System Requirements

• A 486 or faster CPU with at least 4 Mb RAM
• Windows 95/98/Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP (32 and 64 bit versions), Windows 2003, Windows Vista (32 and 64 bit versions), Windows 7 (32 and 64 bit versions) or later
• At least 10 MB disk space, the full game with a tutorial and 24-bit alternative themes and tile sets takes about 140 MB
• Sound card (optional)
• MIDI support (optional)
• DirectX 6.0 or later (required only for multiplayer games and for .mp3 background music support)
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or later (required for the HTML documentation)

For best results, you should run Four Winds on a PC supporting at least 1024x768 or 1200x800 screen mode. Note that integrated game boards and square board layouts are available only in a 1024x768 screen mode (3:4 ratio displays) and 1200x800 screen mode (wide screen displays), or better, and that the user-defined themes and alternative tile bitmaps are available only in 16-bit (High Color) mode, or better.

NOTE: You can run Four Winds on a Linux/Unix computer by using Wine/Crossover compatibility layer (no Windows license is required), and on Mac OS X using either Wine/Crossover compatibility layer (no Windows license is required, nor a separate boot), an emulator like Parallels, VMWare Fusion, or VirtualBox (Windows license is required but no separate boot), or using Boot Camp and installing proper Windows on a separate partition of your Macintosh hard disk (requires both a license and a separate boot). Note that when using a compatibility layer, some of the functionality of the program might not be supported, and there might be minor errors in displaying graphics (the degree of compatibility depends on the version of the compatibility layer and the version and kind of your operating system).

Four Winds running on MacOS X Lion with CrossOver Games v.10.1.2. The screen size is 2560x1600 pixels and the board size 1920x1200 pixels. Customized rules with two transparent sets: no problems with graphics!

IMPORTANT: When running Four Winds on a non-Windows system or using a TV as a display (running any OS), you might experience some strange problems with graphics. Turning off color correction (Preferences > User Interface > General > Use color management)  and using 24-bit color theme usually corrects these errors.

When using the Wine compatibility layer, you might also need to disable animated cursors (Preferences > User Interface > General > Game Controls > Use custom cursors) and disable DirectX sound (Preferences > User Interface > General > Bypass DirectX sound) and use MIDI files for the background music instead of MP3 files, which require DirectX.