HalmyLyseas/VandalHearts-PcPort v2.0.0

v2.0.0 — Vandal Hearts PC Port

on GitHub

Vandal Hearts — PC Port v2.0.0

A native PC port of Vandal Hearts — one executable for the USA (SLUS-00447), Asia
(SCPS-45183) and Japan (SLPM-86007) releases. You must supply your own
legally-owned disc image (.bin); the download does nothing without it.

A region barrier falls. This release adds a second complete matching decompilation — the
Japanese release, SLPM-86007, rebuilt byte-for-byte like the US one — and ships one
executable that runs the USA, Asia and Japan discs, auto-detecting whichever you own. The
Japanese game is a first-class citizen: the full PC feature set, its own HD pack, its own
faithful Japanese text. As always, normal mode remains byte-for-byte the retail game — now for
two retail games.

Added

• Japan and Asia disc support. Drop any supported disc — USA (SLUS-00447), Asia
  (SCPS-45183) or Japan (SLPM-86007) — in the game/ folder and play; several at once is
  fine. The Asia release (byte-identical to USA bar the save id) has quietly worked for a while —
  this is its first supported release. The Japanese release is a different build of the game
  entirely, and runs on its own decompiled code. Setup:
  configuration.md.
• The DISC option. With more than one disc installed, a new overlay row lists each by its
  release id; pick one and it boots at the next launch (marked * until then, like LANGUAGE).
• Full feature parity on the Japanese game: Tactical Mode, the options overlay, save
  management, battle fast-forward, threat overlay, unit-cycle, finer camera elevation, internal
  resolution, HD pack support. Tactical Mode's reworked text stays faithful to the Japanese disc —
  its clarified item descriptions reuse the disc's own Japanese spell lines, and adjusted spell
  info lines are the retail Japanese text with only the numbers updated. Language packs remain a
  US-disc feature by design (they are built on the US game's text engine); the LANGUAGE row
  explains itself — greyed on the Japanese game, and even usable there to queue a pack when a
  switch to a US disc is pending.
• A Japanese HD pack. Backgrounds and story videos for the Japanese game (its movies carry
  the original burned-in Japanese subtitles), downloadable as a release asset like the US pack.
• The developers' own debug menu (advanced). KCET's development menu — battle warp, a
  selector for all 95 story events, world-map and town warps, a unit viewer — survived in the
  Japanese release; the US release stripped most of it, and what remained could never render even
  on real hardware. Restored on every disc, translated on US/Asia. Off by default; launch
  with VH_DEBUG_MENU=1 and idle at the title screen. Warped scenes can load in odd states —
  that's authentic dev-tool behavior — and saves made from them are unsupported. Details:
  gameplay-additions.md.
• Fast boot. The fresh-launch load before the intro logo (a black screen a real console hides
  behind its BIOS animation) now runs accelerated — launch-to-logo drops from ~7 s to under 2 s.
  Everything from the logo onward keeps the hardware-exact load pacing. VH_FAST_BOOT=0 restores
  full hardware timing.

Changed

• Load pacing is now hardware-exact on the US game too. The CD-timing model gained the
  drive's per-read start cost, tuned against real-hardware captures of both regions; US loads
  were previously ~5% faster than a console. If a load feels marginally longer than 1.7.1, it is
  now exactly as long as the real thing.
• HD packs are per-game — hdpacks/SLUS-00447/ and hdpacks/SLPM-86007/ side by side, the
  right one auto-detected for the running disc (the Asia disc uses the US pack — same master).
  Already have the 1.x HD pack? No need to re-download — create hdpacks/SLUS-00447/ and move
  the previous contents of hdpacks/ into it (the old flat layout also still works as-is).
• Tactical Mode: Mystic Energy's info line now reads "Protect Magic" (was "DEF,AT Up") —
  matching the spell's Tactical redesign, which is protective (DEF + magic resistance) and no
  longer raises ATK. Display only; Normal mode untouched.

Fixed

• RETURN TO TITLE is now safe from anywhere. Pressed during a loading scene it could crash;
  pressed during a video it froze the frame while audio played on. The jump now tears down
  in-flight loads and movie streams cleanly, from any state.
• The startup "not responding" dialog is gone. During long loads the window answered no
  desktop events, so window managers (notably GNOME) sometimes flagged the game as stuck and the
  close button appeared dead. Loads now stay responsive — closing the window works even
  mid-load. Latent since 1.0.0.
• Stray files in saves/ no longer break saving. A folder or foreign file in the saves
  directory was treated as save-card content and could produce a bogus "no free blocks" error.
  Latent since 1.1.0.
• Windows, Tactical Mode: crash on a reworked spell's info line. Moving the spell-list
  cursor onto a Tactical-reworked spell (Spread Force, Thunder Ball, the retuned support
  spells) could crash — a 32-bit truncation specific to Windows builds (Linux was never
  affected). Latent since Tactical Mode shipped in 1.3.0; found in 2.0.0's Windows
  validation and fixed, with a full audit of the port for the same defect class
  (width-bugs.md).
• Internal hardening from the two-region port work: object-pool overflow and a corrupt GPU
  ordering table now fail soft instead of crashing or hanging, and a reconstructed animation
  table's safety padding is sized from the shipped game data instead of an estimate.

Compatibility

• Existing installs upgrade in place: saves, vandalhearts.ini and the flat 1.x hdpacks/
  layout all keep working untouched.
• Saves are per-region (matching the real consoles' different memory-card formats): the
  US/Asia and Japanese games keep separate save files, and the DISC switch does not carry
  progress across.
• New vandalhearts.ini keys: VH_REGION, VH_DISC_ID (written by the DISC row) and
  VH_FAST_BOOT. Full reference:
  OPTIONS.md.

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 packs

Higher-resolution backgrounds + re-encoded FMV movies, one pack per game
(SLUS-00447 for US/Asia, SLPM-86007 for Japan). Optional; the game runs
identically without one. Unzip so hdpacks/ sits next to the executable, then
enable HD PACK in the Select+Start options (see docs/hd-pack.md). Upgrading a
1.x install? Your old pack still works — or move the previous contents of
hdpacks/ into a new hdpacks/SLUS-00447/ folder to match the new layout.
This is upscaled derivative art (© Konami), provided for convenience and also
buildable from your own disc — see NOTICE / DISCLAIMER.