Making a BG DVD?

Halbarad1891 · 11-30-2004, 07:44 PM

have the 5 disk set (plus Tales), and as I was installing them today I noticed that the CDs are getting pretty scratched up and starting to skip. I was wondering if anyone knew how to put all the CDs on one DVD and have it work correctly.

I sort of know how to do that (I've read about it for other games), but I was wondering if anyone had any experience for BG.

Does anyone own / have access to the DVD version? Or can someone tell me the directory structure I should set up?

Would it be possible to add the Tales CD into it also?

I would just experiment with it, but I don't really want to ruin a DVD with experimenting.

Anyone have any ideas / advice?

Thanks

Dace De'Briago · 11-30-2004, 11:14 PM

You could use Nero or something similar to burn ISO images then copy all of them to the DVD.

This would provide a backup in case any of your discs ever DID stop working (just reburn a game CD).

Halbarad1891 · 12-03-2004, 04:01 PM

I'm in the process of fiddling with a program which will hopefully allow me to have all the disks on one DVD and have them install with the autoruns and such.

What I want to do is create my own autorun.exe, you know how when you stick in the CD the menu pops up and you can run or install from that? I want a new one of those that works with my DVD file structure.
I don't know enough code to make my own, and I can't figure out how to edit the one that's already on the CD (anyone know how to edit an .exe?), so I found a program that creates custom autoruns. We'll see how it turns out.

Thanks for the advice though.
H

Halbarad1891 · 12-05-2004, 08:00 PM

Figured it out.

There are two methods that I found, depending on what you want.

If you just want to make a Baldur's Gate DVD, then you can just copy the contents of each of the five CDs into a folder, then make an .iso (or other burnable file) out of the files in that folder, then burn it. That should keep it so the Autorun.exe still works, and CD1 is detected (so you can start the game).

But if you want to add Tales onto the same DVD, that makes it a bit harder. First, you can't just dump all the files from the six CDs into one folder, like before, because the Tales files will overwrite some of the CD1 files. So you have to put them in their own folders, one for BG (like above), and one for Tales. The problem this creates is that now the Autorun.exe doesn't work for either game. You can leave it like that if you want, then you'll just have to navigate onto the DVD and run the Setup.exe directly.
I didn't want to do that, so I went looking for a way to make my own Autorun.exe that linked to both games. Since, as I said, I don't know how to code my own, and I couldn't figure out how to edit theirs, I had to find a program to do it for me. After some searching I found a program called AutoRunner which worked great. So I created my autorun menu in that with links to each games installers and the run command. Works great, you pop in the disk, and the menu pops up... Just one problem, once installed the games wouldn't run because they didn't detect the CD in the drive.
So I started playing around with the CDs a bit, trying to figure out which files the game looked for. Eventually I found out that all you need is a copy of the CD1 and CD6 folders in the root of the DVD to get past the startup protection (I don't even think it's meant to be protection, the game just looks for those folders so it can play the opening movie, and if it doesn't find it then it can't start. It's just not smart enough to look on the rest of the disk)
So, now it works wonderfully. Both games install from the Autorun menu, and both games start using the DVD. No more need to scratch up my original disks. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I installed it with a full install, so I'm not sure how the DVD will react when the game needs a new CD (for the non full install). While installing, I was prompted to insert the next CD, like normal, but all I had to do was hit enter to continue.

For anyone interested, here's a screen shot of my Autorun:
Link
When you mouse over the images they dim and display the black/orange text like the Tales menu. When you click on an image it goes directly to that games setup.exe, then the skull opens the default Tales autorun menu so you can start the game. The white box in the corner is from the program I used, because it's only the demo.

Then here's my file structure, if anyone is interested in making their own DVD:
Link
I didn't include the movies that play after you finish installing the game (Descent3 and Painscape) because they annoy me.

