Is there any way to play AOE2 without a CD legally?
I can't seem to find anything online that would suggest I can play this game legally without a CD. Not to mention, the CD I own has a chunk of it missing (it still plays fine and installs fine), and having it on multiple computers is a hassle because of the CD always needed requirement.
Is there any way to do this? Whenever I try playing without a CD, I get this:
Best Answer
In most places it is legal to make copies of software for personal use so long as only one copy is run at one time. I am not a lawyer and this isn't legal advice, but I believe this is true in the United States, Canada, and Europe so long as the CD doesn't have any copy protection.
Therefore, for personal use, in such places you can legally make a binary image file of the disc (an "ISO") and then use virtual drive software to load the image so that it appears to be a CD drive with the disc in it. I've done this personally with my very played copy of Oblivion since I started to get concerned about disc damage.
I won't recommend any particular software because it depends so much on your exact OS and sometimes on you disc drive, but any CD cloner and any virtual CD drive software will do the job.
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How can I play Age of Empires 2 without the disc?
If you want to run what you have without a CD, I would recommend downloading the unofficial/soon-to-be-official expansion Age of Forgotten Empires It includes a color fix for Windows 7 and removes the need for a CD.Can you get Age of Empires 2 for free?
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No need to pay the iron price. Age of Empires Online is now entirely free-to-play, developer Gas Powered Games has announced. Previously the game was only "free to try." The base game didn't cost anything to sample, but most of the higher tier content couldn't be attained purely through play.Can I play aoe2 offline?
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Answer 2
Back in the days when I played it with friends in my LAN I made an image from the CD and mounted it with daemon tools. Worked fine.
Answer 3
This might not have to do with your question, but if by multiple computers you mean playing with people connected to a private network at home then this will be useful. When I play with 5 or 6 people at home and 2 discs are required, we have to take the cd out of the host computer and put it in someone else's, wait for the "cd" to appear by that person's name, then put the disc back in the host computer and start the game quickly. We have 2 discs but we always lose one so this method always comes in handy.
Answer 4
Try to install the DLC mod: The forgotten Empires.
Its installer can also launch the game, and it works fine without the disk and also as the main launcher for the game. You can get it from here: http://www.forgottenempires.net/aof
I installed the game but couldnt run it, because the oficiall launchers were giving me errors, but that solved my problem (and also the problem of the disk)
Just make sure to paste and leave it on the main game folder before and after installing it, then create a shorcut and move it to where you want.
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