VHS Alternative Server

A Video Horror Society server emulator. Allowing users to enjoy Hellbent's developed game after its sunset on September 8th, 2023. Currently Live. Check the official discord server: https://discord.gg/6CQyccRjDR

What's working?

• ✅ Login
• ❌ Matchmaking
• ❌ Progression (journey, chests)
• ❌ Store
• ✅ Custom Matches
• ✅ Saving game

How to Install

The following steps will allow you to seamlessly set up the server structure for clients or hosts.

Patching the game

Currently, we have two known methods of patching the game:

Method	Play With Bots	Multiplayer game	Supported OSs	Requires Admin	Installer Link
Hosts Redirection	✅	✅	Windows	✅	VHS Redirector Scripts
Executable Patching	✅	🟡 (Only in Linux/Proton)	Windows; Linux (Proton)	❌	VHS Server Patcher

What should I use?

If you use Windows use Hosts Redirection. If Linux Executable Patching. If you want to develop the server it's your call but I'd go for Executable Patching

Development/Usage

Manual Installation

In case the installers don't suit your use-case, you can manually modify your game. Listed here are instructions for both methods

Hosts Redirection

In order to patch the game through hosts redirection you need to edit C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. This file serves to redirect certain domains to certain IPs. In this case, we need to redirect all VHS domains to our own. This would need to add the following

173.249.51.206     api.vhsgame.com
173.249.51.206     ns.api.vhsgame.com
173.249.51.206     cdn.vhsgame.com
173.249.51.206     mms.api.vhsgame.com

(In case you want to self-host change the IP to 127.0.0.1. If you're going to use another server use the IP provided by your server provider)

You also need to install my CA certificate. If you are running your own server, you will need to generate your own certificate :Instructions Then launch the game as usual

Executable Patching

Executable patching consists of modifying the executable to point to a new domain. You need to modify starting on 0x5382CA0 up to 0x5382D1F (Steam) or 0x5381C80 to 0x5381D00(Epic). The text should be encoded using UTF-16(LE). The string must include the protocol and may include 4 string replacement cues (%s). These cues are later replaced by api, client, the endpoint in particular, and a randomly generated GUID. Any HTTP URL should be fine. TLS is not required so plain HTTP URLs would suffice.

For the official server use this

68 00 74 00 74 00 70 00 73 00 3A 00 2F 00 2F 00 61 00 70 00 70 00 73 00 2E 00 6C 00 75 00 69 00 73 00 6D 00 61 00 79 00 6F 00 2E 00 63 00 6F 00 6D 00 2F 00 76 00 68 00 73 00 2D 00 25 00 73 00 2F 00 25 00 73 00 2F 00 25 00 73 00 2F 00 3F 00 67 00 75 00 69 00 64 00 3D 00 25 00 73

Remember to fill with 0s any leftover string part

Running the server (User)

1. Download a binary from the Releases section according to your OS/Architecture (check below if there isn't)
2. If using Hosts redirection/TLS you must place an appropiate certificate and key named vhsgame.com.crt adn vhsgame.com.pem
3. Else you have to launch the app with --disableRealPort which will launch on HTTP/12478
4. The server will respond to /metagame/THEEND_GAME/Client/ and /vhs-api/Client/ routes

If there are no binaries available for your platform:

1. Download Node
2. Clone the repo git clone https://github.com/LuisMayo/vhs-alternative-server
3. Install dependencies npm i
4. Run the compiler cd vhs-alternative-server; npx tsc Or npm run watch if you want to compile changes automatically
5. Launch the server npm start

Env variables

The game honors the VHS-PASSWORD environment variable and will use for the administration dashboard (user: user)

Args

• --disableRealPort will make it so the game only launches in HTTP mode and listens on port 12478. (The default behavior is to listen on HTTPS 443)
• --allowNonEpicUsers will make it so even if Epic games' token validation fail the user is logged in anyway
• --bypassEpicValidation will bypass the validity of the EOS token in any case
• --disableAdminPassword will bypass the admin server password
• --bypassOwnValidation will make all Endpoints not to verify if the user is logged in. The server will use anything in the Authorization header as ID

Login flow

VHSGame Login request. A request is authenticated using a token issued by Epic Games with loginRequestToken structure

Discover. This seems like the main way of retrieving information. A POST petition to this endpoint makes the server retrieve information?. These petitions are authenticated using a token from Login request.

Information provided can be:

1. Savegame
2. Friend list
3. Store items
4. Progression info (points required for mastery for instance)

Disclaimer and Legal Notice:

This project, VHS: Evil Never Dies, is a dedicated media preservation effort for the now-sunset multiplayer game Video Horror Society, hereafter referred to as VHS. The primary objective of this project is to safeguard and preserve the legacy of VHS by archiving its gameplay, media, and related content for the benefit of the game's community.

VHS: Evil Never Dies and its contributors are entirely unaffiliated with Hellbent Games Inc., the original developers of Video Horror Society. Our project operates independently, with the sole intention of preserving and celebrating the memories associated with VHS.

Any references to Video Horror Society or related intellectual property are made for historical and archival purposes only. We acknowledge the copyrights and trademarks held by Hellbent Games Inc. and respect their creative work.

No Endorsement Implied

Contributing

This project welcomes contributions! But in order not to lose focus they need to comply with some rules:

1. This server intends to mimic the original experience to an extent. Quality-of-life improvements or tiny mods may be welcome. But deep modifications that deeply change how the game works are not welcomed (not like the Server has that power anyway since the game is P2P)
2. Typings are welcome. Submitting pure JS code will be refused, submitting poorly typed TS code is still accepted but the MR will probably take longer to accept as we solve the typing problems