Multiple Games to DVD

[Grumpy]

Original Poster: VanTokkern
Post Date: 11-10-2004

Just thought the one thing missing from this thread was a way to put several games on one DVD and have them properly install. It's fairly easy. Just carefully read the following.

First you need to have an idea of what games you want to copy to your DVD. For my (first) DVD, I've chosen DOOM3, Rome: Total War and Warhammer 40000 - Dawn of War.
What you do is you create a folder, and in there you put each game in it's own folder. Create a folder for Serials, one for Updates, one for Cracks and one for DOX. Obviously you don't nééd to do this, as it's your DVD. I'll explain later why I give all of those their own folder.
Now that you've given each game it's own folder, it's time to copy the CDs to their directories on the DVD. It's important to not overwrite files from CD1, by files from CD2 or higher. This includes files like Autorun.inf, Autorun.exe, since it's 1 DVD you're installing from, you only need to copy those files from CD1. In most cases it's not necessary to copy these files at all, and can be deleted. Some games how-ever, link their setup.exe to the autorun.exe. What to do then will be explained later.
Next you will need to create an autorun. You can create one with Autoplay Media Studio, or use these files, which I have used in this example. Now that you've given everything it's own folder, and copied the autorun files to the root of the DVD it should look like this:


background.bmp is the file the autorun will use as background. I will use this pic:


Now it's time to create the links. Open up Autoplay.ini with notepad. Scroll to the bottom and change the links to your likes. the l01 indicates on what line the link will be shown, 01 is at the top, 11 at the bottom. the number after that (1000 - 1013) indicates what the link should look like in the autorun. This can be altered in AutoPlay.ucs, which can be opened in notepad. And the 0 (or 1) after that indicates if the line should be in bold or not, 0 = no, 1 = yes. To cut this story short, have the autoplay.ini look like this:

And AutoPlay.ucs like this:

Notice how I have not created a link for Cracks. This is simply because I switched the exes in the installation files, with a cracked exe, having it install the cracked exes. With these 3 games this is a simple process since all of them are somewhere in the folders, and not hidden in some cab, or exe file. Obviously if this is not possible, create a folder named Cracks, put the line in autoplay.ini, and name it how you want to, in AutoPlay.ucs.

Only one thing left: create an autorun, do this by creating a new text document and have it look like this:

[Autorun]
Open=AutoPlay.exe
Icon=AutoPlay.exe

Save the document, and rename it to Autorun.inf.

Once you've done this you can burn the files to a DVD-R, or if you wish to test the autorun files first, create an image, name it how you would like to name it.
Next mount the image, double-click on the Clone Drive, and if you've done everything like I said, this will come up:


Looking good, no?

Click the links to make sure everything works.
Now you've created your own multiple game DVD.
There are a few exeptions tho. Carefully read the following:

With the games I've used, you will also need to alter the msi installers. This can be done with Orca, get it from here. Install this piece of software, and look for Tools, Orca is somewhere in there. Use this software to open the *.msi files, go to the tab Media and change VolumeLabel to what you will call your DVD. Obviously you need to change it to the same with any other game which uses a msi installer. If it doesn't use one, you don't need to change anything. Nearly all games will install anyway. There's only one game I've encountered which didn't work; Call of Duty. But I'm working on it You will need to do this for every game which uses a msi installer, if there isn't a msi file, you don't need to change anything.

Another exception:

Some games have their setup.exe linked to autorun.exe. In this case you can not delete autorun.exe, and not overwrite it with the autorun.exe from a different CD. One game that does this is FIFA2005.
You also need to pay attention to the autorun.inf, let's have a look at FIFA2005's autorun.inf:

[autorun]
open=Setup.exe
Icon=fifapc.ico
Name=FIFA 2005

[Special]
Disk=1

Note the [Special] section. Autorun.inf is the file your CD-Rom will read first, and will only look in the root of the CD. If you're giving FIFA2005 it's own folder (which will not work btw) and create your own autorun.inf on the root of the folder. It won't notice the [Special] (unless you put it in there ofcourse), thus FIFA2005 installation can not continue because it doesn't recognise the DVD as CD1. So if you're going to create your own autorun have it look like this:

[autorun]
open=Autoplay.exe
Icon=Autoplay.exe
Name=FIFA 2005

[Special]
Disk=1

Games that also need this are The Sims 2, and Need For Speed Underground, perhaps any others as well, but not to my knowledge. These particular games also come with common_filelist.txt lists. It tells the setup where to look for files. Since it will only look for these particular files, where you tell it to look, it will look for the other files that need to be installed, in the root of the CD/DVD. The only way these games will install properly is by copying all the files/folders to the root of the DVD, and give other games their own folder. Like this:
http://members.home.nl/bljvtongeren/pics/fifa.jpg
FIFA2005, The Sims 2 and Need For Speed Underground will not work from a folder on a DVD!! Only from the root of the CD/DVD. With these games you also need to alter the common_filelist.txt where you change all first characters on every line to 1, meaning all the files can be found on the first CD.

