To understand the "No CD" phenomenon, we must travel back to the era of SecuROM and SafeDisc. In the late 1990s, publishers were terrified of piracy. Their primary defense was CD authentication. The House of the Dead PC port was programmed to check for specific volume labels, file structures, or sub-channel data on the physical disc every time you launched the game.
A modern coder created a launcher called "HOD1 Loader" which includes a built-in No-CD emulation layer. House Of The Dead 1 No Cd Patch
This is where the article must turn a hard corner: Using a No-CD patch on a game you legitimately own is legally murky but functionally tolerated. Downloading a No-CD patch for a game you do not own is software piracy. To understand the "No CD" phenomenon, we must