Running Black & White on Windows 10

Matt

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Black and White was released in 2001, it's almost 20 years old! And sadly it hasn't aged well, there are a lot of issues, but they can be fixed! Here's how.

Uninstall any previous attempts

Before you attempt to install anything, if you have failed to install it properly before, make sure you uninstall it properly.

First off you should run the game's uninstaller, however this won't be enough - you'll also need to delete the game's folder usually:

Code:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Lionhead Studios Ltd\Black & White

Then you will need to delete the following registry values using regedit:

On a 64-bit system:

Code:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Lionhead Studios Ltd\Black & White
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Lionhead Studios Ltd\Black and White
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Lionhead Studios Ltd\Black and White Clan Patch
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Lionhead Studios Ltd\Black and White Patch
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{E51B4CD9-A0A6-4324-B26A-31B3F2DE26CE}

On a 32-bit system:

Code:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Lionhead Studios Ltd\Black & White
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lionhead Studios Ltd\Black and White
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lionhead Studios Ltd\Black and White Clan Patch
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lionhead Studios Ltd\Black and White Patch
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{E51B4CD9-A0A6-4324-B26A-31B3F2DE26CE}

Once you have done that, you are good to install again!

Installing the game

First of all you will need a clean copy of the Black & White disc, either in your optical drive or more likely mounted in ISO format. (Don't ask us where to get these. ;))

All you need to do to install the game is run Setup.exe as Administrator by right clicking it and pressing "Run as Administrator".

You will most likely face issues unless you install the game to the C:/ drive.

Once the game is installed it will ask you if you want to play the game, select no.

You should now install villager banter add-on and football add-on if you want to, these need to be Run as Administrator also.
Creature unlockers do not need to be installed as they are included in the unofficial patch below.

Patching the game

Without the unofficial patch, the game will not launch, so it is crucial you follow the order of steps below exactly.

You should not install patch 1.3, it is a patch purely for the P5 glove.

  1. Download and install Patch v1.1 and Run as Administrator.
  2. Download and install Patch v1.2 and Run as Administrator.
  3. Download and install Unofficial Patch v1.42 and Run as Administrator.
Your game is now playable, hurrah! However there are some additional steps you may want to take.

How to get the game to play music

The installer does not copy music audio over to the game folder and can't play it. You need to copy the Audio folder from the CD to your installation folder.

2es6cRv.png


When copying you may be asked to merge, simply say yes.

Configuring graphical options

With the fan patch, a Setup.exe is included in the game's directory, simply run it and select your screen resolution and ensure your graphics quality is set to "Maximum Detail".

3kyplfS.png


Playing the game

When starting the game, set runblack.exe to Run as Administrator.

Don't use Compatibility mode, it will cause more problems then it solves.

If you have any issues please leave a reply below and be descriptive as possible so we can best help you.
Or you can join our Discord for help too.

Have fun playing Black and White! :)

Other links

Running on Mac?

The Mac port for this game only runs on older Macs (PowerPC) - it is incompatible with newer Macs. Sorry!
 
Last edited:
White123lol said:
i cant start the Fan Patch setup.exe

Oops, I've made it target .NET 2.0 now so it should be able to run on your system.
 
Matt,

I am not sure if more people are having the same problem, but Windows 7 security patch KB3086255 makes old games like Black & White and the Sims unable to run.
Please look into this issue and see if has any effect on your installation guide.
 
Vathorst said:
Matt,

I am not sure if more people are having the same problem, but Windows 7 security patch KB3086255 makes old games like Black & White and the Sims unable to run.
Please look into this issue and see if has any effect on your installation guide.

