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I have a bunch of those point and click adventure games from the 90's (my youth) like Pajama Sam, Putt-Putt and Spy Fox. These CDs are becoming old and scratched. Being that these were such a memorable part of my childhood, I am looking for a way to back them up for my future kids, grandkids, etc. Where can I get started? Is there anything I should know, need to download, etc?
GigaJoule
Posted 2011-05-24T21:43:19.000
Reputation: 173
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CD Burner XP (which also works on Windows Vista and Windows 7) can create a .ISO file for you (or just use its built-in CD Copy feature) using the "Copy or grab disc" option on the main screen.
CD Burner XP (free software)
http://www.cdburnerxp.se/
After that, you can use that .ISO file to burn a new CD.
I typically do this for my kids to have a copy to handle, that way if they wreck it (it's always an accident because they're just kids, I swear!) I can just burn a new one for them.
Randolf Richardson
Posted 2011-05-24T21:43:19.000
Reputation: 14 002
3...and use CDs rated for long term storage, not your Saturday market cheapies – Linker3000 – 2011-05-24T21:52:48.240
1Thats pretty cool! Is there anyway to play the ISO directly? – GigaJoule – 2011-05-24T21:58:30.193
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Yes. Virtual CloneDrive (which is also free) can mount your .ISO file as a virtual CD-ROM drive: http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html
– Randolf Richardson – 2011-05-24T22:01:00.023@GigaJoule: yes, there is. I use Virtual CloneDrive. It creates a virtual CD-ROM in which you load your ISO images (simply by double clicking the ISO files). The OS will see it as any regular CD.
– alex – 2011-05-24T22:01:59.553I'll add to the "wow" factor once more for you -- if any of your CDs are DOS programs that won't run under Windows (especially problematic with Windows Vista and Windows 7, particularly the 64-bit editions), then you can use DOSBox (which is also free, and additionally open source) to run them: http://www.dosbox.com/
– Randolf Richardson – 2011-05-24T22:04:42.203what do you mean by DOS program? I do run Win 7 64 bit... – GigaJoule – 2011-05-24T22:08:22.363
Many programs in the early 1990s, especially educational games for children, were still written to run in DOS. This means that they didn't require an MS-Windows environment, and of course in those days Windows was designed to be compatible enough to run most DOS programs (if Microsoft didn't do this, Windows would have been more difficult to sell to the masses). If you aren't familiar with what a DOS program is, then there's a good chance that the titles you're using may not have been written for DOS, and it won't be a problem for you anyway. – Randolf Richardson – 2011-05-24T22:17:36.960
3Another problem from that era could be 16 bit executables (especially installers) which won't run on modern 64 bit Windows systems. Also, what about DRM? Some image utilities may be able to create good enough images, but make sure that you test them before dumping the original disk. – AndrejaKo – 2011-05-24T23:28:52.887
@Randolf Richardson @AndrejaKo Hey, I am in a bit of a pickle. I just copied the ISO file from "Spy Fox in Dry Cereal," but I cannot run it in Virtual CloneDrive on a 64 bit machine. This game was made in 1997 and I doubt it is a DOS program. Here is information for reference: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spy_Fox_in_%22Dry_Cereal%22 What can I do? – GigaJoule – 2011-05-25T00:31:08.287
16bit executables aren't a problem if you throw either an Emulator or a Virtualized XP Install or something similar. – WernerCD – 2011-05-25T02:56:13.333
1That won't work with some forms of copy-protection (like that employed on the Civilization III CD – warren – 2011-05-25T02:58:23.920
@GigaJoule: Do you still have your Windows XP license and installation CD? If you do and the computer it was previously installed on is out of commission (or not using that XP license), you can install it in a virtualized computer. You can then use your virtualized Windows XP installation to run your older software (I have a few clients set up like this). VirtualBox is the one I use (and it's probably the best choice for you because of how they've done a great job at keeping the GUI straight-forward and fairly simple), and best of all it's free and open source: http://www.virtualbox.org/
– Randolf Richardson – 2011-05-25T03:06:02.100@GigaJoule an alternative to VirtualBox would be VMWare Player; it's free and a bit easier to use. – alex – 2011-05-25T04:22:29.703
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DaemonTools Lite cam emulate all cd protection systems. (http://www.filehippo.com/download_daemon_tools/ ). There is a full version, but I've never needed it, and the lite is good enough. I pretty much don't use CDs anymore. I just rip discs to .ISO or .Bin+.Cue, and use a virtual drive.
