Sanity: Aiken's Artifact

Sanity: Aiken's Artifact

Developers
	Monolith Productions
Publishers
	Fox Interactive
Engines
	LithTech 2.0
Release dates
Windows	September 26, 2000
Reception
Metacritic	73
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Microtransactions	Boost
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view
Controls	Direct control, Point and select
Genres	Action, ARPG, CCG, Puzzle, Shooter
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Fantasy, Sci-fi

Warnings

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).

Sanity: Aiken's Artifact is a singleplayer and multiplayer action RPG shooter game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Fox Interactive. It features a unique card collecting system for the time, allowing the player to form a master card deck with which to decide the best abilities and strategies to use while fighting enemies and bosses. The game uses the LithTech 2.0 engine, which Monolith debuted at the time, it features more advanced dynamic lighting, higher polygon environments and more detailed textures than previous LithTech versions.

The game was first released for Windows on September 26, 2000. In Europe, it was released simply as Aiken's Artifact, with Sanity being removed from the title. The European release also has higher quality sound effects.

Because the game rights' owner can't be found, Sanity: Aiken's Artifact is currently unavailable for digital purchase. The game's multiplayer official master server relied on the WON network, and was shutdown a few years after the initial release. The game has a few issues, like speeding up and one game-breaking bug at high framerates, or trouble installing on 64-bit operating systems. See Issues fixed for the solutions.

General information

Official site - retrieved with Wayback machine from August 13, 2001.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Simple disc check.

Demo/free trial

A demo is available here.

Monetization

Type	Notes
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

Microtransactions

Type	Notes
Boost	Various booster packs could be downloaded or purchased from both the websites of Monolith and certain gaming magazines as well, to unlock additional talent cards in-game to be used in the multiplayer mode.

Essential improvements

Peixoto's patch

Gets the game running properly on Windows 10. Forced resolution allows high resolution without shrinking the HUD\Menus, Super Sampling Anti Aliasing is also possible.

Gets the installer running on Windows 64-bit.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\LITHTECH\autoexec.cfg

Save game data location

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

Video

Video settings.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Gameplay is Vert-; Menus and HUD are pixel-based. For an uncropped Hor+ image, use the FOV fix.
Multi-monitor		Gameplay is Vert-; Menus and HUD are pixel-based. For an uncropped Hor+ image, use the FOV fix.
Ultra-widescreen		Gameplay is Vert-; Menus and HUD are pixel-based. For an uncropped Hor+ image, use the FOV fix.
4K Ultra HD		Gameplay is Vert-; Menus and HUD are pixel-based. For an uncropped Hor+ image, use the FOV fix. For the small HUD and texts at 4K, run the game at a smaller resolution with the same aspect ratio and choose 4K in dgVoodoo 2.
Field of view (FOV)		Use the FOV fix.
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)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS		Introduces a game-breaking bug, see Issues fixed for a solution.
120+ FPS		Exceeding 60 FPS causes several issues, such as increased game speed, cutscenes run faster than the voiceovers, etc.
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Controller types

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Sound, Dialogue and Music.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		EAX 2.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play
LAN play		8	Versus
Online play		8	Versus GameSpy services have been shut down; see GameSpy for workarounds.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated		Start <path-to-game>\lithtech\SanityServ.exe. Server settings can be changed in <path-to-game>\MultiPlaySettings.txt. Instructions on how to setup a dedicated server can be found in <path-to-game>\README.TXT.
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Issues fixed

Installing on 64-bit systems

This game comes with a 16-bit InstallShield installer, which won't work on modern systems.

Use 32-bit installer
Download Is3Engine.zip from here. Copy the CD contents to a folder in any location. Extract setup32.exe from the downloaded Is3Engine.zip to the newly created folder. Run setup32.exe to install the game.

Glitch on the machine during the Meat Plant mission

If the FPS is higher than 30, while the meat is going down the machine, there's a point it doesn't fall and continue its path to the conveyor belts, preventing progression.

Limit the FPS to 30

Use the Suppress Fire talent and throw the ball inside the machine that comes just before the conveyor belts
Notes This tricks the game into thinking it's the meat piece going to the conveyor belts. The solution can be seen in this video.

Bad performance on Windows 8/8.1/10/11

Use dgVoodoo 2

Glitched or wrong colored textures

Use dgVoodoo 2

Color banding

Use dgVoodoo 2

Game's resolution has 2048 pixel limit

Use dgVoodoo 2

Starts on second monitor

Set display manually
Open <path-to-game>\lithtech\autoexec.cfg. Locate the line "carddesc". Replace it with "carddesc" "\\.\DISPLAY1". Notes If the line does not already exist, add it manually.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	7

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Miles Sound System	3.0.0
Input	DirectInput
Multiplayer	World Opponent Network, GameSpy	The WON servers were already shut down.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95	98, ME, 2000
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium II 300 MHz	Intel Pentium II 450 MHz
System memory (RAM)	64 MB	96 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	400 MB	650 MB
Video card (GPU)	8 MB of VRAM OpenGL 1.0 compatible DirectX 7.0a compatible	16 MB of VRAM