Battle for Middle-Earth 1 Question?

Hi,
I have the Battle for Middle Earth game, and my two brother's and mine computers are on a lan together. Which isn't connected to internet. And we would like to play together, but we can't because it says that the serial is already being used. If there is any way that we can play together, any help would be great!
Thanks.

im not sure how different it is in XP, but in vista the following method usually works:

go to the start menu, then to go to "run" (in vista you just type "run" into the search bar and press enter). Once "run" has opened, type "regedit" and press enter, a new window should open, on the left there should be a list of the main windows registries. double click on the one called "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE", it should then expand to reveal 6 sub-headings, double click on "SOFTWARE". In the next list that opens double click on "Wow6432NODE" (it should be at the bottom), you should now be seeing what basically looks like your program files just listed out in alphabetical order. so double click on Electronic Arts, then on "the battle for middle-earth"; hopefully you should see a folder in it called "ergc" or something similar, double click on that, and in the right hand half of the windo you should hopefully see a single file (probably called "(default)", that is where it keeps your serial number, so now its a simple matter of right clicking on it, and pressing "modify" you can then edit it; i usually just change the last letter on the serial number. The game should now accept it as having a different key to your bros' installations. i reallize this could have been explained better lol,. so here are some pics to help:

part 1: http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/9413/tut1k.jpg
part 2: http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/4862/tut2q.jpg
part 3: http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/8068/tut3y.jpg
part 4: http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/9813/tut4c.jpg
part 5: http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/4804/tut5.jpg
part 6: http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/9293/tut6.jpg
part 7: http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/8892/tut7e.jpg
part 8: http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/2092/tut8.jpg


the method should be pretty similar in XP, oh and i only have BFME2, so again, it might be slightly different in terms of the name of the file that key is in.

anywayz hope this helps good luck

interesting, ea often keeps the key in ergc, oh well

this method doesnt always work coz some developers hide or encrypt the key in the registry.

the only other thing i can think of aside from getting a key off the internet and reinstalling the game with it, is to do a search in the registry; go to regedit, press "ctrl+f" and type your serial number in the search box, and see if the search kind find a matching entry in the registry.

good luck again, hope you find it

Arrrgh... I found it But when I looked the first time it was the wrong one. it was Electronic arts/Battle for Middle Earth, instead of EA GAMES/Battle for Middle earth Thanks, now is works because I did find the ergc and changed it by one letter, and now my bros and I can play together! By the way I did the same thing with the cahnging of the ergc file on the crysis multiplayer, but unfortunately it isn't very fun with three people on a big map because we don't have internet on our pc's.
But anyways thanks for the help XAERO

Hi,

Sorry I am a complete noob when it comes to the technical side of gaming.

My question is, can you play 1v1 BFME1 without going online. I just want to play against my brother 1v1 over
a custom game lobby. However I know that EA stopped online services.. So can you still play my question is.
When i go under Network, there is a lobby and I am the only person that can be seen, do you need to be connected to the internet to play via Network option?

Any feed back would be great!

Ted