Mounting an ISO/MDF in OS X to be a "DVD" Virtually

[AnthroAndStargate]

I am trying to mount an MDF/MDS Mini-ISO I have so that I can play a game I legally bought without always having the DVD in the drive.

The game is Battlefield 2 and I am using a Cider port of it to play in OS X. Anyways in Windows I have a mini-iso that lets me play the game without having my CD in but I would like to use the same mini-ISO in OS X. I renamed the MDF to ISO but when I mount it BF 2 doesn't recognize it as a DVD. I guess it is because how OS X handles DVD/iso files. When I have my actual BF2 dvd in the game runs fine so I know it works under OS X.

What I need is a way to mount the iso/mdf file as a virtual DVD. Is there software like Dameon Tools or Alcohol 52% for OS X? Preferably software that isn't resource heavy.

If you can answer these questions I will praise you as the Emperor and Deity of the ATATA Forums.

 

[timswim78]

It looks like there is a Darwin port of Daemon tools.
http://daemontools.darwinports.com/

 

[AnthroAndStargate]

That says its for maintaing "unix services" not mounting iso/mdf files as virtual DVD discs. Thanks though! Anyone else happen to know?

 

[TheStu]

If you have Toast you can make a fresh ISO that should work

 

[sourceninja]

Originally posted by: AnthroAndStargate
That says its for maintaing "unix services" not mounting iso/mdf files as virtual DVD discs. Thanks though! Anyone else happen to know?

Yea that is daemon tools as in tools for managing unix daemons, nothing to do with iso files.

Not sure about mac, but on linux there was an application called mdf2iso that would convert mdf files to iso files which could be mounted.

 

[AnthroAndStargate]

The real issue I think is that it needs to appear as a virtual disc (a virtual DVD). Does Toast do that? OS X can read the MDF file fine as long as i change the extension from mdf to .iso

 

[sourceninja]

I think you need to convert it to iso or dmg, then mac can mount it as a disk

 

[AnthroAndStargate]

Originally posted by: sourceninja
I think you need to convert it to iso or dmg, then mac can mount it as a disk

If you just change it to .iso it will work and can be mounted.

My issue is it smounting as a DISKimage I need a virtual DVD (aka the OS and game thinks that it is a DVD in a DVD drive and not a disk image mounted by OS X). Is there a way to get a disc image to mount as a virtual DVD image (preferably one that can "hack" osx and not require running a program to run it but if thats necessary ill take what i can get

 

[sourceninja]

There should not be a difference, this is unix we are talking about. If I stick in a CD it just gets mounted in /Volumes just like a dmg. I guess they could be checking that the mount point reflects /dev/disk2s0 or whatever your dvd rom drive actually is. Not any way to fake that I'm aware of.

 

[AnthroAndStargate]

Originally posted by: sourceninja
There should not be a difference, this is unix we are talking about. If I stick in a CD it just gets mounted in /Volumes just like a dmg. I guess they could be checking that the mount point reflects /dev/disk2s0 or whatever your dvd rom drive actually is. Not any way to fake that I'm aware of.

hrm. Basically when I mount the iso I made for my Enemy Territory: Quake wars disk it still says "enter DVD" even though its an exact copy of the disc. so im assuming it checks to see if theres an actual DVD in the drive.

dang i guess i cant get around it sigh

 

[sourceninja]

It looks like possibly from some googling that toast can mount .toast files that convices a lot of copy protection that it is the actual CD.

There are a few ways copy protection can check.

It can look for the disk name in /Volumes - mounting a dmg or iso would accomplish this.
It can check that the some files exist in that volume - again dmg does this
It can check that the files are read only - need to make sure the dmg is read only and not read/write
Finally it can check that the mounted disk is actually /dev/disk#s# which are usually physical devices (or ram disks). This is very hard to work around. You might be able to make a ram disk out of the iso and that might trick it. But that is a lot of complicated work to just save you sticking a CD in.

 

[AnthroAndStargate]

Yeah I got toast but it still doesnt trick Aspyr's Quake Wars. What a bumer. I seriously cant deal with taking the CD in and out anymore and its starting to scratch the disc anyway. Im out of ideas and sad

 

[AnthroAndStargate]

I'm, assuming Aspyr does the last one, guess theres no way around it but I'm so sick of having to ahvea CD in.

 

[AnthroAndStargate]

Does anyone have any updates on this? Quake Wars and Battlefield 2142 for OS X both require the discs in - mounting it via Toast 10 does not trick the game into thinking the disc is in, I have to put it in manually. What a pain.

 

[wildpalms]

*BUMP*

Any further news on this? e.g. recently developed apps to enable a dvd image instead of the disk requiring insertion?

 

[Kaido]

Yeah I got toast but it still doesnt trick Aspyr's Quake Wars. What a bumer. I seriously cant deal with taking the CD in and out anymore and its starting to scratch the disc anyway. Im out of ideas and sad

Toast 10, mounted as a virtual CD and not just a mounted disk image, does not work? Afaik Toast is the only option for actually doing CD emulation instead of simply mounting the disk.