Need for Speed: High Stakes (PSX) – Recompiled

A static recompilation of the PlayStation version of Need for Speed: High Stakes (US release, SLUS-00826) to C#, using a forked RecompOne. The game's MIPS code is translated into C# ahead of time and runs natively on Windows and Linux, with RecompOne providing the PlayStation hardware and the window, sound and input.

The original game, enhanced with:

• 16:9 widescreen, by widening the game's own camera rather than stretching the picture
• PGXP for steadier polygons and textures (on by default)
• 2 unlock mods (unlock all cars, unlock all tracks)
• P2P multiplayer mod (netplay)
• texture replacement packs, see packs/README.md

This repository contains no game data. You need your own copy of the game.

What you need

• a disc image of Need for Speed: High Stakes, US version (SLUS-00826), as .cue + .bin
• .NET 10 SDK
• Python 3
• git
• on Linux: PowerShell 7 (pwsh), since the build script is a PowerShell script

The project is built on the USA version, using a .bin image with the SHA-1 hash 72E5FC9254903797A08D56BABBEF689E30514FB8. To check your image, run Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA1 disc\*.bin in PowerShell or sha1sum disc/*.bin on Linux.

Building

git clone --recurse-submodules <repo url>

If you cloned without --recurse-submodules, the build script fetches the submodule for you.

Put the game's .cue and .bin in disc\. The file names don't matter. The build reads the game's code from it and copies the .cue and .bin to build\<runtime>\disc\.

Windows

.\build.ps1

The script recompiles the game into generated\, applies the patches and publishes the result to build\win-x64\.

The script compiles through csc.cmd instead of the normal C# compiler, because csc.exe crashes on some older Windows builds. csc.cmd contains the path to the .NET SDK (C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\10.0.401\...). If you have a different SDK version installed, change the version in that path to match dotnet --version.

Linux

pwsh ./build.ps1 -Runtime linux-x64

The output goes to build/linux-x64/. The same command also works from Windows, so you can build the Linux version there and copy it over.

Build options

Option	What it does
-Runtime <rid>	target platform: win-x64 (default) or linux-x64
-Recompiler	rebuild the recompiler

Running

Start nfs4.exe (or nfs4 on Linux) in build\<runtime>\. The game uses the disc the build copied to its disc\ folder. If it can't find one there, it asks you to pick a .cue or .chd.

Settings, key bindings, memory cards (carda.sav, cardb.sav) and interface.ini are kept in the folder you start the game from. F1 shows the menu bar, F11 toggles fullscreen.

Keyboard controls

PlayStation	Keys
D-pad	arrow keys, or A / D for left and right
Cross (accelerate, confirm)	W or Enter
Square (brake)	S
Circle	Space
Triangle (back)	C or Backspace
L1 / R1	Q / E
L2 / R2	Z / X
Start (pause)	Escape
Select	Right Shift

You can change them under Settings > Input. The + next to a binding adds a second key. Gamepads work too.

Environment variables

Variable	Effect
NFS4_WIDE=0	turns widescreen off and keeps the original 4:3
NFS4_TRACE=1	logs CD and SDK calls to the console
NFS4_INPUT	presses buttons at set times, for testing. 12:cross:150,15:down:150 presses Cross 12 seconds after launch for 150 ms, then Down at 15 seconds

Project layout

Path	Contents
config/	recompiler config and function maps for the game's executables
tools/apply_patches.py	applies the widescreen and PGXP texture fixes to the generated code
patches/	C# switches and runtime patches for the game
mods/	mods that are copied next to the executable and compiled at startup
packs/	texture packs
external/RecompOne/	the RecompOne recompiler and runtime (git submodule)
generated/	the recompiled game, created by the build (git ignored)

Credits

• RecompOne for the recompiler and runtime
• NFSHS-PSX decomp project, whose function names and boundaries went into the function maps

Need for Speed: High Stakes is a trademark of Electronic Arts. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Electronic Arts.