Vice City Stories (PS2 Recompilation)

GTA: Vice City Stories — PlayStation 2 recompilation

A source-only port of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories and Liberty City Stories (SLUS_215.90) and (SLUS_214.23) to PC, built on PS2Recomp by ran-j.

No game code or data is in this repository — only our own code, the recompiler configuration (addresses), and scripts. The game is generated on your machine, from your own disc. That is deliberate: the point is that nothing of Rockstar's is distributed here.

Download the laucnher from https://github.com/theurbanninja1993-sketch/thestoriescollection-launcher it is the easiest way to build the games.

Built with AI

This port was written with substantial help from AI. The code was produced by coding assistants under human direction, and every change was built and run before it was kept. The numbers in docs/vcs-handoff.md are measurements from real runs, and the things that did not work are written down there with the reason they were set aside.

This is here, near the top, on purpose: some people would rather not use software made this way, and that is a fair position to hold. If it is yours, no argument from me — and you have found out before spending an evening on a build rather than after it.

For everyone else, the licence is unchanged: GPL-3.0, inherited from PS2Recomp.

Building it

You need a PlayStation 2 copy of the game — the disc itself, or an .iso / .bin you made from it — and a C++ toolchain.

./build.sh --image /dev/sr0          # read straight from a disc drive
./build.sh --image ~/vcs.iso         # or from an image
./build.sh --image /path/extracted   # or from a folder already extracted

It runs these stages, and each one is timed so you can see where the time goes:

Stage	What it does	Time
tools	configures and builds the tools the stages call	~2 min on a fresh clone, seconds after
0 check	verifies the disc is the right game (boot-file hash)	instant
1 extract	pulls the files off it	~17 min from a disc, instant from a folder
2 recompile	turns the game's ELF into C++	~1 s
3 install	copies it into the runtime	seconds
4 build	compiles the port (Linux, then Windows)	~14 min
5 vu1	runs the game to learn its VU1 microprograms, twice	~4 min
6 assemble	makes a ready-to-run folder	seconds

--from N / --to N resume a long build. The tools are built first whatever range is asked for: a fresh clone has none of them, and every stage calls one.

The VU1 stage runs the game with PS2X_HIDDEN_WINDOW=1, so no window appears while it learns.

What is here

• ps2xRuntime/ — the runtime the generated code runs on, including the GS renderer and the game-specific overrides.
• ps2xRecomp/ — the recompiler.
• ps2xBuilder/ — reading the disc (ps2x_iso: drives, info, list, hash, extract). Verified against real discs on Linux and Windows.
• games/vcs/ — the recompiler configuration and the per-game manifest (game.toml), plus the analysis tools. See its README.
• docs/vcs-handoff.md — the working notes: what was tried, what was measured, and what is parked.

Status

Playable and fast: full speed in gameplay, audio, cutscenes, the settings menu, controllers (Xbox, DualSense, DualShock, Switch, Steam), texture packs, rumble, and mouse look. See docs/vcs-handoff.md for the open list and the things that are parked with reasons.

Not affiliated

Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive. "Grand Theft Auto" and the game names are their trademarks, used here only to say which game this is for.

Licence

GPL-3.0 — see LICENSE, inherited from PS2Recomp. The history here includes upstream's commits; the port is the work on top of it.

Special Thanks

Thank you to AL2009man for their gamepad asset pack. You can find their pack here: https://github.com/AL2009man/Gamepad-Asset-Pack