Classic British Flight Sim

Been using the NOCD 9.1 patch too, no problems yet whatsoever, even before MS supported this things, I just dont like the idea of putting in the disk 4, as I always use it to play movies & I'm tired of removing / putting it in. so I guess its a free ticket to Siberia too huh.. :roll:

Another one here who didn't know about this patch so very useful HU. Have downloaded and booted up and it works with no cd in drive. Great.

I'll also put my hand up and reveal i too didn't know about the no-cd patch until this thread, so cheers to the original poster for the tip-off.

I actually suspect there might be more out there who came late to FS2004 (I'm usually one iteration of the series behind) who may not know about this as, unless you happen to stumble across a reference to it in a thread like this, or it's mentioned on one of the freeware download sites, a lot of people won't actually realise it's out there. After all unless you know there is a no-cd "crack" for the sim, how would you know where to find it or eve find out such a thing exists?

Either way I'm glad it got raised here as having to keep the cd in the computer was a pain in the behind.

The great God Google has the answer mate Type FS9 nocd or FS9.1 nocd and you'll get pages of responses or alternatively.. ask here ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

Dave

Are those of us who knew about this no_cd "addon" shifty characters? I'm wondering now how I found about it all those years ago - just what web site was I on? :roll:

Amazing what clean living chaps/chapesses the CBFS members are.

Ian

I downloaded the no CD patch from either Avsim or FlightSim four years ago and it was readily available on almost every other site, too. Then about 21/2 - 3 years ago, it just up and disappeared. Reading the forums, I learned MS had suddenly declared it vile and evil and thus had to be purged or else. I'm really glad this discussion has come about. How many times have we all read about other simmers having problems with their 4th disc after inserting and removing it countless times? :@

Good day, all,

Bob

I honestly don't know the answer to either of those questions (there were two I think) I heard about it soon after it was made available (for both v9 and v9.1) and I seem to remember I only used disc4 after the 9.1 patch twice at most.. that's how soon the no-cd patch followed.

ATB

DaveB :tab:

Buy a new game = head to gamecopyworld.com.

You'd be amazed at how quickly the patches are up there, in some cases literally hours after the release version hits the shelves.

The patch (which I've been using longer than I can remember) was delcared "vile" by MS because downloaded pirate copies could be made to run. That's also the biggest reason, as far as I know, that sites like the Outhouse will stomp all over threads about the patch. There have been a couple of threads there over the years that didn't get squashed, and when I mentioned that I had it, I also dared anyone to call me a pirate to my face. I'm also VERY careful - even today - about those I choose to share the file with. I need to know that they aren't trying to unlock a pirated copy of the Sim. After all, I paid full price for it back in 2003, and I'll be darned if I'll help someone else run their's for nothing!

I think part of the problem though is unless you know a no cd fix is available, and you are not a computer gamer (I only have FS, MSTS and Ship Simulator so don't go to any computer games websites and am not in any other game networks) you won't realise the thing is out there unless you stumble across a thread like this. I genuinely wasn't aware you could run FS2004 without disc 4, so I wouldn't have thought about using Google to see if there was a no-cd fix as I wasn't actually aware the sim could be run without it or that people had found ways to do this, I just assumed it was a quirk of the sim and I was stuck with it. I'm no computer virgin or numpty, I'm just not a gamer and am not used to people finding ways to avoid having to run games without the cd having to be in the drive, FS2004 being the first time I'd encountered anything needing the disc to be in the pc to run other than when loading the software, apart from MS Works. In future, if I ever purchase something that requires a cd to run, I might be more aware of these things and be able to do a search for such a fix.

After all, believe it or not there are many people who buy things like MSTS or FS who don't actually realise there is freeware out there - I know from personal experience there are Train Simmers who still don't realise there are freeware add-on sites over six years after the game was released, and I would be prepared to bet there are a fair few people who have bought FS and probably think the only add-ons you can get are those in PC World, in fact I've directed a few towards freeware sites myself. Unless you are a regular user of other games with an intuitive feel for seeking out communities and websites, even those who understand and use the internet and search engines won't necessarily actually know there is anything out there to actually search for in the first place, and Flight Sim and Train Sim are likely to attract those who are not gamers but who are aircraft or rail enthusiasts who find the idea of a sim attractive from that perspective, more so than other games, and who therefore won't understand how "gaming communities" work or that freeware is available - when all is said and done the concept of "free" anything is so alien in today's money-centric society why would a non-gamer enthusiast new to FS or MSTS actually think freeware conntet and expansions are available?