Original Need for Speed II SE retail recovery (2026-10-28)

The original CD is recovered and intact, but the software executable is not qualified for direct launch from the CD tree. An original installer capture is the next prerequisite. No retail app registration, installed layout, configuration file, executable patch, or gameplay result was manufactured.

Original media and executable identity

Source: e2f39b5e48fe9d2e5c0dfd26fe65f6afc3f640f9, candidate need-for-speed-2-se-full in test/candidate-corpus/manifest.json. The existing recipe downloads Need%20for%20Speed%20II%20SE.iso from the need-for-speed-ii-se Archive.org item and extracts it into cd. The original pinned package and extraction recipe are unchanged.

The ISO was hashed before extraction. Python 3.12.3 with task-local pycdlib==1.14.0 extracted the ISO-9660 namespace: 1543 files, 590082515 bytes. A complete preflight rejected traversal, links, and case-folded collisions and checked the total against the remote allocation before writing. Each extracted file has an original-media path, byte count, and SHA-256 in the private remote inventory. This preserves original uppercase CD names; Windows mixed-case references must later be mapped explicitly.

NFS2SEA.EXE is the separate Glide variant. This investigation concerns the original NFS2SEN.EXE software variant, not the demo, original non-SE release, or a patched community executable. Earlier demo gameplay does not qualify it.

Concrete installation prerequisite

The complete recovered tree contains no INSTALL.WIN at any case or path. It contains INSTALL.NFS, an original language/local/path template, and the original English InstallShield setup at SETUP/ENGLISH/SETUP.EXE, with SETUP.INS, SETUP.PKG, _INST32I.EX_, and _SETUP.LIB beside it. SETUP.INI identifies “Need For Speed II SE”. The setup script names install.nfs, install.win, config.dat, and both renderer executables. These are static observations; the setup script was not executed or decompiled into an asserted complete installation recipe.

Bounded static disassembly of the exact software executable establishes:

• At 0x4720c0, startup calls 0x472390 before the later configuration loading call at 0x472159 to 0x44ff30.
• At 0x47239b, the check loads the install.win string at 0x4bd2c0; the mode at 0x4bd2bc is r. It calls the file-opening routine at 0x47f65e, tests the returned handle, and branches on zero to 0x47252a, which calls the process termination helper at 0x48b3e5.
• The successful-open path reads the configuration's language prefix; english is at 0x4bd2cc. The later loader at 0x44ff30 also names install.win (0x4bafb4) and parses its path records.
• The executable also contains an explicit message requiring installation before play (0x4bd368). Its presence is supporting evidence, not a screenshot or a claim that this particular message was displayed.

Tool: GNU objdump (GNU Binutils for Ubuntu) 2.42. Exact bounded commands, disassembly, statuses, and stderr are retained privately on the Boat.

The next task must run the original installer in an authorized environment and preserve its generated INSTALL.WIN, configuration/save defaults, any registry writes and installed files, plus the original CD dependency. Do not rename INSTALL.NFS, synthesize path records, or infer an installed layout. Only after that capture can the software route and complete companion manifest be registered and tested against actual installed files. Game startup, menu, race entry, controls and ordinary exit remain separate gameplay gates.

Evidence and retention

Canonical private receipt: scratch/usage-watch/nfs2se-retail-recovery-registration-oct28/receipt.json. It binds source/main reconciliation, media and tool identities, original file inventory hashes, focused test results, source delta, publication and lifecycle. Registration/route completeness acceptance is blocked by the installer prerequisite; generic manifest regressions do not establish game startup.

Focused checks passed: the existing test/test-debug-game-apps.js, test/test-candidate-browser-manifest.js, and test/test-app-files-policy.js. The production lib/apps.js resolves no entry referring to this retail fixture; the candidate retains localOnly: true and has no browser or cli route. An actual read-only open of the missing original INSTALL.WIN rejects with ENOENT; exact PE section-aware byte checks bind that absence to the static startup check above. This is a static prerequisite control, not a guest execution or a qualified manifest route. The first byte-check helper used incorrect VA-to-file arithmetic and failed an assertion; its original stderr is preserved. The corrected helper uses the actual PE section table and passes, without changing the executable or repeating game execution.

Original ISO, original extracted files and detailed evidence remain on bx_2vzvzz78 under /home/user/nfs2se-retail-recovery-registration-oct28/ for coordinator snapshot. The Boat is handed back running, expiry 2026-10-28T12:23:36Z; the coordinator owns snapshot-stop at 12:15 UTC. The fixture was absent from the root worktree at assignment; this remote recovery does not restore it locally. The receipt and recovery scripts survive outside /tmp; the commercial ISO and extracted assets must never be committed or publicly deployed.

This task owns only the released GAMEPLAY-need-for-speed-2-se-full recovery assignment. It does not reclaim or complete the historical Claude-owned NFS2SE-INSTALL-ICON-VERIFY screenshot/runtime task.