# Crash Bandicoot 2 Recompiled — v0.9.6

*Windows x64 · Original 4:3 without bars above and below, a new Home menu and
a tidier launcher*

**Work in progress.** The game is playable from start to finish. There are
still minor sound and graphical issues.

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.

| | |
|---|---|
| Windows | 64-bit, 10 or later |
| Disk space | About 3 GB free while building |
| First build | Five to twenty minutes, once |

**Where to unpack.** A folder with spaces in its name now works; that used to
break the build. Two Windows limits still apply, and the launcher checks both
before it starts:

- 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, Documents or Downloads.
- A very deeply nested folder goes over the Windows path limit during the
  build.

`C:\Games\Crash2` is ideal.

**Updating from an earlier version?** Copy your `userdata\` folder into the new
one, then press **Build the game** once on the Setup page. Your saves and
settings come with you.

## Getting started

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

## While playing

| Key | |
|---|---|
| **Home** | Home menu: restart, display options, quick save and load, the assists. Guide, or Start+Select, on a controller. |
| F5 / F9 | Quick save / quick load |
| F7 | Save state slots |
| F8 | Rewind |
| Tab | Fast-forward |
| F | FPS counter |
| Alt+Enter or Ctrl+F | Fullscreen |
| Keypad + / − | Volume |

These are the defaults. All of them can now be changed (see *Hotkeys* below).

---

## What's new

### Original 4:3

**Settings → Video → Image fit → Original 4:3.** The game's own 4:3 picture,
filling the height of your screen with black bars only at the sides. Nothing is
stretched or zoomed.

Crash 2 leaves a strip of empty black lines at the top and bottom of its
picture. Original 4:3 trims exactly those, so there are no bars above or below.

- It is also in the Home menu, under **Image fit**.
- The **Authentic** preset now uses it.
- Picking it sets the Gameplay aspect to 4:3. Choosing a wider aspect later
  switches Image fit back to Letterbox.

### A new Home menu

- **The game stays in view.** The menu is a card in the middle of the screen,
  over the dimmed game, instead of covering the whole window.
  - Post-processing and Window mode changes show behind it as you make them.
  - Gameplay aspect and Image fit apply when you resume, and the menu says so.
- **Sharp at any size.** The text is scaled in whole steps, so it no longer
  goes wide and blurry on a widescreen.
- **Grouped:** Game, Display, Assists and System, with the same names the
  launcher uses.
- **A line under the list** explains whichever option is selected.
- **The mouse** hovers and clicks on the right row wherever the menu sits.
- **Restart and Quit** ask you to press again. Only the row you pressed turns
  red now.

### A tidier launcher

- **Easier to read.** Checkboxes are easier to see and small text is easier to
  read. Settings no longer look striped.
- **Presets** show only on the Video page, and wrap in a narrow window instead
  of being cut off.
- **Sliders.** Post-processing sliders mark their default value. Double-click
  one to reset it.
- **Controls fit.** Number fields are a sensible width, and long drop-downs
  fit a narrow window.
- **Setup** shows which disc the game was built from.
- **Saves.** Empty slots no longer offer Play or Delete.
- **Input** warns when one key is set for two game buttons.
- **Mods** have plainer descriptions, and on/off options are checkboxes.

### 60 FPS

- **Air Crash.** Stepping on the skull platform with 60 FPS on no longer sends
  the camera back to the start of the level.

### For testers

The widescreen previews in Developer mode have fewer problems at the screen
edges:

- **Side-scrolling sections** fill their edges.
- **Where a level has nothing to draw**, a clean black edge replaces the jagged
  triangles.
- **Near the camera** on forward-running sections, polygons no longer flash
  across the screen.

They are still previews and do nothing while Developer mode is off.

---

## Known issues

- **Minor sound and graphical glitches remain.**
- **Busy scenes can dip below 60** with 60 FPS on. Lower Internal resolution
  before anything else.
- **A wider Gameplay aspect shows pop-in at the sides.** The levels were made
  for a 4:3 television, so a wider view can show objects and scenery appear at
  the left and right edges. The default 14:9 reaches only half as far as 16:9.
- **A folder path with non-English characters will not build**, and neither
  will a very deeply nested one. The launcher detects both and tells you to
  move the folder.
- **Windows will warn on first run.** "Windows protected your PC" appears
  because the package is not code-signed. Click **More info**, then **Run
  anyway**. Your antivirus may also object to the bundled C compiler; if it
  quarantines anything under `toolchain\`, allow it or the build will fail
  partway through.
- **"No damage" holds an invincible state permanently.** A scripted sequence
  that expects Crash to be interruptible could in principle get stuck. If you
  meet one, switch to *Keep 2 masks*.
- **Only the North American disc is tested.** Other regions may work; nothing
  is promised.

## Reporting a problem

Open the **Log** page, press **Save to file**, and attach it. If the game
crashed, the launcher has already brought that page up for you. Say what you
were doing and which level you were on.

---

## 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.
