I'll admit, this is maddening. I don't really blame Cyan or Ubi, but just the state of PC technology in general.

Look, my son can go to Blockbuster video and rent ANY X-Box game off the shelf, bring it home, plug it into his console, and it simply WORKS. no questions asked. Yet with PCs, there are so blasted many combinations of hardware out there that developers just have to shoot for the biggest common ground they can find, and anybody that happens to fall outside that privileged group is just SOL. Previous modifications I've had to make for Myst games were understood, and were not really a problem -- such as adding a CD-ROM for the original Myst, upgrading to a faster CD-ROM and eventually a faster Mac for Riven, changing my PC's video card for Uru, then updating my DVD firmware for Myst IV. My system's pushing five years old, after all. But as mentioned above, to a serious Myst fan such as myself, it's very deflating to drop $60 on the Limited Edition of Myst V, and after months of anticipation and near-daily contributions to the Myst V forum, SURPRISE!! It won't even install, even though the demo ran just fine. I guess it's just too much to expect that someday PC games and equipment will reach the same level of compatibility and dependability enjoyed by console users.

Face it, Cyan's very survival is riding on sales of this game, and they're not going to risk releasing a half-baked product. My feeling is that they've done all they can to make their product conform to cr@p technology, in the full realization that it won't work for everybody. I don't think it's their fault, really. I hope I'm wrong, because I've always been a huge supporter of Cyan.

Well Mowog, that makes two of us, since I've purchased and played every Myst game at full retail price as soon as it was released since I bought the original version of Myst in 1994.

However, the copy protection they are now using actively disables the game on a huge number of DVD and even CD-RW drives, thus, they have designed into the game, purposely, a feature that makes it impossible to play on a great number of systems. Furthermore, it is impossible for a user to judge in advance whether or not a system will work with the game.

It's a sad day when piracy is so rampant that a company believes it has to rip off so many of its devoted fans in order to make a profit. I think the software they're using is much too heavy-handed though, and I have to conclude that it will hurt much more than it will help. The hard-core pirates will find a way around the copy protection, while the legimate users like me will never buy another game from them.

Hey,

im having the same, often reported, 'original disk not found' error. Does anyone know if getting a crack for the game gets around this problem? Furthermore, if yes, does anyone know where to get such a crack so i can get what i just payed for?

Thanks

Colin

quote:

Originally posted by uecasm:
Worked fine (eventually) in my DVD-RW/DVD+RW drive.

I had to disable my "region free" program first, though, which irritated me no end. (Because region locking is illegal.)

uecasm, Could you please explain exactly what you did to get the game to work, and why you didn't like having to do it? I'm not familiar with the program you refer to. Thanks.

I use a program called "DVD Region Killer", which lets me play DVD movies from any region (because region locking is stupid and illegal). Myst V wouldn't run until I switched this program off -- I guess because it hooks into the drive somehow.

If you're using something similar, or if you have "virtual CD" drives installed (because I've heard they give trouble too), you'll probably need to turn it off (and possibly even reboot) before the game will run.

Thanks

Good news? Hope this will work for others. I used the "Uninstall" and THEN reinstalled the game, but chose the "custom install" -- not sure if that's what it's called, in any case, the alternate to "just install everything". I disabled the "Support Files" install, and installed JUST the game files. Voila! The game launched on the first try -- no "CopyProtection please insert original disc".

Now. Did this uninstall/reinstall have ANYthing to do with clearing up the (my) problem? Who knows. Maybe the problem would have been cleared up just as effectively if I had waived a chicken bone over the computer and uttered the secret incantation.

UbiSoft's customer support never replied to my email (and I went through the proper channels). Big surprise.

Thanks MD, I'll try that.

By the way, was that a drumstick or a wishing bone?

Well...

I just got the game today and have the same problem... I am running Win2000 with latest drivers DVD = LG DVD-R 4082B with latest Firmware...

Removed the region free...

I even try the drumstick and the wishing bone.


Anyone else have some kind of funny/tricky solution to make it works?

Ok...

Finally, the Wishing Bone trick works but you have to wait about 12 hours!

Seriously, after wasting my evening playing URU instead of MYST V, I went to sleep then when I tried the game this morning (while i have Ubisoft representative on the phone) the game just start!... I did not change anything since last night, computer did not even shut down (as it is always running)...

It is a pure Mystery... The only thing i can see is my DVD was able to read the disk easier since it was cool (not after long instalation process)

If anyone have an idea about it, post it for others.

quote:

Originally posted by LadyELAL:
Ok...

Finally, the Wishing Bone trick works but you have to wait about 12 hours!

Seriously, after wasting my evening playing URU instead of MYST V, I went to sleep then when I tried the game this morning (while i have Ubisoft representative on the phone) the game just start!... I did not change anything since last night, computer did not even shut down (as it is always running)...

