Crash Bandicoot 2 Recompiled — v0.9.4

Windows x64 · the 60 FPS mode gets the controls it needed

Work in progress. The game is playable from start to finish. There are
still minor sound and graphical issues, so treat this as a preview rather than
a finished release.

This is Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back translated into native code
and run directly, rather than emulated.

Before you start

You need your own disc image. This package contains no game data: no game
code, artwork, audio or disc content. You supply a .cue with its .bin, or a
.chd, and the game is built on your machine from it. Nothing is uploaded and
your disc is only ever read.

The build targets the North American release, serial SCUS-94154.

Nothing to install. The compiler is included. You do not need Visual
Studio, cmake, Python or anything else.

Unpack somewhere with a short, plain English path. C:\Games\Crash2 is
ideal. This matters more than it sounds. Two Windows limits bite otherwise,
and the launcher checks for both and tells you before wasting your time:

• A folder path with non-English characters will not build. If your Windows
  username has an accent or a non-Latin character, do not unpack into your
  Desktop or Documents.
• A deeply nested folder exceeds the Windows path limit during the build.

Getting started

1. Run Crash2Launcher\Crash2Launcher.exe
2. Setup → choose your disc image → Build the game
3. Play

Your saves and settings live in userdata\. Copy that folder into a future
version and your progress comes with it.

While playing

What is in this release

⚠ 60 FPS is experimental

It is off by default and is a preview, not a finished feature. Crash 2
was built to update thirty times a second, and running its game loop at sixty
is a real change to how the game executes — not a smoothing filter on the
picture.

What is known to work: world movement keeps the correct speed. The engine
already scales motion by how long each frame took — that is how the original
copes when a busy scene drops frames — and this reuses that mechanism rather
than inventing one. It has been played and measured.

What has not been verified across the whole game: scripted sequences and
cutscene pacing, music and sound timing, boss fights, vehicle and chase
levels, and FMV transitions. Nothing has been found wrong in those, but
nothing has systematically checked them either.

The mode also runs the emulated PlayStation processor at 200% so a busy frame
can fit into one screen refresh. That is the furthest this gets from how the
console behaved, and it is part of why this is a preview.

If something behaves strangely — a sequence that will not advance, audio that
drifts, a boss that misbehaves — turn 60 FPS off first and see whether it
stops. If it does, that is worth reporting; it is exactly what a preview
needs to find.

Your saves are not at risk from this setting. It changes timing, not
saved data.

Legal

An unofficial, non-commercial fan project. Not affiliated with, authorised or
endorsed by Activision, Naughty Dog or Sony Interactive Entertainment. Crash
Bandicoot is a trademark of Activision Publishing, Inc.

No game code, artwork, audio or disc data is distributed. You provide your own
disc image and the game is built locally from it.

Licences are in LICENSES\:

• psxrecomp, the recompiler and runtime — PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0.
  Free to use and share for any non-commercial purpose. Selling it, or
  bundling it with anything commercial, is not permitted.
• OpenBIOS (PCSX-Redux) — MIT. Included, so no PlayStation BIOS is needed.
• SDL3 — zlib.
• Qt / PySide6 — LGPL v3, shipped as replaceable files.
• The bundled toolchain — LLVM/clang under Apache 2.0 with LLVM exceptions,
  plus MinGW-w64, CMake, Ninja and Python. Notices in LICENSES\toolchain\.

Dumping a disc you own for personal use is permitted in some countries and not
in others. Check where you live.