Running a CD version without the CD

[Primehunter74]

Hey, so I've had a non steam copy of the game for some years now, and only after returning from college did I dig the game out and think "Dang, I really want to play this game again!". The problem is, my new laptop doesn't have a physical CD drive. I can borrow an external CD drive from a friend for a few days, but I don't really have the money to buy one myself (yay rent and other expenses!) for a while. If I remember correctly, the game requires a disk on startup, like most of games. Is there a simple way around this? A patch or something I could do so that I wouldn't have to borrow an external cd drive every time I want to play?

[Primehunter74]

I do not. I was going to run over to a friend's house and pick up his cd drive. What is this way that you speak of?

[Zarnubius]

Any chance I can reopen this thread 5 years later with the same issue?

[Jayconius]

This is a gray area but, "game copy world" has what you are looking for. It's been around since the early 90s. Though it only offers trainers now (cheats for single player games) it still has all the no cd patches for all the old games.

Though it's not illegal to use the site, there is dispute over some of the newer game's no-cd patches as people started using it for no-steam patches, which it out-right pirating.. but that has been mostly removed now, as no actual copyright/IP content is hosted on the site.

Again! This is a grey area, so a mod could tell me off for sharing this information depending on their opinion of the site/matter, but it shouldn't be a problem for 90s/2000s retail games that use obsolete anti-pirating disc protection or Play Discs..

P.s, I Advise against using trainers, they don't have a good track record of being safe or clean.. If you really want to cheat, find a trainer from a moderated forum with user reviews/comments, so you don't download something nasty..

I can't also guarantee the no-cd patches will be clean on this site, I haven't used it in over a decade as nearly everything I own is digital now and I haven't had a DVD drive in any my PCs for just as long..

[Zarnubius]

Thanks, I appreciate the reply. If I can't end up getting an external disk drive in the near future I may consider using that.

[debbieandcory]

i have it still, good for offline shots