It is a pure Mystery... The only thing i can see is my DVD was able to read the disk easier since it was cool (not after long instalation process)

If anyone have an idea about it, post it for others.

You r lucky man heh... this kined of mystery leave our place... My brand new Optorite DVD+-RW cant recognaise the disc after instal...
Really sad...
Lets wait for some solution from gurus =) ...

Just for the record, tech support says I should be able to get it to work with the old DVD-ROM I'm putting into an external enclosure. It's both Firewire and USB and I'll be able to try both. I'll keep you posted - the enclosure should arrive tomorrow. The enclosure is only ~$50, and I'll be able to put old hard drives in it to use for backup later.

Here's a shot in the dark - try uninstalling any DVD-R/CD-R burning software you have installed. (Make sure you have the install disk for your burning software handy before you do this, of course.)
If the copy protection is like others I've seen, it looks for certain software on your machine, and craps out if it finds it. It really doesn't care what kind of drive you have, as long as it thinks you can't burn a disk.

HTH, but I really don't know - the game runs fine here, even with Nero installed, so I can't say for sure. It may depend on WHICH burning software you use.

Let me backtrack a bit... Myst V is now running flawlessly (so far) on my machine, after:

1. Updating firmware on my DVD drive (probably unnecessary, but I did it.)

2. Downloading the latest version of Java from the Sun website, then uninstalling my old version via Control Panel > Remove Programs, and installing the new version from a clean boot. This resolved the Java error that was killing my installation every time.

That got Myst V to install correctly, but I still had some graphics issues when playing, the second of which crashed my PC to a blue screen. So:

3. Downloaded and installed v. 77.77 of the nVidia graphics drivers.

No problems since.

Best of luck for the rest of you! My DVD is read-only, so I've avoided the whole DVD-RW tangle.

The game now appears to be working off of my old Samsung SD-616 DVD-ROM drive, which I'm running via Firewire from an external enclosure.

Unemployed, broke, Myst addict here. Scraped my pennies together to get Myst V, was even able to get a copy from Comp USA for $40 because they had it mis-priced two of three displays of Myst V on the shelves. (sometimes incompetency pays)

Get home, lug through installation (old slow machine but with very nice graphic card & display), all set to go and oops... "cannot authenticate"... Myst IV worked fine on that machine

OK, try it on the laptop, newer, faster, but not so graphic friendly. Yea! it works Having fun with it so far but this business of "cannot authenticate" is bull droppings. DVD requirements should be in big red letters on the box! You can bet I'm going to advertise the fact on my web sites.

I'm kind of glad to see Myst come to an end. It's been fun but 10(11) years is enough and all through the series there have been terrible hardware/software problems with it. I have several versions of the original Myst and have tried to run it on several machines over the years all of them had weird problems. Same story with Riven, the only version I trust to not booger up my OS was the DVD version,...

OK, enough said. I'll play this game out (on my laptop) and move on with my life. But if it starts crashing on me I'll be back here coloring the air blue.

Same problem here with LG DVD-RAM on a barebones system (MS Windows XP Pro SP2 and NO other software) - "CopyProtection please insert original disc" . Tried an ASUS Dual Layer DVD-RW, which I had on hand by chance and it worked.

< EDITED to remove reference to no-CD crack source >

It would be understandable if the game did not work due to technical issues, but in the civilised world it is fraudulent to sell a product which is specifically designed to not work.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Heimdall G,

lukevanin,

I've edited your post above to remove the reference to a no-CD crack source.

Probably the most obvious reason that the Myst V DVD is required to be in the drive is to minimize software piracy.

Please note that I'm not accusing anyone of being a software pirate! Many folks want to preserve their original game disks, as in preventing the family ferret from chewing on the disk, etc. Unfortunately, however, other folks have other motives - like the pirates looking for yet another freebie.

Ubisoft will very definitely not be happy with postings in this Ubisoft-sponsored forum that encourage playing Myst V with a copied disk, without a disk, or by any other means than purchased-disk-in-drive. This amounts to de facto encouragement of piracy!

So, while there may be ways to play Myst V without the original disk being in the drive, they had best not be posted here. And, no, we will NOT get into a discussion of what's legal and what isn't!

Let's leave it at that.

Thank you, thank you!

If the no-media patch exists, it can be found.

I don't support piracy but I'm tired of software companies ripping me off. I buy the game (Collector's Edition) and then I can't play it.

The screwed up email support doesn't work and my "questions" get closed before they are even replied to...

Careful though with such links - you can get into trouble for just linking to a warez site... Digital Millenium Act did mess some things up for paying customers...


************************************
Its official!
Myst V now supports users with DVD burners with
the no-CD Myst V patch
***********************************

I'm so mad that I had to wait over a week for some Russians to help me out here...