This method works atleats to the version 3.6.10.3 of starforce.
Because many people have had difficulties to make these SF3 clones to run (success is highly related on the empty media and burner), I decided to write this tutorial, so you can play these games via mounted image.
1. Requirements:
You have to have a clone which has dpm information in the alcohol mds file. All the released SFclones are suitable, but home made images made with alcohol 120% using data position measure are ok also.
Starforce nightmare , tailor made software for playing starforce protected games
Sfcure (starforce cure aka starforce blocker) tailor made service for playing starforce protected games
These programs can be found with google, I put the links if the staff approves it.
Alcohol 120% 1.9.5.xxx for mounting the image (Alcohol is better for mounting Starforce protected games than Daemontools,so we use it) 1.9.5.3105 is the newest and best version for this one, it has the best RMPS emulation for dvd images.
Windows XP with sp2 + account with admin rights ofcourse.
2. Pre game installation measures
Unpack starforce nightmare and make a shortcut to your desktop
Unpack sfcure and install it using !setup.bat (needs reboot after installation)
Amd64 users have to edit their boot.ini file located in the c:\boot.ini
Following line has to be changed (not needed if you use sfcure 64):
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin
to
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /execute=optin
3. Installation & playing the game
Start the sfcure service by using !star.bat
Install the game as usual from a mounted image
Open starforce nightmare and disable your cd/dvd devices
For this it is best that your cd/dvd drives are located in different channel than your hard disks, ie. I have my hd:s in channel 1 and both dvd drives in channel 2, so in starforce I disable channel 2.
(You can verify that you have successfully disabled your cd/dvd drives via my computer, only virtual drives should be visible)
Disable node in starforce nightmare
Start the game (if it installs starforce drivers and asks you to reboot, do so) but then you have to do the steps mentioned in chapter 4. when you star the game.
4. Playing notes
-mount the image
-start the sfcure service with!start.bat ( add a line pause to your !start.bat so you can really see it starts the service and there is no incorrect function error)
!start.bat should look like this then:
---------------
net start sfcure01
pause
--------------
-open starforce nightmare and disable cd/dvd drives and disable node
-play
When finished playing
-stop the sfcure service with !stop.bat (not necessary but advisable)
-enable your cd/dvd drives and node from starforce nightmare
I have tested this method successfully with following games:
Trackmania Sunrise (Mirror clone)
Cross racing chapionship (Mirror clone)
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (Pizza hut release,Itwins release,Villagerz release) the cd-key in .nfo is false, you have to take the last digit off. correct format is xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx , 5 digits in each group the pizza hut nfo got 6 in the last group, just ignore the last digit.
I-Ninja (Mirror clone)
Pro cycling manager (Mirror clone)
Codename Panzers Phase 2 (Mirror clone)
Bet on soldier: Blood sport (Mirror clone)
Brothers in Arms: Earned in blood (Mirror clone)
Note:
Games protected with older SF3 (like xpand rally and I-Ninja) don't require the sfcure service, starforce nightmare is enough, but newer versions like tracmania ,CRC and Splinter cell won't work without it.
Games protected with SF3 version 3.5 and above wont work with hiding the cd/dvd devices with starforce nightmare, you have to physically unplug the devices (take the cable off). You still have to use starforce nightmare to disable the node and sfcure service (ie. BIA Earned in blood ,mirror clone).
Also if you get message "please insert <gamename> cd/dvd to another drive" you have to either press the disable button twice in starforce nightmare(sometimes it does not disable the cd/dvd drives correctly,repeat the press after prosessing message is vanished), or if that don't help you have to unplug the devices physically. You have to still disable the node with nightmare even when the drives are unplugged.
If you have no pervious experience using starforce nightmare and you don't have a clue what I have written above, I stongly suggest that you skip this one. Wrongly used starforce nighmare can hang up your pc etc.
Update: 1.10.2005 Method confirmed to work with the newest SF3 version 3.6.10.3 also.
Update2: 1.10.2005 New sfcure version available for AMD64 users, no boot.ini edit needed with this version.
Update3: 5.10.2005 Starforce nighmare disable node does not work in Windows 2000, a tool for windows 2000 is currently planned, I will ad it here when a stable version is ready to use.
NOTE: Make sure that you have RMPS emulation enabled in your alcohol/daemon,great deal of problems that people have are caused by this option is not enabled !
#397875 by unknown[89628] at 2005-10-01 16:31:16 (7 years ago) - [Report]
Since other topic got closed I will ask here..When I click !start.bat It opens a command window but then it closes itself in 1 second.Got this problem for a while now and now its very annoying.Anyone know a solution for it?
Since other topic got closed I will ask here..When I click !start.bat It opens a command window but then it closes itself in 1 second.Got this problem for a while now and now its very annoying.Anyone know a solution for it?
It is just what it supposed to do, but you can do the following if you want to see the messages:
Edit the !star.bat and put pause command in there,so you can see what it says.
The bat file would look like this then:
net start sfcure01
pause
you can put this pause command to !stop.bat and !setup.bat too, so you can see the messages.
