What was the software which gave the impression it could modify the contents of a CD?

[Mark_C]

Does anyone remember the name of commercially released software which gave the impression that it could write to a CD? It was shady of course, because this was being advertised for Amigas with basic CD-ROM drives, and maybe even for the CD32?

I remember seeing it in a preview section in a magazine. I think all it did was give the impression things were being modified on the disc by hiding files and creating links to files in the computer's memory or hard drive.

[Matt_H]

CD-Write, maybe?

[Mark_C]

Originally Posted by Matt_H

CD-Write, maybe?

Matt I think you're right!

I can't find any information about it elsewhere on the internet, but I did come across this discussion on the forum:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...light=CD-WRITE

My curiosity has been satisfied enough Thank you!

[DrBong]

Yep, Matt is spot-on....it was CD-Write by the very enterprising Ralph Babel! If you didn't have a hard drive, then it was quite useless as all CD "rewrites" were saved to hard drive. Although gimmicky, it was released at a time (1995/96) when CD-ROM drives were still quite expensive (i.e. a few hundred dollars or more for anything over a 2x IIRC) and CD burners were exorbitantly priced. Anyway, here are a few interesting links for the OP and those reading who've never heard of CD-Write before.

- CD-Write advert

- ACAR review

- Amiga Report review

[Mark_C]

Originally Posted by DrBong

Yep, Matt is spot-on....it was CD-Write by the very enterprising Ralph Babel! If you didn't have a hard drive, then it was quite useless as all CD "rewrites" were saved to hard drive. Although gimmicky, it was released at a time (1995/96) when CD-ROM drives were still quite expensive (i.e. a few hundred dollars or more for anything over a 2x IIRC) and CD burners were exorbitantly priced. Anyway, here are a few interesting links for the OP and those reading who've never heard of it before.

Excellent, thank you very much for the links! It's an interesting concept behind that software. I can imagine a lot of people bought it without fully understanding what it did!

[robinsonb5]

I'm not sure I'd call it a gimmick - this concept (overlaying a writable filesystem onto a read-only filesystem) is how Linux LiveCDs handle persistent storage to this day.

This software was years ahead of its time!

[rothers]

This would have been to hack games right? That's the first use I can think of, you could modify the read only files to see results instantly.

Also, love all the (can't write the word for some reason? adult stuff?) being advertised in that magazine, truly was near the end when they all started accepting those ads.