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Mind over Recomp

An unofficial native PC port of Crash: Mind over Mutant<br> _{Xbox 360 · 2008 · Radical Entertainment — statically recompiled, then rebuilt piece by piece with native code}

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Download · Features · Going native · Building · Docs

<br> <img src="docs/images/readme-hero-desert.jpg" alt="Crash riding a titan through the desert, drawn by the port's own Vulkan renderer" width="100%"> </div> <br>

[!WARNING] Alpha. The game boots and plays, but it hasn't been played through to the end yet. Expect bugs, crashes and rough edges, and back up your saves.

[!IMPORTANT] No game files are included, and none ever will be. You need your own Xbox 360 disc of Crash: Mind over Mutant (USA), dumped to an .iso. The launcher builds the game on your computer from it.

📖 About

Crash: Mind over Mutant divided fans, but it's part of Crash's history, and it only ever came out on consoles. Mind over Recomp aims to preserve it as a real PC game and give it the upgrades it deserves.

It isn't an emulator. The game's original Xbox 360 program is translated into C++ ahead of time (static recompilation with ReXGlue) and compiled into a native Linux or Windows program. From there, the parts that still pretend to be an Xbox are replaced one by one with the port's own code: its own Vulkan renderer, plain save files, PC controls, and more.

✨ Features

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🎨 Its own renderer

A native Vulkan renderer draws the game itself, effect by effect: lighting, water, reflections, depth of field, anti-aliasing. It matches the original's look and runs far lighter than emulating the Xbox's GPU.

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⚡ 60 fps and beyond

Runs at 60 fps with the original game speed. 120, 144 and uncapped work too (experimental), plus V-sync and a frame-rate counter.

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👥 Up to four players

Co-op for four instead of two: HUDs, markers and loading screens for players 3 and 4, every outfit for every player (Coco for player 1 too, Crash in six colours), and a co-op camera that keeps everyone in view (experimental).

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💾 Unlimited, named saves

One scrolling list in the game's own save screen: as many saves as you like, renamed with the game's own keyboard, deleted safely. Every save is a plain .sav file.

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⌨️ Keyboard, mouse and any controller

Every key rebindable (Tools menu, F1, or Options → Controls), menus with keys of their own, any controller SDL knows, both at once or one per player. The game's button prompts show your keys and mouse buttons whenever you play on the keyboard.

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⚙️ Options in the game's own look

Pause → Options: frame rate, renderer, brightness, V-sync, windowed or fullscreen on the monitor of your choice, resolution (up to 4K), HUD size (smaller automatically with 3-4 players), anti-aliasing, texture sharpness, sharpening, shadow softness, motion blur and depth of field, audio (volumes, output device, stereo / headphones / 5.1 / 7.1 speakers), controls, camera and gameplay (friendly fire, combos, one-button and hold-to-keep spinning), all live, built from the game's own menu pieces. Language: the disc's 13 text languages and 10 voice languages, mixed freely (say, English voices with German text), with a Restart Now button. Achievements: the game's own 48, kept for the whole game (every save counts), with a notification in the game's look and their own screen (pause menu); Quit Game in the main menu.

</td> </tr> </table> <div align="center"> <img src="docs/images/readme-four-players-action.jpg" alt="Four-player co-op on Wumpa Island" width="100%"> </div>

_{Screenshots are from the port's own renderer, captured from the maintainer's copy of the game. The game's imagery belongs to its owners (see License and disclaimer).}

📥 Download and play

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⬇ Download the latest release

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	Windows	Linux
System	Windows 10 / 11, 64-bit	x86-64 with glibc 2.39+ (Ubuntu 24.04, Fedora 40, Mint 22, Arch, or newer)
Download	MindOverRecomp-…-windows-x86_64.zip	MindOverRecomp-…-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
Note	an NTFS drive, not a OneDrive folder

Both need a Vulkan graphics card (only NVIDIA tested so far), 16 GB RAM recommended, ~25 GB free disk space, and internet for the first setup.

1. Unpack the download into a folder with enough space (on Windows, a short path such as C:\Games\).
2. Start the launcher, Mind over Recomp. Windows may warn about an unknown program: More info → Run anyway.
3. In the Setup tab, install the tools it lists, pick your .iso, and press Set up everything. The first time downloads ~550 MB and builds the game on your computer.
4. Press Play. Next time, Continue jumps straight into your last save.

The launcher also lists your saves, edits settings, shows a live game log and keeps the port up to date (your saves and settings stay).

[!TIP] Something not working? See Troubleshooting and the known issues. Found a bug? Report a problem... in the launcher packs your log and settings and opens the bug form already filled in.

