The Two Towers Recompiled v1.9.9

A native PC port of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Xbox, USA, 2002), made by static recompilation. It needs your own copy of the game, either the disc image (ISO) or an extracted folder. No game data is included.

⚠ Work in progress. The game is fully playable, but not everything works perfectly yet. It is recommended to play the game at no more than 1000 fps. Co op and Versus are still in alpha (see co-op.md for how these modes work). See known issues at the bottom.

Downloads

File	For
TwoTowers-Recompiled-v1.9.9-win64.zip	Windows 7 SP1, 8.1, 10, 11 (64-bit)
TwoTowers-Recompiled-v1.9.9-linux-x86_64.tar.gz	64-bit Linux, glibc 2.27 or newer
TwoTowers-Recompiled-v1.9.9-x86_64.AppImage	64-bit Linux, glibc 2.27 or newer, one file
TwoTowers-Recompiled-v1.9.9-macos-x86_64.tar.gz	macOS 10.15 or newer, Intel or Apple silicon (Rosetta 2); not yet tested on a Mac
TwoTowers-Recompiled-v1.9.9-source.zip	Source code

Ultra textures, GameCube pack: download the GameCube high-resolution texture pack (GLOS69) separately from its author. It is not part of this release. https://www.moddb.com/mods/the-two-towers-textures-4k-ai-remaster/addons/the-two-towers-textures-4k-ai-remaster-575gb-version-native

Updating from 1.9.8 or earlier: unpack over your old folder, or into a new one and copy your game_files folder. Your saves, settings and achievements carry over.

What the port adds

• Runs natively on Windows, Linux and macOS (experimental), from your own disc.
• Languages (new): 33 languages besides English for every text in the game, subtitles included, plus the launcher and the F10 menu.
• Resolution and widescreen: internal resolution 1x–12x, 4:3 to 32:9 with the HUD at the screen's edges, widescreen cutscenes, menus that fill the screen.
• Picture: Direct3D 11, Vulkan (DXVK) or OpenGL; MSAA and FXAA, anisotropic filtering, brightness, sharpening and color.
• Ultra textures: sharper menus, text and HUD, and every texture with the GameCube pack.
• Frame rate: 30 fps as on the Xbox, or 60, 75, 90, 100, 120, 144, 165, 200, 240, 300 or unlocked (experimental).
• Keyboard and mouse: every action rebindable, a Walk key, a mouse pointer in every menu, mouse aiming and mouse steering.
• Controllers: Xbox, PlayStation, Switch Pro and others with rumble; prompts that match what you play with.
• Menus: Display and Controls options pages in game, the F10 settings panel, an Exit item.
• Couch co-op (alpha): two players on one PC, each with their own hero, controller, weapons, health, ammo, experience and upgrades. With thanks in part to Volverine-Dude; see COOP.md.
• Versus (alpha): player 1 against player 2, one on one, on every level but Westfold, with any hero, enemies in some arenas, and Troll Battle; see COOP.md. More modes, characters and maps to come in future updates.
• Achievements: earned as you play, listed on the F10 panel's Achievements page.
• Mods: the ECTS 2002 demo's HUD, orange health pickups, and seven new playable heroes (more in Versus).
• Difficulties: New difficulty (impossible difficulty) added to the game.

What's new in 1.9.9

The128ReBits' improvements

Made possible by The128ReBits.

• More versus exclusive heroes: the Elven Warrior, the Uruk Captain the Cave Troll, the Ent and Saruman, each with his own moves and weapons.
• Animation improvements for all the extra heroes.

