StarFury CD check is screwed up!!

ColdSteel · #1 October 9th, 2003, 09:39 PM

I got the game in the mail today and installed it.

There is, for certain, something wrong with the CD check. My CD runs constantly at high speed at all times as long as the Starfury CD is in the drive. Even when I'm not playing it. It is VERY loud and it cannot be good for the CD drive or the game disk to be constantly reving at high speed. This stinks. I have a rig that is less than 1 year old and have never had anything like this happen. Some of the beta testers said that there was no CD check in the beta so obviously I suspect that this wasn't really tested much.

I was dissapointed (to say the least) to see MM employ a CD check for Starfury. They cause more harm and user grief than good IMHO. I'd hoped MM would avoid this tactic unlike most of the other lemmings in the industry.

Brad Wardell, the founder and CEO of Stardock and designer of Galactic Civilizations, one of the very best 4X space strategy games around, recently wrote a very interesting article in which he argues that using CD protection on games only encourages piracy and that better solutions exist. It's an interesting, thoughful read and I agree with most of it. The link to the article is here on his personal web site and a link to it also can be found on the Galciv site:
http://www.joeuser.com/index.asp?AID=209

I encourage you to read it.

Since Stardock also distributes their games via the Internet like Shrapnel does, I'd be interested to hear what the Shrapnel folks here and Aaron think about his business model and approach regarding this?

And what does everyone else think about this subject?

In the meantime, I'm really

about the CD!

Edited to add: BTW, I'm using WinXP Pro, not ME.

-ColdSteel

[ October 09, 2003, 20:44: Message edited by: ColdSteel ]

Phoenix-D · #2 October 9th, 2003, 10:29 PM

Two things you can do that'll help, before MM hopefully removes it in a patch:

1. Make a copy. At least on my system, the copy runs smoother. (this -is- legal, you just set the CD you got in the mail aside as your backup)

2. Eject the CD after you start SF. It just wants it at the start, not later.

In another sign this wasn't thought through all that well, every time you insert the CD, the installer starts..

ColdSteel · #3 October 9th, 2003, 10:40 PM

Phoenix-D, There's a little known Windows secret that will help you with the Autoplay/install thing..

When you put the CD in the tray hold down the SHIFT key until the CD light goes out (5-10 seconds). This will prevent the auto run/install from running. This is much handier than turning off autoplay in the CD properties as some have suggested. This works with all Versions of Windows, at least from Win95 on.

My tip for the day.

I do hope Aaron removes the CD check in the patch. I wish they would just use a CD key instead. Anything so I don't have to mess with the dang CD everytime I want to play. And let's not even talk about laptops. I think the battery would die in about 15 minutes.

-ColdSteel

Phoenix-D · #4 October 9th, 2003, 10:56 PM

Again, you can take the CD out right after you start. No battery issue.

I know about the autplay bit.

ColdSteel · #5 October 9th, 2003, 11:38 PM

Well, I actually tried to run the game for the first time despite the ever running CD and even with the original game disk in the drive, all I get is a message to put the Starfury disk in the CD. Grrrr!

So, it will just not run the game at all.

I have an ABS AMD 2.2 Athlon system running Win XP Pro with the latest service pack and all updated drivers. The PC is only a year old. I am a 48 year old computer professional who writes software applications. This has got to be the copy protection. It installed fine. The disk is not bad. I made a copy of the CD with no errors but it does the same thing when I tried it. I'm going to try to re-install it but this is just plain stupid.

I was really excited to get this game and I've bought SE4 and SE4 Gold both and I even had one of my game mods on the SE4 Gold CD (with Raynor)but if I had bought this thing from EB, it would be going back right now.

I have no idea what my options for returning the game are with Shrapnel but I guess I may have to find out. I don't want to. I want to play the game.

To those who have not yet purchased this game, beware.

-ColdSteel

Phoenix-D · #6 October 9th, 2003, 11:40 PM

There isn't much copy-protection at all, just a CD check. I wonder if they had a bad run of discs..

EDIT: which would mean even copying wouldn't help in your case, but its probably a bug in the CD check. Hrm. Make a disk image maybe? I doubt it will help but it might be worth a shot.

[ October 09, 2003, 22:43: Message edited by: Phoenix-D ]

ColdSteel · #7 October 9th, 2003, 11:50 PM

I tried reinstalling the game to the default C: directory. I thought that maybe since I specified something other than the default, that might be it. Nope.

It still will not run. Basically, I just spent $40 (with shipping) for a game that I cannot play.

I guess my next step is to contact Shrapnel.

I am NOT a happy customer.

(Phoenix-D - thanks for trying to help.)

-Coldsteel

Richard · #8 October 10th, 2003, 12:02 AM

You might want to bring this to Aaron's attention.

Just to be clear, Shrapnel actually came out with the same policy statement Brad does on his site years ago. I don't believe piracy is curbed by copy protection, not at all. However it is up to each developer as to what they actually do with their final product.

You will not find copy protection on a Shrapnel produced product, and on most of our developer products.

Richard · #9 October 10th, 2003, 12:04 AM

And after reading the entire thread, yes it would appear that you have been sent a bad CD. Unfourtanetly, even thought this is rare, these things do happen from time to time when producing thousands of copies of a game.

Please contact our customer service department so they can send you a replacement.

Tim Brooks · #10 October 10th, 2003, 12:48 AM

ColdSteel:

We just installed, from 7 seperate cds on 7 seperate systems and we are having no problems. My guess to is a bad cd, which is quite rare as they are not burned, but stamped.

At this point you have two choices. Return the game to us - contact our support center for an rma number - and we will refund your entire purchase price, plus the cost of shipping the game back to us.

The second choice is to contact support and request a new cd. It will go out tomorrow if you get the request in before 11:00 am EDST.

I am truly sorry you are having problems, but we have thousands of copies out there and you are the only one we know of with these troubles.

Please accept our apologies.