Peter Jackson's King Kong PC Port ### Peter Jackson's King Kong on PC, running natively, with the launcher and options of a modern PC release. [Download for Windows](https://github.com/TekRantGaming/king-kong-recompiled/releases/latest)   [Join the Discord](https://discord.gg/PET2xU5FJq) [![Latest release](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/TekRantGaming/king-kong-recompiled?style=flat-square&label=release&color=e8a33c&labelColor=0d0b09)](https://github.com/TekRantGaming/king-kong-recompiled/releases/latest) [![Downloads](https://img.shields.io/github/downloads/TekRantGaming/king-kong-recompiled/total?style=flat-square&color=8a5a1c&labelColor=0d0b09)](https://github.com/TekRantGaming/king-kong-recompiled/releases) ![Platforms](https://img.shields.io/badge/platforms-Windows%20%7C%20Linux%20(Proton)-5b7a8c?style=flat-square&labelColor=0d0b09) [![Listed on Quiver Launcher](https://img.shields.io/badge/listed%20on-Quiver%20Launcher-5b7a8c?style=flat-square&labelColor=0d0b09)](https://quiverlauncher.com/apps/peter-jackson-s-king-kong-the-official-game-of-the-movie-king-kong-pc-port)
The launcher's Home screen The game's main menu Rowing to Skull Island in the storm Ann and the crew on Skull Island The V-Rex chapter with ambient occlusion The opening on the ship, where Xenia gets stuck An achievement pop-up The original Xbox 360 game code, translated to native PC code with the ReXGlue SDK. No game files included: bring your own copy of the King Kong Xbox 360 disc.

## At a glance | | | | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | 🖥️ **Up to 8K**, any frame rate up to 240 or unlimited | 🎮 **Any controller**, or a real keyboard and mouse layout | 🧩 **Plays past the "VENTURE" freeze** that stops Xenia | | ✨ **FSR 1 and NIS upscaling**, ambient occlusion, presets | 📺 **Original Xbox 360 look** in one click, or Modern | 🔭 **Wider field of view**, up to 110° | | 🏆 **Achievements** with Xbox 360 or Steam style pop-ups | 🕹️ **All ten cheats** as switches | 🎥 **Camera shake**, vibration and every control tunable | | 💿 **Install from your own disc** in a few clicks | 🔄 **Updates itself**, with a stable and a beta channel | 🚂 **Add to Steam** with artwork, ready for the Steam Deck | | 🐧 **Linux and Steam Deck** through Proton (experimental) | 👥 **See who's playing**, anonymously | 💬 **[Join the Discord](https://discord.gg/PET2xU5FJq)** for news and early builds |
## Modern graphics The V-Rex chapter with ambient occlusion off The same view with ambient occlusion on Ambient occlusion: soft shading in corners, creases and under rocks, grass and people

Close-up of the rocks and grass with ambient occlusion off and on Up close, at full size

The V-Rex chapter with the distance fog on The same view with the distance fog off Distance fog, on or off

The title screen logo with no upscaler, AMD FSR 1 and NVIDIA NIS AMD FSR 1 and NVIDIA NIS keep a lower resolution sharp (zoomed 2x) ## A launcher made for the couch The setup screen The Graphics page Set up from your own disc  ·  Graphics: presets, upscalers, resolution and effects

The Gameplay page The Controls page Gameplay: frame rate, field of view, camera shake  ·  Controls: remapping, mouse look, button prompts

The Cheats page The Achievements page Cheats as switches  ·  Achievements with pop-ups and your choice of sound

Add to Steam The Display page Add to Steam with its artwork  ·  Display: windowed, fullscreen, any monitor

The About page What's new after an update About: updates, stable or beta, Discord  ·  What's new after every update

