Night Warriors 2 Arrange (Arcade backport)

[strygo]

Download and instructions at arcadepatches.com
Current version: rc3 (October 14, 2026)​

Night Warriors 2 Arrange (Vampire Hunter 2 Arrange in Japan) is one of the arranged editions in Capcom's 2005 PlayStation 2 Vampire: Darkstalkers Collection. It never had an arcade release. This backport rebuilds it as a CPS-2 game.

Back in August I wrote that the Arrange modes lean on code and memory the CPS-2 doesn't have, which made backporting them a much harder prospect. They needed more memory than the original hardware had, so they run on CPS-2+, an extended CPS-2 system for MiSTer and HBMAME (more on that below).

What's in it​

• The Savior fighters it lacked: Vampire Hunter 2's presentation, with Pyron as the final boss, plus Jedah, Lilith, Q-Bee and B.B. Hood (Bulleta in Japan). Each brings their themes from Vampire Savior 2's arcade music, two apiece.
• Dee, the fighter Capcom made for the Arrange, on his own select cell. On MiSTer he uses the Collection's music.
• The Arrange's game system: rounds without recoverable health, revised damage and Dark Force, and counter hits that flash white and can force a knockdown, equal hits that trade, and well-timed blocks that stop chip damage. KOs play in slow motion.
• Every CPU route ends with Huitzil and Pyron.
• NIGHTMARE, a ninth difficulty in the operator menu. At NIGHTMARE, win the secret Oboro Bishamon fight and Dee is waiting.
• B.B. Hood's spoken intro against Jon Talbain is back, from the original Vampire Savior.
• Two builds: USA (Night Warriors 2 Arrange) in English, with the same translation as my Night Warriors 2 release, and Japan (Vampire Hunter 2 Arrange) in Japanese.

Spoiler: How to pick the hidden fighters

• On the bottom cell, press Down to spin the roulette, Start five times for Shadow, or Start seven times for Marionette.
• Hold Start while confirming Bishamon for Oboro Bishamon, or Jon Talbain for his dark form.

The USA build's title screen.​

New in rc3​

• The kit now builds the shared Vampire Arrange music pack from your Collection disc and includes it in the MiSTer entries. Dee uses the Collection music; the other music remains the arcade game's own.

The game sets are unchanged. Rebuild with the rc3 kit to get the music pack. Earlier versions are listed on the changelog.

Getting it running​

• It needs CPS-2+. On MiSTer, that means a 128 MB SDRAM module (a smaller one isn't enough) and the CPS+ core, which the kit includes. On a computer, it needs HBMAME with the CPS+ driver. It doesn't run on the standard jtCPS2 core or in stock MAME. The CPS-2+ page explains how the extended system works.
• You need your own Vampire: Darkstalkers Collection (Japan) PlayStation 2 disc image, and your own Japanese arcade romsets: vhunt2, vsav2 and vsavj.
• The kit reads the Arrange edition from your disc image, combines it with your romsets, and writes out the finished sets for MiSTer and HBMAME (vhunt2s02 for USA, vhunt2s03 for Japan). It ships only my own code, translated text and layout, plus the CPS+ core with its source and licenses.
• On MiSTer, the kit also builds the shared music pack from your disc. Each game image is about 92 MB, so it takes longer to load than the original game.

Full instructions are on the project page.

This is a release candidate. Bug reports and suggestions are welcome right here. Tell me which build you ran and what you saw.

Fan work, unaffiliated with Capcom.

 

[ShinGouki94]

Are you happy with bug reports here or somewhere else? NW2 has an issue where when P1 or P2 win a game, the game continues but the HUD is missing.

 

[strygo]

Are you happy with bug reports here or somewhere else? NW2 has an issue where when P1 or P2 win a game, the game continues but the HUD is missing.

Here is fine. Screenshots or photos help - was this on MiSTER or HBMAME? 1 or 2 player?

 

[ShinGouki94]

Running on Mister DE10 and SuperStation1. All default settings, insert coin, select a character (any seems to work), when match ends (you win etc) it carries on for another round. If you lose it carries on and moves to next stage if you win (even though you can't see the HUD) Does the same with 1 or 2 players

 

[strygo]

Running on Mister DE10 and SuperStation1. All default settings, insert coin, select a character (any seems to work), when match ends (you win etc) it carries on for another round. If you lose it carries on and moves to next stage if you win (even though you can't see the HUD) Does the same with 1 or 2 players

Thanks. Confirmed and reproduced: Arrange plays two rounds per match, and from round 2 the top HUD (health bars, timer, names) fails to appear, so it looks like the match keeps going. The round counting itself is correct. A fix is in the works for the next release.

 

[strygo]

NW2 has an issue where when P1 or P2 win a game, the game continues but the HUD is missing.

That's fixed in rc2. The health bars, names and timer now show in every round. It also has trades on equal hits and well-timed blocks that stop chip damage, as in the Arrange, and the USA build uses B.B. Hood's English name on the select, versus and fight screens. Dee's blocking effects and colors are corrected too, and his small portrait now appears beside the health bar. Both regions have new checksums, so rebuild them with the rc2 kit. The first post is updated.

Link: arcadepatches.com/vhunt2-arrange

 

[strygo]

rc3 is out. On MiSTer, Dee now plays the Collection's music. The kit builds the shared Vampire Arrange music pack from your Collection disc and includes it in the MiSTer entries; the other music stays the arcade game's own. The game sets are unchanged, so rebuild with the rc3 kit to get the music pack. The first post is updated.

Link: arcadepatches.com/vhunt2-arrange