Knuckles' Chaotix Recompiled 0.3.5 - Windows x64
https://github.com/YuutaTsubasa/ChaotixRecompiled

YOU STILL NEED YOUR OWN ROM
---------------------------
This is not the game and it will not run on its own. It contains the game's
code, statically recompiled into native x86-64, and none of the game's data:
no graphics, no music, no level data, no ROM image.

Start it without a ROM and it stops at the setup screen. You need your own,
legally obtained copy of Knuckles' Chaotix (Japan, USA) for the Sega 32X,
SHA-1 0c2fff7bc79ed26507c08ac47464c3af19f7ced7, which it checks.

This download cannot and will not obtain one for you.

HOW TO USE IT
-------------
1. Run ChaotixRecompiled.exe.
2. The setup page lists ROMs it can find in the usual folders (Downloads,
   Documents, an __ROM__ folder next to the exe). You can also drag a ROM
   onto the window, or press O to browse.
3. Pick yours and choose Install. It is copied into the app's own folder, so
   later launches go straight into the menu.

WHAT IS NEW IN 0.3.5
--------------------
Fixes ROM installation and startup recovery (Issue #4).
Dragging a verified ROM onto the EXE now installs it for later launches.
Unknown ROMs are rejected without replacing a working installation.
Older invalid installs return to setup; use Browse to select a verified ROM.
Errors show the selected path and actual/expected SHA-1 when available.

FEATURES
--------------------
A front end of its own. The menu is up as soon as the program starts, with
the game's title art beside the list: START GAME, TIME ATTACK, OPTIONS,
CONTROLS, AWARDS, QUIT. START GAME hands the game over exactly as pressing
Start on the console would, so nothing the original offers is out of reach.

TIME ATTACK drops you straight into any level. Knuckles' Chaotix carries a
complete stage-select screen that the shipped game never reaches, and the page
offers what that screen does: the place, the level, the time of day, both
characters, and one or two players. Two players really is two players - the
partner reads the second controller. Best times are kept per stage, and the
clock stops where the game stops its own, so a record reads the same as the
time you saw when you finished.

CONTROLS gives each player its own device and its own bindings, keyboard and
gamepad separately, and says what each button does in this game. Twenty-two
achievements now, including one for each of the seven characters.

WHAT "RECOMPILED" MEANS HERE
----------------------------
The 68000 and both SH-2 processors' game code was translated ahead of time
into C++ and compiled for your machine. It is not an emulator interpreting
instructions one at a time. The translation is validated against a reference
interpreter frame by frame - every register, memory write and cycle count has
to match, across runs of 36,000 frames.

Read LEGAL.md before redistributing this. In short: the binary holds a
translation of Sega's code, it is inert without your own ROM, and the legal
standing of shipping it is not settled.

CONTROLS
--------
Arrows          D-pad
Z / X / C       A / B / C          (C jumps; B holds your partner still;
A / S / D       X / Y / Z           A pulls the partner in for ten rings)
Enter           Start
Esc             Menu (on a pad, the button set under CONTROLS - the left
                stick click to start with)
F2              Aspect ratio
F6              True widescreen on/off
F7              Achievements
F11             Fullscreen
Tab (hold)      Fast-forward
F12             Screenshot

X, Y, Z and Mode do nothing: this is a three-button game, and pressing them
changes neither the picture nor the game's state.

Gamepads work through SDL. Settings, saves and the installed ROM live in your
user data folder; --user-dir DIR keeps them next to the exe instead. Each
time attack run is also recorded there as SaveData/last_run.txt - pad
readings only - which is what a recorded time can be checked against.

LICENCE
-------
The project's own code is MIT (LICENSE). The bundled Inter font is under the
SIL Open Font License and SDL3/SDL_ttf under Zlib; see THIRD_PARTY.md. None
of that grants you any rights to Knuckles' Chaotix itself.
