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NOSTALGIA FORTE

Warning:

Please make sure your data is from an appropriate source and unmodified before proceeding, this guide is unable to troubleshoot any problems related to bad or poorly managed data.

If you obtained data from a torrent file, make sure you're not seeding the data before proceeding as well.

Lastly, for demonstrative purposes, this guide uses SpiceTools, you should consult appropriate documentation and requirements of your desired tools as the setup process is likely to be extremely similar.

Getting Started

Before we even touch the game, let's fiddle with our audio settings to minimize any potential audio issues on startup. In Windows, go to Playback Devices and then right click on your default device and go to Properties. From there, hit the Advanced tab and set your Default Format to 44100 Hz and check both of the options inside Exclusive Mode as pictured.

Once that's done, it's time to work on setting up your data.

After downloading your data, the first thing to do is make sure your files aren't set to READ ONLY, make sure to uncheck it from the main folder in the Windows Properties tab if so. Then, put your desired 64-bit tools inside the game's main folder and to create a .bat file. Pictured below is what your folder should look like, feel free to name your .bat file whatever you desire, for the sake of convenience we've named ours gamestart.bat.

Configuring Your Tools

Now that you have your files ready, open up your .bat file in your desired text editor (we're using Notepad++) and edit it with your desired parameters, for the purpose of this guide we will demonstrate ONLY a local network configuration with SpiceTools. Why only local? Because none of the most typical places currently support Nostalgia. Regardless, please keep in mind you can add whatever additional parameters you desire.

If you're not using SpiceTools:

The overall structure of your .bat file will differ from the guide, namely the initialization of SpiceTools won't be present and potential parameters may differ. As stated above, make sure to check the documentation of your tools to ensure you're using the correct parameters for your needs.

Configuring for a Local Network

For our local network configuration example, on a single line in the .bat file we're going to type spice64.exe -ea -w and save the file.

What do these different parameters do?

  • -ea enables an integrated e-amusement server within SpiceTools.
  • -w will boot the game in windowed mode which will ease our initial setup and testing later, make sure to remove -w to run the game fullscreen once you're done setting up!

Pictured below, the contents of our gamestart.bat file in Notepad++.

Configuring for an Online Network

For our online network example we're simply doing the above but with different parameters! On our single line, we're going to type spice64.exe -p XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX -url http://yoururlhere.com/ -w and save the file.

What do these different parameters do?

  • -p takes your PCBID on your network of choice, simply replace XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX with your PCBID.
  • -url allows you to specify a custom service URL to connect with, simply replace http://yoururlhere.com/ with your chosen network's URL.
  • -w will boot the game in windowed mode which will ease our initial setup and testing later, make sure to remove -w to run the game fullscreen once you're done setting up!

Pictured below, the contents of our gamestart.bat file in Notepad++.

Final Steps and Setting up the Game

The last steps you'll have to do with your chosen tools is simply setting up your desired keybinds! Make sure you setup the Test keybind as it will be critical for setting up the game. Once you've done that, launch your game for the first time by double clicking the .bat you setup and the game should load.

If it's your first time running the game, you should be automatically forced into the service menu with lots of scary flashing notifications as pictured below, let's work through them.

Interestingly, only the red flashing ones really take any effort to deal with. You can start by entering and exiting the following menus: SOUND OPTIONS, GAME OPTIONS, COIN OPTIONS, ECOMODE OPTIONS, and NETWORK OPTIONS.

Once you've done that, enter CLOCK and set the clock by hitting SAVE AND EXIT as pictured below.

The final menu we must deal with is VIRTUAL COIN, enter the menu and select OPERATION SETTINGS as seen below.

Once inside this menu, we'll need to deal with all 4 blinking options, let's start by entering the TAX RATE SETTING menu, shown below.

Set the tax rate by simply selecting SAVE AND EXIT while will take us back into the OPERATING SETTINGS. Pictured below is the TAX RATE SETTING menu.

Once back inside the TAX RATE SETTING menu, we must deal with the three blinking PATTERN options. Doing so is effortless, simply enter all three menus one by one and hit SAVE AND EXIT just as we did for the TAX RATE SETTING in the previous step. Pictured below is the inside of PATTERN 1.

After saving and exiting all three PATTERN options, you're all done! From the service menu select GAME MODE and the game should load ready to be played! Have fun!

Have any other errors?

Check out the Common Problems/Tips section and Error Code section to resolve any issues not seen in this guide to greater depth.