Alcohol 120%?

[Deagle]

Hi all, my friend told me that there is another program call alcohol 120% that's like Nero or even better. Is this true, have anyone here uses this program before? If so can you tell me the benefits and why this program is better than Nero?

Thanx:D

[malcore]

Alcohol 120% is not better than Nero overall.

It is a burning program that is more capable than Nero of making personal backups of copy guarded discs, especially game discs. I use it solely for this purpose. I install my games with the disc I purchased, make a backup copy with Alcohol and use that to start my games, thereby preserving the original.


I use Nero for almost everything else.

[mjc]

Yeah, Nero is great for many purposes.....espcially building a new disk from scratch.

Alcohol is, like malcore said, a single purpose program.

[Paul Komski]

Malcore Do you know how does alcohol 120% does this; or what is it doing that Nero isn't capable of; is it anything to do with the type of image maybe? I'm intrigued because, like you, I like to preserve the originals and no way could I get Nero to make a functional copy of Midtown Madness that my nephew is mad(ness) about!

[malcore]

Paul , Alcohol is capable of creating custom burning profiles to work around protections like Safedisc, SecreRom, etc , adjusting how it reads and what to ignore. CloneCD can do this too, but Alcohol has the profiles built in. I recommend creating an image first using your writer and not your CD/DVD ROM.

Midtown Madness uses SafeDisc and I'm sure Alcohol will do it for you. You can download a free 3 week trial version.

If you need a link that can tell you what protection certain games use or more info, just PM me.

Edit- I forgot to mention, if you try the trial version, when it installs it creates a virtual CD drive. Easy to get rid of though if you prefer not to have it. I just removed it.

[jabarnutcase]

Alcohol 120%?
No thanks! I've always been afraid to try it. Too much of that stuff and I doubt I would be able to see my monitor screen, let alone burn a CD! :p

Imagine that stuff going down? Man, talk about "burning". :eek:

[Paul Komski]

Thanks Malcore - Hmm - an interesting area. If I've understood it right, such disks are encrypted and include a digital signature somewhere that is obviously easy to read but difficult to copy. Is there a simple explanation of why such signatures are hard to copy by standard burning software.

The fact that there is software that can copy the signature over seems to largely negate the use of such technology - or is it just that the big players have been complicit with this area of copyright protection and not enabled something they could do if they wanted to.

[malcore]

Hehe, I don't think there is a "simple" explanation. There are so many different types of copy protection using various methods, .exe encryption, digital signatures, thumbprints, or even writing thousands of errors to the disc. However, they all basically use the same formula:
modify the original code to make it dependent on some external action, have a so-called "guard module" to provide the neccessary action when it detects the "key" and the key itself.

Most if not all can be circumvented. Some can even be beaten by using a blue marker on the outer edge of the disc. It's a constant battle between the "guards" and the "copiers". Some protections, like "Disc Guard" have proven quite difficult to get around.

Yes, I suppose it can be considered a rather "shady" area and the mainstream burning software developers wish to steer clear of it.

Obviously these circumventions are used for indiscriminate copying. I for one do not support that, and that's why I am reluctant to freely provide any links to such info (although it can easily be found).

I do feel strongly though, that as consumers, we have a right to make personal backups of the products we purchase.

This whole business of digital rights is escalating or rather descending into some rather unscrupulous behaviour on both sides. Macrovision, ie Safedisc, ie C-Dilla have stooped as low as hackers or pirates.

Okay, ramblings over.:rolleyes:

[mjc]

According to US law, common interpretation of that law (by the judicial system), some software manufacturers (in their EULAs they state you may make a backup copy, but these are ones that won't use these methods to begin with and they are decreasing in number) you are right malcore...but some other countries don't agree with that backup/personal use idea (or they just don't care about copyright issues at all).

It is a very thorny issue and yes, programs that are in essence legit software are often used for things not quite so legit. (Unfortuneately mal, if had posted those links, most of them would have disappeared...I know some of the ones and they have been removed in the past....;))

The ability to be able to do what the law allows, specifically make a backup of something you paid a lot of money for is what this all boils down to.

[malcore]

Agreed mjc .

It is a VERY thorny issue. As much as I don't like actions taken by companies like Macrovision, I have to admit, the pirating community is running rampant. Look at where I live. It's outrageous in this part of the world.

There is almost zero respect for any sort of copyrights here. Schools copy software AND textbooks and distribute it freely or even sell the textbooks as a sideline business (cram schools are BIG business here).

I tutor some students in their homes and last week a boy's father came home (his father works in software development for the Department of Defense here) with three DVD movies which had just opened in the theaters. Unbelievable. There are laws here, but hey, there are traffic laws here too, but oh well (that's another rant).... I'm venturing off topic again...

:rolleyes: