find out hardware id for avatar game

Okay, so, I wanted to play this old game, the Avatar game from way back in 2009. But I ran into a snag, needed to figure out this hardware ID thing, which is like, proof that my computer is, well, my computer.

First off, I checked the game’s requirements. It said it needed at least 1GB of RAM for Windows XP, which, who even uses that anymore? And 2GB for Vista or 7. Also, 4GB of hard drive space and either an Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ processor. My rig is way past that, so I figured I was good to go, right?

Wrong! The game wanted this hardware ID, and I’m like, what’s that about? It’s kinda like checkin’ your ID at the store to make sure you’re old enough to buy that beer, you know? Why do they need this hardware ID thing anyway? Well, I dug around the internet a bit, didn’t find much specifically about the Avatar game, but the gist of it is, it’s to make sure the game is running on a legit setup, probably to stop piracy or something.

So, how did I find this ID? I remembered that Windows has this thing called “System Information”. You just type “msinfo32” in the Run box, and bam, you get all this info about your PC. But it’s a lot to go through.

• I opened up the Run dialog box (Windows Key + R).
• I typed in “msinfo32” and hit Enter.
• I scrolled through a bunch of stuff.

Honestly, I was gettin’ a bit lost in there. But then I thought, maybe there’s an easier way. I recalled some games ask you to run a “dxdiag” thing, which is a DirectX Diagnostic Tool. So, I gave that a shot.

• Again, opened Run (Windows Key + R).
• Typed “dxdiag” and hit Enter.

This was a bit more helpful. It showed me my processor, RAM, and graphics card info, but still no clear hardware ID. I felt like I was close though.

Finally Getting Somewhere

After messing around with these tools, I decided to go back to the basics. I right-clicked on “This PC” (or “My Computer” for the old-school folks), and selected “Properties”.

And there it was, under “Device ID”! It was this long string of numbers and letters. I copied that, thinking this might be it. I went back to the game, and where it asked for the hardware ID, I pasted this in.

And guess what? It worked! The game finally accepted it, and I could start playing. It was a bit of a hassle, but hey, I learned something new about how these games check your system. It’s like a secret handshake between your computer and the game. Pretty wild, huh?