CD not found error - (Read this for problems with CD drive after patching)

[Turner]

If you have "Civ3:Complete" (Scholastic could have marketed it as something else tho) which is the product that Atari sold that includes all three versions, no patching is required. In fact, patching it will produce exactly the error you had because of the differences in the .exe files, and the different CDs. Now, why it wasn't made compatible with the older versions I don't know.

So do this...start the game. If on the menu screen you see "1.22" in the bottom left corner no patching is required, as that is the last patch level. I'm suspecting that you will see this, as most, if not all, of the Complete editions shipped at the 1.22 patch level.

 

[theBruce]

Nope, 1.00 . I found that one a while ago.

Kind of more frustrating. Not only do they screw it up, but now they say "like, bummer, man."

 

[Turner]

Do all the discs look the same, or are they pretty different? I'm wondering if Scholastic didn't bundle Civ3, Play The World, and Conquests together instead of selling Civ3:Complete.

And Take Two bought out the Civilization franchise sometime last year. I don't remember the exact date, but it was before Civ4 came out. You might try their tech support too.

 

[Padma]

theBruce said it was a no-cd version, such as TryGames sells.

That is why the patch is causing him problems. The patch assumes you have the CD version, and so installs a CD-requiring .exe file. Unless you can determing who produced the no-cd versions you got from Scholastic, and can go to them for an update, you may be unable to patch.

 

[theBruce]

Okay, this is about everything I've found out, in the wan hope that it will allow someone to give me the answer:

The CD's are all labeled differently, and are in separate jewel boxes. It looks like they were just bundled. I don't remember how they were originally packaged, but I expect they weren't in a case of any kind.

All three install in ~\Program Files\Infogrames Interactive\Civilization III. Civ shows up in the program menu under 'Firaxis Games', while PTW and C3C show up under 'Atari'

The Civ case claims Firaxis and Infogrames, and it is a CD required version (v1.29f).

The PTW case also says Firaxis and Infogrames, and the readme says it is v1.14f. Interestingly, I had only tried once to run it before without success, but I just tried, and it shows the 'requires CD' pop-up even with the CD in the drive, even after a full re-install. I will ping Infogrames on this one (never mind; it turns out that Infogrames is Atari, or vice versa). I have downloaded and tried the latest patch (v1.27f) from Firaxis, but that also didn't work.

The C3C case claims to be Atari, and there is an Atari splash in the intro, which is not present in the Civ intro.

And by the way, Take2 appears to be 2Kgames, which only claim interest in CivIV

And actually, from what I've found and read here, I have a pretty good idea of the answer I'm going to get: unless I can shame someone at Atari into being forthcoming, I'm SOL.

 

[Turner]

hmm... didn't even see the 'nocd' version...

 

[Aabraxan]

Looks like this problem's been around for a couple of years now and still hasn't been resolved. I just bought my first Civ game, Civ III Complete. It ran beautifully the first few times I played. Then I tried to play last night & got the "CD not found" error. It took me 20 minutes (out of an hour that I'd allotted myself for gaming), a reboot, and much frustration to get the game going. I couldn't even get to the opening screen to see what version I had. I clicked the icon, waited, and got the error message. If I hit retry, I got the error message again. If I hit cancel, it went away & I was back where I started. I finally put the CD in the other CD drive (not the one I installed from), and it ran just fine after that.

Two complaints: First, as old as Civ 3 is, I would have thought this issue would have been resolved by now. I tend to buy older games for two primary reasons: (1) the bugs have usually been worked out; and (2) they're cheaper. Apparently, Reason No. 1 fell flat on its face on this one. And Reason No. 2 doesn't do me any good if I can't play what I paid for. Second, I hate having to have the CD in the drive to play. (But that's a discussion for another day).

Like so many others who have gone down this road before me, I have emailed Atari. If I find out anything useful, I'll post it here.

 

[Padma]

The problem is not the game, rather it is the CD copy-protection software that is causing the problem. Unfortunately, there's not a lot we can do about that.

 

[Aabraxan]

Yeah, I know. I read through this thread and the "Civ III Fixes" thread to try to find a solution. Admittedly, I did eventually get the game to run, so I don't think it's an insurmountable problem (but I'll just have to see how future games go). Almost five years after release, though, it seems like one of the companies involved should have come up with a solution that didn't involve repeated reinstallation or tinkering with things that threaten to turn my computer into a very expensive doorstop.

Did they use the same copy protection on Civ IV?

As I said, if I find anything useful and legal on this, I'll post it here.

 

[Whoisme]

how long does it usually take to get a no cd patch from atari?

 

[Aabraxan]

I don't know, but I haven't received so much as an acknowledgment of my email at this point.

 

[Whoisme]

When did you send the notification for it

 

[Aabraxan]

Looking at my prior posts, June 30, give or take a day. Probably that day.

 

[Whoisme]

Moderator Action: In response to your question, I'm sorry, but the answer is "no" - we have a strict no-piracy policy, and your request falls under that.

 

[Whoisme]

Hey I figured out how the mods do that action posts

 

[Turner]

And it's an automatic 3 day ban for regular users to use mod tags.

Just something to keep in mind.

Editing the tags out is a bannable offense as well.

 

[Whoisme]

see I changed it back

 

[Aabraxan]

Whoisme:
I have discovered that if I put the disk in my other CD drive (not the one I installed from), it boots up autorun and runs just fine. Seems odd, but it's working on my machine.

 

[Whoisme]

Whoisme:
I have discovered that if I put the disk in my other CD drive (not the one I installed from), it boots up autorun and runs just fine. Seems odd, but it's working on my machine.

Yeah thats all i got

 

[Azash]

And it's an automatic 3 day ban for regular users to use mod tags.

Just something to keep in mind.

Editing the tags out is a bannable offense as well.

Hope this isn't public discussion.. But it's slightly off-topic, I guess.

Do you mean editing out them of quotes, or editing them out from posts where you used them?

(Asked in public mostly so others would know as well.)