Introduction

Team Silent games are still steadfast in video game history. Unfortunately, it is getting increasingly more difficult to play those games through the last two decades. This may be due to certain development processes back in the day for Japanese devs where source code got deleted after a game went gold (fourth paragraph). As well as very shitty PC ports even though we can consider ourselves lucky to have them anyway as we will see.

I've set up this guide to help you find your way into Team Silent's era of Silent Hill to enable you to enjoy the experience we felt back in the day.

Why Team Silent though and not anything from Origins ongoing? To make it short: They lack everything compared to Team Silent standards. Also, PS3 emulation is improving. Go ask Google. However: Team Silent games are on the more demanding part of emulation knowledge as well as PS1 and PS2 consoles are getting rarer and rarer on the second-hand market.

Additionally, we won't speak about the HD Collection here. If you are interested in this topic TheGrateDebate wrote a two-part video essay about what happened around this disaster.

I will not support piracy. Even if the gog Silent Hill 4 release came out of the blue we still have hope for a SH2 (especially through Enhanced Edition as we will see later on) and SH3 release as well. Piracy won't support that. If you enjoy the series please consider buying SH4 and helping Konami understand that there is still a market for it.

It is a completely different situation on consoles as the games aren't sold anymore anywhere resulting in borderline insane price tags on the secondhand market. Therefore I will cover rom acquisition strategies but won't post links as I do ask you to do the same in the comments.

Please keep in mind that this guide was written at a time in which PS2 emulation was not included in RetroArch/libretro yet. However, the dev bounty was taken and the inclusion of the core should be anytime soon. I will update this guide once it is released in a stable form.

Disc acquisition possibilities

It's not that hard to find a copy nowadays. The secondhand market is blooming, but unfortunately so are prices as the demand is also constantly growing. On the bright side, it just covers the interest in the IP, especially in the games from the Team Silent era. The more unknown fact is that Silent Hill was developed to appease the western market in particular. So the game will always feature an English dub. The Situation on English subtitles however is something more difficult.

Releases and price development:

• NTSC/US releases are the most expensive releases on the secondhand market today. Prices can go easily above 120 USD for literally any game. On the upside, though it has guaranteed English subs.
• PAL/Europe releases are the next best thing according to English sub acquisition. They are considerably cheaper than US releases. Keep in mind that you need a modified or PAL console if you plan to play those games on real hardware. Keep in mind that the PAL versions of Silent Hill feature some sort of censorship in which Grey Children are replaced by the Mumbler. However, PAL versions feature the last news article which is cut in the US release.
• PAL German releases in particular are a real insider tip as they go often off for less than 20 Euro on eBay. As well as all other PAL versions they do come with English subtitles as an option and feature the Mumbler replacement
• PAL/Japanese releases are just a bit more expensive than German releases and do feature English dubs as well. Silent Hill 2 to 4 also have English subtitles making them a cheap option to acquire the game. Unfortunately this doesn't account for Silent Hill on the PS1.Which renders it more as a collector's item and is only suitable to people who speak/understand Japanese text language. Keep in mind, that Japanese versions also replace the Grey Child with the Mumblers.

Used Market Overview

You can usually only find your regional copies on secondhand marketplaces with eBay as the more or less only option to acquire different regional copies as discussed above. Those places are usually used to acquire (rare) second hand games:

• eBay
• craigslist (only US)
• Second Hand shops
• Thrift stores
• Flea markets

Version differences

Silent Hill

• There is only one version of Silent Hill available.

Silent Hill 2

• Release version
  This version is the base version of the game. No additional content or any improvements.
• Essentials/Platinum edition / Director's Cut
  Both are essentially the same with just a different box/label design. Both do offer Maria's "Born from a Wish" scenario as well as new weapons and items in it. The graphics and lighting effects are supposed to be improved a bit.

Silent Hill 3

• There is only one version of Silent Hill 3 available.

Silent Hill 4

• There is only one version of Silent Hill 3 available.

Native console gameplay

Let's say you still have your or your old man's console. Or you have bought a working copy off the secondhand market and you want to experience it on the original hardware. Nothing easier than that, right? Almost.

There are ports on the Xbox as well, but they come with their own challenges and inconsistencies. So this guide will stick to the PlayStation and its releases.

As fifth and sixth-gen consoles HDMI was nothing more than a concept. As well as HD as a resolution. Silent Hill ran on a mind-breaking 240p with often beneath 20fps. 2 to 4 run on somewhat around 480p. I won't hold you back as this is the purest experience, especially if you can get yourself a CRT TV.

As an alternative, there are HDMI mods for the PS1 as well as for the PS2 to give you a pixel-perfect 1080p picture even on the original hardware. Keep in mind that this won't change the internal resolution as emulators do. But it helps with bringing a clear picture on today's monitors/TVs. There are even other options like converters. But I do not have experience in this field, so I won't cover it. If you do, please contact me and I gladly will work out this part of the guide.

PlayStation

• Silent Hill
  This is your only option on this console.

