Yeah, again - my apologies in advance.
Right up front: i already own AoE II and the Conquerors expansion, bought & paid for, at least twice.
I got help here about 6-7 years ago, now i've got the same problem again - getting AoE2 running on a new computer. This time it's a Lenovo laptop/Win10. So just to install AoE i had to borrow an external optical drive, then install UP 1.5 (thanks to whoever built that!)
But my Legion 5i doesn't have an optical drive. Times have changed for new computers - have they changed for good old games? Is there a safe, legal way to run Conquerors on a machine without an optical drive? 6 years back someone was kind enough to slip me a safe copy of the nocd patch, which solved the problem then. Sadly i don't have it any more, but now there are a lot more machines without optical drives - what's the solution for us?
BTW i tried creating an ISO with InfraRecorder, just got a facefull of "can't read source disc" errors. And other ISO utilities have a reputation for malware. Plus the AoE validity test may not like an ISO even if i can create one.
I just know i'm not the first AoE addict with this problem. I'd be grateful for any useful suggestions (that don't include the word "Steam" - it's a long story)
TIA - grant
Right up front: i already own AoE II and the Conquerors expansion, bought & paid for, at least twice.
I got help here about 6-7 years ago, now i've got the same problem again - getting AoE2 running on a new computer. This time it's a Lenovo laptop/Win10. So just to install AoE i had to borrow an external optical drive, then install UP 1.5 (thanks to whoever built that!)
But my Legion 5i doesn't have an optical drive. Times have changed for new computers - have they changed for good old games? Is there a safe, legal way to run Conquerors on a machine without an optical drive? 6 years back someone was kind enough to slip me a safe copy of the nocd patch, which solved the problem then. Sadly i don't have it any more, but now there are a lot more machines without optical drives - what's the solution for us?
BTW i tried creating an ISO with InfraRecorder, just got a facefull of "can't read source disc" errors. And other ISO utilities have a reputation for malware. Plus the AoE validity test may not like an ISO even if i can create one.
I just know i'm not the first AoE addict with this problem. I'd be grateful for any useful suggestions (that don't include the word "Steam" - it's a long story)
TIA - grant