Hi everyone, I posted this question improperly in the modding section before, so I thought I might get a better reply here. I'm having problems getting arcanum to work, and I suspect it is being caused by a corrupt arcanum3.dat. When I was installing arcanum it didnt install properly, but I did manage to manualy copy all of the files before they deleted themselves (when the installation stuffs up). Im a bit confused, because the CD's used to work a few years ago, so Im just assuming its caused by a scratchy CD at the moment. Would it be possible for someone the send me a copy of arcanum3.dat?
Buying another copy of the game wouldn't hurt, if you can afford it. I guess if you actually own a legal copy of the game, you can just download a cd image from the net and burn a working cd2. Provided of course, you're allowed to make personal backup copies in the country you live in. That's what I did anyway, my original CDs are long dead, but their .iso images live on.
Im pretty sure that they are originals... they look quite convincing. I've had them sitting in a pile of CD's for years after I stopped playing arcanum, so their condition is very average. I didn't think that I'd want to play them again! But as you say, I should get into the habit of making backup copies... or even getting a proper cd case! I just thought that because it was such a small file, then someone could quickly send me a copy.