Versus: new heroes and a new mode

• New Versus heroes: Saruman (his own staff casts), the Ent (Treebeard from Fangorn Forest: his walk, his blows, thrown rocks and sounds), the Elven Warrior, the Uruk Captain.
• Troll Battle (Mode: on the Versus menu): cave troll against cave troll in Balin's Tomb or Amon Hen, with twice the health, thrown logs, its own end picture, its own sounds for FIGHT and the match's end, its own results table and kept records.
• Both players may pick the same hero in Deathmatch.
• Enemies in the arenas: a few of the level's own orcs and Uruk-hai on Amon Hen, Fangorn Forest, the Plains of Rohan, the Breached Wall and the Hornburg Courtyard, spread over the map. They attack both players with their own sounds and hit as hard as a player does.
• Random starts: each match begins somewhere else on the map, and later rounds go on where the players stand. Starts are always on the map's ground (Balin's Tomb: its hall floor, no ledges).
• Explore the whole map: the levels' parts are joined (Amon Hen from the start to Lurtz's ruins), every part is drawn, and the map's edges hold both players. The props keep their collision and still break.
• The camera keeps both players in view by the map's walls, and stands further back when the Ent or a troll is fighting.
• Hits from any side: blows land on a hero's side or back, and on the trolls' and the Ent's bulk.
• A horn at the end of each round and a random level's music each match (arenas with enemies keep their own).
• Mount Doom in Versus: the whole arena is playable for both players, over the lava and on its far side, with its music.
• Restart Match and Restart Round in the pause menu (Back / Y, or a click on the note at the top): either starts again from a new random spot; Restart Round keeps the score.
• The enemies' blows don't count before a round begins (the countdown and between rounds).
• The round's ammo and health pickups lie on the ground, where both players can take them.
• Plains of Rohan: starts on the open field, and both players are always shown.
• Hornburg Courtyard: the camera no longer zooms in by the west wall and stays zoomed (the level's own close view took over), and the players can't walk out through the yard's wall.
• The Versus bot rests after landing a hit (it could keep player 1 down in Troll Battle).

Achievements

• 25 new achievements for Versus: Troll Battle (win 3 or 10 matches, a flawless match, a 400 smash, 25,000 damage, a round under 20 seconds, 25 logs or rocks landed), the arenas' enemies (slay 25 and 150, win on all five enemy arenas), win 3 matches as each of the newer heroes (Saruman, the Ent, the Uruk Captain, the Elven Warrior, Lurtz, Sauron, Gandalf, Elrond, Boromir, Frodo, the Berserker), the Ent's rocks and a mirror match.
• The note says why: an achievement's note now shows what it was for, so there is no need to open F10 each time.

Co-op Fixes

• Player 2's bow (or his own ranged weapon) shows for every hero.
• Player 2's Perfect glow shows on his gauge, as player 1's does.
• Player 2's weapons are drawn again after he respawns.
• Player 2 can kick the ladders down again beside a different player 1 hero.
• Player 2's special move names on his side, his own rumble on the second controller.
• The heroes take more hits in co-op (125% health).
• Player 2's arrows and blows hit the Watcher in the Water.
• Player 2 picks up the level's own arrows and health (the arrows by Balin's Tomb's cave troll), not only the enemies' drops.
• No leash: player 2 can roam the level on his own; when the two are far apart the camera goes over to player 1.
• P2 Teleport on/off from the pause menu: a note at the top while paused; Y (the I key) or a click on it switches it, without going to the settings.
• A stuck player 2 is moved beside player 1 only with P2 Teleport on.
• Player 2 breaks what player 1 can: boxes, Fangorn Forest's log, the Breached Wall's catapult, and the enemies' shields with heavy attacks.
• The Breached Wall's catapult bar is drawn whole under player 2's health bar (half of it was on top of his bar).

Other Fixes

• Linux, PlayStation 3 controller: a DualShock 3 is read through the system's own driver. It was found and named but sent no input on some systems (issue #14).
• Versus starts no longer leave the screen black (Fangorn Forest, the Gates of Moria).
• A player stuck by a wall after a round can step back out.
• New Game: Easy, Normal, Expert and Impossible can be clicked with the mouse.
• The Walk key works for both players in co-op and Versus.
• Lurtz and the Uruk Captain fall onto the ground (their falls no longer float), and Lurtz's hit no longer lifts him.
• The Uruk extra hero is renamed to "Berserker"

Linux AppImage

• TwoTowers-Recompiled-v1.9.9-x86_64.AppImage: one file with SDL2 inside (used when your system has none). Make it executable (chmod +x, or Properties > Permissions) and run it; the first time it asks for your disc image.
• The game's folder (settings, saves, log, game files) is TwoTowers-Recompiled beside the AppImage, or ~/.local/share/TwoTowers-Recompiled when that can't be written. A newer AppImage updates the program there and keeps your saves and settings.

