Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Developers
	KnowWonder
Mac OS (Classic)	Aspyr Media
macOS (OS X)	Aspyr Media
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Engines
	Unreal Engine 1
Release dates
Windows	November 15, 2001
Mac OS (Classic)	February 28, 2002
macOS (OS X)	August 15, 2005

Warnings

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see Availability for affected versions).

The Mac OS X version of this game does not work on Mac OS X Lion (version 10.7) or later due to the removal of support for PowerPC apps.

Key points

Released as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in North America.

General information

Harry Potter Wiki - A massive wiki for the Harry Potter universe

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc v2 DRM

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Harry Potter\
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X)

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Harry Potter\Save\
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X)

Video settings

In-game options menu.

Widescreen resolution

Forcing a widescreen resolution cuts off the lower part of in-game menus, making some options inaccessible.

Set widescreen resolution
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open HP.ini. Change the FullscreenViewportX= and FullscreenViewportY= values to the desired resolution.

Input settings

Controller support

Triggers can't be mapped in XInput controllers.

Lack of Deadzone in Right Thumbstick, makes camera spinning. See Camera spinning with Xbox 360 Controller.

Audio settings

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech				Only available in Czech & Slovak retail release.
German
Italian
Polish				Local retail version only.
Portuguese
Russian				Only available in Russian retail release.

Issues unresolved

Graphical artifacts

• 

  trees

• 

  eyeglasses

Potentially related to switching top-level windows. Restarting the game seems to fix the issue.

Issues fixed

Fails to start on Windows 8.1 and earlier

The game requires a form of DRM, known as SafeDisc implemented in secdrv.sys. Unfortunately, it is a gaping security flaw, and evidently couldn't be fixed without being removed. Microsoft disabled it in Windows 7 and removed it in Windows 10. The following has been tested in Windows 7 to work.

Temporarily start SafeDisc service[citation needed]

Go to the installation folder. Create a new Windows batch file (extension .bat) and insert the following: @echo off sc config secdrv start= demand & sc start secdrv start System\HP.exe timeout /NOBREAK /T 1 sc stop secdrv & sc config secdrv start= disabled @echo on Notes This effectively reopens the security hole, starts the game, and then patches the vulnerability again after 1 second. You'll likely need to run the script in Administrator mode. You can experiment with different timings if 1 second turns out to be too short on your system.

Low frame rate on Windows 8 and later

Instructions[citation needed]

Download dgVoodoo2. Copy dgVoodooSetup.exe and the contents of the MS folder into the <path-to-game>/System folder of the game Run dgVoodooSetup.exe, select DirectX, uncheck dgVoodoo Watermark (and change some settings if you want to force higher res) Run HP.exe as administrator, or apply a cracked exe if you don't have a CD drive. Notes If you change resolution from the game settings, dgVoodoo2 switches to windowed mode, and you have to press Alt+↵ Enter to get back to fullscreen. To avoid this, just force the resolution you want from dgVoodooSetup.exe. Keep in mind that the game does not like very high resolutions (>1080p) or widescreen.

Camera spinning with Xbox 360 Controller

Instructions
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open HP.ini. Locate [WinDrv.WindowsClient] section and change DeadZoneRUV=False to DeadZoneRUV=True.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	7
Software renderer

Executable	PPC	16-bit	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Mac OS (Classic)

System requirements

Windows

Mac OS (Classic)

macOS (OS X)

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95	98, 2000, ME, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium II 266 MHz AMD K6-2 266 MHz	Intel Pentium II 400 MHz AMD K6-2 400 MHz
System memory (RAM)	32 MB	64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	500 MB
Video card (GPU)	4 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.0 compatible	16 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.0 compatible

Supported chipsets: Nvidia GeForce3, Nvidia GeForce2, Nvidia GeForce 256, Nvidia Riva TNT2, Nvidia Riva TNT, 3dfx Voodoo5, ATI Radeon, ATI Rage 128 Pro, ATI Rage 128, Matrox MGA-G550, Matrox MGA-G450, Matrox MGA-G400, Matrox MGA-G200, PowerVR3 Kyro II, PowerVR3 Kyro, S3 Savage2000

Mac OS
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	8.6
Processor (CPU)	PowerPC G3
System memory (RAM)	96 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)