I'm going to bump this, for a few reasons. 1. The GCW page for wizardry 8 still lists the Softbeard (and v1.2.2 Farlight releases) as working with the 12_23 patch. They really do not. There's even a special note addressing it saying it works. While the game still runs with the 12_23 patch and the old EXE, you are not running the v1.2.4 executable. The version is visible in the upper right corner of the main game splash screen. I have verified that the bug which was the main reason for the release (toxic cloud overpowered) is not fixed when using the v1.2.2 executable with the 12_23 patch. Firsthand. Still Broke. I have also verified that the version of the WIZ8.EXE shipped with the two Sirtech patches differ SIGNIFICANTLY, even though their size is exactly the same. Thanks for the hard work, also waiting for the v1.2.4 EXE. I know SIRTECH supoort is giving out un-safedisc'd EXEs to people who are having trouble with the copy protection. But I do no have one. Please update the GCW Wiz 8 page! :-)
The nocd.exe file allows you to run Wizardry 8 without having to have the game CD in the drive. Just put it in the folder where your Wizardry 8 game resides, and either double-click on the file to run it, or change your Wizardry 8 shortcut to run this file instead of the regular exe file.