Disruptor Recompiled runs on Windows x64 and Linux x64 from your own Disruptor (USA, SLUS-00224) disc image.
- Game assets are not included.
- You do not need to build the project or extract its executable.
- No PlayStation BIOS is needed: OpenBIOS is included.
Join the community Discord to talk about the project and share feedback.
- Download DisruptorRecomp-win-Setup.exe from the GitHub releases.
- Run it. Windows may warn of an unknown publisher: press More info, then Run anyway.
- Setup installs the game for your Windows user, puts shortcuts on the desktop and in the Start menu, and opens the launcher. It installs the Microsoft Visual C++ x64 Redistributable too when it is missing.
To play without installing:
- Download DisruptorRecomp-win-Portable.zip instead.
- Unpack it into a folder of its own and run
Disruptor Recompiled.exe. - Your saves and settings stay in its
datafolder. - It needs the Microsoft Visual C++ x64 Redistributable.
Windows 10 or 11 x64 and a graphics driver with OpenGL 3.3 are needed.
On Linux x64:
- Download DisruptorRecomp.AppImage.
- Make it executable:
chmod +x DisruptorRecomp.AppImage - Run it.
- It needs glibc 2.35 or newer (Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, Fedora 36 and later) and OpenGL 3.3.
- Your saves and settings are kept in
~/.local/share/DisruptorRecompData. - The launcher updates the AppImage in place.
- Open Disruptor Recompiled from the desktop or the Start menu.
- Press Choose file... and pick your USA MODE2/2352 CUE, BIN or CHD, or drop the image on the launcher's window.
- The launcher copies the image into
input/discs/SLUS-00224/in the folder of your files, writes its CUE and checks the SHA-256 of every byte. A CHD stays a CHD, and the bytes checked are the sectors in it. Your original files stay where they are. - Leave Start the game after importing on to play at once.
What the launcher accepts:
- A CUE with its BIN beside it, or the BIN alone. The file names do not matter.
- A raw
.isoor.imgwhose bytes match the supported dump. - A
.chdthat chdman made of the supported dump. - Not a cooked 2048-byte ISO, and not a PAL or Japanese disc as the game disc. Those discs can give the game its language, see Other languages.
An import needs about 610 MiB of free space, about 425 MiB for a CHD.
Press Play on the launcher's home page. The disc is checked before every start.
In the game's menu, pick New Game with the arrow keys and Enter, or Practice Mode for a training mission.
- If the game stops with an error, the launcher says so in its banner, beside Play.
- Details there shows the end of
startup.logand everything the launcher did. - Help in the side bar shows this guide. F1 opens it too.
- EXIT, under CREDITS in the game's main menu, closes the game.
Releases up to alpha.5 came as a ZIP. Install the new release with its Setup.exe, then press Bring saves... in the side bar and choose the old folder: saves, settings, keys and the imported disc come over.
A repair keeps the files it replaced in an input/discs/.previous-* folder.
Delete it once the repaired copy works.
| Action | Default key or button |
|---|---|
| Move / strafe | W / S / A / D |
| Turn | Mouse. The Left and Right arrows too |
| Free / hold the mouse | The game holds it while its window has focus. Escape or a middle-click frees it, a left click holds it again |
| Fire / menu confirm | Left mouse / Enter |
| Psionic attack | Right mouse / F |
| Jump / menu cancel | Space |
| Use | E |
| Choose weapon / psionic | Q / R |
| Select weapon directly | 1–9 / 0 or the keypad, when Weapon and psionic keys is on |
| Select psionic directly | The keys you give the powers, when Weapon and psionic keys is on |
| Map / pause | Tab / P |
| Settings | Backquote (`). Escape closes |
| Fullscreen | Alt+Enter |
| Skip a logo or movie | Escape |
| Fast-forward | Hold B |
| Save / load state | Shift+F1–F11 / F1–F11 |
| Name a save | Type it: letters, digits, Space, Backspace and Delete. Enter moves to DONE |
| Start / end a replay capsule | Ctrl+F12 |
| Load the newest replay capsule | F12 |
The table shows the Modern scheme, which a new installation has.