> [!NOTE] > **In active development.** New versions come out often, and the launcher offers each one when it opens. A full play-through hasn't been confirmed yet, so please [report anything that goes wrong](#reporting-a-problem). What changed in each version is on the [releases page](https://github.com/TekRantGaming/king-kong-recompiled/releases). ## Getting started **You need:** Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit), a graphics card with DirectX 12, about 7 GB of free space, and a disc image you made from your own Peter Jackson's King Kong Xbox 360 disc (see [Which version you need](#which-version-you-need)). 1. Download the **KingKong-...-windows-x64.zip** file from the [latest release](https://github.com/TekRantGaming/king-kong-recompiled/releases/latest) and unzip it anywhere. 2. Run **king_kong.exe**. The launcher opens, and the shader pack downloads by itself. 3. Choose **Select disc image** and pick your King Kong disc image. The launcher checks it, copies the game files (about 6.3 GB) into a `game` folder next to the exe and takes its artwork from them. 4. Press **PLAY**. The download contains only this port. **No game files are included**: they come from your own disc. Your saves and settings are kept in `Documents\king_kong`. The port is also listed on [Quiver Launcher](https://quiverlauncher.com/apps/peter-jackson-s-king-kong-the-official-game-of-the-movie-king-kong-pc-port), where you can see how it runs for other players. ### Which version you need The port is made for this disc only. Other versions will not work. | | | | --- | --- | | Game | Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie | | Disc | Xbox 360, USA and Europe (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish) | | Title ID | `555307D3` | | Game version | `0.0.0.1` (the original disc release) | | Disc image | `.iso`, 7,834,892,288 bytes | | SHA-1 | `075F43709E9C9A095E099AB5056CC04B768288D1` | | MD5 | `35D671ED4E9EAD9E6B288A3441B6C8F9` | The launcher checks the title ID before it installs. To check your disc image yourself, run this in PowerShell and compare the result with the SHA-1 above: ```powershell Get-FileHash "C:\Games\King Kong.iso" -Algorithm SHA1 ``` ### Linux and Steam Deck (experimental) **This is an experimental Proton build, not native Linux support.** It's the Windows download running through Steam's **Proton**, so Linux and Steam Deck players can play now. A native Linux version is in development and will come in a future update. The Proton build was tested on a ROG Ally (Z1 Extreme) with Bazzite, where it held 120 FPS on the 10 W power profile. 1. Unzip **KingKong-...-windows-x64.zip** anywhere, for example in your home folder. 2. In Steam (in desktop mode on a Steam Deck), choose **Games > Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library**, browse to **king_kong.exe** and add it. 3. Right-click it in your library, choose **Properties > Compatibility**, tick **Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool** and pick **Proton Experimental**. 4. Start it from Steam (Game Mode works too). The first start takes about half a minute while Steam sets Proton up for it. Pick your disc image as on Windows: your Linux home folder is on the **Z:** drive. Your saves and settings are kept in Steam's Proton folder for the game, under `steamapps/compatdata`. ## The launcher Everything is set up before the game starts, with a controller, the keyboard or the mouse. The launcher looks and sounds like the game, using your own copy of it: the King Kong logo, stills from the movie trailer, the main menu music and the game's own menu sounds. Nothing from the game comes in the download. It follows the game's **Language** setting (English, French, German, Spanish or Italian). Settings are saved to a plain text file, `king_kong.toml`, next to the game, and every settings page has **Reset page** to put just that page back to its defaults.
Home screen ### Home - **Play**, with the game's logo over a slow slideshow of stills from the movie - **Reinstall** the game from your disc image, with a progress bar - **Check for updates**: a new version downloads on its own screen with a progress bar, then the launcher restarts - **Add to Steam** and **Discord** panels along the bottom, each with its own button (**X** and **Y**) - **Players online** at the top right - How the game, the **shader pack** and the port's version stand, at a glance - Turn the launcher off and **hold Shift** at start to bring it back
### First start - The launcher asks for **your copy of the game** first, with a card showing exactly which disc works: pick your disc image and it checks it really is King Kong, then installs it - It takes its **artwork** from your copy, then opens on Home - Choose your **language**, and whether to show **online players**, before you start Setup screen
Add to Steam ### Add to Steam - Adds the port to your **Steam library** as a non-Steam game, so you can start it from Steam, Big Picture or a **Steam Deck** - With its **artwork** from [SteamGridDB](https://www.steamgriddb.com/game/5249080): cover, banner, header, logo and icon - **Steam Input** is switched off for it, so your controller keeps working - Steam closes for a moment while it's added and opens again afterwards - Once it's in your library, the panel opens Steam instead