Tested (1.9.9)

• Linux (OpenGL): Versus bot runs on Amon Hen, Fangorn Forest, the Plains of Rohan, the Breached Wall, the Hornburg Courtyard, Balin's Tomb and the Gates of Moria (random starts, enemies fighting both players, the Ent felling orcs); co-op runs in Fangorn Forest (player 2's respawn, his Perfect glow).
• Windows: played by hand on the developer's PC through the 1.9.9 test builds.
• Windows, Linux and macOS builds compile.
• Not tested: the macOS build on a Mac; the PlayStation 3 controller fix on the reporter's Linux system; the trolls breaking props.

Known issues (1.9.9)

• Co-op is not fully playable with the extra heroes mod. It is recommended to play co op with only the four main heroes. The extra characters are playable, but they do not show up in cut scenes properly yet. Even with player 1 as a main hero and player 2 as an extra hero, the in game cut scenes don't show the proper animations for both hero's. Some HUD elements might not show correctly with the extra heros as well (Sauron as player 2 shows his ammo hud for both players)
• Singleplayer/Co-op: Singleplayer is entirely unaffected by co op or versus mode except for the co op setting for double pickups. If the setting is enabled in the co op setting, it also applies in singleplayer. It is recommended to disable the setting while playing the base game, unless you prefer to have more health pickups.
• macOS (OpenGL) is still experimental
• Versus spawns are made random for each map, but sometimes a player can still get stuck in a spawn. A "reset game/round" setting has been added to the pause menu for when this occurs. It resets the entire match or the specific round while also putting both players in different spawns/locations.
• Enemies/random NPC's around versus maps don't respawn entirely if a match is reset. If they were killed off during one of the rounds, they will stay that way until returning to the main menu and starting the match again.

What's new in 1.9.8

Co-op fixes

• Player 2's own buttons: Options > Co-op Options > P2 Controls.
• Aiming: while a player holds LT, a dot over the enemy his lock is on (player 1 blue, player 2 amber). Arrows and thrown axes fly through allies and every hit counts.
• P2 bot improvements: it follows the levels' paths, keeps with the group and takes enemies in order.
• Menus: every controller works in the front-end menus;
• Extra heroes as player 2 are built and drawn in every level (before, certain extra heros would be missing in Fangorn Forest, and certain things would be unbreakable. Extra hero's (Sauron) would also sometimes be missing in the Westfold and with player 1 as Legolas), and their ranged blows wouldn't land.
• Explosives: player 2's shots set off the Westfold's bomb stacks and carts properly.

Fixes

• Sound after a long session: music, cut scene voices and some effects no longer go silent some forty minutes in.
• **Language support for co op and Versus menus
• Ultra textures no longer drop off the menus' text at times.

Known issues (1.9.8)

• Legolas can sometimes be unable to attack or gather fire on his torch during the Weathertop level in Co-Op
• Player 2's controller doesn't rumble yet.

Tested (1.9.8)

• Linux (OpenGL): co-op bot runs in the Westfold, Fangorn Forest and Balin's Tomb with extra and retail heroes as player 2.
• Windows: Played by hand on the author's PC.
• Windows, Linux and macOS builds compile.
• Not tested: the macOS build on a Mac.

What 1.9.7 added

Versus mode

Player 1 against player 2, one on one, on one PC. Main menu > Versus.

