well, if we have two computers and three CD-ROM drives, I guess it stands to reason that one of the computers has only one drive, yes?

That computer (mine) has two hard drives, though, so the CD-R is drive E. And the game refused to run from it. It would only run from the D (DVD) drive of the other computer.
Regardless, it ran, and we enjoyed the game, but no, my computer doesn't "run everything in existence" either. hehehe