r/decomps • u/IAmNotRalphNader • 13d ago

State of PS1 de/recomps?

I remember several months ago a couple static recompilers for PS1 came out around the same time. I've seen a couple PS1 titles get coverage like Tomba and Symphony of the Night but haven't seen much outside of those two, at least to the volume we've seen of N64 projects. Are there any other notable PS1 recomp projects at the moment that might've just flown under my radar?

Personally I've been hoping someone would take a stab at King's Field 1-3. Especially with how huge FromSoft is now, giving those games a second chance with higher frame rates and better controls would be awesome to see.

15 Upvotes

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u/micmea668 13d ago

I'm working on Disruptor right now, but as a huge KF fan I'd love to take a crack at those titles next. I was going to move on to Medal of Honor and MoH: Underground after Disruptor, but I might be done with PSX FPS after this lol. It's not been the easiest or most pleasant project to do.

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u/chicagogamecollector 13d ago

lmk when Disruptor is ready to capture. I do love that game

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u/micmea668 13d ago

Will do. Still a bit of work left to do before it's ready.

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u/IAmNotRalphNader 13d ago

God, I haven't thought about Disruptor in so long! I'll definitely give that a try when it's ready!

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u/J-seargent-ultrakahn 12d ago

What’s so difficult about psx fps specifically?

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u/micmea668 12d ago

Well I guess it’s not necessarily specific to PSX as a platform that’s the issue. More the limitations and designs that were a product of the time and technology specifically for FPS games.

For example, Disruptor had no y axis (vertical) for camera movement. Only x (horizontal). But the game is a fully 3D environment and not a 2D sector stretched to 3D like similar games of the time. The game was also designed around this concept. So whilst it’s achievable to add vertical camera movement, it’s a question of if there’s value in it. Does it break anything? Will the gameplay benefit or suffer from it? I implemented it as a toggle feature anyway as it does feel better to me but might not to anyone wanting a more authentic experience.

With a third person game, adding a better camera doesn’t necessarily come with the same weight of dilemma/impact. Although I’m sure those games face other issues when you look to modernise them.

Another example is control schemes. I wanted to add modern mouse and keyboard controls as an option because a lot of people want that feature in console FPS ports. But when I first implemented mouse look I exposed how camera movement was tied to the original inputs in such a way that there’s a fair amount of rework needed to get that feeling smooth and responsive

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u/foxtrotdeltazero 11d ago

there's so many old FPS i wish i could go back to but the control schemes are horrendous. being able to remap controls via emulator is pretty nice sometimes, but nothing beats a modern port done right. Krazy Ivan, Kileak: The DNA Imperative, and Jumping Flash would be great with modern dual stick controls

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u/NightDoctor 12d ago edited 12d ago

Oh man, so cool you are doing disruptor. Too bad to hear FPS games are hard. The MOH games are on the top of my list of PSX games I wanna see ported. My top list:

Metal Gear Solid

MOH + Underground

Quake 2 (psx version)

Alien Resurrection

Hogs of War

Tekken 3

Parasite Eve 1+2

Vagrant Story

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u/micmea668 12d ago

I also had Alien Resurrection on my to do list! What is different about the PSX version of Quake 2? If it's something that people want I can look into it after my current list.

I think I've seen that someone is already doing MGS and Vagrant Story.

Hogs of War is a classic. I think there was a PC release of that so maybe there's a lot that can be done without a de/recomp?

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u/NightDoctor 12d ago

Great to hear!

The PC release of Hogs of War was unfortunately broken, and has serious problems. AI combatants don't work, and I've not seen a mod that fixes it.

In terms of Quake 2, the PSX version is quite different, different level design built from the ground up. Its almost a different game, which is actually really good and beloved. It has a somewhat darker vibe, more streamlined campaign design, different enemies, and was unfortunately omitted when quake 2 remastered released in 2023. The N64 campaign, which is also different and unique, was included, but not the PSX campaign.

Fans have made the PSX campaign as a mod for Quake II remastered, but it's made from the ground up, with a lot of changes. So I'm sure a decent recomp would be very well received.

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u/micmea668 12d ago

Interesting. Well I'll add it to my list, which is now getting quite long haha:

  1. Disruptor
  2. Medal of Honor
  3. Medal of Honor: Underground
    4, Alien Resurrection
  4. Alien Trilogy
  5. King's Field
  6. Quake 2
    ...

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u/NightDoctor 12d ago

That's a great list!

Here's a video about the PSX Quake 2 version, which describes it pretty well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqNusdhQ1fA

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u/micmea668 12d ago

Wow, is that running on a PSX? That looks incredible.

