Re:Cast
Playable on PC, with full sound, for the first time.
A lost piece of Kingdom Hearts history: the 2005 Verizon V CAST game, on Windows, Mac or Linux. One download, nothing else to install.
Free and open source
About
The Kingdom Hearts you could only play on a flip phone
In 2005, Superscape and Disney Mobile made a full 3D Kingdom Hearts for Verizon's V CAST phones: Sora, the Keyblade, Maleficent's Castle, all on a phone with a 176×220 screen. The phones, the service and the store are long gone.
Re:Cast runs the game's own code, unchanged, on an emulated phone processor and recreates the phone features it relies on. It draws the real 3D, plays the music and sound effects, and carries you from world to world through the game's own chapter flow.
Playable on a PC, with full sound, for the first time.
Until now this game ran only on its original phones, on a collector's modified Zeebo console, or without any audio in an Android emulator. As far as we know, Re:Cast is the first emulator to play it with its music and sound effects in context: the game's real soundtrack and effects, in step with the action.
Features
Faithful to the original, kinder to play
Authentic
The game's own code
Re:Cast runs the real game program and Superscape's 3D engine, unchanged, on an emulated phone processor. It is the game itself, not a remake.
The original music and sound
The real soundtrack and sound effects, in step with the action, including the phone's compressed voice-codec effects, decoded properly. A first on PC.
Its own saves and scores
Load Game, the save points and the “post your score” screen all behave the way they did on the phone.
Four chapters, nothing invented
Obstacle Course, the Island, Agrabah and Maleficent's Castle, played through start to finish. The lost Wonderland chapter is bridged with the game's own surviving pages, never made-up content.
Quality of life
Save states
Snapshot anywhere with F5 and load with F9: nine slots, automatic autosaves, and backups of the game's own saves.
A launcher that remembers
A Continue button with a preview of where you left off, one-click setup, and your settings kept.
Picture filters
Crisp pixels, smooth, sharp pixels or Scale2x. Press F11 to compare them live.
Smooth hi-res text
The game's tiny 176×220 text is redrawn sharply at your window's resolution, so menus and dialogue stay crisp at any size.
A shared leaderboard
The original ranking server is long gone, so Re:Cast brings it back. Scores are shared anonymously (only the world, score, Munny, EXP and time, never who you are) so you can see how you rank. You can switch sharing off.
Everything included
One installer for Windows, Mac or Linux, with its own Python, ffmpeg and game files. No setup, no extra downloads.
Screenshots
Straight from the emulator
The music
In the composer’s words
The game’s music was written by composer Ian Livingstone in 2004, for a game he never played. Years later the YouTuber 13th Vessel got in touch with him: he sent over the original music files and answered a few questions. They are reproduced here, word for word, with thanks to both of them.
- There is not so much info about the game, only that it was released for mobile devices in chapter form and then retired. Do you have any info that you could share about it?
- I don’t really know much about it I’m afraid – the developer Superscape had some deal with Verizon and were doing lots of fast turnaround titles at the time – think I did roughly one a month. But I never played the game or saw anything other than a few screenshots. Sorry I can’t remember anything more than that!
- Which was your inspiration for doing these? Did you checked a bit how some songs were made for the PS2 game or you did everything from scratch?
- I did listen to Shimomura's excellent soundtrack for style and orchestration, the descending high piano motif that appears in a few of my cues was definitely a nod to her main theme, but I was also conscious to write an original score which is what was needed.
- There is another version of Swashbucklers Island inside the game, why is that?
- Wow yes had forgotten about that one – yes that was my original pass at Swashbucklers Island and I think the developer wanted it to sound slightly friendlier hence my v03 which I previously sent you – so not sure if v03 made it into the game.
- Do you remember if they had in mind to do more Disney based levels? Something that was scrapped?
- Sorry I'm afraid I never heard about that if they did.
- Which of these songs do you like the most and why?
- Probably Death Music - it's a shame I never developed this score further at the time but we had such a tiny amount of memory available for the mobile midifiles the pieces had to be very short.
- Is there anything else that you would like to say or that you remember about this project?
