Anyone know of a no-CD patch for RRT II Gold?

[thegrindre]

Hi all,

I've searched diligently all over the net for a NO-CD Patch for RT II Gold and haven't been able to find anything that'll work.

Naturally, I don't want to wear out the CD nor the DVD drive while constantly inserting and removing the CD.

Does anybody know where I can get one or have a way to remedy this issue?

I have version 1.54, btw.

Thanks,

;D

[Gwizz]

I've never found one.  I just make a backup copy.  A back up copy will only run for a short time to start the game. 

The game runs off the hard drive.

[Silverback]

I've never seen one  :(  - Presumably the 1.56 platinum NOCD version won't work if you try it?

[thegrindre]

It has been suggested that I try the Platinum patch on the Gold version so, I did...

Very interesting things happen when using the Platinum patch on the Gold version. I'll list them...

1. The opening screens and the old man no longer appear

2. There is no music anymore

3. The Second Century and Classic Campaigns won't load anymore. It now asks for the original CD

4. Version 1.54 seems to be upgraded to v1.56, now, or so it says down in the lower left corner

5. The scroll wheel now works

Oh, a .dll file had to be moved from the Platinum folder to the Gold folder.

That's what I've found so far.

Hmmm, very interesting.

;D

[Silverback]

Oh Dear  :-\ Not sure why a NOCD 1.56 would ask for a CD. Maybe the folder structure needs to change or maybe more files need to be copied to the hard disk. I always copy the folders from the CD to the hard disk e.g. the Anim and the date folders etc  . All the maps are in one folder in platinum but I think that was true for TSC and the original too but I could be wrong. Music I always turn off. In platinum the mp3 files are in the data2 folder. Other than that I'm at a loss...   

[thegrindre]

I've been doing a lot of experimenting with these two versions of RT, Gold and Platinum, and have come to the conclusion that the campaigns will not load without the CD in the drive but, I have been able to upgrade a Gold version to Platinum.

My post from Hawkdawg's site reads as such;

Well, my Gold version has been upgraded to v1.56 with all the Platinum maps in place and the music is now working, too. (Had to move the data 2 folder over.)

BUT, still no campaign loading. Apparently, the NO-CD patch for Platinum, that will work in Gold, wasn't written to load the campaigns... Oh well.

Anyone wanting to upgrade their Gold version will need to do the following;

1. Get the Platinum NO-CD patch and install it.

2. Move the Mss32.dll file over.

3. Move the data 2 folder over.

4. Move the maps folder over.

And, you'll have a Gold version updated to Platinum. The scroll wheel will now work, the music will play, and the screen pans will be slowed down to normal. AND, all the maps work, too.

Notice the lower left corner, v1.56.

[Silverback]

Have you tried copying all the files from the anim folder on the CD to anim folder on your PC? I think only some of them get copied on a normal install. I think there should be over 100 of them including the campaign intro files CA*.SMK and CEA*.smk. Maybe that would get the campaigns working. I think basically the entire contents of the CD may need to be copied to your PC apart from the program itself to fully use a nocd version

[thegrindre]

BINGO!!! He, he, heee... Got it! Thanks, Silverback, that did it.

I now have a Gold version updated to Platinum and don't need a CD in the drive to run it anymore, AND the campaigns work, too. 8-)

Success, success, success, finely.

UPDATE: (See #5 & #6)

To run RT2 Gold with no CD in the drive, upgraded to v1.56, and have the campaigns work, do the following;

1. Get the Platinum NO-CD patch and install it.

2. Move the Mss32.dll file over.

3. Move the data 2 folder over.

4. Move the maps folder over.

5. Copy the ANIM folder over from the disc.

6. Copy the MOVIES folder over from the disc.

Now, you'll have a Gold version updated to Platinum that doesn't need a disc in your drive to play. The scroll wheel will now work, the music will play, and the screen pans will be slowed down to normal, all the maps work too, AND the campaigns will now load.

Well, that was kinda fun. I did succeeded after all and, all I was trying to do was play RT II Gold with no CD in the drive. Hmmm

8)

[Silverback]

Glad to be of assistance. 

[cogeo]

A side question, is it possible to get the V1.56 features (mousewheel, panning) without upgrading to platinum? I'm afraid not, if the .EXE has to be replaced. I have solved the CD problem in another way, using a CD emulator (take also a look at this post), so I don't mind about the rest (just want to get rid of the very fast panning). The reason I want to keep the "old" .EXE is becasue I have made a (radically) modded version of it (take a look at this post), and I don't want to do all this again (for V1.56 this time).

[thegrindre]

I haven't tested it extensively but, just using the Platinum No-CD works also. You may need to move those files from you RT2 disc over to your hard drive as well, though.

This was my first experiments but, as I said, I didn't continue to test it in this phase but it does work.

[akuenzi]

I've never found one. I just make a backup copy. A back up copy will only run for a short time to start the game.

The game runs off the hard drive.

How does one make a backup copy of the CD? Is it as simple as copying all the files/directories to one's hard drive, and then writing them to a new CD? I tried doing this, but got errors on two separate attempts. Maybe I'm not doing it correctly?

[jeffryfisher]

Yes, you may drag/drop the full set of files and directories off of the (platinum) CD and then burn those to a new, blank CDR. The "backup" can then install and run the game, or run an installation made from an original, even if it has been patched.

I made such a copy for myself almost a year ago, and I am still using it to run a (heavily modded) v1.56 patch of an original's installation.

[akuenzi]

Thanks, Jeff. I don't know what I was doing wrong the first two times, but the third time was a charm, as they say. Now I have a backup!