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Thursday 17 September 2015

SILENT HILL: THE ARCADE


For 15 years, Silent Hill has proudly remained on the creepier end of the survival horror spectrum. It is also one of the most successful, despite what Konami's woeful cancellation of the highly promising Silent Hills may tell you (did you get the Playable Teaser on PS4 before they took it down?). In 2007, they brought the series to the arcades with this light gun shooter.

Light guns shooters come with their own tropes and design staples which are the antithesis of what a survival horror aims to be. When playing Silent Hill, you are constantly on edge, waiting for that inevitable ghoul to jump out. All the while you're worrying if you have enough elusive ammo to survive such an encounter. You spend more time fearing the fight that actually fighting it. You also juggle a lot of keys.

Add a gun and a loud, busy arcade and this slow pace won't fly. Because of this Silent Hill: The Arcade has a very different feeling. There's no limit on the ammunition, there's no room for exploration with such linear paths and those hideous encounters are so frequent and unmenacing they will no longer haunt your dreams. These games are meant to be filled with frenetic quick-play action which leaves room for very little else.

Another step backwards is in the voice acting. Resident Evil may be known for its Jill sandwiches, the master of unlocking and other vocal gems that are just a cheesy, but Konami's misty town had far more thought and talent put behind it's acting and script. At a time when truly bad acting in FMV games were a thing, this made it stand out, elevating it to one of the scariest interactive experiences even to this day. The arcade game didn't care so much for the acting or dialogue, perhaps believing that it's expected of games of this type. What it actually does is make it feel more like SEGA's B-movie inspired The House of the Dead than the psychological horror of Silent Hill.

Silent Hill: The Arcade may suffer something of an identity crisis, but that doesn't mean the game itself isn't any good. I had a lot of fun playing through the game however, there's nothing here that hasn't been done better in SEGA's seminal series. By including the franchise's signature heavy fog, it has a side effect of making the game much easier. No monsters can be too far away or else they'd be rendered invisible. Instead, they pop up in front of you covering nearly the whole screen like some poorly dressed carnie on a cheap haunted house ride. Originally this mist was a way to hide any graphical glitches due to the technical limitations of the original PlayStation, but here it just makes these areas look a little dull and ugly.

Nevertheless, it does have a dedicated fanbase. Konami, in an earlier example of why they hate their audience (see the Kojima controversy), wouldn't ever bring it to any home system. In 2014 a talented group of people known as Insert More Coins (more details here) did what its makers would never do: port it to the PC. For a freely distributed amateur effort, it does a superb job of recreating the arcade game whose sightings in the wild become ever more infrequent. The resolution may be limited to 480p (they're working on that) but impressively there's no noticeable slowdown or graphical glitches. You can even repurpose your Nintendo Wiimote as a makeshift light gun (though it takes some technical know-how). The only major negative about this port is that it is single-player only, a function that would take more time and skill to implement than this talented team would have for the time being.

Due to there being very little documentation on this game, I thought I'd take a moment to describe the controls. They're just as basic as any other PC port of such games with the mouse and its left button acting as your gun. The right mouse button will pause the game, with the space bar acting as a turbo switch. Once your done, press ESC to exit. In a similar way to House of the Dead, there are different routes you can take and a multitude of ending - including the hidden WTF ending that's become a series staple since the second instalment.

If you press start without any conception of what a Silent Hill game should be, you may find a lot to like about this entry that seems destined to be forgotten. It's a fun, short diversion and a curious attempt to do something different with a named franchise. It's just so disappointing that there's nothing new beyond this.


To download the game, follow the link below. This is a custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber will run natively on modern systems. Tested on Windows 10.
  12.04.2019 - Ver.2 - Added patch to work on Windows 10 (thanks to anonymous commenter)
                       (Version 1 can be downloaded here)

File Size: 1.97 Gb.  Install Size: 3.04 Gb.  Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

Download


Silent Hill: The Arcade is © Konami
Review, Cover Design and Installer created by me


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83 comments:

  1. Thank you for this ... some viewer ask me about this ... hehe , never knew this existed

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    Replies
    1. You're welcome hfric. I'd not heard of it until I found it on a random page. It's a shame it's not working too well under Windows 10. Thankfully I enjoyed a playthough before updating.

