Playing cd games from nas

[Svon]

Hi all,

I’m new to free nas and having a server in general I’ve got basic usage from it but I’m trying to see what kind of usage I can really get out of it. My girlfriend has a million cd games (nancy drew) and I think it would be cool to be able to take our cd games, download them all onto the nas and be able to just load it up when you want to play it. Is that unrealistic since it has to install on the computer or is there a way do it all from the server?

I think I know the answer but if anyone has any out of the box thinking that would be appreciated as well. Thanks in advance!

Svon

 

[Chris Moore]

You could capture the CD to an ISO file then mount the ISO via the network when you want to use it.

 

[Svon]

Thank you! is there any documentation on how to go about mounting an iso image and accessing it across the network?

Thanks

Syrus

 

[garm]

You will find that anywhere.. https://www.howtogeek.com/tips/how-to-mount-an-iso-image-in-mac-os-x/

 

[Svon]

If you think i’m not googling it first then you’re wrong. I’m sorry if this is beginner stuff but I’d prefer a helpful answer. My question was about mounting to access on the network from the FreeNAS not on a Mac which is why I’m asking here

 

[garm]

You want to mount the ISO in FreeNAS? Why would you want to do that?

 

[sretalla]

Seems to me you would just copy the contents of the CD to a directory and share that, then map the drive to it.

Or are you looking for software that makes an ISO shared on the network appear to be a CDROM "virtual" drive on the computer you want to use it on (like Daemontools used to do on windows... maybe it still does)

 

[joeschmuck]

@Svon
I'm going to drop my 2 cents as well here and please understand that you are asking for something which FreeNAS does not natively support but the folks here are still trying to help you. I say this because your previous answer comes off as angry. We are treating you with respect and appreciate it if you do the same.

Many CD games have a copy protection scheme built in that will only work if the original CD is installed, at least to get the game started. Assuming this is not an issue then you should be able to make a working ISO image. I'd recommend that you use the link @garm provided you to mount that ISO on your local machine to ensure the game can be loaded/run. If it fails then you likely have a copy protected CD. If it does run then the best answer I have is for you to locate a copy of your ISO images on FreeNAS and then mount those as desired on your computer
when you want to play them.

Another option previously mentioned is to create a directory, dump the contents of the Nancy Drew CD to that directory, share the directory, map the drive letter on your computer, and try to run from the mapped drive letter. If it works for a single game then it may work for several games, just create a new directory and share/map it.

Also, is the computer connected via WiFi or Ethernet? If WiFi then you are likely to experience some considerable lag time. You might even experience that with Ethernet cable too. If you run into lag time then you may need to upgrade your FreeNAS server so it can cache the entire ISO in RAM for example, but that doesn't mean you could get rid of all the lag.

 

[garm]

@Svon
I'm going to drop my 2 cents as well here and please understand that you are asking for something which FreeNAS does not natively support but the folks here are still trying to help you. I say this because your previous answer comes off as angry. We are treating you with respect and appreciate it if you do the same.

Many CD games have a copy protection scheme built in that will only work if the original CD is installed, at least to get the game started. Assuming this is not an issue then you should be able to make a working ISO image. I'd recommend that you use the link @garm provided you to mount that ISO on your local machine to ensure the game can be loaded/run. If it fails then you likely have a copy protected CD. If it does run then the best answer I have is for you to locate a copy of your ISO images on FreeNAS and then mount those as desired on your computer
when you want to play them.

Another option previously mentioned is to create a directory, dump the contents of the Nancy Drew CD to that directory, share the directory, map the drive letter on your computer, and try to run from the mapped drive letter. If it works for a single game then it may work for several games, just create a new directory and share/map it.

Also, is the computer connected via WiFi or Ethernet? If WiFi then you are likely to experience some considerable lag time. You might even experience that with Ethernet cable too. If you run into lag time then you may need to upgrade your FreeNAS server so it can cache the entire ISO in RAM for example, but that doesn't mean you could get rid of all the lag.

