Where is the CD-key?

[legatio7]

I just bought Quake 4 but I cannot find the CD-key. Where is it?

[Vlad]

what..?

[Neo]

I have the same problem

[ratboydestroyer84]

yeahh... I have this problem too after I changed the video configuration. Anybody have solved this issue?

[UmbralPenumbra]

Steam doesn't give a "CD Key" for all games, since they've more or less had the copy protection removed, and now Steam is the DRM

There are some especially notorious cases such as Max Payne 2, where the executable provided was a cracked executable. You could actually view the scenegroup's information by opening the .exe with a hex editor. On the "old forums" Valve quickly scrubbed any forum post about it, but you can still find articles all over the Web about it

DRM circumvention is a federal crime in the US, but I guess not if you're Valve

Anyway, if Steam has CD Keys available for the game, you can view them by going to the Steam Library, and on the game do Right Click > Manage > CD Keys

Quake 4 won't show this option, but if you go to q4base in your Steam Library folder for Quake 4, there's a file called "quake4key" which has the key stored as plaintext, and even has a comment telling you not to share the file with anyone

[ritualnoise]

The quake4key file for me had the warning but no key.

I was asked for a CD-key on first boot, but not when I restarted it.