MORE PS1 Recomps Possible! RecompOne is Here! A New Recomp Tool

[00:00:01]Hey everybody, welcome back to Video Game Technical Terricka and that's a completely different intro for a completely different type of video. That is because since I've been talking about the Castlevania Symphony of the Night PlayStation 1 static recompiler, I've been getting a metric crap ton of questions about how this is being done.

[00:00:15]And honestly, that's exactly what we're going to be going over today, pulling back the curtain over the red draperies for Dracula on the magic that is this static recompiler and what Fluffy Granola is doing with the recompiler software in the background to make this all possible. Because this isn't just a static recompiler of Castlevania Symphony of the Night, it's also a tool suite, very similar to N64 recompiler in theory, that's going to allow for a lot more of these PlayStation 1 static recompiler to come out in the future.

[00:00:41]And that is amply outstanding and that's why you see so many N64 recompiler hitting. The tool set, which is open source, allows developers to go in and really streamline the process because they already have a tool set that allows them to actually make these static recompiler. On the PlayStation 1 side of things, we do have that starting momentum and honestly, Fluffy Granola's tool set here, recompiler 1, which I'll be talking about in this video exclusively, is going to really, in my opinion, blow the doors open on PlayStation 1 static recompiler. And because everyone is so enamored with the idea of getting something like Symphony of the Night playable on PC with mod support and a ton of other enhancements like 16 by 9 here, it's going to be an absolutely fun time. Before I get much further involved though, do me a huge favor, go down below, hit like and subscribe and hit that notification bell, definitely helps us out. And if you feel so inclined to want to support the channel, you got a Patreon link down below as well. And while I will be going over the entirety of recompiler 1 today, explaining what it does do and why it is so important, I've also left a GitHub link in the description below and I know Fluffy is thinking about making a Discord server right now. So before this video airs, hopefully I will get them to give me a link so you guys can join up and understand how the tool set works and chat with the developer and just kind of follow along with the progress.

[00:01:51]But trust me, the GitHub outside of what I'm showing you, you're going to be able to need to read source code and understand what's going on. So maybe one out of 10 of you would glean any information out of that. But, this is going to be huge because again, there's so many incredible PlayStation 1 games that could be brought over to PC and recompiler 1 is definitely going to aid in that.

[00:02:09]Now, I'm going over to the GitHub page, you'll see Fluffy is the only contributor here. He is the one that has worked on this project from start to finish and is what is underpinning the Symphony of the Night static recompiler.

[00:02:19]And that is absolutely going to be a big deal. You'll see here as it talks about the different ethos behind the project.

[00:02:25]It is a static recompiler tool to take the MIPS code from PlayStation 1 and turn it into something that is readable by a modern machine, C code. And it's also going to be dealing with all the underlying graphics and audio as well.

[00:02:37]There is no emulation underneath recompiler 1. It really is just doing the entire static recompiler on the fly, the same way we see with stuff like N64 recompiler and even Xenon recompiler, which are mentioned here as inspirations for this overall tool set. And those are two incredible things to be inspired by because honestly, N64 recompiler and Xenon recompiler really are bringing us a ton of fun. And if you haven't been following along all that closely, especially with Xenon recompiler, that is what is being used for something like Sonic Unleashed and the work-in-progress Sonic '06 static recompiler, which I will have a video on soon because a lot of people are asking what's going on with that project. So, I went over to the GitHub repo and built it. We'll have a video on that shortly cuz honestly, it is a lot better than the last time I took a look, but there isn't an actual compiled build under releases tab for you guys to check out. So, I will be discussing that soon. And on that same inspiration front, because you've been seeing a metric crap ton of them on the channel and just in general, N64 recompiler tool, 10 out of 10 amazing and really brings us all of these fun recompiler. So, for somebody like Fluffy to point to these two different projects as kind of the inspiration behind what they want recompiler 1 to be, you know full well after already seeing the footage of Symphony of the Night being recompiled for PC, that this is definitely going to be a very effective tool. And it already is running one game. What I want you to realize is a tool like this isn't a set it and forget it run code rotisserie one click conversion. It still requires human hands, you're still going to have to do that. And in the how it works description, it basically is doing that recompilation before the code actually runs and then basically just making it {quote} "a PC port". Now, there's a lot more magic behind this, but it's taking all of the different operations of PlayStation 1 including the graphics and audio and moving them into a static recompile which is going to be different than DuckStation footage which we're seeing here which is traditional software emulation which is amazing, but it's one of those things that is completely different. Let's do a soundtrack sample just because the audio is going to be important as we're talking about it in just a moment and I'll be right back with a lot more detail on this one.

