Hellnight Recompiled

Hellnight Recompiled

A native PC build of Hellnight (PlayStation, 1999; Dark Messiah in Japan), made with the PSXRecomp static recompiler and the shared recomp-ui launcher.

You must supply your own Hellnight (Europe) disc, serial SLES-01562, as a CUE/BIN dump. This repository and its release packages contain no game disc, no BIOS dump, no generated game code and no saves. The game code is generated on your machine from your disc.

No retail BIOS is needed: the build uses the bundled OpenBIOS image.

Setup

1. Download the release ZIP for your platform and extract all of it into a writable folder.
2. Start Hellnight_Recompiled (.exe on Windows).
3. Select your Hellnight (Europe).cue in the setup wizard. Keep the CUE and its BIN together.
4. Run Generate & rebuild and wait. The game starts when it finishes.

On Windows the setup wizard can download portable build tools. On Linux and macOS, install CMake, Ninja, Python 3 and a C/C++ compiler first.

Expected disc (data track 01): 633,786,384 bytes, MD5 01ce6367485ab848973be612df58b5b9.

Building from source

git clone --recursive https://github.com/goodshepherd23/Hellnight-Recompiled
cd Hellnight-Recompiled
cp bios/openbios.bin psxrecomp/bios/openbios.bin
for p in patches/*.patch; do git -C psxrecomp apply "../$p"; done
python psxrecomp/psxrecomp_cli.py generate --config game.toml --project-root . --disc "/path/to/Hellnight (Europe).cue" --force-emitters
python psxrecomp/psxrecomp_cli.py rebuild --config game.toml --project-root . --build-dir build-release --target psx-runtime --exe-basename Hellnight_Recompiled --no-pgo

The cp step is needed because the pinned framework revision does not include the OpenBIOS image; bios/openbios.bin here is the MIT-licensed build pinned in psxrecomp/bios/OpenBIOS.toml (SHA-256 fabe498f…1c57), with its notice in bios/OpenBIOS.LICENSE.

The patches fix two things in the pinned framework:

• 0001 keeps FMVs from sitting low in the frame. The European disc runs in NTSC mode but keeps a PAL-tuned vertical display range.
• 0002 makes the launcher's PGO optimize work on Windows. Without it, the training run fails with [WinError 5] Access is denied and writes no profile. CMakeLists.txt also wires up PSX_PGO, which this framework revision ignores.

--force-emitters is required. Without it, generate can pick up stale prebuilt emitters that leave the build with no BIOS backend.

Status

Version 0.1.1 is an early release. What was tested on Windows x64 (Intel Iris Xe):

• Boots through the intro FMV to the title screen
• New Game starts. In-game dialogue, the examine cursor and room transitions work
• Holds about 100% speed at 60 fps (the European disc runs its GPU in 60 Hz mode)
• FMVs fill the frame. The European disc keeps a PAL-tuned vertical range in NTSC mode, which on a real NTSC console shows the picture low. This build presents the range directly instead. The Konami logo screen is taller than that range, so its bottom edge is cut off, the same as on an NTSC console. The save menu is cut off at the bottom the same way.
• Saving to a memory card and loading the save back both work. The save file (BESLES-01562-DM0) is written to saves/card1.mcd.

Not tested yet: a full playthrough, and the Linux and macOS packages. Please open an issue if you hit a crash, a hang or a graphical bug, and include the psx_last_run_report.json written next to the executable.

PGO optimize (in the launcher) works on Windows as of 0.1.1. It rebuilds the game with profile-guided optimization: two 60-second training runs, then an optimized build. Leave the game window alone while it trains.

Walkthrough

Stuck? Hellnight PS1 Longplay (Naomi Ending) by LaTanaDiMrX is a full playthrough of the original PlayStation game. It was not recorded on this build, so use it as a guide to the game, not as proof that every area works here.

Credits and licenses

• Framework: PSXRecomp, PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0. This project is free and noncommercial.
• Launcher: recomp-ui, MIT.
• Framework revision and release pipeline: the Alexbeav fork used by Alexbeav's PS1 ports.
• Their licenses and dependency notices are in the psxrecomp/ and recomp-ui/ directories.

This project was made with AI assistance (Claude).

Hellnight is © Atlus 1999. The European release was published by Konami. All trademarks belong to their owners. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them.