WiFi shouldn’t be an issue as a modern setup will probably overmatch 72x CDROMs at 88.5 Mbit/s

 

[Svon]

Thanks for the replies, Sorry If I came of as defensive/angry It sounded like the response to me was dismissive and didn't read my question as if I was n the wrong place asking dumb questions. Anyways, it sounds like the best option is the store the iso on a share then mount it on your computer when you want to use it, and install correct? The main reason for this post, to clarify is that these cd games, at least the one i'm working with you don't need the CD in to play, only to install. My hope was to find someway to avoid having to install each game when you want to play, rather do them all once on the server and then whenever she wants to play them just loads it up and plays. I'm thinking since it's a windows executable (the setup file) there isn't a realistic way to do this unless maybe i didn't understand the previous answers. Which is why I was looking for potentially more out of the box ideas, like some plugin that could do this or create a vm for them etc. Hope that makes sense

 

[ethereal]

Thanks for the replies, Sorry If I came of as defensive/angry It sounded like the response to me was dismissive and didn't read my question as if I was n the wrong place asking dumb questions. Anyways, it sounds like the best option is the store the iso on a share then mount it on your computer when you want to use it, and install correct? The main reason for this post, to clarify is that these cd games, at least the one i'm working with you don't need the CD in to play, only to install. My hope was to find someway to avoid having to install each game when you want to play, rather do them all once on the server and then whenever she wants to play them just loads it up and plays. I'm thinking since it's a windows executable (the setup file) there isn't a realistic way to do this unless maybe i didn't understand the previous answers. Which is why I was looking for potentially more out of the box ideas, like some plugin that could do this or create a vm for them etc. Hope that makes sense

as you said there is a setup file on the game cds and they need to be installed to work

this is what i do for my sons games.
1. do a network share on windows and share your freenas
2. install the games 1 by 1 on to the network share
3. now you can run the games in windows

 

[joeschmuck]

Thanks for the replies, Sorry If I came of as defensive/angry It sounded like the response to me was dismissive and didn't read my question as if I was n the wrong place asking dumb questions. Anyways, it sounds like the best option is the store the iso on a share then mount it on your computer when you want to use it, and install correct? The main reason for this post, to clarify is that these cd games, at least the one i'm working with you don't need the CD in to play, only to install. My hope was to find someway to avoid having to install each game when you want to play, rather do them all once on the server and then whenever she wants to play them just loads it up and plays. I'm thinking since it's a windows executable (the setup file) there isn't a realistic way to do this unless maybe i didn't understand the previous answers. Which is why I was looking for potentially more out of the box ideas, like some plugin that could do this or create a vm for them etc. Hope that makes sense

No problems, I just wanted to curb any possible conflict before it starts. We use to have a lot of angry people here and then we would start loosing long time members because they just didn't want to put up with hostel folks. I'm glad it wasn't intentional.

I don't think there is a great way to do what you are asking for, I think all your games are going to be installed on the computer you want to run them on. Thinking outside the box just a little bit, have you tried to:
1) create a large single share on FreeNAS (or a small share for testing purposes)
2) Map that share as a drive letter on your computer
3) Install your games to your computer, specifically to that mapped letter vice drive C: (drive share)

Without having the specific games in front of me it's hard to know if it will work. I would expect some data to also be installed on the local computer but the bulk of the software "should" be installed on the FreeNAS share.

Good Luck

 

[eldo]

When I would do something similar for my wife and ooooold dos games and up through come of the early 2000s copy protection schemes, I did something similar to what's below.
I did this long before I heard of FN, so I'm trying to update on the fly what I did to what I'd currently try today.

• For CD storage, I would take a look at ripping the ISOs or cue/bin to a share on FN.
  • I can't recall at the moment, but I want to remember that Alcohol was the ISO ripping program that had the best compatibility with copy protection.
  • It may have only been one type, and it might not be alcohol, but whichever ripper I used kept an index of the physical characteristics of the CD to better emulate the full physical media
    • edit: I think a few of the copy schemes would check timing of the pits/valleys on the disc, or even some block level voodoo which would catch copies made by a copy/paste, but not for operations like a DD style rip, or ghost image.
• For CD insert at runtime, I would mount the ISO to a virtual CD ROM, which made many games happy as they wanted a physical drive letter to reference and verify the disc was inserted and tray locked.
  • You might try something like Alcohol, or Virtual Clone Drive (which lets you have many concurrent ISOs mounted at the same time. This could save unmount/remount operations, but would show you as having a TON of drive in My Computer)
• For Local file storage, I would test if a combination of SMB share and NTFS junctions
  • I haven't done this with SMB shares, but do this with native NTFS folders on the same volume. Note I believe you need to be an admin to create/edit the symlinks (why is windows so difficult?)
  • https://superuser.com/questions/244562/how-do-i-mount-a-network-drive-to-a-folder
    • edit: This link implies that you can either create a transparent mount to a FN share as part of C:\ if certain games require it, or even map individual folders in the c:\programfiles directory to a FN share

If all goes well, this might get you a fully portable install (minus registry entries and local filesaves). Which, if you want to dedicate the time, can also be handled, but you might need to get a bit clever to catch all the reg entries, etc.

edit: I'm assuming you're on a windows host since you're talking about games. No idea about any apple stuff.