Expack3's Guide to Making Old Games Run Without CD-ROMs

[Expack3]

DISCLAIMER
This guide is not to be used for piracy; but rather, for those who would use this to make their old, legitimately-purchased video games run without using the games' CD-ROMs or disc images.

In my spare time, I enjoy figuring out how to make the old video games I and my friends own run without their respective CD-ROMs or having to resort to disc images. Of course, this doesn't always work - for example, there are some DOS games which expect to see CD Audio when reading the game CD, which can only be achieved by the average DOSBox user by either mounting the real CD-ROM or by mounting a BIN/CUE disc image pair of the game CD. However, when it does, it's glorious. As I'd like to share how I do this with this forum's members, along with anyone who should stumble upon this guide, I'm going to be listing old MS-DOS and Windows games which I've gotten working without their CD-ROMs or resorting to disc images made from the CD-ROMs.

However, I would like to note one exception: if Collector or SquirtTheCat have already gotten a game to work without the CD-ROM, even if it uses a disc image, I won't list it since both these people are extremely skilled at what they do, and any effort by me to exceed their work would likely be inferior.

Game Index:

3-D Ultra Pinball: The Lost Continent
3-D Ultra Pinball

[Expack3]

1. Insert the game disc into your CD-ROM drive.
2. Go to your Start menu, then click on My Computer (or just Computer) from the menu which appears.
3. From the list of computer locations on the left side of the window which appears, click on the one which says PINBALL3
4. On the right side of the screen, drag the folder labeled UPBALL3 to the C:\ Drive folder on the left side of the window.
5. Open the folder which says OPTIONAL
6. Right-click the file which is called OVERRIDE (may say OVERRIDE.BAT), and select copy from the small drop-down menu which appears.
7. Go to C:\ -> UPBALL3
8. Right-click on empty space in the folder, then click paste.
9. Eject the CD from your drive.
10. Play the game by running Pinball3 (may be called Pinball3.exe).
11. You'll get a warning that the game may not run optimally; ignore this message by pressing the OK button.

[Expack3]

1. Insert your 3-D Ultra Pinball CD-ROM into your disc drive.
2. Go into your CD-ROM and find the folder called UPINBALL.
3. Copy the folder to the drive and/or folder of your choice - except DO NOT COPY IT INTO YOUR Program Files OR Program Files (x86) FOLDER!!!
4. Go to the UPINBALL folder you just copied.
5. Launch the game by double-clicking on PINBALL.EXE.
6. A message will appear which will ask you to run the setup application in order to ensure optimum performance of the demo (the 'demo' part is inaccurate on the message's part); ignore it by pressing the "OK" button.

[Expack3]

WARNING
Do not attempt to run this game under the 64-bit versions of Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP. This is because the game utilizes a 16-bit executable, and these operating systems do not have a way to translate the 16-bit code into 64-bit code.

Also, because I no longer have access to a copy of Hoyle Classic Games, I consider this guide to be incomplete as I'm writing this entirely from memory without a way to verify it.

1. Create a folder called HoyleClassics on the hard drive of your choice - WITH THE EXCEPTION OF EITHER THE Program Files OR Program Files (x86) FOLDER!!
2. Insert your Hoyle Classic Games CD-ROM into one of your computer's disc drives.
3. Navigate to the CD-ROM on your computer.
4. Find the folder where the SIERRAWH.EXE file is found.
5. Once you've found the folder, copy the following files from that folder:
   1. 100.CFG
   2. 200.CFG
   3. 300.CFG
   4. 400.CFG
   5. 500.CFG
   6. 600.CFG
   7. 700.CFG
   8. 800.CFG
   9. 900.CFG
   10. 1000.CFG
   11. 1100.CFG
   12. 1200.CFG
   13. 1300.CFG
   14. RESMAP.000
   15. RESMDT.000
   16. RESOURCE.AUD
   17. RESOURCE.SFX
   18. RESOURCE.WIN
   19. RESSCI.000
   20. SETUP.SOL
   21. SIERRA.ERR
   22. SIERRAWH.EXE
6. Copy the files from Step 4 into the SierraClassics folder you created.
7. Run the game by double-clicking on SIERRAWH.EXE in the SierraClassics folder.

[Collector]

If you are talking about the 1995 game, check to see if there is a SIERRA.EXE included. If not, the RESOURCE.WIN needs to be configured, too. If installing on a 32-bit OS, the original installer should work, at least with themes turned off. For a Windows SCI game, it should also require SCIDLL.DLL and perhaps one or two other DLLs. SETUP.SOL is not needed if you are manually installing. I do not have this game, either, so cannot check. I did find a copy on eBay, but it is dated 1998.

If you are talking about the 1993 Hoyle Classic Card Games, it is a DOS game and has an SHP installer.

[Expack3]

If you are talking about the 1995 game, check to see if there is a SIERRA.EXE included. If not, the RESOURCE.WIN needs to be configured, too. If installing on a 32-bit OS, the original installer should work, at least with themes turned off. For a Windows SCI game, it should also require SCIDLL.DLL and perhaps one or two other DLLs. SETUP.SOL is not needed if you are manually installing. I do not have this game, either, so cannot check. I did find a copy on eBay, but it is dated 1998.

I am indeed talking about the 1995 game. Although I don't know whether there is a SIERRA.EXE included, I do know that when doing a manual installation of the game, only the files I listed (with the exception of SETUP.SOL; thanks, Collector!) are required, and RESOURCE.WIN needs no configuration so long as all the files necessary to running the game are in the same folder as it is. I know this because used these instructions when my grandfather had me install Hoyle Classic Games on his Windows Vista 32-bit SP2 computer - with the obvious exception that I knew where the files listed were installed. (Of course, as I didn't use the Sierra installer to install the game, I don't know if there was a complete/full installation option which would've installed the rather large, 245MB RESOURCE.AUD file and, depending on whether it was left out of the destination folder, the 68.5MB RESOURCE.SFX file.)

[Collector]

Those are the audio files.If they are not available, there will be no sound. If they are left on the CD, the disc will be required for sound as well as the RESOURCE.CFG will have to point to the CD or the game will not find them. If the original installer does not work on x86 Windows XP and higher, it may very well be the glitch of the Sierra installers of that era that does not like the Luna Theme. This is easily solved by reverting to classic mode for the installer. For complete HDD installation you can use the normal installer and copy the 2 audio files to the installed directory. The RESOURCE.CFG then needs to have the paths adjusted to point to the game's installed folder instead of the CD.