Here it is, finally the proper Need for Speed 4: High Stakes Vista Patch that i’ve been working on for a very long time. Thats right, you will be able to play Need for Speed High Stakes on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 (32bit or 64bit). And thats not all, this patch package also includes official NFS4 patch v4.50, High Poly Patch and updated Direct3D game engine. Everything you need for best racing experience.
Parts of this patch were made by Martin Leps (High Poly fix) and RunR (the actual compatibility SDB module).
Btw, when you run the game you have to click “Cancel” on the file integrity check screen and click Back button several times until you reach main menu. It takes some time to start the game and there is no intro video, but you can enjoy everything else just the same as you did when the game was released back in 1999.
PATCH REQUIREMENTS:
– Windows XP, Vista, Win7, Win8 (32bit & 64bit)
– properly installed retail Need for Speed 4: High Stakes game (english version)
IMPORTANT
The game seems to be incompatible with Windows 8.1 Update 1 64bit for some reason (crash with DirectX errors when race begins). Still working on a fix, but it looks pretty grim so far… 😦
Angry Sheep Blog 
Can’t get it to work because I’m on Windows 8.1 64bit and the original installer does not run at all 😦
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Have you tried using compatibility mode on game installer?
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Here is the latest: after computer restart, both NFS4 and NFS5 installed properly. NFS 5 works just fine like you said. I installed NFS4 and the Vista patch, but something is still not working under Windows 8.1. After launching it, it crashes after changing the resolution. I tried both the software renderer and direct3D and both crash (when I chose direct3D it says it’s not compatible and might crash). I tried different compatibility modes but it keeps crashing in all of them. Any ideas what I could try next?
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I finally got it to work. Turns out my graphics drivers were the culprit. I ran through several setups and what I found is that without any patches and with the patch 4.42 that’s on the game’s CD, the game works just fine (it also works with the downloaded patch 4.44 just fine). With 4.50 patch, the game breaks, but running the patchnfs.exe file seems to do the same thing as your patch does (need to click cancel on verify and back couple times to get to the main menu). I’m not sure exactly what advantages are with the 4.50 or your modern patch, I’m good with 4.44 patch as it gives me the intro video and seems to be working just fine otherwise and there is no need to over the cancel, back, back steps each time game starts.
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Thank you very much! It works perfectly and I finally got to play High Stakes for the first time in 10 years, I think.
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I’m glad that you like it and that you can still enjoy this great game 🙂
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hi man where will i find the registry of the game
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I cant start the setup on Windows 8.1 Ultimate 64x. It’s started, but it’s not visible (only background process) and only takes away 1mb of RAM (so something stopped working, i guess.) I tried compatibility mode, but it doesnt work. Please help me!
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Sorry, i ment 8.1 Enterprise x64
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With setup i ment the Game-Setup 😉
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I run into the same problem. Turned out the setpoint.exe was holding the process, so you might have something that’s holding the process up from starting. To find out what it is follow these steps:
1. Start Task Manager, right click on the Win 32-bit setup process (I fogto the exact name, but it’s the process that started the install)
2. Click on “Go To Details”
3. Once on the Details screen, right click the setup.exe and choose “Analyze Wait Chain” – this should show you what this process is waiting for to start properly
4. Choose to kill the process that’s holding up the chain, the install should start just fine.
Hope this helps.
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Thank you alot. I love you for this 😀
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i have the same problem only that i have windows 7 and when i right clicked on the setup process i dont have the oprion to go to details so i dont have the analyza chain option also…. so how do i start the process in win7? i am quite desperate about this game …
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@Mithos:
I’ve actually had the same problem. If you want to analyze the wait chain in Windows 7 just open the task manager, go to the Performance tab and open the resource monitor. Find the setup.exe and right click on it and then you can select “Analyze wait chain”.
In my case all Logitech related stuff was blocking the setup.exe. So i had to close both the SetPoint.exe and the G35.exe (These programs are related to the Logitech mouse and Logitech Headset).
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it would be nice if i could play this without the cd. I do have the original cd so its all good. but if im out somewhere and i want to play i dont want to carry the disc around. possible?
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I played the PlayStation version of this game a lot when I was a kid, and now I decided to try the PC version, but didn’t work. After installing your patch it works like a charm, thanks!
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when i was a kid i playedthis game on window xp now on winodw 10 most of games are not working e.g nfs2 nfs3 nfs4
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You can play NFS3 with NFS3 NextGen patch (you can find it under My Projects). Evgeny Vrublevsky is also working on NFS4 High Stakes patch. I love NFS3, but I can’t wait for NFS4. It may take a while since he’s basically reverse engineering the game, but he’s really good at what he does. We will see this if he has enough time to do it. Can’t wait.
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Hello!
