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Need for Speed 4 Vista Edition

Thursday, 6. November 2008, 01:51:00

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Here it is, finally the proper Need for Speed 4: High Stakes Vista Patch that i've been working on for a very long time. Thats right, you will be able to play Need for Speed High Stakes on Windows XP and Windows Vista (32bit or 64bit). And thats not all, this patch package also includes official NFS4 patch v4.50, High Poly Patch and updated Direct3D game engine. Everything you need for best racing experience.
Parts of this patch were made by Martin Leps (High Poly fix) and RunR (the actual compatibility SDB module).

Btw, when you run the game you have to click "Cancel" on the file integrity check screen and click Back button several times until you reach main menu. It takes some time to start the game and there is no intro video, but you can enjoy everything else just the same as you did when the game was released back in 1999.

PATCH REQUIREMENTS:
- Windows XP or Vista (32bit & 64bit)
- properly installed retail Need for Speed 4: High Stakes game (english version)

DOWNLOAD

Changelog:
1.0 - Initial release

Need for Speed 3 Vista EditionEA making fun out of PC gamers?

Comments

Anonymous 6. November 2008, 04:25

Anonymous writes:

Thank you sir.

Anonymous 8. November 2008, 23:18

Kisiel writes:

What for???
NFS HS Patch gives you much more. Works with XP an Vista properly from about year

homepage:
http://www.hsscoring.com/HSGuide/

download:
http://www.tippinfs4corner.de/index.php?showfile=1&fid=1006&p=downloads&area=1&categ=104

Enjoy!

RejZoR 8. November 2008, 23:52

I don't see any real advantage of this expansion pack unless you want to play online and have loads of junk installed (no hard feelings, but i prefer to select my own cars and extras).

NFS:HS does not work on Vista at all (64bit anyone?), and with severe problems on XP (most notably 1MB free space issue). Regular right click Win95/98/Me compatibility thingie is bad because game performance goes down like a truck off a cliff even on system where it should run with like 1000fps using max settings, FSAA and AF...

For anyone who just wants to play vanilla NFS:HS offline, i think my patch is a better option. For those who want to play online, well they are probably already using that patch...

Anonymous 11. December 2008, 01:54

john writes:

jpl572103@yahoo.com

I was able to get nfs high stakes to work with your fix. I still have one problem. While in the main menu, I go to options and controller, when I try to set up my keyboard for gas,left,right,brake,etc... then nfs locks up but the music keeps playing. Any clue as to how I can set up my keyboard?

Anonymous 11. December 2008, 01:57

john writes:

jpl572103@yahoo.com

I forgot to mention I am running vista 64/and gtx260.

I have an older win 95 pc with dual voodoos and the game works perfect
on that pc.

But would really like to get it to play on the vista pc as that is my mainpc.

please email a suggestion to me. Thanks.

RejZoR 11. December 2008, 07:04

Can you check the affinity of nfshs.exe ? It has to be running on CPU0.
Affinity.exe is responsible for assigning game executable to first CPU core.
I've had severe lockups with NFS3 when i tried running it without affinity.exe. Ctrl+Ecs or Alt+Tab when you're in the game, open Task Manager, select nfshs.exe process, right click it and select "Set Affinity...". Only CPU 0 has to be enabled. If not something is wrong.
On the other hand it also might be related to your keyboard software if you use any.

Anonymous 14. December 2008, 13:42

Nedash writes:

As soon as I do anything in game while the "checking file integrity" screen is visible (e.g. if I click my mouse or press any button on my keyboard) the game freezes.

I don't use any keyboard/mouse software and am running Vista 64 on an AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ with a GeForce 8800GTS.

If you have any idea regarding this problem please let me know.

Thanks,

Nedash

RejZoR 14. December 2008, 18:15

Thats normal. When you hit Esc, the game freezes for like 4 or 5 seconds and then unfreezes. Well, at least on mine. Just hit Esc button when you see that verification screen, wait for few seconds and it should work fine after.

Anonymous 20. December 2008, 18:23

Nedash writes:

Ah, thank you.

Takes more than 5 Seconds on my rig (more like 30), but works.
I think I just wasn't patient enough.

Thanks again for this awesome patch!