- Just thanks for the interest in my music! I never would have imagined at the time back in 2004 that people would have been interested in hearing these short pieces 15 years on!
Questions by 13th Vessel, answers by Ian Livingstone. From the description of 13th Vessel’s video “KINGDOM HEARTS V-Cast [Complete Original Soundtrack]” (re-uploaded December 2019), where you can also download the music. In that description Ian invites questions on X: @ianliv.
Download
Pick your computer
Each file is a complete package: download it, run it, play. Saves and settings live in your user folder, so uninstalling never deletes them.
Not sure which Mac you have? Apple menu → About This Mac: “Chip: Apple M…” means Apple Silicon, “Processor: Intel” means Intel.
Help
First run & common questions
Windows says “Windows protected your PC”
The installer isn't code-signed, so Windows' SmartScreen is cautious about it. Click More info, then Run anyway. It installs only for your user account and never asks for administrator rights. To remove it later, use Settings → Apps.
Mac says the app can't be opened
- Unzip the download and drag Kingdom Hearts Re-Cast into Applications.
- Right-click (or Control-click) the app, choose Open, then Open again. You only do this once.
- If it says the app is “damaged”, open Terminal and run:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Kingdom Hearts Re-Cast.app"
Installing on Linux
Download the .run file for your computer, then in a terminal:
sh KH-ReCast-Linux-x86_64.run
It installs for your user only (no sudo) and adds Kingdom Hearts Re:Cast to your applications menu. To remove it: sh KH-ReCast-Linux-x86_64.run --uninstall. It needs a desktop Linux using glibc 2.28 or newer (not Alpine). On a 64-bit ARM machine, use the aarch64 file instead.
Where are my saves?
In a folder called .khvcemu in your home folder, kept safe across updates and uninstalls. Save states also appear in the launcher with a preview picture.
Controls
| Keys | Does |
|---|---|
| W A S D or arrows | Move (up is forward) |
| Enter Space 5 | Select, action, attack, jump |
| F or [ | Cast magic |
| Z or 0 | Status and items |
| F1 / Q F2 / E | Left softkey (Continue, pause) / right softkey (Back, Options) |
| F5 / F9 | Save state / load state |
| F11 | Change the picture filter |
| Esc | Quit (it asks first) |
It runs slowly on my computer
Re:Cast is emulating a whole phone, and the 3D engine is demanding. Busy 3D scenes run at about real-time speed on a normal PC; older machines will drop frames rather than slow the game down.
Why is the music a bit odd?
The built-in synthesizer only approximates the phone's. The launcher lets you pick a General MIDI SoundFont for proper instruments.
Lost media
Do you still have the phone?
If you own a Verizon phone from 2005–2007 with Kingdom Hearts installed, and the Wonderland chapter is still on it, please don't reset the phone — and get in touch with game preservationists and send me an email! It could bring a missing chapter back for everyone.
Email khrecast@gmail.comCredits
Thank you
Re:Cast only exists because of people who found, dumped, restored, recorded and wrote about this game, often years before the emulator. These are the people and projects behind it. Re:Cast is not affiliated with any of them. If you are listed below and would like information modified or removed, please send an email.
Recovering the game
The music
Ian Livingstone
Composed the music and sound (credited as “MTS – Mediathemes & Sound”).
13th Vessel
Posted the complete original soundtrack and made the game's 3D models viewable.
Playing and recording it
Font
Televo
Recreated the Kingdom Hearts menu font (KHMenu) for the free “Kingdom Hearts Re:Collection” set. The Re:Cast title and the launcher’s tab names are drawn in it (modified to a lower resolution).
Emulation and research
zeebulator
An open-source (GPL-3.0) Zeebo/BREW emulator by requeijaum and contributors. Re:Cast's BREW interface research builds on it.
Melange
A BREW emulator for Android by UsernameAK that can run the game without audio.
Also: the editors of the Lost Media Wiki, KHwiki and Kingdom Hearts Database, KH13, KHInsider and its forum, and the Internet Archive, who documented this game's history. If you are listed and want a link changed or removed, email us.