I was able to get it to install just fine, then I installed your patch just fine. However, whenever I try to run it, I get a pop-up window that says:
”
Need For Speed High Stakes Build: Feb 16 2001 12:29:53 E.A. Seattle
Switch (preceed with dash) Description
======================
=======================================
PatchRestart
”
My only option is an [OK] button. I click on that and everything goes back to “normal”, i.e. the game doesn’t run and I’m back to Windows.
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Sorry- forgot to mention that I’m running Win7 Pro, 64-Bit
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—————————
Invalid argument
—————————
Need For Speed High Stakes Build: Feb 16 2001 12:29:53 E.A. Seattle
Switch (preceed with dash) Description
===================== ==================================
PatchRestart
—————————
OK
—————————
Just like the guy above, what gives?
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Same problem here.
I’m running the EU version, which is called Road Challenge. I’ve installed the game under the same path as High Stakes, but with the same result.
I’m running under Windows 8.1 Pro x64.
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I am still getting the same error before I patched my game. “STREAM- unable to open file’.//Data/Audio/Music/menu1.asf”. I am not using a cd crack and I am running W7 x64. 😦
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Oops, typo. The directory is E:\Data\Audio\Music\menu1.asf
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dolafarraj@yahoo.com
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What happend with the link ?
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I cannot install, please help!
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The path is detected automatically as far as i know. Strange that it detects it as relative path…
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I wanna play my baby’s game, pleaseeeeeeeeee help, please
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Apparently NFS High Stakes doesn’t seem to work on Windows 8.1 64bit despite my patch. I’m looking into it but no matter what I try, the game keeps on crying about corrupted registry. It’s something with the EXE, because as soon as I replace the original one with no-cd version, it starts complaining, no actual changes to the registry. Hm.
What’s funny though is that NFS3 Hot Pursuit still works fine, but not NFS4 High Stakes.
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Please make it work on a portable version of NFS4, THANKS A LOT
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Portable version? Is there such a version of NFS in existence?
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Yes, there is and these is so-called “RIP” version, you may google them and I believe that’s why your patch cannot locate where the destination folder of the game is during installation.
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But i’m not using the portable version. Someone above had .\\ as install path and that is what NO-CD pathces usually require you to do. My case is different, when I use modified EXE, the game instantly complains about corrupted registry even though registry hasn’t been touched at all.
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Sooo, i’m still struk with this W8 problem. By the way, i have the Windows 8.1 64-Bit, and can’t even get the installer to work. It says:
“Error Type: REGISTRY
Need For Speed 4: High Stakes registry corrupted or game not installed.
Please make sure it’s installed properly.
Aborting…
But… How am i supposed to install the game if i need this patch to do so?!…
Thanks for everyone’s attention
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The game says that every time you use a modified game EXE (no-cd version). Only happens with latest Windows 8.1 versions and I just can’t figure it out why, because it used to work fine with Windows 8.1…
You may also have a certain version of the game that isn’t compatible with my patch installer…
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I installed NFH HS on Windows 8.1 Update 1 through the Expansion Pack Setup (Version 4.0_1.74) from an original CD. The EP brings its own executable and everything runs fine.
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Anyone tried using this after upgrading to Windows 10? I’d love to upgrade but I don’t want to mess up the compatibility I have with Windows 7.
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need a password
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in my try after i instal nfsvistapatch it asks me to insert the god damn cd :). what should i do ?
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i got it via vmware, windows 7 install. i wouldn’t try it on a newer one. though the order must be this way:
install the game( full install )( i did not copy movies and music )( i did not run installer in compatibility mode )
run this site’s nfs4 patch
run the 4.5 update patch which extracts into the game folder upon the nfs4 patch
run the crack. the one i used was made by HermeS, the exe must be run in admin mode, select the nfshs exe file
run the game. yay!
note: i had to lower some details, despite my graphic card probably enough for the task, the vmware 3d acceleration probably couldn’t handle it? or this patch doesn’t optimize properly? what do I know, but at least it works!
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hey RejZoR any fix for intro ?
i have never seen that
well the game works awesome but intro and other movies
will add more excitement 🙂
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Windows 7 x64 here, when I try to run the Vista patch after installing it it tells me I need to install DirectX 6 drivers in order for Need for Speed to run.
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where is the need for speed patch download located…looked for it but haven’t located it…just spent $5 to order it on ebay. I have the 1999 cd version
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Patch download location? It’s where your browser download location is…
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A much better patch by Veg, I can run 8920 poly cop cars as the default police with it at HomeTown :D.
http://veg.by/en/projects/nfs4/
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So I try to run it and I get an error saying “AMF=5 screen.c(563)” and it worked fine before this happend.
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Hi, I just installed the game, Im running Win 8.1 x64 and I just can’t get this game to work, any advice? I’d appreciate any help, thanks in advance
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Hello, rather try this:
http://www.freak-ds.de/dl-tools.php
NFS: HS Expansion Pack 1.76
http://www.freak-ds.de/downloads/tools/ep40176/info.php
It has many things, like new cars, tracks, NFS Mixer, that lets you activate/import new tracks/cars, propper Glide (with the help of nGlide) and DirectX support, etc.