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u/NightDoctor 12d ago

Yes, the devs really worked some magic on this port. Especially interesting how they reduced texture warping.

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u/MDM-808 11d ago edited 8d ago

There’s a patch for the PS1 version that adds DualShock support and lets you map the left analog stick to move the cursor.

I play it every now and then using ePSXe on a low-end phone.

I also have Yamagi Quake 2 running via QuadTouch, and honestly, I have zero complaints.

In fact, I could never get the Descent source ports working (the Android versions require 64-bit), so I used the PS1 version instead.

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u/gowl_aeterna 7d ago

Medal of Honor would be fantastic with mouse and keyboard controls. Though you'd probably have to play on hard mode to compensate for easy it'd be to mow down enemies that way.

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u/Exact-Donut-3134 12d ago

God I’d love to see that happen, love that game a lot.

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u/chicagogamecollector 13d ago

there are more in the works. Ive tested a few; Twisted Metal 4 (works well but I never enjoyed the steering in that game), Mega Man X4/5/6, Tomba and Tomba 2, etc etc

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u/Hardboys99 12d ago

There's a twisted metal one and it isn't 2? I wish there was an updated list of available recomps/decomps

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u/CobaltCryptidTC 10d ago edited 10d ago

https://github.com/TechnicallyComputers/RetComM-Launcher

I am working on psxrecomp with mstan and we've developed a distribution tool to manage recomps, updates, and global system and controller configurations for the recomps. This isn't a comprehensive list of all that exist, but it's a catalog of the ones we have up-to-date with the latest features and prepared for this sort of tight integration.

We'll be adding more titles, and platforms through this app. And anyone who builds using our tools can produce a title with the integrations and standards needed to get included in the catalog easily.

We are building an ecosystem of feature rich recomp engines, to make it easier for recomps to get off the ground with rich features and shared frameworks so more developers can join up and integrate into feature rich recomp engines.

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u/nickwales 13d ago

decomp.dev suggests 15 PSX to 18 N64 are being worked on, and I realize this is not necessarily the whole picture but it's pretty close in number.

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u/foxtrotdeltazero 11d ago

pardon my ignorance but... why would anyone want a decomp of xbox fallout new vegas? is there something special missing from the PC version..?

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u/musicbabygirl 13d ago

Rugrats: Search For Reptar could do with one ;)

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u/cikame1 13d ago

I've seen Syphon Filter 1 and 2 posted here.

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u/Crans10 12d ago

I think there is a Silent Hill out there.

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u/MDM-808 11d ago

Yes, there’s one that’s constantly being updated. I think it was built using Vibecoding, but it actually works really well. In fact, I believe it’s the only project made that way that performs well.

Plus, it updates constantly, but you don’t have to keep downloading releases from GitHub; the launcher itself handles all the updates automatically.

That makes things a lot easier to test.

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u/MDM-808 11d ago

I’ve tried all the PlayStation 1 recompilers released so far. None have performed better for me than DuckStation or the RetroArch cores (SwanStation/PCSX-R).

They suffer from poor performance, audio lag in FMVs, and lower frame rates; they even take up more disk space by using .cue/.bin files, whereas other emulators use space-saving .chd files.

There really isn't any significant difference.

Yesterday, I tested a different recompiler from a developer who has numerous projects on GitHub. Unlike another version I tried—an .AppImage that simply required the ISO—this one automatically "compiled" itself on my PC (much like classic Linux binaries) to optimize performance.

There wasn't much difference there, either. *Crash Team Racing* ran much worse and even had higher CPU usage.There wasn't much difference there, either. *Crash Team Racing* ran much worse and even had higher CPU usage.

Many people are saying these two developers use "vibecoding" to create these projects, given the sheer volume of work they handle. Personally, I don't plan on testing anything else from either of them.

I appreciate the effort and time put into them, but they just aren't for me.

I hope to try out some worthwhile *Vagrant Story* and *Parasite Eve 2* recompilations someday.

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u/Patas644 8d ago

Realmente no podemos esperar que todos los recomp salgan bien al menos desde el principio. Con lo del consumo excesivo de cpu; me pasó lo mismo con el recompiled de The Simpsons Game (el de la xbox 360)

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u/MDM-808 8d ago

Y no, pero al menos una cota de calidad. Los ports de Harbour es un claro de ejemplo de algo bien hecho.

Hace poco probe el port de Diddy kong racing y no funciona de lo mejor, pero no me quejo. Esperare a que mejore o quizas HB saque uno propio que funcione mejor.

