I think your strategy of just developing entirely in Cp3 might be headed for trouble in the long run as well since it doesn't output to the latest Flash Player versions.  Certainly those more recent FP versions can usually still play something that was set up for say FP9, but there are sometimes issues with the playback.

I can appreciate your frustration with the changes from version to version.  Having worked with Cp since before Cp1, I now just accept that every time a new  version is released I'm going to have a few upgrade issues.  That's why I still have all versions from Cp3 through to Cp6 on my development laptop.

But I have to admit that when I was cleaning off some old programs last night to make room for Cp6, Camtasia 8, and Storyline, poor old Cp3 was lucky not to see the trash bin.  I can't recall using it at any time in the past year.  Even Cp4 I only keep around for testing purposes because we still build our widgets to be compatible with it.

No problem.  In the same circumstances I might make the same decision. 

Putting myself in your position, I considered that if I WAS potentially headed for trouble, I'd always appreciate it that someone was kind enough to warn me about it, rather than just stand by and watch me suffer.  Wouldn't you?

If it's quite likely that you WILL need to redo these projects, leaving it too long to upgrade them might mean that one day the source files are too far behind to be of any real use and you have to start again from scratch.  It's usually safer to increment ONE version at a time because that way the upgrade issues are smaller.

You won't get it from Adobe.  In the past I've seen forum posts asking if anyone had a trial version install file that they could share and someone might be able to put it up for download, but these get harder to find as the versions fall further behind.

For your current approach, you might be wise to start stocking up on trial version install files and putting them away somewhere safe for when the time comes you need to make the upgrade trek.  You're now officially 4 versions behind the current version (which by the way is looking great).

Possible options:

1. Ask for a trial here and maybe someone who has it stashed away will share it. I'm not sure of Adobe's policy on that, but as they're just trials and not 'cracked' or the like, I'd imagine it's ok?

2. Look at http://www.oldversion.com  - just in case

3. Ask for volunteers to do this simple update process for you - maybe someone will do it for free, or ask for a nominal fee.