The Simpsons: Hit & Run

The Simpsons: Hit & Run

Developers
	Radical Entertainment
Publishers
	Sierra Entertainment
North America	Vivendi Universal Games
Engines
	Pure3D
Release dates
Windows	November 13, 2003
Reception
Metacritic	82
IGDB	73
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Open world
Art styles	Cartoon
Series	The Simpsons

The Simpsons
The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants	1991
The Simpsons Arcade Game	1991
The Simpsons: Bart's House of Weirdness	1992
Krusty's Fun House	1992
The Simpsons: Cartoon Studio	1996
The Simpsons: Virtual Springfield	1997
The Simpsons: Hit & Run	2003

The Simpsons: Hit & Run is a singleplayer third-person open world game in the The Simpsons series.

Key points

It is recommended to use Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher to play the game on modern systems.

Game lacks an FPS limiter and causes physics and enemy AI problems at frame rates higher and lower than 60 FPS. Use Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher to fix.

Some of the visual effects are missing from the console versions of the game, such as lens flare effect in Level 1 and Level 3, hover car refraction and sphere map reflections. Possibly due to (at the time) limitations of D3D8. Use Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher to bring most of these missing effects back.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SecuROM 4 DRM.

This game is not available digitally.

Essential improvements

Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher

Adds compatibility fixes for modern systems, bug-fixes, modern aspect ratios and resolutions, Direct3D 9 renderer, MSAA, XInput, mod-support and additional customization options.

Implements missing hover car refraction, sphere map reflections and lens flare from the console versions.

Every fix/enhancement can be individually toggled on and off in the launcher.

Mod launcher window can be skipped by adding -launch as a command line argument to Lucas Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher.exe.

Install Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher

Download the latest version of the launcher. Extract the files to a location of choice (doesn't have to be the same location as the game). Launch the launcher by opening Lucas Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher.exe. Optional Donut Team account can be used that allows tracking of which mods are used by the community, but can also be skipped without loss of any other functionality. Turn any fixes/enhancements the luancher provides on/off the Settings tab of the launcher. Press Launch. The first time you do this, you will be prompted to browse for your install of the game. Point the launcher to where Simpsons: Hit & Run's Simpsons.exe is located. Click on Open. Now the game will open. From now on, launch the game through Lucas Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher.exe to enjoy everything the launcher has to offer.

Skip intro videos

No Introduction Movies Mod
Use Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher. Enable No Introduction Movies.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\simpsons.ini

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Save*

Video

Display settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			See Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor			See Widescreen resolution.
Ultra-widescreen			See Widescreen resolution.
4K Ultra HD			See Widescreen resolution.
Field of view (FOV)		See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed		See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See Borderless fullscreen windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		See Anti-aliasing (AA).
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		No frame rate cap. See Frame rate (FPS).
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Widescreen resolution

The game supports six hardcoded resolutions out of the box. Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher extends this support to any resolution reported by your graphics card or manually specified in the game's configuration file.

By default, the game's FOV will be adjusted in relation to your selected aspect ratio.

Enable Aspect Ratio Mod
Use Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher. Enable Aspect Ratio Support.

Field of view (FOV)

Enable and adjust FOV Mod
Use Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher. Enable Aspect Ratio Support and select it. Click Mod Settings and change the FOV value.

Windowed

Enable Resizable Window Mod
Use Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher. Enable Resizable Window to make the window resizable and maximizable.

Borderless fullscreen windowed

Enable Borderless Mod
Use Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher. Enable Windowed and Borderless.

Anti-aliasing (AA)

Enable MSAA
Use Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher. Enable Anti-aliasing and select it. Click Mod Settings and set to 2x, 4x, or 8x MSAA.

Frame rate (FPS)

The game was designed to run at 60 FPS and has problems of varying severity at framerates higher or lower than 60. Below 60 the player may clip into cars, which can pose an issue in many destruction missions.

Above 60 FPS both player and car physics are negatively affected, causing cars to fly off edges at uncontrollable speeds and the player character to be able to jump higher than originally intended. In some cases at excessively high frame rates, the game can blue screen playing loud static sounds.

Frame Limiter Mod

Use Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher. Enable Frame Limiter and select it. Click Mod Settings and change settings if needed. Notes Frame Limiter is set to 60 FPS by default. The frame limiter does not fully cap the game to your selected FPS and will likely be running at a slightly higher FPS than specified in the ini. Capping the frame rate on loading screens will negatively affect load times. For a more accurate framerate cap, try using your graphics card settings or Riva Tuner Statistics Server. You will have to enable d3d9 in Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher

Input

Keyboard and mouse, touch	State	Notes
Remapping		Tutorials will always refer to the default controls.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Touchscreen optimised		Mouse pointer doesn't disappear upon touch.
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping		No way to rebind pausing to a controller (use Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher).
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers		Use Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher.
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

Generic/other controllers		DirectInput support.
Button prompts

• 

  Character controls.

• 

  Vehicle controls.

• 

  Other control settings.

On Foot Orbit Camera

This hack replaces the game's regular on-foot camera with a more advanced, mouse-controllable, orbit camera.

Enable On Foot Orbit Camera
Download and open Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher. Enable On Foot Orbit Camera on the "Settings" page of the mods list. Also turn off "Use Mouselook Mode" in the game's settings if it's enabled.

Audio

Volume settings do not affect introduction movies. The "Voice" setting also affects level-end cutscenes.

Sound settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, Effects, Vehicles and Voice are supported.
Surround sound		Up to 7.0 output. Requires DirectSound3D restoration software.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		EAX 2.0.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Croatian				Fan translation, download. Old translation, but will be fixed in the future by the translator. Works fine, to be used with Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher.
Polish				Fan translation, download.
Spanish
Latin American Spanish				Fan translation, [1].

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
Local play		Versus
LAN play
Online play

Issues fixed

Refuses to load past initial copyright screen

Mod Launcher[citation needed]
Use Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher. Notes This fixes a bug in the game that causes it to take a long time to load files on Windows Vista and later.

Set compatibility mode[citation needed]

No compatibility mode should be set when using Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher. Open game compatibility properties. Tick Run this program in compatibility mode for: Select Windows 98/ME Windows XP Also tick Disable Visual Themes, Disable Display Scaling on High DPI Settings and Disable Desktop Composition. Windows Vista/7 Also tick Disable Visual Themes and Disable Desktop Composition. Windows 8/8.1/10 Also tick Override High DPI Scaling Behavior, performed by Application.

Screen Tearing

Forcing V-Sync
Open up Nvidia Control Panel and go to Manage 3D Settings. Click on Program Settings and select Simpsons.exe Scroll down to V-Sync and set it to on. Notes Enabling Scanline Sync in RTSS might also help with this. You might have to enable d3d9 in Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher for this to work.

Unable to pause using a controller

Enable a mod via Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher
Open Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher. Click on the Settings tab. Select and enable Rebindable Menu Gamepad Inputs. With that mod selected, click on the Mod Settings button on the right. Specify secondary Accept and Back inputs. Make sure that Pause with Secondary checkbox is enabled. Click OK when done.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	8.1	For D3D9, use Lucas' Simpsons Hit & Run Mod Launcher or d3d8to9.

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98	ME, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium III 700 MHz	Intel Pentium III 1 GHz
System memory (RAM)	192 MB	256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	1.5 GB	1.9 GB
Video card (GPU)	32 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.1 compatible	64 MB of VRAM
Sound (audio device)	DirectX 8.1 compatible
Controller		12-button dual-analog gamepad, joystick, or steering wheel
Other	4X CD-ROM