Messages

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Bubble Bobble]

The absence of this title on the PC Engine has always been a bizarre gap, in my mind. Taito did so many other titles, including questionable ones like Rastan Saga II. The lack of Bubble Bobble and also the original Rastan sort of confounds me, though I guess Rastan isn't a particularly long game and might be considered too short.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Sidearms has been around longer than I realized.]

It was a 1986 arcade title. It hit C64 only a year before the Turbo.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Custom Made Portable PC Engine]

So tell us more about this project? What kinds of parts do you source? How long does it take and how much does it cost to put one together?

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Custom Made Portable PC Engine]

Cool. How's the input/display lag? I've heard RetroPi isn't as responsive as it could be.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Taito PCE chiptunes suck]

The ideal way to play a PC Engine is on a 13" tube TV with a tiny mono speaker. Because that's really the common play experience of the day.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys English Dub Patch Released!]

PCE CD games are notorious for low CDDA volume. I know it's to make sure an important sound effect never gets lost (because that can get you killed in some games), but when they do music they don't always lower the PSG volume to match the CDDA volume.

[Off-Topic / Re: Billy Mitchell]

Did he ever achieve any of his scores in live competition?

I don't think any of his high scores were from live competitions, but the times he has competed live, it's clear he's a very good player. That's the thing, he's skilled enough to get records, but he's so determined to constantly be on top that his skill just wasn't enough for him. He had to take it that one step further. At least, that's my impression of him. It's a shame, too.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Are Sapphire's Graphics overrated?]

Sapphire is clearly a technical marvel that highlights just how much graphical splendor the PCE is capable of when probably fed with data. I think of the PC Engine with Arcade card similarly to how I feel about the Neo Geo: throw enough RAM/ROM at the problem and it can handle almost anything. That said, I think Sapphire really doesn't have as impressive an artistic style as many other PCE shooters, and despite being fantastically animated, many of the enemies and bosses are actually rather ugly. The game is also mechanically rather bland. It's competently designed and programmed, but the only reason it stands out is the animation. Without those crazy amounts of animation the game would simply be pretty good and then promptly get forgotten in the sheer mass of great shooters on the platform.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: FX-Unit Yuki: The Henshin Engine for TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine]

You ever make slope movement smoother?

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: [CC65][linker][help] How can I configure CC65's linker to build PCE roms > 8k]

Ping Elmer. I think CC65 is his bag.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What is a good pc engine controller?]

For as plain and chunky and not comfortable-looking as the NEC Avenue Pad 6 is, it's actually really comfortable. It looks like it shouldn't be, but it works.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Anearth Fantasy Stories - Translation Development Blog]

I mean, we know there's a whole FOUR giant pages of posts, here, but if you're genuinely interested in the project you should read those 4 pages before posting. That way we don't get a bunch of posts saying, "I'd prefer subs over dubs, please!" when it's been made clear subs are too daunting a technical challenge and don't align with the goals of the project.

You might want to read those 4 pages again. I don't think that I said what you think that I said. 

Yeah, you're right. I'm in the wrong place. You're talking about Anearth instead of Xanadu. I apologize, folks. I've been talking out my ass.

I will have to admonish folks for not reading something I haven't read somewhere else, instead.

I would absolutely not expect Elmer and SamIam to do a dub if they don't have to, simply due to the sheer amount of work. Though I do still stand by my statement that a good dub is the best translation/localization option. It's just so resource intense that fan projects can't reliably do that.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Anearth Fantasy Stories - Translation Development Blog]

I am speaking in the abstract, not of any specific case. A good dub makes the game's content available in the most accessible, natural form, and can provide a lot of nuance and meaning via performance that subtitles cannot. Unless you have a lot of personal experience with the source culture, having the original language and delivery will do little to nothing for you. So for many of us with experience with Japan, it's great to have the subs and the original speech, but if you're going for localization that extra info would be better replaced with good quality, content-rich English language lines.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Anearth Fantasy Stories - Translation Development Blog]

Good dubs are as good or better than good subs. Bad dubs will always be the worst thing ever.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Anearth Fantasy Stories - Translation Development Blog]

I mean, we know there's a whole FOUR giant pages of posts, here, but if you're genuinely interested in the project you should read those 4 pages before posting. That way we don't get a bunch of posts saying, "I'd prefer subs over dubs, please!" when it's been made clear subs are too daunting a technical challenge and don't align with the goals of the project.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Anearth Fantasy Stories - Translation Development Blog]

They already indicated subbing might be impossible due to memory constraints.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Graphic, Sound, & Coding Tips / Tricks / Effects / Etc. Tools for development]

Does it still generate noise when changing waveforms as is normal with the standard Hu6280?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Why didn't Rare get into Turbob?]

Solar jetman with more colours would have been nice.

Let's not aim high or anything...

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Insanely lucky TG16 score! Requesting help!]

Do we know what kind of voltage regulator is used inside the CD unit? If it's a good quality one it should actually accept a relatively broad range of voltages. If it's a crappy one, yeah, 10 is as high as you'd want to go.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Why a "Run" button?]

