Go with Game Jackal(which is owned by slysoft.com now). It will let you play most games without the CD and without needing to make a full CD image to do it.
WOW, that's great!!
So, how do you game without creating an entire image??
Sorry I didn't respond sooner, but working has kept me from responding sooner. Game Jackal works by creating a profile of the protection on a CD or DVD. So rather than emulating the entire CD/DVD, it emulates the protection on that CD/DVD. There are some copy protections that don't work, but the vast majority of games out there will work with Game Jackal.