Ah, the nostalgia of old games. Need for Speed High Stakes was *the* game of my childhood, and it’s pretty amazing to play it again after all of these years. Games from 1999 don’t run so well on Windows 7, but luckily there are still plenty of people who want to play them, and these people tend to come up with awesome workarounds. Fortunately, this is the case with Need for Speed High Stakes. You too can once again tear up the roads of Landstrasse in pursuit of a speeding Porsche 911 Turbo! 

The game’s “compatibility magic” comes from a utility called NFS Stock Pack. Discussed in this post on the NFSCars fan site, it is essentially a compilation of many different patches and workarounds created over the years of battling NFSHS’s compatibility. I was seriously impressed by how simple this was compared to back in the days of error message after error message.

Where do you start, might you ask. Unfortunately, the old NFSHS installer presents some caveats. Let’s jump right in from the start:

1. Reboot your computer. On my Win 7 64-bit system, autoplaying the CD had about a 20% success rate. Disappointing! Then, I figured out that it usually took a fresh reboot to work. So, restart your rig before launching the installer.
2. Bypass the OS check. SETUP.EXE is hardwired to ensure the host system is running only Windows 98/ME. So, to get around this, right click on SETUP.EXE on the NFSHS disc and enable compatibility mode for Windows 98/ME.
3. Install the game, kill the process after it’s done. I found that although the installer accepts configuration and sets up all files and registry entries, mine did not make it to the absolute end. Fortunately, it makes it far enough. Once you see the dialog asking you if you want a shortcut on your desktop, that’s as far as you’ll get. At this point, launch the Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Escape), switch to the Processes tab, and kill the InstallShield process. It was named “_INS5576._MP.” Aside of this, there shouldn’t be any error messages, though if you get anything weird, I recommend searching NFSCars.net to troubleshoot.
4. Install the Stock Pack. Pick up the installer from this thread on NFSCars or just Google “NFSHS Stock Pack.” This is your ticket to ride. During the installation, you’ll have several options to choose from. The default options should be fine, though here’s a quick break down to help you make up your mind:
• IPLounge: A little client that brings multiplayer to NFSHS. I didn’t try it, but from previous failed installations the program seemed pretty rudimentary and poorly designed. I’m sure it works fine, and I encourage you to check it out.
• Patch 4.50: Get it. Fixes various things, just a “nice to have” item.
• Patched ‘nfshs.exe’ file - Get it! Great to not have to deal with the CD. The installer will copy over the music.
• EP & Highpoly Menu Patch - Important if you want to add custom cars to the game. Eliminates a crash caused by very detailed models. Grab it.
• All Cars & Tracks, New 3D setup, Vista/Win7 Tweaks, NFSHS Starter, and Set NTFS rights - I’d get all of these. Really no reason not to.
• Multicore patch - Only if the game runs too fast (it didn’t for me). I didn’t need this.
• Firewall entry - Sure, why not?
• Enable movies - Want to see that fuzzy, low-res intro movie? Naah.
• Glide Wrapper - IMPORTANT! This is what emulates the ancient video graphics technology, and the graphics to actually render. Might be a good idea, no? I tried both nGlide and “Zechensack’s Glide,” and I’d recommend Zechensack’s because it is less of a standalone program and has more options.
5. Get racing! Once that’s done, you’re golden. The game will launch without issue and you can hop right into the campaign or a hot pursuit.

Got the “AMF=5″ error?

I ran into this one, and I had to reinstall the game. I believe this is caused by changing the in-game resolution. To change the resolution, you need to set it in the Glide wrapper program (Start > NFS HS Stock Pack > Glide Wrapper > Configurator), NOT from the in-game options. To fix it, you need to uninstall, and start from the top.

Need to reinstall the game?

Ok so, since I bailed out of installation at the last minute, the normal uninstaller errored out when I tried to reinstall. So, it’s a messy manual uninstall. What I did was do a search on my OS drive for “Stakes” and deleted all of the pieces. There weren’t that many, just the program files entry and the start menu entry. Then, I searched for the same thing in the registry, and deleted anything related.

Want to ISO your NFSHS disk before it gets scratched?

I first tried to image it using ImgBurn, and it failed at sector 818 or something like that. I then tried MagicISO, and it worked, although the progress bar was way off. It indicated it was going extremely slowly, then ended up taking less than an hour. To image the disk, use MagicISO.