Yes, for convenience and sometimes compatibility.

I own Arcanum and Flatout here, [url=http://www.gog.com/forum/general_archive/gog_uses_crack_to_remove_flatouts_protection]yes.

So many gog folks in there threads; you don't see around anymore. Even Vandal, from the gogstaff.
Who's this dude?! ;P

Only way to run Il-2 Clifts of Dover is with a crack.

Well, apparently i need a crack to prevent a bug from happening in mob rule but that crack only exists to the US version (Street Wars) so... kind of?

(There isn't any crack for MR.exe, only for SW.exe)

Oh, this reminds me, I need to find a NoCD crack for Oblivion. I just installed the game on my TV/Family Entertainment computer so my son could play it. After picking out a nice assortment of mods he asked if there was a mod that let you play without needing the disc. Of course this could be solved much easier if GOG would sell Oblivion (hint hint).

Many years ago I was a bit sqeemish about using cracks. My stepdad had a huge collection of games when I was a kid and not one was legit. One day I realized that every PC game I played was a pirated version and I quit all of them. I used my own money to go out and buy actual copies of these game I was enjoying. So the idea of cracking games brought up my old feelings of guilt from those days. Today I feel a bit different after having been burned a few times by DRM. What would be great, and I'm sure they exist, would be getting NoSteam cracks for games purchased on disc. Basically just an offline installer that goes around the Steam requirement for installing and playing a game. There would still be the problem of not getting updates or patches, and that assumes all the necessary files are on the disc to begin with. It seems like a lot of work for a brand new game I legitimately purchased.

I used to use them all the time - pretty much any game I owned that required the CD to play got cracked. The only games that I have left on disc that I haven't replaced with digital copies are: Microsoft Madness games & NOLF 1 & 2. All of them are such a hassle to run on modern systems, that using a crack isn't really a problem.

This thread is very timely - I was just thinking about this the other day. I was thinking, I used to use them all the time, and I easily justified by the fact that I had actually purchased the game - it wasn't stealing. And then I got to thinking, are there steam cracks? Using steamcmd and some sort of steam crack would allow me to play the games I own on steam without needing steam. It's the same justification - I've already paid for them.

At the end of the day, I'm not too likely to go that route. I remember the hassle of finding the right crack for the right version & language, or just finding cracks that worked. It's probably just easier to keep using steam.

Actually if I had spent real money on it, I would not be very hesitant to find "alternative" download sources for the content that was supposed to be on the disk. Fortunately this has not yet happened to me.

It's possible. Alongside the cracks for many games there are alternative installers available that will install the game from disk, but without Steam.

To be honest, the of the one or two I have been caught out on, only GTA4 so far cost me a lot of money. I have played teh game many years later and found out it was a dreadful addition to the franchise, so consider myself quite lucky I didn't waste too much time on it. Lesson learned, don't buy R* anymore.

I did in the past to get rid of DRM. Then I decided just not to buy DRM-ed games any more.

Back in the age of offline/Disk DRM rarely. Most of the time its not really a crack (I guess; the last official patch for Civ4 removes Disk DRM).

These days never. Gogs do not require them & other sources for games have become to tiresome to deal with.

Actually I liked what I saw of GTA IV a lot, although it's different from GTA3/VC/SA. A shame that the PC port is such a terrible mess and it's that "service infested".

A topic about crack from a user with catnip in his name. Hm....

Oh wait, you said cracks. Nevermind then...

Back in the Amiga days the crackers often fixed game bugs - because the companies wouldn't. But back then most bugs were minor inconveniences, real game-stoppers that require a day one patch the size of the game were exceptionally rare.

I had one game that a rather bad bug that could stop game progress. In that case I could sent in my (floppy!) disks and got new ones with a fixed version. Took only two weeks :-)