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Need for Speed: High Stakes

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(Redirected from Need for Speed High Stakes)
Need for Speed: High Stakes
Need for Speed: High Stakes cover
Developers
EA Canada
EA Seattle
Publishers
Electronic Arts
Retail re-release Sold Out Software
Release dates
Windows June 20, 1999
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person, Third-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Racing
Vehicles Automobile, Street racing
Art styles Realistic
Themes Contemporary, Europe, North America
Series Need for Speed
Need for Speed: High Stakes on HowLongToBeat
Need for Speed: High Stakes on IGDB
Need for Speed: High Stakes guide on StrategyWiki
Need for Speed: High Stakes on MobyGames
Need for Speed: High Stakes on Wikipedia
The Need for Speed 1994
Need for Speed II 1997
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (series)
Need for Speed: High Stakes 1999
Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed 2000
Need for Speed: Underground (series)
Need for Speed: Most Wanted (series)
Need for Speed: Carbon 2006
Need for Speed: ProStreet 2007
Need for Speed: Undercover 2008
Need for Speed: Shift (series)
Need for Speed: World 2010
Need for Speed: The Run 2011
Need for Speed Rivals 2013
Need for Speed (2016) 2016
Need for Speed Payback 2017
Need for Speed: Edge 2017
Need for Speed Heat 2019
Need for Speed Unbound 2022

Warnings

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

Need for Speed: High Stakes[Note 1] is a singleplayer and multiplayer racing game co-developed by EA Canada and EA Seattle and published by Electronic Arts. It is the fourth entry in the Need for Speed series.

It was released on June 20, 1999.

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
SafeDisc DRM[Note 2].
Windows
SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Aston Martin DB7
Windows
BMW M Coupe
Windows
BMW M Roadster
Windows
Ferrari 360 Modena
Windows
Jaguar XJR-15
Windows
Lister Storm
Windows
All official add-on cars (and their showcases) were released for free by EA.
All official add-ons come as *.exe files and can only be installed if game was installed with original installer and all registry entries are present.

Essential improvements

Need For Speed 4 Modern Patch

Change resolution and refresh rate under ./drivers/nglide/thrash.ini

SilentPatch

Use with Modern Patch is strongly recommended, although not mandatory

SetupMP (Need for Speed: Setup for Modern Packs)

Easily play at desktop resolution
  1. Place SetupMP.exe into <path-to-game>\Game\ and run SetupMP.exe.
  2. Under the "Thrash Driver" tab, make sure "nGlide" is selected.
  3. Under the "nGlide" tab, check "Use desktop resolution", and to disable the image stretching, check "Preserve aspect ratio".

Need for Speed: High Stakes Stock Pack (SP) and Expansion Pack (EP)

The Stock Pack is designed to improve the singleplayer experience in High Stakes, patching the game to the final version, fixing various bugs discovered since the game's support period ended and adding compatibility with modern graphics cards.

The Expansion Pack is designed to improve the multiplayer experience, with all of the improvements in the Stock Pack as well as adding support for the modern online multiplayer service made for the game and more cars and tracks used on that service on a regular basis.

Patches

Patch 4.50 (Internet Beta Test Patch) updates the game to the latest version.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\SaveData[Note 3]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\SaveData[Note 3]

Video

General video settings
General video settings
Advanced video settings
Advanced video settings

Graphics feature State Notes
Widescreen resolution
Use Need for Speed High Stakes Widescreen Fix. Main menus are locked at 640x480.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
"Narrow" and "Wide" options available in the 'View Angle' setting in the Basic Graphics menu. Widescreen option in the same menu can widen the horizontal FOV further, though narrows the vertical FOV.
Windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
High-fidelity upscaling
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Triple Buffering only.
60 FPS
120+ FPS
64 FPS cap
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Input

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Most keys for both players are rebindable, however some (such as Pause and Screenshot) are locked and cannot be rebound.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
The game supports all functionality of DirectInput compatible controllers, however it assumes a Racing Wheel with digital pedals will be used.
Full controller support
Controllers cannot be used to navigate menus.
Controller remapping
Gamepads require their buttons to be rebound to functions manually for the best effect. Controller key bindings overwrite Keyboard ones and are lost if the game is started without a controller connected.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion
Controller types
XInput-compatible controllers
PlayStation controllers
Generic/other controllers
Button prompts
Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
To enable Force Feedback on an XInput controller (Like the Xbox 360 Controller), see XInput force feedback vibration in DirectInput games.
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M
Mouse support is limited only to navigating menus.

Audio

Audio settings
Audio settings

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Menu Music, Race Music, Effects, Engine and Speech sliders available.
Surround sound
Stereo, Mono and DS3D/EAX.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support
EAX.[3]
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
French
German
Japanese
Spanish
Ukrainian
Fan translation and full dubbing by TSF, download.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
2 Versus, Co-op
Co-op is Hot Pursuit mode only.
LAN play
8 Versus, Co-op
Co-op is Hot Pursuit mode only.
Online play
8 Versus, Co-op
The official multiplayer service has been shut down.

Connection types

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP 1030
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Issues fixed

A Standard installation of the High Stakes Stock Pack fixes the known bugs in the game. See above. Individual fixes are given below for convenience.

1 MB RAM bug (Windows XP and later)

When running the game on Windows XP or later, the game gives a 1 MB of RAM error and does not save progress or settings.

Install 1 MB Error Patch[citation needed]
  1. Download and start Installation of the High Stakes Stock Pack
  2. Ensure Mercury / 1Mbyte Error Patch is selected on the Choose Components screen.
  3. Finish installation
  4. Run the game.

Crash on Start Issue (Vista, Later)

When running the game on Windows Vista or later, the game refuses to start, giving an Invalid Argument exception.

Install NFS:HS Stock Pack[citation needed]
  1. Download and start Installation of the High Stakes Stock Pack
  2. Ensure EA's 4.50 Patch, Vista, Win7 Tweaks and NFS HS Starter are selected on the Choose Components screen.
  3. Finish installation
  4. Run the game.
Start game with -PatchRestart switch[citation needed]
  1. Create a (or modify an existing) shortcut to the game executable and add -PatchRestart to the end of the target.
  2. Run the game using that shortcut.
Start game using PatchNFS.exe[citation needed]

Run the game from <path-to-game>\PatchNFS.exe.

Direct3D doesn't appear in the 3DSetup tool

When configuring 3D acceleration using the 3DSetup tool, only Software Renderer appears in the list.

Install New 3DSetup[citation needed]
  1. Download and start Installation of the High Stakes Stock Pack
  2. Ensure New 3D-Setup is selected on the Choose Components screen.
  3. Finish Installation
Direct3D should now be in the list of renderers.

Other information

Direct3D and Glide renderers give equal graphical quality.

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 6 DX7 and DX8 through Modern Patch
Glide 2, 3 Glide3 support added in the official patch
Software renderer
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 9x, NT, 2000
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 200 MHz
System memory (RAM) 32 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 50 MB
Video card (GPU) 2 MB of VRAM
DirectX 6.1 compatible
Sound (audio device) DirectX 6.1 compatible


Notes

  1. While it is known in Japan as Over Drivin' IV (Japanese:オーバードライビン IV) for the PlayStation version, the Windows version was released in Japan under its original name. Also known as Need for Speed: Road Challenge in Europe, Need for Speed: Brennender Asphalt in Germany and Need for Speed: Conduite en état de liberté in France.
  2. SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[1] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.[2]
  3. 3.0 3.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References