#397917 by unknown[109142] at 2005-10-01 17:05:35 (7 years ago) - [Report]
and just because the cmd screen just flashes and goes away doesnt mean that the driver didnt start. in short it doesnt matter that you saw the screen flash on and off.
Sniper, any idea why I can only get this method working in A120 but not DT? Since A120 is based off of DT it should work with both tools.
and just because the cmd screen just flashes and goes away doesnt mean that the driver didnt start. in short it doesnt matter that you saw the screen flash on and off.
Sniper, any idea why I can only get this method working in A120 but not DT? Since A120 is based off of DT it should work with both tools.
RMPS emulation is much better in alcohol 120% 1.9.5.2xx and above than it is in daemon 3.47.
#397947 by unknown[105298] at 2005-10-01 17:29:06 (7 years ago) - [Report]
thx for the tutorial, sniperfin
could you send me a link for sfcure via pm? can't find it on google.
#397967 by unknown[109142] at 2005-10-01 17:45:51 (7 years ago) - [Report]
murgo wrote:
thx for the tutorial, sniperfin
could you send me a link for sfcure via pm? can't find it on google.
its in the cdfreaks thread
#397979 by unknown[105298] at 2005-10-01 17:56:25 (7 years ago) - [Report]
okay, got all programs, everything ok, but when i start trackmania sunrise, it wants a player key
hmm, i already checked the nfo a few times, can't find the key
You need Trackmania.Sunrise.SFClone.SERIALFIX-MiRROR.
A very nice tut, don't have time to test it now, but will do later..
#398018 by unknown[105298] at 2005-10-01 18:39:14 (7 years ago) - [Report]
crc and trackmania work fine here, time to get splinter cell
#398471 by ugri (Power User) at 2005-10-02 02:12:12 (7 years ago) - [Report]
Uhm.. i have the HD:S in channel 1 and CD:s in channel 2... if i try to disable either one of the channels, my system crashes, so is it enough to just disable node and master and slave that my cd-roms are plugged in to?
Uhm.. i have the HD:S in channel 1 and CD:s in channel 2... if i try to disable either one of the channels, my system crashes, so is it enough to just disable node and master and slave that my cd-roms are plugged in to?
hmm, so you have both hd:s in ide 1 and cd:s in ide 2, correct ? Never disable channel were you hd:s are (in your case ), it is crash for sure. Try disable cd button first, if no success then secondary master and slave. Strange, which chipset do you have ?
#398520 by unknown[13072] at 2005-10-02 03:19:56 (7 years ago) - [Report]
To everybody having problems with SFCure, I suggest you install Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. That fixes everything.
Something that I already posted in the other thread, does TB have a REQUEST section? I ask because the Pizzahut version (dunno if the mds is enough) would really come in handy
#398530 by ugri (Power User) at 2005-10-02 03:41:00 (7 years ago) - [Report]
sniperfin wrote:
ugri wrote:
Uhm.. i have the HD:S in channel 1 and CD:s in channel 2... if i try to disable either one of the channels, my system crashes, so is it enough to just disable node and master and slave that my cd-roms are plugged in to?
hmm, so you have both hd:s in ide 1 and cd:s in ide 2, correct ? Never disable channel were you hd:s are (in your case ), it is crash for sure. Try disable cd button first, if no success then secondary master and slave. Strange, which chipset do you have ?
Aye, i disable the channel that has cd-drives and it still crashes... asus a8n nforce4 mobo
Well... not quite crash, gives me blue screen or just reboots
#398576 by unknown[1154] at 2005-10-02 05:14:15 (7 years ago) - [Report]
woohooo
cheers sniperfin, (plus thanks for ya help )
this works great, thou it crashes on the trackmania races, but the other races like puzzles etc works fine, CRC works without a hiccup, I-Ninja says the cdkey doesnt match the cd,?? dunno whats up with that?
thanks again mate
#398603 by unknown[54181] at 2005-10-02 07:04:53 (7 years ago) - [Report]
Thanks for this great Tutorial...
Well, I tested CRC 2005 (Mirror image) and it worked fine...
But SC : CT didn't work , it looks like the image is bad, the image I have isn't pizzahut, when I run the game it checks for CD-Key then it gives error message : "CD Key you entred doesn't match the disc ...", I tried two different keys, no luck.
Well then maybe waiting for new crack or D-Tools 4 to see if this will work, else I'll search for PizzaHut image and get it, damn too big.
#398662 by unknown[13266] at 2005-10-02 09:33:12 (7 years ago) - [Report]
hello people, to my it doesn't work me, I made everything as they said it but it doesn't work me he/she requests that incerte the cd in another cd unit.
hello people, to my it doesn't work me, I made everything as they said it but it doesn't work me he/she requests that incerte the cd in another cd unit.
That means your drives are not propely hided with starforce nightmare or the game you are using has starforce 3.5 or higher (pro cycling manager for example). Try shutting down your computer,removing ide cable from your cd/dvd drives as I adviced in the tutorial. (you still have to disable the node with starforce nightmare and run sfcure).
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