Two comps, one Civ III...will XP allow me to play my wife?

Hrafn · May 4, 2002, 16:21

Hi all....

First off, I would like to thank Dan for helping me get my forum account all fixed up! Been a long time since I posted here...been lurking though for ages...

My wife and I are civ fanatics and have not bought Civ III yet because we like to play together. Once the XP comes out, we are gonna drop playing Civ II: Test of Time and start up Civ III....

BUT....will we have to buy TWO of EACH to play together? We didn't have to do that with the other Civ games--I just used the CDs from other civ versions to play ToT off of one copy.

I just don't want to have to pay 40$ x 4 to get that civ fix...

Thanks!

Hrafn
Loyal Civ'er since my olde Amiga days...

Grrr · May 4, 2002, 16:29

Did you get PCRed? A 1999 Settler wow.

As for your point, gamecopyworld.com has no-cd patches. I'm not sure if one has been released for 1.21f yet, but take a look.

Adagio · May 4, 2002, 16:32

There's a no-cd patch for the newest patch, but I guess you'll need some other patch the day the XP is released

But in that time, there'll proberly exist a new no-cd patch

Inverse Icarus · May 4, 2002, 20:05

he's probably referring to some kind of CD KEY check (2 of the same cd key cant play eachother). and my money is on that firaxis will try to pull it off.

Thrawn05 · May 4, 2002, 20:37

Quote:

Originally posted by UberKruX
he's probably referring to some kind of CD KEY check (2 of the same cd key cant play eachother). and my money is on that firaxis will try to pull it off.

Yes. Firaxis will tell you to buy one copy of each for each computer. I'm shure, if you take the time to read the legal stuff when you install it, there should be a line that says somthing like "You can only install this software on one computer".

In FACT! I think, Firaxis will do this...

You buy the XP, and you install it. You then switch to the Civ3 disk. You continue playing the XP with the Civ3 cd in the drive, then wow, after X times of playing it, it ask you to place the XP disc into the drive that you installed it in. You put it in, a second later it will ask you to place the Civ3 disc back in!!!

LucasArts a couple of other companies did this. It's not fun at all.

TechWins · May 4, 2002, 21:17

Well, you don't have to keep the disc in your PC once after you load the game up. So you can always just take the disc out of your one PC after the game is loaded and put the disc in the other PC. This is what I did with Civ2 when I wanted to play LAN MP.

Hrafn · May 4, 2002, 21:59

Well, I am not sure if I am willing to shell out 120 bucks to play with my wife...there was a time back in the good olde days of playing computer games when you could install one copy of the game on any number of your OWN personal computers...this was before home LANs got popular....as soon as the companies caught on to this, the legalese changed and you had to buy multiple copies for ONE family... *sigh*

Well, maybe they thought of this ahead of time and will let it be installed on TWO machines per XP box or something....gah!

Grrr · May 5, 2002, 02:10

Civ 3 wan't worth 120 bucks in the first place. Of course, there'll be workarounds.

Hrafn · May 5, 2002, 13:56

Quote:

Originally posted by Grrr
Did you get PCRed? A 1999 Settler wow.

What is PCRed...and ya...I lurk a LOT...LOL!

Dom Pedro II · May 5, 2002, 14:37

Fear not, my thrifty friends... remember: EVERYTHING is negotiable. If there is a Civ3 CD key, there is also a way AROUND the CD key.

Shhhh... all of this is not entirely legal, and Big Brother may be watching.

Thrawn05 · May 5, 2002, 16:38

Quote:

Originally posted by TechWins
Well, you don't have to keep the disc in your PC once after you load the game up. So you can always just take the disc out of your one PC after the game is loaded and put the disc in the other PC. This is what I did with Civ2 when I wanted to play LAN MP.

True, but now more companies have programed their games with a serial number that is built into the game, and sends it out when you are playing multiplayer. If you play the game online, and it finds that you are playing against someone with the same serial number, it will stop altogether or somthing like that.

Grrr · May 6, 2002, 00:20

Quote:

Originally posted by Hrafn

What is PCRed...and ya...I lurk a LOT...LOL!

A PCR is a Post Count Reduction for if you are bad.

dunk · May 6, 2002, 09:39

I would say that the NO-CD edit is the way to go.

Thrawn... I beleive Microsoft did that with AOE. IIRC, the server would check for registered copies. If the number of registered copies was less than half of the players connected in a game, the gaem would stop.

Kataphraktoi · May 6, 2002, 17:48

i dunno about multiplayer,but AoE,you can just put the cd in,open it up,and take the CD out. im 99% sure ive played 4v4 in AoE with no disks in for anyone....(we talking bout original or AoE2?)

ACooper · May 6, 2002, 19:10

Quote:

Originally posted by Hrafn
Well, I am not sure if I am willing to shell out 120 bucks to play with my wife...

I usually have to do dinner and a movie. If I'm really in trouble, jewelry helps.

With Civ3 you can take the disk out of one machine after the game starts and use it on an other machine. Do it all the time.

Grrr · May 7, 2002, 00:32

Or just use Virtual CD, or a no cd patch.

Skanky Burns · May 7, 2002, 09:22

It might be worth it to wait until MP is released and let others make sure that the work-arounds work around the security problem. If its just a CD-check, thats no problem as a no-cd crack will fix that. They are generally released the same day that the cd is

If its sending serial numbers, then there may be complications.

Grrr · May 7, 2002, 23:43

Quote:

Originally posted by Skanky Burns
It might be worth it to wait until MP is released and let others make sure that the work-arounds work around the security problem. If its just a CD-check, thats no problem as a no-cd crack will fix that. They are generally released the same day that the cd is

If its sending serial numbers, then there may be complications.

I am in concensus.

Hrafn · September 16, 2002, 17:42

Any more information on this topic?

I have been waiting to get Civ III until the MP came out...will one copy of PTW and Civ III be enough for playing side-by-side with the wife with our two machines (she is not interested in HOTSEAT play, as she likes her own machine)? Or will I need two copies of EACH...ugggg! If that is the case, I guess we won't be playing...

Hrafn

battists · September 16, 2002, 19:11

I'm currently wrapped up in Neverwinter Nights MP, and they do the CD-KEY thing. You can't run a multiplayer game, even on a home LAN, if both copies of the game have the same CD KEY. So, for Neverwinter you must buy two copies to play on a home LAN, a neverending source of aggravation on THEIR boards.

As several posters have mentioned, a no-cd crack resolves the issue of needing a CD in the drive to run the game. However, it doesn't fix the CD Key issue.

One workaround I've seen people do is to share CD KEYs, so that if you want to play a game against your wife, you just check with your buddy to see if he's using his CD Key that night. Tough if you're all rabid players though, and some games would require a reinstall to change the CD key.