[Wine]The Sims won't run with debugger

Holly Bostick motub at planet.nl
Thu Jun 16 12:37:45 CDT 2005


david schreef:
> Joshua Crawford wrote:
> 
>> * Joshua Crawford <mortarn_lists at yahoo.com.au> [2005-06-10 10:10 +1000]:
>>
>>> G'day,
>>>
>>> I'm using a cvs version from a few days ago, and I've just installed The
>>> Sims and its Livin' Large and House Party extensions with minimal
>>> fuss (the
>>> icons were missing in the first setup/autorun screens).
>>>
>>> Trying to run the program, it displays a dialog with the title "A
>>> debugger
>>> has been detected" and the text "Unload the debugger and try again".
>>>
>>> So, how can I disable/hide the debugger?
>>
>>
> 
> IIRC, the "debugger" that the program is reporting is WINE itself. Now
> WHY that is happening, someone who knows WINE will have to explain.
> 

The short version is that Wine is not able to fool all copy protection
schemes in existence (as yet).

Basically, the game's copy protection is looking to confirm the
legitimacy of the game CD, but some of them apparently do this by
confirming the legitimacy of Windows in some way as well (I'm not a
programmer, so I don't know any further technical details; this is what
I've gleaned from observation and eavesdropping on people who do know
further technical details). Since Wine does not always succeed in
convincing the copy protection that it is in fact Windows (not
surprising, since it isn't), the copy protection does what it was
designed to do and refuses to run the game.

However, since what is perceived as illegitimate is Windows, not the
game-- and the game is what really concerns the makers, after all-- you
get a "second chance" via a friendly warning to "stop the debugger" (or
whatever else is causing Windows to be percieved as something other than
"normal" Windows), and try again.

This is why a no-cd crack usually solves the problem; they are designed
to disable the copy protection entirely, which in this case works in our
favor, as annoying as it is to have to use a crack on a store-bought
retail game.

Holly



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