Weapon and psionic wheels replace both selection lists. The setting is on the Controls page, experimental and off at first.
- Hold the key or gamepad button of Choose weapon or Choose psionic. In the Modern scheme these are Q and R until you move them.
- Point with the mouse or the left stick and let go to equip.
- The arrows and the D-pad step through what you own. An arrow you bind to an action other than moving or turning does not step.
- A left click or Enter confirms.
- Escape, a right click or the gamepad's cancel button cancels.
- The psionic wheel opens once you have a psionic.
- The game keeps running while a wheel is open.
Weapon and psionic keys is on the Controls page too, off at first, in either scheme. Each weapon and each psionic power takes two keys. The weapons have these at first, the powers none:
| Key | Weapon |
|---|---|
| 1 | Baton |
| 2 | 18mm Semi |
| 3 | 18mm Auto |
| 4 | Phase Rifle |
| 5 | Phase Repeater |
| 6 | Lockon Cannon |
| 7 | AM Blaster |
| 8 | AM Cyclone |
| 9 | Zodiac |
| 0 | Plasma Lance |
- The second key is the same number on the keypad. Each press picks once.
- A key that changes the weapon or the power shows the weapon list or the psionics list for a second, as while its button is held. The key of the one already in hand shows no list.
- A baton you pick stays in hand. On its own the game takes a gun with ammunition instead.
- With the setting on, the Weapons and Psionics tables under it change them. Click a key, then press the new one. Delete takes a key away. Default weapon and psionic keys puts these back.
- A key an action has cannot go to a weapon or a power, and theirs cannot go to an action. The note says who has it, and Take it moves it: the one that had it gets the other's old key, or none. Two weapons or powers swap their keys.
- In the Modern scheme an arrow a weapon or a power has no longer walks.
- The fixed keys, Shift, Ctrl, Alt and the system key never pick. While Alt is held nothing is picked, so Alt+Enter stays the window's.
- Menus and the save-name screen keep their keys for their own input.
- A key that an action gets in another scheme does only that action. The table shows it faint.
- Blast's key still picks it once the game turns it into TeraBlast.
- Psionic keys use the power, under the setting and off at first, makes a power's key use the power too, as Psionic attack does. A power not in hand is used the moment the game has it ready, and the game reads its pictures from the disc four times as fast, so it is ready in about half the time. Holding the key keeps using it. While it is off the key only picks the power.
Control scheme on the launcher's Controls page, and in the game's settings, is Modern or Classic.
- Modern: WASD and the mouse. The left button fires, the right one uses psionics, the side buttons choose weapon and psionic: they are these actions' second keys. The Up and Down arrows also walk while no action has them.
- Classic: the original keys. The mouse only turns the view.
The Keys table under it puts any action on another key: click the key, then press the new one. A key another action had moves over, and that action takes the old key. Delete takes an action's key away. Default keys brings back the scheme's own keys once you say yes. It is greyed out while the keys are the scheme's own.
Each action takes two keys. The second may be a mouse button: click the second key, then click it with the button. The left, the right and the two side buttons can be given. The middle button stays the one that frees and holds the mouse. A mouse button works while the game holds the mouse, in either scheme, and only as a second key.
Profiles keep two sets of keys: Save to 1 or 2 keeps every key of the page,
the second keys and the weapons' and the powers' too, and Load 1 or 2 brings
one back. A profile saved before second keys existed leaves them as they are. Save asks
before it replaces a profile saved earlier. The scheme and the mouse settings
stay out of a profile. The profiles are keys-1.ini and keys-2.ini beside
keybinds.ini.
These keys do the same in both schemes and cannot be changed:
- Escape frees the mouse, closes the settings, skips logos and movies.
- Backquote (
`) opens the settings. - B fast-forwards while held, except on the save-name screen.
- F1 to F11 load a save state. With Shift they save one.
- F12 loads the newest replay capsule. Ctrl+F12 records one.
- Alt+Enter switches between a window and fullscreen.
The keys are kept in keybinds.ini in the folder of your files, the second
keys in settings.toml. A change of scheme brings the other scheme's layout
only while the keys are a scheme's own: keys you set yourself stay.
