OT: What\'s a good .iso \'fake cd drive\' program?
 

Short story, Baen books has a cd download with some of their electronic books. The cd download is naturally an .iso. What's a good program for loading an .iso into a fake drive?

Re: OT: What\'s a good .iso \'fake cd drive\' program
 

I use Daemon Tools for all my mounting needs. Just be aware that there are a couple over-the-top copy protection systems out there that won't let you run their software if they detect a virtual drive, because only pirates need virtual drives. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Re: OT: What\'s a good .iso \'fake cd drive\' program
 

Daemon tools installs a rather low-level pass through driver, and can sometimes cause system instability.. Another option is Alcohol 52%, which has a free version.

Re: OT: What\'s a good .iso \'fake cd drive\' program
 

I haven't had any instability problems with Daemon Tools, nor problems with game 'blacklisting' using the newer versions of the virtual drive. I never heard Alcohol solved its own blacklisting problems.

and I use DT because of vibration problems with constantly running and spinning-up optical drives... all the cds are legal and safely in a drawer.

Re: OT: What\'s a good .iso \'fake cd drive\' program
 

I don't have any vibration problems, I just hate dicking around trying to find the CD for a game I want to play. Especially older games with all that disc-swapping malarky. Just load them all up on virtual drives, and play to your heart's content. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: OT: What\'s a good .iso \'fake cd drive\' program
 

AgentZero said:
...I just hate dicking around trying to find the CD for a game I want to play. Especially older games with all that disc-swapping malarky. Just load them all up on virtual drives, and play to your heart's content.

Me too, to the extent that I now check for the existence of a no-CD patch before purchasing a game. I have found that many "multi-disc" games can actually be run directly from the hard disk if you copy the right folders - I've so far only encountered two where a virtual image is needed.

Re: OT: What\'s a good .iso \'fake cd drive\' program
 

Daemon tools, no doubt there. Been using for it 2-3 years and it works like a charm.

Re: OT: What\'s a good .iso \'fake cd drive\' program
 

Well, game blacklisting sounds less dangerous than system instability, so...I'm trying Alcohol52%.

(I would have done a joke, but it's too obvious)

Re: OT: What\'s a good .iso \'fake cd drive\' program
 

Narf, A while back I downloaded all the Honorverse CDs and a few more besides merged them into one uber-baenCD, all HTMLed up and everything. I also did some work deleting duplicate files, adding images to the gallery and so on.
I own most of the Harrington books in paper format, but I find my boss is far more lenient about me reading novels at work if they're on screen than on paper. Or maybe he just didn't know what I was reading- I don't know, I didn't think to ask him=-) I have yet to read any of the non-honorverse books.

Anyway, I can send you a zip if you like, no .iso files required. Here's the index (each title represents a complete book):

On Basilisk Station
The Honor of the Queen
The Short Victorious War
Field of Dishonor
Flag in Exile
Honor Among Enemies
In Enemy Hands
Echoes of Honor
Ashes of Victory
War of Honor
More Than Honor
Worlds of Honor
Changer of Worlds
The Service of the Sword
Crown of Slaves
Shadow of Saganami
At All Costs

Lt. Leary, Commanding
An Oblique Approach
In the Heart of Darkness
Destiny's Shield
Fortune's Stroke
The Tide of Victory
The Excalibur Alternative
The Apocalypse Troll
1632
1633
An Oblique Approach
In the Heart of Darkness
Destiny's Shield
Fortune's Stroke
Fallen Angels
A Hymn Before Battle
Gust Front
Bolo!
Agent of Vega
Oath of Swords
The War God's Own
Wind Rider's Oath
Mutineer's Moon
The Armegeddon Inheritance
Heirs of Empire
Empire from the Ashes
March Upcountry
March to the Sea
March to the Stars
We Few
Insurrection
Crusade
In Death Ground
The Shiva Option
The Stars at War
The Stars at War II
Exodus

If you're interested, email me at [my shrapnel nick]@[my shrapnel nick].co.uk

Re: OT: What\'s a good .iso \'fake cd drive\' program
 

I've been thinking of reading Exodus lately. I read the Arachnid war books every 2-3 months. I didn't like the Honour Harrington book I tried once but I'm looking for a good read and thought I'd give it another chance (if it has good battles)

Re: OT: What\'s a good .iso \'fake cd drive\' program
 

@Dogscoff: Baen probably wouldn't mind, but I'd still rather only download cds from books I actually own.

@Randall: Some of them have a lot of talking, some of them have a lot of combat, most have a mix. Weber has few *faults in writing that I've detected, but one of them is a tendency to infodump. However, the information is always relevent and somewhat interesting.

* Mostly a subjective matter of taste, I know.

If you're into fantasy, his Oath of Swords series is excellent. Far more intelligent than most fantasy fare and with a well-defined world. But then, Weber is rather skilled at building detailed worlds.

On the other hand, none of them have the sheer level of combat of the Starfire novels, which have the common complaint that they are essentially novelized game campaigns...Which they are.

(Starfire is a wargame that Weber did some work on. Space Empires was inspired in part by Starfire.)

