The Warriors Recomp

Unofficial native PC bring-up of The Warriors (original Xbox), European multi-language disc (En,Fr,De,Es,It), built with the Xbox XBE Recomp toolchain.

This is a static recompilation, not an emulator. The x86 code inside your default.xbe is translated ahead of time to C++ and linked against the host runtime (D3D12, XAudio2, input, filesystem).

Bring your own dump. This repository does not ship game files, ISOs, or XBEs. You need a legally owned original Xbox copy of The Warriors (Europe).

Author: Matt-code-d (Matteo Santoro)

Title ID: 5454009B · EUR default.xbe SHA1: 1126266F440762D00303760C23990C3278025797

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Status

Boots on Windows (Release) with a WPF launcher for ISO install, language selection (XC_LANGUAGE), and graphics settings written to settings.toml.

Still early (alpha): expect graphics quirks (e.g. some light coronas), incomplete audio polish, and the usual bring-up rough edges. See warriors-recomp/PROGRESS.md.

This tree targets the EUR disc (PAL movies under bik_pal, five language packs on one image).

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License (read this)

See LICENSE and the short map in LICENSES.md. Credits / who built what: CONTRIBUTING.md.

• MIT covers only original work in this repository (launcher, EUR host patches, docs, configs authored here).
• It does not grant rights to The Warriors game data (ISO / XBE / WAD / Bink / audio). Those stay with Rockstar / Take-Two / related rights holders.
• Third-party SDKs and tools (XboxXBERecomp, LLVM, SDL, ImGui, extract-xiso, …) keep their own licenses — see warriors-recomp/sdk/THIRD_PARTY.txt.
• No game data in git. No reuploads. Supply your own legally obtained dump locally.

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Quick start (launcher)

1. Install the .NET 8 Desktop Runtime.
2. Build once (below) or use a Release folder that already contains Warriors.exe + WarriorsLauncher.exe.
3. Put extract-xiso at tools/extract-xiso/artifacts/extract-xiso.exe if you want extract mode.
4. Run the launcher from the EUR build output:

.\warriors-recomp\out\build\release\WarriorsLauncher.exe

In the launcher:

1. SETUP / ISO → pick your EUR .iso → INSTALL INTO ASSETS
2. LANGUAGE → packs listed from that disc name (e.g. En,Fr,De,Es,It); selection is written for the host before PLAY
3. GRAPHICS → FPS, resolution, display mode, D3D12 (Vulkan reserved / not built yet)
4. PLAY

Launcher settings: %USERPROFILE%\Documents\thewarriors\launcher_settings.json
Host settings beside the exe: settings.toml, language.cfg
Logs: logs\warriors.log

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Language (EUR)

The Europe disc carries five UI/audio packs. On hardware the dashboard XC_LANGUAGE selects which one runs:

Id	Language
1	English
3	Deutsch
4	Français
5	Español
6	Italiano

The launcher writes:

• language.cfg (single integer) beside Warriors.exe
• env XBE_LANGUAGE / XC_LANGUAGE when starting the process
• [warriors_launcher].language inside settings.toml

The EUR host reads those in order and logs XC_LANGUAGE=… at boot. Change language in the launcher, then PLAY (restart if the game was already open).

ISO names are parsed from parenthetical token lists only (e.g. (En,Fr,De,Es,It)), so Europe is not mistaken for English. If the name has no language list but says Europe/PAL/EUR, all five packs are offered.

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Game data layout

After install (gitignored — never commit this):

warriors-recomp/out/build/release/assets/   (or the Assets path shown in the launcher)
  default.xbe
  audio/
  bik_pal/          (+ optional bik junction / NTSC-named hardlinks)
  Main.wad*
  Paks.wad*
  System.wad0
  XBoxWad.idx

Movies on EUR are bik_pal\*_pal.bik. Re-run tools\alias_eur_movies.ps1 after a fresh extract if you need NTSC-style movie aliases.

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Build from source

Prerequisites

• Windows 10/11 x64
• Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools with Clang + CMake + Ninja
• GPU with Direct3D 12

Host + game code

cd warriors-recomp
# first time: build.bat  (symbols + full recomp — can take a long time)
# incremental host / hooks:
..\tools\rebuild_host.bat

rebuild_host.bat builds Warriors.exe / Warriors.dll, publishes WarriorsLauncher.exe next to them, and copies the launcher into ..\port\ when that folder exists.

Important: the first PLAY builds Warriors.dll from your default.xbe (one-time, a few minutes). After that it should not rebuild every launch. It only rebuilds if the XBE changes or Warriors.exe is replaced (host rebuild). tools\rebuild_host.bat refreshes compiler\work\Warriors\built.txt so a host rebuild does not force another full game-code compile.

Launcher only

dotnet build warriors-recomp\launcher\WarriorsLauncher.csproj -c Release -o warriors-recomp\out\build\release

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Known issues

• Some light coronas / flares may look blocky; 720p video flags and DrawIndexedVerticesUP hooks are in progress.
• Stock Bink symbols are not hooked (EUR BINK is in-image); movies use guest Bink.
• Vulkan is not implemented in this SDK — launcher option is reserved.

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Roadmap

Planned (not in this alpha yet):

• Mouse + keyboard — full playability with KBM (camera, combat, menus, minigames), with a launcher toggle to enable/disable alongside gamepad.
• Online co-op multiplayer — networked co-op mode (session join/host from the launcher or in-game flow). Details and scope TBD as the single-player bring-up stabilizes.

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Credits

Full list: CONTRIBUTING.md.

• TGP482/XboxXBERecomp — recompiler / runtime SDK

Some bring-up steps (function-boundary hunting, launcher wiring, crash triage) used AI assistance as a tool alongside manual reverse-engineering and testing. The runtime, game dump handling, and final decisions stay human-owned.

Game © Rockstar / Take-Two. This project is unofficial and unaffiliated.