- Vertical mouse look is experimental and starts off. Switch it on on the Controls page. It tilts at the horizontal speed unless Separate vertical speed is on.
- Speeds are shown as a multiple of the default speed, 1.0x.
- Smooth mouse turning is on at first. It turns the picture between the game's 256 heading steps and needs captured mouse aim and exact geometry.
A connected gamepad plays beside the keyboard and mouse. The launcher's Controls page and the game's Controls tab name the one connected.
Stick layout sets what the sticks do in play:
| Stick layout | Left stick | Right stick |
|---|---|---|
| Dual analog, at first | Move and strafe | Turn |
| Classic | Move and turn, as the D-pad | Nothing |
| Southpaw | Turn | Move and strafe |
The original game read only the buttons, so the sticks here are an addition. In menus the left stick works as the D-pad in every layout.
| Xbox | PlayStation | In the game |
|---|---|---|
| D-pad | D-pad | Move and turn |
| A | Cross | Fire, confirm |
| B | Circle | Jump, cancel |
| X | Square | Psionic attack |
| Y | Triangle | Use |
| LB | L1 | Choose weapon |
| RB | R1 | Choose psionic |
| LT | L2 | Strafe left |
| RT | R2 | Strafe right |
| View | Create | Map |
| Menu | Options | Pause |
- A light push of the turning stick turns slowly, for fine aim. A full push turns as fast as the D-pad at Turning speed 100%, which goes from 25% to 300%. Smooth mouse turning smooths the stick's turn too.
- Turning dead zone sets how far the turning stick moves before it turns.
- With Vertical mouse look on, the turning stick also looks up and down. Invert vertical stick turns that around.
- Stick dead zone sets how far the moving stick goes before it counts. Raise it if you walk without touching the stick.
- To change a button, connect the gamepad, click the button on the launcher's Controls page, then press the new one on the gamepad. Escape cancels. Default buttons brings back the table above once you say yes. The sticks and the D-pad keep their places.
- The buttons are kept in
input.ini, in the folder of your files.
- In the launcher, under Settings: the pages Display, Enhancements, Controls, Audio, Experimental and Troubleshooting. Experimental holds new settings while they are tried, none in this version. Achievements has a page of its own under Play. Controls has four tabs: Keys, Weapons, Mouse and Gamepad.
- In the game, with Backquote: tabs of the same names. Detailed logging is on Debug. Keys and gamepad buttons are changed in the launcher only.
A change is saved to settings.toml in the folder of your files at once. A
change in the launcher applies the next time the game starts. The launcher's
pages are locked while the game runs.
The launcher shows what a setting does under its name, the game under the pointer. One that needs another setting says which, and stays grey until that one is on. A setting that is on can always be switched off. Reset this page... at the foot of a launcher page returns the settings on that page to what a new installation has.
A change that cannot be written is named in red under the page's title, and
the setting stays as it was. If settings.toml cannot be read, the launcher's
pages say so and show no settings. Mend the file, or press Start over with
defaults: the file is kept beside it as settings.unreadable.toml.
- Tab and the arrow keys move through a page. Space or Enter presses what the cursor is on. Escape goes back to the side bar.
- On the side bar, Right or Space opens a page and goes into it.
- Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab step through the pages. F1 opens Help.
- Enter starts the game on the home page while no control has the cursor.
- A gamepad moves with the D-pad, presses with A, goes back with B and steps through the pages with LB and RB. Start starts the game on the home page.
- On Help and under What's new, PageUp and PageDown, or the gamepad's triggers, scroll the text.
- Display mode, VSync and Internal resolution scale, 1x to 8x. The default is 4x at 4:3. Lower the scale if the game runs slowly.
- Aspect ratio, 4:3 or wider. The main menu and its screens fill a wide screen: the backdrop is stretched, the logo and the text keep their shape. Movies, the map and loading screens stay 4:3.
- HUD size for widescreen, from 50% to 100%. The weapon in hand keeps its size. Below 100% the game's text is drawn a little bolder and gets a dark edge, so a small line stays readable. At 100% it is drawn as the game draws it.
