Thought this would be a simple enough task, yet I am left perplexed at how such an easy concept could be so difficult.

I am trying to take some game footage on cd and permanently save it on my hard drive, yet it seems impossible. CD footage is from a camcorder and isn't copyrighted or anything of that nature...... suggestions ?

You need the proper tools.

If it's already in DVD format, you can use a free program called "DVD Shrink".

If it's an AVI file, you can use another free program called "Virtual Dub". I think VDub may be able to edit DVD (mpg) files but I'm not sure as it's been a very long time since I've used it.

The free program VLC Media player will convert DVD or VCD/SVCD to avi's. Also Xilisoft makes a nice suite of programs (available individually) including one for ripping DVD's that I'm pretty sure will do VCD's.

By video CD, do you mean an actual video CD - ie the kind that was popular in Asia before DVD, and stores about an hour of good VHS-quality video?

If so, I believe the actual video will be in a large file (or files) with the extension .DAT and you should be able to just copy it over to the PC, and then either play it manually in something like VLC or rename it to .MPG and play it in any player that does Mpeg1.

If it's from a camcorder, it could also be some semi-proprietary format. If you're lucky, it will be .MOD files which are just another renamed MPeg (with a few options missing, for example if it's widescreen if you just rename it to .MPG it will probably play as 4:3 - google on SDCopy for a good program to fix that.)

Late response here on my part but to answer your question... the cd in question was burned off of someone else's computer and handed to me. It's of a soccer team we run and I want to put the game footage from that game permanently on my computer. Movie Maker let's me watch it and chop it up but it won't ever let me save it, super fustrating as this should be such a simple process... or so I thought.

Virtual Dub will do it for you.
Just open the .DAT file from the disc with it, and save it as divx, or whatever else.
Give me a shout if you need this. I worked a LOT with these kind of things.

If you have a place where you can upload the file to the web, I can download it and convert it for you.

There is a piece of free software called Handbreak. I think they make it for the Mac and the PC now. It should work.