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  2. Can you post instructions on how to get it working on Windows 8?

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    1. I'm afraid since upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 7, I've not been able to get this to work (and I've tried). I've never had Windows 8, but I guess it's the same problem. Unlike older arcade games that can be emulated through MAME, this uses a Windows based PC that's custom build for this specific game. The majority of more modern arcade games do this. Since my original post, I've come to learn that playing it on your home PC is very much dependent on the type of PC you have.

      Sorry I couldn't be more help.

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    2. You can find more info on this game at the Silent Hill community.

      http://silenthillcommunity.com/viewtopic.php?f=3341&t=436115&sid=05f0b06cf34eaefdafbd2ef9ce05380e&start=20

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    3. That's a real shame. Every time I've tried starting it up, my entire screen turns blue with a message box named ahk0.ahk saying something about "TODO: has stopped working". It leaves me no choice but to reset my computer and the mouse cursor is a crosshair.

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  3. hi, i liked this game, but ever i in the mission of the hospital i have a bug. Someone can help me to this??

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  4. I cant see the monster. just only shadow :((

    can you help me?

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    Replies
    1. Hello. I'm afraid I can no longer provide help for this game. It was designed for a specific Windows set up (like most modern arcade games) that was compatible with my previous rig. I can no longer play it at all and I suspect the issues you are facing is down to this reason.

      You can find more info on this game at the Silent Hill community.

      http://silenthillcommunity.com/viewtopic.php?f=3341&t=436115&sid=05f0b06cf34eaefdafbd2ef9ce05380e&start=20

      Delete
  5. No Chance to get it Work on Windows 10 x64? I testet it on Vm Virtualbox Windows 7 32bit, but its not startet, too.

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  6. Wouldn't work right on Windows 7 either. Not your fault, I know. Tried the official release of it and set it up manually and still the exact same problems. Eventually just run into invisible and invincible enemies that just leave you unable to advance. Oh well. Someday someone will release a proper version of the game maybe.

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    Replies
    1. The problem with this one is that it needs a very specific PC to run - one I just so happened to have when I played it (but no longer). It's an arcade game designed for an exact PC rig so any deviation from that and it sadly won't work.

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    2. @Biffman 101 ..running fine on Win10x64, just needs the dll-patch listed in the description of this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whouS2toluE

      Fix SHAdll_W10-64_v1.7z (Password: MOHKERZ)
      Enjoy!!

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    3. Oh hell yeah! It works well and everything. I'm going to clean up the installer and get an update.

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    4. I've just updated to version 2. Thanks for the info!

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    5. yo ! the video is no longer available, could you post the link to the dll-patch here please ?

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  7. It says press Start nothing does anything only Esc kills the game!

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    1. config.bat use 1-9 keyboard keys for all things

      THANK YOU!

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    2. I dont see the config.bat file anywhere. Could you provide more detail? I can get it running but nothing registers as the start button.

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    3. Can someone please say how exactly map the controls in config.bat file? The file is empty, I can't click anything in the game.

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  8. Wish can pause >.< Enter service menu and starts over

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  9. I knew that patch was too good to be true. I've looked around and it looks to be a codec issue, but I've yet to sort it out. All the suggestions I found didn't work - at least for me.

    http://www.emuline.org/topic/337-arcade-pc-silent-hill-the-arcade-konami-ttx/?page=4

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yo. Trojan:Win32/Tiggre!plock is setting my antivirus off. It's in Game Loader All RH.exe of the game. False alarm? Sounds like it's not working well anyways.

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    Replies
    1. It is a false alarm, and one I only encountered recently with the second repack. I keep going round in circles with this game. 1 step forward and 2 back - like I'm in my own Silent Hill-like pergatory.

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  11. The game crashes to desktop in the Brookhaven Hospital, around 5:16 is exactly where it crashes for me(video is a reference) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93Oc5CljxHE. Also their's an issue with the mouse cursor being on the screen always in busy mode ( I used the no cursor exe).

