rec.autos.simulators

The game ran fine with the 1.1 patch previously, but after installing the
1.2 patch my game will not run at all.  When I activate the NR2002
executable/shortcut absolutely nothing happens.  I can hear the CD attempt
to spin up but nothing happens after that point.  After that point my system
can no longer access the CD.  Windows 2000 reports an I/O error if I attempt
to access the CD through Explorer.  If I attempt to start NR2002 again, a
message says "please insert the NR2002 CD and try again."  That message is
given even though the CD is already in the drive.

Apparently, when the game starts it looks for the presence of the CD and it
locks up.  If I reinstall NR2002 from scratch and add the 1.1 patch it works
fine.  But the 1.2 patch stops the program from executing on my system
completely.  I am not using the update utility to install the patches.  I
have downloaded them directly to my computer as executable packages.

What is the 1.2 patch doing to cause my CD access to fail?

ThreeWide

Beers and cheers
(uncle) Goy

"The Pits"    http://www.theuspits.com/

"A man is only as old as the woman he feels"
--Groucho Marx--

Yes, it does run with the NO CD patched file.  So the problem is related to
the multiplayer version only.

   Welcome to the wonderful world of copy protection.  I would suggest you
send a photo copy of your receipt to Sierra and Safedisc or whomever
butchers the cd's and demand a refund.    After that....check in with the
Sierra forums, there were some known problems with certain types of
cdrom-rw's and certain types of atapi controllers,  the copy-protection
folks claim the hardware is at fault.   good luck.
dave henrie

You could give this Daemon Tools thing a try, some people in here uses
it so they don't need the CD for multiplayer, I've been too lazy to try
it out myself I'm afraid so I can't give you any info on how to set it
up as I haven't been paying attention myself

Beers and cheers
(uncle) Goy

"The Pits"    http://www.theuspits.com/

"A man is only as old as the woman he feels"
--Groucho Marx--

That Daemon tools may or not be as simple, but there is a util that you can
demo for 30 days called CDspace.   copies NR2002 CD to your HD, (can even
compress it to save space) then mount the drive to bee seen from the game.

I got it, Im on XP so I mad the CDspace the driveletter that I installed the
game from, and the actual CDDrive is now the next letter up.  when I launch,
it reads the compressed mounted CD, and runs fine.  faster than accessing my
old 4x4x8 cdrw drive anyway  :)

I called Sierra tech support, who suggested the problem was most likely
related to the firmware on my DVD-ROM.  After checking the support sites for
AOpen (type of DVD-ROM I have) I found several complaints about their
inability to handle SecuROM media.  AOpen parts are cheap stuff anyway IMO.

I decided to upgrade the firmware on the DVD-ROM and that process was bad
choice.  It is possible that I used the wrong firmware but now the drive is
toast.  No big loss here, because I was considering replacing the drive
anyway.

I have ordered a new Toshiba DVD-ROM as a replacement and will install it
within the next day or two.

   Ya know I have to give credit to Papyrus for producing great
products....I have used their sims for years....and will continue to do
so...especially if they produce Goy's V8 Supercar sim or a legitimate CART
product, but the decision to copy protect their cd's with a system that
doesn't work 100% of the time is as ASSININE a business choice as I have
ever seen.  I'd bet Sierra signed some sort of corporate deal with
TRASHYOURHARDWAREROM to copy protect everything so blaming Papyrus may not
be proper.  But MAN!  Folks spending money to replace fully functional
equipment just to meet copy protection needs......oooh boy...
  Any lawyers in the Group?  Can we get a class action suit agains securerom
and safedisk et al for producing defective cd's???
dave henrie