Anonymous 14. January 2009, 05:24

Jimbo writes:

Wow, first off, thanks for getting nfs3 to work (although I would like to be able to use hardware rendering rather than software). And thanks for making a patch for NFS4, but I'm just wondering how everybody is able to get it installed. I'm running Vista x64 on a quad core system with SLi 8800GTS(g92core)'s. I actually have 2 copies of the game: one from when it first came out and the other from the NFS 5 game box set. I have tried installing with both and to no avail. I click install and the window closes and nothing happens. I then tried to bypass the auto-run method, and tried just running the setup.exe files, still to no avail. I even tried changing the compatibility modes for the setup.exe files but no cigar. I was sorta hoping the NFS4 patch you made would be like the NFS3 one you made and just install the game for you after validating the CD.

So long story short... please help, I would love to play this game again.

RejZoR 14. January 2009, 05:30

Well installer for NFS4 should be 32bit (unlike 16bit one in NFS3), so it should owrk under Vista. Strange. Are you from US? NFS4 was marketed as Road Challlenge there, maybe the discs aren't that quite identical and your is using 16bit installer. But in this case you should get an error from windows that program is incompatible with your version of OS.

Anonymous 14. January 2009, 06:06

Jimbo writes:

Yeah, it doesn't give me any error. The NFS3 one did before your patch, but both NFS: High Stakes disks just close the autorun when I click install. And nothing happens when i tried just running their setup files. But yeah, i'm in the US and the game versions are both US NFS:HS.

Jimbo 14. January 2009, 07:50

I noticed somebody in passing mention this: "For NFS4 - High
Stakes, I have to disable hypertheading or dual core" at this site: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.games.need-for-speed/browse_thread/thread/98583627abf6b4c8?pli=1
Maybe it has something to do with my quad core then? What do you think?

RejZoR 14. January 2009, 10:27

My patch includes this "fix". That affinity.exe does the process affinity job by assigning the game process to your first CPU core only.
This fixes lockups in NFS3 and other problems in NFS4.

Jimbo 14. January 2009, 15:37

hmm... Is it the type of game that you could just copy and paste the right directories and files in the "correct" places and make some registry entries to brute force "manually install"? And then run your patch of course.

<edit> okay, so I have 2 copies of NFS5:PU as well (original & box set) and just tried installing from each of them. Same thing happened as with NFS4. So I'm thinking it might be a problem with how my computer is running 32-bit setup launchers. Any idea what the problem would be there?

Jimbo 17. January 2009, 16:45

Sorry bout the double post, it wouldn't let me edit my last one anymore.

I tried using your affinity.exe file to run the setup.exe file, and although it did set the affinity correctly, the setup still does not really do anything, it just sits there.

I also tried a couple other old games with a 32-bit setup launcher files and the exact same thing happens with them (star wars droidworks and medieval total war). So I am getting more and more sure that it's a problem with vista x64 and 32-bit setup launchers. I tried googling problems with 32-bit setup launchers and vista and most results claim that it's a conflict with other already running processes; unfortunately none of them state the specific processes that conflict, they just say "shutdown everything that's not vital". Any ideas there?

RejZoR 17. January 2009, 16:48

Most often users systems are so badly trashed there are several conflicts deep down around Windows core causing programs qand installers failing for no real logical reasons.

Jimbo 18. January 2009, 04:44

Well what do you know, I reformatted and 32-bit setup launchers work just fine now. Don't know what the problem was, but it's not a problem anymore.

The patch worked great but I've got a couple questions for you. In your experience with this patch, which provides better graphics results: Software rendering (and forcing the gfx card to enhance the hell out of it like the NFS3 patch) or the Hardware rendering option you provided? Cause I chose the hardware rendering option in the patch setup, and I honestly must say, NFS3 appears to have MUCH better graphics than NFS4. No shiny cars, blocky looking textures... nothing like nfs3 (with your patch).

RejZoR 18. January 2009, 07:53

Yeah, thats a "by default" problem. Just go to settings after you run the game and crank everything to the max. The game treats most of todays graphic cards as low end and thus decreases nearly all settings to low, off or some to medium. Just increase all graphics settings to max available options. Also don't forget to enable FSAA and AF in your graphics card settings. It'll look far better than NFS3 after you do all this :smile:

Jimbo 18. January 2009, 22:48

Hmm... yeah, that's strange. I set all those settings as high as they went but the graphics are still really blocky; like so blocky that the Mercedes symbol on the back of the car is indistinguishable. I cranked everything on my card settings too. I have SLI GeForce 8800 GTS's (g92 core) so maybe it's different with nVidia cards than ATI cards... I reinstalled and tried the software rendering and the results are identical. Guess I'd have to talk to an nVidia guy to find out what's wrong there.

