How to run a CD-based game from an ISO image?

Involute said:

Not yet. Helmut’s approach seemed easier so I thought I’d try his first.

And, what has happened so far? :)

Samuria said:

There ar tons of work arounds on this Age of Empires - PC Game Trainer Cheat PlayFix No-CD No-DVD | GameCopyWorld

Talk about bringing a site back from the dead (for me). I forgot all about Game Copy World since I hadn't been then for at least 10 years. Glad to see they're still around.

Helmut said:

I have AOE working on my Laptop.

What I did was simply to make an ISO file (AOE.ISO) from the Disc using CDBurnerXP. (free).

Then use that. Just right click the ISO file > Mount. Then use my Desktop shortcut which has a couple of switches added.

Then no need to insert the disc.

It runs a bit squashed due to the aspect ratio of the Laptop screen.

The CD in my case had problems of damage caused by the printed on disc labelling, however by suitably slower reading, the ISO was made.
Attachment 341179

I use the mount ISO method to start MS Flight Simulator 2020 which I bought on DVD. In the case of MSFS, only one key file is needed so the ISO file is tiny. I have a batch file which mounts the ISO file then starts MSFS.

Involute said:

Unfortunately, none of those hacks help me.

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When I try this with AoE it still asks for the CD as soon as I click "Single Player."

Does the virtual drive mounted from the ISO file have the same name as the CD/DVD and does it contain all the files on the CD/DVD?

Involute said:

I’m not sure I understand your question. The ISO file is stored on a physical HDD (E:). I right click on the ISO file and select Mount from the context menu. That produces an Explorer window of all the files and folders in the ISO, on virtual drive F:. I navigate to Empires.exe and double-click on it to launch the game. This particular approach doesn’t involve an installation.

Most games are installed on your SSD / HDD and the CD is only accessed to check you have the digital rights to run the game.