How to Rip a PC Game

Learn to rip a favorite game to your computer.

There are several reasons you may want to rip a PC game. Ripping a computer game can make the game run faster on your PC; you may want to burn your game to a backup CD or borrow a friend's game to try it out before you buy one of your own. Ripping a PC game is fairly simple and will only take a few minutes to accomplish.

Things You'll Need

• CD-ROM
• Alcohol 120% (or equivalent ripping program)

Instructions

1. Download and install Alcohol 120% or an equivalent ripping program. Ripping programs vary depending on the software; the instructions here are geared toward using Alcohol 120%.

2. Open Alcohol 120%. Click on the Start menu bar. Go to "All programs." Search the pop-up list for Alcohol 120%.

3. Place the game that you wish to rip in your CD-ROM.

4. Once Alcohol 120% has been opened, click on "Image Making Wizard." It's the first option on the left-hand side.

5. A pop-up window full of options will appear. Check to make sure the correct CD-ROM drive appears in the "DVD/CD Device" section. Read speed should be set to maximum; however, you may want to set it to a lower speed to guarantee no ripping errors will occur. Uncheck "Skip read errors." Then click "Next."

6. "Select destination directory" is the next window you will need to explore. Decide where you would like to place the image of your ripped PC game. Create a new folder if you desire. Decide in what format you wish to burn the image. ISO can be simply played on your computer with a virtual CD-ROM drive. Click "Start."

7. Wait about 15 minutes for the game to rip on a fairly fast computer.

8. Watch for a pop-up of the original screen to appear in Alcohol 120%. At the bottom of that screen, you will notice the words "Virtual DVD/CD Drive." Right-click the letter underneath that option. The drive letter may vary depending on how many media devices you have on your computer. Click "Mount image." Locate the ISO file you just ripped and click "Open." It will now be ready to open directly from your computer.

9. Click on your Start menu bar. Open "My Computer." Locate the virtual drive letter. This is the same one that can be found in Alcohol 120%. Double-click on that drive. Your game should now auto-run directly from your PC.

Resources

• Alcohol 120%