- Shadows keep the game's own shape at 4:3 and lie flat on the floor in widescreen.
- Resolution sets the display mode in exclusive fullscreen, the nearest one the display has, and the window's size in a window. Borderless fullscreen keeps the desktop's size. Desktop, the default, takes the desktop's display mode.
- Dynamic resolution lowers the internal resolution while the graphics card cannot keep up and raises it back when it can. It is meant for weaker graphics cards, integrated ones above all. It starts off.
- Render thread can make the game smoother on slower processors and integrated graphics. It has no effect with in-between frames on. It starts off.
The page is in five groups, in the launcher and in the game alike.
| Group | Settings | At first |
|---|---|---|
| Frame rate | 60 FPS gameplay | On |
| Frame rate | In-between frames and their rate | Off |
| Picture | Exact-provenance geometry, Perspective-correct world textures, Gap filling, Smooth distance fade, Depth-sorted world | On |
| Picture | Fog shape and Draw distance | Original |
| Picture | Anti-aliasing (MSAA / SSAA) | Off |
| Picture | Sprites face the camera | Off |
| Shading | Ambient occlusion, its reach and strength | Off |
| Movies | Movie filter | Smooth |
| Startup | Skip the logos and the title movie | Off |
- In-between frames, Ambient occlusion and the other Picture settings but Draw distance need exact geometry. Fog shape needs Smooth distance fade too.
- Gap filling closes small gaps between polygons.
- Smooth distance fade fades walls and floors evenly into the distance, where the game steps through twelve shades. Distant walls and floors fade in instead of appearing in blocks.
- Fog shape under it offers only the game's own fog, Original, in this release. The other shapes come in a later release. Draw distance offers Original and 1.25x, a quarter further.
- Depth-sorted world draws world polygons by their depth where the game's own order puts a far one over a near one.
- Sprites face the camera stands enemies, pickups and shots in the world like cut-outs that face you. Without it they turn with the view when you turn on the spot. Toward the screen's sides they get wider, as walls there do.
- Anti-aliasing (MSAA / SSAA) smooths edges.
- MSAA at 2x, 4x or 8x smooths the edges of polygons and of the HUD's rectangles. A saved 16x reads as 8x: at 8x internal resolution with in-between frames 16x took about 40% more of the graphics card's work, with no difference we could see.
- SSAA at the same counts also smooths textures and cut-out outlines, the HUD's among them, and costs the graphics card that many times the shading. It needs OpenGL 4.0 or its sample shading extension. Without it the card draws MSAA of that count.
- A card with fewer samples uses its most.
- Video memory grows with the count and the internal resolution.
- Ambient occlusion shades corners and the floor under things.
- Movie filter sets how the game's movies are drawn at the size of your screen. Smooth takes away the square blocks the PlayStation's video compression leaves and the grain in flat areas. Original shows every pixel as a square, as before.
- Skip the logos and the title movie skips only the boot intro. The other movies play. Escape skips the logo or movie on screen while the settings menu is closed.
- Master volume sets the loudness of everything the game plays.
- Bass sets how much deep bass all of the game's sound keeps: effects, music, voices and movies. Original plays it as the game does. Reduced softens the deepest rumble, under 80 Hz. TV speaker plays it as a television's own speakers did, with little under 160 Hz. The psionics and explosions carry most of their sound down there, and headphones and subwoofers play it in full.
- Mute in the background silences the game while its window is not in front. It is off at first.
- Mute all audio silences the game and keeps the volume.
The game can take its language from a second disc image you own: the French, German or Japanese release. The US disc stays the game disc and is still needed.
- In the launcher: press Add disc... under Language, or drop the image on the window. A CUE, BIN or CHD works. The launcher checks that it fits your US disc and uses it where it is. It is not copied, so keep it there.
- In the game: open Settings → Language, press Choose a disc image, then press Restart now.
The Language list keeps every disc you added. Choose one of them or English before Play. The × beside the list takes a disc off the list and leaves its file alone. English in the game's menu removes the second disc too.
- French and German: movies, speech, menus, messages and the hints shown while a mission reloads. A few long menu lines are shortened to fit.
