No its not what you think. I bought quake 4, popped in the disc in, loaded it on my machine and it asked for the cd key. The manual says its on the jewel case and the game says its on either the case or in the manual. For the life of me, I cannot find it. I have a big sticker on the box that begins with thats in the format of AAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD-EEEE but the game refuses to accept anymore characters beyond the DDDD portion. I'm usually obtuse so bear with me but for the life of me, I cannot locate what could be the license key. Is it possible that I got a disc w/o one?
There few regular places where the cd-key may be: 1) Inside the case, check either above or bellow the disc holder. 2) At the backside of the manual. 3) Any loose sheets that came with the game (can be found from the same holder as the manual). The option number one should be quite easy to notice, though few times I have missed it and wondered where the key is. So just recheck the case, and as swcarter said it won't be outside the box. As for number two, if the key is printed on the manual it's almost certainly always at the back side. Never inside, or at least I have never seen it anywhere else. As for number three, check all the loose sheets you got with the game. Some may look like ads but actually hold the key (or key to unlock special features). If none of these locations hold the key I suggest to return it to store.
