Alcohol 120%
File:Alcohol120p.png | |
Developer(s) | Alcohol Software |
---|---|
Stable release | |
Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
Type | CD/DVD emulation, recording software |
License | Demoware |
Website | Alcohol-Soft (developers) Alcohol 120% Italy (ita) |
Alcohol 120% is an optical disc authoring program and disk image emulator created by Alcohol Soft. Alcohol 120% began as a direct continuation of the defunct Fantom CD CD-ROM drive emulation software.
Features
Alcohol 120% can create disk images, either in its proprietary Media Descriptor Image file format, or in a number of other popular formats (listed below). The second popular feature of the program is its capability to emulate up to 31 virtual drives to mount disk images, making it unnecessary to have a physical copy of the disc. Virtual drives can operate at over 200 times[citation needed] the speed of the conventional CD-ROM drive (obviously depending on the hard disk speed). Alcohol 120% can also be used to burn these images (as well as those created by other software) back onto CDs and DVDs. It supports simultaneous writing to multiple CD/DVD writers. Alcohol like other disk imaging softwares eg Daemon Tools incorporates Rootkit Technology.
Supported File Types
These formats are supported by the image mounting feature of Alcohol 120%:
- .mds/.mdf, Media Descriptor Image file, (default)
- .ccd/.img/.sub, CloneCD Image File
- .cue/.bin, CDRWIN Image File
- .iso, Standard ISO Image file
- .bwt/.bwi/.bws, Blindread Image File
- .cdi, DiscJuggler Image File
- .nrg, Nero Burning ROM Image File
- .pdi, Instant CD/DVD Image File
- .b5t/.b5i, Blindwrite V5/V6 Image File (also .b6t/.b6i)
- .isz, UltraISO Image File
These formats are supported by the image making tool:
- .mds/.mdf, Media Descriptor Image file, (default)
- When making disk images of DVDs, Alcohol 120% only supports the .mdf/.mds format.
- .ccd/.img/.sub, CloneCD Image File
- .cue/.bin, CDRWIN Image File
- .iso, Standard ISO Image file
Copy Prevention
Alcohol 120%'s image recording feature is capable of bypassing certain copy prevention schemes, such as Safedisc and SecuROM. It can also create images from Dreamcast, PlayStation, PlayStation 2 file systems. Certain copy protection schemes require burner hardware that is capable of passing along the copy protection.
The program does not back up DVD titles encrypted with the Content Scramble System. Alcohol Soft cites present legal restrictions for the decision not to include this feature.
Some software manufacturers employ software blacklist methods to prevent Alcohol 120% from copying the software. There are third party tools available that attempt to counteract the blacklist methods, such as Anti-blaxx and CureRom.
Alcohol 52%
Alcohol 52% is a version of Alcohol 120% without the burning engine. It can still create image files, and mount those images onto up to 6 virtual drives, just as with Alcohol 120%, it includes an optional bundled adware toolbar. There is a freeware version of this, however.
Alcohol 68%
Alcohol 68% was an intended version of Alcohol 120% that only included a disc-burning engine, with no drive emulation. This proved to be unpopular and the program was phased out.
Awards
- European ShareWare Conference 2006 Epsilon Award [1]
References
- ^ "Alcohol Software Wins Epsilon Award for Software Excellence" (PDF). 2006. Retrieved 2007-02-28.
See also
External links
- Alcohol Software Product Homepage
- Alcohol 120% Italian website
- mdf2iso - open-source tool to convert Alcohol .MDF images to ISO images