- Japanese: movies, speech and hints. Its menus are in English on that disc too.
Save states belong to the language they were made in, because the discs are
not cut alike. With a language disc the twelve slots live in a folder of
their own, saves/German for the German disc. The slots are empty after a
change of language and come back when you return to it. Memory card saves do
not depend on the language.
The game counts the RetroAchievements set of Disruptor: 52 achievements for finishing levels, finding hidden areas and clearing a whole map.
- Unlocks count as casual. RetroAchievements has not approved our client for hardcore yet.
- Any copy of the disc counts as the USA one, a language disc too.
- Open the launcher's Achievements page.
- Type your RetroAchievements name and password and press Sign in.
- Start the game. It signs in by itself and shows how many you have.
The password goes to retroachievements.org once and is not kept. The game
keeps the token the site gives back instead, in retroachievements.toml in
the folder of your files. On Windows the token is sealed for your Windows
account. A problem report never carries it. Sign out on the same page,
or in the game's menu, forgets it.
The Achievements tab of the game's menu, opened with Backquote, shows:
- whether you are signed in, with a link to your profile
- each achievement with its picture, points and description
- how far a counting one has come, as the kills and pickups of a level
An unlock appears in a corner of the screen with its picture and a chime.
| Setting | Default | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Count achievements | On | Off plays without them, the account stays signed in |
| Show notifications | On | The popup of each unlock |
| Notification time | 12 seconds | 3, 5, 8, 12, 15 or 30 seconds |
| Notification corner | Top right | Any corner of the screen |
| Progress indicator | Off | A short note when a count moves |
| Unlock sound | On | The chime, at the game's volume |
| Sound file | The chime | A WAV of your own in place of the chime |
| Encore | Off | Achievements you have can trigger again |
| Unofficial achievements | On | Also the set's three unofficial ones, which the site does not record |
Encore and unofficial achievements take effect at the next start of the
game. The pictures are fetched once and kept in achievements/badges/.
Sound file under Unlock sound takes a WAV of your own: plain PCM or
32-bit float, mono or stereo, up to 10 seconds and 8 MB. The launcher
copies it to achievements/unlock.wav in the folder of your files, so the
original can move or go. It plays for every unlock and for a mastered set,
from the game's next start. Default brings the chime back. A file that
does not play leaves the chime, and the game's log says why.
A save state keeps how far each achievement had counted, in a file beside it. Loading the state puts the counts back, so a 100% achievement still counts the kills before the save. The file fits that one state only. A state made with RetroAchievements off has none, and loading it starts every count over.
Save states work as before. In casual play they do not stop an unlock.
Your saves, settings, keys and gamepad buttons, replay capsules, reports and the imported disc are kept apart from the program, wherever an update replaces it:
| Copy | Folder of your files |
|---|---|
| Installed by Setup | %LOCALAPPDATA%\DisruptorRecompData |
| A ZIP of alpha.5 or earlier, or a build folder | the folder of the executable |
- Saves folder in the launcher's side bar opens
saves/there. About names the folder. - An update or an uninstall leaves the folder of an installed copy alone. Delete it by hand to remove your saves for good.
- Setting
PSX_USER_DIRto a whole path makes the launcher and the game use that folder instead.
Bring saves... in the side bar brings the files of an earlier copy, such as an unzipped older release, into this one.
- Choose the folder of that copy.
- The launcher lists what it found: saves, settings, keys and gamepad buttons, capsules, mods and the imported disc.
- It copies them once you agree. The earlier copy is left as it was.
A file here that one of them replaces is kept in backups/replaced-<time>/
first. The disc is not copied when this copy has one already. Save states of
the earlier build are then tried, see Saves and updates.
This also saves a second import after unzipping a new release.
The launcher's home page says whether a newer release is out and offers to download and install it.
- What's new beside it, Update options and the version at the foot of the side bar open the Updates window.
- That window shows the release notes and this copy's version.
- Check at start there looks for a newer release each time the launcher opens. Switch it off to stop that.
- A portable copy is updated the same way, in its own folder, and only when you press the button.
- A copy unzipped from a ZIP of alpha.5 or older is updated by installing the new release with its Setup.exe.
