna give this a try with Breed tomorrow. I will post my results. I shall not interfere with the Breed directory I shall just run WMP9 and then quickly start breed.

I will laugh my nuts off if it works

hey wich version of wmp9 do you have exactly ?

i have 9.00.00.2980

can't get the trick to work with Gangland...

I dont think it matters what verson you have of WMP9, i have version 9.00.00.3133.

When you start windows or any windows application, lots of different files will be loaded from the hard drive - but not every file that makes up the program. Most of the time, it'll be the same set of files needed each time you start the app and begin to use it.
Windows XP makes a note of which files they are, enabling it to rearrange them on hard drive so they're placed to load together quickly; it will then load them automatically as Windows starts looking for the Windows files, and as soon as you launch an app for the other files.
This means programs you've used before start up more quickly, so Prefetch is really quite useful.

Ah, i can finally rest after a few days work.

I have tried the WMP9 trick suggested with Breed and sorry to report it does not work. I am going to try with X2 The threat just to see if its game specific - unlikely

I can't get it to work either..perhaps it only works for Singles...

or Merther02 , do you have youre LG drive connected at an IDE RAID pci card ? or does youre mainboard support raid and you have connected youre drive at that connector ? there are some reports that you don't have to unplug youre cables if you have youre cdrom/dvdrom drives connected at an IDE RAID connector....