Halo Combat Evolved on PC possible in 2019?

[Mr Technician]

Note: I do NOT condone piracy, but Halo CE is no longer available for purchase. If it is still not acceptable to discuss this, please delete this post.

 

I've been trying to install Halo CE for a while now but continue to run into issues (and not the custom edition, just the original campaign), because I really enjoyed playing it in the past and don't have a console to get the MCC. I also don't technically have a legitimate copy since I played on an original xbox. I have been trying to install the game on windows 10 as shown in many different youtube videos, but always end up with a black screen upon game launch. The music plays but I cannot see the menu, perhaps because I am using a virtual machine to be safe. Has anyone succeeded in running Halo CE on PC?

[Eastman51]

4 minutes ago, ThatFlashCat said:

Note: I do NOT condone piracy, but Halo CE is no longer available for purchase. If it is still not acceptable to discuss this, please delete this post.

 

I've been trying to install Halo CE for a while now but continue to run into issues (and not the custom edition, just the original campaign), because I really enjoyed playing it in the past and don't have a console to get the MCC. I also don't technically have a legitimate copy since I played on an original xbox. I have been trying to install the game on windows 10 as shown in many different youtube videos, but always end up with a black screen upon game launch. The music plays but I cannot see the menu, perhaps because I am using a virtual machine to be safe. Has anyone succeeded in running Halo CE on PC?

It's likely due to the VM.

I had issues trying to get a game to run on an XP VM (game only runs on XP for some reason), and if the game passed the DRM check (off the disc in the DVD drive, is a legit copy) I would just get a black screen with menu music. 

[Mr Technician]

1 minute ago, Eastman51 said:

It's likely due to the VM.

I had issues trying to get a game to run on an XP VM (game only runs on XP for some reason), and if the game passed the DRM check (off the disc in the DVD drive, is a legit copy) I would just get a black screen with menu music. 

I just brought my old workstation up from the basement to test on a bare metal install of windows.  It wouldn't surprise me if that's the problem.

[BigDamn]

I played Halo on PC regularly up until about a year ago. One thing you might try is adding -window to the shortcut on your desktop. I've had issues similar to this before, albeit on Windows 7 and not in a VM.

[Mr Technician]

1 minute ago, BigDamn said:

I played Halo on PC regularly up until about a year ago. One thing you might try is adding -window to the shortcut on your desktop. I've had issues similar to this before, albeit on Windows 7 and not in a VM.

It opened in full screen so that might help. I'll try loading the VM up again while I install windows again on my old PC.

[Mr Technician]

2 minutes ago, campy said:

Its not gonna play well with a VM, youre going to need to install it on a windows install with not only modern directx but the previous backwards compatibility packages and really be using a certain type of hardware. Halo CE does not like APUs or integrated graphics, and it does not like anything newer than the gtx 700 series. Itll play, you'll just start seeing small graphical errors like grainy transparencies.

 

I would suggest just a partition with an XP install if your hardware is XP compatible and has XP drivers. 7 should work fine as well, 8.1 and 10 i noticed a lot of issues trying to get the game to start. I play Halo 1 on original XP hardware, and halo 2 on original vista hardware with their respective operating systems installed just to avoid issues like this, its the easiest way to make sure you wont have any problems.

I'm going to try to run it on a system from 2011 with an intel xeon w3530, 12gb ddr3, and an nvidia gt 620. 

[Mr Technician]

So far so good but I can't get the gt 620 to run 1440p despite the fact that it is connected over HDMI, supports 2560x1440, and has latest drivers. Weird.