This has been bugging me for quite some time now

This has been bugging me for quite some time now.

>want to play (old) game
>look online for unauthorized copies
>only shitty rips available
>no proper, clean ISOs

How is that acceptable?
I don't want some shitty rip. I don't want an archive file to extract of who knows what version of the game. I don't want a repackaged random executable which installs the game.
I want a copy of the game's disc. I want to download and apply the patches myself. I also preferably don't want a cracked executable. I want to mount the disc image and enjoy an untempered game experience.

The worst thing is that a lot of old games are impossible to find in image formats. All you can find are the above mentioned shitty rips. Those types of installers are not archive worthy. You cannot save those games for the future like that.

Other urls found in this thread:

old-games.ru
twitter.com/AnonBabble

What game are you looking for?

So you want an unauthorized copy of a game but you also want it clean??

Nothing specific. It happened a bunch of times.

The last time I was looking for Medal of Honor Allied Assault. I found proper ISO images of the expansions on public torrent trackers and the base game's ISOs on a random website which hosted the files on some shitty website. Took some time, but I managed to find it.
The public torrent trackers only have some shitty repacks and GOG versions.

Yes, for older games. But not quite.

What really riles me up are the modern games. I would never buy something from Steam or similar services, just because you cannot archive it properly/cleanly for yourself. You always depend on Steam and an internet connection. Even when you use their shoddy "backup" services, you still always need an internet connection to install Steam. It also messes with game patching (applying patches only you like, even though it's a fringe case) or modding (if the platform checks file integrity).
It's just another useless thing to depend on.

What's wrong with repacks and the like as long as you can somehow fish the version number?

You don't know what they've done to them. If some files have been altered for example. Sometimes game's installers install additional files which aren't contained in the game's directory (on Windows some registry words) and then you can't apply further patches.
The likelihood of getting malware with a repack is also immensely greater.

so buy the fucking games if you don't want malware instead of pirating them

what a faggot

>The likelihood of getting malware with a repack is also immensely greater.

Are you joking? You have the exact same chance of getting malware with an ISO unless you have a hash of the original from the developers to compare against (you probably won't)

People don't distribute malware via large files either, that makes no sense. They distribute them mainly via trainers, fixed_exe's or keygens.

old-games.ru

>The likelihood of getting malware with a repack is also immensely greater.

is this still a thing?

Did you even read the post above?

Obviously I don't have the original file's hash, but even disregarding the chance for malware, having the original copy of the installation disc has its other benefits.

>People don't distribute malware via large files either, that makes no sense. They distribute them mainly via trainers, fixed_exe's or keygens.
Having an image of the game used to be enough to play it and no changed executables were needed (unless it used Starforce or similar protection).

>games with redbook audio that gets dumped as mp3 files
>bad dumps in general that won't work for shit on real hardware wasting you a CD-R and time
>rare dumps that can only be found on private trackers or public ones with 0 seeders
Sega Saturn was a bitch to find games for, didn't help that emulation for it was shitty at the time.

This only happens to me with really obscure games, and with those it's extra annoying, since getting an actual copy is as hard as finding a pirated one. You just have to bite the bullet and download it from a shady site. No one is going to do it for you.

this thread is retarded

You sound like one of those who always post some shit regarding services like steam/gog/origin? well that's quite funny isn't it?

>having the original copy of the installation disc has its other benefits.

Such as?

>Having an image of the game used to be enough to play it and no changed executables were needed

Yes, that's fine and dandy but unless you have the original executables hash or images hash you can't verify those executables are actually unchanged.

Thanks.

I have a little unrelated question of my own since some here brought up those repacks...do you need to have Origin, Uplay and Steam etc. installed to play the cracked games?

What's with the retards?

Make the jump to private trackers, 99% chance they'll have it.

No.

do i have to pay for those? how can i even find a tracker like that?

>Such as?

Mentioned above.

>Yes, that's fine and dandy but unless you have the original executables hash or images hash you can't verify those executables are actually unchanged.
It's still better than the alternative.

>do i have to pay for those?

No, but some people get such benefits from them that they'll buy a seedbox to help out.

>how can i even find a tracker like that?

Usually invite only.

>Mentioned above.

Mentioned above where?

>It's still better than the alternative.

In terms of protection against malware it's virtually the same. Unless you have a hash to compare to, you're at the mercy of wherever you're getting it from. Personally I mitigate this factor by getting my games from private trackers and whenever I do come across a malware reading it's a false positive which I verify with the staff of the tracker who pick apart the executable and examine what it does.

Why can't I just back up games from my steamapps folder and use cracked executables to run them? Is it because steam installs additional files to the registry?

How do you know it's a false positive?

Go ahead and do that?

I have a brief hand in digital forensics which involves picking apart malware executables but it's this combined with the second opinion of the sites staff (private trackers take distribution of actual malware on their site VERY seriously) that pretty much confirms it. If still paranoid, can always run in a sandboxed environment.

I'm still looking for a way to play Darkspore again. Any help would make me so happy.

Not him, but

>Download Mass Effect 2 & 3 repacks
> Readme file says to disable firewall because it might detect the app as a false positive
>"Pfft, think I was born yesterday, Vladimir?"
>Run the game
>Plays like butter, no malware detected after numerous scans

Honestly, I was reluctant to use repacks at first, but I've yet to encounter any malware with them yet. Mr. Dj's repacks are pretty reliable.

>find ISO
>burn, run, install
>game runs horribly, if at all
>look online for fix
>end up downloading modified rip with QoL improvements

Because pirates never cared bout preservation, that's just a meme they tell themselves to justify not having jobs.

Sorry, I'm and was just asking a general question. It seems like a fairly straightforward method of backing up one's games through steam, you can even download cracked standalone executables from Codex and others. I'm just wondering if it's viable to do so.

Worst case scenario you could always download the full games again from torrents

>actually burning to a disc

If only you knew

How many terabytes do I need to download every anime in history and store it forever?

One moment, let me get the numbers for you.

Thanks. Just everything on MAL is good. I'll work on VNDB after.

With torrent site after site going down, it's time to start archiving.

These numbers aren't 100% accurate, more like 99% but if you want to download every possible release of every possible anime you're looking at:

Animes: 10,575
Files: 1,916,425
Total Size: 553,368.94 GB

So 553 Terabytes as of this moment is required.

Oh shit, I assumed you were being sarcastic. When you say every release, do you mean, like, if the same series had a torrent put out by both Coalgirls and Horriblesubs, or do you mean remasters/re-releases and such?

>When you say every release, do you mean, like, if the same series had a torrent put out by both Coalgirls and Horriblesubs, or do you mean remasters/re-releases and such

Yes to both, essentially.

Every release made for a series, complete data mastery. (Which is important because BD "remasters" aren't always better)

Now I'm curious what you could cut it down to with just a copy of all series.

That's poor form for archiving methodology though.

You could start with the bare minimum and work your way up to everything. Price is absolutely a factor, especially for private individuals. We're talking in the ten thousand dollar range for complete archival, so I'm curious if the minimum is manageable.

>You could start with the bare minimum and work your way up to everything.

Yes but you do this for your storage medium, not what you're archiving. So start out with the maximum you can spend in storage medium (I'm guessing HDDs) in one year and have it fill up as you download and wait till next year before you can continue to download more.