The recent news about boomer racer* Old School Rally made me want to try out the old Colin McRae Rally 3. Released in 2002 it is like so many other sports games no longer for sale anywhere and haven't seen any sort of upkeep like old titles re-released on GOG or Steam.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the muppet* behind the SilentPatches mods have not only worked on the game to make it run on modern systems but made what amounts to almost a remaster two years ago, for the games twentieth anniversary:

- Support for modern systems
- Multiple bugfixes
- HD UI
- (Ultra)widescreen support
- Graphical fixes and improvements
- Support for texture replacements and higher resolution assets
- Game is made portable (no settings in the registry!)

The changelog goes on and on...

Heck, even the cheats function in the game that generates a code you had to exchange for the actual cheat (over the telephone!) have been remade! So much love for this old game!

I posted a few screenshots (with dubious commentary) below but to see the full extent of the changes I highly recommend watching the official trailer!

It does work very well in Proton, but some minor fixes are needed:

- The xcopy call in setup.bat (used to patch the exe) fails and need to be replaced with copy (or copy the file manually and comment out the xcopy call)
- Add a dll override for dinput8.dll (this is how the SilenPatch hooks into the game)
- I could not get separate gas/brake axes to work, only combined. This is supposed to work according to the notes in patch 1.1 so I'm not sure if it's a bug in the game, the patch or Proton?


!swe
If in Sweden you stop at any red cottage like this and make the right börk, börk, börk noises, the people inside will serve you meatballs with lingonberries - delicious!


!aus
The Queensland girls really knock me out! Ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh! I'm back! Back in the A.U.S!​


!fin
It's impossible to have a bad time in Finland. Well, maybe if you complain about the heat in the post-rally sauna or request ketsuppi for your memma?


!2cv
Ceci n'est pas une rally car.


!uk
"You can't park that there sir."


!mech
Mechanics hard at work removing the turbot that got stuck in my turbo on Special Stage Bikini Bottom.


!cheat
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheat? At €1.27 per call, more like listen to the Moneytalks!



* Get over it!
* Not a slur! Actual muppet, check their Github profile!