BF1942 "Map Not Found" or "INVALID CD KEY" error

There's been a veritable bargain of games lately for the PC - my personal flavour of the moment is BATTLEFIELD 1942: WW2 ANTHOLOGY which is retailing for a meager R50, and includes BATTLEFIELD 1942, SECRET WEAPONS, and ROAD TO ROME. The back of the box says you can play 1 player per CD, and the game comes with 4 CDs, so to be legitimate, you can run a LAN of 4-players for R50. Our club has subsequently purchased about eight copies, so we can do up to 32 players without fear of retribution.

Setting it up is quite simple, but if you encounter any hiccups when playing it, here's how to fix some of the more common ones I've come across:


If you install the game with everything, you can then just simply pull the EA GAMES folder out of PROGRAM FILES, and Robert's your uncle. A portable copy of BF1942 if you are on the move with your friends, or want to play it (legally, of course) on different machines. It's fully portable!

There will, however, need to be a few tweaks to get it to work on a portable flavour without the CDs (which I only condone if you are legitimate owners of enough "licenses" to play it).

1. To circumvent the CD check, you need to download a NO-CD crack from somewhere like GAMECOPYWORLD.
2. If you load the game up, with this NO-CD crack (or with a legit. CD), it should load fine. Starting a multiplayer game may render a "INVALID CD KEY" error, in which case you need to make sure your machine has the registry key updates for the game you want to join;
   
   
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Electronic Arts\EA GAMES\Battlefield 1942\ergc]
   @="2522369338354310241300"
   
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Electronic Arts\EA GAMES\Battlefield 1942 The Road to Rome\ergc]
   @="2505756655947052330605"
   
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Electronic Arts\EA GAMES\Battlefield 1942 Secret Weapons of WWII\ergc]
   @="4UKKBKREGHHHYCNF9S9J"
   
   
3. If the error reports "MAP NOT FOUND" it's because the MOD you're using hasn't got a REGISTRY update, and this applies primarily to Road to Rome and Secret Weapons (as above).

With those changes made to the game, you should now be able to play and enjoy!

Not seeing a server? Maybe your firewall is blocking the port!

Can't get DEDICATED SERVER to run over a LAN with portable installations (i.e. "CANNOT CONNECT TO SERVER" error), don't worry - I get that too... haven't figured that one out yet!

Enjoy :)