All of these are optional. Also you don’t need IP Lounge to install if you don’t want to race online with these guys.
It works great on Windows 8.1 x64 or newer.
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So I used the HermeS crack and applied the patch and changed/unchanged the compatibility to 98/XP SP3 but windows 10 says this app can’t run on your PC any solution
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Try the following:
1.) install the game from the CD
2.) download the Expansion pack from here and install it:
http://www.freak-ds.de/downloads/tools/ep40176/info.php
3.) now go to the nGlide website and download the actual version of nGlide (at the time of writting it is 1.0.5):
http://www.zeus-software.com/downloads/nglide
4.) look here for Need For Speed 4: High Stakes
http://www.zeus-software.com/downloads/nglide/compatibility
and download the reg patch if needed:
http://www.zeus-software.com/files/nglide/nfs4_patch.zip
(instruction: To play you must extract all these files into game directory
and run ‘nfs4.reg’)
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do you know how to play the intro movie please? thx
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someone have found how to play the intro video please…? this video is awesome and it can’t be launch even if the “movies” folder is present”…
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Work not on
Win7
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I install Game, and This Patch, and this wont start.
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this is shit, da not trust this Developers ( Patch )
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I’m not maintaining this patch anymore and as many things changed with Windows 7, it doesn’t seem to work anymore. However, Evgeny (the guy who made the NFS3 patch for NFS3 NextGen) started working on NFS4 patch. You may try it out here:
http://veg.by/en/projects/nfs4/
It’s a bit buggy and doesn’t support all features like wide screen, but in general it makes NFS4 perfectly playable. Give it a try.
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I know this, only Little Picture, Bud NSF III works without Problems, also with NV inspector.
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How make 1280x1024x32 in this Veg Patch ?
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win 8 and 10 underlay was rewritten for phone apps. MS bought out Nokia and fired most of the PC tech replacing them with phone idiots back when Ballmer (if i spelled that right) was in charge of things. his goal was to merge phone and PC “PC in your pocket” but realized many things that didn’t take a genius to figure out.
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it’s really too bad those on top are paranoid. technology has been artificially held back by a few scared rich. we should all be on 128 bit computers biting our current ones in the dust!
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Do you know a program or how to extract audio (spoken audio from the police conversations) from the PC version? Or maybe the PlayStation version? I own both. Thank you for your help. Greetings, Andy.
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Try with GAP (Game Audio Player). It’s an old app used to extract music from EA games. If you can find voice storage files you coild probably extract police radio voices too.
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can someone email me this patch. link doesnt work for me. deftne@hotmail.com
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The link works just fine…
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Hi, I have a problem with a track called Rockside ridge when I play it at night time after it finished loading it aborted the game and says invalid speed in the track file.
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Link no longer aworks. Can you email me this patch?
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Hi, I have a problem with a track called Rockside ridge when I play it at night time after it finished loading it aborted the game and says invalid speed in the track file. How I can fix it guys?
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Hi there.
Finally something that is working. I can confirm and this patch really works. Playing on Windows XP in 2022 on Dell Vostro 1500 with GeForce 860M Intel Centrino Dual core. It is just great. I wanted to make it run for my brothers sons although nostalgy is strong :). Thank you mate for keeping this page online and sharing this patch for NFS4:HS so we can enjoy it even in days of modern computers because great games are not made anymore 😦
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Hi there.
Finally something that is working. I can confirm and this patch really works. Playing on Windows XP in 2022 on Dell Vostro 1500 with GeForce 860M Intel Centrino Dual core. It is just great. I wanted to make it run for my brothers sons although nostalgy is strong :). Thank you mate for keeping this page online and sharing this patch for NFS4:HS so we can enjoy it even in days of modern computers because great games are not made anymore 😦
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Link is dead. Please reupload it. You can’t get the patches ANYWHERE! Did EA threaten a bunch of websites (including yours)?
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Link works fine actually, it just doesn’t link to it directly. When you click the link, the patch is in that very folder.
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any more games?pls
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On W10/64 22H2 this patch doesn’t work. Installation begins, but never ends.
Though it is possible to run NFS4, but only in software acceleration mode (I used 4.50 installation patch to install NFS4). 3d setup doesn’t run also (admin mode).
NFS 3 works fine.
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For all of us *including me* that can’t get NFS High Stakes to work the best work around is a program which is a cross between a ‘Duck’ and a ‘Station’ I hope you get my drift. Heck: I am not sure if even mentioning it on here is illegal so I won’t say anymore since some people are very jumpy and over paranoid not taking into any due consideration other then the letter of the law which often isn’t even accurate.
Now while my solution may not be as ‘good’ as the PC version at least you won’t have to worry about compatibility problems/go thru hoops within hoops and hope it works (which it may or may not).
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