🎮 Controls

Action	Keyboard and mouse	Controller
Move / walk	<kbd>W</kbd> <kbd>A</kbd> <kbd>S</kbd> <kbd>D</kbd> / hold <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>	left stick
Jump (twice: double jump)	<kbd>Space</kbd>	<kbd>A</kbd>
Light / heavy attack	left / right mouse button	<kbd>X</kbd> / <kbd>Y</kbd>
Spin	<kbd>Q</kbd> or middle mouse button	rotate the left stick
Block	<kbd>Shift</kbd>	<kbd>RT</kbd>
Jack / unjack a titan, use a save totem	<kbd>E</kbd>	<kbd>B</kbd>
Titan special / pocket a titan	<kbd>F</kbd> / <kbd>R</kbd>	<kbd>LT</kbd> / <kbd>RB</kbd>
Map / pause	<kbd>Tab</kbd> / <kbd>Esc</kbd>	<kbd>Back</kbd> / <kbd>Start</kbd>
Menus: select / back	<kbd>Enter</kbd> or <kbd>Space</kbd> / <kbd>Esc</kbd> or <kbd>Backspace</kbd>	<kbd>A</kbd> / <kbd>B</kbd>
Menus: move / tabs	arrow keys or <kbd>W</kbd> <kbd>A</kbd> <kbd>S</kbd> <kbd>D</kbd> / <kbd>Q</kbd> <kbd>E</kbd>	D-pad or left stick / <kbd>LB</kbd> <kbd>RB</kbd>
Menus: the X / Y prompts (rename, delete a save)	<kbd>X</kbd> / <kbd>Y</kbd>	<kbd>X</kbd> / <kbd>Y</kbd>
Menus with the mouse	point to select, left click to choose (also the prompts, tabs, and the arrows and pictures of the TV, comic and tiki face in Crash's house), right click to go back, wheel to scroll lists and the credits

Menus have keys of their own, so <kbd>Esc</kbd> pauses in play and goes back in menus. The game's button prompts show your keys while you play on the keyboard.

<details> <summary><b>Port keys</b> (F1, F2 and F11)</summary> <br>

Key	What it does
<kbd>F1</kbd>	The Tools menu: Cheats (level ups, god mode, free camera, spawning, unlock everything), Controls (change keys, pick which device plays as which player), switch between the emulated picture and the port's renderer, save a photo into user/photos/, and the developer windows
<kbd>F2</kbd>	Hide / show the whole HUD (not a cheat)
<kbd>F11</kbd>	Fullscreen on / off

The other function keys do nothing, so a stray press can't open a window mid-game. Opening the Cheats menu turns achievements off until a save is loaded, and a save made meanwhile is marked as made with cheats.

</details>

Friends join from the pause menu (Join Game), as in the original's co-op.

🧩 Going native

The game's own code already runs natively. What's still emulated is the Xbox 360 around it: the system services the game asks for, answered today by the ReXGlue runtime. Each one the port answers itself is one less piece of pretend Xbox.

<!-- native-progress:begin --> <!-- Written by tools/native_progress.py --readme: edit the tool, not this block. -->

Xbox services replaced: 24 of 66 (36%) ▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱

Xbox piece	Replaced	Becomes
Graphics driver	▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 0 / 20	the port's own Vulkan renderer, then the emulated GPU off
Profiles and sign-in	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰ 4 / 4	no profiles at all: who plays = which controllers play
Saves and storage	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰ 11 / 11	plain save files in one folder: no storage devices, no content packages
Controllers	▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 0 / 3	the input manager fed directly (keyboard and mouse, any SDL controller, rumble)
Sound output	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰ 5 / 5	each mixed frame straight to the PC's audio
XMA sound decoder	▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰ 2 / 2	a software decoder instead of the emulated sound chip
System pop-ups and notifications	▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱ 2 / 5	PC behaviour (the port's own messages); gone once profiles and saves are native
System messages (achievements, ...)	▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 0 / 3	the port's own handlers
Console settings	▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 0 / 8	the port's settings (language, region, video mode)
Quit and launch	▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 0 / 4	quit the program cleanly
Network	▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 0 / 1	not needed (no online features)

Not counted: 89 kernel basics (threads, locks, memory, files), already thin translations to the PC's own.

<!-- native-progress:end -->

🛠️ Building from source

For developers: players don't need this, the launcher does it all. Linux needs clang 20+, CMake 3.25+, Ninja, Python 3, Git and glslc; the full walkthrough, Windows included, is in Building.

