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

[AgentZero]

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.

[AstralWanderer]

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.

[Ragnarok-X]

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

[narf poit chez BOOM]

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)

[dogscoff]

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

[Randallw]

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)

[narf poit chez BOOM]

@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?'.

[douglas]

Randallw said:
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)

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.