Looking at CFS3....

Flight Sims
1

I used to play this a lot and I’m looking at going back to it. I had the Firepower addon, and I loved it. My current rig lacks a CD drive. Any way around the CD check or am I screwed?

2

How determined are you, and how robust is its anti-piracy software?

These days you can format a USB Jump Drive to act like a CD, and then drop disk .iso in it. Alternatively you could always install a cd drive emulator and mount the .iso like that.

3

Thanks. I’ve never tried the .iso route. That’ll be my next plan. Which emulator is best?

4

I couldn’t tell you, last time I emulated something like that was middleschool.

5

You just made me feel like a fossil.

6

I forget the name of the program I used to use

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7

Daemon Tools

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8

Yep, built in with Windows 8.1 and 10, as in you can ‘mount’ a .iso file direct.

@SkateZilla’s link of Daemon tools lite is good for Win 7 and is free. You can use an older Microsoft util as well:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/download/details.aspx?id=38780

1 Like
9

Thanks, guys. Just bought a copy on eBay.

10

Yuup thats the one :slight_smile:

11

Any videos or tutorials on how to use these utilities?
Yes, I am that challenged…

Wheels

12

Which OS you use @wheelsup_cavu? I’d be happy to help take some screenshots etc.

13

Thanks. :slight_smile:

Mainly Win 7,
But I do have Win 10, Win XP, Win 98, Win 3.1 on other systems. Can’t remember offhand if I ever got rid of the Dos 5.0 system…

Wheels

14

Grab the Win 7 Daemon Tools Lite 10 download from here (the middle one):

It is free for home use, and you can skip or ignore any license asks.

Essentially what you are doing is opening files and this thing is ‘mounting’ them as pretend drives in windows (i.e. E: F: etc.).

So you’d take the CFS1.iso file (it’ll be the size of a CD or DVD typically) and then open it using the Daemon Tools system tray.

The ‘Mount’ command bottom right will allow you to pick your .iso file…

image

…then you’ll have a new Disk installed, i.e. a ‘F:’ drive. As far as Windows is concerned this new drive is exactly the same as if you had put in a disk, you can ‘Autoplay’ and run an install from it.

In Windows Explorer you’ll also be able to right mouse button menu on an ‘.iso’ file and hit ‘Mount’. This is how Windows 8 and 10 do it, as in the feature is built into the OS and you don’t need Daemon Tools or any other util to do it.

To Unmount a drive simply right mouse menu click on the top level drive and use the ‘Unmount’ option. This will release the drive letter and let you move/remove the .iso file if you’re done with it.

Let me know how it goes, as it’ll be easier to chat about it if you get stuck along the way. You can also do stuff like copy a DVD or CD-ROM to make an .iso file as well, although depending on how old and what sort of DRM it has means that can sometimes not work. Most old flight sim disks will be fine to make file .iso images of though.

15

Thanks again. :slight_smile:
Will keep you appraised of how it goes and if I have problems we can chat on Mudspike’s TS.

Wheels

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16

the DRM and stuff might be a bit of a anger inducing thing, depending on the DRM and Disk Security Type.

You may need the “no cd” patch… lol and set a bunch of Compatibility options in the exe’s properties.

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17

Wheels, which mods are you planning on running? I think ETO is still sort of a thing, right?

18

CFS3? Wow. I spent what seems like 100 hrs just integrating the 1% planes into the game and the campaign. I never got why pylons were separate from the planes…

I had Firepower and had great times dropping nukes from Arado Blitzes and other what-if scenarios.
While it ultimately lost to Il-2, I think of it as the last of the 90’s flight sims (the remade F4:AF notwithstanding) because despite its flaws as a sim it was a great game. It aged poorly with the opaque water textures but the campaign was good. I just wish:

  1. the map covered more of Europe than it did, seems like they cut if off right around Berlin and that was too soon
  2. CFS4 had been finished and released. The leaked shots and reports from the beta testers told me it might have been the next classic. :frowning:
19

Look at what I just found in my old games box

IMAG0231
IMAG0231531×940 155 KB

YAAY :):sunglasses:

OMG disk drives are so last year, I don’t have one fitted in this rig :rofl:

2 Likes
20

Yep. I did the same thing. Didn’t think I needed one.