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11-30-2004, 07:44 PM	#1
Halbarad1891 The Magister Join Date: July 30, 2002 Location: Maine, USA Age: 43 Posts: 127	have the 5 disk set (plus Tales), and as I was installing them today I noticed that the CDs are getting pretty scratched up and starting to skip. I was wondering if anyone knew how to put all the CDs on one DVD and have it work correctly. I sort of know how to do that (I've read about it for other games), but I was wondering if anyone had any experience for BG. Does anyone own / have access to the DVD version? Or can someone tell me the directory structure I should set up? Would it be possible to add the Tales CD into it also? I would just experiment with it, but I don't really want to ruin a DVD with experimenting. Anyone have any ideas / advice? Thanks

11-30-2004, 11:14 PM	#2
Dace De'Briago Silver Dragon Join Date: December 28, 2002 Location: Wales Age: 43 Posts: 1,617	You could use Nero or something similar to burn ISO images then copy all of them to the DVD. This would provide a backup in case any of your discs ever DID stop working (just reburn a game CD).

12-03-2004, 04:01 PM	#3
Halbarad1891 The Magister Join Date: July 30, 2002 Location: Maine, USA Age: 43 Posts: 127	I'm in the process of fiddling with a program which will hopefully allow me to have all the disks on one DVD and have them install with the autoruns and such. What I want to do is create my own autorun.exe, you know how when you stick in the CD the menu pops up and you can run or install from that? I want a new one of those that works with my DVD file structure. I don't know enough code to make my own, and I can't figure out how to edit the one that's already on the CD (anyone know how to edit an .exe?), so I found a program that creates custom autoruns. We'll see how it turns out. Thanks for the advice though. H

12-05-2004, 08:00 PM	#4
Halbarad1891 The Magister Join Date: July 30, 2002 Location: Maine, USA Age: 43 Posts: 127	Figured it out. There are two methods that I found, depending on what you want. If you just want to make a Baldur's Gate DVD, then you can just copy the contents of each of the five CDs into a folder, then make an .iso (or other burnable file) out of the files in that folder, then burn it. That should keep it so the Autorun.exe still works, and CD1 is detected (so you can start the game). But if you want to add Tales onto the same DVD, that makes it a bit harder. First, you can't just dump all the files from the six CDs into one folder, like before, because the Tales files will overwrite some of the CD1 files. So you have to put them in their own folders, one for BG (like above), and one for Tales. The problem this creates is that now the Autorun.exe doesn't work for either game. You can leave it like that if you want, then you'll just have to navigate onto the DVD and run the Setup.exe directly. I didn't want to do that, so I went looking for a way to make my own Autorun.exe that linked to both games. Since, as I said, I don't know how to code my own, and I couldn't figure out how to edit theirs, I had to find a program to do it for me. After some searching I found a program called AutoRunner which worked great. So I created my autorun menu in that with links to each games installers and the run command. Works great, you pop in the disk, and the menu pops up... Just one problem, once installed the games wouldn't run because they didn't detect the CD in the drive. So I started playing around with the CDs a bit, trying to figure out which files the game looked for. Eventually I found out that all you need is a copy of the CD1 and CD6 folders in the root of the DVD to get past the startup protection (I don't even think it's meant to be protection, the game just looks for those folders so it can play the opening movie, and if it doesn't find it then it can't start. It's just not smart enough to look on the rest of the disk) So, now it works wonderfully. Both games install from the Autorun menu, and both games start using the DVD. No more need to scratch up my original disks. [img]smile.gif[/img] I installed it with a full install, so I'm not sure how the DVD will react when the game needs a new CD (for the non full install). While installing, I was prompted to insert the next CD, like normal, but all I had to do was hit enter to continue. For anyone interested, here's a screen shot of my Autorun: Link When you mouse over the images they dim and display the black/orange text like the Tales menu. When you click on an image it goes directly to that games setup.exe, then the skull opens the default Tales autorun menu so you can start the game. The white box in the corner is from the program I used, because it's only the demo. Then here's my file structure, if anyone is interested in making their own DVD: Link I didn't include the movies that play after you finish installing the game (Descent3 and Painscape) because they annoy me.

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