The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

How to Play

For unknown reasons the game was released on 1 CD in Europe and on 2 CDs in USA & North America. US release has 2 discs - Install Disc & Play Disc while European release has only Play Disc. We recommend to install US release. The launch of the game on modern systems may be troublesome, so please read out installation guide and Notes. Also, check this video instruction and description of it

Install & play guide (for US version):

• Mount the disc image of CD1 (Installation Disc). You will need the utility for mounting disc image files, like WinCDEmu, UltraISO, Alcohol 52%/Alcohol 102% or Daemon Tools Lite (if autorun doesn't work - simply launch the installation from Setup.exe inside the disc)
• Launch the installation. Make sure that the install path is only on English (i.e. it should looks like C:/Games/The Fellowship of the Ring)
• When the installation process will ask for CD2 - mount the disc image of CD2
• Finish the installation
• Also it is recommended to install DirectX 8.1b from the disc
• After that install the patch
• Then install NoCD (simply copy Fellowship.exe from the archive and replace the original exe-file inside the game folder)
• Open the directory with the game and find Fellowship.exe. Right click on Fellowship.exe - Properties - Compatibility - Set "Run this app in compatibility mode with Windows 2000 or XP" and "Run as administrator". Don't launch the game yet
• After that mount the disc image of CD2 (Play Disc), the disc image of Play Disc must be mounted in virtual drive in order to play the game
• Now you need to limit the game's framerate to 60 FPS, originally the game was designed to work at 60 FPS maximum. On modern systems the game works too fast and unplayable without the FPS limiter
• Install an app that allows to limit the framerate, like RTSS, read this guide for framerate limit utilities. Do not try to use NVidia FPS limiter, it won't work. Keep the utility running in the background
• Then download 3D Analyzer and extract it in any place but NOT in the game folder. Run 3DAnalyze.exe as administrator and add Fellowship.exe in the list ("Select" button) and check the box "LOTR texture fix"
• Click "Run" in 3D Analyzer and play

Install & play guide (for EU version):

• Mount the disc image. You will need the utility for mounting disc image files, like WinCDEmu, UltraISO, Alcohol 52%/Alcohol 102% or Daemon Tools Lite (if autorun doesn't work - simply launch the installation from Setup.exe inside the disc)
• Install the game. Make sure that the install path is only on English (i.e. it should looks like C:/Games/The Fellowship of the Ring)
• Also it is recommended to install DirectX 8.1b from the disc
• Then install NoCD (simply copy Fellowship.exe from the archive and replace the original exe-file inside the game folder)
• Open the directory with the game and find Fellowship.exe. Right click on Fellowship.exe - Properties - Compatibility - Set "Run this app in compatibility mode with Windows 2000 or XP" and "Run as administrator". Don't launch the game yet
• Now you need to limit the game's framerate to 60 FPS, originally the game was designed to work at 60 FPS maximum. On modern systems the game works too fast and unplayable without the FPS limiter
• Install an app that allows to limit the framerate, like RTSS, read this guide for framerate limit utilities. Do not try to use NVidia FPS limiter, it won't work. Keep the utility running in the background
• Then download 3D Analyzer and extract it in any place but NOT in the game folder. Run 3DAnalyze.exe as administrator and add Fellowship.exe in the list ("Select" button) and check the box "LOTR texture fix"
• Click "Run" in 3D Analyzer and play

The game with patch and NoCD has been tested on Windows 7 64-bit and Windows 10 with 3D Analyzer and RTSS utilities, works fine

Notes:

• NoCD is required to launch because the game is using SecuROM DRM protection, which doesn't work correctly on modern systems. That NoCD "breaks" DRM protection and allows the game to work on modern systems
• If the installation doesn't start - try to launch Setup.exe in compatibility mode with old version of Windows (98, 2000 or XP)
• Summing up - to launch the game on Windows 8, 10 or 11, you will need 3 things: the game with NoCD + utility to cap the framerate (one of these) + 3D Analyzer
• If you launch the game with 3D Analyzer in fullscreen and it doesn't work - check the boxes "LOTR texture fix" and "Force windowed mode" (check this example) and try to launch again. The game should launch but it will work in windowed mode
• If you launch the game with 3D Analyzer and can not see mouse cursor - check the boxes "LOTR texture fix", "Emulate HW TnL caps", "Emulate other DX8.1 caps" and "Emulate DXT textures". Now the game should work properly
• If you're playing the US version of the game and see error "Insert Play Disc in CD-ROM" - mount the disc image of CD2 (Play Disc for US version). If you get that error in EU version - mount the disc image of EU version
• By default the maximum resolution of the game is 1024x768 but you can play in higher resolutions by HEX edit of exe-file, here's the video instruction how to do it
• The method with 3D Analyzer probably won't work on laptops with Windows 10, especially with Intel graphics card. If the method with 3D Analyzer didn't help - you can try to run the game through dgVoodoo but please note that dgVoodoo doesn't work with Intel graphics at all