I have a storebought copy of Medieval Toal War II. I had played it for a while, but uninstalled it to make room on my computer. Now, I want to re-install it, but I can’t find the serial number. It’s supposed to be on the back of the game manual, which I can’t find. I have the game box with bar code number, the tech tree chart and the discs. Is there any legal way to get a new serial number?
Contact the publisher. They will usually send you a new copy of the game, provided you send them the old one.
Usually they won’t even make you go that far. Often they’ll just email you a new serial, or ask for you to make a photocopy of the discs and email it to them.
Thanks, I had no idea they would do that.
Once you get it, download Belarc. It’s a free system auditor that will display keys and serial numbers, among other useful system information.
Vlad/Igor
just crack it. Faster and easier, and you can get a no-CD crack while you’re at it so you don’t have to have the disc in your computer to play. You paid for it, it’s a legal copy, don’t worry if you go around certain legalities for ease of use 
seriously though, I have no problem with cracks and no-cd keys so long as you have purchased a legal copy. I’ve even gone so far as to buy a game and, due to DRM, not install my legal version at all but download a pirated version of said game. I figure I bought the game, the devs/pubs got their profits so all is fair, I just don’t want their crap DRM on my computer so I’ll get the better version (which is the DRM-free, pirated one)
I live in Indonesia, so if I wanted, I could buy a pirated version of any game for $1, but as I said, I’m looking for legal work arounds. Not just for ethical reasons, but also because other solutions often come with spyware and virus.
If you’re not interested in online play, just type 1111-1111-1111-1111 when it asks for the CD key. This should work.
Folks, just a reminder that we do NOT discuss how to do illegal activities on this board. Any additional comments along these lines will generate a warning and potentially a thread closure.
Out of interest, have cracks even been deemed illegal?
Don’t know about American law, but here in Finland, circumventing “effective technical” copy protection is illegal. The law is a bit unclear on what is defined as effective copy protection. Cd keys probably don’t count.
Won’t happen again.
It may not even take that much. Back in the days when games came on floppies, I accidentally erased my Lemmings disk, and the company sent me a new one after just a phone call. I think that I had registered my copy, so they had me in their database.
Or use a friend’s key. Or one that you find on-line. I think that would be legal, as long as you’re using an authentic disc that you’ve bought.
I don’t know about Creative Assembly, but when my serial number for Star Wars Galaxies turned out to have already been used/cracked, a simple photo of the CDs emailed to the customer service was enough “proof of purchase” to get me a new serial. It did take about a week of back-and-forth dialogue to establish a modicum of trust though.
On the whole, I think gaming companies would be rather lenient when it comes to that kind of thing - an honest to Og pirate wouldn’t contact them when there are cracks and keygens galore. And they certainly wouldn’t want to piss off a possible future customer, either.