Yeah this is complete bs

I bought Civ III at Wal-Mart and installed it on a Windows ME system that meets all requirements, game installs fine, but then when I try to actually play the game (I know, that's asking alot - I should just be happy with the grand visuals of installing the game) it tells me over and over to put the cd in. Ummm. . .the cd is in Morons, did you actually test this thing or just ship it out for a quick buck - dam*ed be the consequences? It's terrible consumer treatment like this that should force people to simply stop buying Firaxis games. To think that so many poeple can legally buy a copy of this game and not be able to play it because the developers were so short-sighted, so STUPID that they didn't even know the game would be looking for a code that does not exist (or whatever the reason there's about a 100 I have read) on the cd is literally beyond comprehension. I'm a software developer and if released such buggy software as this I would lose my job - period. THIS IS THE ONLY GAME IN MY 12 YEARS OF PC GAMING THAT I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO GET RUNNING.
Anyways, I tried uninstalling and reinstalling, different CD drives, no apps running in the background, blah blah blah blah blah. The No CD Crack is a myth as far as I'm concerned I can't even find any trustworthy or comprehensive literature or software program anywhere that will fix this problem. The Civ III cd is dead and does not run - it's just that simple. Plus, that's not the point. Consumers should not have to pay money to jump through hoops for weeks or even months to get a game to work that's just ridiculous. How a company can even survive after such a fiasco is beyond me but personally there's no way I would buy another Firaxis game after this, or even another Sid Meier's game since they are involved too.
Oh yeah and tech support was useless - I received nothing but automated emails walking me through useless steps I had already tried and could never get a human. When the automated system ran out of answers it simply started responding with an error stating it wasn't available. Dead End.
If anyone can point out a way to fix this I'd be glad to try it, but I suspect it won't be solved because it's just a matter of a poorly executed release and horrible customer service.
Steer clear of this one. Run far far away.