### Display - **Windowed** or **fullscreen** - **Window size** that fits your screen - **Choose the monitor** - **VSync** on or off (off by default, and great with G-Sync and FreeSync) - **Keep 16:9** with borders, or **stretch** to fill Display page
Graphics page ### Graphics - **Look**: Original Xbox 360 (720p at 30 FPS, the console's anti-aliasing, texture filtering and field of view, motion blur and fog, no ambient occlusion) or Modern. Switching back to Modern puts your own settings back - **Graphics presets**: Low, Medium, High, Ultra and Steam Deck, or Custom when you set things yourself - **Upscaler**: AMD FSR 1 or NVIDIA Image Scaling (NIS), both for any graphics card, or Off. At Quality by default, with NIS on an NVIDIA card and FSR 1 on any other. Native, Quality, Balanced and Performance modes, each showing the resolution the game draws at - **Render quality** (with the upscaler off): Native, Quality, Balanced, Performance and Ultra Performance - **Supersampling** on or off: draws more pixels than your screen has, for the cleanest edges - **Custom resolution** from 1x (720p) to 6x (8K) - **FXAA** and **texture filtering** up to 16x - **Motion blur**, **screen blur** and **distance fog**, each on or off - **Ambient occlusion** at strength 1, 2 or 3
### Gameplay - **Frame rate**: 30 (default, like the console), 60, 90, 120, 144, 165, 240 or unlimited - **Camera shake** on or off, with a strength from 10% to 200% - **Field of view** from 69° (the original) to 110°. The game draws the wider area too, Jack's gun keeps its usual size, and the menus keep their original look - **Language** of the game and the launcher - **Frame counter** in the corner, toggled with F2 - **Startup logos**: skip the Ubisoft, Universal and WingNut movies (the default) or play them Gameplay page
Controls page ### Controls - **Invert the camera** left/right and up/down, separately - **Controller sensitivity** from 25% to 300% (150% by default) - **Camera response**: Modern (the default) turns the camera the same way in every direction; Original is the Xbox 360's own feel - **Real mouse look** for keyboard and mouse, with **Mouse sensitivity** and **Mouse vertical** (invert) - **Toggle aim**: press the left trigger once to raise the gun and again to lower it - **Stick deadzone** to stop drift (5% by default) - **Vibration** on or off, with a strength from 10% to 200% - **Remap any button** on your controller - **Keyboard and mouse** with a modern layout (left mouse button shoots, right mouse button aims, R reloads, WASD moves); rebind any control to a key or mouse button, and each one says what it does in the game - **Button prompts** that match your controller automatically, or pick Xbox 360, Xbox Series, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 2, Steam Deck or your keyboard keys, in the game and in the launcher
### Cheats The game's own cheats, as switches instead of codes to type each time you play: - **All chapters** and **all bonus content** - **Fast healing**, **one-hit kills**, **999 bullets** and **unlimited spears** - The **revolver**, **machine gun**, **shotgun** and **sniper rifle** They switch on as soon as the game reaches its main menu, exactly as if you had typed their codes. Cheats page
Achievements page ### Achievements - All **9 achievements** with their pictures, descriptions and gamerscore - See which ones you have **unlocked** - **Pop-ups** in the Xbox 360's style or Steam's, with their **sound** on or off and its volume - **Pick the sound**: the built-in chime or any `.wav` you put in the `sounds` folder. Name the Xbox 360 sound `Xbox_360.wav` and it plays by default - A **test button** to see and hear it - A bonus **Welcome to Skull Island** achievement the first time you play
### About - The **version history**: the notes for every version - **Discord**: join the official server - The launcher's **music** and **menu sounds**, each with a volume slider - **Check for updates** now, or turn the check at start off - **Change version** between stable and beta (early test builds; your saves and settings are kept) - **Online player count** on or off - How the **shader pack** stands - Open your **save folder**, **game folder** or **settings file** in one click - Take the launcher's **artwork** from your copy again, or **reset** every setting About page
What's new pop-up ### What's new - After an update, the launcher shows **what changed** the first time it opens - **Every version** takes you to the full version history
## Graphics The game shots below are from the V-Rex chapter; in each pair only the setting being compared changes. ### Ambient occlusion Soft shading where surfaces meet: in corners and creases, and on the ground under rocks, grass and people, so they sit in the scene instead of floating on it. It stays under the game's own distance fog, so far-off walls don't show through the haze. It's off by default: turn it on with **Ambient occlusion**, at strength 1 (recommended), 2 or 3. It costs about 1 ms a frame at 4K, and works with NVIDIA and AMD graphics for now.
The V-Rex chapter with ambient occlusion off The same view with ambient occlusion on
