But we are talking about a friggin video game. No, I do not think keeping track of a cd key is too much to ask. I also keep a copy of it on a small slip of paper in my cd bag, and I keep all jewel cases in the same location. When I purchase a game and the key is on the jewel case I immediately write it on the cd (if it's not too dark). In theory you could use this method to play it until Blizzard sends you a replacement disk, assuming you have a backup copy of the original. Then, that key is free to use, at least until someone buys that box. I'm guessing the 'actual' key generator that Blizzard uses combines both algorithms into a single key.Īnyway, what I'm saying is that in theory you could go buy another copy of Diablo II, get the CD-key from that copy, and return it. The wily crackers can easily dissassemble the first and create a keygen for it, but it's very difficult to reverse engineer the second without cracking the server itself. So, each CD ships with a unique key, but it is quite possible to create non-unique keys.įurthermore, to stymie crackers, it's my guess that there are actually 2 different algorithms used to verify keys: one for the single player game, and another for.

For each CD they package, they put in the next serial number and print up a sticker with the key generated with that serial number. What happens is there is some (ostensibly one-way) algorithm to compute CD keys based on a seed (e.g. Since I bought the game to play on, this is not a viable option.ĭo you think each CD has a unique key built into it? No. It somehow checks for a valid CD key and if your key fails, you can't play a game. The problem with generating a false CD key is that will not work.

Diablo 2 key generator