The Need for Speed

This page is for the original 1995 game. For the 2016 reboot, see Need for Speed (2016).

The Need for Speed

Developers
	Pioneer Productions
	EA Canada
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Release dates
DOS	August 31, 1995
Windows	1996
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
Themes	Contemporary
Series	Need for Speed

Key points

Re-released as The Need for Speed: Special Edition, featuring extra content and improvements.

(Special Edition) Windows version has very poor compatibility on versions of Windows NT. Run MS-DOS version in DOSBox instead.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Disc check DRM for Windows version. DRM-free for MS-DOS.

Essential improvements

Patches

All patches are available from The Need For Speed SE Patches (Archived from original).

Video corruption in Special Edition

Videos in Need for Speed Special Edition (1996) may be corrupted, unless they run on a period correct video card.

The bug is explained, together with a way to fix it in the game code at the os2musem.

DOSBox-X
When using DOSBox-X, this bug can be prevented by disallowing low-res VESA modes with the following setting in your DOSBox-X config file in the [video] section: allow low resolution vesa modes = false

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
DOS	<path-to-game>\GAMEDATA\CONFIG\
Windows	<path-to-game>\GAMEDATA\CONFIG\

Save game data location

System	Location
DOS	<path-to-game>\GAMEDATA\SAVEGAME\
Windows	<path-to-game>\GAMEDATA\SAVEGAME\

Video

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		For DOSBox toggle with Alt+↵ Enter (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)		For DOSBox use an unofficial build (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
60 FPS
120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		X-axis can be used for steering.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion		Y-axis can not be used to accelerate/brake.
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion		through JCU.exe

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback		FFB implementation doesn't work on modern systems.
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		race music, menu music, sound effects
Surround sound		8-bit mono, 8-bit stereo, 16-bit stereo
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost		For DOSBox change the priority background value in the DOSBox configuration file.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
Local play
LAN play		Via modem or IPX (use DOSBox for TCP/IP or UDP/IP).
Online play		For DOSBox use DOSBox IPX/modem emulation.

Issues fixed

Running the game on Windows 7, 8.1 or 10

The game doesn't install with the setup program but can be installed manually. But the game never runs by opening the executable, you have to hook it through DxWnd to get it working. However, it has been found that the game doesn't even hook well with this program, it crashes before it gets hooked, it also doesn't run when it finds an unsupported driver on the machine (maybe delaying the hook), for example, a USB audio driver. If the driver gets uninstalled, the game mostly works fine. Still the game can have hooking problems and may not run in some instances.

Manually installing the game and running it using DxWnd

Copy 'FRONTEND', 'GAMEDATA', 'SIMDATA', 'IFORCE.DLL', 'NFS_WIN.EXE' from the CD to a folder. Rename 'NFS_WIN.EXE' to 'nfs.exe'. Copy 'BESTLAST.EAS', 'BESTTIME.EAS', 'EIGTH.EAS', 'FIFTH.EAS', 'FINALLAP.EAS', 'FIRST.EAS', 'FOURTH.EAS', 'SECOND.EAS', 'SEVENTH.EAS', 'SIXTH.EAS', 'THIRD.EAS' from 'FRONTEND/SPEECH' to the same folder. Copy 'dplay.dll' from 'REDIST\DIRECTX' folder of the CD to the same folder, or copy 'dplayx.dll' from 'Windows\SysWOW64' (64-bit OS) or 'Windows\System32'(32-bit OS) and then rename it to 'dplay.dll'. The first one is guaranteed to work while the later two may not work on some versions of Windows 10. But it is recommended to use either of the latter two. Copy 'NFS.CFG' to the game folder which can be downloaded from here. Copy 'PATHS.DAT' to 'GAMEDATA\CONFIG' in the installation folder, which can be downloaded from here. Open 'PATHS.DAT' with a hex editor like HxD and replace all text-strings "D:\" with the current CD drive letter, say "I:\". The replace function of the program can be used to replace all instances of "D:\" with the desired CD drive letter. This is a vital step, since the whole process will go wrong if this is not done properly. Please note that there are three instances of "D:\" Open DxWnd, and import this .dxw profile; right-click on the 'Need for Speed SE' entry that appears in DxWnd window and click on modify, change the path to the location of the game folder for "Path" and "Launch" pointing to 'nfs.exe'. Click OK. Double-click on 'Need for Speed SE' in DxWnd, the game should run. The game will display a black screen and freeze if the 'DPLAY.DLL' from the CD was used, just go to the Taskbar and click OK for the two errors that appear behind the game window. If it crashes try a few more times; if it doesn't work then it is likely because of the problem mentioned at the start.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Software renderer
DOS video modes	VGA, SVGA

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

System requirements

DOS

Windows

DOS
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	4.0 (5.0 for Special Edition) or later
Processor (CPU)	75 MHz Intel Pentium
System memory (RAM)	8 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	4 MB
Video card (GPU)	256 color VESA-compatible SVGA-compatible 512K of VRAM
Sound (audio device)	Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster 16, Sound Blaster AWE32, Sound Blaster Pro and 100% compatibles, Gravis Ultrasound/ACE and 100% Compatibles, Ensoniq Soundscape, Microsoft Sound System
Other	Modem (For Two-Player Online Play), Null-Modem Cable (For Two-Player Local Area Play)

Special Edition Windows Version

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95	95, 98, ME (NT versions of Windows not supported)
Processor (CPU)	75 MHz Intel Pentium	100 MHz Intel Pentium
System memory (RAM)	12 MB	16 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	30 MB	50 MB
Video card (GPU)	512 K of VRAM DirectX 2.0 compatible	1M of VRAM DirectX 2.0 compatible
Sound (audio device)	DirectX 2.0 compatible	DirectX 2.0 compatible
Other	IPX-Compatible Network Card (For 2-6 Player LAN Play), Modem (For Two-Player Online Play), Null-Modem Cable (For Two-Player Local Area Play)	IPX-Compatible Network Card (For 2-6 Player LAN Play), Modem (For Two-Player Online Play), Null-Modem Cable (For Two-Player Local Area Play)