I want my controller to have a "Go" button.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Insanely lucky TG16 score! Requesting help!]

If the game is a CD-ROM(2) game, it needs the System 2.0/2.1 card. If the game is a Super CD-ROM(2) game it needs the 3.0/3.1 Super System Card. Arcade CD-ROM(2) games need the Arcade CD Card. They all say what kind of game they are on them, so it shouldn't be an issue.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Why a "Run" button?]

Not so much the button itself, having a dedicated pause and menu button is always good *looks shamefully at the Sega Master System*, but why a word like "Run"? Is it a weird translation? Just an English word that sounded good to the guys at Hudson Soft? Or did NEC use it because home computer people "Run" programs?

Because this is Turbo, so a WALK button would not be sufficient. 


Yeah, I am late to the game...as usual....   

That is a great dad joke, but someone already made it. Alas!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: PC Engine exclusives]

I dunno. I feel like the constraints you've provided are rather arbitrary (and some of your claims easy to disprove). If you really want to list PC Engine originals, you need to exclude anything that has a version on another platform, even decades later, if that other version is nominally the same game. Which is to say, the only true PC Engine originals are those games for which the core experience can only be had on the PC Engine, and not some other system or platform, before or after.

Regardless, if you want help constructing a list of games meeting particular criteria, you need to make sure you are being specific in the details of your request, and when those details seem odd, clear in explaining why those criteria are important. Basically, if you want our help you need to tell us why we should care.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Binary Star, a musicdisk for the PCE with SCC (MSX) tunes!]

Some of the instruments in Gradius 2 actually sound rather Soldier-series-esque. Interesting. Are you planning on packing up any other neat music collections using this fine player you've created?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Shoutbox]

I am always still surprised when browsers continue to support text crawl 

[Fighting Street / Re: Well Fuck]

You knew you had to share to help yourself cope. That kind of self-awareness will help you get through this. I'm sorry to hear of your loss. Best of luck.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Shoutbox]

So does, like, JAVFAP stand for something? Or whatever the dude uses for his handle?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Shoutbox]

Linguists know about the origins and use of language but that typically doesn't include language and the brain, ala psychology and neuroscience. And yes, given the challenges some gay folks face simply avoiding real and material discrimination or being beaten up by reprobates, I can understand him not being able to muster the energy to care about gay being used to mean bad or sucky. But it doesn't change the fact that using the word that way encourages association between gay and negativity. The psychology of language is worth the study. Sometimes the little things we do carelessly have meaningful cumulative effects.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Shoutbox]

This is a good discussion. It's nice to reflect, sometimes. We should all take a little time to think about what we do and why we do it, and whether there's maybe a better way to do it.

But on this specific issue, a lot of it comes down to respect and normalization. There was a time it was OK to normalize gay (homosexuality) as bad, because it was seen as a social ill, a perversion or nature, as something that was objectively wrong. Well, now we know that's stupid. And calling stuff that sucks gay implies that gay is bad, and gay people aren't bad people. And while very few people probably WANT to be on the autism spectrum or have developmental disabilities, it doesn't make them lesser people. Less smart, or less capable in a lot of ways, yes, but not, ultimately, less human. And so when we use those words as insults, it normalizes the idea that these people are bad or less human. I don't mean that saying something is gay or retarded automatically means you personally intend to dehumanize people who are those things. But when we collectively say that word use is acceptable, it means we're kind of saying it's OK for people to harbor those feelings about people, even if we might individually know that it isn't so.

Anyone who tells you the language you use doesn't affect the way you think is full of shit, because the human brain is wired for language, and language absolutely affects our views and thought processes.

[Off-Topic / Re: As of this week I'll be a homeless person, wheeee]

I've had one since day one. I went to Target at 8:05 AM, when the opened. Got a ticket. Had purchased mine and was on the way to work within about 15 minutes. They're still a bit hard to get if you're not trying, but if you do a little research in advance you only have to try so hard.

[Off-Topic / Re: As of this week I'll be a homeless person, wheeee]

They just aren't scalping the way the NES Classic Mini did. Nintendo made too many of them, apparently.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Hudson Soft games: actual developers]

MobyGames has a lot of that kind of information, but if you don't know much about a particular individual it can be unhelpful. I think we need more interviews and such with PCE developers before they're all dead.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Shoutbox]

It's an insult when you don't have it.

And people who use it that way are assholes, so there is that.

[Off-Topic / Re: Please rank these items]

I'd say 3 Muskateers> Milky Way> Snickers cuz I don't like nuts,... ironically.

So Mounds over Almond Joy, then.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Shoutbox]

JAVFAP is the first known AND proven autistic friendless forums user in the English-speaking World.

OK, that's not cool. Autism isn't an insult. It's something some people have and cannot help.

(this is in no way a defense of JASRAC, or JEVDAP, or whoever the fuck he is)

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Hudson Soft games: actual developers]

Even when dev teams have a name, they are often staffed by random people who often are known for working on major dev teams.

