Introduction​

First you will need to install the game using the original disc while its inserted into your computer. If you do not have a disc drive, fear not, as you can mount an image of the original disc with the built-in Windows tools to mount the ISO image.

Note: You cannot just extract the data to a folder and run the Setup.exe from there - this will result in you getting a "This game must be installed off the CD!" error since the back in the 1990s, EA used a routine in their SETUP.EXE that calls the Windows API function GetDriveType(). This function allows it to detect if its running from a fixed hard drive or mapped network drive for example, instead of a drive classified as DRIVE_CDROM and if so, halts it with said error.

If you have the original CD ROM, be sure its inserted into your PC if you have a drive that is able to read it, or you can use a tool such as Folder2ISO to read its contents and save it as an ISO image. We would highly recommend making an ISO image of it anyways, as these original discs are well beyond 20 years old at this point and it's good to have a digital image of the media as a fail-safe so you can continue to play the game well into the future.

Installation​

1. With the game disc inserted into or image mounted onto your computer, right-click and run the SETUP.EXE as administrator.
2. Proceed with the prompts to install.
3. When prompted, select the Full installation type.
4. Let the installer proceed and finish with installation.
5. You can proceed to allow it to create desktop shortcuts if you wish.
6. When prompted, skip registration and ignore any errors about the failed 3D Setup.
7. At this point, you can now Eject the disc from your drive and put it away safely or un-mount the image from your computer.
8. Download and extract the Need for Speed High Stakes - Expansion Pack Installer, and run the included NFS_HS_EP_Setup_Vxxx.exe as administrator.
9. Usually it is fine to proceed with the default installation options, but you can tailor them to your desire.
10. When prompted, click Yes to allow it to copy the music data files from the game's CD ROM or mounted ISO image.
11. When prompted, you can click Yes to run the new 3D Setup program and choose which 3D mode it should use.
    • For most people, you will probably want to choose Glide (VooDoo Cards) for the best graphics. The game was natively engineered for 3dfx Glide and the expansion pack includes wrappers like nGlide or dgVoodoo in order to provide support for this. Using this mode restores all the authentic graphical effects including:
      • Transparent vehicle windows
      • Detailed vehicle interiors
      • Dynamic lens flare
      • Flashing police light coronas
      • Colored police light effects around the environments
      • Headlight beams
      • Environmental road reflections and weather particles like rain, lightning, snow, etc
      • Atmospheric distance fog
      • ...and more
    • If that does not work, you can choose Software Renderer to disable 3D acceleration and the graphical enhancements. This will result in stripped lighting effects, capped texture resolutions, and vehicle windows being rendered as flat solid blocks without transparency, among other things.
    • We generally recommend avoiding the Direct 3D option as the original D3D render in the game had bugged lighting pipelines and missing transparency effects that often caused texture flickering or crashing on modern video cards unless paired with very specific modified DirectX DLL files.
12. As a reminder, if you opted to use Glide (VooDoo Cards) as the 3D acceleration option:
    1. In-game, do NOT turn on the Triple Buffer option in the graphics settings
    2. In-game, KEEP the screen resolution at 640x480px and use the Glide Wrapper Configurator to set your preferred resolution.
13. Within the Glide Wrapper Configurator:
    1. Set vertical sync (VSYNC) option to Always on. This is important otherwise modern video cards will try to render this older 1999 game at over 1,000 FPS which will break physics and animations.
    2. Set the resolution to something as close as possible to what you have. If you have a 1920x1080 screen resolution for example, we recommend 1024x768 or 1280x960 since this is the closest 4:3 aspect ratio resolution available.
    3. Click Apply and close the configurator.
14. Click Finish or Close to complete the Expansion Pack installer.
15. At this point, you can now Eject the disc from your drive and put it away safely or un-mount the image from your computer.
16. You should be ready to play!