Thanks NEways though man, I love having the opportunity to go back and play the old games I used to love.

RejZoR 19. January 2009, 07:03

Oh yeah, thats NVIDIA problem. Disable Transparency Antialiasing :smile:
Wait, same result in software rendering!?
Can you post an image here?

Jimbo 22. January 2009, 00:53

No problem, here it is:
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/1232/nfshsif8.jpg
To switch it to software rendering I just "reloaded" your patch and deselected the 3d card rendering or whatever; I did not uninstall anything. When the patch asked if i wanted to overwrite a file, i said yes. Maybe that's why i got the same results. I just disabled the TransAA and I got this same result:
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/2512/nfshsnotransaafa5.jpg
Thanks for all the help so far.

Btw, did you ever try to get a patch going for NFS5/PU? If so I would LOVE that more than any other game patch EVER!!! If EA ever re-did a game and I could choose it, THAT would be the one. That game with modern gfx and modern phys and updated Porsche car lists would be SOOOO mind blowing. They would have to leave out the AI "catch-up" system of course but seriously. I would probably have to install it, play a quick race, go change my shorts, finish a career play, and then go change my shorts again.:D

RejZoR 22. January 2009, 07:18

As long as you're in software rendering it doesn't matter what FSAA, AF or TAA you use. It's just not applied in software mode which will always be blocky. Don't have a clue why yours won't switch to Direct3D.

Try running 3Dsetup.exe manuqally from NFS4 HS\3Dsetup folder and switch to Direct3D from there.

Jimbo 23. January 2009, 01:44

wow, that's so weird. I ran the 3d app and direct3d device was already selected but i reselected it and click ok and poof, it worked.

Thanks a ton man, day and night difference!

Anonymous 24. March 2009, 15:51

col81 writes:

Hey, you're probably sick of responding to posts about NFSHS, but thought I'd ask anyway. :) I ran your patch, and it actually got the game running, which is awesome, but the menus are slow, and the gameplay is so sluggish and unresponsive, it's not worth playing. Any ideas on what might be the culprit of very slow gameplay? other software maybe? It's taxing my first Core at a 100% right now as I have the game minimized... I checked the "Set Affinity" thing you mentioned earlier, and it was set right..

I'm running Vista 32 bit, Intel Quad Core Q6600 @ 2.4 with ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT.

Much Thanks!

RejZoR 24. March 2009, 16:06

Hm, i got similar sluggish menus and gameplay during testing when i selected only Windows compatibility mode (Win98/Me or WinXP, similar on Xp system). But with actual patch, i never encountered such problems.
Do you have latest audio and graphics drivers?

Anonymous 24. March 2009, 16:26

col81 writes:

I just updated my video card, so I'll see how that goes. My sound card is kind of fancy (for studio recording) but I can dumb it down and see if that makes a difference. Thanks!

Collin

Anonymous 24. March 2009, 16:48

Anonymous writes:

I used a different sound card and updated my video card to the latest version and still have the same result. I checked to make sure it wasn't running in compatibility mode and it wasn't. I'm about to give up I think. :( Any other ideas?

Anonymous 26. March 2009, 14:58

col81 writes:

Hey, I tried this on an even nicer Vista PC and it actually ran slower. :( What luck I have... It makes me think there might be a setting rather than software that is interfering. Because they added the EA Online stuff, could it be the firewall slowing it down? I'm going to try shutting it off.

Collin

Anonymous 28. April 2009, 18:10

Anonymous writes:

First of all, thanks for this patch. But I am facing a little problem.
I downloaded NFSHS from torrents and stuff and cracked it. And the steps for the crack work fine on my mum's XP laptop. While I got vista, I did the same steps then I installed your patch but it gives me an "invalid argument":
"Need For Speed High Stakes Build: Feb 16 2001 12:29:53 E.A. Seattle
Switch (preceed with dash) Description
= = = = = = = = = = =
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
PatchRestart"

Or somthing like that.

I would appreciate any help, thanks.

Ali

RejZoR 28. April 2009, 20:49

Thats because this isn't meant for a cracked game. It should work though if you crack it properly...

