There seems to be be no game on my disk.

do you have a CD key? Pass it on to stardock and see if they havent already seen it registered. So you may have bought a stolen copy or something like that. Employees have done things like that before. If not try downloading stardock and downloading the game through stardock.

And other disks work?

Don't worry, as long as you have a valid cd-key you can just download Sins off of Stardock Central.

https://www.stardock.com/products/sdcentral/

I realize this doesn't fix your problem, but I assume you just want to use the software you just purchased.

Thanks everyone. Yeah, I managed to download it, but it still bugs me that I can't use the CD. As long as I can access my account, can I download this game as often as I want? I'm planning on buying a new PC in a few months, so if I NEED the disk, I want to find a solution, but if the disk is completely unnecessary with the code, than I will just ignore it.

Oh, and other disks work fine, yes.

Cant you create an ISO from the SINS files and burn that to a disk?

I don't know if that's possible, or how to do it, because I only barely know what that means, unfortunately. I'm a geek in non-tech issues, which always comes back to bite me.

you just need the code or remember you're stardock central e-mail and password.
Just remember the stardock central e-mail and password, and you can throw the CD away. You can re-download and install it as many times as you need....Stardock allows you to have two have 2 working copies at anytime. If you install it a bunch of times on different computers in a short amount of time...that can trigger a red flag...and you have to clear it up with stardock.

Cool. Last question, I think; how does it know how many "working copies" I have?

Not saying I know the entire inner workings of SD Central, but in terms of GalCiv2 I know this - When it installs the game via download it also puts some reference marker somewhere. If you were to just try running the game on another system it spits back that you have the improper machine ID, or something to that extent.

My guess is so long as you download it via SD Central you can put it any machine you want, but you only have one sign in to play online via Ironclad.

Edit : I would also try to contact somebody from the management at the store where you got that disc from. Give it a closer look as well, see if it looks like somebody printed the disc image on it as well. If it was indeed stolen from the case and resold, you might be able to get another hard copy of it.

blackwizardmagus, XP should do it without the need for any additional software. Just copy the appropriate files into the disk, open the registry editor, and export the entry for sins. I cant do a step by step because I'm on Vista and my own game doesn't work yet .

I still wouldn't know what the approriate files are or anything. I will, however, keep that in mind and maybe ask around on a different board, if the other user's idea nets me nothing substantial. Thanks everyone.

To back up the game:

Right click on the game in SDC, and choose Archive Application->Selected Application to pack it up without redownloading.

When the archive process finishes, you'll find the .sdc file(s) in C:\Program Files\Stardock\Stardock Central\BACKUP (this path is customizable in SDC's settings so it may vary). Copy the .sdc files along with the SDC installer to the portable media of your choice (CDR, DVDR, USB drive, etc).

When you need to restore, just install SDC (if it's not already there), then double-click the .sdc archive files in explorer to unpack them.

you should be able to back up the install files for SINS to CD just like you would back up any other data to CD. There is no copy protection in SINS. (The reason can be found HERE.) As long as you have the serial, your copy is as valid as the bought from the store.

Thanks then. I'm going to get another copy from Gamestop first, because I just like having the retail disk, but if I still can't read it, I'll do this instead.