PlayStation 2

• Silent Hill
  The PS2 has native PS1 backward capability. Therefore you can play SH1 in a slightly improved graphical manner on the PS2.
• Silent Hill 2
  This is a native release on this system.
• Silent Hill 3
  This is a native release on this system.
• Silent Hill 4
  This is a native release on this system.

PlayStation 3

• Native
  • PS1 / Silent Hill
    The PS3 has more or less good PS1 emulation and reads PS1 discs as well. No problems however to my knowledge.
  • PS2 / Silent Hill 2 - 4
    Only early versions of the PS3 had PS2 compatibility. To make it even more complicated parts of the hardware were left out on EU consoles. However, they still feature backward compatibility to this day but are mixing some sort of software emulation into the mix. So you don’t have a 100% true hardware experience if you value something like this. If you do so, make sure to get an early US or JP PS3 over the EU model.PS2 support on everything other than the launch PS3 models is very limited. Your only option would be the installation of a CFW if you meet the requirements which would give you software PS2 emulation. Please use google to get more deeply into that topic. However, if PS2 support is given you can play Silent Hill 2 to 4 on the PS3 as well making this machine the only option (especially the early native PS2 support versions) to play all the games on one piece of hardware which is also capable of native HDMI output.
• PlayStation Network
  SH1 alone survived the great SH wipe from Konami in 2017. So this is your only game if you haven't bought Silent Hill 2 to 4 before that.

Emulation

After covering native options, let's talk about emulating it on your computer. Against widespread assumption emulating software isn't illegal if it checks some pre-requirements. For example, the emulator can't use native code. This is also the reason why all the legit emulators are fully open source. Which also makes them (mostly) free to use. Win-Win in both parts for us.

As mentioned above we will stick with PlayStation emulation to stick as close as possible to the original experience. However, we will go over graphical improvements like widescreen support and higher resolution rendering the game in a completely new quality.

ROM acquisition

You can find plenty of ROMs on the internet without going to shady places like some pirate ports or even paid places. Leave them alone. They are usually roots of malware and will do more bad than good to you.

Just google a bit and you should come up with places like CoolROM. wowROM, or EmulatorGames. What you want is an ISO file which is a binary dump of your game disc. The perfect legal solution would be to put your game disc into your disc drive and dump it yourself using ImgBurn or some other programs doing the job for you.

On the other side, we are talking games three to four console generations back. They aren't sold anymore and the used market is on a borderline insane level of prices for the games. So just downloading a ROM won't do any harm to Konami. But I want you to consider this as being some sort of legal grey area if you decide to "just" download the ROM.

RetroArch/libretro

Basically, libretro is a library of information and instructions on how to load emulation cores. This comes from the Unix ecosystem. The Windows counterpart would be a dll file.

It is the core of RetroArch which is more well known than libretro itself and acts as a unification frontend for all your emulators at once. It runs on any modern piece of tech so you can use it on your PC, a game console, a handheld, or even your mobile phone. Not that it would bring much excitement to play Silent Hill while being in the supermarket checkout queue. But you could still do it if you wish.

This brings us to a very unique situation: RetroArch does run on the new Xbox Series X/S which will make it with her own backward capability into a single machine able to run any Silent Hill game in existence on one station (once RetroArch PS2 support gets released). That is if we would leave out the tedious Book of Memories - or wait for PSVita emulation. Technically this could also be achieved with the PC, but we’d need several additional emulators as RetroArch can’t run PS3 games yet.

However PS2 emulation is pretty close to getting implemented as we’ve discussed already in the introduction part of this guide.

The standard core for PS1 emulation on RetroArch is Beetle HW. It features options to disable the wobbly rendering and other core rendering issues with the PS1. It even manages to get rid of the Silent Hill fog dithering and make it much much smoother. Therefore it is considered the definitive emulation experience.

ePSXe

One of the best PS1 emulators - especially as a standalone emulator or pre-Beetle HW. It is also capable of enhancing the PS1 experience but is not as feature-ridden as Beetle HW. There isn’t any point to use this emulator over Beetle HW anymore in most terms.

PCSX2

The best PS2 emulator today. It is so good, that the RetroArch bounty featured this emulator rather than writing a new one. Renders Silent Hill 2 almost perfect since its last release. Silent Hill 3 and 4 also run slightly better on it even before the last update.

Silent Hill

• Beetle HW/RetroArch
  Works flawlessly together from any config starting from native to 8k resolution with various fixes.
• ePSXe
  Works flawlessly together from any config starting from native to several enhanced upscaled resolutions and various fixes. To my knowledge not as enhanced as Beetle HW though.
• PS3
  Works natively, nothing else needed.
• PS3 CFW
  Works natively, nothing else needed.

Silent Hill 2

• Beetle HW/RetroArch
  No PS2 support yet, but should come in the next months.
• PCSX2
  Works well together from any config starting from native resolution to several enhanced upscaled resolutions and various fixes.
• PS3
  Works natively (US/JP only, EU being partially emulated) on release consoles only.
• PS3 CFW
  Works well, but is being fully emulated if you don’t have a US/JP launch PS3.

