Avid gamers have several reasons why they want to learn how to copy games. The most common one is to protect their original discs from damage. That’s because over the course of many days or weeks, the constant placement and removal of those discs inside the disc drive or console introduces numerous minute scratches to the surface. Other forms of damage such as warping and even cracking can also occur. And given some time, the damage will even accumulate to the point of making the disc unreadable, forcing the gamer to either forget it or to buy a new one.
But there is one glaring problem when you want to copy games: security protection. In the old days, it used to be as simple as copying and burning, but with the recent upsurge of piracy, more stringent measures have to be taken. With PC software it usually takes the form of online registration. But with the actual CD or DVD, there are usually copy protection measures to bypass first. To make the problem worse, most of these are designed to foil the attempts of popular game copying software. They do this in one of three ways: by preventing any form of copying from taking place, by allowing only partial copying, or by corrupting the data from any copied material, making it impossible to load the final disc.
Therefore, if you want to learn how to copy games, the first thing you need to do is to find the newest, most reliable game copying software you can find. This move will cost you money, but it does give you two advantages: one is that it can bypass many of the copy protection measures of your game, and the second one is that new software is more likely to produce playable copies. But since different games use different types of protection, it is first necessary to read feedback about that software, particularly with regard to your game. Alternatively, you may also try to ask the game provider as to which software they would recommend (provided you legally own the game in the first place).
Once you have found the right software, you need to learn how to use it. For some games, it is really as simple as copying and burning. The problem arises with super protected games. Frequently, these require special “tactics” and several steps in order to achieve a good quality copy. Some would even require the installation of small applets into your system. Obviously, you need to be thoroughly familiar with these, and trust the software provider, to prevent your system from fouling up. But make backups of your data just in case. In addition, the entire process could take a long while, and you might need to wait if you don’t have a fast computer.
But after all that, the reward of having a workable backup in your hands can be well worth the hassle. This backup can usually be copied further with much greater ease than the original, and if you do it right, all of the copies will be equally playable. So if you have a rare, timeless game that simply must survive, you should learn how to copy games. This is the only way to make your investment truly worthwhile.
