Grand Prix Legends

What works

Everything seems to work fine

- Direct Input controller (ps2 controller with usb adapter)

- Changing resolution

- Practice races, actual races.

What does not

The default installer i  old, but works. Nevertheless, there seems to be extra steps getting the game to work under wine environment, which I couldn't figure.

Using a community-driven installer (which is also used by Windows 7 and above users) fixes any install and run issues.

Workarounds

I used the GPLPS installer from this blog version 1.08 Beta. With that, I could run this installer with Wine, point the installer to my Grand Prix Legends CD drive and succesfully install it.

You HAVE to pick DirectX version instead of OpenGL. OpenGL version gives unreadable text (which also seems to be a problem on windows but I didn't bother trying to fix ANOTHER problem).

I HAD to disable CSMT on Wine>Staging, via winecfg. If you don't, the game stalls trying to figure multi-core/multi-thread work (when the game doesn't really need them).

What was not tested

Installing the game using the original CD-ROM and running the base version, with no community mods.

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU: AMD
• Driver: open source

Additional Comments

Given that the community (Grand Prix Legends Preservation Society) uses third-party applications to improve the game and properly install it, I was biased towards Platinum.

Although, there are little crackling noises every once in a while, which cannot be perceived because the engine's sound is louder.

The game always starts at 640x480, but the Options menu can be accessed to set race resolution to 1920x1080. I couldn't find out if there's a workaround (windows or not) to make the menus work at higher resolutions. I also didn't find any mentions of that for Windows users.

I tried another third party application called GEM+ which supposedly helps manage mods, but it felt overwhelming and the version installed with GPLPS installer already has decent mods for more a more modern game engine.