Does NOT work with MOST games....USELESS
Review: PROS>
GameDrive by Fogware Publishing is very easy to use, with an excellent interface. Everything is easy to find, and with LiveUpdate, it's easy to keep up with newer versions that are released.CONS>
Now for the BIG problem...
There is no list (that I could find anyway) of compatible games. I mainly wanted to use it for Unreal Tournament 2003; in fact, that was my main reason for buying it. Guess what....UT2003 doesn't work with GameDrive. If I knew it didn't work with this particular game, I would NOT have bought it.
If you don't mind all of the hard drive space it takes (approx. 650MB-700MB per game), and not knowing if it will work with your games, then buy it. As for me, I'll stay away from future products from Fogware Publishing unless they produce a compatability list.
CONCLUSION>
DO NOT BUY GameDrive, unless you can be sure it will work with your games. BUT WAIT!!....no compatibility list means there is no way to see if it works with your games unless you buy it. hmmmmm.....
*** (04-04-2003) UPDATE:> I decided to try this with my laptop, so I don't have to carry around CDs. It still didn't work with an old game like Mortal Kombat 4. This product is USELESS to me. I repeat, "DO NOT BUY!!". ***
Rating:
Summary: There Are Better, Supported, Alternatives
Review: Simply put, the manufacturer of this product shows no interest in upgrading it to be compatible with the latest copyright protection software. I own a laptop with a large hard drive, and I purchased this product so that I would not have to haul all of my game CDs around with me. Of the games I play regularly, only one was supported by GameDrive. Actually, Neverwinter Nights also worked fine until it was upgraded to the Shadows of Undrentide expansion, as well. I reported the incompatibility to the manufacturer in May, and was told a fix was coming "in the next few weeks." It is now nearly December.
Do yourself a favor and head over to www.alcoholsoftware.com instead of wasting your money on this package. Alcohol 52% has been absolutely flawless for me.
Rating:
Summary: GameDrive 8 by FarStone
Review: Since I travel quite a lot, I purchased GameDrive8 to avoid the burden and risk of carrying a dozen+ CDs. I consider myself a savvy computer user---Ph.D. in engineering from MIT---still, after reading the manual and online information, I finally gave up getting this program to run. There is no product support for GameDrive: all of my 14 emails were answered by the same form response. What a joke! Please save yourself the frustration and $35, and try Alcohol 52%. It has done everything I needed it to do, easily and flawlessly.
Rating:
Summary: No Upgrade Options (VirtualDrive/GameDrive)
Review: This is a review of Farstone's VirtualDrive (identical to Farstone's GameDrive). I have two key complaints about this product.
First, the company doesn't offer any reasonable upgrade options. I purchased version 7 almost exactly five months ago and the only option available to upgrade to version 8 is to purchase the product again at full price.
Second, the product is not compatible with the copy protection used with the Hoyle 2004 games. Farstone says they're working on a fix, which will be available using Live Update. Of course, the version I have doesn't support Live Update - I'll need to upgrade to version 8 to get this feature (see paragraph above).
On the plus side, this product does work with SimCity 3000, Crazy Taxi, Warcraft BNE, and older Hoyle games. However, the problems above pretty much kill this product as far as I'm concerned. I'll look for an alternative product instead of purchasing version 8.
Rating:
Summary: Eh, it could be worse.
Review: With an average system, any boost you get in performance will be negated by the system resources this thing uses. An associate got this for the only reason it's good: not paying for games.
If you're loking to share that copy of a game, this is a good utility. We had few problems with it - none of which were not overcome. I have better things to use my HD space for.
Rating:
Summary: GameDrive Works very well for me
Review: _
I'm using it with the following games:
DungeonSiege, BF1942, BF1942-RTR, and Real FlightG2.
It is my understanding that all of these titles are copy protected.
There IS a list of supported games.
If you've installed a Game from the "real" CD drive, then there are a few options for getting the game to find the new VCD.
1)- The setting could be in an ".ini" or ".cfg" file in the program directory.
2)- It might be in the Windows Registry. (HKLM/Software/gamename)
3)- You can install the game from the Game Drive Image and it will then point to the correct drive letter.
4)- Juggle drive letters around so that the new Virtual drive letter replaces the real/pre-existing drive.
DOWNSIDE(s):
1) The amount of Hard Drive drive space taken up by the images, even with compression, can really add up. (but HD's are getting really inexpensive)
2) Protected disks can take a long time to build the image.
3) There is a subscripton involved for the updates. I've got an expiration date listed in the status bar of GameDrive, but I have been unable to find out what the renewal is going to cost me, and whether it is only for the Live Update feature.
Strange that they convienently forget to mention the subscription prior to purchase isn't it?
Overall I'm satisfied with the product.