1.2 cheat unlocker "not a pirate topic"

**URPLUMCRAZY** · 02-27-2005, 22:01

I am 43 years old Duke and have never used a no_cd crack and I bought my copy day 1 this game came out and if a game ever needed a patch to un lock cheats that should of been in the game to start it is this game and what you need to do is get off your high horse and quit closing every topic that some ones asks about this topic!
unless you can make CA make a "offical" patch you need to chill out and let some one like the guy who made the one for 1.0/1.1 have a place to post a link and info! or to any one who wants to talk on this topic gamefaqs has even dropped this from TOS violations so come to R:TW board there and post if you make a patch ........... unless Duke deletes this topic/post then I am done with this site.

**Cirith-Ungol** · 02-27-2005, 22:28

........... unless Duke deletes this topic/post then I am done with this site.

I think you mean ...if

otherwise no i haven't seen anything to activate any cheats

**Simetrical** · 02-28-2005, 04:02

The problem with the cheat unlocker is that the only existing version works only with a no-CD hack. This has to do with ease of disassembly or something—the hackers who cracked the EXE for the no-CD hack made it easier for the creator of the cheat unlocker to work with it somehow. He said he couldn't have done it if the EXE hadn't already been cracked.

-Simetrical

**Myrddraal** · 02-28-2005, 11:15

DJ has no problem with those who own legal versions of the game, but want to unlock cheats.

(At least I think he doesn't)

But what he does mind is seeing people with only one or two posts, starting a topic like this, it invariably leads to "Where can I find the no-cd crack". I think he doesn't like (and I agree with him) the idea that people post on these forums for the sole cause of getting a cracked version of Rome.

I know he closed a topic not long ago, you will notice one user has made only two posts, both in that topic. DJ didn't close it straight away, but as soon as the crack was mentioned.

I am 43 years old Duke

It seems we have nobility posting

**Bwian** · 02-28-2005, 12:45

There is also the question of the 'legality' of no-cd hacks.

The EULA usually prohibits any alteration of the games basic code, and a No-CD patch definitlely does break the conditions of most EULA. It's not 'piracy' if you own a valid copy of the game, but it is a definite grey area.

If a 'cheat unlocker' ( to be honest, I am not sure exactly why people need this ) needs to change things in the actual game EXE, then it, too, is a breach of the EULA. Presumably, it requires the cracked EXE to get around protection measures put in by the developers to avoid the game looking at the CD for data.

Now...most of us ( me included ) have regularly / occaisionally / will at some time in the future ... use a No-CD patch. We will do so on games we have bought ( because our money supports the developers and without them we have no game ) because we don't want to damage our CD's or go to the trouble of actually opening the box and swapping them around ( guilty ).

Now...thats all well and good for us....but if you run a public website like this, you have to take responsibility for the conduct of things here. While we may consider the 'No-Cd' about as illegal as taping a mates LP ( kids...ask your parents..tehy will explain what 'tape' and 'LP' means... ) it is a differnt matter to be seen to condone such activity through a website. Watch the writs fly....watch the developers support evaporate...and so on.

Remember....when you ARE a moderator, you have to obey the rules to the letter. As an example...go to Simhq.com. ( a good sim orientated website...sim not 'The Sims'!!! ) Then read their disclaimer on every forum page. It's there because they HAD TO put it there. If you want to complain about the regular purges of threads about no-cd stuff...well, that is the alternative!

**URPLUMCRAZY** · 03-01-2005, 00:00

Well as my age tells I am a old school gamer and in all the many years of playing games I really never even considered a no_cd way to play a game but now that I have used alcohol 120% free trial offer and seen that people like me really need this..... I have over 1000 pc games about 500 ps1 games and about 100 ps2 games and won't even go into how many older GAMES BUT 3-400 pretty close ........... and with the pc games alone it is a pain to find the game I want to load and then swap out disks .....

and I was a believer before R:TW that no one but pirates used sites like gamecopyworld and alc 120% (in fact I didn't even know about them)
but fellows I hate to break the news to you but they are a part of PC gaming now (and if GCW was breaking game maker rules I'm sure they be dead like napster was before)
and with games like R:TW only letting you use cheats/codes 1 time per game load when there is so much more locked up that with a simple (if your code smart)patch can open up so much more.
And even gamefaqs got out of the 19th cent. and took no_cd talk off the TOS violations!

now if some one came to this topic and asked for a mario crk or some thing thats different but games like this and morrowind among many others where made to mod with and there needs to be a place where "people" who "know" how to make such mod/patch to fix this so 1000's like me can play the game the way we enjoy.

**URPLUMCRAZY** · 03-01-2005, 00:12

[QUOTE=Myrddraal]DJ has no problem with those who own legal versions of the game, but want to unlock cheats.

(At least I think he doesn't)

But what he does mind is seeing people with only one or two posts, starting a topic like this, it invariably leads to "Where can I find the no-cd crack". I think he doesn't like (and I agree with him) the idea that people post on these forums for the sole cause of getting a cracked version of Rome.

The problem with that is some of those low posters are/where sent here by me just for this subject as we talk at gamefaqs about the old 1.0/1.1 cheat unlocker and the need for that no_cd crk to make it work along with .net frame 23.1 d/l from windows update center they are all not pirates (just think about it a minute most pirates all ready know this?) only people who play this game are here trying to learn more because I didn't know every thing when we talked at another site.

