The heck?
#1
So, I restarted some D1 action. I figured that it would be fun, what with the nostalgia and all. But there's a small problem. D1 seems to read quite a bit from the CD, and for some reason, whenever something strange happens, like a weapon breaking, my CD-ROM drive goes insane, the game stops for a moment, and then suddenly keeps going, skipping over all of the actions that would have happened while it seemed to be readin the CD, leaving me with the result that I basically stood there and took whatever hits happened to come my way until it stopped loading.

So, I checked the readme. It says that I should increase the CD-ROM cache, and provides instructions to do so. Aside from that it says it should only be required for slower drives, which mine certainly is not (especially considering the slow-fast range that was present at the time the readme was written), the instructions are for Windows 95, and my XP of evil apparently follows some sort of demonic, evil route to do this, that I am barred from finding.

I'd figure that Halo, Dungeon Siege, Warcraft III, or Age of Mythology would be the prime culprits for such problems, but nooo. Of course, it's good ole Diablo.

Anyway, do any of you know what kind of a problem this might be, and hopefully, a way to fix it?

*edit* I forgot to add: Yeah, baby, yeah *edit*
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#2
lots of DSF people used to make an image of the cd to the harddrive and load off it using some sort of program. it reduces cd lag to nil :P

basically there will always be cd lag in D1 if you use the cd.

i use www.daemon-tools.org or something. just search daemon tools I suppose. and I use CloneCD to make images of cd's, but I bet there are better ones out there.
"The axe? Aye, that's a good weapon, balanced against any foe. Look how it cleaves the air, and then, imagine a nice fat demon head in its path. Keep in mind, however, that it is slow to swing - but talk about dealing a heavy blow!"
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#3
The problem is not that your drive is too slow or doesn't cache enough information. The problem is exactly the opposite. Your system (and virtually everybody else's, by now) is "too good" for Diablo. It seeks out the info you need so quickly that the drive doesn't need to keep spinning anymore. And then suddenly you need a sound effect you hadn't needed previously during the session and, uh oh, the CD needs to start spinning from a dead standstill in order to seek out that sound. That is when you are screwed.

If anything, you could try setting the CD-ROM cache very low instead of increasing it. I don't think it will work though. The best solution is the one Draconis mentioned: emulate the CD on your hard drive and play off that (or use a no-CD crack to do the same thing).
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#4
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.
"La espada de la divina justicia no hiere prematura ni tardíamente, aunque una u otra cosa parezca a los que la deseen o la temen".

Dante Alighieri
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#5
You shouldn't have to do any registry modifications since Diablo is nice enough to look in it's own directory for MPQ files that it can't find on the CD. But other than that you do need to modify the EXE\memory to tell it to bypass the CD check.
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#6
So Diablo doesn't work. Period. When I open it, the game keeps saying that there is no cd.

I tried minor Reg tweaks, I tried ripping my cd and mounting it via DaemonTools. I tried more tweaks. Google turns up nothing. Forum searches also turn up no answers.

Can someone please help me with this?
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#7
Quote:So Diablo doesn't work. Period. When I open it, the game keeps saying that there is no cd.
Can you actually read the CD when it is in the drive (not using the diablo.exe)? If not, there's your problem.

I assume you have tried uninstalling\reinstalling and all that.

It would probably be helpful to have started a new thread seeing as how the one your replied to is... 4 years old now.
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#8
The CD itself works. I can browse to it and such (worth stating that it is the legit CD, not a burn).

I was going to post a new topic, but you have to reply to something before you can post (forum rules). I figured 2 bird with one stone.

I haven't tried reinstalling it yet, but I've gathered that that hasn't been terribly helpful for others who have problems running it. I'll give it a try though.
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#9
Hello,
I had the same problem when trying to run Diablo in compatibility mode under XP.
Perhaps that is your problem.
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#10
But the question is how do I fix it.
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#11
Do anyone have a .dat file that can be used for Diablo: Hellfire to bypass the CD-checking procedure? I tried using the .dat file in DHack and it worked for Diablo but not for Diablo: Hellfire.
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#12
Dhack doesn't work with Hellfire, so there is no .dat file that can do that. If you found a copy of DHack however, you should be able to find a copy of the Hellfire counterpart.
"What contemptible scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch?"

-W.C. Fields
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#13
GameHack works with Hellfire - similar to Dhack

Put this in Notepad and save as *.hak file, for example No_CD.hak

Code:
start HellfireV1.0X "Play Hellfire Off HD"
# Works for both v1.00 and V1.01
1500D7D1 74 EB
end
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