due to the age and rarity of age of empires now a days. it is important to not damage or wear and tear out your CD. so is there a no CD crack that would work for it? in particular AoE Gold? IIRC i tried the regular AoE and RoR no CD cracks but they dont work as they dont detect my AoE??

No lol.

Play on IGZ. You don't need CD in.

Also, illegal. Keep talking about this and you'll get banned. (Like that guy who made a patch that makes the game run in windowed mode)

Who? I don't remember that guy.

Somebody actually did that? Wow.
(Quick Comment: It saves the memory used by hitting the start button on the keyboard to switch programs.)

well correct me if im wrong. however, considering i do own an original game cd that i had bought long ago and since then i still have it which is somewhat scratched up. i doubt its illegal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-CD_crack
according to reference above it says that 'no CD cracks' are not necessarily illegal. 'No-CD cracks have legal uses, such as creating backups of legally owned software (a user right by law in many countries) or avoiding the inconvenience of placing a CD or DVD-ROM in the drive every time the software is being used...'
also from U.S. Copyright Office - Copyright Law: Chapter 1
§ 117. Limitations on exclusive rights: Computer programs (a) Making of Additional Copy or Adaptation by Owner of Copy. — Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, it is not an infringement for the owner of a copy of a computer program to make or authorize the making of another copy or adaptation of that computer program provided: (1) that such a new copy or adaptation is created as an essential step in the utilization of the computer program in conjunction with a machine and that it is used in no other manner, or (2) that such new copy or adaptation is for archival purposes only and that all archival copies are destroyed in the event that continued possession of the computer program should cease to be rightful.
that being said. illegal?? i think not. it seems even by common sense that it is as well justified.

[This message has been edited by volume (edited 07-04-2009 @ 04:10 AM).]

Quoted from Code of Conduct:

Cracks are programs that disable copy-protection technology…
You may not encourage, post in support of, link to, or discuss activities, methods, and/or techniques involving piracy, cracks, multiplayer hacks, keys and key-generators.

Legal or illegal, it doesn't matter; the COC is the law here and this is breaking it.
I personally have my original AoE Gold CD backed up onto another CD, which I use to play with. When that CD gets too damaged I scrap it and burn another from the original.

My original Gold cd is very scratched, nowadays I'm using my ubisoft gold cd (which sux, there's no cd music at all, only midi ).

*dances in closed thread*

Like I just said in the other thread, just by owning the CD you don't own the program. Also, anyone can edit Wikipedia.

Yes, but that also means anyone and everyone can clean up when somebody does prank the site.

Yes, but that also means anyone and everyone can clean up when somebody does prank the site.

I believe that when evaluating the reliability of a source, we examine whether it always contains correct and up-to-date information, not whether its errors and bias can be corrected in time for our viewing.
Anyway, this no-CD issue has always been a bone of contention. I have my own views on it too but they don't really go well with HG's stand (which has always been firm for the past 10+ years). I shall refrain from commenting further, except that IMO, there is quite a glaring omission of details in the CoC on no-CD bypasses, eg. no-CD cracks, burning of backup CDs and even the creation of CD images for local usage.
*joins in the dance*

[This message has been edited by Duan Xuan (edited 07-04-2009 @ 12:11 PM).]

*Also joins dance*

yeah there is quite some omission of details in the CoC on no-CD bypasses. it is not a copyright threat such as piracy or whatever.
also i by owning the CD and i mean by legally paid for it, according to eula i do own the rights to it and whatever is on it. i can utilize it however i please as long as i dont unlawfully distribute it.
off topic: sure anyone can update wikipedia but wikipedia is also good at instantly reverting the change as it does verifies and correct up-to-date info. even if someone was perfectly legit and referenced to update it, they would still revert and do part nonetheless.

As it stands HeavenGames has a strict stance against these types of things and for what I believe to be good reason. Firstly HeavenGames depends on the game developers for information and help in keeping things going and because of that they can't risk annoying the developers. That means any stance that HeavenGames takes on these issues have to be similar if not the same as the developers if HeavenGames are to stay in business. Secondly there is a large area for abuse with any CD bypass and to be able to find who is doing something that might be possibly legal and who is doing something illegal will take a lot of staff power that could be best spent else where.
As far as I am concerned I'd rather keep all this CD bypass stuff off limits right now mainly because I don't have the time to check all the laws and arguments too see if there is a legality to it.
I know some people may disagree with me and want to discuss it further in which case please e-mail me as any discussions started in the forums about it will be closed by a moderator as soon as it is seen. Also volume please check your e-mail.
Thread closed.