Yuri's Revenge Serial number issue.

[RyanOttomeya]

My wife and I each bought our own copies of TUC, and Yuri's Revenge will not let us play on a network together, due to have the same Serial#. We're on different accounts, and different computers, so this does not make any sense whatsoever. Is there a fix for this, or did I waste money on games we can't play together? =/

[Nyerguds · Accepted solution]

@RyanOttomeya

Ah, that issue...

The problem here is that I think the full-hard disk install of Yuri's Revenge doesn't actually set a unique serial in the system registry.

To solve this issue, you need to start regedit (just type it in the start menu), go through the tree to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Westwood\Yuri's Revenge (for RA2, the key name is "Red Alert 2"), and find and modify the "Serial" value in there.

[edit]

If the "Serial" field does not exist, right click, select "New" -> "String value", rename it to "Serial", and then edit it and type anything you want in there, and make sure it's different on the two PCs.

Note that the "Wow6432Node" node between "SOFTWARE" and "Westwood" only exists on 64-bit systems. On 32-bit systems it'll just be "SOFTWARE\Westwood".

I don't think the game actually requires a valid serial there; only the original CD installer checks that, not the game. But for network play, it does need a unique one there. So basically modify it to anything random you want, and as long as it's not the same on both PCs it should solve the issue.

[Nyerguds · Accepted solution]

@RyanOttomeya

Ah, that issue...

The problem here is that I think the full-hard disk install of Yuri's Revenge doesn't actually set a unique serial in the system registry.

To solve this issue, you need to start regedit (just type it in the start menu), go through the tree to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Westwood\Yuri's Revenge (for RA2, the key name is "Red Alert 2"), and find and modify the "Serial" value in there.

[edit]

If the "Serial" field does not exist, right click, select "New" -> "String value", rename it to "Serial", and then edit it and type anything you want in there, and make sure it's different on the two PCs.

Note that the "Wow6432Node" node between "SOFTWARE" and "Westwood" only exists on 64-bit systems. On 32-bit systems it'll just be "SOFTWARE\Westwood".

I don't think the game actually requires a valid serial there; only the original CD installer checks that, not the game. But for network play, it does need a unique one there. So basically modify it to anything random you want, and as long as it's not the same on both PCs it should solve the issue.

[RyanOttomeya]

I'm looking at that section right now, and all I see are: Default, InstallPath, HTMLPath, Name, SKU, and Version.

[Nyerguds]

@RyanOttomeya

I suggest making it then. Right click, New -> String value, rename it to "Serial", and then edit it and type anything you want in there, and make sure it's different on the two PCs.

[RyanOttomeya]

This worked like a charm - thank you so much.

[FJZP]

Thanks a lot man really thx u so so so so much

[0wxiai7rh0j6]

I cant seem to find The file Westwood for some reason all that i can find is some other game companies but none of them is westwood please help!

[Nyerguds]

@0wxiai7rh0j6 

Everything I wrote was about registry keys inside regedit; those aren't files and folders.

Anyway, if it doesn't exist... just create it. It's that simple.

[SalamiArmy420]

Setting unique values for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Westwood\Yuri's Revenge\Serial in the registry still won't let us play together on 64 bit systems.

[paul_aleida]

Hi. Possibly having the same issue here. Did everything as instructed, no problems there.

In-game (YR): After selecting 'Network', 'Players' shows both players (me and player two) and 'Games' shows 'Lobby'.

After one of us creates a 'New' game, the hosting player disappears from the 'Player'-column and no new game show up to join in the 'Games'-column.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!