Archive
Make NFSHP2 run under Windows 10
Problem
One of my favourite car racing game was Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2. It worked well even on Windows 7, but when I switched to Windows 10, it stopped working normally. Let’s see how to fix it.
Solution
I tried it in full HD mode (1920×1080).
- Extract the content of the ISO file and then install the game somewhere, e.g. in the folder “C:\Games\Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2”. During the setup: Register Later; install GameSpy later.
- Copy the content of Crack/ to “C:\Games\Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2”.
- To the folder “C:\Games\Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2”, copy these directories: actors, AI, audio, Cars, movies, Particle, tracks (overwrite all).
- From https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Vk9Y4YDmVd3u0Ham_ShibU0lMmz3yvcN , download the noCD, widescreen patch. Download the one that corresponds to your resolution (in my case: 1920×1080). It’ll be a zip file. Copy its content to the folder “C:\Games\Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2” (overwrite all).
- Create the file “c:\Users\YourName\Documents\EA Games\Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2\rendercaps.ini” with this content:
[Graphics]
Fullscreen=1
LimitResolution=0
GammaScale=1.150000
MipMap=1
ScreenModeIndex=0
BDepth=32
ZDepth=24
Stencil=8
Width=1920
Height=1080
[GraphicsFE]
ScreenModeIndex=2
BDepth=32
ZDepth=24
Stencil=8
Width=1920
Height=1080
- Try to execute the game: “c:\Games\Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2\NFSHP2.exe”
- If there’s a graphical issue, download the file d3d8.dll from here: https://github.com/crosire/d3d8to9/releases . Put the file in the folder “c:\Games\Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2”
- Try to start the game.
- If you still have some issues, try to change the compatibility mode of NFSHP2.exe to Windows 7.
- Now it should work.
In the menu, the resolution was not correct, but during the game it was OK. In the game, under Options, select the desired resolution (in my case: 1920×1080).
Links
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX2HP_wzmN0
- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Vk9Y4YDmVd3u0Ham_ShibU0lMmz3yvcN
- https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Need_for_Speed:_Hot_Pursuit_2#Game_not_rendering_fog_on_modern_systems
- https://github.com/crosire/d3d8to9/releases
Update
If you start the game for the first time, the file “c:\Users\YourName\Documents\EA Games\Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2\rendercaps.ini” is created. Then it’s enough to modify it.
Steam client on Ubuntu 18.04
Problem
Steam stopped working. At the end of an update process it complained that “steamui.so” was missing.
Solution
I found the solution here. In short:
First, delete steam:
sudo apt remove steam
Execute this:
sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
Restart the machine. Then, install these packages:
sudo apt-get install wget gdebi libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 libc6:i386
Download the steam package:
wget http://media.steampowered.com/client/installer/steam.deb
And install it:
sudo gdebi steam.deb
After this, steam started normally for me.
Hero of the Kingdom 2 patch
The game “Hero of the Kingdom 2” didn’t want to start. I got the error “access violation”. I found the remedy here.
It seems this problem is related to the Intel driver. I have an integrated Intel video card.
The solution in short: download the driver http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/m/mesa/libgl1-mesa-dri_11.2.0-1ubuntu2_i386.deb , extract it, and replace the file /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/dri/i965_dri.so with the one from the archive. Of course, don’t forget to make a backup of the original file.
Firefox: disable detach tab
Problem
Clicking on a tab and then moving your mouse in a downward motion causes a new window to open.
Solution
Install this patch: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bug489729-disable-detach-and-t/ and in its GUI select “Disable detach tab”.
Frankly, this FF “feature” was driving me crazy.
MozRepl is broken in Firefox 20 but there is a patch
I use the MozRepl Firefox add-on a lot but it stopped working with Firefox 20. But there is an updated version available. More info with the patch here.
Diablo 1 strategy guides
I decided to play some with Diablo 1 again. Here are some useful strategy guides:
- Freshman Diablo (list of guides)
- warrior strategy – Diablo – GameSpot Forums
- level up strategy
- Diablo 1 strategy guide
- Diablo
- Wolfslayer’s warrior guide
Troubleshooting
Under Windows 7 I had some problems with Diablo 1: the colors looked strange. The fix is very simple: just kill the process explorer.exe and Diablo works fine. Here is a batch script for launching the game correctly:
@echo off taskkill /f /im explorer.exe diablo.exe pause start explorer.exe exit
Install Ksplice
“Ksplice is an update service that automatically applies patches to the Linux kernel without requiring a reboot of the computer. This way you can keep your system up to date and secure without losing precious uptime.”
Visit this page for a step by step install guide.
Notes:
You will have to ask an access key in e-mail (free).
For Ubuntu 10.10, you’ll have to add these lines to software sources:
deb http://www.ksplice.com/apt maverick ksplice deb-src http://www.ksplice.com/apt maverick ksplice
Patch to Google Translate https pages
Problem
When you want to translate a page with Google Translate that uses the HTTPS protocol, you will get an error. Translation only works with HTTP addresses. Here is how to reproduce the problem:
- We will use https://ubuntulife.wordpress.com/ as our test subject (Spanish site).
- Visit Google Translate.
- Paste “https://ubuntulife.wordpress.com” (without quotes) in the text area.
- In the dropdown list next to “From:”, select “Detect language”.
- Click on the button Translate.
You will get a beautiful “Sorry, this URL is invalid” error.
Explanation:
This a known bug on the side of Google but they don’t rush to correct it. In the address bar you have the string “http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fubuntulife.wordpress.com%2F”. Notice that the address to be translated begins with https. In the upper frame, Google Translate transforms this address to “http://ubuntulife.wordpress.com:443/”, i.e. port 443 is added automatically.
Update (20110211): Google has a clarification. In this thread, Google guy Josh says the following: “Currently our webpage translation service will not translate secure https pages. This is because such pages often have secure content, that you wouldn’t want to send over the wire plain text to Google Translate.” That is, they know about this problem but they don’t have a good solution.
Manual workaround #1:
Remove the port “:443” from the Google Translate textfield and press the button Translate.
Manual workaround #2:
In the address bar, locate the string https and change it to http. Then press Enter to reload the page. The port “443” will also disappear.
Workaround for the lazy ones
Let’s use a simple bookmarklet that implements the manual method #2:
javascript:
var l = document.location;
var h = l.href;
var https = encodeURIComponent('https://'); // https%3A%2F%2F
var http = encodeURIComponent('http://'); // http%3A%2F%2F
l.href = h.replace(https, http);
void(1);
Installation:
Open this page in a new tab. There, you will find a link “ReTr” (re-translate). Drag and drop that link to the bookmark bar.
Usage:
Once the ReTr (re-translate) bookmarklet is installed, try to translate an HTTPS page. When you get the error message, just click on the ReTr bookmarklet and the page should be translated correctly.
Translate with Flagfox
Flagfox is a Firefox add-on that can “display a country flag depicting the location of the current website’s server and provides a multitude of tools such as site safety checks, whois, translation, similar sites, validation, URL shortening, and more…”
How to translate a page with Flagfox: right click on the country flag in the address bar -> select Google Translate. You will get an error message with HTTPS pages, but you can correct it with the previously mentioned “ReTr” bookmarklet.
The Ubuntu Incident 