In the Hunt
| Developers | |
|---|---|
| Irem | |
| Windows | Tsuji Jimusho |
| Windows | XING Entertainment |
| Publishers | |
| GameBank | |
| Release dates | |
| Windows | March 27, 1997 |
| Taxonomy | |
| Monetization | One-time game purchase |
| Modes | Singleplayer, Multiplayer |
| Pacing | Real-time |
| Perspectives | Side view, Scrolling |
| Controls | Direct control |
| Genres | Arcade, Shooter |
| Vehicles | Naval/watercraft |
| Art styles | Pixel art |
| Themes | Sci-fi |
In the Hunt[Note 1] is a singleplayer and multiplayer side view scrolling shooter game developed by Irem.
It was originally released on Arcade in 1993. It was later ported to PlayStation and Sega Saturn by Tsuji Jimusho and SIMS Co., Ltd. respectively, and released by XING Entertainment and Imagineer respectively in Japan and by Kokopeli Digital in North America and Europe for both versions.
The game was ported to PC by Tsuji Jimusho and XING, and released by GameBank in Japan on March 27, 1997. The PC version, despite being based on the PlayStation port, is notable for having slight graphical downgrade compared to prior ports, mainly decreased color depth and missing palette effects in some stages.
The game's installer was written for a 16-bit system and doesn't run on a modern OS, requiring workarounds such as running 32-bit InstallShield 3 software to install the game (which doesn't create desktop or start menu shortcuts for the game). Decreased color depth in certain stages can be fixed with a mod.
Availability
| Source | DRM | Notes | Keys | OS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail | Drive letter independent CD-Check |
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
| System | Location |
|---|---|
| Windows | HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Gamebank\海底大戦争\[Note 2] |
Video
| Graphics feature | State | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Widescreen resolution | The game is a 640x480 full screen 256 colors game. Aspect ratio is dependent upon monitor settings. | ||
| Multi-monitor | The game does not crash in case more than one monitor is connected. | ||
| Ultra-widescreen | |||
| 4K Ultra HD | |||
| Field of view (FOV) | |||
| Windowed | DxWnd can be used for windowing, however there is a bugged palette use. Mileage may vary depending on OS and settings. | ||
| Borderless fullscreen windowed | |||
| Anisotropic filtering (AF) | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
| Anti-aliasing (AA) | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
| High-fidelity upscaling | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
| Vertical sync (Vsync) | The game renders at 30FPS, Tearing is noticeable on occasion | ||
| 60 FPS and 120+ FPS | |||
| High dynamic range display (HDR) | |||
| Color blind mode | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
Input
| Keyboard and mouse | State | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Remapping | The setup program started by autorun hosts a remapping option | |
| Mouse sensitivity | ||
| Mouse acceleration | ||
| Mouse input in menus | ||
| Keyboard and mouse prompts | ||
| Mouse Y-axis inversion | ||
| Controller | ||
| Controller support | First controller ID available is used | |
| Full controller support | ||
| Controller remapping | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | |
| Controller sensitivity | ||
| Controller Y-axis inversion |
| Controller types |
|---|
| XInput-compatible controllers | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. |
|---|
| DirectInput-compatible controllers |
|---|
| PlayStation controllers | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. |
|---|
| Nintendo controllers |
|---|
| Other controller(s) | The game is compatible with any controller detected by windows with digital directional input (as joy up, down, left, right). | |
|---|---|---|
| Additional button prompts |
| Additional information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Controller hotplugging | ||
| Input prompt override | ||
| Haptic feedback | ||
| Simultaneous controller+KB/M |
Audio
| Audio feature | State | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Separate volume controls | ||
| Surround sound | ||
| Subtitles | ||
| Closed captions | ||
| Mute on focus lost | ||
| Royalty free audio |
Localizations
| Language | UI | Audio | Sub | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | Setup and Help are in Japanese, in-game menus are in english. Game text is mostly in English, with exception for the ending which is in Japanese. |
Network
Multiplayer types
| Type | Native | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local play | |||
| LAN play | |||
| Online play | |||
| Asynchronous multiplayer | |||
Connection types
| Type | Native | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Matchmaking | ||
| Peer-to-peer | ||
| Dedicated | ||
| Self-hosting | ||
| Direct IP |
Issues unresolved
Unable to remap controls
- The InstallShield 16bits program cannot be executed on modern systems, the installation procedure cannot be fully completed, and the option to remap the game cannot be activated.
The issue cannot be corrected by registry manipulation, the game fails to read the registry values, whereas on Windows XP and lower, it can. For reference, the default registry entries:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Gamebank\海底大戦争\1.0]
"OPT_LEFT1"=dword:00000046
"OPT_UP1"=dword:00000054
"OPT_RIGHT1"=dword:00000048
"OPT_DOWN1"=dword:00000047
"OPT_MISSILE1"=dword:0000005a
"OPT_TORPEDO1"=dword:00000058
"OPT_LEFT2"=dword:00000025
"OPT_UP2"=dword:00000026
"OPT_RIGHT2"=dword:00000027
"OPT_DOWN2"=dword:00000028
"OPT_MISSILE2"=dword:000000bc
"OPT_TORPEDO2"=dword:000000be
"OPT_MUSIC"=dword:00000001
"OPT_CDR"=dword:00000000
"OPT_SOUND"=dword:00000001
Issues fixed
Unable to Install
|
Decompress the game using an InstallShield decompressor, for example icomp95.
Command line (assuming D as CD-ROM drive) : icomp d:\Setup\data.z c:\KAITEI\*.* -d -i |
|---|
Garbled Graphics and Weird colors
|
Use a DDraw wrapper like Aqrit's ddwrapper.
Settings for aqrit's ddwrapper: RealDDrawPath = AUTO BltMirror = 0 BltNoTearing = 0 ColorFix = 1 DisableHighDpiScaling = 0 FakeVsync = 0 FakeVsyncInterval = 0 ForceBltNoTearing = 0 ForceDirectDrawEmulation = 1 NoVideoMemory = 0 SingleProcAffinity = 0 ShowFPS = 0 |
|---|
CD Audio soundtracks not playing
| Change your Windows drive letters to let the CD-ROM be at letter "D". The Game CD Check does not care for the drive letter, but the CD Audio playback expects the disk to be in the "D" Drive. |
|---|
Stage 04 Background gradient is downgraded compared to other versions
| The game resources are not encrypted and the game can be easily moded. This MOD at archive.org restores most of the Arcade Version gradient. |
|---|
Other information
API
| Technical specs | Supported | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| DirectDraw | 4.4.0.68 | 256 colors game, requires the use of a directdraw wrapper for modern systems |
| Executable | 32-bit | 64-bit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows | Autorun program is a 32 bits program.
The InstallShield setup is a 16 bits program, preventing installation in a Windows Vista and above OS. E8.exe, the main executable is a 32bits executable, compatible with Windows 7 64bits. |
System requirements
| Windows | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | Recommended | |||
| Operating system (OS) | 95 | |||
| Processor (CPU) | Intel Pentium 90 MHz | Intel Pentium 133 MHz | ||
| System memory (RAM) | 16 MB | |||
| Storage drive (HDD/SSD) | 50 MB | |||
| Video card (GPU) | SVGA 2 MB of VRAM | SVGA 4 MB of VRAM |
||
Notes
- ↑ Known in Japan as Kaitei Daisensou (Japanese: 海底大戦争) in Japan.
- ↑ Applications writing to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWAREwill be redirected to other locations based on various criterias, see the glossary page for more details.