Ninja's Dawn v1.0.6 is the first version published here.
To play: download ng2recomp-v1.0.6-win-amd64.zip below, unzip it
anywhere, run ng2.exe and point it at your own copy of Ninja Gaiden II (a
disc image or an extracted disc folder) and, if you have them, your DLC
packages. The zip holds the executable, the runtime, the Visual C++ runtime it
needs, the controller database and the texture tools, and nothing else: no
game assets or data of any kind. The executable contains the game's code in
translated form, which is what a static recompilation is; without your copy of
the game it does nothing.
The repository itself is the project's own code and documents: the launcher,
its settings UI, the hook and patch configuration, the build files, the tools,
and the write-up of every issue met on the way and how it was fixed. You can
also build the executable yourself from your copy of the game, as the README
describes.
What is new in v1.0.6
Fixed - the red mist after a boss: the next chapter now loads on its own
Finishing a chapter ended in a red mist that never went away. The results,
rating and save screens all worked, and the game asked whether to continue
without saving, but Proceed did nothing.
The post-boss flow is a small state machine in the game's front end. After
Proceed it checks whether anything unlocked during the chapter is still missing
from the save, and if so it waits for the profile's achievement write to report
completion before it starts the next chapter. On the console that write
completes at once. In this port it was never issued at the chapter end, so the
game waited for ever. The state it waits on is now supplied at that exact point
(ng2ChapterAwardFix, a hook at 0x8242D7B4 declared in
config/hooks/patches.toml, body in src/ng2_chapter_fix.cpp), and the game
runs its own transition unchanged: the loading screen with its background, the
"press to proceed" prompt, and the mist clearing as the next chapter starts.
Both the Save and the continue-without-saving paths were verified.
Every earlier workaround for this hang is superseded and has been removed,
together with all the instrumentation used to find it. The recompiled sources
were regenerated from the game and only the fixes remain.
Fixed - the texture pack could serve the wrong texture
The pack identified a texture by its address and shape, so two textures that
took turns at the same address in different chapters shared one id and the
pack served the wrong art (violet shop windows in chapter 1). Pack files are
now named by id and content hash, the lookup hashes the texture in memory, and
a mismatch logs once and falls back to the original. Existing packs migrate in
place.
Smaller fixes in this version: "Dump while playing" applied immediately, the
census sees a second texture at the same address, the settings pointer hides,
the upscale no longer dies when the settings menu closes, and the
enhanced-texture status no longer shows a false count.
Fixed - the release needed the Visual C++ runtime installed already
A check of everything the running game loads found one dependency outside
Windows and the release folder: the Visual C++ 2015-2022 runtime. The four
DLLs now ship in the release folder, so a packaged build runs on a clean
Windows 10 or 11 with nothing installed and only the game and DLC brought in.
Where to look
docs/ISSUES_AND_FIXES.md- every issue and its fix, by area, from the first
boot to v1.0.6.CHANGELOG.md- the full version history (37 versions).README.md- what you must bring, how to build, every setting, known issues.