• Arenas: every level but Westfold: Weathertop, Balin's Tomb, Amon Hen, Fangorn Forest, the Gates of Moria, the Plains of Rohan, the Road to Helm's Deep, the Deeping Wall, the Breached Wall, Hornburg Courtyard, Orthanc, Orthanc's summit and the prologue.
• Heroes: Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and Isildur; with the Extra heroes mod also the seven extra heroes and three Versus-only exclusive hero's added: the Nazgul, a Shield Orc (his shield halves every blow until it breaks) and Eomer.
• Rounds: choose 3, 5 or 7 rounds to win. A countdown starts each round; the first to the rounds chosen wins, then a results screen (hits, damage, biggest hit, arrows on target, fastest round, awards).
• Fair fights: both heroes have the same health and every move. A guard breaks after four blocks in a row, kicks knock back but do almost no damage, ranged attacks lock on to the other (a step aside dodges them), and health and ammo pickups appear each round.
• Your saves stay yours: both players are at the top level for the match only. Your heroes' levels, experience and upgrades, and the extra heroes' records, are put back as they were when you leave Versus.
• Devices: as for co-op (Options > Co-op Options > P1 Device / P2 Device). With P2 Bot on, the game fights player 1.
• Its own menu background, results screen and sounds in the versus folder (menu_bg.bmp, results_bg.bmp, fight.wav, match_win.wav); add round_win.wav for a round won, or replace any of them with your own.

See COOP.md for the details.

Also new

• Achievements: 47, for the story and for Versus, noted in the corner as you earn them and listed on the F10 panel's Achievements page. They're kept in achievements.txt, only on your PC.
• Impossible difficulty: past Expert, any enemy's second blow fells you. It's right of Expert on the New Game's difficulty screen, or in Options > General Options, and works in co-op too.
• F10 > More: colour grading (Cinema, Rich, Shadow) and its amount, movie sharpness, pause or mute while the window is in the background, and achievements on or off.
• F9 hides the HUD; F8 (or F12, Print Screen) saves a screenshot in the Screenshots folder beside the game.

Co-op

• Camera: playing the levels with Camera Zoom (Options > Co-op Options) on Normal or Wide is recommended, so both heroes stay in view.

Fixes

• The Breached Wall at high frame rates: fire and blasts did their damage every frame, so above 60 fps the catapults broke the gate far too fast (at 500 fps within a minute). Their damage now adds up the same at any frame rate.
• Credits scroll at the same speed at any frame rate (above 30 fps they ran too fast).

Tested (1.9.7)

• Linux (OpenGL): Versus matches on the arenas with the P2 Bot and scripted input; the main menu's Co-op and Versus with the keyboard, the mouse and a lost press; the campaign's progress kept when the Versus menu opens and put back when it's left.
• Windows: Versus played by hand on the author's PC.
• Windows, Linux and macOS builds compile.
• Not tested: the macOS build on a Mac.

What 1.9.6 added

Couch co-op (alpha)

Co-op was in development for the main port when Volverine-Dude published their own implementation in the TooTawersRecomp-coop fork. 1.9.6 brings the two efforts together on top of 1.9.5, and this release is thanks in large part to their work. Thank you!

• Two players on one PC play the story levels together on one shared camera. Each has their own hero, controller, weapons, health, ammo, experience and upgrades.
• Starting: Main menu > Co-op > New Game or Load Game; then each player picks a hero (player 2 can't take player 1's).
• A hero who goes down comes back beside the other after a wait. Both down is a game over.
• After a level: each player's stats and shop in turn, then the save. Player 2's experience and purchases are saved with his hero.
• Co-op Options (Options, and the pause menu in a co-op game): Difficulty (Easy, Normal, Expert), Player Icons ("P1" / "P2" over the heroes), Camera Zoom (the camera zooms out as the heroes part), P2 Teleport, and P2 Bot (the game plays player 2).
• New in this release, on top of the fork:
  • Each player's device (Options > Co-op Options > P1 Device / P2 Device): Automatic, Keyboard & Mouse, or any controller connected. With one controller, player 1 takes the keyboard and mouse and player 2 the controller; with two, one each. The mouse steers and aims only for the keyboard's player.
  • Pickups: Double (default): each hero can take a health or ammo pickup once.
  • Co-op support for Linux and macOS (experimental) (settings for those platforms were not read there).

