What to do with this CD?

Factual Questions
1

I wasn’t sure whether to put this here or in CS, but since it is a factual question…

I have here the first CD from The Curse of Monkey Island, which I lent to a friend a few years back. Recently I went on a nostalgia kick and decided to replay it only to discover that it was scratched badly enough to skip in the CD drive. Basically, it’s unplayable, though I’m pretty sure all the data is still there. I tried burning everything to another CD but it appears to be copy-protected so no luck there. I’m considering getting some of that CD repair fluid but I’ve never used it before and don’t know how well it works, if at all. I’ve also considered contacting LucasArts or EA (not sure which one) to get another copy, but I’m not sure if they’d do it and their websites are completely useless. So my basic options are:

  1. Circumvent the copy-protection somehow
  2. Repair the CD somehow
  3. Get a replacement somehow

Advice on accomplishing any of the three are appreciated :slight_smile:

2

Well, if the CD is, as you say, a few years old, then circumventing the copy protection should be pretty easy. But, although you have what appears to be a valid reason to do it, the powers that be on these Boards frown on giving out such advice.

Remember, though, that if the CD is too scratched to play properly, it may also be too scratched to get all the data off it anyway. After all, the data that is read by the CD player when you play the disc is, basically, the same data that is read by the computer when you copy the disc. It may be that the reason it refuses to rip for you is that the disc is too badly damaged.

What ripping program are you using?

Your only option, in the end, might be to buy another disc. Of course, this is the part where the record industry gets to have its cake and eat it too. They constantly tell us that when we pay for a CD, it is so expensive because we are paying for the music (i.e., the artists, the recording studio, production, distibution, etc., etc.), and not just for a circular piece of plastic. We are, in effect, paying for a license to play this music at our convenience.

Now, given that you already paid for the “license” when you first purchased the disc, you’d think you would be able to take it back to the record store (as proof that you have purchased the disc) and exchange it for a new disc, with perhaps a small handling fee thrown in.

But, of course, this isn’t the case. When it comes time to replace a scratched disc, you find out that you do, indeed, have to pay $15-30 for a circular piece of plastic.

3

It could be too damaged to copy, or it could be copy-protected. I use Nero and it failed to tell me if it was either. It was published recently enough that it’s probably safe to assume it’s copy-protected, though. It’s available for $15 from the LucasArts website which I guess isn’t too bad,

4

Uh, that is, it’s not too bad, except that I have no way to send them the money, and there’s the whole principle of the matter too :mad:

5

Hold it up to the light. If the scratch allows light to pass through the label then it’s hosed. If not, and the scratch is limited to the clear plastic that the laser ‘looks at’ (the playing face…whatever you want ot call it) then the disc can be repaired. The data is located on the inside of the label itself and is read through the clear plastic disc.

You can spend some money on a CD repair tool (basically just a gizmo that buffs out the scratch) or you can buy some polishing compound from the car parts store and polish the playing face–make sure you only rub from edge-to-center-to-edge. It’ll look a bit scratchy whichever method you use, but the scratches will be insignificant and as long as they run from center to edge they won’t affect the reader.

6

Call them and ask if they’ll replace your damaged media!

7

Depending on how badly it is scratched, you may have success with one of the readily available CD cleaning/repairing kits. You basically put the disc in and crank the handle to rotate it over a mild abrasive after applying the “special solution.” If you carefully read the label on the special solution, it’s nothing but water.

We have successfully rescued quite a few CDs with this method, although if you have deep gouges or cracks in the disc, you might as well throw it away.

8

You could see if running it under ScummVM helps.

Old games had sometimes wacky sound or video requirements, meaning that it would take hours of fiddling to get it to work on current systems, if at all (and then you’d have to undo the mucking later).

ScummVM handles all that for you in emulation, improves the savegame features, and does a bunch more stuff too. I spent a few fruitless hours trying to get Monkey Islands 1 and 2 to play 16 bit sound and CD audio instead of just PC speaker on my parents machine, when I came across this. Five minutes later everything was running great.

On preview, it looks like I’m typing a script for an infomercial, but I swear I just really like Monkey Island and ScummVM. :wink:

9

I think the scratches are superficial, probably from being jammed back into the CD case too hard. I think I’ll try the repair kit. According to the little slip of paper in the back of the case, my warranty ran out 4 years ago and doesn’t cover user-inflicted damage anyway :\

10

Oh and Nanoda, it runs great, it just skips constantly. Blah.