– Fake Name – 2011-05-25T04:28:06.2571Note: I think .ISOs cannot always preserve all the data from the disk, there are other cd-image formats, some of which are needed for certain copy-protection systems (some use bad sectors or other means to verify a physical disk is present). Probably not an issue for you, but some games don't like to run of virtual drives (mostly recent high-budget things, but there you are). – Fake Name – 2011-05-25T04:30:04.213
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@Fake @Randolf @warren
Could installing something like this help? http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx
1@GigaJoule - Yeah, but that's just another Virtual Machine program. I'd choose virtualbox ( www.virtualbox.org ) over the Microsoft option, but either would work. You just need to install a OS in the VM that has a DOS option. – Fake Name – 2011-05-25T23:26:23.953
@GigaJoule: I agree with @Fake Name -- VirtualBox is the best way to go; it's transparent, and your virtual machine will work on any OS that VirtualBox can be installed on, and it doesn't have a complicated license agreement like many closed-source-commercial options (like the one you suggested) do. Also, VirtualBox.org supports many guest OSes very well, including DOS and all versions of MS-Windows. The beauty of VirtualBox.org is that it doesn't modify your host OS as it just runs like a simple application, and because it's free you can try it without having to pay for a license. – Randolf Richardson – 2011-05-26T00:14:03.810
@Fake @Randolf @alex- This seems like a big deal. Will this be a big strain on my system? Also, is there anyway I could solve the 16 bit executables problem for free and less space? – GigaJoule – 2011-05-28T15:05:52.150
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In my opinion, the easiest way would be to save the CDs as ISOs; this way you'd have a perfect copy of the CDs and you'd be able to save them anywhere you'd like. Given the fact that the games you want to save aren't that new, the size of the ISOs would be relatively small, so storage would not be an issue.
Here's an article explaining how you can save a CD as an ISO image (there are probably other ways to do it).
alex
Posted 2011-05-24T21:43:19.000
Reputation: 16 172
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It's worth noting that if the CDs have some sort of copy protection, ISOs might not work. A more "raw" copy of the CD will be required.
I bought a ripper / burner from Alcohol Soft years ago which serves my purposes well (but it's not free).
ligos
Posted 2011-05-24T21:43:19.000
Reputation: 355
4Cue several responses/comments à la "you call CD-ROM games OLD !?!?" – Codebling – 2011-05-24T22:00:55.667
10@CodeBling: you call CD-ROM games OLD !?!? – alex – 2011-05-24T22:02:52.160
here we go... :) – Codebling – 2011-05-24T22:05:28.867
@GigaJoule: I'd suggest waiting a little longer before accepting an answer. You never know if you'll get a better one. – Codebling – 2011-05-24T22:07:09.570
2Plus now I don't get to hear all the old cronies complain about how they've had to migrate the storage media for their punch card code 5 times now – Codebling – 2011-05-24T22:07:59.633
1I can see a deck of punch cards from where I'm sitting right now. I don't have a card reader, though. I do have a (still bootable) PDP-11 in the other room, along with boxes of 8" floppies and 9-track tape reels... ;-) and I've written code to run in Windows 2.0, but we migrated to 3.0 before the project was done. – RBerteig – 2011-05-25T00:37:14.260
@Code Bling: Thanks for tip! I will consider that next time I post a question. – GigaJoule – 2011-05-25T00:53:36.593