If you like combat, maybe you could try Fred Saberhagens' Berserker series. Death machines that make all other death machines look like hesitant wimps, they have only one factor in any of their descisions: 'How much Life will this kill?'.

Re: OT: What\'s a good .iso \'fake cd drive\' program
 

I strongly recommend reading that series in order, starting with On Basilisk Station.

The entire Honor Harrington series, plus several more books, is available online (legally and free*) here. You can download the CD as a zip or iso, one selected book or the entire thing, or just view it online. On Basilisk Station is here for your online reading pleasure.

*Baen has stated it's a marketing ploy. Most people prefer reading books on paper rather than the computer screen, so they provide these books for free in an inconvenient (for reading) medium hoping to get readers hooked and wanting to pay for their preferred medium.

Re: OT: What\'s a good .iso \'fake cd drive\' program?
 

The two mentioned are the ones most commonly used for free. There are others. I believe the Nero Suite also allows you to mount virtual drives.

Re: OT: What\'s a good .iso \'fake cd drive\' program?
 

Daemon tools is really powerful, and has never provoked any trouble on my computer

Re: OT: What\'s a good .iso \'fake cd drive\' program?
 

I've also been using Daemon Tools for several years now and have yet to encounter problems of any kind with it.

Re: OT: What\'s a good .iso \'fake cd drive\' program?
 

I have a hard wooden chair that makes sitting in front of the computer for too long hurt my back. That and I can't get into reading from a screen for long periods.

I picked up the latest book which has what I look for in a good book ie. 900 pages. Hopefully it will give me something to read at least for more than a few hours. I started by reading the appendices to get info and started off bad by mistaking who was good or bad.

Re: OT: What\'s a good .iso \'fake cd drive\' program?
 

Can't say I am getting sold on the book. I still get confused about who is who. It's hard following 2 human empires, much better when you know for a fact one is human and the other alien. I have a sneaky suspicion I shouldn't be supporting the bad guys. also a third way through and there have only been 2 brief battles. The rest is uninteresting stuff about her dozen relatives or her relationship, as if I care.

but anyway, I post because there was an ad for a honorverse game. I just looked at the brief trailer which looks interesting. Seems like a 4X game. I might try it. You have the option to concentrate on the battles and economy and ignore the other boring stuff.

Re: OT: What\'s a good .iso \'fake cd drive\' program
 

I asked about that on the Baen forums.

Re: OT: What\'s a good .iso \'fake cd drive\' program
 

There's a reason I recommend starting at the beginning with On Basilisk Station. The later books assume an increasing amount of background knowledge that you just don't have. It may not be as long as you say you want but it's a heck of a lot better for a reader new to the series, and if it's over before you want to stop you can just pick up the next book in the series.

Also, most of the really big battles generally happen near the end of the book as part of the climax.

Re: OT: What\'s a good .iso \'fake cd drive\' program
 

yeah true enough. As it is I feel nothing for the heroine and would actually welcome her being knocked down a peg. The problem is I have no attachment to either side. I can't see any reason why the good guys should be supported any more than the bad guys, and what's with the Eridani thing against endangering civilians? When, in the first battle, the captain sends his enemy a message saying

"uhum, I am about to blow up your space stations could you please evacuate them" or " please evacuate your freighters so I can destroy them"

I sort of thought

"you have got to be kidding http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/fear.gif"

the whole thing about war is destroying the enemy. If you stop before each blow to say "I'm terribly sorry, this is going to hurt" you're not fighting a war you're just taking turns to score points. Might as well play tennis.

lack of background knowledge aside I don't feel it's my sort of book. I was expecting something like the Starfire books I have with mostly battles and the occasional 2-3 pages as an admiral has a liason with her boyfriend. This is the exact opposite with mostly stuff about her family, her boyfriend, the respective leadership talking, interspersed with interesting stuff, although the battles give me good ideas for my se5 games. I'm not trying to convince people it's bad, it's just not my sort of story telling.

but enough said.

Re: OT: What\'s a good .iso \'fake cd drive\' program
 

Ever heard of the Geneva Convention? It's the same sort of thing. Plus, by the time the latest book comes around neither side actually wants to be fighting the war any more, they just can't get negotiations to work (the reasons for this are clear and plausible if you read the whole story, btw). The People's Republic of Haven has far fewer compunctions about that sort of thing earlier in the series.

Try the earlier books. The family, boyfriend, and political leadership all come relatively late in the series so you might find the earlier books more to your liking, and once you know the characters you might find those storylines more interesting.

Re: OT: What\'s a good .iso \'fake cd drive\' program?
 

I just finished ...
March Upcountry
March to the Sea
March to the Stars
We Few

Weber wrote them with John Ringo. Just the last had any space battles, and I thought they were pretty lame, but the books themselves were great. Lots of technology verses the barbarians type of thing. Or really soldiers verses barbarians. I am becoming a Ringo fan after finising this series and one written only by him about a high tech earth fallen into a magical place. Magic with a sci fi background so it could be real. It was very good as well.