Alex Builds His Farm

Playmobil
Laura's Happy Adventures	1998
Alex Builds His Farm	1999
Hype: The Time Quest	1999
Rescue from Rock Castle	2004
The Big Treasure Hunt	2005
Playmobil Alarm	2007
Playmobil Constructions	2007
Playmobil Knights	2009
Playmobil Pirates	2009
Playmobil: The Movie VR Adventures	Cancelled

Warnings

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see Availability for affected versions).

Alex Builds His Farm is a singleplayer third-person adventure, building, educational, farming and simulation game in the Playmobil series.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc 2 DRM^{[Note 1]} with unreadable errors

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

This game is not available digitally.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%WINDIR%\UbiSoft\ubi.ini^{[Note 2]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Gamedata\SaveGame^{[Note 2]}

Video

Ubisoft Configuration Tool.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		See Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor		See Widescreen resolution.
Ultra-widescreen		See Widescreen resolution.
4K Ultra HD		See Widescreen resolution.
Field of view (FOV)		See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed		The game can be forced to run in Windowed mode, when using dgVoodoo2.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Always on in Direct3D. In Glide, use nGlide and set in `nglide_config.exe`, or use dgVoodoo2.
60 FPS		Frame rate is capped at 63 FPS in Glide. Animations are locked at 30 FPS by default, but their framerate can be increased by turning on "Use Animation Interpolation" inside Advanced Video Settings in `<path-to-game>\UbiAssistant.exe`.
120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Widescreen resolution

Game needs to have been run in admin mode before in order for it to write its settings to ubi.ini, which is in C: drive.

Change resolution^[3]

Open ubi.ini.
Under the section [Alex Builds His Farm], add the line ScreenSize.
Insert your preferred resolution (for example, ScreenSize=1920x1080).

Notes

dgVoodoo2 is needed for resolutions higher than 2048x2048 to work.

HUD is stretched.

Lower vertical FOV in wider aspect ratios. Increase FOV to compensate, see Field of view (FOV).

Field of view (FOV)

Change Field of View^[4]

Open Alex_D3D.exe or Alex_DFX.exe with a hex editor such as HxD.
Press Ctrl+R and set Datatype to Hex-values.
Search for 0000003F 0000803F.
If using Alex_D3D.exe, search for the third match of it. For Alex_DFX.exe, search for the fourth match instead. Replace the 0000803F part with:
- 8888883F for 5:4 screens
- 0E745A3F for 25:16 screens
- 5555553F for 16:10 screens
- 0000503F for 15:9 screens
- 0000403F for 16:9 screens
- 0000103F for 21:9 screens

Notes

Objects keep appearing and disappearing outside the 4:3 area, which is very distracting.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration		Mouse isn't supported in-game.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Audio

Sound Settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Voices, Sound Effects and Music.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Dutch				Alex op de Boerderij.^[5]
French				Alex à la ferme.^[5]
German				Alex' Abenteuer auf der Farm.^[5]
Portuguese				Alex Constrói a Sua Quinta.^[6]
Brazilian Portuguese				Alex, O Fazendeiro.^[7]
Spanish				Alex en la granja.^[5]

Issues fixed

Install the game on modern systems

The game cannot be installed on 64-bit computers because it's a 16-bit application.

Use winevdm

Stuck in Ubisoft Logo Loading (Direct3D mode)

Use dgVoodoo2.

Game runs too fast (Direct3D mode)

Set refresh rate on 60Hz.

Game crashes on Alt+Tab

Install dgVoodoo 2.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	6
Glide	3.10

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	95
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 166 MHz
System memory (RAM)	32 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	120 MB
Video card (GPU)	4 MB of VRAM DirectX 6 compatible

Notes

↑ SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10^[1] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.^[2]
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References

↑ Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
↑ Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16
↑ Verified by User:AlphaYellow on 2022-11-19
According to SuicideMachine's findings, the game's exe makes reference of the variable "ScreenSize", which can be altered in the config file and successfully changes the resolution if the game is run in admin mode.
↑ Verified by User:AlphaYellow on 2022-11-19
Tested with several different FOVs and works.
↑ ^5.0 ^5.1 ^5.2 ^5.3 MobyGames
↑ MobyGames - last accessed on May 2023
↑ Divertire (archived) - last accessed on May 2023

[3] SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10^[1] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.^[2]

[gamedir-4] 2.0 ^2.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

[1] Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16

[2] Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16

[5] Verified by User:AlphaYellow on 2022-11-19
According to SuicideMachine's findings, the game's exe makes reference of the variable "ScreenSize", which can be altered in the config file and successfully changes the resolution if the game is run in admin mode.

[6] Verified by User:AlphaYellow on 2022-11-19
Tested with several different FOVs and works.

[MobyGames-7] 5.0 ^5.1 ^5.2 ^5.3 MobyGames

[8] MobyGames - last accessed on May 2023

[9] Divertire (archived) - last accessed on May 2023

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[1]

[2]

Developers

	Ubisoft Montreal
Publishers
	Playmobil Interactive
Engines
	Ubisoft OpenSpace
Release dates
Windows	July 15, 1999
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Adventure, Building, Educational, Farming, Simulation
Vehicles	Industrial
Art styles	Stylized
Series	Playmobil