Below them the home page shows what is new: in this version, or in the next one once it is out. The notes come from CHANGELOG.md.
Before the updater installs a new version, the launcher copies saves/ to
backups/saves-<time>-<version>/ beside it. It keeps the newest five copies.
- Use the game's memory card saves for long-term progress. They do not depend on the build. The game's password system works too.
- Memory cards and save states are stored in
saves/in the folder of your files. - Save states from v0.1.0-alpha.1 and alpha.2 are incompatible with v0.1.0-alpha.3. Load a memory card save or start a new game, then make new save states.
A save state carries the mark of the build that made it, and the game loads only its own. When the launcher finds states of an earlier build, it tries each one on this build in a hidden, silent run of a second.
- A state that runs is given this build's mark.
- A state that does not run stays as it was and is not tried again.
- The originals are kept in
saves/old-states/either way.
Press Report a problem on the launcher's Troubleshooting page. It gathers into one ZIP:
- the game's log of the last two runs and the mouse log,
- your settings,
- the notes the game leaves of how its last run ended and of a freeze,
- a note of the system.
The ZIP goes to reports/ in the folder of your files and Explorer shows it.
Where Windows cannot make a ZIP, it is a folder of the same name: attach its
files. The name of your Windows user folder is cut out of paths, and your
disc image, BIOS and saves are never included.
Attach the ZIP to a bug report with the level and the steps that lead to the problem. For a fault in the picture, add a replay capsule or a screen recording, see Recordings and capsules.
- Switch on Detailed logging on the launcher's Troubleshooting page.
- Play until the problem shows, then close the game.
- Press Report a problem on the same page.
The log then also says every ten seconds how the frames ran and how the sound queue stood, and records each setting changed in the game's menu, controllers connected and removed, and what the graphics driver complains of. It names the sound driver and device, and during a movie it writes once a second where the sound and the picture are and how late the sound leaves. The switch is in the game's menu too, under Settings → Debug. There the driver's part starts with the next launch.
A capsule records a stretch of play so that it can be replayed for investigation. It holds a save state, the inputs, the settings and the build's details.
- Ctrl+F12 starts a capsule and ends it. F12 alone also ends one that is recording.
- F12 loads the newest capsule: the game stands where that recording began. The save states have F1 to F11.
- Every capsule is kept in
capsules/in the folder of your files. - Settings → Debug lists them, the newest on top, with the last picture, time and length of each. It can load one, open their folder or delete one. Hold the mouse over a picture to see that capsule play.
- A capsule replays only on the build that made it. Network games record none.
The replay instructions describe the replay tool and its limits.
- Missing MSVCP140 or VCRUNTIME140 DLL: install the latest x64 Visual C++ Redistributable, then start again. Setup installs it, a copy from an older ZIP does not. See Microsoft's runtime download guidance.
- Disc not found: open the launcher and choose your original image again.
A CUE needs its BIN where its
FILEline says. Import from an extracted, writable folder. - Import rejected: only the complete, unmodified USA raw dump is taken. Cooked ISO files, other regions, missing CUE tracks, offset tracks and multi-track layouts are refused. A correct raw BIN alone works too: the launcher writes its CUE. A CHD has to hold the same one MODE2/2352 track, as chdman makes it of the dump's CUE.
- Import cancelled or interrupted: your source files are untouched. Choose the image again. Incomplete data is never used to start the game.
- Wrong disc or the game does not start: only the supported USA revision
works. Its BIN is 636,350,064 bytes with the SHA-256
3b49f9874e30c613ca9d17720716764cd76d0ac968c0acd0f53159366c0cf3a4. - Slow rendering: lower the resolution to 2x or 1x on the Display page and update your graphics driver. Turn off 60 FPS gameplay and in-between frames if they are on.
- Mouse does not turn: the game holds the mouse while its window has focus and Horizontal mouse aim is on or the scheme is Modern. After Escape or a middle-click, left-click in the window to hold it again.
- Other problems: see Reporting a problem. Do not attach your game image, game assets or BIOS files.
This is an early version. The whole campaign can be played through. Small geometry or texture faults can remain.