Conversion by: Ewoud, DVT and harrysmith

Part I: Creating one automated DVD installation from the four CD’s

-Create 4 folders anywhere on your pc and copy the contents of each CD into 1 of the 4 folders.
Don’t forget to set windows to show all files before copying from the CDs!
Name the folders CD1, CD2, CD3, CD4 (i.e.: C:SIMS2BACKUP\CD1, C:SIMS2BACKUP\CD2… etc)
Rename the 1st folder SIMS2_DVD to know this is the folder we will work in and burn the contents of it later.

-A controlX.dat file can be found in each CD folder in the path: tsdatacontrol where X stands for 0-3.
Now copy the ‘controlX.dat’ file from each tsdatacontrol folder of CD2, CD3 and CD4 folder to the tsdatacontrol folder of the mainfolder SIMS2_DVD, leaving you with four controlX.dat files in your mainfolder’s tsdatacontrol
For the record: control0.dat, control1.dat, control2.dat, control3.dat

-Now unzip the contents of the ‘compressed.zip’ file of each CD folder into the SIMS2_DVD folder doing the following:
In win9x using WinZip and in Winxp just by right click and select unpack everything…
When asked were to unpack, write the path to the SIMS2_DVD folder on your pc, or browse to it. (i.e.: C:SIMS2BACKUP\SIMS2_DVD)
The contents of each compressed.zip file will have 2 folders called TSBin and TSData and so does the main folder have already so when unpacking we choose to overwrite the folders, combining/ updating the contents of all compressed.zip folders into the main folder’s TSBin and TSData folders. So, when prompted to overwrite by Winxp or Winzip, choose ‘yes to all’ or similar.

From the compressed.zip out of the CD4 folder, two other files are copied as well to the main folder during the unpacking job: Sims2-UNINST.exe and eauninstall.ico.
For the record: after this action taken, in the main folder we only see two new files and the contents of the already existed TSBin and TSData have been updated with the contents of the compressed.zip files from each CD folder.
You can now delete the compressed.zip file from each CD folder.

-Alternatively you could unpack the contents of each compressed.zip folder of each CD into one temporary folder, also choose to overwrite with every unpack and when unpacked all the four compressed folders, you would have 2 folders and two files:

TSBIN (Folder)
TSDATA (Folder)
Sims2-UNINST.exe (File)
eauninstall.ico (File)

Select the four objects (files and folders) and copy them and move to the main folder (SIMS2_DVD) and paste them into it; overwriting (actually updating) the already existing folders named: TSBin and TSData.

-Now also from the CD4 folder copy all the **_compressed.zip (14 folders)
So every compressed folder that has an underscore in its name: i.e. ‘nl_compressed.zip’ , ‘en-uk_compressed.zip’ etc… these folders contain language specific data for setup and install.

-A contents check if you have copied everything right, must result in 39 files and 7 folders in the main folder SIMS2_DVD.
The 40th file could be a textfile containing your Sims2 CD key to install, in case you lost the manual you have a key on the DVD.

-Inside the main folder SIMS2_DVD you’ll find a file called common_filelist.txt.
Modify the contents of this file like the following:
Just copy and paste the list here into the textfile, overwriting everything and save.

EDIT By Grumpy – 28th July 2006: Not everyone will be safe to copy and pasting this! There are now bargain bin versions with different version numbers so it wont be exactly the same as the text below!

1,1,eauninstall.exe
1,1,eauninstall.ico
1,1,Sims2.ico
1,1,Sims2_Uninst.exe
1,1,CSBin\1.0.0.932
1,1,CSBin\PackageInstaller.exe
1,1,CSBin\properties.txt
1,1,CSBin\TS2BodyShop.exe
1,1,Support\*.* /s
1,1,TSBin\1.0.0.932
1,1,TSBin\Sims2.exe
1,1,TSData\Control\control0.dat
1,1,TSData\Control\control1.dat
1,1,TSData\Control\control2.dat
1,1,TSData\Control\control3.dat
1,1,TSData\Res\*.* /s
1,1,TSData\Sys\*.* /s

Part II: fixing the game’s executable to run with a self burned DVD.

Download the mini-image GCW posted on their website:
‘The Sims 2 v1.0 [ALL] No-CD/Fixed Image #2’ http://m.spacetarget.com/games/pc_the_sims_2.shtml or choose a local mirror from www.gamecopyworld.com.

*Do not download the Spitfire one as you will not be able to copy the needed files*

-Unpack the image from the rar-archive (www.rarlab.com)
Mount the image (You can use Daemon Tools from http://www.daemon-tools.cc to mount) and copy the 2 *.TMP files from it into the main folder SIMS2_DVD
(you only need the 01*.TMP file, but copy both just for good measure).
When prompted, choose to overwrite the already existing TMP files..

The overwriting of these TMP files is part of the CD-protection removal and to get the CD version works with the DVD version fixed executable.

Download the following modified executable, to make the game run with a self burned DVD in your drive.

The Sims 2 v1.0 [MULTI] No-DVD/Fixed EXE http://m.spacetarget.com/games/pc_the_sims_2.shtml or choose a local mirror from www.gamecopyworld.com

-Unpack the fixed executable from the rar-archive (www.rarlab.com) and copy (overwrite) it into the ‘TSBin’ folder in your SIMS2_DVD main folder.
Eventually you can choose to backup the original executable first by renaming it to Sims2.bak before copying the fixed exe into this folder.

Finally burn the directory to a DVD-R (or DVD-Rewritable to test first), and make sure to label it correctly (CD version CD1 should be: ‘Sims2_1’).
They are case sensitive. If you use Nero, do not use ISO 9660 text for the Joliet label, otherwise the name will show up in all caps.
The name MUST be case correct.

Note: To be sure it works, you can now unmount that virtual image from your Daemon Tools virtual drive; it was only meant to copy over the TMP files for removing the CD check for the original CD/DVD.

To make the DVD Update without needing The Sims 2 CD4: – Submitted by ‘harrysmith’

Do all of the above.

Edit the Autorun.inf file and change it to this:

[autorun]
open=Setup.exe
Icon=Sims2.ico
Name=The Sims 2

[Special]
Disk=1,4

Then copy the Compressed.zip file from CD4 into SIMS2_DVD folder.

Burn the contents of the Temp folder (the SIMS2_DVD folder) to a DVD with the Label: Sims2_4

If all goes well, when you update with patches or addons, it will ask for the Sims2 CD4 but you will be able to use this DVD to update it.