downloading and emulating games (most of u guys know this, and digity is the authority on the subject)
copying games (originals for the few who still buy them)
detecting copy protection on games
in depth descriptions of what the protections do and how to get by them
converting media form any format to any format (nearly any)
IE. vcd to svcd... vcd to mpeg,vcd to mepg2, svcd to mpeg 2, how to rip dvds to immages that are protected by CSS, how to convert mpeg to mpeg 2.. how to convert divx files (.avi) to mpeg...
and best burning softwares and guides on how to use them.
First off if you plan to dowload anything make sure you have a "real" file sharing program and not some noob ass thing like kazaa.
Secondly make sure that u have the internet connection firewall turned off. To check to see if ICF is on or off navagiate to the following area of your pc. Control Panel/ double click on Network Connections and right click on the active local area connection on your machine. Then just go to the advanced tab and make sure ICF is off.
Now you may ask youself if you started to run a distro of dc++ on your own " how do i become active while im connected to a router " well the first thing you will need to do is find you external ip address. A good site for doing just that is www.whatismyip.com . Then take that ip address and insert it into the active ip slot under the options setting in dc++. Now you must go into your router configuration and forward a port ( i use 1412 ) using your INTERNAL ip address. It can be found by going to Control Panel/ network connections/ and by double clicking local area connection and going over to the support tab. Now once you forward this port on your router with your INTERNAL ip, u can then put in the port (1412) into the port area next to active ip under options in dc++. This should allow you to become active. NOTE: all types of firewalls (espically the nat ones in a router) will stop you from being active in dc++ or any distro of it.
ADDITON:
During this long anticpated update i will exlpain how to tell if your burner is a fully efm capable burner or not... it makes all the difference when trying to backup safedisk games. Go to this link and follow the instuctions
http://forum.alcohol-soft.com/index.php?showtopic=2196
If it is efm capable you should be fine... as long as its two sheep
UPDATE:
Alcohol 120% has been updated July 5 2005. Alas I have paid for this program quite some time ago so I now own it. It has many new features, including a near break through in beating dvd protected games. It now however requires activation unless you can get the last version that didnt (which I have saved and burned to a cd).
In other news, DVD Decrypter is most likely dead.... and that person who claims to be lightning UK is most likey a fake looking for free donations.
SECOND UPDATE:
Long time since last update, the ballgame has changed a lot since then.
DVD Decrypter is dead, as is DVD Shrink and no new versions will be released. This is old news. However with programs such as AnyDVD (very hard to crack), DVD Region+CSS FREE (easy to crack) and DVDFab are all here to fill in the gaps. Region+CSS free is used in conjunction with Shrink to remove structure protections like Sony ARCCOS and AnyDVD is probably the best choice if you want to buy it or can find a way to crack it.
Thats all on the movie front though, on to games.
Most games these days are on DVD's or have protections such that physical backups are all but impossible. DVD's (unless their safedisk in which case raw dumps via Alcohol 120% work fine) still arn't copyable. I did dump my oblivion dvd just fine, but had to make the virtual drive C: in order to get sound. The other way to fix that is to install from the virtual drive.
Emulation is the future of backing up game disks. With larger hard drives and increased difficulty in protection, physical backups are more trouble then their worth and virtual drives are much faster.
Another update may be on the way in the week following
