Mac Bioshock (DVD) - install limit?

[nagromme]

I installed Bioshock (boxed DVD) but only played for a few minutes, on an older iMac. I intend to play it on my next MacBook Air instead (even the current Air benchmarks pretty well with Bioshock, better than my iMac).

Since I don’t intend to get a DVD drive with my Air, that means I’ll be re-buying the game as a Mac App Store download. The disc I bought is useless to me. (Unofficial workarounds may exist, but I don’t want to bother.)

Can I sell my boxed Bioshock? Is there an install limit on Mac? How many? Any way to "de-authorize" and get one back? It seems there was a limit on PC and then it was raised or removed; but I don’t recall any such patch for Mac. And I don’t know what electronic registration goes on when you install the DVD version. Is it now tied to my name, and useless to anyone who buys it from me used? What’s the deal?

I don’t want to sell a used game without being able to honestly state its limitations!

Thanks in advance.

 

[deadwulfe]

You should read through the license agreement or contact Feral Interactive about your question. It's one of those gray areas where they probably don't want to know you're selling a game, second hand, and depleting them of 1 more sale, but the legality of your question on transferring ownership would be stated in the license agreement.

 

[Hansr]

Nope the limit was only in the Windows version not in the Mac version. It's fine.

 

[Sambo110]

You should just be able to copy the Bioshock files from your iMac to your new Macbook Air and it should work perfectly, and that'll save you some money. Or make a disc image and copy it to your Air, then install it like that. I had to do that for WoW when my eMac's cd drive died.

 

[nagromme]

Copying to the Air won’t work: it requires the disc to be inserted at every launch

Nope the limit was only in the Windows version not in the Mac version. It's fine.

Cool, thanks!

I’m not worried about the legality of selling a used game--there are stores for that—just the technical limitations if any.

They won’t lose a sale in any case: if I sell the one I have, I’m buying it again anyway: the version that doesn’t need a disc.

I hope the Air and the Mac App Store together demonstrate the need to get rid of these disc checks! Eventually you’ll drop and scratch (or lose) your disc and then your purchase is gone. Down with physical media! Backups, yes, disc checks, no!

 

[cluthz]

Copying to the Air won’t work: it requires the disc to be inserted at every launch



Cool, thanks!

I’m not worried about the legality of selling a used game--there are stores for that—just the technical limitations if any.

They won’t lose a sale in any case: if I sell the one I have, I’m buying it again anyway: the version that doesn’t need a disc.

I hope the Air and the Mac App Store together demonstrate the need to get rid of these disc checks! Eventually you’ll drop and scratch (or lose) your disc and then your purchase is gone. Down with physical media! Backups, yes, disc checks, no!

If you own Toast you can create and mount most disk images instead of inserting DVD. Toast is for some reason much better suited for this than apples own disk images. It will eat up some space, but usually you don't play that many games that often.

 

[nagromme]

Thanks—I’ll keep that in mind. Depends on how big a flash drive I get, I suppose.

UT2004 is one of my old standbys still, with a zillion custom mods and maps loaded, and that game alone nearly 20GB on my current Macs!

I plan to play BioShock, TF2, Quake Wars, Portal 1 and 2, Amnesia, and (possibly) Starcraft 2 on my upcoming Air. All seem to bench OK even on the previous-gen Airs! Low res does help...

(I’d love to play UT3 and Gears, but they’ll be in limbo eternally. Not worth Windows when I have enough other games to choose from.)

 

[deadwulfe]

If you own Toast you can create and mount most disk images instead of inserting DVD. Toast is for some reason much better suited for this than apples own disk images. It will eat up some space, but usually you don't play that many games that often.

This will not work with Feral Interactive's discs, as there is something in the programming that checks for a physical disc. However, they do replace damage discs without hassling you about it.

 

[nagromme]

Ah. Good to know. Thanks.

Mac App Store it is, then! As mad as I am over the key disc copy protection (seriously! people are mobile these days and laptops are what people have!) I’m equally pleased to see Feral jump on the App Store. (And I like Steam too.)

 

[edddeduck]

Ah. Good to know. Thanks.

Mac App Store it is, then! As mad as I am over the key disc copy protection (seriously! people are mobile these days and laptops are what people have!) I’m equally pleased to see Feral jump on the App Store. (And I like Steam too.)

If you contact Feral Support we can tell you how to upgrade your physical copy to one that uses a serial and no longer requires you to have a DVD drive.

We have a simple DRM. For the DVD only versions you need to place your DVD in the drive (images using Toast etc will not work). If you have our new DRM you can enter your serial code and have a one time activation online after that you can play the game for ever on that machine and it will never try to contact the Feral DRM server again (unless you ask it to). You can also use the DVD (with your serial code) if you don't like the idea of activating your copy online.

You can have up to 5 machines activated at once and you can deactivate any machine using the front end panel for the game. If you do end up with a problem you can contact our support team. However we have not had anyone so far run out of activations so it seems to be working out fine so far for all users.

Edwin

 

[nagromme]

You can have up to 5 machines activated at once and you can deactivate any machine using the front end panel for the game. If you do end up with a problem you can contact our support team. However we have not had anyone so far run out of activations so it seems to be working out fine so far for all users.

Edwin

That’s great! I did not know I had an alternative DRM method available. More companies should follow that lead

So this should work?

1. Install from DVD on my older DVD-equipped Mac (I’ve done that).

2. Copy that installation to the DVD-less Air over the network, then

3. Upgrade to the new DRM.

4. Activate the Air’s copy without needing the disc.

This would save me having to sell and re-buy Thanks for the heads-up!

 

[edddeduck]

That’s great! I did not know I had an alternative DRM method available. More companies should follow that lead

So this should work?

1. Install from DVD on my older DVD-equipped Mac (I’ve done that).

2. Copy that installation to the DVD-less Air over the network, then

3. Upgrade to the new DRM.

4. Activate the Air’s copy without needing the disc.

This would save me having to sell and re-buy Thanks for the heads-up!

Just email our support team before you do any of the steps you listed and we can give you instructions on how to trade in your DVD for the newer DRM version.

Edwin

 

[nagromme]

Just email our support team before you do any of the steps you listed and we can give you instructions on how to trade in your DVD for the newer DRM version.

Edwin

I see. Will do! Step 3 moves to the top of the list Thanks again.