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    1. I'm using windows 10 X64

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    2. UPDATE: I used the K-lite Codec Pack and it seems to work past the post it previously crashed at. If their's anymore issues I'll report it.

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    3. I downloaded the codec park but now cutscenes have no video and it will crash after them. Any advice? I could previously make it to the hospital crash without issues.

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  12. Awesome game!

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  13. Replies
    1. Kinda yes, kinda no. It appears to be reliant on your hardware and graphics card IIRC but the last I played it with the new patch it seemed to run fine fine.

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  14. Ive been trying to run it on Windows 10 with the new patch, I keep running into the invisible enemy glitch. Is there anyway i can get this working on windows 10 (x64) Ive done k-lite and i got all the right additions. I'd hate for it to be a graphics card issue because i have no other comp. My card is a geforce gtx 720ti.

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    1. I'm afraid that unless there's new info out there or a new emulator or program that I'm unaware of, the compatibility for this one is out of my control at the moment. It's the black sheep of the site and I fear it would take someone with more time and programming skills than I to fix.

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    2. No that's understandable, thank you so much for your time and efforts put towards this project. I hope it does get more support in the future one way or another. Also I hope this whole thing hasn't been too stressful!

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    3. Funnily enough, the site and channel in and of itself hasn't been that stressful. The stuff around it has, but I guess everyone's feeling that at the moment.

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  15. Having trouble with finding which button is the start button.

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    1. '1' is the start button for player 1, and '2' for player 2. '5' and '6' add coins for each player respectively but I believe I may have put the game on freeplay mode.

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    2. When I press one nothing happens, am I missing something?

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    3. I'm getting the same thing. I'm guessing it's our GPUs? I've heard you want to use integrated graphics

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  16. When I start it just says Coins = 0 and credits = 0. Am I missing something or is it just not gonna work on my PC?

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    Replies
    1. That means it's not set to freeplay. You can run config.bat to re-assign keyboard shortcuts. When you launch the game press the TEST button (T) to enter the service menu. Press TEST again to cycle the options until you get to Coin Usage, then press ther SERVICE button (S) to select and again to turn Freeplay on. Checking the most recent package again, Enter was the START button so apologies for the confusion there.

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    2. I've set the Keyboard shortcuts to the one's you said (tried 1 and 2 too) and nothing happens. When I load up the game text appears for a split second then disappears.

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  17. Thanks very much for this! Was simple enough to setup using the README file that was included. However, I'm using the no cursor exe but I still get the windows 'busy' cursor on screen. Is there any known fix for this? I'm using win10 x64

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  18. I was just wondering, do you download all the files in the mega, or just "Install-SAR_v2.exe"?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello. You download all of the them. The install exe file gets data from them. Basically, they're split for ease of download.

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  19. Also had two more short questions, is the game not supposed to have an aim reticle and also the right click game pause isn't working for me. Otherwise everything works great, cutscenes and audio play fine so far.

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    1. Hi, the arcade game itself doesn't have a reticle. It would've originally used the guns. The third-party Loader I use to get it running does add one, but the compatibility is a bit iffy to the point that I've not seen it since upgrading to Windows 10. Arcade games from when this game was released were programmed for a Windows PC with specific bespoke hardware which is why Windows may run it as is, but the result varies wildly on different machines. The Loader attempts to trick the game into recognising the hardware by using 'hooks' but it doesn't emulate it like something like MAME would do. A long-winded answer but I hope it explains things a little. Basically, this is a troublesome game to run and is the best I can make it for now.

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    2. Okay thank you so much!

      Delete
  20. Hi! I was just wondering but is it possible that I could run this game on windowed mode? I'm not sure what to do but I really wanna change the resolution of the game as well as set it to run on windowed so that i'm a ble to stream it to my friends =)

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    1. Sadly not. It was designed for arcades so the usual options for PC gaming aren't there. Until an emulator like MAME can run it, I suspect your best bet would be to play with a third party app like DxWnd, but that could break it just as much as fix it.

