v0.46-m45 — clear message when a disc image is refused

God Hand, recompiled to run natively on Android. You bring your own legally owned copy of the game (US version, SLUS-21503) — there is no game data in this download.

What is new

Issue #3: a player picked a disc image, pressed start, and the game never started — no picture, no message. The image was a modded one (an "Uncensor" patch), and the port had refused it, correctly: it is rebuilt from the original disc's code and checks that code before it boots. But the reason only existed in the boot log, where no player would ever see it.

Now the app says it on screen. When the game cannot start because the image is not the original release, a message explains why and what it needs — a clean dump of the original US disc (SLUS-21503) — and one OK button returns to the launcher to pick another image. The message also covers wrong-region and otherwise non-original images, and files that cannot be read as a disc image at all; any other failed start gets a plain could-not-start message that points at the boot log.

The refusal itself is unchanged: same check, same rule — only the exact original SLUS-21503 executable boots. A boot that worked in m44 works identically here and never sees the message. Everything else is the m44 build: the MediaTek (Mali GPU) black-screen fallback, the GPU name in the boot log, the three control styles, Player mode with automatic performance, the auto-dash, the proper START button, widescreen on and 1x resolution as the shipped defaults.

Honest state

Built clean and verified in the shipped artifacts, but not yet run on a real phone. The proof this release asks for: pick an image the port refuses (a modded one, say) and the message should appear within about a second of pressing play; a normal image must boot and play exactly as in m44, with no message. Reports welcome — on issue #3 if that was yours, or in a new issue with a boot log attached (Developer mode, start the game once, then Share boot log in the launcher).

Download

godhand-0.46-m45-bootmsg.zip — 35,571,469 bytes, md5 fe277d9e836fda0a9dbc903a2ab9016e. Extract the APK and install it; it installs over m44 (and m42 and the earlier builds).

Playable, still unstable, still a pre-release — busy areas still drop frames and the sound is about 80% of the way there, same as m44.

by ptraaa

v0.45-m44 — Mali black-screen hotfix

God Hand, recompiled to run natively on Android. Not an emulator: the game's code is translated ahead of time into native ARM code, and the app around it is built for phones from the start.

You bring your own legally owned copy of the game (US version, SLUS-21503). There is no game data in this download, and there never will be.

What is new in this build

• A fix for the first public bug report: on phones with a MediaTek (Mali GPU) chip — reported on a Dimensity 8050 — the game started, the sound played, and the screen stayed black forever. The main Vulkan renderer could not open on that GPU, and the app had no backup plan: it drew nothing, and kept drawing nothing.
• Now it has one. If the main renderer cannot start, the game switches itself to the built-in renderer in the same session, a picture appears, and the game plays. The fallback renderer is the CPU one, so where it fires, expect it to be slower than the main renderer — a playable picture instead of none.
• On phones where the main renderer starts fine (Snapdragon and Adreno included), nothing changes: the fallback only ever fires on a real failure to open.
• The boot log now names the GPU it found, one line at every start, so a bug report from any phone says which graphics hardware it ran on without a follow-up question.
• Everything else is the m42 build: the three control styles, Player mode with automatic performance, the auto-dash, the proper START button, widescreen on and 1x resolution as the shipped defaults. The app shell also carries the m43 test build's one-line presentation change; nothing else about the app changed.

Honest state

The fallback is verified by design and careful code reading, and the build is clean — but it has not yet been confirmed on a real MediaTek phone, because there is none on this desk. That confirmation is exactly what this release is for.

If you have a MediaTek / Dimensity phone, please try this build and say what happens. If a picture appears where m42 gave you a black screen, that is the fix working. Either way, the most useful thing you can send is your boot log: switch to Developer mode in the settings, start the game once, then use Share boot log in the launcher and attach the file to an issue, along with your phone model.

Playable, still unstable, still a pre-release — busy areas still drop frames and the sound is about 80% of the way there, same as m42.

Install

1. Download godhand-0.45-m44-gsfallback.zip (35,570,502 bytes, md5 635e06df86de8535de39f3a14c7dde7b) and extract the APK inside.
2. Install it — it installs over m42 (and m39/m40/m41) if you already have one of those.
3. Open the app, pick your game ISO, play.

Full notes in the repo: docs/RELEASE-v0.45-m44.md. The engineering report behind the fix: docs/milestones/M44-GSFALLBACK-REPORT.md.

by ptraaa

v0.43-m42 — first playable public build

God Hand, recompiled to run natively on Android. Not an emulator: the game's code is translated ahead of time into native ARM code, and the app around it is built for phones from the start.

You bring your own legally owned copy of the game (US version, SLUS-21503). There is no game data in this download, and there never will be.

What is new in this build

• Three control styles made for a phone instead of cloned from a PS2 pad — Brawler Clean, Gesture Evade, Radial Pro — pick yours in the settings.
• Player mode and Developer mode. Player mode is the clean game; Developer mode shows the boot log and the technical knobs.
• One proper START button in every control style. That is the cutscene skip — it sits where your thumb expects it.
• Player mode runs the performance options automatically, and a full push forward on the move stick dashes on its own — no double flick needed.
• Widescreen on and 1x resolution as the shipped defaults, everything set to the values that measured best.

Honest state

Playable today. Still unstable: busy areas still drop frames, and the sound is about 80% of the way there and still being improved. It is marked as a pre-release because that is what it is.

Install

1. Download the zip below and extract the APK (the bare APK is attached too, if you prefer it).
2. Install it — it installs over m39/m40/m41 if you already have one of those.
3. Open the app, pick your game ISO, play.

Help wanted

This is a one-person project and it is open now. The most useful thing you can send is a bug report with a boot log attached: switch to Developer mode in the settings, play until something breaks, then use Share boot log in the launcher and attach the file to your issue, along with your phone model. See CONTRIBUTING.md for where help is needed most — performance and audio tuning, testing on other phones, control style feedback, later-stage playtesting.

by ptraaa

God Hand Android — v0.1.0 Alpha (m33)

First public build. This is an early alpha, so set expectations before you download: it works, it is not smooth yet.

What you get

• godhand-0.34-m33-callback.zip — the newest build (internal version 0.34, milestone m33). It boots and plays on a POCO F5. Quiet scenes hold up fine; heavy crowd scenes drop frames hard and the audio stutters along with it. That is the honest state of it.
• godhand-0.28-m27-pipeline.zip — the older m27 build. A step behind on the speed work, but steadier. If m33 misbehaves on your device, try this one.

You need your own disc

There is no game data in these zips, and there never will be. You supply your own legally owned US copy of God Hand (SLUS-21503) as a disc image on your phone, exactly as the README describes. The app hash-checks the disc and refuses anything else.

Notes

• Tested on a POCO F5 (Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2). Other devices are untested — reports either way are useful.
• Even upstream, the game is only verified through stage 3. Later stages are untested everywhere.
• Found something broken? Open an issue. Your device model and what the game was doing when it broke are the two most useful things to include.

Early days. It gets faster in the open, the same way it got this far.

by ptraaa