See COOP.md for the details.

Fixes

• Upgrade screen at high frame rates: the points count down at the same speed at any frame rate. Above 60 fps the count, and the purchase sound playing with it, were cut short.

Tested (1.9.6)

Windows: couch co-op played/tested through the first seven levels and Tower of Orthanc.

• Linux (OpenGL): co-op in Weathertop and Balin's Tomb with the P2 Bot and with scripted input for player 2 -- both heroes, the P1/P2 markers and the two-player HUD; player 2 on the keyboard (port 2) while player 1 stays still; Double pickups (player 2 refilled twice from one pickup); the Co-op Options page with the new rows.
• Windows, Linux and macOS builds compile.
• Not tested by hand: a second physical controller, Windows play, the macOS build on a Mac.

Known issues

- Visual bugs: Character shadow bug. Sometimes the character shadows can appear stretched out or stringy, especially for larger NPC's. Some visual bugs with lighting as well. With the extra heros mod enabled, replaying the second level can sometimes show an odd texture covering the top of the upgrades screen after completing the level. This can be fixed temporarily by turning the mod off.
    - Vulkan: If you get any black screens when using the Vulkan rendering option, switch back to DX11. Also make sure that the dxvk folder is in the same folder as the games executable.
- Extra Heroes: Kicking animations and their range during the Deepening level can be off. Kicking works fine against enemies, but some of the new characters have to be angled to the side to kick down the ladders. Again kicking works fine against enemies but not the ladders during this level. NPC's like Sauron, Frodo, and Lurtz can kick them just fine, but Elrond, Boromir, the Uruk and Gandalf may have some trouble and need to be angled to the side.
- Extra heroes: Sauron and Lurtz are too tall for the end-of-level upgrade screen and are cut off.
- Extra heroes: your hero takes Aragorn's place in the cutscenes; where his own character also appears (Boromir, Gandalf and Frodo in Balin's Tomb), such a scene shows him twice. Also when playing as characters that have new weapons and ranged attacks, some of those weapons may show up on other NPC's. This doesn't happen with the mod turned off.
- Extra heroes: Currently the models used for the upgrade menu in the in game pause menu show up mangled. The models in the actual upgrade screen after a level is completed appear normal and play their animations.
- Versus (1.9.7) is new: the arenas are the story levels without their enemies, so parts of the bigger maps can't be reached yet, and Amon Hen's arena ends 50 units from the start.
- Co-op is an alpha: play the levels with Camera Zoom on Normal or Wide. Head markers are dimmed, not hidden, behind walls (Direct3D 11 only); the P2 Bot can get stuck (the lake before the Gates of Moria's boss) and has trouble with the Watcher's tentacles.
- Widescreen is experimental: a few full-screen effects may not line up at the edges.
 - Chinese, Japanese and Korean use about 5–6 MB more of the game's memory for their letters; the largest levels load, but report anything that fails to load in those languages.
 - The "Loading..." picture and other text drawn into pictures stay English.
 - Versus: Most of the bigger maps in Versus mode can end up being cut off or not render properly after a certain point. It's recommended to keep fights in the playable area until the rest of the map can be used for future game modes.
 - FMV's can sometimes appear slow after alt-tabbing out of the game then back in. A temporary fix for this is to open the f10 menu or press start + back on controller and changing from borderless to fullscreen and back, or vice versa.
 - Versus/co op black screen: If you ever experience a black screen when clicking on co op from the main menu or starting a game in versus mode, wait a few seconds and then press select on keyboard/A on controller, then wait another second and press select or A again, and it will load you into the versus map. Press it too fast/soon and it will load the first level and its cutscene and you won't be able to skip it, so be careful. Once loaded into a versus game, backing out to the versus menu will not cause this problem to happen again when pressing "start".

Bug reports are welcome, especially for Mac and Linux users. Please include twotowers_log.txt, which is next to the game.

