Hell Night: Dark Messiah Recompiled

A native PC build of Hellnight (PlayStation, 1999; Dark Messiah in Japan), made with the PSXRecomp static recompiler and the shared recomp-ui launcher.

You must supply your own Hellnight (Europe) disc, serial SLES-01562, as a CUE/BIN dump. This repository and its release packages contain no game disc, no BIOS dump, no generated game code and no saves. The game code is generated on your machine from your disc.

No retail BIOS is needed: the build uses the bundled OpenBIOS image.

Setup

1. Download the release ZIP for your platform and extract all of it into a writable folder.
2. Start Hellnight_Recompiled (.exe on Windows). The program and the repository keep the original short name. The launcher lists the game as Dark Messiah and the game window is titled Hell Night: Dark Messiah Recompiled.
3. Select your Hellnight (Europe).cue in the setup wizard. Keep the CUE and its BIN together.
4. Run Generate & rebuild and wait. The game starts when it finishes.

On Windows the setup wizard can download portable build tools. On Linux and macOS, install CMake, Ninja, Python 3 and a C/C++ compiler first.

Accepted discs (data track 01, 633,786,384 bytes):

• The Redump dump, MD5 050d2848368af2ef945706bc73ef69ef. Accepted from 0.1.5.
• An NTSC-converted copy of the same disc, MD5 01ce6367485ab848973be612df58b5b9. This is the dump the build was developed with, and the one most of the testing below was done on. Its executable differs from the Redump one by 9 bytes.
• The Undub v1.1 patch of the European disc, MD5 cb6f8e5a863920bf33d8cfe78dd684df. Accepted from 0.1.5.

Building from source

git clone --recursive https://github.com/goodshepherd23/Hellnight-Recompiled
cd Hellnight-Recompiled
cp bios/openbios.bin psxrecomp/bios/openbios.bin
for p in patches/*.patch; do git -C psxrecomp apply "../$p"; done
for p in patches/recomp-ui/*.patch; do git -C recomp-ui apply "../$p"; done
python psxrecomp/psxrecomp_cli.py generate --config game.toml --project-root . --disc "/path/to/Hellnight (Europe).cue" --force-emitters
python psxrecomp/psxrecomp_cli.py rebuild --config game.toml --project-root . --build-dir build-release --target psx-runtime --exe-basename Hellnight_Recompiled --no-pgo

The cp step is needed because the pinned framework revision does not include the OpenBIOS image; bios/openbios.bin here is the MIT-licensed build pinned in psxrecomp/bios/OpenBIOS.toml (SHA-256 fabe498f…1c57), with its notice in bios/OpenBIOS.LICENSE.

The patches change four things in the pinned framework and its launcher:

• 0001 keeps FMVs from sitting low in the frame. The NTSC-converted dump runs in NTSC mode but keeps a PAL-tuned vertical display range.
• 0002 makes the launcher's PGO optimize work on Windows. Without it, the training run fails with [WinError 5] Access is denied and writes no profile. CMakeLists.txt also wires up PSX_PGO, which this framework revision ignores.
• 0003 removes thin vertical lines on tiled 2D screens (the anti-piracy notice and the Konami logo) when Texture filtering is set to Bilinear. The filter was blending each tile's first column with its last one.
• 0004 (plus patches/recomp-ui/0001) raises the Supersampling limit from 4x to 8x. The pinned framework rejects higher values in settings.toml and silently falls back to 1x. On the test laptop (Intel Iris Xe) the intro held 60 fps at 4x, 6x and 8x alike; gameplay at 8x was not timed.

--force-emitters is required. Without it, generate can pick up stale prebuilt emitters that leave the build with no BIOS backend.

Status

Version 0.1.7 is an early release, tested on Windows x64 (Intel Iris Xe).

With the Redump dump and with the Undub v1.1 dump: the disc check passes, the game generates and builds, and it boots through the Konami logo and the intro FMV. These discs run in 50 Hz PAL mode, and the Konami logo is shown in full. Nothing past the intro was tested on them.

