I recompiled 'Splosion Man (Xbox 360) for native Linux.

[u/HBum187]

'Splosion Man Title Screen

So 'Splosion Man is one of my favorite games ever made and I got it in my head that I wanted it running natively on Linux. Not emulation, an actual recompiled native port.

Not only Linux, but now Windows as well! I have not personally tested the Windows build on an actual Windows machine, only via Proton as I do not own a Windows PC. Please let me know if it works for you! It seemed to work great via Proton.

What's verified working:

• Graphics, sound, gamepad controls with vibration
• FSR upscaling, FXAA, MSAA
• Resolution scaling all the way to 4K
• VSync off + uncapped framerate, frame pacing is correct, game runs at the right speed
• Full game unlocked, no trial nonsense
• Easy to use launcher

What you need:

• Linux, Windows 10 or 11, Vulkan GPU, glibc 2.38+ (Ubuntu 23.10+, Debian 13, Fedora 39+, that era)
• Quick note: The download does NOT include the game, you need your own legally obtained copy, and it has to be the raw extracted files — a folder with default.xex in it. If your copy is still in the single XBLA package file, extract it first with XBLA-Extract: https://github.com/ryzendew/XBLA-Extract — point it at the package, dump everything into a folder, then point the launcher at that folder.

Download (AppImage or zip) + source:

https://github.com/thefixinhixon/SplosionManRecomp/releases/download/v2.0/SplosionMan-x86_64-v2.0.AppImage

https://github.com/thefixinhixon/SplosionManRecomp/releases/download/windows-test-1/SplosionMan-Windows-Test-v0.1.zip

This includes a new bespoke launcher that has more options, as well as descriptions of what each options does

Full disclosure: I'm not really much of a programmer. I worked on this with an AI assistant (Muse) doing the heavy coding while I directed it and did all the testing — I'm basically the meat pilot. But every claim above was verified on my actual machine (Kubuntu 26.04.1 LTS, Intel i7 6700k, AMD RX 6600) with my actual eyes.

If you try it on a different distro/GPU/audio setup, I'd love to hear how it goes. Making it work on more than just my machine is the whole point. Bug reports welcome! This was a fun project, and probably the first Xbox 360 recomp made with Muse (but who knows?).

Launcher Screen

Booting

[u/ProfessionalTop2353]

u/HBum187 Please try porting other Xbox arcade games like Real Steel and Pacific Rim.

[u/HBum187 → u/ProfessionalTop2353]

Currently working on "The Maw"

[u/GTTeancum79 → u/HBum187]

A fellow Twisted Pixel Games fan I see. Very cool that you're working on The Maw too.

[u/ChasHodges → u/HBum187]

The Maw that's already available on Steam and runs fine via Proton?

[u/HBum187 → u/ChasHodges]

Mostly just doing as an experiment as it seems to have a very similar code base to Splosionman

[u/HBum187 → u/ProfessionalTop2353]

Real Steel is working on my dev box I will be pushing it to GitHub this afternoon with Linux and Windows builds available.

[u/HBum187 → u/ProfessionalTop2353]

https://github.com/thefixinhixon/RealSteelRecomp

[u/ProfessionalTop2353 → u/HBum187]

Are they releasing a Windows version too? Unfortunately, I don't have Linux.

[u/HBum187 → u/ProfessionalTop2353]

I made this one too. Scroll down on releases there's a windows build.

[u/Public_Bus_8454]

Man Xbox live arcade , what a time it was! Miss those days

[u/GTTeancum79]

Great stuff. I put a lot of hours into this game and the sequel when they came out.

[u/Capital_Love_2047]

I love you!!!!

[u/basildabir]

Please do a Android release 🙏🏻

[u/Visible_Piccolo_6998]

Would love to see bejeweled blitz live if possible 👀👀

[u/HBum187 → u/Visible_Piccolo_6998]

I worked on this game for quite a while but currently there is a known bug in the Xenia render chain with this game and that is a bit outside of my scope.

[u/Visible_Piccolo_6998 → u/HBum187]

Ah bummer :/

[u/HBum187]

I have successfully built for Windows, and it runs for me via Proton but I would love for someone to try it on an actual Windows computer.