this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2025
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Yeah, it terrified me too! It was also just one of those things that kind of made it seem like games were magic, in a way? Like, it was so unexpected and it expanded what a game could do in my child mind to such an extent that suddenly they could do almost anything! I miss that.
Ugh, sucks to hear it's unlisted due to some legal technicalities. That's a shame.
I wonder how many obstacles there are to running the CD ROM that OP got? (Apart from my obvious one of not having a cd drive!)
I'm a total dullard when it comes to these things but like, if you disconnect your machine from the internet so no outside checks can be made... Wouldn't it just run as usual?
I believe it uses DRM that doesn't work on newer Windows versions. There's a fan patch that removes the drm and the game should run. Online (being connected to the internet) is probably not an issue.
Does DRM work without an internet connection? I always assumed that sort of thing needed to be able to communicate with a server somewhere to check... Something? 😅 Or is it just that the DRM used in this case actually just breaks in an unintentional way when running on new Windows systems and locks the game into not being able to boot?
If you remember the "glory days" pre ubiquitous constant internet connections, you had to enter a big long code when installing any software. I think the principle is that the license key is some sort of decryption key that unlocks a core part of the software which would otherwise prevent it running.
I do! I see okay, so it's like the private key is stored within the ROM somewhere, and that activation code is like a public key that just decrypts based on the locally stored private key, making anti-piracy software work whether online or offline. Quite clever, really! Thanks 😊