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Hotline Miami

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Hotline Miami
Hotline Miami cover
Developers
Original Dennaton Games
Update Abstraction Games
Publishers
Devolver Digital
Engines
Former GameMaker 7
GameBaker 1.0[1]
PhyreEngine[1]
Release dates
Windows October 23, 2012
macOS (OS X) March 19, 2013
Linux May 28, 2013
Reception
Metacritic 85
IGDB 86
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Microtransactions None
Modes Singleplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives Top-down view, Scrolling
Controls Direct control
Genres Action, Shooter
Art styles Pixel art, Stylized
Themes Contemporary, North America
Series Hotline Miami
Hotline Miami on HowLongToBeat
Hotline Miami on IGDB
Hotline Miami on MobyGames
Hotline Miami on Wikipedia
Hotline Miami
Hotline Miami 2012
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number 2015

Warnings

The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.

Hotline Miami is a singleplayer top-down view and scrolling action and shooter game in the Hotline Miami series.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Gamesplanet logo.svg
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
GOG.com
DRM-free
Includes 2 wallpapers, 4 avatars and 1 poster.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Humble Store
DRM-free
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Microsoft Store
Microsoft Store
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
The PC version does not include the Russell mask, which is exclusive to the console and Stadia versions of the game.

Monetization

Type Notes
One-time game purchase The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

Microtransactions

Type Notes
No microtransactions Game does not contain any microtransactions.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\HotlineMiami\hotline.cfg
Microsoft Store
macOS (OS X) $HOME/Library/Application Support/Hotline Miami/hotline.cfg
Linux $XDG_DATA_HOME/HotlineMiami/hotline.cfg
hotline.cfg stores the configuration.
This game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\HotlineMiami\SaveData.sav
Microsoft Store
macOS (OS X) $HOME/Library/Application Support/Hotline Miami/SaveData.sav
Linux $XDG_DATA_HOME/HotlineMiami/SaveData.sav
SaveData.sav stores the save game data.
Save games are fully cross-platform.

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
OneDrive
Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud
Not indicated on the store page (1MB available).
Xbox Cloud

Video

Launcher options menu
Launcher options menu
Hotline Miami is letterboxed.
Hotline Miami is letterboxed.

Input

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Only movement and restart keys.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Only mouse buttons; no cursor
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Game launcher allows for swapping trigger and shoulder buttons (LT/RT with LB/RB).
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion
Controller types
XInput-compatible controllers
[3]
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration
PlayStation controllers
Generic/other controllers
Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Called Rumble in Launcher
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Auto configures up to 7.0 output.
Subtitles
All speech is text-based.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Fan translation, download.
Japanese
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish

Issues fixed

Game won't start

This issue seems to be more prevalent for those trying to launch the game with the updated engine/executable instead of the original GameMaker version.
Install OpenAL[citation needed]
Disable statistics (FPS counters) software
Programs that report computer statistics such as frame rate, GPU usage, memory usage, etc. can cause the game to not start correctly, so it's recommended to shut them down if you're having issues launching the game.
Programs that use RivaTuner Statistics Server, such as MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision X, allow you to exclude a game's executable file to prevent RivaTuner from attempting to look at the game if you wish to keep MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision X running for those that want to view their system's statistics.
  1. Open RivaTuner Statistics Server if installed.
  2. Click the "+" button to open a separate window that will ask you to select the executable.
  3. Locate HotlineMiami.exe in the installation folder.
  4. On the right, look for "Application Detection Level" and select "None".
  5. Minimize RivaTuner Statistics and try to launch the game.
  6. If you're still having issues, try excluding the OpenGL executable by repeating steps 2 through 4 but selecting HotlineGL.exe instead.

Window not fully visible

Change Windows compatibility settings[4]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>.
  2. Right-click on HotlineGL.exe
  3. Properties
  4. Compatibility
  5. Tick "Override high DPI scaling behavior" and set "Scaling performed by:" to "Application", and apply.
If this setting is not there (older versions of Windows): tick "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings", and apply.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 8 Original version only.
OpenGL 2.1 Updated version only.
Shader Model support 1.4
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
This 32-bit-only macOS game does not work on macOS Catalina (10.15) or later.
Linux

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Audio BASS, OpenAL

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP, Vista, 7
Processor (CPU) 1.2 GHz
System memory (RAM) 512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 200 MB
Video card (GPU) 32 MB of VRAM
OpenGL 2.1 compatible
DirectX 8 compatible
macOS (OS X)
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 10.6
Processor (CPU) 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 130 MB
Video card (GPU) OpenGL 2.1 compatible
Linux
Minimum
Operating system (OS)
Processor (CPU) 1.8 GHz Dual-Core
System memory (RAM) 512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 130 MB
Video card (GPU) OpenGL 2.1 compatible


References

  1. 1.0 1.1 The black art of platform conversions: The challenges of integrating and recreating engines and platforms - GamesIndustry.biz - last accessed on 2020-11-24
    "GameBaker has evolved over the years with every game it was used on, and the graphics engine saw the biggest changes. For the initial console releases of Hotline Miami, GameBaker integrated with Phyre Engine, which later was also used in the upgraded PC release. We were then asked to replace Dennator/Devolver's original GameMaker 7 version on Steam with our own GameBaker for better run-time performance and improved stability."
  2. New 120Hz Games Report - last accessed on May 2023
  3. Hotline Miami on Twitter - last accessed on 25 September 2022
  4. https://steamcommunity.com/app/219150/discussions/0/630800445027956276/