**Bwian** · 03-01-2005, 00:38

Like I said in my post..... it has NOTHING to do with piracy, but has everything to do with a website like this NOT BEING ALLOWED to openly support or condone the deliberate breaking of the EULA ( that thing everyone agrees to when they install but never bother to read ).

Also...it's printed in the back of the manual if you want to open that up and read it...page 79 in the UK release....

and I quote...

under the 'You shall not' section

Copy this program onto a hard drive or other storage device. You must run this program fron the CD ROM

and again....

Reverse engineer, derive source code, modify, decompile, disassemble or create derivative works of the program in whole or in parts.

BOTH of these SPECIFICALLY make the no-cd patch a direct contravention of the EULA and technically are a breach of the contract between you and Creative Assembly. You cannot make a no cd patch without reverse engineering of the EXE. You are also in breach by using Alcohol to make a CD image on your hard drive.

Now....I am not saying you are a Pirate. You are, however, doing something that you are not allowed to do under the conditions YOU AGREED to when you installed the software. IF a Forum OPENLY CONDONES OR SUPPORTS that sort of activity, then they are going to attract trouble. They could, in extreme cases, get shut down from it or kicked out by their Web-provider with loss of site and money paid.......

When you realise the legal implications, it should come as no surprise that such open talk and requests are shut down and locked sharpish. CA are unlikely to go after an individual ..... but a public forum .... thats easier.

**GodsPetMonkey** · 03-01-2005, 01:48

Originally Posted by Simetrical

The problem with the cheat unlocker is that the only existing version works only with a no-CD hack. This has to do with ease of disassembly or something—the hackers who cracked the EXE for the no-CD hack made it easier for the creator of the cheat unlocker to work with it somehow. He said he couldn't have done it if the EXE hadn't already been cracked.

-Simetrical

The reason why it had to be applied to the cracked executable is that any modifications to the executable will cause the protection to trigger, rendering the game useless (it will never run).
So rather then remove the protection checks themselves, the creators borrowed the work of another.
I cant see a way of doing a 'cheat unlocker' of this style without editing the exe, so its not really doable in a way that may still appear 'legit' (the case of editing exes with good intentions is shakey anyway).

**Simetrical** · 03-01-2005, 02:33

Originally Posted by Bwian

The EULA usually prohibits any alteration of the games basic code, and a No-CD patch definitlely does break the conditions of most EULA.

EULAs are agreements that you're forced to agree after you've already paid money for a product, which you aren't easily able to read beforehand, whose presence isn't even indicated on the packaging, and which effectively prevent the product from working as advertised if you don't agree to them. As a consequence, they aren't legally binding in most localities, although in the U.S. you can still mostly be sued for violation in another state's court due to the stupid structure of our legal system (two states have made them legally binding). To the best of my knowledge, it isn't illegal to break EULAs.

However, laws in various places still may prohibit the cracking of copy protection itself, without EULAs. The United States passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, a few years back. Section 103 makes it illegal to circumvent a "measure that effectively controls access to a work," and furthermore to "manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in" something that's intended to do so, that has limited commercial uses outside of doing so, or that's marketed to do so.

The European Parliament has passed a similar directive, commonly known as the EU Copyright Directive or EUCD, which came into effect a few years ago (although it might not be fully implemented by all 25 member states yet). Section 6 of that directive is extremely similar to section 103 of the DMCA, down to much of the wording. Both sections are based on the WIPO Copyright Treaty—although that's rather less clear, it still does certainly prohibit no-CD hacks. A whole bunch of countries are signatories, but I can't be bothered to dig up the list right now.

Anyway, the main reason the Guild bans discussion of no CD hacks is probably because CA will do all sorts of dire things if they don't—remove links to the Guild, stop visiting the Guild, ban discussion of the Guild at their forum, even sue the Guild. It's not really "breaking the law" per se that the Guild is concerned with, or so I suspect.

-Simetrical

**Encaitar** · 03-01-2005, 06:15

Of course, the best solution would be for CA to include a cheat unlocker in the next patch.

**Swoosh So** · 03-01-2005, 06:36

My god i dont know why there isent just a command line switch for the sp cheats these are essential modding tools i cant believe they took it out in 1.2 for the sake of a few eew he/she cheats whingers my god! Well im currently looking for 1.2 to be cracked as i dont want to release my mp campaign mod with a nocd exe (the search continues!)

**Duke John** · 03-01-2005, 06:43

If you are interested in a cheat unlocker then you shouldn't look for it here. This is from the Org's rules section:

Examples of objectionable messages include, but are not limited to:
Posts containing addresses of warez sites or anything piracy-related; note that this includes "hacks" designed to enable Shogun: Total War, Medieval: Total War and Rome: Total War to run without a CD. The administration is aware of the fact that some use a "no-CD hack" for the perfectly legal purpose of enchancing their system performance, but we feel that the possible illegal benefits from these hacks outweight the legal ones. Anything pertaining to software piracy is in general highly discouraged.

When you joined the Org you should have read it. At the Org it is felt that we rather have the honour of CA employees showing up and answering some burning questions, than turning into a forum where warez are openly discussed.

If you want no-cd cracks or cheat unlockers then you should look outside the Org.

Since a cheat-unlocker can only be made by hacking the exe it is most likely that it includes a NO-CD crack as with the 1.1 crack.

Topic closed. If you have problems with the rules of this forum then feel free to post a topic in the Watchtower.

PS the other topics were closed (not simply deleted) to make it clear that such topics are not tolerated. Since this is not working I will just delete new threads related to this.