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[Blade Master Model 42]

As I mentioned to a couple people pm the forum, a short while ago I acquired a new, much better computer. Problem is, many of my games are on the old computer.

One in particular is Sid Meier's Pirates! I have the disks, but, I don't know where my installation key is. I live with my family, so in all likelihood, it's been thrown away/destroyed/exploded into the cosmos.

So, I was hoping someone could tell me how I might acquire a new key. This would also be useful for my Star Wars: Empire at War, because if memory serves, that one is missing too.

Halp?

Edit: Never mind on Star Wars, my brother reminded me that, in fact, we do have the key for Empire at War.

[Heliman]

*dusts off copy of Sid Meier's pirates that was never opened.*

...

Nah, this is one's mine. However, if you want to play these games again, the last thing I could suggest is for you to do is to go look for a key gen for your games, especially somewhere like youtube, where you can easily scan the responses to the videos for legitimacy and receive an instant guide for how to use it. That would be illegal for you to do and could get me in hot water if I were to suggest it.

[lordnincompoop]

There's several places for you to buy old games, and there's probably some on Steam. I haven't tried doing it myself, so I can't help much by way of instruction, but I bet there's a few peeps here that could help ya further.

Of course, there's always the Dark Side.

[Heliman]

Oh wait, I just reread the rules, it turns out I don't even have to be dodgy about this; as long as I don't supply links and you don't ask for any. Get a key gen/crack, you'll find a lot of them on YouTube, Just search up the name and check if the responses say it's legit and if the users who say it's legit are not bots themselves. If there are no responses, check to see if responses need to be checked first. If thumbs up/down is disabled, it's instantly a bad link.

[Blade Master Model 42]

Thanks for the responses. Turns out my brother took care of it while I was in the land of nod last night though. Heh.

[Lord Shonus]

If there's any you still lack keys for, many games store them in the windows registry. Edit the one on your old coomputer.

[Grakelin]

I managed to salve a TFT CD-Key by going to the registry one time. I was so glad.

[Itnetlolor]

I don't remember where I heard of it, but there is something that you can download that does a scan of all your games that are already installed and if they have a CD-Key on them or something, it filters them out and tells you which keys belong to which games/programs. Handy program for situations like this.

EDIT:
Found one. Just like I said. It scans your registry for the keys already installed. It should be compatible with your old computer hopefully.

Link

That not enough to do it, here's a list: Link

Most promising find

[breadbocks]

Itnet, please edit those out. They're against forum policy.

[Greiger]

I haven't checked the links themselves but from his description of it it doesn't sound like they create a key from thin air, it sounds like it just finds the keys you have already linked to the game when you installed it and displays them to you.  In case you lost the physical copy of your CD key but the game is still installed legitimately on a system you have access to.

If the game requires a CD Key, but you never entered one, it does nothing.  If that's a description of a piracy tool then I say "Arr.". 

That's like saying getting a new computer and transferring your windows license to the new one is high piracy.  A computer tech store I worked at did that, and we even advertised it.  Nobody ever came to shut us down for it.

EDIT: Looked at the links.  Yea I've heard of product key finder.  It does exactly what it says on the tin.  Pretty legit from my experience.

[Fenrir]

He would appear to no longer need such help in any case, as he states that his brother took care of it while he was in the land of Nod. I can only speculate about what precisely “taking care of it” means, and only Armok knows where the land of Nod is.

[Greiger]

Ah yea I missed that.  Sorry.

....holy shit....Fenrir?  Is that really you or just somebody with your forum name?  Dude, I missed ya man!

[Fenrir]

Hardly any need to apologize, as you were making a perfectly legitimate response to someone other than the original poster anyway.

Yes, it is the original Fenrir. Missed you too, Greiger.

[ChairmanPoo]

I can only speculate about what precisely “taking care of it” means, and only Armok knows where the land of Nod is.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Itnetlolor]

Itnet, please edit those out. They're against forum policy.

I   haven't checked the links themselves but from his description of it it   doesn't sound like they create a key from thin air, it sounds like it   just finds the keys you have already linked to the game when you installed it   and displays them to you.  In case you lost the physical copy of your   CD key but the game is still installed legitimately on a system you have   access to.

If the game requires a CD Key, but you never entered   one, it does nothing.  If that's a description of a piracy tool then I   say "Arr.". 

That's like saying getting a new computer and   transferring your windows license to the new one is high piracy.  A   computer tech store I worked at did that, and we even advertised it.    Nobody ever came to shut us down for it.

EDIT: Looked at the   links.  Yea I've heard of product key finder.  It does exactly what it   says on the tin.  Pretty legit from my experience.

I am aware of the forum policies, and the software I recommended is like I described them. They're not key generator programs (which are illegal), they're key-finders that find keys from within your computer's registry (legal, provided it's used as it's intended; software companies, and maybe even Geek Squad, tend to use software similar), and in case you're worried about Steam games and snagging codes from them, I think the developers of Steam foresaw how these programs work, and keep the keys within the service system itself one way or another, and pretty well encoded if by any other means (in other words, be sure to record the keys from the pop-up windows if you want to keep using them; after all, you did buy the key to use them). I mean, testing the links and products, I used the most thorough settings, and found most of my old program keys that I physically installed from disc. Any keys found within Steam's registry was massively encoded, and gave me nothing but pages of question marks and artifacts, and the rest were blank or had overly simplified writing in place of keys (apparently freeware registry stuff or something that's a false-positive).

I'm smart enough to do my research before advising something that could be misinterpreted as illegal or against policies. I thought my descriptions of how the programs worked initially was clear enough about that. Even the link to the list had reviews about the programs and how they worked. It's a hit or miss system (IE- not all programs/games keys will be found), but they are legit and user-friendly enough to get what you need. I tested them myself. They're also spyware/malware-free.

EDIT:
Even though the problem was dealt with anyway, I figured I'd still help out anyway, just in case someone else encounters a similar issue; a solution would already be provided.