Videos, widescreen and game controllers (2026-10-30)

Native Apple Silicon build of Need for Speed: Underground 2. No Wine, no emulator.

Game files are not included. On first launch, point the app to the folder that contains your own SPEED2.EXE. Two versions of it work:

SPEED2.EXE	Size	SHA-256
North American v1.2, no CD check	4,800,512 bytes	f9dd86c054878ce6276beb07c1fd61874f7a1e4bf1f241b084c65b73e24168a7
European v1.2, no CD check	4,788,224 bytes	8f6a9ae2c4cfa01181d2fd755d99c6f4b7103f60273908ea1de1e719dfe2a297

Check your file with shasum -a 256 SPEED2.EXE in Terminal.

What's new

• Videos play. The intro logos, the opening movie and the career story movies now play, with sound. They used to be skipped.
• Cutscenes are no longer a flat colour. The in-game scenes before a race and the scene behind the post-race results panel used to show a flat or black background.
• No more pop-in at the screen edges. On wide and 4K screens, objects at the left and right edges used to appear late. The wide view is now set up in the game's own projection.
• Game controllers. Xbox, PlayStation and MFi controllers work. Connect the controller before starting the game, then set the buttons in the game's controller options.
• Long sessions. Memory is now freed and reused. Fixes white textures after about 30 minutes and running out of memory after many races.
• Audio diagnostics. Short audio dropouts are now written to the log with a timestamp, which helps when reporting them.

Saves and settings carry over from earlier releases.

Thanks

Thanks to Burak Cetin (@iburakct) for the widescreen, memory, game controller and cutscene shader fixes.

Download

• NFSU2.zip: one app with all engines (standard and HD, for both executables). Choose Original or HD in the app's window.

Install

1. Unzip and move NFSU2.app to your Applications folder.
2. The app is not notarized, so run this once in Terminal:

   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/NFSU2.app
   

3. Open the app and choose your game folder. The choice is remembered.

Requirements

Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later), macOS 11 or later.

License

Personal, non-commercial use only. Publishing or redistributing this build requires permission; see LICENSE.

North American v1.2 support (2026-10-26)

Native Apple Silicon build of Need for Speed: Underground 2. No Wine, no emulator.

Game files are not included. On first launch, point the app to the folder that contains your own SPEED2.EXE. Two versions of it now work:

SPEED2.EXE	Size	SHA-256
North American v1.2, no CD check	4,800,512 bytes	f9dd86c054878ce6276beb07c1fd61874f7a1e4bf1f241b084c65b73e24168a7
European v1.2, no CD check	4,788,224 bytes	8f6a9ae2c4cfa01181d2fd755d99c6f4b7103f60273908ea1de1e719dfe2a297

The app recognises the file and starts the matching engine. The US v1.0 disc SPEED2.EXE (5,987,981 bytes) is copy-protected and cannot run. Check your file with shasum -a 256 SPEED2.EXE in Terminal.

Correction: the previous release notes said the port needed the North American executable. It needed the European one. With this release, either works.

What's new

• North American v1.2 executable supported. This is the SPEED2.EXE most PC mods target. It has its own engines (standard and HD). Tested from the menus into a Quick Race.
• US disc data works. US and European data differ in a few region-only cars (Civic/RSX vs. Corsa/106). The game's region now follows the data, so US data no longer hangs on "Loading" when a race picks a car it doesn't have.
• Clear message for unsupported files. Any other SPEED2.EXE gets a message saying so instead of a crash.
• Quitting fixed. "Quit Game" closes the app; it used to leave a frozen window.
• Animations fixed. The game's CPU speed check now measures correctly; it used to turn some animations off.
• Launcher. Updated window.
• Saves carry over. Saves and settings are kept. Saves now live in ~/Library/Application Support/NFSU2 Saves; an existing NFSU2 Kayitlar folder is moved there automatically the first time.

Download

• NFSU2.zip: one app with all engines (standard and HD, for both executables). Choose Original or HD in the app's window.

Install

1. Unzip and move NFSU2.app to your Applications folder.
2. The app is not notarized, so run this once in Terminal:

   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/NFSU2.app
   

3. Open the app and choose your game folder. The choice is remembered.

Only have the PC discs? tools/install_from_discs.py in the repository unpacks the game from the disc images on a Mac, no Windows needed (see the README, "Installing from the PC discs on a Mac"). The disc's own SPEED2.EXE still has to be replaced with a supported one.

Requirements

Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later), macOS 11 or later.

License

Personal, non-commercial use only. Publishing or redistributing this build requires permission; see LICENSE.

English Release (2026-10-25)

Native Apple Silicon build of Need for Speed: Underground 2. No Wine, no emulator.

Game files are not included. On first launch, point the app to the folder that contains your own SPEED2.EXE (PC version, v1.2 North America; see the README for the exact file).

What's new

• Everything is now in English: the app's messages and log, the macOS folder permission prompts, and the README.txt included in the download.
• Rebuilt from the latest source (25 October 2026). No gameplay changes compared to the previous release.
• Your saves and settings carry over: they stay in ~/Library/Application Support/NFSU2 Kayitlar and ~/.nfsu2_registry.

Downloads

• NFSU2.zip: standard build
• NFSU2.HD.zip: HD build (MSAA, ray-traced reflections)

Install

1. Unzip and move the app to your Applications folder.
2. The app is not notarized, so run this once in Terminal (for the HD build, use NFSU2 HD.app):

   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/NFSU2.app
   

3. Open the app and choose your game folder. The choice is remembered.

Requirements

Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later), macOS 11 or later.

License

Personal, non-commercial use only. Publishing or redistributing this build requires permission; see LICENSE.

First Stable Release

Native Apple Silicon build of Need for Speed: Underground 2. No Wine, no emulator.

Game files are not included. On first launch, point the app to the folder that contains your own SPEED2.EXE (PC version, v1.2 North America; see the README for the exact file).

Downloads

• NFSU2.zip: standard build
• NFSU2.HD.zip: HD build (MSAA, ray-traced reflections)

Install

1. Unzip and move the app to your Applications folder.
2. The app is not notarized, so run this once in Terminal (for the HD build, use NFSU2 HD.app):

   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/NFSU2.app
   

3. Open the app and choose your game folder. The choice is remembered.

Requirements

Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later), macOS 11 or later.

License

Personal, non-commercial use only. Publishing or redistributing this build requires permission; see LICENSE.