HalmyLyseas/VandalHearts-PcPort v1.7.1

on GitHub

Vandal Hearts — PC Port v1.7.1

A native PC port of Vandal Hearts (US, SLUS_004.47). You must supply your own
legally-owned disc image (.bin); the download does nothing without it.

The translation framework's one remaining gap is closed: the burned-in English narration of the
story videos (the six chapter intros and both endings) can now be subtitled by a language pack.
As always, the base build is unchanged without a pack — English players keep the original videos
exactly as they were.

Added

• Movie subtitles. A pack can translate the narration of all eight story videos: the renderer
  covers the burned-in text and draws the translation in the game's large font, at the original
  narration's own on-screen size — identically with and without the HD pack, at every INTERNAL RES
  setting. Cue timings were validated frame-by-frame against the retail videos, so a translator
  only writes text. Subtitles are a per-line diff: an untranslated line keeps its burned-in
  English, so a partially subtitled pack is still a working pack. The ending's credit roll stays
  English by design (names and universally understood roles). Player guide:
  language-packs.md.
• Toolchain: a fifth export. lang_export_cues.py installs the per-video subtitle templates
  into the working set; each cue carries the English reference next to the translator's field.
  Subtitles may be written in natural mixed case even in a capitals-only script pack — the
  builder folds them correctly. The template tool counts subtitle letters in its art report, and
  the build verifies every subtitle character has a glyph before a pack ships.
  Quickstart
  and
  reference
  updated, with new captures.

Changed

• Save-management hardening (from the project's first community code contribution — thanks
  to Christopher Ball). Backups and restores are now atomic: a crash or full disk mid-restore
  can no longer corrupt the active save card. Every backup is checksum-validated (the game's
  own save-card CRC) before a restore or inspection, so a damaged backup is refused with a clear
  message instead of being copied over your saves. The SAVES overlay gained a status line
  ("BACKUP CREATED", "RESTORE FAILED", …), and the 64-backup list limit is gone.
• Disc auto-discovery improvements (same contribution). Candidate .bin files are verified
  by their boot signature, so a folder with a multi-track dump now finds the data track
  instead of failing on the first file, and discovery is case-insensitive.

Compatibility

• Packs built before 1.7.1 keep working (they simply have no subtitles); packs built with the
  1.7.1 toolchain load on older builds too — the subtitle data is skipped there. To gain
  subtitles, rebuild the pack with the current toolchain and fill the new strings/cues/ files.

Downloads

Config: edit vandalhearts.ini next to the executable (window scale, audio, etc.).

Note on contents

A release binary embeds a portion of game-derived data (the executable's static
data segment, a small BIOS-derived font, reconstructed tables) so the port can
run — © Konami / © Sony, no ownership claimed. It is a fraction of the game; the
bulk loads from your own disc at runtime. See NOTICE/DISCLAIMER.

Verify downloads against SHA256SUMS.txt.

Optional HD pack

VandalHearts-v1.7.1-hdpack.zip — higher-resolution backgrounds + re-encoded FMV
movies. Optional; the game runs identically without it. Unzip so hdpacks/
sits next to the executable, then enable HD PACK in the Select+Start options
(see docs/hd-pack.md). This is upscaled derivative art (© Konami), provided for
convenience and also buildable from your own disc — see NOTICE / DISCLAIMER.