HELP! (true story)

[fdtori]

Hi! long time player, first time poster.

This story is true (more's the pity).
My girlfriend got me Civ 3 complete for christmas: I was very happy .
Last week my computer experienced display problems that I was unable to fix: not so happy .
Yesterday I loaded the computer in my car and took it to to my friend (he's the computer wizard). After a few hours of fiddling with the graphics card we found out that my old screen has almost expended it's usefullness and is having problems with some resolutions. My friend patched it up and now it works fine but I know I'll have to buy a new one soon enough .
OK so here's the problem: when I brought the PC to my friend's place, I forgot to take out my Civ 3 play cd beforehand; so I took it out there and laid it on his desk. When I carried my computer back to the car to come back home I had the cd in my hand. I had a lot of other stuff too, so to prevent damaging the cd I just laid it on the roof of the car while I was loading it...
So yep! You guessed it!... I forgot to grab the cd back when I drove away! . I went back an hour later when I realized this and I looked and looked and looked... My friend lives near the highway, I concluded that it must have been blown away there or near the on ramp, so it's basically lost forever...
I told my girlfriend last night about what happened to her precious gift (what a loser! :suicide: ) so I could get the receipt back, you can imagine her reaction :shakehead . I went to the store this morning but all I got were sympathy and derision. I also tried to find a no-cd crack but was unable to (maybe the game is too recent).
Any ideas? Suggestion would be appreciated.

 

[sealman]

It seems to me that you will have to buy a new one.

This site has a strong no piracy policy so I would not even ask any further about no-cd cracks.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

What a beautifull story

On this forum you won't get any help in doing illegal things like making copies or running no cd cracks, not even with a cool story like yours. I advise you to consult your computer wizzard friend. Most computer wizzards know solutions for this kind of stuff...

 

[fdtori]

Oups Sorry. I didn't mean to ask about that, I buy my own games. My friend tried it cause I had already bought it, but he failed since as I said, the game is too recent. I was wondering if there is anything else that can be done. I'm just basically frustrated cause I have two good cds (play the world and conquests) a box, a receipt and a nice book; and I can't use my old Civ 3 Vanilla cd... What a waste...

 

[Zakharov]

I think that if you have the receipt of the game then you should be allowed to purchase a replacement disc for a small fee. The film/games/music industry is always preaching that piracy is illegal because you do not buy the actual contents of the disc, you buy the right to use the content. If that is the case then you should be able to buy a replacement copy (with proof of purchase) for only the price of a blank disc + shipping, as you have already bought the rights of use the first time round.

You should try this argument and see how far it gets you. Try contacting Atari directly instead of the place where you bought it though.

I have two good cds (play the world and conquests)

If you still have these discs then you can still play these versions, just not vanilla civ.

 

[sealman]

If you still have these discs then you can still play these versions, just not vanilla civ.

excellent point. why bother playing vanilla when you already have conquests. You just won't be able to install the game on another machine.

 

[fdtori]

mmmh, ok the Civ 3 complete comes with the 3 discs (civ 3 play disc, play the world and conquests) so I thought they worked only together cause I tried to play using only the conquests cd and it doesn't work, they ask me to enter the play disc 1 (civ 3 play disc) and if I try the original civ 3 that I already had, it doesn't work.
As a last resort I'll try re-installing in increments using my old Civ 3 as a start point but I'm not too hopeful.

I think that if you have the receipt of the game then you should be allowed to purchase a replacement disc for a small fee. The film/games/music industry is always preaching that piracy is illegal because you do not buy the actual contents of the disc, you buy the right to use the content. If that is the case then you should be able to buy a replacement copy (with proof of purchase) for only the price of a blank disc + shipping, as you have already bought the rights of use the first time round.

I agree Zakharov, I'll have to try that.

 

[Zakharov]

mmmh, ok the Civ 3 complete comes with the 3 discs (civ 3 play disc, play the world and conquests) so I thought they worked only together cause I tried to play using only the conquests cd and it doesn't work, they ask me to enter the play disc 1 (civ 3 play disc) and if I try the original civ 3 that I already had, it doesn't work.

I'm not familiar with Complete (I have vanilla + C3C) but I was under the impression that it was just the 3 versions bundled together. Does the conquests.exe file require the vanilla disc in Complete? Or maybe you have only tried to run the vanilla .exe file?

Just to check, are you aware that there are three separate .exe files, one for each game version?

 

[YNCS]

Have you loaded Conquests onto your hard drive? If you've only loaded vanilla, then you can only play vanilla. However, you can load PTW and C3C and then you don't need the vanilla disk.

Of course, if you get a new computer or even just a new hard drive, you'll need the vanilla disk for the initial game load.

 

[emperor conan]

why not just put everything in the box and put the original version in the place where the cd you lost is supposed to be
then just make up a problem when your returning it

 

[Zakharov]

why not just put everything in the box and put the original version in the place where the cd you lost is supposed to be
then just make up a problem when your returning it

I hope you are not being serious as that would be fraud. :shakehead

 

[Strato]

Uh no. The complete version means the play disk has to be in the drive to play, the other two are just there to install. So if you lost that one, then good bye gameplay.

And yeah, you may be able to get a replacement disk, but then it would come down to a warranty also, that would most likely be in the terms of agreement when you install the game. It could be quite messy