Dead Space · PSVita Port

How to install • Controls • Known Issues • How to compile • Credits • License

Dead Space is a 2011 survival horror mobile game for iOS and Android devices. A spin-off within the Dead Space series, the game is set after the events of original Dead Space and prior to the events of Dead Space 2 and shows how the Necromorph outbreak began and spread through the Titan Sprawl.

This repository contains a loader of the Xperia Play release of Dead Space, based on the Android SO Loader by TheFloW. The loader provides a tailored, minimalistic Android-like environment to run the official ARMv6 game executable on the PS Vita.

Disclaimer

DEAD SPACE is a registered trademark of Electronic Arts Inc. The work presented in this repository is not "official" or produced or sanctioned by the owner(s) of the aforementioned trademark or any other registered trademark mentioned in this repository.

This software does not contain the original code, executables, assets, or other non-redistributable parts of the original game product. The authors of this work do not promote or condone piracy in any way. To launch and play the game on their PS Vita device, users must possess their own legally obtained copy of the game in form of an .apk file.

Setup Instructions (For Players)

In order to properly install the game, you'll have to follow these steps precisely:

Install or update kubridge and FdFix by copying kubridge.skprx and fd_fix.skprx to your taiHEN plugins folder (usually ur0:tai) and adding two entries to your config.txt under *KERNEL:

  *KERNEL
  ur0:tai/kubridge.skprx
  ur0:tai/fd_fix.skprx

⚠️ Don't install fd_fix.skprx if you're using the rePatch plugin!

⚠️ Even if you had kubridge.skprx installed before, most likely you still need to update it, since a new version of the plugin was released at the same time as this port.

Make sure you have libshacccg.suprx in the ur0:/data/ folder on your console. If you don't, use ShaRKBR33D to get it quickly and easily.
Legally obtain your copy of Dead Space Mobile for Xperia Play in a form of an .apk file. The version for regular Android devices, also known as the latest/Google Play version, will not work! Make sure that your game is v1.1.33 (this is the last one supported on Xperia Play and provided via EA Store back in 2012).
- If you have it installed on your phone, you can get all the required files directly from it or by using any APK extractor you can find on Google Play.

ℹ️ Verify that your build is exactly the correct one using sha1sum (can also be found as an online tool). sha1sum for lib/armeabi/libEAMGameDeadSpace.so must be 0ed42b611415015807f759ec9b5457857143ce39

Open the .apk with any zip explorer (like 7-Zip) and extract all folders from the .apk into ux0:data/deadspace on your Vita. Example of correct resulting path: ux0:data/deadspace/lib/armeabi/libEAMGameDeadSpace.so
If your .apk was less than 100MB of size, you also need assets ("cache"). You need to run the game at least once on your Xperia so that it downloads the required files, and then you can find them at /sdcard/ea/deadspace/published. Copy the published folder to ux0:data/deadspace/assets/ on your Vita. Example of correct resulting path: ux0:data/deadspace/assets/published/data/achievements.sb
Install DeadSpace.vpk (from Releases).

Controls

Button	Action
/	Move / Control camera
/	Aim / Fire
	Previous / Next Weapon
	Plasma Saw Attack / Locator
	Interact with doors, items
	Activate Kinesis
	Reload weapon
	Quick Turn / Statis (when aiming)
	Show HUD
	Open Menu
Accelerometer Tilt	Switch weapon fire mode
Accelerometer Shake	Jump in Zero-G

Known Issues

Accelerometer controls may feel a little too sensitive. Fix may be made.
Analog sticks controls may sometimes "snap" a little. Most likely, can not be fixed, seems to be the game's own caveat.
While the game has a subtitles option, it's recommended not to use them because in some scenes they skip immediately. Most likely, can not be fixed.
Rarely (as it seems so far, maybe once an hour or even less often), it can randomly crash with a Prefetch Abort / Data Abort exception. Game creates checkpoint saves pretty often, so you shouldn't lose any substantial progress.
When entering the tram at the end of Chapter 5/9/10, audio may stop working. If it happens, complete the tram ride and restart the game after getting to the next chapter.

Build Instructions (For Developers)

In order to build the loader, you'll need a vitasdk build fully compiled with softfp usage. The easiest way to obtain one is following the instructions on https://vitasdk.org/ while replacing the URL in this command:

git clone https://github.com/vitasdk/vdpm

Like this:

git clone https://github.com/vitasdk-softfp/vdpm

All the required libraries should get installed automatically if you follow the installation process from https://vitasdk.org/.

After all these requirements are met, you can compile the loader with the following commands:

cmake -Bbuild .
cmake --build build

Also note that this CMakeLists has two "convenience targets". While developing, I highly recommed using them, like this:

cmake --build build --target send # Build, upload eboot.bin and run (requires vitacompanion)
cmake --build build --target dump # Fetch latest coredump and parse

For more information and build options, read the CMakeLists.txt.

Credits

Andy "The FloW" Nguyen for the original .so loader.
Rinnegatamante for VitaGL and lots of help with understanding and debugging the loader.
Bythos for the new kubridge with exceptions handling support and short vector VFP emulation and code generation.
CatoTheYounger for tremendous amount of testing. Not the hero we deserved, but the one we need.
Once13One for his beautiful LiveArea assets.
Andiweli, AvatarIII, BignThicc, dangtruong23, DieterB, Havocking92, ivanproff, keeponjammin, Long-nose, Maplesyrup6661, maxbarno, mmtechnodrone, NeoTechni, ReAnimation9, Shaitan, stayntruebreal, thenoble1, Tibmyyy: backers of the bounty that gave me motivation and made this port possible.

License

This software may be modified and distributed under the terms of the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for details.

16BitWonder/deadspace-vita