Mafia 1 on CD-Rom with Windows 11

[Tmax8855]

Hi guys, my old gaming rig roasted it's graphics card a few weeks back, so I bought my first new computer in about 14yrs. It's running Windows 11, has an Octa Core Intel CPU, and an Nvidia RTX3060 GPU. So I just thought I'd see if anyone has ever been able to get Mafia 1 on CD-Rom working on Windows 11. I bought an external USB disc drive for all my older games I still have on CD and DVD Rom, hoping I can get some of them to work and not have to rebuy them from GOG or something.

I had the game running fine on my old Windows Vista computer, and on the new computer I have been able to install the game just fine, but when going to play there were a few error messages that popped up. I edited the desktop shortcut and the Mafia .exe in the main game folder to have administrator privileges and tried running it in compatibility mode for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8. That got rid of all the error messages, but now when the main small window with all the options, Play, Setup, Uninstall, Vietcong Trailer, ect pops up, and I click Play, it will have a little spinning wheel next to the mouse pointer for a few seconds and then it just does nothing after that. I tried installing Patch 1.1 and then 1.2 but it still does the same thing.

Strange thing is too, when I go into the setup menu to set the graphics options for the game, the Intel Integrated Graphics card is the only option to choose from... it doesn't list the Nvidia RTX 3060 GPU at all. I installed Fallout 3 on DVD Rom yesterday, and after a few fixes for some error messages, it is working beautifully with no crashes or anything, and the RTX 3060 GPU is the only option to choose from in Fallout 3's graphics options... so not sure why it isn't an option with Mafia... maybe the game is just too old?

If anyone has got the CD-Rom version of the game to run on Windows 11 (or even a fix for Windows 10 might work too?) I would greatly appreciate you sharing it. I will buy the game off GOG if I have to, but would like to try and get it running as I have about 20-25 other older games on disc that I would like to not have to rebuy as well. Any suggestions you guys have would be very helpful. Thanks so much!!

[n0ughty_b0y]

the solution is simple: a NoCD fix.
go to this site and click the last patch on the list ("Downgrade to 1.0")
https://www.speedrun.com/mafia1/resources
if you already on 1.0 then the only file you need from that folder is the 'Game.Exe', drag that to your directory and now it will run on Windows 11 plus your CD doesn't even have to be inserted to play anymore.

As for your integrated graphics: check that your monitor is plugged to the HDMI slot of your GPU, if it is plugged straight to the motherboard then your graphics will default to CPU instead of dedicated GPU

[Tmax8855]

Oh wow, thank you! Are you serious, it's that easy?!

I did upgrade the game from the original v1.0 installed from the original 3 CD's... I installed v1.1 patch, and then the v1.2 patch when that didn't work. So copying and pasting all those 10 files from the "downgrade" folder in the Mafia 1.0 zip folder into the main game folder in Program Files will set the game back to the original v1.0? I did not have any mod's installed at this time as it was just a brand new fresh install of the game on the new computer, but I do like to add a few modded cars and other features to the game... so after I copy all these files to downgrade to V1.0 and have the no-CD fix in there as well, will I still be able to use Mafia DataXtractor and install some mods like I was able to on my older computer?

P.S. Appreciate the advice with the GPU issue as well, but I am using a laptop so I don't think I want to take apart the thing and see how the internals are connected, lol I'll maybe contact the manufacturer and see what they have to say about it.