M'Aidez!

[shinytoaster]

I felt like reinstalling my old copy of Simcity 4 earlier this evening, so brought out the game and fired up the old CD-ROM. Of course, the original install was wiped from my PC back when Lowell and I reinstalled the entire system back in September.

I had, however, forgotten that EA games require a serial number from the back of the manual, and of course in the two and a half years I've owned the game, the manual has been lost, either left behind in the move or consigned to the (literal) dustbin of history. So I can't install my game.

There is a way to get a replacement number, but it involves sending $10 to EA in California, and I'm damned if I'm going to send $10 to them for a fucking sixteen digit code for a game that I bought legally.

So if EA are going to jerk me around, I am going to jerk EA around. This is where I ask for under-the-counter help. Does anybody know what to do?

Comments

[akahannah.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this, Alex! I'm in the exact same situation with my Sims 2 manual. Any advice would be absolutely brilliant - I'm going crazy here without my weekly fix!

[vardaman.livejournal.com]

I used to do this thing where I'd be overcome with self-loathing for everything I did, amongst which particularly the playing of computer games. So I'd hide them from myself all over my parent's house in their constituent parts disc/manual/box. Thus I frequently had to rebuy things becuase I wasn't able to find them again. Anyway, as long as you have a good virus checker you can download a key generator (or "keygen", as them what's down with the kids call it) that will generate your sixteen digit number for you.* I did this with a game and found it viral about 8 months later, when I'd bored of the game anyway, so they both went in the whatnot, bin.

* Not that I condone this sort of thing.

[sophie10.livejournal.com]

I'll give you my number once I'm home.

[ceejayoz.livejournal.com]

Astalavista.box.sk has a search for serials, but DO NOT do it with IE.

Hell, to be safe, don't go there with Windows if at all possible.