I believe this Windows Update removes Safedisc drivers, my fan patch mentioned in the OP removes Safedisc protection from the exe and makes it run fine. :)
 
I have the fan patch installed, but football addon don't work. :help
 
sorry for this, not sure if i should make a new thread or just post here, but i thought you might be able to help.. i've been trying to get B&W to work for quite a while now, uninstalling and reinstalling various times using the old cowgod.net guide but it stopped working, so i was excited to see this new guide. but last time i uninstalled it i goofed up and just deleted all the files out of frustration lol, i know.. dumb mistake  :rolleyes but now i get this error

jVI9waL.png
when i try to uninstall it properly.. what do i do  :laugh2
 
uncleremus said:
sorry for this, not sure if i should make a new thread or just post here, but i thought you might be able to help.. i've been trying to get B&W to work for quite a while now, uninstalling and reinstalling various times using the old cowgod.net guide but it stopped working, so i was excited to see this new guide. but last time i uninstalled it i goofed up and just deleted all the files out of frustration lol, i know.. dumb mistake  :rolleyes but now i get this error

jVI9waL.png
when i try to uninstall it properly.. what do i do  :laugh2

To uninstall just run the uninstaller, if that works or doesn't you can then delete the game folder files and then delete the registry keys in the opening post.
 
sqsa said:
I have the fan patch installed, but football addon don't work. :help

Not sure why that's happening sorry, will have to look into it when I have some free time.
 
thank you so much. i had been trying to use the uninstaller from my cd but it was giving me that error and i used the uninstaller from an old pirated version i bought and it worked just fine. then i used this guide and im so happy i can play again  :fixed :angel
 
This guide is absolutely perfect for the most part. I've gotten the game up and running but I'm still running into two issues. The first of which is the football addon still isn't working (even in Creature Isle!), but I suppose there's no way around that so long as I'm using windows 7 (all other addons work, however). Is there any way around this or is it just one of those things that can't be helped?

The more major issue I'm having is crashing and subsequent corruption of my save files. A few times during my playthrough I would get the "lh.exe has stopped working" out of nowhere and lose quite a bit of progress. Thankfully, the damage wasn't too bad due to autosave. Things came to an unfortunate end at the end of land 2, which upon clicking the golden reward scrolls that leads to land 3 via the vortex, the game would autosave, then proceed to crash. When I loaded it back up, I was several hours behind, despite the game autosaving many, many times before that (I think it brought me back to when Khazar was still alive). I tried loading every file I could find in the save room, including both the manual and auto ones, but they would all bring me back to a very old save.

This is rather frustrating to say the least. :sorry
 
I know how to fix the addons, I'll do that when I get some time. As for the auto save, ehh no idea why it isn't working as intended will need more investigation. Any other bugs you can find I'll try and fix them all when I get some free time soon.
 
BP5vIom.jpg


cool that was easy, I'll package & publish the patch later tonight.

edit: alright it's up, just redownload the fan patch and replace runblack.exe
 
Looks like the new patch messed with something. Not only is the game not going full screen (the screen is windowed yet goes far into the right side of the screen) and showing version 1.00, but it appears to keep the lh process running even when you exit out of the program.
I'll try to get some screenshots up later. I'm sure it's something minor. Thank you for your effort in the first place, though.

EDIT: Same thing is happening, even with the installer. Looks like it's not only forcing it into windowed mode (even if you don't tick the windowed box), but also setting the resolution very low. I've actually managed to upload a pic this time with my ever-amazing MS paint printscreen skills.

 
Oh I might of uploaded the wrong exe, sorry about that I'll make sure when I get home.
 
Uploaded, check the main post - it's now an installer figured it'd be much easier to distribute it like this. Fixed the forced window mode, some graphical bugs, some widescreen bugs.
 
Handsome Matt said:
BP5vIom.jpg


cool that was easy, I'll package & publish the patch later tonight.

edit: alright it's up, just redownload the fan patch and replace runblack.exe

Your b&w looks amazing on that screenshot. I installed patch 1.3 and 1.4 but my textures are blurred all the time and they don't look that sharp as yours, I changed all the settings back in 1.2 and 1.3 but render distance is still too low, it worked better or perfectly before formatting about 2 years ago (same pc and windows 7). I don't know what to do :rolleyes




ok, now my game looks like this
 
Try the latest 1.4 and make sure you run the configuration tool included, just set it to max details and save. That's all my game is, no compatibility options, no nothing.
 
Handsome Matt said:
Try the latest 1.4 and make sure you run the configuration tool included, just set it to max details and save. That's all my game is, no compatibility options, no nothing.

well, so I guess I can't do nothing more, but I thought it looked better.. is there any bwbackup software that will work with your patch ?
 
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