NFS Pre-Black Box Era: Nostalgia Trip or Setup Nightmare?
Heyo, everybody, it’s me, AliasRZ, in the middle of their summer break, struggling to find a job. But we’re not focusing on that today. Simply because it’s the middle of break and I have a bunch of free time, I’m focusing on making two new categories.
One focuses on things happening during break, while the other focuses on basic hobbies such as gaming. Now let’s get into it.
Simply, I’m a person who, during my later high school years, became interested in the nfs games. Started with Underground 1 (yeah, yeah, basic choice, sue me), then worked my way to The Run, skipping the Shift duology and only playing a bit of Prostreet.
However, I rarely see people talk about the pre-Blackbox era of NFS, and I wanted to try them. After the bullshit I went through to even launch them… I get why.
NFS 1 (1994)
First off, I tried to play the first NFS game in the franchise, released in 1994. However, for some reason, I had to play the game in a virtual machine/emulator made for older Windows games. It was frustrating to set up compared to other games in the franchise, where you can simply launch an exe, and it just works, so I just skipped it.
NFS III: Hot Pursuit (1998)
Then I tried NFS Hot Pursuit, the third game in the franchise. Way smoother to get running. I thought the game was pretty decent, especially with its soundtrack and wide assortment of cars to choose from.
But the thing I found most interesting was that, in-game, they go through the history of various cars and the companies that made them, even showcasing videos and pictures of the actual cars in action. They also go into depth on various in-game tracks, giving you pointers on different layouts and things to watch out for, so you don’t act like a reckless driver, so you don’t eat shit on the corners.
Why the hell didn’t later games bring that back? Super disappointing. (Though it’s starting to act up on me again lately…)
＼(ﾟーﾟ＼)
NFS 2 SE
Grabbed it from an abandonware Reddit link, waited on Fincher’s slow-ass downloads, installed… and it worked exactly once. After that? Crashed right at the EA logo every single time.
Tried compatibility modes, 16-bit nonsense, ISO swaps, GitHub fixes, and much more. Finally got the data folders merged with patched EXEs, and now it runs.
God, I hate how annoying these pre-Black Box games are to set up. You’d think, after all of these years, ever since the 90s when the franchise started, that someone would’ve made them “just work” like the Underground-era stuff.
Does anyone else bother with the old ones? Drop your stories (or recommendations) below.