This page is for the original 1995 game. For the 2016 reboot, see Need for Speed (2016).
Key points
- Re-released as The Need for Speed: Special Edition, featuring extra content and improvements.
- (Special Edition) Windows version has very poor compatibility on versions of Windows NT. Run MS-DOS version in DOSBox instead.
Availability
Essential improvements
Patches
- All patches are available from The Need For Speed SE Patches (Archived from original).
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
Save game data location
Video
Input
Audio
Audio feature |
State |
Notes |
Separate volume controls |
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race music, menu music, sound effects |
Surround sound |
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8-bit mono, 8-bit stereo, 16-bit stereo |
Subtitles |
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Closed captions |
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Mute on focus lost |
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For DOSBox change the priority background value in the DOSBox configuration file. |
Localizations
Language |
UI |
Audio |
Sub |
Notes |
English |
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Network
Multiplayer types
Issues fixed
Running the game on Windows 7, 8.1 or 10
The game doesn't install with the setup program but can be installed manually. But the game never runs by opening the executable, you have to hook it through DxWnd to get it working. However, it has been found that the game doesn't even hook well with this program, it crashes before it gets hooked, it also doesn't run when it finds an unsupported driver on the machine (maybe delaying the hook), for example, a USB audio driver. If the driver gets uninstalled, the game mostly works fine. Still the game can have hooking problems and may not run in some instances.
Manually installing the game and running it using DxWnd
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- Copy 'FRONTEND', 'GAMEDATA', 'SIMDATA', 'IFORCE.DLL', 'NFS_WIN.EXE' from the CD to a folder. Rename 'NFS_WIN.EXE' to 'nfs.exe'.
- Copy 'BESTLAST.EAS', 'BESTTIME.EAS', 'EIGTH.EAS', 'FIFTH.EAS', 'FINALLAP.EAS', 'FIRST.EAS', 'FOURTH.EAS', 'SECOND.EAS', 'SEVENTH.EAS', 'SIXTH.EAS', 'THIRD.EAS' from 'FRONTEND/SPEECH' to the same folder.
- Copy 'dplay.dll' from 'REDIST\DIRECTX' folder of the CD to the same folder, or copy 'dplayx.dll' from 'Windows\SysWOW64' (64-bit OS) or 'Windows\System32'(32-bit OS) and then rename it to 'dplay.dll'. The first one is guaranteed to work while the later two may not work on some versions of Windows 10. But it is recommended to use either of the latter two.
- Copy 'NFS.CFG' to the game folder which can be downloaded from here.
- Copy 'PATHS.DAT' to 'GAMEDATA\CONFIG' in the installation folder, which can be downloaded from here.
- Open 'PATHS.DAT' with a hex editor like HxD and replace all text-strings "D:\" with the current CD drive letter, say "I:\". The replace function of the program can be used to replace all instances of "D:\" with the desired CD drive letter. This is a vital step, since the whole process will go wrong if this is not done properly. Please note that there are three instances of "D:\"
- Open DxWnd, and import this .dxw profile; right-click on the 'Need for Speed SE' entry that appears in DxWnd window and click on modify, change the path to the location of the game folder for "Path" and "Launch" pointing to 'nfs.exe'. Click OK.
- Double-click on 'Need for Speed SE' in DxWnd, the game should run. The game will display a black screen and freeze if the 'DPLAY.DLL' from the CD was used, just go to the Taskbar and click OK for the two errors that appear behind the game window. If it crashes try a few more times; if it doesn't work then it is likely because of the problem mentioned at the start.
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Other information
API
Technical specs |
Supported |
Notes |
Software renderer |
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DOS video modes |
VGA, SVGA |
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Executable |
32-bit |
64-bit |
Notes |
Windows |
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System requirements
DOS |
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Minimum |
Operating system (OS) |
4.0 (5.0 for Special Edition) or later[3] |
Processor (CPU) |
75 MHz Intel Pentium |
System memory (RAM) |
8 MB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
4 MB |
Video card (GPU) |
256 color VESA-compatible SVGA-compatible 512K of VRAM |
Sound (audio device) |
Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster 16, Sound Blaster AWE32, Sound Blaster Pro and 100% compatibles, Gravis Ultrasound/ACE and 100% Compatibles, Ensoniq Soundscape, Microsoft Sound System[4] |
Other |
Modem (For Two-Player Online Play), Null-Modem Cable (For Two-Player Local Area Play) |
Special Edition Windows Version
Windows |
|
Minimum |
Recommended |
Operating system (OS) |
95 |
95, 98, ME (NT versions of Windows not supported) |
Processor (CPU) |
75 MHz Intel Pentium
| 100 MHz Intel Pentium[5] |
System memory (RAM) |
12 MB |
16 MB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
30 MB |
50 MB |
Video card (GPU) |
512 K of VRAM DirectX 2.0 compatible
| 1M of VRAM DirectX 2.0 compatible |
Sound (audio device) |
DirectX 2.0 compatible |
DirectX 2.0 compatible |
Other |
IPX-Compatible Network Card (For 2-6 Player LAN Play), Modem (For Two-Player Online Play), Null-Modem Cable (For Two-Player Local Area Play) |
IPX-Compatible Network Card (For 2-6 Player LAN Play), Modem (For Two-Player Online Play), Null-Modem Cable (For Two-Player Local Area Play) |
Notes
References