If you wish to have games install the cracked exes. Here's how;
First browse the CD to see if maybe the exe is somewhere in there. If it is, simply swap it for the cracked exe. If games use CAB files, try to find a hdr file, usually named Data1.hdr. If there is one you will need i6comp, get it from here unzip the file. And copy i6comp.exe to the directory where you copied all of the games' installation files. Go to Start -> Run and type cmd. Browse to the folder where Data.cab and Data1.hdr are located, put the cracked exe in there as well, and type: i6comp r data game.exe where game.exe is the name of the cracked exe obviously.
If the installation does not have a hdr file, you will need to do the following. First get this program. And copy CABARC.exe to where the cab files are located. go to Start -> run and type cmd. Go to the folder where cabarc and the cab files are located. And type cabarc l Data1.cab It will give you a list of all files in Data1.cab. Since this program can not replace any files in the cab files, you will have to create one yourself. Use winrar or winzip to unpack the cab file, copy cabarc.exe and the cracked files in here, and open a second cmd window. Browse to the folder in cmd again, and type cabarc n Data1.cab file1.dat file2.exe file3.etc etc This is why you needed a second window, you need to put all the files in the same order as the original CAB file. Once you've typed all file names, press enter, and it will create a new CAB file. Replace the original CAB file, with the CAB file you've created, and burn this to the DVD. Note tho, some updates won't be able to install properly if you're using the crack. Therefore it's wise to back up the original files. If you lost me from when I said "If games use CAB files" don't even bother trying. Try copying files to DVDs first more. Once you can do this with your eyes closed, try this I hope this was of any use for anyone, and I hope it's not too complicated

So long.. may we meet again once I've come up with another great tutorial

[DragonStefan]

Hi, very wise and good tuturial m8, i hope it will work for me too. Im busy now making one, i allready got a background.

Im planning to make a working harry potter collection dvd, with all the 5 games (4 adventure games, and 1 quiditsch worldcup)...

Thank you so much for this tuturial, it was hard to find one, and i really hope it will work for me soon, cheers!! And this tut is brand new damnit!!!

Greets DragonStefan

[DragonStefan]

Enable AutoPlay Feature
Select this option if you want AutoPlay Media Studio to burn the autorun.inf file for you.

Windows searches for the autorun.inf file whenever you insert a CD into a CD-ROM drive. The file tells Windows what program to run if the user has autorun enabled on their system. AutoPlay Media Studio will automatically configure the file to launch your AutoPlay application.

???

[Grumpy]

The Multiple game conversion was the first Multiple game conversion ever posted here. 'Van' did an excellent job with it.
The idea of putting games onto DVD's came about when a few of us were having a discussion on the forums one day (whilst extremely bored ).
Things have changed alot since those days and we now use different methods to create Multiple game DVD's including using AutoPlay Media Studio. There are many of different types of these autorun/autoplay programs available.
There has been a lot of input from many members, and I do believe there are many here at fileforums and at cdsteam.net who have really made all these different conversion methods possible!
For other multiple game discs be sure to check out cd-2-dvd.com.
Just keep in mind tho, not all games are suitable to be used on a multiple game DVD.

Enjoy.

[DragonStefan]

I dont get it, can u please send the files to me? Files: autoplay.exe, autoplay.ini, autoplay.ucs, i only got autorun.inf with the program Autoplay Media Studio?

And the link you mentioned isnt avaiable anymore..?

[DABhand]

The autoplay.ucs is for Dawn of War I think only.

[Grumpy]

Yes, the files are from Warhammer 40000 - Dawn of War.
Do you have Dawn of War? If not let me know and I will send you the files you need for the conversion. I wasnt aware the link was no longer working? It was working a few weeks ago.
Also there are now easier ways to do these types of conversions. May I suggest looking at the Age of Empires (All Empire games on one DVD) conversion or some of the other conversions which use and Custom Install Menu. The program 'CDMenu Pro' is rather cheap to purchase and is very easy to use. There is alos a trial version available.
Also are you trying to convert the Harry Potter games using the 'Multiple Games' conversion?