Ridge Racer (PSP) – Static Recomp

Ridge Racer (PSP) – Static Recomp

A native PC port of Ridge Racer (PSP), made by statically recompiling the game's own code. You build it on your own computer from your own, legally obtained copy of the game.

Beta. Windows only for now. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the game's publisher.

This repository contains no game files, no keys, no decryption code and no generated game code. You need your own copy of the game; the setup tool turns it into a PC program on your machine.

AI disclosure. All of the code in this repository was written by AI: Claude by Anthropic, working in Claude Code. The project's owner directed the work, chose what to build, tested it on real hardware and decided what to ship, but did not write the code by hand. Expect the rough edges that come with that, and please report bugs. The only exceptions are the third-party components listed under Credits and licences (FFmpeg-derived decoders, SDL2), which keep their own authors and licences.

Features

• Renders at a multiple of the PSP's 480x272 (OpenGL 3.3), with anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering and sharpening options
• Frame-rate options above the PSP's 60 (tested up to 144 fps)
• Online Wireless Battle: host or join races over the internet with a server browser (search, filters, room codes, passwords), up to 8 players
• Xbox, PlayStation, Switch and most other controllers (SDL2), with matching button pictures in the game; triggers for accelerate/brake
• Full sound and music (built-in ATRAC3+ decoder)
• Built-in bug reports: Ctrl+F12 in game (or automatically after a crash) saves one zip to send
• On-screen name entry; save games kept in a savedata folder next to the game

Install (Windows 10/11)

1. Download Setup.exe from the Releases page and run it. (Windows may show an "unknown publisher" warning because the file is not code-signed; choose More info → Run anyway.)
2. Pick your game: a decrypted disc image (.iso) or the folder that contains PSP_GAME.
3. Pick where to install it (any drive). Setup builds the game in the background; this can take 20 minutes or more on the first install and needs no other downloads.
4. Press Finish. A settings window opens on the first start.

README-BETA.md in this repository is the player's guide (install, controls, bug reports). Setup copies it into the game folder as README.txt.

Your game copy must be decrypted

The port reads the game's executable (PSP_GAME/SYSDIR/BOOT.BIN). It must be the decrypted form (it starts with ELF); an encrypted one (starts with ~PSP) is rejected with a clear message. This project does not provide, link to or explain any way of dumping or decrypting a game; that is up to you. No decryption tools or keys are provided here.

Controls

Action	Keyboard	Controller
Steer	Arrow keys	D-pad / left stick
Accelerate / Brake	Z / X	bottom / right face button, or right / left trigger
Triangle / Square	S / A	top / left face button
L / R	Q / E	shoulder buttons
Start / Select	Enter / Right Shift or Backspace	Start / Back (Options / Share, + / -)

Buttons are mapped by position like the PSP on every controller. Esc quits, F11 or Alt+Enter toggles full screen, F12 saves a screenshot, Ctrl+F12 makes a bug report, F8 mutes, F9/F10 change volume.

Reporting bugs

The game makes a bug report for you: RidgeRacer-bug-report-<date>.zip on your Desktop. You get one automatically after a crash; press Ctrl+F12 in game when something looks wrong; or click Bug report... in the settings window (hold Shift while starting the game) after a freeze. Attach it to an issue with a few words about what happened (issues are public, so look inside the zip first if you are unsure; it can include folder paths with your Windows user name). It contains the game's logs, settings (room password removed), crash files and a short PC summary - no game files.

Known limits

Car LOD pop-in, some intro camera shots and Time Attack on some tracks are not fully checked. Online play has been tested with up to 3 players.

Building from source

• Windows: build.ps1 -Game <iso or BOOT.BIN> (uses the zig/clang compiler in toolchain\zig). make-release.cmd builds Setup.exe.
• Browser build (local use only, never host it: it contains code translated from your game): build-web.ps1, then web-dist\serve.cmd.
• Online room service (server list and relay): online/worker (Cloudflare Worker).

Project status and contributions

This is a hobby project that is not actively maintained. Fixes and updates may come, but there is no schedule and no promise. Pull requests and code suggestions will most likely not be reviewed or merged. You are free to copy, fork and change it under the licence below (GPL v2 or later); a fork of your own is the best way to get your changes. Bug reports are welcome (use the bug report zip from the game, see above), but they may not get a reply.

Credits and licences

The recompiler framework (src/, include/, tools/, called PSPRecomp) and the Ridge Racer port on top of it were both written by AI as part of this project. Project code: GNU GPL version 2 or later (see LICENSE). The ATRAC3+ decoder in profiles/ridgeracer/third_party/atrac3plus and the H.264 movie decoder in profiles/ridgeracer/third_party/ffmpeg-h264 are derived from FFmpeg and are LGPL 2.1 (see COPYING.LGPLv2.1 in each). profiles/ridgeracer/third_party/sdl2/SDL2.dll is SDL 2.30.9 (zlib licence, see the README there). Ridge Racer is a trademark of Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. This is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Bandai Namco; no game assets, keys or generated game code are distributed here.

About the AI-written code and the licence: the GPL licence above is applied by the project owner. Whether and how copyright applies to AI-written code differs between countries and is not settled, so this project makes no claim beyond that. Function IDs come from the public PSPSDK. Where behaviour was checked against other projects such as PPSSPP (GPL), it was only compared (a handful of error-code values and timing details), and no code was copied from them. If you find something that looks copied, please open an issue.