XWAUCPv1.0 Needs Original Disc?

[thomcom]

Hey there, I'm excited to try out XWAUCP. Why does it require the original XWA DISC 1 be inserted into the drive, and is there any way around this requirement?

The last two days have been aggravating ancient-DRM wrestling. I own all four discs - XvT, XvT: BOP, and XWA. XvT without a disc appears to be a loss. I got XWA working with a NO CD CRACK to my joy, only to encounter what is apparently DRM on XWAUCP. I've spent two days now trying to play any of them in a Win XP virtual machine on my Macbook Pro (no disc drive) and have been reminded of the horrors of DRM in our all-digital age (got.com represent!). Please tell me that there's a workaround and that XWAUCP isn't duplicating DRM for these 15 year old gaming classics.

Thanks!

[Driftwood]

You are required to have X-Wing Alliance disk 1, and disk 2 to be able to install the UCP, and XWAUP (IIRC on the latter).

This is intended.

I'd suggest buying a USB attachable CD/DVD drive to get around this.

You're clearly not using a legit copy of the game.

[Darksaber]

Corrann's right I designed the installers so that the user would have to own the original discs to install either the UCP or the XWAUCP, there is no work around you either own the original discs or you don't install them.

The installer searches for a physical Optical Drive (CD/DVD) where it finds the discs and transfers some files from the discs to the XWA Dir, you can't use a virtual drive to install them.

Your question is the reason why this was implemented into the installers, to stop people like you using illegal copies. Yes the game might be 15 years old, but as far as I'm aware it's still copyrighted, if and when it becomes freeware is the time I might remove the limitations to the installers, but don't hold your breathe!!!

[thomcom]

Obviously XWAUCP is an amazing project and you all have really worked hard on it. I think you're worthy of being paid for your time if that were possible! I'm also a developer http://electrictextiles.com. I buy stuff to reward the people who make good stuff, kickstarters and the like.

I feel like you're maybe being overzealous in the DRM war. Nobody makes a profit from X-Wing Alliance sales. Modern game sales are executed by essentially perfect DRM via Steam and consoles. My computer doesn't have a CD-ROM because that age is past.

Wouldn't it be better to make things like XWA available to everyone? Especially in the context of foreign markets - without easy digital duplication XWA could be totally lost to time.

I'll probably get one of these http://www.amazon.com/External-CD-ROM-D ... B003D15K44, but I've already burned lots of energy on Project: Play Old Game Not on GOG.com. I hope I'll have the energy to see your work in action.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/860 ... small.jpeg

[VPR]

Wouldn't it be better to make things like XWA available to everyone? Especially in the context of foreign markets - without easy digital duplication XWA could be totally lost to time.

The disc protection is there to respect the copyright as said above and not for the love of DRM. XWAU, DS or anyone else cannot legally distribute any XWA content or make money from it else they'd face legal action. The worst thing would be for what must be the two biggest remaining hubs of this community to risk being shut down or even taken to court by the copyright holder.

Yes we'd all love to have our hands on a legit copy of the source code for the games but it seems very unlikely that is going to happen I'm afraid.