Please Insert CD1
 

Has anyone ever figured out the true meaning to inserting disk 1 after a game is done installing?

"Hey, lets fuck with them. After the game gets to 99.9%, we'll have them put each disk back in to install a third of the readme file. Then, we WON'T PATCH IT EVER!"

If anyone could explain to me why they require you to reinsert the first CD, my anger over this shall be calmed to a mere annoyance.

CD1 is usually the 'Play Disc', or the one that gets verified as being a legit copy.

Not that it even matters, as I try to buy DVD versions of every game.

As Stealth said, because disc one is mainly the disc you need to play.

Besides, you're probably mounting, why do you care?

If the game requires data to be read from the "Play Disc", then the reason is fairly obvious. Otherwise its because the game assumes that "Hey, this person INSTALLED the game, so they must want to PLAY it", and as we all know, most games require the CD to be in the drive to verify that "Yes, little Derek has a legal version of Mathland 3: The Quest for Prime Numbers", or whatever game is installed.

If the game does not need data to be streamed from the CD/DVD (As which installtion usually takes care of), then its a simple anti-piracy issue.

Although I suspect the first games to do this were to genuinely fuck with thier customers, some guy in marketing was like "They they think they're so smart with thier 3D FX Voodo Cards and thier 3GB Hard Drives... well I'll show them!".

But as Grawl said: Why complain if you can Mount over the problem.

So out of speculation, we can assume you are to immediately play the game. I'll buy that.

And no, I don't steal games and worship Alcohol 120 and my 8 Virtual Drives.

And yes, I get the DVD version of a game when its available. But I don't see why they'd have you put the disk back in. "Oh, we forgot to see if its legit, yep, it is."

Well, it checks if it's legit everytime you play the game. Which is why you have to have it in your drive everytime you play the game.

That's why games nowadays have DVD versions.

I think what Lukage means is the installer asking for CD1 to finish up the installation after, say, CD4. So installation process would be like CD1 --> CD2 --> CD3 --> CD4 --> CD1. It's just randomly annoying to put in CD1, just for the few seconds of installation.

At least they don't f%# you like in Fear Effect. You are going back and forth all the time. The ending of the game was in disc 2, this was after changing the CDs like 7 or 8 times. Fortunately, not many companies followed this concept.

I think the installer requests you to insert CD1 so it can close the installer program file, which you opened using the CD1. Have you tried closing the installer program after ejecting the CD? If not, see what happens.

Isn't that what RAM is for?

I have, and most of the time it still works. Infact, (this is slightly different) I remember installing Unreal Tournament 2004, and when it came to the 6th disc, I was like "oh shit it's all scratched and stuff". So I closed the installer, and tried to run the game anyway for giggles, and it worked :O.

I know the program is stored in RAM when it's executed, but I guess it's still addressed to the CD (pretty dumb).

Some installer programs just show you an error when closing it after ejecting the cd, and it won't go until you insert the CD1. Haven't tried with UT2004, since I got it on DVD :D .

The Short answer is no.

The long answer is that no running program can EVER be "addressed" to anywhere but RAM. Ever. The executable is loaded into memory to be processed, and after that point the CD is not required for that program to run at all (unless the program requests a data file that it expects to be on said CD).

its a conspiracy to piss off users who just want to play the damn game.....

most of the ACTUAL causes have already been posted, so i figured id post the one that wasnt :P

its a play disc thing, most of the "ok its actual a ligit copy and it belongs to you" stuff is on disc one...most of the time. unless its unlabeled and just labled as "instal","play" and anything else like that it might not be disc one. thats why when i actually buy something i have a drive dedicated to holding that disc until im bored outa my mind of playing it. for instance bf2, i have actual cd's (it does come in a dvd version) and i just leave disc one in my top drive that i usually use for reading stuff. whereas my lower drive that i use for burning and what not stays open. i just leave it there and get on with life.

Correct me if I am wrong... but wasn't that essentially stated in the very first reply?

It was worded differently. :\

Makes you wonder why they don't make the last disc of a set the "Play Disc". At least it would make the whole installation process a bit more convenient and doesn't require much effort from the programmers.

actually I think a couple of games tried that, didn't Painkiller do that? I can't remember offhand.