VCS Recomp (GTA: Vice City Stories native PC port)

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories came out on PSP in 2006 and on PS2 in 2007, and never on PC. VCS Recomp’s repository went public on 30 October 2026 with two releases the same day; it had about 160 GitHub stars and some 2,000 downloads a day later. It joins the Liberty City Stories PC port, which recompiles the other “Stories” game from the PSP.

This site is not affiliated with the developer, Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.

What it is

• A static recompilation: the game’s PS2 executable is recompiled into about 200 MB of C++ with a vendored copy of PS2Recomp, then compiled for 64-bit Windows or Linux.
• The PS2 replaced on the PC: a native renderer draws the 3D world, characters, vehicles, HUD and menus with Direct3D 11 on Windows and Vulkan on Linux; movies are decoded with FFmpeg.
• Built on your PC: the build reads the executable from your disc, and the finished game reads everything else from the disc while it runs. The repository and releases contain no game code or data.

Features

The defaults are the PS2 game except the frame rate. Everything else is an option in the F2 menu:

• Frame rate: 60 fps by default with frame-rate independent timing, or 100 to 240 fps, your display’s refresh rate, or the original 30.
• Widescreen: Hor+ 16:10, 16:9, 21:9 and 32:9, with the HUD kept at 4:3, moved to the edges or stretched.
• Image quality: internal resolution up to 8x, MSAA up to 8x and 16x anisotropic filtering.
• Controls: keyboard, mouse look on foot, gamepads through SDL3 with rumble, and full rebinding.
• A built-in trainer (F5): god mode, weapons, spawning any of the 110 vehicles, teleports, starting any of the 59 story missions, weather and time. Nothing from it is saved.
• A launcher that also backs up saves, makes a shortcut and checks for new releases when you ask.

Current status

The project’s progress notes say a smoke test starts all 95 missions without a crash, and that a player tested missions at 60 and 100 fps. The README warns that some behaviour at high frame rates is still being fixed. The open issues on 31 October 2026 include builds that stop at “Compiling the game” or at the MIPS-to-C++ step, Vic falling off the Ferris wheel at 60 fps, invisible fire particles and a build failure with one disc version. v0.0.2 fixed builds that failed with only Visual Studio’s Build Tools installed, and builds stuck in a loop in time zones behind the release’s. We didn’t play it ourselves.

What you need

• Your own Vice City Stories: the USA PS2 disc (SLUS-21590) as an .iso. We don’t explain how to obtain or copy game data.
• Windows: the launcher installs Microsoft’s free C++ build tools if needed (about 6 GB; Windows asks for permission). The release brings its own Python.
• Linux: Python 3, Git, clang 19 or newer with lld, and the SDL3 and FFmpeg development packages (the build lists what is missing), plus a Vulkan 1.3 driver.
• Room for the build in a short local folder, not Program Files or a OneDrive-synced folder.

How it installs (overview)

From the README, at a high level: download the Windows zip from the official Releases page, extract it to a short local folder and start VCSLauncher.exe. It walks through four steps: choose folders, pick your disc, install the build tools, and build. Then press Play. On Linux, and on Windows by hand, you run the project’s Python build script instead. Saves go to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VCSRecomp on Windows and ~/.local/share/VCSRecomp on Linux.

Vice City Stories and the other GTA ports here

• Liberty City Stories on PC: the other “Stories” game, recompiled from the PSP version.
• Vice City in the browser and quenq’s Vice City: the 2002 game, not Vice City Stories.
• GTA IV from the Xbox 360: another static recompilation of a console GTA.

Is it official, and will it stay up?

• No, it is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.
• We found no takedown when we checked on 31 October 2026. Take-Two has acted against GTA fan projects before, including the re3 and reVC source ports in 2021, so it may not stay up.
• Get it only from gothamor/gta-vcs-recomp. Downloads elsewhere that include the game are not this project.

Not working?

The README has a problems table for the usual build errors (missing Visual Studio parts, a disc that is not the USA release, CMake downloads). python tools/doctor.py checks everything at once, and python tools/report.py zips the logs for a bug report on the issue tracker. For every other native port we track, see the recompiled games list.

Unofficial. This page is written by an independent directory. It is not made by, endorsed by or affiliated with Rockstar Games or gothamor (VCS Recomp (GTA: Vice City Stories native PC port)'s author). We do not host any files, and we never link to game files, ROMs or ISOs.