Disk image for gaming?

[bluedogz]

Good morning-

I have a late-2011 13" MBP, ML, 16 GB.
I travel a lot for work, and often get trapped in a plane/airport/train station/etc., when I usually bust out a game like Civilization IV to kill the time.

I am considering swapping the optical drive for a second HDD. This serves my storage needs fine, but would prevent me from inserting the required CD to run much software. I could lug along an external drive, but the objective here is to carry LESS stuff.

Is there a means to perhaps save an image of the CD to avoid carrying the drive and CD along? I'm not even sure what this would be called, so searching for a solution is becoming cumbersome...

NOTE: I am NOT asking how to pirate software. I'm referring to fully-licensed retail copies of stuff I own.

 

[Macman45]

Indeed, and I do exactly this for X-Plane 10 because I wish to preserve the DVD1 disc from damage.

This procedure will work with most games:

Insert the disc that is normally required for you to run the game in the optical drive....It doesn't matter if its an external.

Open Disk Utility and choose " New Image " from the top menu bar.

Name the image exactly the same as it appears when you insert it to play the game.

Create the image (DMG). This will take a while x-planes is 6.6 GB.

Once created, put it into the folder where your game is installed, or somewhere you can easily access it. Test it by loading the DMG image and running the game.

It's not piracy, as you are only making a copy for your own purpose, and for a game that you own.