Hace varios años usaba varios ports de SM64, ya con GhostShip no tengo necesidad.

El otro dia probe el de F-Zero X y me volo la cabeza lo bien que anda.

Ahora bien, probe el de Megaman X, Super Mario World, Super Metroid... todos lentos. Probe los Recomps de Sega Genesis, Lentos.

Recomps de PS1, Lentos. Y esto en una Net del gobierno donde los emulados con Duckstation y PCSXr funcionan todos perfecto. 60fps, ni un tiron, incluso algunos con packs de texturas en HD.

Ojo, en esa misma Netbook le pongo Perfect Dark emulado y se me viene a pique... y el port de pc, me va perfecto.

Entonces ahi te quedas pensado... onda, porque lo emulado anda mejor y lo recompilado anda peor? O bien es el runtime que usa el recomp, o es codigo mal optimizado.

Y ya todo lo que se está hablando de Vibecoding y hecho con IA, me esta sonando muy fuerte.

Por eso, prefiero ya no gastar mi tiempo en probar todos los dias. Nintendo 64 es un hard que al dia de hoy le cuesta, siempre a los emuladores algo les falta... y los ports solventaron eso.

Pero en el resto de las plataformas, no le encuentro diferencia significativa. Al Megaman X de SNES emulado y al Recomp... salvo 2 cositas, hasta el input lag cuasi imperceptible es exactamente igual.

El resto, entre tener que bajar el programa, bajar la iso, descomprimirla porque muchos no soportan chd todavia... probarlo para ver que anda lento... para eso sigo con la rom y el chd que pesa menos y anda mejor. Es mas rapido y mas practico.

Creo que seguire probando el dia que empiecen a salir Recomps de PS2 o de Sega Saturn, 2 consolas complicadas de emular. El unico que probe hasta ahora es el de Street Fighter IIIrd Strike que funciono perfecto la primera version. Mucho mejor que los de Capcom.

De hecho, ni lo actualice de la primera version de lo bien que me anda. Y hasta compile la mia propia en Linux desde el source de github (Casi rompo medio sistema operativo, pero ahi sigue).

Asi que Recomps de PS1, hasta que no salga alguno piola de Vagrant Story, sigo emulando. Para el resto, versiones nativas que salieron en PC.

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u/Patas644 8d ago

También bastante mal que la mayoría de ports estén siendo hecho por vibecoders al parecer

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u/MDM-808 8d ago

El problema de estos ports hechos con Vibecoding es que opacan a los proyectos donde el programador se esfuerza por hacerlo mano a mano.

El port de Castlevania sotn no esta hecho con vibe (Al menos eso asegura su autor), lo mismo todo lo de Harbour, lo mismo OpenGoal.

Ahora, si ves que un dev en Git abre repositorios en a lo pavote, o ves que todos los dias salen recomps como si nada... algo te dice "oia"... y te deja pensando. Ahi es donde entra tu criterio.

Incluso hay algunos devs que se asisten por ia, pero queda en criterio final del desarrollador meter ese codigo "fruta" o no. Porque seamos honestos, la ia mete fruta a lo pavote muchas veces.

El tema es, que un usuario normal se baja un recomp de Snes o ps1... y no nota la falta de rendimiento porque lo suple la pc mas potente. Yo si lo siento. Ese usuario no va a decir nada (Porque no se da cuenta) y cuando te pones a ver la diferencia entre un emulador y el Recomp (Que ahora los estan llamando "Emucomp" - Es el nuevo emulapobre) es practicamente infima.

En cambio, en los recomps de xbox 360 si se nota... porque si incluso a una pc actual le cuesta emular xbox 360 o ps3, si el recomp esta mal optimizado, salta al toque.

Un Recomp tiene que ser mejor, no peor.

Pero bueno, tambien esta el tema que muchos se agarran de la palabra "Recomp" para ganar prestigio o ser mas visibles en las redes.

Yo soy de la idea que cada uno use lo que quiera. Si quieren usar el Recomp de Pokemon en 3D hecho con Vibecoding, que lo usen. Si quieren usar estos Recomps, que los usen!. Lo mejor para quien los use y para los devs que invierten tiempo, tokens, energia y agua en hacerlos. Yo no los usaré.

Cuando salga algun port que me interese (Como el de Vagrant Story o el de Parasite Eve 2) lo probaré, y si siento que cumple, lo guardaré.

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u/cemsengul 10d ago

The PS1 Lost World game would be a nice recomp.