Close-up of the rocks and grass with ambient occlusion off and on 2560 x 1440 at strength 1, taken half a second apart (the rain and the firelight move in between). The close-up is at full size. ### Distance fog **Distance fog** is on by default. Off clears the haze over far scenery, though the fog is part of Skull Island's look and also hides the edges of each area, so some empty backdrops can show.
The V-Rex chapter with the distance fog on The same view with the distance fog off
### AMD FSR 1 and NVIDIA Image Scaling Pick **AMD FSR 1** or **NVIDIA NIS** under **Upscaler**. Both work on any graphics card, and the launcher picks NIS on an NVIDIA card and FSR 1 on any other to begin with. They scale the game's picture up to your screen and sharpen it, so drawing fewer pixels for a higher frame rate still looks crisp. **Upscaler mode** picks how many pixels the game draws: **Native**, **Quality**, **Balanced** or **Performance**, with the resolution shown for your screen. The title screen logo with no upscaler, AMD FSR 1 and NVIDIA NIS The title screen at 1920 x 1080 in Performance mode (drawn at 1280 x 720), zoomed 2x: plain scaling, AMD FSR 1 and NVIDIA NIS. ### Original Xbox 360 or Modern, and presets **Look** at the top of the **Graphics** page switches between **Original Xbox 360**, the game as it was on the console (720p at 30 FPS, its own anti-aliasing and texture filtering, the 69° field of view, motion blur and fog, no ambient occlusion and no upscaler), and **Modern**, with every setting. In Modern, a **Preset** sets several things at once: | Preset | Upscaler | Render quality | Anti-aliasing | Texture filtering | Ambient occlusion | | --- | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | | Low | NVIDIA NIS or AMD FSR 1 | Performance | FXAA | 2x | off | | Medium (default) | NVIDIA NIS or AMD FSR 1 | Quality | FXAA | 4x | off | | High | NVIDIA NIS or AMD FSR 1 | Native | FXAA | 8x | on | | Ultra | NVIDIA NIS or AMD FSR 1 | Native | FXAA | 16x | on | | Steam Deck | AMD FSR 1 | Native | FXAA | 2x | off | The presets use NVIDIA NIS on an NVIDIA graphics card and AMD FSR 1 on any other; at Native it only sharpens. Change any of them yourself and the preset shows **Custom**. ## Xbox 360 vs PC port | | Xbox 360 | PC port | | --- | :---: | :---: | | Resolution | 1280 x 720 | up to 7680 x 4320 | | Frame rate | 30 fps | 30 fps, or up to 240 and unlimited | | Anti-aliasing | console (2x MSAA) | console 2x MSAA plus FXAA, supersampling, or higher resolutions | | Upscaling | console | AMD FSR 1 or NVIDIA Image Scaling, four modes each | | Texture filtering | console | up to 16x | | Display | TV | windowed or fullscreen, any monitor | | Controls | Xbox 360 controller | any controller, remapping, keyboard and mouse | | Camera | game options | field of view, inverted axes, sensitivity, deadzone, shake strength | | Motion blur | always on | on or off | | Screen blur (some levels) | always on | on or off | | Distance fog | always on | on or off | | Ambient occlusion | none | optional, three strengths | | Graphics presets | none | Original Xbox 360 look, Low to Ultra, Steam Deck | | Startup logos | always play | play or skip | | Cheats | typed as codes each time | switches in the launcher | | Achievement pop-ups | console | Xbox 360 or Steam style, with your choice of sound | ## Good to know ### Hotkeys | Key | Action | | --- | --- | | F2 | frame counter | | F3 | performance overlay | | F7 | achievements overlay | | Shift while starting | open the launcher | ### Known issues - Above 30 fps some character animations are not right yet. For example, the crew rowing at the start skip part of their animation. 30 fps, the default, plays them correctly. - There can be a short pause when the game loads the next area. The game does the same on the Xbox 360. - The pre-rendered videos pause for a moment every couple of seconds while the video player keeps to the video's timing. This is being looked into. - Under Proton the launcher has no stills from the movie trailer (Proton can't play the trailer to it). It shows the title screen from your first play instead. - The first time you see a new effect it has to be prepared. Many are prepared at once in the background and the game waits only a moment for them, so there are no long pauses, but an object can occasionally appear a moment late the first time. Effects are saved, so this only happens once, and the **shader pack** prepares the effects other play-throughs have already seen before you play. ### The shader pack The game prepares each new effect (a shader) the first time it appears, which can cause a short pause. The shader pack is the list of effects collected by playing through the game, published on the [shader-packs release](https://github.com/TekRantGaming/king-kong-recompiled/releases/tag/shader-packs). You don't need to do anything to get it: each time the launcher opens, it downloads the newest pack if you don't have it yet and adds it to your shader cache (`Documents\king_kong\cache`), keeping anything your game has already prepared. If you press **PLAY** while a download is still going, the game starts as soon as it finishes. New packs come out as more of the game is covered. ### Updates When the launcher opens it asks GitHub whether a newer version of the port is out. **Update now** downloads it, replaces the port's own files and restarts the launcher; your installed