Alpha 0.1.4

Alpha 0.1.4: display controls, experimental ultrawide, a resizable launcher, and a wider mouse-sensitivity range. Still an alpha for testers: please report what breaks and attach logs\tenchuz.log.

Note

No game files are included. You need your own Tenchu Z for the Xbox 360, USA/Europe release (En, Fr, De, Es, It), as a disc image (.iso) made from your own disc.

New

• F6 > Display: renderer, render scale, monitor, windowed/borderless mode, menu size, and named graphics profiles shared with the launcher.
• Experimental ultrawide: expands the gameplay camera horizontally while preserving vertical framing. The original HUD keeps its proportions and can be resized or moved as a group. Titles, movie playback and scripted camera classes retain original framing; broader cutscene and culling testing is still needed.
• Resizable launcher: contents scale with window width and scroll at shorter heights.
• Output-resolution presets, including 1920x1080 (1080p), 1440p, 4K and ultrawide sizes. Selecting 1080p uses at least 2x internal rendering (2560x1440), downsampled to 1920x1080; the internal renderer still uses integer scales.
• Safe launch: starts a temporary Direct3D 12 recovery run with conservative display settings and mods/effects disabled, without overwriting the saved setup.

Changed

• Mouse sensitivity: 0.01x–100x, available in F6 > Camera > Mouse speed and the launcher. The F6 slider uses a logarithmic scale for finer adjustment. Large mouse deltas are clamped safely at high sensitivity.
• Explicit 1280x720 guest video settings now remain independent of the PC window size, fixing stretched title framing when those values matched the runtime defaults.
• Shader presets remain included. No user-installed mods are bundled. Shader presets require Direct3D 12.
• Framerate selection and the experimental 60 fps patch are unchanged. Graphics profiles and Safe launch preserve the existing frame-timing choices.

Known issues

• Vulkan on NVIDIA: the wooden walkway under the eaves in mission 1 can still appear purple or speckled red and green. This release does not fix that issue. Direct3D 12 remains the default.
• Ultrawide remains experimental. Full-game cutscenes, edge culling, mixed-DPI and multiple-monitor behavior need more testing. HUD controls move the whole overlay, not individual elements.

How to play

1. Download TenchuZ-HoloCattRecomp-0.1.4-alpha-windows.zip below and extract it to a folder you can write to (about 5 GB free needed).
2. Put your .iso in that folder and double-click Setup Tenchu Z.cmd.
3. Start Tenchu Z Launcher.cmd or tenchuz.exe. Press F6 in game for the Tenchu Z menu.

Updating from 0.1.x: extract the new ZIP into a new folder and run Setup again, or copy your extracted folder over from the old one. Back up any custom tenchuz.toml before transferring settings. Saves remain in Documents\tenchuz.

Windows may warn about an unknown publisher (the files aren't signed): More info > Run anyway.

Alpha 0.1.3

Alpha 0.1.3: single-player levels in multiplayer, a black-menu fix option, and Xenia's performance settings. Still an alpha for testers: please report what breaks and attach logs\tenchuz.log.

Note

No game files are included. You need your own Tenchu Z for the Xbox 360, USA/Europe release (En, Fr, De, Es, It), as a disc image (.iso) made from your own disc.

New

• Single-player levels in multiplayer: as the System Link host, open the lobby, press F6 > Online, pick one of the 14 single-player missions under Single-player levels in multiplayer, tick Use this level in multiplayer, then start the game. Level list from Teslafane's Xenia cheat table.
• Black menu fix option: F6 > Game > Sync GPU-written memory every frame. If menus show up black, turn it off (the same as Xenia's d3d12_clear_memory_page_state = false). On by default; applies at once.

Changed

• The shipped tenchuz.toml now uses the performance settings Xenia players use for this game: readback_memexport = false and occlusion_query_enable = false. Set either back to true if something looks wrong.

How to play

1. Download TenchuZ-HoloCattRecomp-0.1.3-alpha-windows.zip below and extract it to a folder you can write to (about 5 GB free needed).
2. Put your .iso in that folder and double-click Setup Tenchu Z.cmd.
3. Start Tenchu Z Launcher.cmd or tenchuz.exe. Press F6 in game for the Tenchu Z menu.

Updating from 0.1.x: extract the new zip into a new folder and run Setup again, or copy your extracted folder over from the old one. To get the new settings in an existing install, copy the three new lines from the new tenchuz.toml. Saves are in Documents\tenchuz.

Windows may warn about an unknown publisher (the files aren't signed): More info > Run anyway.

Alpha 0.1.2

Alpha 0.1.2: Vulkan renderer (work in progress), hide the HUD with F11, experimental 60 fps, faster start-up. Still an alpha for testers: please report what breaks and attach logs\tenchuz.log.

Note

No game files are included. You need your own Tenchu Z for the Xbox 360, USA/Europe release (En, Fr, De, Es, It), as a disc image (.iso) made from your own disc.

