Windows 10 and SimCity 4

[Pat]

So I got the best solution here and more or less the only way to go, it will take patience and time but it will work.... This what I did to get SimCity 4 to love windows 10 and not spend another nickel on it.... These are the best steps and I even told the rep that Ive been playing since 2004 and never ever had to call support till now, so just being nice and friendly this is what I did....

   
• Contacted EA Support [Here Linkie] (little repetitive steps ahead but covering all bases)
• Make sure you are logged into EA Help using your Origin password, if you don't have Origin you will need that as well [Here Linkie] sign up is simple and easy to do... Also downloading is quick and painless trust me on that one ;-) ....
• Now go to the help with a game bubble and click on it.
• Chances are you will have to enter in the search box [ SimCity 4 ] click on it
• There will be a new drop down menu that will show up click on and scroll down to Technical Support and click on that
• Fill in the required information IE (SimCity 4 will not load from CD anymore after upgrading to Win10)
• For the best and hassle free I would suggest having EA call you back, I tried the chat support and said 5 min or less... HAHAHA joke is on ya, 45 min and no contact... I clicked on the call me back button entered my phone number and in about 7 min's I had gotten a call from EA support agent...
• Make sure if you still have the box that your game came in take a picture of it like so
• After you have explained to the Rep you are talking to that the CD version will no longer work with Win10 and you explained to them that you have gone threw the basics of unistalling the game and reinstalling the game with no prevail... Let them know you currently do not have the Origin version and that you have been told it works, which yes it does work...
• Hopefully by now they will give you a case number and ask you to upload pictures of your game box, CD's and activation code, you will already have this handy as like what I set up in my picture but I repeat BUT DO NOT blur out the information of your Key or the Case Number... I did this as your info will be different from mine and plus to protect my information as well...
• Hopefully the rep will now activate SC4 Deluxe on your Origin account, download it and enjoy SimCity again..

So to also help you out in advance make sure you Uninstall SC4, but protect your Plugins Folder and Regions Folder as well by simply moving them to the Desktop... The patches are already done from Origin so you will not need to do that again! You may have to reinstall other programs but if your smart you just leave them alone unlike me i dumped everything like welllllllllll a dork lol.... I hope this helps and the EA rep is as awesome as mine was to you...

[mgb204]

Just a small word of caution. Origin will likely provide you a free digital copy, I don't think this is unique to SC4 either, it applies to many EA games. Anyhow, Origin are widely known for providing (ironically ?), the worst digital version of SC4 available. Although they did relent and switch to supplying a patched version, due to changes in the .EXE the checksum validation for SC4BAT installer fails with an Origin copy. So if you are interested in making models for SC4, avoid Origin. GoG had (may still) the game for $4 recently. Similar offers are always popping up for other vendors. Remember DRM is the problem here, your on-disk DRM can not be validated (MS removed the drivers to do so), so your game is now a coaster. Origin and Steam both add digital DRM to their editions, so what's to stop those becoming "digital" coasters in future? Meanwhile, more enlightened vendors have DRM-Free copies, so it really should be the last time you buy SC4. GoG even add the CPU-Count fix to their version  , to my knowledge the only vendor to do so.

Note: It is possible to work-around installing SC4BAT, provided you have the disk version. The DRM-check only affects running the game, you can still install the disk. You have to remove the Origin Version (if installed) and install just the Disk-Version. Then, without running the game, you can run the SC4BAT installer successfully. Then remove the disk version and install the Origin version. Thankfully SC4BAT only has a one-time validation during installation.

[vortext]

GoG had (may still) the game for $4 recently. Similar offers are always popping up for other vendors.

In fact Steam has SC4 Deluxe Edition currently on sale for €2.49.