<details> <summary><b>Build commands</b></summary> <br>

git clone --recursive https://github.com/Maxilure/MindOver-Recomp.git
cd MindOver-Recomp

# the launcher (its Setup tab does everything below, with progress bars)
cmake -S launcher -B out/build/launcher -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
      -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++
cmake --build out/build/launcher && out/build/launcher/crash_mom_launcher

# or by hand: unpack the disc, build the SDK with our patches, then the game
python3 tools/xiso_extract.py "Crash - Mind over Mutant (USA).iso" game/
(cd thirdparty/rexglue-sdk && git apply ../../patches/rexglue-sdk/*.patch \
  && cmake --preset linux-amd64 -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$PWD/../rexglue-install \
  && cmake --build out/build/linux-amd64 --config Release --target install \
  && cmake --build out/build/linux-amd64 --config RelWithDebInfo --target install)
cmake --preset linux-amd64-relwithdebinfo
cmake --build --preset linux-amd64-relwithdebinfo --target crash_mom_codegen
cmake --preset linux-amd64-relwithdebinfo   # first time only: picks up the generated code
cmake --build --preset linux-amd64-relwithdebinfo -j 6
tools/play.sh                               # one log per session in logs/

</details> <details> <summary><b>Repository layout</b></summary> <br>

crash_mom_manifest.toml    recompiler config: every analysis fix and hook, commented
CMakeLists.txt             builds the port (generated code + ReXGlue + src/)
src/                       the port's own native code
  input/                   keyboard + mouse, the Controls menu
  players/                 up to four players, the co-op camera, who plays
  saves/                   the PC save drive, the save list
  options/                 the Options screen
  language/                text and voice language (the disc's own languages)
  cheats/                  the Cheats menu
  data/                    changed copies of game data, built at run time from your files
  pddi/, native/           the game's renderer calls, and the port's Vulkan renderer
launcher/                  the launcher: setup, play, settings, log, updates (no game code)
assets/                    pictures the port draws: players 3-4's markers, keyboard and mouse prompts, the jack symbol
tools/                     disc extraction, disassembler, play/debug and release scripts
patches/rexglue-sdk/       our fixes to the ReXGlue SDK (applied to the submodule)
docs/                      guides, and findings about the game's internals
thirdparty/rexglue-sdk     the recompiler + runtime (git submodule, pinned)

# made on your machine, never committed:
*.iso, game/               your disc and its extracted files
generated/default/         C++ produced by the recompiler
out/, logs/, cache/        builds, logs, caches
user/                      YOUR files: saves, settings, controls, photos, logs

</details>

📚 Documentation

🧠 How the port works	static recompilation, explained
🔧 Building	every build step, the launcher, releases
🩺 Troubleshooting	common problems on Linux and Windows
✨ Enhancements	what only this port adds, with pictures
🗺️ Roadmap	where the project is going
🎨 Native renderer	the port's own Vulkan renderer
🔬 Findings	everything learned about the game's internals

🤝 Contributing

Contributions of any kind are welcome: code, reverse engineering, testing, bug reports, corrections. Speak another language? The port's own menus are machine-translated into 11 languages and need people to check them: see languages/, no programming needed. Every human contribution is credited by name in CREDITS.md. Reviews from people who know Xbox 360 internals, Radical's engine, ReXGlue / Xenia or Vulkan are especially valuable.

[!NOTE] Developed with extensive AI assistance (Claude, via Claude Code). The code, the reverse-engineering notes and the documentation were largely written by the AI. The maintainer sets direction, tests every change on the real game and reviews the results, but isn't a specialist in recompilation or reverse engineering. Findings are checked against the running game, not reviewed by experts: treat them as working notes, and please report errors.

💛 Credits

• Maxilure: project lead, direction, ideas, playtesting, art
• ReXGlue: the static recompiler and runtime that make this possible
• Xenia: the Xbox 360 emulator ReXGlue's runtime and GPU emulation build on
• Xelu's Free Controller & Key Prompts by Nicolae "Xelu" Berbece (Those Awesome Guys): the keyboard, mouse and controller pictures in the button prompts (Light and Dark keys; Xbox Series, PlayStation 5 / 4 and Switch buttons)
• Claude (Anthropic): AI assistant that wrote most of the code and documentation
• You? Every contribution gets listed in CREDITS.md

⚖️ License and disclaimer

• The code in this repository is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.
• The patches in patches/rexglue-sdk/ modify ReXGlue's source and stay under ReXGlue's BSD 3-Clause license, like the SDK itself (which also builds on Xenia's code).
• The screenshots in docs/images/ show the game's own imagery and are not covered by these licenses.
• The marker pictures in assets/markers/ were drawn for this port, after the save-slot numbers of Crash of the Titans (Radical Entertainment, 2007), to match the game's own markers.
• The jack symbol in assets/icons/ is a silhouette of Aku Aku's mask made for this port, traced from a render of Crash of the Titans' mask model.
• The keyboard, mouse and controller pictures in assets/prompts/ are from Xelu's Free Controller & Key Prompts by Nicolae "Xelu" Berbece, released into the public domain (CC0).

_{This is an unofficial fan project for game preservation. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Activision, Sierra Entertainment, Radical Entertainment, or Microsoft. Crash Bandicoot and Crash: Mind over Mutant are trademarks of their respective owners. This repository contains no game code, assets or data: you need your own legally obtained copy of the game.}