Need for Speed II: Special Edition

Game: Need for Speed II: Special Edition → (Windows, 1997)

A cross-platform port of Need for Speed II: Special Edition (1997) for Windows, Linux, and macOS (up to Mojave), plus Android. The game code is the original, taken as a disassembly: on x86 it’s reassembled with Yasm, and on other CPUs it uses a translation of that assembly to C++, which its author says is somewhat slower and less stable. Around it sits a wrapper written from scratch that replaces what the game asked of Windows: Glide graphics, 3dfx’s API, go to OpenGL (or OpenGL ES on Android), and network play runs over TCP and UDP. Game controllers, force feedback, serial-port connections, brightness, and sound work; modem play will never work again. During a race, F1 to F12 toggle rain, car detail, draw distance, each player’s HUD, the mirror, music, or sound effects. The latest release, 1.4.0, came out on March 16, 2024. The repository includes, as submodules, the disassembly of the game’s executable (NFSIISE-ASM) and its C++ translation (NFSIISE-CPP), plus the game’s text files in six languages adapted to the TCP version; the game data comes from your CD.

You needYour own Need for Speed II: Special Edition CD, from which you copy the fedata and gamedata folders (with the regular Need for Speed II you get a “MOVIE FILE NOT FOUND” message). Plus Windows XP or later, or x86 Linux with the 32-bit glibc, OpenGL, and X11 libraries; on Linux the files from the CD must be lowercase, and the package includes a script that renames them. On other CPUs, you build it with Clang as a 32-bit program.

How it gets to PC

Port of a decompilation

Console

Microsoft Windows

Original studio

EA Canada

Year

1997

Author

zaps166

Stars

782

Last activity

2026-05-01 · 6 months ago

Latest version

v1.4.0 · 2024-03-16

License

MIT

Language

C

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