Wild9 Recompiled v0.1.9

[0.1.9] - 2026-11-01

Features

• (localization) Add Japanese text from Wildroid 9 to supported languages

  Wild 9 never shipped a Japanese option in the USA release, and simply changing its language value cannot work because the USA executable only knows how to draw Latin glyphs. Wildroid 9, the Japanese release, runs the same script engine, so its Japanese script and font can be reused to offer Japanese as a real choice in the launcher while players still only need the USA disc.

  A new tool in tools/localization extracts the Japanese script packages and glyphs from a Wildroid 9 disc once, when the generated code is prepared. The extracted data is added to the generated bundle rather than to git, and it is compiled into the released game. Players still only need their own USA disc image and do not need the Japanese release. When Japanese is selected, the recompiled game loads the Japanese script in place of the English one and draws its text with the original Japanese font. Builds without that data, or renderers without texture bank support, keep showing English, so selecting Japanese never leaves the game without readable text.

  Japanese dialogue boxes are wider than the English ones, which made the runtime treat them as full screen backdrops and stretch them in widescreen. The widescreen plugin now recognises these panels and keeps them at their original proportions.

  The new hooks are registered in game.toml, so the generated code must be regenerated and the bundle repacked with the Japanese disc. The packing script now takes care of the extraction, and the version moves to 0.1.9

Wild9 Recompiled v0.1.8

[0.1.8] - 2026-10-25

Bug Fixes

• (widescreen) Center title and loading screens in 16:9

  The previous widescreen implementation applied a fixed patch across all tiled 2D layer routines to widen gameplay backdrops. Because the title and loading screens share that exact same routine, the old adjustments pushed full screen images 64 pixels to the left, creating an empty strip on the right edge while displacing the artwork off center.

  The plugin now determines layer requirements per draw instead of applying one global patch for the whole frame. Full screen static illustrations retain their original 4:3 framing, appearing cleanly centered with proper side bands. Gameplay backdrops continue to span the entire 16:9 view while aligning accurately with their intended positions instead of being shifted. Smaller layers retain their stock behavior, and rendering remains completely unchanged whenever widescreen mode is disabled.

• (release) Resync packaged game.toml with the new SXY cull schema

  The game.toml shipped inside release packages is a separate copy that was never updated when psxrecomp moved to the merged SXY culling format. It still described the cull sites with the old fields, so every v0.1.8 build aborted at startup because the runtime could not find consumer_address. The packaged copy now mirrors the root configuration again, keeping overlay caching disabled as the only intended difference, since Wild 9 has no disc overlays and release builds ship without a toolchain.

  To keep this from slipping through again, packaging now refuses to produce a release whenever the two configurations diverge, and the Windows environment gains the tooling needed for that check to run there as well.

  The workflow actions were also moved to their Node 24 releases so the runners stop warning about the Node 20 deprecation.

Other

• Track upstream psxrecomp master now that SXY culling is merged

  The projected SXY culling support that Wild 9 needed for widescreen was accepted upstream, so the psxrecomp submodule now follows the official RetroPortingToolKit/psxrecomp master branch instead of the personal fork branch that carried the earlier prototype. Building against the shared framework keeps the title aligned with the rest of the ecosystem and removes the burden of maintaining a private framework branch. recomp-ui moves forward as well, since the current framework expects the newer launcher settings and render pipeline options.

  The widescreen culling configuration in game.toml is migrated to the schema that was merged. Each triangle and quad rejection sequence is now described by every AND instruction of the fold together with the branch that consumes its result, which lets the framework validate the whole sequence before widening only its horizontal edge. The shifted lower edge test is expressed through the existing screen_x_sites handling, and the slti_lower_sites entries are dropped because those instructions test the vertical position and depth rather than the horizontal position, so widening them never helped the revealed area.

  The render thread is enabled by default because it lets emulation and OpenGL work proceed in parallel, which keeps demanding scenes such as Crystal Mine at a steady 60 FPS. Dithering is also disabled by default for a cleaner image at higher internal resolutions.

  The setup wizard arguments are now passed after the forwarded runtime options. When they came first, the framework treated the following options as extra setup sources, which dropped the codegen host from the link and broke the build against the current framework.

Wild9 Recompiled v0.1.7

[0.1.7] - 2026-10-16

Features

• Add Rig overhead hover mod for stable grabbed object transport

  Navigating platforming sections while carrying objects or enemies with the Rig is one of the most frustrating parts of vanilla gameplay. In stages such as the Gulag where transporting Nitro across hazards requires precise movement, original carry mechanics cause loose swinging and unpredictable momentum that make transport needlessly difficult.

  This addition introduces an overhead hover mechanic that anchors any captured object directly above the player whenever both gamepad triggers are held down together. While keeping the triggers pressed, the player can run and jump with the object securely following overhead. Releasing the triggers immediately restores stock Rig physics and swing controls so enemies can still be slammed into hazards. Default distances are tuned to match original carry geometry to preserve authentic gameplay balance.

Wild9 Recompiled v0.1.6

[0.1.6] - 2026-10-13

Features

• Add language selection mod(English, French, German, Italian, Spanish)

  Wild 9 contains text assets for five languages including English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish, but players lacked a convenient way to select their preferred language. This change introduces a localization mod package that exposes a launcher setting, allowing players to configure their desired language before running the game.

  Accompanying documentation and disc inspection tools are also included to assist in verifying regional game assets.

