I lost my key code.

[phnxflyng]

I had my pc cleaned up and upgraded, and the guy warned me he would wipe it. So I diligently collected all my game boxes and made sure I had every one (I am too ignorant to go about accessing games in any way other than the traditional buy-the-box method, and downloading off the EA site worries me). Of course, I did not have the foresight to open each box and make sure the manuals were inside.

I'm missing two. One was for Pets, and I registered that one with EA, so I'm hoping I can retrieve my code from them. The other was for Ambitions, and that one I never registered, so it's just gone. I've moved seven times in the last six years. The likelihood of recovering that manual is... well, lower than my IQ, apparently. So I'm throwing myself on your mercy, Awesomefolks. Is there a way to retrieve my key code for Ambitions? My pc guy backed up all my files, if that's of any use. I cannot afford to buy a game right now, and will probably not be able to any time before October, At which time I may or may not want to purchase the supernatural expansion pack. It would be nice not to have to shell out for both.

I'm not against alternative game acquisition methods, just clueless. Please advise.

[J. M. Pescado]

If you lost it AND you wiped your computer AND you never registered it anywhere, then yes, it's TOTALLY GONE. Just go and get another one from TPB Store.

[phnxflyng]

Hi Pescado. Thanks for answering yet another of my questions, and know that the following question hurts me more than it hurts you:

Is the TPB store the online EA store, or something else?

[socurious]

Only because I also fail at acronyms, TPB is a torrent site, with absolutely nothing to do with EA. Google and ye shall find.

[phnxflyng]

Only because I also fail at acronyms, TPB is a torrent site, with absolutely nothing to do with EA. Google and ye shall find.

socurious, thank you for putting me out of my misery on that one. I actually did try google, and got hits for things like Trailer Park Boys store and The Poultry Bid store, among others. So I figured I wasn't finding my way to it without help. Your pointer to the torrent site will do the trick. Thanks again.

[J. M. Pescado]

TPB is not a torrent site. There are no torrents on it. It's a store. For shiny things.

[HomeschooledByTards]

http://www.serials.ws/ is where I go when I need a registration code but already have the disc/files. Why spend hours downloading a torrent when all you need is a registration code?

[Mirelly]

Meh, that was way too helpful. My own woes are too embarrassing to show.

Ah shit. I cleaned out my PC and reinstalled Windoze. All went well until I came to reinstall TS3. The install kept hanging on the same file. I tried copying the disc hoping I could try an ISO mount; no luck. The copy failed too. I went to TPB and found lots of torrents, but none actually achieved more than a glacial trickle of loading speed; I guess the base game is just too old. After 48 hours it became obvious that there weren't enough hours left in this present universe to complete a download.

For a while, it was a liberating experience to be Sims-free.

However I do miss tormenting the mindless little buggers, and the story-telling opportunities which follow on from their hapless misadventures. Now I've discovered that dear old Richard Branson -- who owns my ISP -- has given in to the Euro-Lickers-Of-Hollywood-Ass and blocked access to TPB and -- as far as I've yet been able to determine -- to any URL remotely smacking of torrentz, so torrenting just got a lot harder!

This is an infringement of my civil liberties  In the meantime, is there a kind soul willing and capable of putting a zip/tar of the TS3 disc in a repository I can freely download it from?

OK, so I'm a silly, who does not object to paying for a game. But I refuse to pay for it twice!

There are certain names here whom I would consider giving FTP access to so they upload a file to one of the servers I have access to.

[Tever]

Google for "NAME OF GAME serial code". There's always someone putting it up on Yahoo or something in the first couple results.

EDIT for failing at reading comprehension - try releaselog or just google for "torrent NAME OF GAME". You might get lucky and find a site that isn't blocked.

[phnxflyng]

Much obliged everyone. Problem solved with Tever's fix.

[Mirelly]

EDIT for failing at reading comprehension - try releaselog or just google for "torrent NAME OF GAME". You might get lucky and find a site that isn't blocked.

heh heh ... already done that. Should've said, I suppose. I've found two or three promising ones, but none -- after several days -- has reached completion. But hope springs eternal.

eta ... I've also found way too many dodgy sites offering a "client free" download, which then send you a set up file for a "direct downloader". Even a Mirelly ain't that dim. <sigh>