Silent Hill 3

• Beetle HW/RetroArch
  No PS2 support yet, but should come in the next months.
• PCSX2
  Works well together from any config starting from native resolution to several enhanced upscaled resolutions and various fixes.
• PS3
  Works natively (US/JP only, EU being partially emulated) on release consoles only.
• PS3 CFW
  Works well, but is being fully emulated if you don’t have a US/JP launch PS3.

Silent Hill 4

• Beetle HW/RetroArch
  No PS2 support yet, but should come in the next months.
• PCSX2
  Works well together from any config starting from native resolution to several enhanced upscaled resolutions and various fixes.
• PS3
  Works natively (US/JP only, EU being partially emulated) on release consoles only.
• PS3 CFW
  Works well, but is being fully emulated if you don’t have a US/JP launch PS3.

PC ports

Oddly enough the game was ported over to the pc. Most likely they are the result of the Xbox ports which required the game to be rendered through DirectX nevertheless. To truly understand this you must know that Team Silent coded the games for the Sony consoles and used every unique trick for especially the PS2 to get the games run and look like they do. This is the reason why the PS2 releases of 2 to 4 are always considered as the best option. But the pc has modders trying to fix several options. And at least for 2 they truly delivered.

Similar to the console releases Silent Hill 2 and 3 are considered Abandonware. 4 had an abandonware status as well until October 2nd, 2020 as gog suddenly released the game out of the blue into their shop. This means that we finally have a chance to buy this game again and the community hopes are for gog releasing Silent Hill 2 and 3 as well. There are also hopes for an SH1 ROM release since gog started to use more and more of them for classic games.

For the time being, you can download Silent Hill 2 and 3 through MyAbandonware.com and acquire Silent Hill 4 via gog.

In any case, Abandonware or gog release, those games need some fan patches to run properly. In Silent Hill 4 for example a couple of haunts were removed from the game. Silent Hill 2 on the other side tends to crash a lot or not even start on modern systems. You’ll find any link necessary below so you can experience those games in the best form possible.

The advantage however is that those ports won’t need newer hardware. SH2 Enhanced Edition requires you something like an Intel Q6600 (i7 predecessor from 2007), some sort of GPU and 4 GB of ram. Anything can run these games at this point basically.

Silent Hill 2

This is the only game that offers a fully-fledged fan patch which makes it on par and even enhances it beyond the PlayStation 2 version. At this point, it has become the definitive version of experiencing the game over any emulation. Native gameplay on CRT can still be seen as superior by traditionalists. But for almost everyone else this should be the version to play nowadays.

• Enhanced Edition
  This is made possible by the Enhanced Edition. It comes as a 5 gb download of several files. But the excellent manual on the Enhanced Edition website guides you through the setup process. Other than that it’s just plug and play.
• PC Gaming Wiki
  Further information and troubleshooting tips can be acquired through PCGW.

Silent Hill 3

The other game considered abandonware. Unfortunately, it hasn’t received an enhanced edition yet. But two well-running fan patches making this game a good experience while improving the once XBox port.

Yet again you may want to consider emulating the PS2 version of this game instead due to the current buggy’ish state of the game and its fan patches.

• PC Gaming Wiki
  Further information and troubleshooting tips can be acquired through PCGW.

Silent Hill 4

The only game currently can be purchased through gog. They fixed several issues with the late pc release but it still requires a fan patch to be feature compatible with the PS2 version. Unfortunately, it hasn’t received an enhanced edition yet, too. But some well-running fan patches making this game a good experience while improving the once XBox port.

Yet again you may want to consider emulating the PS2 version of this game instead due to the current state of the game and its fan patches. Please consider still buying it so the possibility of further Silent Hill releases on gog will be enhanced.

• PC Gaming Wiki
  Further information and troubleshooting tips can be acquired through PCGW.

Summarization

This concludes our journey into the topic of how to play Silent Hill games nowadays. I hope I could give you a thorough look at this topic and its many facets as well as a rough idea of what approach you want to pursue.

Personally, I would recommend these ways to play for each game:

• Silent Hill 1: Emulation through Beetle HW/RetroArch
• Silent Hill 2: Using the Enhanced Edition on PC
• Silent Hill 3: Emulation through PCSX2
• Silent Hill 4: Buying the gog release and emulating the PS2 version through PCSX2

Also many thanks to the following people:

• u/AVPMARINE for supporting and enabling this guide
• Lady Zomkie for proofreading and offering up some better proverbs and writing stylistics
• Grandmaster Funk for proofreading as I am not a native speaker
• The #Room 302 Discord server for motivating me for this and helping me out with my research
• u/RondeyMullenFanBoy for pointing out the missing native backward compatibility of the EU PS3 systems
• u/PapaNutellas for pointing out the English subtitle on the Japanese version of SH 2 - 4

Please feel free to give me feedback on this guide. I will gladly enhance it if things will be brought up. May it be fact-wise or someone wants to contribute to a certain topic (e.g. emulator configs for best results).