game, saves and settings stay as they are. Turn the check off on the **About** page. **Change version** on the About page switches between the stable version and the beta. The shader pack updates itself on its own. ### Online player count On by default: the setup screen explains it, players who already have the game are told once, and you can switch it off at any time on the **About** page. While it's on, the top right of the launcher shows how many players are online, and the launcher checks in with the port's server every 5 minutes, also while you play. A check-in holds: - a random number that isn't linked to you, deleted when you switch it off - the port's version (and the newest one it was offered), and whether it's stable or beta - Windows or Linux (Linux and Steam Deck players count as Linux, Proton included) - whether you're in the game That's all. No name, account, IP address or anything from your PC is kept, and installs that haven't checked in for 90 days are deleted. Nothing is sent while it's off. The server is the port's own, on Cloudflare. ### Reporting a problem Everything useful is in the `logs` folder next to `king_kong.exe`: - `king_kong.log` describes your settings, and every 10 seconds it notes the frame rate, the 1% low and any frames that took over 50 or 100 ms. That shows exactly where stutter happens. - If the game crashes, `crash-.txt` and `crash-.dmp` appear next to it. Please attach them to an [issue](https://github.com/TekRantGaming/king-kong-recompiled/issues) together with your CPU, graphics card and the resolution you play at, or ask on the [Discord](https://discord.gg/PET2xU5FJq). ## About the port *Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie* came out in 2005 on PC and on every console of the time. The Xbox 360 version was a launch title for the console, with upgraded graphics and its own achievements. Until now the only way to play it was on an Xbox 360. On the Xenia emulator it boots, but it gets stuck right at the start of the first level and can't be played. This port runs it natively on Windows, fixes that freeze, and adds the options you would expect from a PC release. ### The "VENTURE" freeze On Xenia this game gets stuck at the start, looking at the ship's name "VENTURE" ([xenia-project/game-compatibility#1302](https://github.com/xenia-project/game-compatibility/issues/1302)). The cause is how disc reads finish. The game streams music and voice lines with reads it expects to finish right away. The emulator finishes them but reports them as still in progress, so the game thinks it got no data. No voice line ever plays, and the opening waits forever for one to end. This port finishes those reads the way the console does (`kk/src/io_fix.cpp`), so music, voice lines and the opening all work.
Building from source (for developers) You need Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools with Clang, CMake and Ninja. ```powershell .\setup.ps1 -Iso "C:\Games\King Kong.iso" # downloads the SDK, unpacks your disc, translates the code kk\build.bat kk-release # compiles ``` The finished game is in `kk\out\build\kk-release`. `Build King Kong.bat` does all of this in one go and puts the result in a `KingKong` folder. Point the game at your files with `--game_data_root`, or keep them in a `game` folder next to the exe. For testing, `kk\build.bat kk-dev` builds a version with developer aids that release builds leave out. Set `KK_DEV_AUTOSKIP=1` and it presses through the intros, menus and story videos into gameplay on its own, logging `KK dev: gameplay reached`. Add `KK_DEV_WANDER=1` to keep walking and looking around after that. The shader pack is built by running every chapter this way with its own `--cache_root`, then `python tools/make_shader_pack.py `.
## Credits - **Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie** by Ubisoft Montpellier, published by Ubisoft in 2005. - Button prompt pictures from [**Xelu's Free Controllers & Keyboard Prompts**](https://thoseawesomeguys.com/prompts/) (CC0). - Steam Deck button prompt pictures from [**Kenney's Input Prompts**](https://kenney.nl/assets/input-prompts) (CC0). - The Discord and Steam marks in the launcher from [**Simple Icons**](https://simpleicons.org) (CC0). Discord and Steam are trademarks of their owners. - [**ReXGlue SDK**](https://github.com/rexglue/rexglue-sdk), which does the code translation and runs the game, built on the work of [**Xenia**](https://github.com/xenia-project/xenia) and [**XenonRecomp**](https://github.com/hedge-dev/XenonRecomp). - Upscaling: [**AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 1**](https://github.com/GPUOpen-Effects/FidelityFX-FSR) (in the ReXGlue SDK) and the [**NVIDIA Image Scaling SDK**](https://github.com/NVIDIAGameWorks/NVIDIAImageScaling), both MIT licensed. > [!NOTE] > **AI disclosure:** this port was made almost entirely with Claude Code (Anthropic). The repository owner directed and tested the work; the AI did the analysis, code, tools and documentation. > [!IMPORTANT] > This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Ubisoft, Universal Studios, WingNut Films, Microsoft, Xbox, Valve or Discord. It contains no game code or assets (the button prompt pictures are free CC0 art, not taken from the game). Do not open issues asking for game files.