Companies like RED seemed to be more responsible for the creative side of things, but may very well have also been big into game design, but not the under the hood coding. Many of Hudson's PCE games were worked on by multiple companies teams, but even when its unknown which aspects they each handled, secret subcontracting was the norm back then.

Yeah, but it would still be useful to know. Some companies do sort of have certain production habits, and it's fun looking for connective tissue.

For what it's worth, Gate of Thunder is supposed to have been "made" by members of the dev team that worked on Thunder Force III.

This does not computer. Gate of Thunder is a much better shooter.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: The story behind Keith Courage]

I actually like the Dungeon Explorer box art. It just looks heavily stylized.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Hudson Soft games: actual developers]

Hudson Soft released a LOT of games for the PC Engine. They also contracted out development quite often. Dungeon Explorer to Atlus and Jacki Chan's Action Kung Fu to Now Productions, for example. Has anyone here or elsewhere bothered to compile a list of known contract developers for Hudson-published titles, or investigated and documented suspected contract developers?

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Binary Star, a musicdisk for the PCE with SCC (MSX) tunes!]

So, do you need to make custom sound files for this, then?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: SOTN on PC Engine]

Konami's PCE chiptunes are definitely competent, but not technically spectacular the way their laTer NES tunes were, with the exception on Parodius. On the NES Konami was big on sampled percussion, yet only Parodius appears to do this on the PCE.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Games nobody ever fuckin talks about 2.0: Tiger Road]

I guess my biggest problem with Tiger Road is that it's such a simplistic game. It suffers some from being an early title in the visuals and audio department, but mostly it's just short and hard, and while it plays fine, it ultimately just doesn't feel rewarding enough. It's biggest problem is therefore its lack of outstanding qualities.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Kyouyyoykyoyoykoykyuyuyuyuyuuyueaahahoooo Tiger]

Bonk 2 definitely has a different sound engine. Completely different from 1. Composition style sounds quite a bit different to my ears as well.

Did you mean Bonk 3?  That's a completely new engine, & I always wished they stuck with the original.  The first 2 use the same sound engine, & Bonk 2 even reuses several songs.  One of the projects I aim to working on is a remix of Bonk 3 CD, to make it sound like a souped up version of the Bonk 1/2 sound engine.....if i ever get any time to do it that is!

Are you sure? I mean, I haven't been into the code, but Bonk 2 (Revenge) sounds VERY different from Bonk 1. It sounds like it has a totally different instrument set and composition style. I would argue Bonk 2 and 3 sound more alike than 1 and 2.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Why didn't Rare get into Turbob?]

I don't know how their NES-era stuff did in Japan, but Super Donkey Kong (Donkey Kong Country) was a massive hit in Japan. It is apparently very fondly remembered.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Kyouyyoykyoyoykoykyuyuyuyuyuuyueaahahoooo Tiger]

Bonk 2 definitely has a different sound engine. Completely different from 1. Composition style sounds quite a bit different to my ears as well.

I like Kyukyoku Tiger, but I prefer Raiden. It was such a high-class graphical presentation in the arcade. For home versions I'd say they're a lot more similar, but in the arcade Raiden was the distinct winner in my book.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Apple/early PC games worth porting to PCE]

Deathtank Zwei on PC Engine?

That I would totally go for, but I kinda though that was a Saturn game.

Yeah, I was mostly just being silly. The Saturn is one of my other gaming loves.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Apple/early PC games worth porting to PCE]

Deathtank Zwei on PC Engine?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Why didn't Rare get into Turbob?]

I doubt it. I mean, I'm sure they were aware of the Turbo, but I would be surprised if they really gave it even a second look.

I'm still trying to figure out why Icom Simulations did so many games on the Turbo.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Apple/early PC games worth porting to PCE]

So, after chatting in another thread about my love for the Apple II, it got me thinking about what Apple II or other early PC games would make fun conversions to PCE. I'm thinking more basic action games than RPGs and whatnot, because they would conceivably be easier to handle code-wise, much like the early arcade titles Arkhan and Touko favor. Here's what I've identified as good candidates so far.

Lode Runner: Yes, the PCE already has a version, but it's heavily altered. The original has a 28x13 grid for more complex levels. I think it would be fun to try to adapt that to the PCE with a more modern aesthetic, though dealing with tile compositing might be challenging, since a nonstandard 10x11 tile size would have to be recreated.

Boulderdash: Much easier than Lode Runner. Basic tile-based game with rudimentary "physics". Movement is grid-based. Would be important not to smooth that out too much or the game would be too hard to control.

Choplifter: pretty simple shooty game. Has a lot in common with Defender in some ways.

Any other fun suggestions?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: SOTN on PC Engine]

If you're going to throw back to an older platform, you're more likely to do it to a popular one. Maybe you missed the 90s, but our platform of choice wasn't very popular in the West back then.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Why didn't Rare get into Turbob?]

Nintendo had their back. You don't screw Nintendo. Nintendo screws you. Only the really big guys with other revenue streams, like Hudson and Namco, could afford to either "cheat on" or leave Nintendo.