Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hey, I installed this game a few days ago after finding out about some nice texture / lighting mods, as well as a patch to run the game in widescreen.

The game works, however I frequently run into a problem. When returning to explore mode from a race or exiting the garage or a shop, the game will get stuck at the loading screen. (windows task manager states that the game is running, as opposed to the expected "not responding" if it were stuck in a loop as it appears, before I end the process)

After a lot of trial and error trouble shooting, I found the crack I was using seems to be the cause. (Full install, patched to v1.2, game works with / without mods when running off the disc (obviously no widescreen), when the crack is applied the game loops with / without the mods running)

All my searching (save 2 sources) has led me here, stating I must use UNiWS to patch the game to enable widescreen mode, and those also stated both in those sources and on these forums that a crack is required to do so.

The crack I used was a noCD-Fixed.exe v1.2 ENG from gamecopyworld, which I was directed to in these forums in an older thread about NFSU2.

Thus I am faced with 3 solutions:

1) play without widescreen
2) find a crack that does not cause a problem
3) find a way to play in widescreen without a crack

obviously, I'd rather not settle for option 1.
ideally, I would like to use a noCD crack as it eliminates the hassle of using the CD, without taking up the disc space of an .iso. So I would prefer option 2. given that UNiWS states that the speed2.exe must be cracked to work, I appear to be stuck with this option
option 3 seems unlikely due to UNiWS stating the reason it needs a cracked .exe is due to the way the file are locked up or encrypted to prevent editing.

while exploring possibilities in option 2, it seems no one else has this problem, and the cracks out there are all the same.

in regards to option 3, I found 2 alternate solutions. the first entailed using regedit to alter a file in the EA directory, however I was unable to use this as I did not have such a directory.
the second solution here: http://widescreengamingforum.com/node/10571 left me a little confused, but seems promising.

it appears that discussion of cracks is allowed here, as UNiWS needs one to work with this game, and I was directed to a site that had the cracks on these forums.

*edit*
it appears, that no crack is willing to cooperate and allow me to have a seamless gameplay experience at the loading screens; so it looks like I'm being forced into trying to find a way to enable widescreen without a crack.

I do have a legitimate copy of NFSU2 (two actually, PC and GameCube)

Comp Specs:
Intel i7 Q740 @1.73GHz
6 GB RAM
ATI Radeon 5800 HD
Windows 7 Professional 64bit


Any help is appreciated.

You should download the application called Universal Widescreen Patcher by Wogg. I used to play Need For Speed Underground 1 & 2 in Widescreen. You set the resolution to like 640x 480 in the game and run the program and it will find your speed.exe file and it will automatically change the resolution that set it to in the Universal Widescreen Patcher.

I used it to and finished Underground 1 & 2 using it.

Lastly, I believed I used a no-cd crack after updating the game.