Anonymous 15. June 2009, 21:56

ChronoDog writes:

Hey, I've tried your patch on Windows 7 x64, but I get the same result as Collin does - the menu and gameplay are just too sluggish and unresponsive to be worth playing, both on Software and D3D.

Actually, I got the same result after just installing the game, updating to 4.50 and running it with a "-patchrestart" commandline parameter. It works, but extremely sluggishly.

I've verified having no other SDBs/compatibilities installed for it, so I'm also about to give up.. :(

RejZoR 15. June 2009, 22:01

If its sluggish even in Software mode, tthere is something seriously wrong with your system.

Anonymous 30. June 2009, 17:12

MorphRx writes:

Thanks sooo much for your attention to this problem. I am still having a problem. After I do a fresh install of game then just run your patch, the same thing happens no matter what....It just starts file integrity check then freezes after I hit ESC. I waited 32 mins and still nothing. Any Ideas? Win vista netbook (Asus EeePC 1000HE.

RejZoR 30. June 2009, 18:15

It wil lag a bit there but should go on. Try disabling network connection completely or block the executable responsible for NFS from accessing internet. I know that screen went away faster if no connection is detected.

Anonymous 1. July 2009, 12:19

Anonymous writes:

Hi
Loved your nfs3 fix, works great.
I have vista64 on a hp laptop, and nfs:hs refuses to install.
The 32bit setup program just hangs without even a word.
I have installed it using virtualbox and it runs fine, so its not the CD(Its an original US CD).
After a bunch of copying for the virtual machine to vista, and exporting the reg keys(making changes for wow6432node and program files (x86)) it almost is working.
Your patch runs and exits fine and the 3dsetup runs too.
Running the program is a different story.
I get an "Invalid argument" error window as seen here
http://i42.tinypic.com/2db8dgw.jpg

Any ideas? thanks in advance

Anonymous 1. July 2009, 12:28

Anonymous writes:

I should also mention that i have SP2 for Vista installed.

Anonymous 1. July 2009, 14:50

Anonymous writes:

Got it working, and its beautiful.
I miss the opening movie though :(

Thanks for this wonderful tool

Anonymous 4. August 2009, 23:27

Zizigulu writes:

Can you please help me out with NFS 2 SE? Is there a way to play it on Vista 64bit?

RejZoR 5. August 2009, 05:06

I was testing it but there were problems with performance (ultra slow with choppy sound). Will test some more.

Anonymous 6. August 2009, 14:55

Anonymous writes:

When I click on "Cancel" the game crashes :(

Anonymous 12. September 2009, 18:34

kox writes:

this patch doing shit, it's not make it to work.

Anonymous 28. September 2009, 04:00

Anonymous writes:

It sucks the game doesn't start normally, but it runs properly with the 3D renderer giving it the nicer graphics. Thanks! :D

RejZoR 28. September 2009, 04:56

Yeah, you lose the intro video and the videos if you don't click anything for a long time in the main menu. But everything else seems to work fine.

Anonymous 31. October 2009, 01:14

Jimmy writes:

Is there a way to get High Stakes working without the "-patchrestart" fix?

Anonymous 24. November 2009, 20:27

C'Duck writes:

Works perfect for me, (win7 x64 on dual core) i have to start the game by NFSPatch.exe not afinity.exe. On file check i click cancel, it seems to freeze, do nothing but wait, after a few seconds, everything works perfect :):)
To enable Graphic Acceleration, just run 3dsetup, even if there is a prob with your 3ddevice, just ignore it. run nfspatch.exe and have fun :)

Btw. i'm running the game with 3.50 nocd crack with no Probs :)

RejZoR 24. November 2009, 22:25

Launching the program through affinity.exe is recommended to avoid dual core problems. These games were not designed with more than 1 CPU core in mind and they can have problems with them. They usually just freeze or lockup during game. NFS3 usually hanged during track loading, others have different problems.

Anonymous 13. December 2009, 03:04

CoolLarkin writes:

whenever i try to start the game i always get a message saying

" Need For Speed High Stakes

Build: Feb 16 2001 12:29:53 E.A. Seattle

Switch (precced with dash) Description

============================
=================================================
PatchRestart"

And all i can say is OK, please help me!

RejZoR 13. December 2009, 06:50

This usually happens if you're using crack (or bad version crack), wrong update or something is corrupted.

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