      Delete
    2. Noted, thanks =)
      I was also wondering but is there a way to fix the invisible enemies? I've been trying a lot of things but there are parts in the game which make one or two of the enemies in the screen invisible, and i'm not sure what else I could do because the furthest i made it was into the carnival area and there was a invisible robbie rabbit I couldn't kill and it wouldn't despawn

      Delete
  21. since Windows 11 announced, will there be an updated file to make it compatible to the new Windows 11? Also, since the Wii and PS3 is outdated tech, will there ever be a Wii or PS3 port?

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  22. Hello, how to play the game on MAME?

    For what have the 5 .bin archives?

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    Replies
    1. I can`t download with Mega, have limited download quantity.

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  23. the intaller of the game has a trojan in it :\

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    Replies
    1. It's a false positive caused by the programs within it. Read the point about setup in the TeknoParrot homepage.

      https://teknogods.github.io/getstarted.html

      Delete
  24. Hey, i have a problem, when i start the game show me a message what say fix mouse, someone can help me?

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  25. Thanks for this!
    Never knew this was a thing, works fine.
    Shame it crashes in the hospital

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    Replies
    1. installing the klite codec fixed it, thanks again for this gem!

      Delete
  26. Hi. The game crashes in the hospital because windows 10 cannot read mpeg 2 cutscenes. In data/movie, I found that 6 files are mpeg 2, the others are xvid/mp4 and are ok AFAIK.
    Either install some codec or you can convert the following files to Xvid (no audio) with an online service such as https://convertio.co or something: A_PART.vid A_PARTa.vid B_PART.vid B_PARTa.vid C_PART.vid C_PARTa.vid.
    My antivirus thinks that the loader is a trojan so I choose not to use it. I start the game with KSHG_no_cursor.exe instead.

    Thanks a lot for this great game!

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  27. Data\eng\Movie\playdemo.vid et playdemo_mild.vid are also MPEG-2 and make the attract mode crash on Windows 10. They can be converted to Xvid without audio in the same fashion.

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  28. Maybe Aliens Armageddon can be a request for your curiosity?

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  29. you guys need to install a specific video codec patch for this game. google : Fix Silent Hill the arcade Codec

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  30. This is amazing , just found out about this . Amazing and fantastic work and props to the people behind this PC port .

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  31. Not working as of 2022. The game will start but there is no button configuration avalible. None of the buttons do anything and pressing T as stated above does nothing.

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    1. Update: I got the controls to work but it crashes sometime in the hospital area. Not sure how to get this to work at that point.

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    2. something kicking me and nothing?

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    3. I've also gotten the game working on Windows 10, but it always crashes somewhere in the hospital, no matter which of the branching paths you take. It's really a shame because I wanted to play this all the way through. I've never seen it in the wild so I was really interested. Oh well, hopefully they fix it.

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    4. i remember when i saw mark penwarden's video about playing SHA standalone, to fix the hospital crash, just download the K-Lite Codec Pack 1605 full version.
      that works to me

      Delete
  32. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  33. Just wanted to say thank you. CONFIRMED WORKING in 2022 on Windows 10 21H2 x64.
    If you have issues just copy GameLoader ALL RH 379 to the installed folder and use YouTube to customize it to your liking.

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  34. hello,
    I have a problem and it is that at a point in the game there is an invisible and invincible enemy and I can only hear it, does anyone know a solution?

    The other thing is that if I delete the "Game Loader All RH" file the game continues to work but the scenes change, if I play with that same file the scenes are different

    I have seen several gameplays and it seems that there are 2 versions of the game, does anyone know why that is?

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  35. is the 2nd version standalone?

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    Replies
    1. update
      yes it's standalone
      and i didn't crashed at pyramid head scene.
      if u crashed at that scene, just download K-Lite Codec Pack 1605 full version.
      don't download higher or lower version of it.
      just download the 1605 full version.

      Delete
  36. Can you get castlevania the arcade please

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  37. unfortunately I can't even get the application to run

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  38. O.K. and how i set higher resolution - i need 1080p or higher.When my gpu see 480p no signal to monitor...

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  39. windows 11, the game won't start it's just blank and i got back to my desktop after opening it for like 10 seconds:( any solutions perhaps? thanks

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