New

• Vulkan renderer (work in progress): choose Direct3D 12 or Vulkan in the launcher or in F6 > Game > Renderer (restart to switch). Try Vulkan if the game runs slowly or does not start with Direct3D 12. If Vulkan cannot start, the game uses Direct3D 12. Shader presets need Direct3D 12. Direct3D 12 stays the default.
• Hide the game's HUD with F11 or F6 > HUD, for screenshots and videos. In missions this also hides subtitles and the all menus while it is on.
• 60 fps (experimental): tick 60 fps while playing in the launcher or F6 > Game > 60 fps. Missions run at 60 frames per second while you control your character; menus stay at 30, as on the Xbox 360. Game speed is unchanged.
• Clearer frame rate readout: F6 > HUD shows the game's real frame rate as FPS, separate from how often the window is redrawn. The launcher explains that the refresh setting is the game's clock (60 Hz = normal speed), not a frame rate target.

Fixed

• A 20-40 second black screen at start-up on some PCs (Windows waiting on a device through DirectInput). DirectInput is now off; F6 > Controller > Older USB controllers turns it back on for old generic pads.
• The game keeps more CPU priority while its window is in the background, so missions should not slow down when you click away.
• Modern Look no longer replaces the puddle water shader: puddles look as on the Xbox again.

Known issues

• Vulkan on NVIDIA: the wooden walkway under the eaves in mission 1 looks purple or speckled red and green. Direct3D 12 (the default) draws it correctly.
• 60 fps has not been checked in cutscenes or the pause menu yet.

How to play

1. Download TenchuZ-HoloCattRecomp-0.1.2-alpha-windows.zip below and extract it to a folder you can write to (about 5 GB free needed).
2. Put your .iso in that folder and double-click Setup Tenchu Z.cmd.
3. Start Tenchu Z Launcher.cmd or tenchuz.exe. Press F6 in game for the Tenchu Z menu.

Updating from 0.1.x: extract the new zip into a new folder and run Setup again, or copy your extracted folder over from the old one. Settings are in tenchuz.toml; saves are in Documents\tenchuz.

Windows may warn about an unknown publisher (the files aren't signed): More info > Run anyway.

Alpha 0.1.1

Alpha 0.1.1: keyboard and mouse rebinding. Still an alpha for testers: please report what breaks and attach logs\tenchuz.log.

Note

No game files are included. You need your own Tenchu Z for the Xbox 360, USA/Europe release (En, Fr, De, Es, It), as a disc image (.iso) made from your own disc.

New

• Keyboard and mouse rebinding in F6 > Controller > Keyboard & mouse keys: press Set, then the key or mouse button you want. Shift, Ctrl and Alt work on their own and as part of a combination; + adds a second key for the same input; Reset keys to defaults puts everything back.
• A key no longer stops working while Shift, Ctrl or Alt is held for another action.

How to play

1. Download TenchuZ-HoloCattRecomp-0.1.1-alpha-windows.zip below and extract it to a folder you can write to (about 5 GB free needed).
2. Put your .iso in that folder and double-click Setup Tenchu Z.cmd.
3. Start Tenchu Z Launcher.cmd or tenchuz.exe. Press F6 in game for the Tenchu Z menu.

Updating from 0.1.0: extract the new zip into a new folder and run Setup again, or copy your extracted folder over from the old one. Settings are in tenchuz.toml; saves are in Documents\tenchuz.

Windows may warn about an unknown publisher (the files aren't signed): More info > Run anyway.

Alpha 0.1.0

First public test release. This is an alpha: the hub and the first missions have been played, the rest of the game hasn't been played through yet on this port. Please report what breaks and attach logs\tenchuz.log.

Note

No game files are included. You need your own Tenchu Z for the Xbox 360, USA/Europe release (En, Fr, De, Es, It), as a disc image (.iso) made from your own disc.

How to play

1. Download TenchuZ-HoloCattRecomp-0.1.0-alpha-windows.zip below and extract it to a folder you can write to (about 5 GB free needed).
2. Put your .iso in that folder and double-click Setup Tenchu Z.cmd (checks the version, extracts the game files).
3. Start Tenchu Z Launcher.cmd or tenchuz.exe. F6 opens the Tenchu Z menu.

Windows may warn about an unknown publisher (the files aren't signed): More info > Run anyway.

In this release

• Native Windows build, render scale 1x to 7x, window or fullscreen
• Shader presets: Modern Look (sharpening, bloom, ambient occlusion, haze, depth of field, puddles) and Manga
• Controllers with remapping; keyboard and mouse with mouse look
• System Link co-op over the internet with join codes and automatic router setup (UPnP)
• F6 menu: cheats, camera, photo mode, speedrun timer, info overlay, mods

Full list: CHANGELOG.md

Needs Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) and a DirectX 12 graphics card. Only tested on one PC (Windows 11, NVIDIA) so far: reports from AMD and Intel GPUs are very welcome.