Purchased Pirate Copy
 

I think I may have purchased a pirate copy of SH3 on Ebay :arrgh!:
It stated that it was "NEW,ORIGIONAL & SEALED", it looks new, smells new but it dont taste new:down:

I cant do the following actions on it:-

1.Patch it to 1.4
2.The Gramma Phone doesnt work in the Radio Room
3.Cant load external torpedos into the submarine
4.Cant install the Grey Wolves supermod

:damn:
Ive emailed the seller and he swears it the "real thing" but I dont understand why these issues have come up if it is a "Genuine" version???:hmm:

Well there are several versions. CD/DVD Europian / US etc etc.

Insure that you are attempting to apply the proper patch version.

My gramaphone did not work until I had it patched w/ 1.4B.

Did you get an error message?? After installing, playing, patching & adding GW, I had to wipe it & re-install but the patch would not work. I ended up having to run a registry cleaner to remove traces of the original install..

Ditto on checking for the correct patch..

Good Luck!!

I only purchased software one time on Ebay and that was because the game was no longer produced for retail sales anymore. Maybe that was your situation and I don't live in the UK, but my advice to everyone who wants software is to always purchase new retail if possible, which will almost guarantee you will get an unscratched usable CD, a legal authorization code, and a manual etc.

I hope you get it going though, good luck.

Once you know which version US / EMEA etc, you will be able to patch to 1.4b.

Once you patch it, the rest will work.

Sounds weird.... Strange that this small things (like torpedo loads etc...) should be affected if this was a piratet copy. The only thing that can explain this, is if there is missing some files. But then the whole shabang wouldnt work... :hmm:

Its definately the European Non DVD version, i suspect that the disc may be an ISO copy and some how there are files missing somthing to do with an engine dll file in the data folder, im not too sure as im not to clever with the gubbings of a game program...

wish i had hung out with the geeks in school back in the 80's :know:

:lol:

Im still sure this is a pirate copy, if it is then the selller is in trouble with Ebay for spoiling my gametime and ruining the gaming industry :nope:

Well, i cant give you any further advice, because that would implement illegal procedures. Maybe someone else could give you some more info on this. I hope you get this fixed, mate! :yep:

Any advice at this stage would be a start :cry:

First of all, did it have the starforce/protection code? Mine was located inside the CD holder and I had to use it for the game to run. If you have no code and did not require it to start the game...I would say you have a pirated copy. :nope: let us know.

yes i had a serial code inside the box, it looks pretty genuine but then if it is a pirate its the first ive ever seen as i always usually buy my games from play.com, they were just out of stock on sh3 so i used ebay.

If the game asked for that code I would suspect it is the genuine article. If that is the case, you need to detemine if it is the UK or USA version. What I would do is uninstall everything...all files and folders. The game also installs a fold in MY DOCUMENTS. Dump that also. Do a search of all files and folders off search function found off the start button. Delete all that is found. I typed in SHIII and found some folders that I did not know was on the hard drive. I found this out when I did a fresh install for GW and could not get the 1.4 patch to load. Once that is done, install the game again, get patch 1.4 for the USA version and install. It should go in I hope. If not, start the whole process over again and use the 1.4 patch for the UK version. If that does not work, find a skeet range and load. Scream "pull"...fire your shortgun! Let us know what happens.

I'd say even if it was pirated... there is no reason for it to have any missing features or extra bugs.
Does the DVD even look dodgy?

No the dvd looks tip top, i just tried the game again and this time i couldnt even get the damage control party to fix minor damage :cry:

My whole crew is falling apart, maybe they dont want to be on a pirate boat anymore.

:arrgh!:

Dude, were you in silent running mode? Crew will not fix and torpedoes will not load. After all, they are being silent.