NHL 2K8 Recompiled v1.1.0

What's new

• Custom soundtracks. Put your music in folders inside Documents\nhl2k8\playlists (one folder per playlist) and tick a playlist on the game's User Playlists screen. MP3, WMA, WAV, M4A and FLAC are supported, and song titles come from the files' tags. See "Custom soundtracks" in the README.
• Local multiplayer with more than one controller at once is confirmed working.
• Setup program 1.5. Rebuilt to cut down false antivirus alarms (see below).

About antivirus warnings

A few antivirus programs flagged the v1.0.0 setup program (6 of 71 on VirusTotal, for example Microsoft Defender as "Trojan:Win32/Wacatac.C!ml"). These are false positives: the "!ml" means a machine-learning guess, not a known virus. The setup program is new, is not code-signed, and starts PowerShell, Git and Windows' package installer to download the tools and build the game, which scanners also see in malware. Version 1.5 adds proper version details and drops two patterns scanners associate with malware. Its complete source code is in the installer folder of the repository. If your antivirus still complains, use the manual install in the README, which does not use the setup program at all.

Updating from v1.0.0

Run NHL2K8-Recompiled-Setup.exe again and choose the same install folder. It downloads the latest version and rebuilds the game. This first update rebuilds more than usual, so allow about as long as the first install. Your saves are not touched.

SHA-256 of NHL2K8-Recompiled-Setup.exe (setup program 1.5): F3C8A90DFC41282331CA9B4DE28D24E2C7C21ADF46E8EEE4E049CCA6CAED2E71

NHL 2K8 Recompiled v1.0.0

This version's setup program was flagged by some antivirus programs. Download the latest release instead.

The first full release of NHL 2K8 Recompiled, a native Windows port of the Xbox 360 game made with static recompilation (ReXGlue SDK). You need your own copy of the game.

What's new since v0.2.0

• Correct colors: the pale, salmon-looking reds in 2D graphics and the overly bright look are fixed. Gamma render targets now resolve to normal colors, like on the real console and in current Xenia Canary.
• Setup now reads the game's icon straight from your default.xex. The game no longer opens by itself during setup.
• Setup finds Visual Studio Build Tools and other Visual Studio install locations (confirmed by a tester).
• A recompiler fix for vector pack instructions.
• New screenshots.

Install

1. Download NHL2K8-Recompiled-Setup.exe below and run it. If Windows shows "Windows protected your PC", click "More info", then "Run anyway" (the program is not code-signed).
2. Choose your extracted game folder (the one with default.xex) and click Install. Allow 15 to 30 minutes.

Already have v0.2.0? Run the new setup program and choose the same install folder. It downloads the latest version and rebuilds.

Known issues

• Small colored speckles around the edges of the intro logo videos.
• Stutter in busy scenes with a full crowd, and short one-time stutters the first time you reach a new screen.
• The F4 settings screen's "Save to config" button writes a config file the game can't read.
• Online features do not work. Custom soundtracks have not been tested.

SHA-256 of NHL2K8-Recompiled-Setup.exe

F9C22FFB7D671CBD9F7DE58F45D8A9FBA51074FE6397BB2F354C04FFE0467343

Found a problem, or did it work for you? Please open an issue. Every test report helps.

NHL 2K8 Recompiled v0.2.0 (release)

Release of the setup program for NHL 2K8 Recompiled, an unofficial PC port of the Xbox 360 game made with static recompilation using the ReXGlue SDK.

This is an installer for the project, not the game. It contains no game files and no game code. You need your own legally obtained copy of NHL 2K8 for Xbox 360, extracted so that default.xex and the other game files are in one folder. Setup checks that your default.xex is the supported version.

What it does: asks for your game folder and an install folder, installs Git and Visual Studio 2022 Community if they are missing (using Windows' winget; Windows asks for permission), downloads this project, and builds the game on your PC. The first build takes around 15 to 30 minutes plus the downloads (about 21 minutes in total on a 4-core desktop). It creates a desktop shortcut when it finishes. To remove it, use Settings, or the Uninstall button in the installer. Uninstalling never touches your game files and asks before deleting your saves.

Before you start:

• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit, a graphics card with Direct3D 12, and about 10 GB of free disk space.
• Windows may show "Windows protected your PC" because the program is not code-signed. Click "More info", then "Run anyway". The installer's source code is in the installer folder of this repository, and you can check your download against the SHA-256 below.

What has not been tested yet (please tell me how it goes, whether it worked or not, by opening a test report under Issues):

• Automatic installation of Visual Studio on a PC that does not have it. If it fails, install it by hand (see the README) and run the setup again. Automatic installation of Git has been tested.
• Windows 11. Both test PCs run Windows 10.
• The entry in Settings, Apps is added at the end of an install. It has been tested by adding an existing install, but not yet at the end of a full fresh install.

It has been tested on two PCs so far (see the README), and known issues are listed there too. Bug reports and test results of any kind are welcome: https://github.com/anishchandra24/NHL2K8-Recompiled/issues/new/choose

SHA-256 of NHL2K8-Recompiled-Setup.exe:
ABE4F7088A2F92963C4FE7EF3FFDEDF08CF9F7671D1D9251E4AB8355BAAF01CB