The heck?

[Sr.Juez]

Hi Bob the Beholder, Lurkers...

This is how I do play Diablo off the CD in the OLD Win 95 system where I have it installed... but I don't know if this will work in more modern systems. Good look.

1. Download DHACK from here, the Lounge (look in "Diablo", then in "Mods").

2. Copy Diabdat.mpq and Autorun.exe from your Diablo CD to the directory where you want to play Diablo in your HD (it may be C:\Diablo\, for example).

3. Edit your registry file (run Regedit) and then follow the tree through these folders:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFWARE
Blizzard Entertainment
Archives

Open the folder "Archives".

You should see now:
(default)
DiabloCD
DiabloInstall

The path at the right of the value "DiabloCD" is where Diablo looks for the CD. Click the rigth mouse button on "DiabloCD", select "Modify" and then change the path to where you copied Diabdat.mpq and Autorun.exe (it was C:\Diablo\ in my example...).

4. Ok, the idea here is that you should run DHACK in the background when playing Diablo, and DHACK will "hack" Diablo and make it look for the data files in your HD directory where you copied them.

DHACK can be used to "cheat" Diablo in many different ways, by loading files that contain the different kinds of cheats you want to perform on the game. So then, we still need to create your "cheat" file, the one that will contain only the "cheat" that you need to play off the CD.

Open NotePad, and then copy there the following:

# These are comment lines. Start copying/pasting from here.
start v1.09 Play v1.09 Off CD
1501867A 74 eb
end

start v1.08 Play v1.08 Off CD
15017e8a 74 eb
end

start v1.07 Play v1.07 Off CD
1501278C 74 eb
end

start v1.00 Play v1.00 Off CD
1500D516 74 EB
end
# Last, comment line. Stop copying/pasting here.

Save the file as, lets say, DiabloHD.dat

5. And now, lets play:

Start Diablo, it should ask for the CD, still. But now it is looking for it in the HD...

Alt+Tab to Windows, and execute DHACK. No "cheat" should be loaded still.

Select the icon "open .Dat file" and look for our DiabloHD.dat file we saved previously. Four "hacks" should have appeared, but still inoperative (they have a red "0" on their left).

Click in the "cheat" for your appropiate Diablo version ("Play v1.09 Off CD", I guess) and then, clicking in the icon at the right of the diskette, turn it to a green "1".

Alt+Tab again to Diablo. It should be asking for its CD, still. You can click on "Accept", finally.

You "SHOULD" be playing Diablo in your HD now.

DISCLAIMER:
Again, this used to work in old Win 95 systems, but I really have no idea if it will work in more modern ones (could anyone tell me?). Be very cautious.

My first language is not english, so sorry if don't sound "correct". Sorry for this LONG email, and for the step-by-step (apparently) difficult procedure to play Diablo off your CD... but follow it by the book, or else...

I don't advocate the use of "cheats" or "hacks" with this good old game... save for this one. Sorry if my post has been... "misleading" to say the least. I also hope that you won't be of those newcomers at the Lounge and will ask for more "cheats" in order to use them with DHACK. Please DON'T.

Ok, maybe I forgot something, but that's ok for now (and it's late here). Go and try with DHACK. Good look.