FYI-RCT2 Issue

I have had a big problem loading up RCT2 on my computer to play. Sometimes when I click to start the game the CD spins for a few minutes and the game will not load. I can get the game to load about once every 10 or 12 times at this point. If any of you are having the same issue, it is a problem with a product called SecureROM. SecureROM is the software that they use to make sure illegal copies arent made of the CDs so that people cannot steal the game. That is why when a game is released you see a rash of no CD hacks because this effectively overrides this problem.

I had this EXACT same issue with Neverwinter Nights when they released one of their patches that included a SecureROM update. The problem was sporadic and Bioware nor the makers of SecureROM could nail down the issue. Long story short, because so many LEGAL owners of the game had to resort to ILLEGAL no CD hacks in order to play the game, they had to release a further patch recinding the SecureROM updates.

Why am I posting this? A few reasons. I want the public to be aware of a very serious bug that may be affecting them and exactly what that bug is. There is little you can do unfortunately. If you are running a firewall program your chances of successfuly loading the game increase slightly if you shut said firewall down, a practice I would discourage. More importantly you need to contact the makers of the game with this issue of you have it. Give them all of your machine specifics. This problem was thought to be a small one because very few people were actually reporting this issue to Bioware for Neverwinter Nights but they soon found out that it was more widespread. Let Mr. Sawyer know that there is a problem and help him out by telling him that SecureROM maybe a place to look for the culprit. The more people that report the problem now means the quicker this problem will get patched.

Cheers,

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Bob Hansen

A proud CoasterBuzz Member

Operation Wicked Twister - Goal: Lose 50 lbs by next season to ride it! (updates soon)

What do firewalls have to do with loading a game on CD?

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, when it's all in your mind. You gotta let go." - Ghetto, Supreme Beings of Leisure

I'm not having this problem. Are you sure you just didn't scratch your CD or something? That can make it have to spin many times before it can catch it.

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SFNE Central- Online Six Flags New England Resource
http://sfne.licensetothrill.net
Devoted Intamin Lover for Life!

Jeff, I've read about that before, too. Firewalls and anti-virus programs - for some reason - can affect the installation of software. Even when trying to install something, sometimes I see a notice warning me to shut down my firewall and anti-virus programs before continuing with the installation.

I have had the exact same problems but with audio cd's on cd players (not cd drives on computers). In my situation it was a problem dealing with the alignment of the laser on the player - I went to numerous sources to get opinions on what was wrong and almost all said this was the issue. It has happened with two players I have had, neither of which I cleaned well (cleaning after noticing the problem had no worthwhile benefit). Hope this isn't the case you have, but the symptoms are identical.

As far as the frequency, my situation was the same. Some discs would always play, no problem, but others would only load every 10-15 times or so....I tried to see if had anything to do with similar recording companies, album length, disc manufacturer, etc, but couldn't find any similar triats among failing discs. Also, the sources I sought out for repair said that fixing it would only move the window of acceptance meaning that it risked getting to play one or two more cd's at the cost of losing others.

Dale

*** This post was edited by Dale Picolet on 10/14/2002. ***

Anti-virus software, sure, but firewalls have exactly zero to do with anything that isn't network traffic. Unless the CD is trying to phone home, it shouldn't matter. And if it were doing such a thing, you can bet that would be a gigantic privacy violation and Infogrames would get the crap sued out of them.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, when it's all in your mind. You gotta let go." - Ghetto, Supreme Beings of Leisure

I've had problems loading the game like yours, but it's not because of that. All I do is just press the cd drive opener button, and press it again so it pops back in, and auto run will catch it.

It's only happened once so I don't really know if it is permanent or not.

All I know is that when I had the SAME exact problem with Neverwinter Nights, their tech support suggested disabling the firewall as a workaround solution to which I said "hell no". I am going on what their tech support said. Having seen this issue before I was merely putting this out as a friendly FYI not to get flamed for it...

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Bob Hansen

A proud CoasterBuzz Member

Operation Wicked Twister - Goal: Lose 50 lbs by next season to ride it! (updates soon)

ive been told the same thing about the Firewall. Its just there techs not knowing what there talking about. Like Jeff said if it isnt Network related the firewall wont cause a prob.

if you have another pc available or second cdrom/dvd drive try it in that. if its not working then it may just be a defective cd. ive had it happen, so i swapped out cds and it was fine after that.

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John
Albany Entertainment:
http://albany.n3.net