[00:04:51]>> [music] >> So, when we talk about a static recompilation with recompiler 1, it is recompiling all of the MIPS code over to something like C that a modern chipset can actually understand because the CPU inside of a PlayStation 1 has basically not a lot to do with a modern CPU you're watching this on right now. So, basically it's converting the instruction set over, but it's also dealing with all the stuff like the GPU draw commands, the audio, and everything else. So, it really is basically taking the entirety of what a PlayStation 1 could do and then statically recompiling it over not only the game's code for all the logic and everything else, but every other function of a PlayStation 1 including the graphics, the audio, and the IO for controller input as well. So, it really is just a metric ton of work to get something like this running. And I know right now there's two kind of different ways to do stuff like this that you've seen out there. You have stuff like Rex glue, which currently is using something like Xenia underpinning it, but that is moving over to a pure static recomp environment where Xenia is not going to be available to developers.

[00:05:59]I've got I already showed you that video. I'll be showing it to you shortly. And then you have stuff like N64 recomp and recomp one here, which is allowing for a 100% static recompilation. And I know I've done a video on the difference between a source port based upon a decompilation and a static recomp. But I get it, at the end of the day, all you really care about is can you double-click an executable file and play a game? So that's kind of what you're getting here. And as far as overlays are concerned, it's going to allow different memory addressing because the PlayStation 1 was absolutely starved for RAM back in the day. And I know there is now a mod for 16 MB, something that could actually be useful for arcades in the future. But it's something that has to be dealt with on the static recons cuz there's a lot of memory paging going on. And I know it gets technical, but at the end all of the static recompilation of the CPU code and everything else that makes up a PlayStation 1 ends up in a situation where you have an executable on your PC that you give it your legally owned game files, and then you're playing it just like the N64 static recomp. But it is project-to-project dependent, and this tool is still in development.

[00:07:01]Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is the first example of it being used, but just like N64 recomp that had a first example some years ago, you're going to be seeing a lot more of these in the future. I am fairly confident in that.

[00:07:13]And you can create a recompilation with this now, but you're still going to have to do a lot of work. But a couple other people out there are currently using this tool to work out other projects.

[00:07:23]And there really are so many different amazing games on PlayStation 1, some of which you know about and some of which you've never heard about before, that would absolutely excel as static recompilations because the PlayStation 1 has aged decently, but a lot of games could benefit from higher frame rates.

[00:07:37]That's what you usually get with stuff like a static recomp. And yes, DuckStation can do it, too. And I love DuckStation, but this is just something that is more suited to a game-to-game kind of basis. And for those of you that are interested, cuz I know you're going to ask the question, there's no AI used as far as recomp one or the Symphony of the Night static recomp. So, that is basically the answer on that one. And you will see right now to do, a mod loader is still in development, and multi-disc games aren't quite yet working with this. But again, he says that that should be a pretty relatively easy thing to actually put in there.

[00:08:08]And at the end of the day, what this really means is recomp one is going to give developers the ability to bring up more PlayStation 1 static recomp, the same way we see on the N64 side of things. Now, it is going to take some time to ramp up. Fluffy is still working on recomp one, but it is functional. But it's one of those things, think about the first time you ever heard about an N64 recomp, and then think about how long it was until the next one came out.

[00:08:30]Now, think about it in the more recent 2026 spectrum, under the lens of everyone is doing them. That is what can end up happening with recomp one once it actually gets out there, developers start using it, more people jump on board. But it's not one of those things, this is not going to be an overnight suddenly there's dozens upon dozens of PlayStation 1 static recomp for you to play, cuz it still requires people to actually pick a project, start working on it, and get it buttoned up for release. And I know there's other static recomp tools out there for PlayStation 1 right now as well that I've featured on the channel. And honestly, more options are always going to benefit everyone.

[00:09:03]And if you don't like a certain project cuz it might use something like Cloud, then something like this will be more in your wheelhouse. But for me personally, I show you guys all of the developments and information going on, and I let you decide how you feel about them. But I will say right now, Fluffy Granola is 100% killing it, not only with recomp one, but with the Symphony of the Night static recomp. And it's going to be a very, very bright future for PlayStation 1, and fortunately a very dull future for PlayStation 5 and 6, because physical media is dead. And that is why people are going back to retro all the time, cuz they're realizing modern gaming is just getting way too boring, way too expensive, and way too restrictive. Static re-cams and tools like this remove the restrictions and give you even more fun ways to play some of the best games ever made, and that makes an absolute winner out of each and every one of those.

[00:09:48]But, I always love to ask the question if you could snap your fingers right now and make one static re-cam show up perfect, well, which one would it be?

[00:09:55]For me, it's Misery of the Daleks. You leave your answer down below, and I'll see you guys next time.

[00:09:59]Hope you enjoyed the video.

[00:10:01]Bye-bye.