Wild9 Recompiled v0.1.5

[0.1.5] - 2026-10-07

Miscellaneous Tasks

• Improve Linux compatibility and update AppImage naming

  Switching the Linux build environment to Ubuntu 22.04 reduces the risk of introducing dependencies on a glibc version that is too new, ensuring broader compatibility across different distributions for both the archive and AppImage builds.

  The AppImage package naming convention is updated to align with discovery requirements on AppImageHub, allowing the release to be cataloged properly. Additionally, the documentation is updated to reference the latest name of the companion launcher.

Wild9 Recompiled v0.1.4

[0.1.4] - 2026-10-03

Features

• (plugin) Add mod that activates the original game debug overlay

  The original 1998 game contains an internal diagnostic overlay routine that tracks memory, processor, GPU usage, and scene rendering metrics, but it remains inactive during standard gameplay.

  This update introduces the wild9.debug.overlay mod plugin to make this native screen visible. Exposing these diagnostic tools gives players and developers direct insight into real time engine performance and scene statistics for preservation and debugging purposes without altering the underlying gameplay behavior.

• Add higher frame rate (60, 120, 144, 165 FPS) presentation mod

  Modern high refresh rate PC displays benefit from higher output cadences, but modifying core console game loops can break physics, animation pacing, and audio synchronization. To deliver a visually smoother experience on modern monitors without compromising original game mechanics, an optional temporal frame blending presentation mod is now available.

  The new mod allows completed frames to be blended within the OpenGL presentation path at selectable targets including 60, 120, 144, 165 FPS, or native display refresh rates. The underlying game simulation, timers, physics, and audio continue operating at their authentic 59.94 Hz cadence, providing smoother motion while maintaining total gameplay fidelity.

Miscellaneous Tasks

• Add standalone AppImage and Windows product release builds

  End users previously needed to run a local compilation setup on their own computers to build the recompiled game code. To remove this requirement for players, this update introduces standalone product builds for both Linux and Windows that bundle the compiled game logic directly into the distributed application. Players can now launch the game immediately without installing compilers, CMake, Python, or external toolchains.

  The continuous integration release workflow is extended with dedicated jobs to assemble a Linux AppImage and a portable Windows distribution archive. Build configurations now allow disabling the initial setup wizard and linking pregenerated game sources directly via WILD9_SETUP_WIZARD. Automated scripts securely fetch and verify recompiled code bundles against recorded manifests and disc signatures before artifact creation.

  In addition, the psxrecomp and recomp ui submodules are updated to incorporate upstream runtime enhancements and packaging improvements. Project documentation is expanded to detail the usage of standalone releases alongside traditional setup host archives.

• Retire setup host release jobs to align with upstream psxrecomp

  Upstream psxrecomp retired the setup host distribution format in commit 874df9b5 to simplify releases and improve the player experience. Distributing setup hosts required maintaining heavy continuous integration matrix builds across Linux, Windows, and macOS, while placing the burden of compiling game code and managing local development toolchains onto players.

  This update removes the setup host pipeline from the release workflow and updates documentation to reflect the new direction. Releases now focus exclusively on standalone product builds where the recompiled code is already packaged inside the executable. Players only need to provide their game disc image as a runtime data source without installing compilers or build dependencies.

Wild9 Recompiled v0.1.3

Full Changelog: v0.1.2...v0.1.3

Features

• Add intro video(FMV) skip plugin

  Allow players to skip the opening movie sequences and developer logos to reach the title screen much faster. This quality of life plugin provides a configurable controller button that defaults to Start while also supporting Cross, Square, Triangle, and Select. Triggering the skip button during the intro sequence dismisses the active video along with any remaining opening videos.

  Additionally, existing mod plugin sources have been reformatted with clang-format

• Enable native wide backdrop support and update psxrecomp submodule

  The two dimensional backdrop and parallax wind layers were previously anchored to the original 4:3 boundaries, leaving visible empty margins in the expanded widescreen viewport. Enabling native wide backdrop rendering and stretching backdrop horizontal coordinates allows these background layers to span the widened frame properly, while clearing the newly exposed areas to prevent visual artifacts.

  Widescreen primitive culling declarations in game.toml are now migrated to specialized SXY culling hooks. This allows geometry extending into the expanded horizontal margins to remain visible instead of being rejected by the original horizontal screen-edge tests, while preserving the existing vertical culling behavior.

  The psxrecomp submodule is switched to the fork branch that provides these widescreen backdrop and SXY culling features, and changelog generation settings are added in cliff.toml.

Refactor

• Migrate widescreen culling to psxrecomp framework configuration

  Handling widescreen visibility culling previously relied on manual runtime patches inside the plugin. Bypassing or coarsely overriding geometry culling prevented missing primitives in expanded aspect ratios, but it also introduced performance drops in dense areas such as Crystal Mines by forcing the engine to process geometry that should have remained culled.

  The recompiler framework now provides generic support for projected coordinate visibility culling. This allows the title configuration in game.toml to declare the culling structures directly, preserving the original visibility optimizations while expanding only the horizontal rejection range for wider viewports.

  With this functionality handled natively by the recompilation framework, the manual runtime patches in the plugin are no longer needed and have been removed.

Wild9 Recompiled v0.1.2

Full Changelog: v0.1.1...v0.1.2

Wild9 Recompiled v0.1.1

Full Changelog: https://github.com/plinkr/Wild9Recomp/commits/v0.1.1