Screenshots and Gameplay:

<img width="3840" height="2160" alt="New folder (14) Screenshot 2026 10 24 - 02 00 33 07" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/35a356e3-651a-4a39-8d08-a72952829d13" /> <img width="3840" height="2160" alt="Screenshot 2026-10-16 11-55-43" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/5c4c73fe-d546-4551-bac5-64c1f05abbdd" /> <img width="3840" height="2160" alt="Screenshot 2026-10-16 11-56-39" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/d4c031fa-852d-4448-95fd-0143d080b8d5" /> <img width="3840" height="2160" alt="Screenshot 2026-10-16 11-56-43" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/882c535a-8f86-4078-a121-a02b1fd3760e" /> <img width="3840" height="2160" alt="Screenshot 2026-10-16 11-56-56" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b96fb9ba-cd0e-4372-a379-3bebd560968e" />

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/5f94968f-4495-4255-bf60-1e4cf17cf93e

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/449a0282-e7a1-411b-b408-3d6efe263bc8

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ac6a6be2-0a31-4150-a950-2fe51930cd3e

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b3eb1f43-a06b-4e18-8734-1e3cc1443df6

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/00546d04-6453-4923-9260-b53e81e554df

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/5fd31b9a-4d86-4f92-b8f9-b0e9238b8d4b

<img width="3840" height="2160" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/1b11ae21-d9d8-495d-a56b-872ac8aaf93b" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" alt="New folder (8) Screenshot 2026 10 16 - 11 50 36 24" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/cd27127e-3580-4620-928b-2710676de681" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" alt="New folder (8) Screenshot 2026 10 16 - 12 16 28 12" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/5e621dc1-031b-4191-b3af-47542d20ac47" /> <img width="4608" height="1296" alt="Untitled3" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c9254d2a-92aa-44ca-8b0d-40faea7f567a" /> <img width="4608" height="1408" alt="Untitle33d" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e4df0b16-506f-488c-ad76-4aafbfaf8b5f" /> <img width="3840" height="2160" alt="Screenshot 2026-10-16 12-00-37" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/11b96e05-570a-4d35-ad20-39f3a484b7af" />

Building from source

The game's code is not included. You translate it from your own copy of the game, then compile it. Nothing leaves your machine.

You need: Python 3.10+, CMake 3.20+ and Ninja, plus a compiler for your platform (below).

1. Translate the game (every platform). Point it at your extracted disc folder or its default.xbe. It checks that the file is the USA retail game and takes a few minutes:

python generate.py "path/to/extracted/game"

2. Build for your platform:

• Windows: install llvm-mingw and put its bin folder on your PATH, then run:

  cmake -S twotowers -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++
  cmake --build build
  

  This gives you build/twotowers_recomp.exe and build/The Two Towers Recompiled.exe. Copy both into a folder, together with SDL2.dll and the folders from a release download (dxvk, lang, textures_ultra, …). Cross-compiling from Linux or WSL (how the releases are made): with llvm-mingw on your PATH, configure with -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=$PWD/xboxrecomp-0.12.0/cmake/mingw-w64-x86_64.cmake instead of the two compiler options.

• Linux: install a compiler and SDL2's development files, e.g. sudo apt install build-essential cmake ninja-build libsdl2-dev (on Fedora: sudo dnf install gcc-c++ cmake ninja-build SDL2-devel), then run:

  cmake -S twotowers -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
  cmake --build build
  

  This gives you build/twotowers_recomp and build/twotowers-setup. Put them in a folder with twotowers/linux/TwoTowers.sh and run that.

• macOS (Intel, or Apple silicon through Rosetta 2): install the Xcode command line tools (xcode-select --install), then brew install cmake ninja sdl2 python. On Apple silicon, SDL2 must come from an x86-64 Homebrew: arch -x86_64 /usr/local/bin/brew install sdl2. Then run:

  sh twotowers/macos/build-macos.sh
  

  It builds into build-macos/TwoTowers-Recompiled, with SDL2 copied into lib. Double-click TwoTowers.command there.

3. Play: on first start the game asks for your disc image, or copy your extracted game into game_files beside the program.