Don’t even ask that. We don’t release hacks. Get a CD, it’s worth the $5.

There is an EXE around that is an official NO-CD version by Ubisoft (released in Germany):

http://rapidshare.com/files/90348259/Freelancer.exe.html

There’s also one (actually, quite a few) at GameCopyWorld (select Freelancer v1.0 [MULTI] Unprotected EXE). Probably the same as the rapidshare one.

Of course you wouldn’t see why not, you’re an “interested party” - interested in getting it!

I will let others here inform you why not, I’m old and grisly and tired and on the other side!

actually as long as there is no kinda free download of the game, or, in better words: the publisher did not make freelancer available for free yet, hacking the exe not to ask for the original cd is illegal. the no-cd of ubisoft is permitted by microsoft and therefore available to anyone for free. microsoft currently does not produce the game anymore and in quietness it is not that tricky to allow the no-cd but anyway, once you hack it yourself you break the law in a harder way than any usage of the codes for mods.
this explanations are on almost all freelancer related forums, StarTrader simply got bored writing them again and again, so here you go.

Gisteron wrote:
once you hack it yourself you break the law in a harder way than any usage of the codes for mods

No you don’t, not in this case or any other exe hack tbh. As i’ve mentioned countless times myself, Microsoft have allowed modification of any of their files for practically any game they’ve ever done as long as it’s for a non-profit purpose. I put the link up ages ago where they explain all of this (buried here on the TSP somewhere) as even with a no cd exe file, you still need a copy of the game to use it.

oh. well. sorry, didn’t know that, am new to the branche myself. thanks for the info.
however there is no reason to hack the exe for no-cd use if you can download such a file even granted by the publisher. there are downloads of the game you need to pay for and downloads of a demo. would be strange if one of them would require you to have the cd in order to launch the game.

To sum this up, you can play any version of the game without the need for the cd to be in the drive. All the game uses the cd for, once it’s installed that is, is to play the movies. These can easily be disabled in the freelancer.ini file by commenting out the movies section,

[Startup]
;movie_file = movies\MGS_Logo_Final.wmv
;movie_file = movies\DA_Logo_Final.wmv
;movie_file = movies\FL_Intro.wmv

Problem solved

and here we go, this is wrong, just tested it. i have had backuped the cd version of my freelancer.exe all the time. now i renamed the replacement to a certain other name and the backup to freelancer.exe. in addition i commented all video files that should be played on startup out and launched the application. it asked me to enter the cd. i commented out even the section header “[startup]” and the result was exactly the same. with the mod’s intro video enabled it also reacted the same. i guess there must be something else the exe is asking for. maybe a certain file within the cd drive (the name of which it likely reads out the registry not sure though). i dont think there is a way to get around the cd requirement without an exe hack or the usage of the no-cd version (which likely is noth more than the exe with those very required hack).

The movies are not played from the CD. The CD check is there to check for the CD, nothing else is streamed from the CD.

I find that strange because the instant i disable the movies section it never asks for the cd. Odd, not saying you’re wrong, i might well be, just this is what happens in my case.

Gibbon wrote:

Microsoft have allowed modification of any of their files for practically any game they’ve ever done as long as it’s for a non-profit purpose. I put the link up ages ago where they explain all of this (buried here on the TSP somewhere) …

Could you try and find this link? I’ve never read the explanation of MS yet about this matter. Thx.

I guess it also depends on the country you live in. For instance, in Germany it is forbidden to bypass the copy protection. Means, anything which allows you to play the game without it is forbidden. As far I am not mistaken.

Here’s the link to Microsofts viewpoint… again

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/developer/rules.htm

Microsoft’s viewpoint doesn’t necessary change the laws.

You can’t reverse engineer our games to access the assets or otherwise do things that the games don’t normally permit in order to create your Items.

and i suppose cracking is some kind of RE

Erm, allowing usually overrides disallowing, especially when the allowance is more specific than the disallowance.

I’m sorry, Bas, but I think Gibbon’s already explained it all and it’s been discussed to death. MS doesn’t give a damn about us modifying the game so long as we don’t profit from it.

It also isn’t illegal to bypass the CD check because an official version has been released WITHOUT such check.

So please, please, please, stop spreading incorrect information, especially on such an inconsequential subject.

as far as i know the german law, it is prohibited to crack software as long as neither a crack is granted by the publisher nor the publishing instance has clearly declared that you can crack (which is modifying in most cases) the software. moreover you can have up to 5 copies of the games, also no-cd version as “safety copies” even shared with friends, who, everyone of them, can also copy the game and give it to 5 of their friends. but FF is right here, we may modify and crack the engine, we may use Ubisoft’s no-cd version so actually all of the prohibitions, that might have been done, are not done and this way - irrelevant.

The german law actually ALLOWS the circumvention of copy protection on computer software.