With the NTSC-converted dump:

• Boots through the intro FMV to the title screen
• New Game starts. In-game dialogue, the examine cursor and room transitions work
• Holds about 100% speed at 60 fps (the NTSC-converted dump runs its GPU in 60 Hz mode)
• FMVs fill the frame. The NTSC-converted dump keeps a PAL-tuned vertical range in NTSC mode, which on a real NTSC console shows the picture low. This build presents the range directly instead. The Konami logo screen is taller than that range, so its bottom edge is cut off, the same as on an NTSC console. The save menu is cut off at the bottom the same way.
• Saving to a memory card and loading the save back both work. The save file (BESLES-01562-DM0) is written to saves/card1.mcd.

Not tested yet: gameplay, saving and the cheats on the Redump and Undub dumps, a full playthrough on any dump, and the Linux and macOS packages. Releases up to 0.1.4 rejected the Redump dump at Generate with a digest mismatch. Please open an issue if you hit a crash, a hang or a graphical bug, and include the psx_last_run_report.json written next to the executable.

PGO optimize (in the launcher) works on Windows as of 0.1.1. It rebuilds the game with profile-guided optimization: two 60-second training runs, then an optimized build. Leave the game window alone while it trains.

Widescreen

The Mods page has a Display group with a Widescreen mod (off by default). Turn it on, pick 16:9 or 21:9, then press PLAY. It uses the framework's GTE widescreen hack: the 3D view is widened to fill the wider window, while the HUD, the dialogue box and characters keep their proportions. Menus, the title screen and pre-rendered movies stay 4:3 with black bars at the sides.

Tested on Windows at 16:9 with the NTSC-converted dump: gameplay and dialogue in the first sewer area fill the window with a wider view, and the compass, characters and text box are not stretched. 21:9, later areas, and objects at the far edges of the wider view were not checked; the game may not draw everything that the wider view reveals.

Cheats

The launcher's Mods page has a Cheats group. Tick what you want, then press PLAY. All are off by default.

Cheat	Effect	Code
OK Status	Keeps your status at OK	800AD840 0000
Infinite Ammo	Your companion's ammunition never runs out	800ADD54 0001
Choose Companion	Forces who follows you: Naomi, Kamiya, Ivanoff, Rene or The Monster	800ADD50 000N + 800ADD58 0000
Show Full Map	The map (Square) shows the whole floor, including places you have not visited	patch at 80025724
Walk Through Walls	Turns off wall collision so you can walk out of bounds	patch at 800598AC
The Monster Can't Hurt You	The monster still chases you but cannot harm you	patches at 80056258 and 80055E68

The codes are for the European disc (SLES-01562). The first three are GameShark codes credited to DAVIN THE RAVEN on psxdatacenter and are written to memory every frame. The last three come from the DuckStation cheat database and each change an instruction in the game's code. All are applied by a small plugin (src/hellnight_mods.c) through the framework's mod system (mods/packages/hellnight.cheats).

The three code-patch cheats stay on for the whole session: switch them on the Mods page before pressing PLAY. With Walk Through Walls on you can leave the map or skip story triggers and get stuck, so save first.

Tested on Windows with the NTSC-converted dump: OK Status and Infinite Ammo write their values every frame and the game plays normally with them on. Walk Through Walls was checked against a run with it off: with it on the player walks through a tunnel wall, with it off the same input stops at the wall. With Show Full Map on, the map showed the whole first sewer area; it was not compared with a run with it off. The Monster Can't Hurt You applies its patches and the game runs normally, but no monster encounter was played. Choose Companion has not been tried in play.

The database's "Hide Compass" code is left out: in this build it also removed characters and scenery. It overrides the story's own choice, so save before using it.

Walkthrough

Stuck? Hellnight PS1 Longplay (Naomi Ending) by LaTanaDiMrX is a full playthrough of the original PlayStation game. It was not recorded on this build, so use it as a guide to the game, not as proof that every area works here.

Credits and licenses

• Framework: PSXRecomp, PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0. This project is free and noncommercial.
• Launcher: recomp-ui, MIT.
• Framework revision and release pipeline: the Alexbeav fork used by Alexbeav's PS1 ports.
• Their licenses and dependency notices are in the psxrecomp/ and recomp-ui/ directories.

This project was made with AI assistance (Claude).

Hellnight is © Atlus 1999. The European release was published by Konami. All trademarks belong to their owners. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them.