Ruprecht 69, the earliest release of SH4 was 2007 in the U.S. I believe the European version was a bit earlier. The DVD was version 1.0. You can tell which version you have by looking at the "main" menu screen, in the lower right corner:
By all means update your version to at least v1.4......it cost's nothing to patch it that far. The 1.4 patch can be download from the SubSim's "Download" section for SH4....a link is
HERE. To patch it to the next/final version (1.5) you'll need to pay for it!?! It comes with the U-boat "Addon"; some editions are called the "Gold Edition" which has the complete game up to v1.5.
One thing you need to know is that LAA only helps if you have at least 4 gigs of memory RAM in your computer. If you have less than 4 it's not worth installing the app. It just won't help this old game to run better, if you don't have the extra RAM. IF you
do have the Memory....BY ALL MEANS, USE IT!!