How to Use Magic ISO to Play Games

Magic ISO is a popular freeware disk image manager that allows users to create backups of their favorite CDs and DVDs by copying them to a computer's hard drive in the form of a "Disk Image"--essentially a virtual copy of a physical CD. What many users do not know, however, is that Magic ISO--with the aid of a plug-in created by the same people who designed the program itself--can also use those same disk images as if they were physical disks in a physical drive through the creation of a "virtual drive". Disk images can be "mounted" in this virtual drive, and they will then act exactly as their physical counterparts do. The name of the plug-in needed is "Magic Disc", and is free for download from the Magic ISO website.

Things You'll Need

• PC game disk image

Instructions

1. Download and install Magic Disc from the Magic ISO homepage. A link has been provided for you in the "Resources" section. Follow the instructions as they appear, then restart your computer when prompted by the Magic Disc install program.

2. Right-click the "Magic Disc" icon in the lower-right corner of the taskbar. It will look like a small hand holding a CD.

3. Select the menus in the following order: Virtual CD/DVD-ROM > X: No Media (Where "X" is the letter corresponding with the virtual drive) > Mount. Clicking "Mount" will open a new dialog box asking you to locate an image file to mount in Magic Disc.

4. Browse for and locate the disk image file of the game you wish to play. Select it, then click "OK."

5. Open "My Computer" and double-click the drive that corresponds to the virtual drive created by Magic ISO/Magic Disc. If the game has an auto-run feature, this will cause a new window to open and allow you to launch the game from that window. If the game does not have an auto-run feature, browse for and launch the "Game start" file in the virtual drive.

References

• Magic ISO: Using Magic Disc to mount a CD/DVD image