Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

How to Play

The game with NoCD has been tested on Windows 7 64-bit and Windows 10, works fine. But the game has some issues on modern systems, for troubleshooting and fixing check our guides and Notes

Here's also some video guides how to run first Harry Potter games on modern systems, if you prefer video over text: first guide, second guide, third guide, fourth guide.

Install & play guide:

• Mount the disc image. You will need the utility for mounting disc image files, like WinCDEmu, UltraISO, Alcohol 52%/Alcohol 120% or Daemon Tools Lite
• Run the installation (if autorun doesn't work - simply launch the installation from Setup.exe inside the disc). Ignore the registration window, click "Register later"
• At the end of installation you probably will get error "Please enter correct CD-ROM" - just click "OK", it doesn't affect anything, the game is already installed
• Also it is recommended to install DirectX from the disc (if you're using Windows 10 - enable DirectPlay, read this or this guide how to do it)
• After you installed the game - install NoCD (simply copy HPPoA.exe from the archive and put it into Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban/System folder, replacing original HPPoA.exe)
• Open the directory Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban/System and find HPPoA.exe. Right click on HPPoA.exe - Properties - Compatibility - Set "Run this app in compatibility mode with Windows 2000 or XP" and "Run as administrator"
• Launch the game and play. If the game doesn't work - try to launch the game in compatibility mode with old versions of Windows (98, 2000, WinXP or Vista)

That way you will get clean version of original game, but it has poor graphics on modern systems. Here's some advices how to improve game graphics (make sure to save back-ups of original files):

1. By default the max resolution of the game is 1024x768, but you can launch it in widescreen by editing .ini files:

• Launch the game one time and close, so the game will create configuration files
• Then go to My Documents/Harry Potter™ and the Prisoner of Azkaban folder and open hppoa.ini in Notepad. Set the FullscreenViewportX and FullscreenViewportY values under [WinDrv.WindowsClient] to your desired resolution
• Optionally, edit User.ini and set the DesiredFOV value to compensate: 100 for the 16:10 aspect ratio, and 106.26 for 16:9
• Also, you can change the screen resolution with Harry Potter Settings tool, just launch it and select desired settings, then press "Apply" and tool will make all required changes in .ini-files.
• Please note that with this method it is not recommended to run the game in any resolution higher than 1920x1080, because the game starts to show graphical glitches/bugs. If you want to play in higher resolution - use dgVoodoo

2. If you want to play with anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering and other cool features - run the game through dgVoodoo utility: copy the dll-files from the MS/x86 folder, dgVoodooCpl.exe and dgVoodoo.conf in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban /System folder, then launch dgVoodooCpl.exe to change dgVoodoo settings. After that run the game through desktop shortcut or HPPoA.exe. dgVoodoo is compatible with widescreen config and HP Settings tool, so you can enable anti-aliasing + texture filtering in dgVoodoo settings, then change the resolution, and the game will look really great & working in good resolution. Please note that dgVoodoo requires video card with DirectX 9 support, so it doesn't work on most of Intel graphics
3. If your graphics card doesn't support DirectX 9 (like most Intel graphics) - you can try to run the game with 3D Analyze utility. But we didn't test that method

In summary, to run the game on modern systems you need NoCD + edit configs (manually or with HP Settings tool) + graphical wrapper like dgVoodoo, also you will need to cap the framerate to 60 FPS. If you don't want or don't know how to do all of that - you can download repack by Magipack (also mirrored on this page), it includes all needed fixes & dgVoodoo for graphics enhancement

Notes:

• If the installation doesn't start - try to launch Setup.exe in compatibility mode with old version of Windows (98, 2000 or XP)
• NoCD is required for the launch because the game is using SafeDisc DRM protection, which doesn't work on modern systems. That NoCD "breaks" DRM protection and allows the game to work on modern systems
• If the game doesn't work in compatibility mode with Windows XP - try to run it in compatibility mode with older Windows versions (Windows 2000, Windows 98/Me, etc.). For some users the game didn't work in compatibility mode with Windows XP but worked with Windows 2000
• The game works on DirectX 8, so if you're using Windows 8, 8.1, 10 or 11 - you need to enable DirectPlay: Go to Control Panel, and select 'Programs'. Select 'Turn Windows features on and off', click on 'Legacy Components' and check the box 'DirectPlay'. Select OK, once the installation is done, restart your computer
• If you launch the game on Windows 8 and later and get error LockRect failed: D3DERR_DEVICELOST - run the game with dgVoodoo or change renderer device in config file, read this guide how to do that
• If you have low frame rate - use dgVoodoo or DDRaw Compact
• If the game doesn't work with dgVoodoo - you can try to run the game with d3d8to9 wrapper, it is simple dll-file that adapts DirectX 8 games to DirectX 9 renderer. Simply put d3d8.dll next to HPPoA.exe; please note that your graphics card must support DirectX 9
• Sometimes the in-game physics and/or cutscenes are getting broken when the game works too fast, so better to limit the game's framerate to 60 FPS. There are few ways to do that:
• Install an app that allows to limit the framerate, like RTSS or Bandicam, read this guide for framerate limit utilities
• If you're using dgVoodoo 2.75 or later version - open dgVoodoo.conf with Notepad and find the line FPSLimit = 0. Change "0" to "60" to limit the game's framerate to 60 FPS
• For users of Windows 64-bit systems: if the game doesn't work after you launched it - open Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del by default) and check for processes HPPoA.exe and rundll32.exe. Close HPPoA.exe but don't touch rundll32.exe (it's a Windows app for running old apps from 32-bit operational systems, most old games running through rundll32.exe). Now try to launch the game again, it must work. Don't forget to close rundll32.exe process in Task Manager after finishing playing
• Don't forget to check PCGamingWiki page if you have troubles, it is very useful!