Castlevania Dracula X: Rondo of Blood [PC Engine CD] Patch RELEASE!!!

[Burnt Lasagna]

Did the manual ever end up getting translated?

As of now, no.

[Sadler]

Ah well, this is still awesome beyond all reason! Thanks getting this done!

[NightWolve]

While it's impressive, technically speaking, that Tom was able to change the title screen and disable the code that draws the 'X', I was surprised that you guys chose to eliminate it - too hard to have worked it into the new title screen or this was entirely intentional? I was like, "Wait, huh, what happened to the 'X' being slash drawn along with the sound effects to it?"

[Burnt Lasagna]

Yes, I chose to remove the X in the title screen.
I chose to do this in order to keep continuity between Rondo of Blood and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night's English localization (Symphony of the Night is a sequel to Rondo of Blood). In Japanese Both games had an X in the title.

Akumajō Dracula X: Chi no Rondo
Akumajō Dracula X: Gekka no Yasōkyoku 

The X was removed in Symphony of the Night when brought over seas, so it makes since to also remove it in Rondo of Blood as well.

Besides, Konami has already given Rondo of Blood an official English name in the states, which is Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, and if we where keep the X it would just cause unnecessary confusion. 
 
Sure, the X was neat, but I think keeping continuity is more important.

[cubanraul]

Who wants to play guinea pig with a typo fix?: 

http://home.comcast.net/~heavyweights/games/drac/DraculaX_v1.01.zip

[Burnt Lasagna]

Thanks cubanraul!

/%28CD%29Akumajou%20Dracula%20X%20-%20Chi%20no%20Rondo%20%28J%29%20-%20120618_1730.bmp

Got to love that sexy E

The stupid thing is I just got this patch hosted on romhacking.net. Guess I'll have to resubmit it.

[NightWolve]

Yup, it's fixed!

@cubanraul: Heya BTW! I made the connection that it was you from years ago that had originally started the project. Didn't know you were on this board! Has it really been ~8 years since the project began? I just read the ReadMe and was reminded of that history, back when you came to me for help, man, I guess I did also encourage you, but at the same time, I thought it was technically a waste of time, would likely never get anywhere, nobody would ever be able to (nor want to) do a font-hack for the opening text, etc. yet here we were are today with essentially a fully completed patch (of course, in large part thanks to Konami!!)! Wish I hadn't played this game so much to where I'm pretty sick of it, though the patch did motivate me to play it through one more time at 68%. ;) I didn't save Maria on that run, but I'll try again at some point. Anyway, congrats!

Minor note: I'd say David Shadoff should technically get a spot in the Credits section for the ADPCM tools. If AstroBlue is gonna get credit for an ASCII logo, I think he deserves it too. ;)

[Burnt Lasagna]

Minor note: I'd say David Shadoff should technically get a spot in the Credits section for the ADPCM tools. If AstroBlue is gonna get credit for an ASCII logo, I think he deserves it too. ;)

Yeah I just realized that I forgot to re-credit him in this readme (credited him in the last readme).
I'll be making a new revision of the readme soon that includes a couple of other people I forgot to mention.

[Bernie]

pfft..  Im keeping the typo. 

[dairugger]

question: ive had a clean bin/cue i made awhile back from my copy of drac x. i applied the patch successfully, but im not sure how to burn it with image burn. the outputted files doesnt include a cue file so im not sure how to burn this.

after its burnt i want to use turborip to play it with my psp and the pce emu.

[Bernie]

You use the original CUE file.  If you applied the bin/cue patch properly, it patched your existing BIN.  I would have to say though, I prefer the TurboRip program, creating the ISO/WAVE/CUE.  Its included, so just re-rip it if it's giving you issues.

[dairugger]

its working perfectly on my psp. heres what i had to do:

mount the image i made of my disc using daemon lite.
use turborip to make a rip
patched it
mounted the patched image using daemon lite
used turborip to make a psp friendly rip using the /pcep option

I want to thank burnt lasagna and the whole team for a freakin awesome job!, and thanks nightwolve for his always awesome turborip program and great work ive enjoyed as far back as the rigg days. now to get playing!

[Bernie]

Not to be "THAT" guy. But..  I seriously doubt you ripped your own disc.  I thinks you downloaded an image, then mounted it in daemon tools to rip with TR.  But either way, enjoy the game. 

[dairugger]

Not to be "THAT" guy. But..  I seriously doubt you ripped your own disc.  I thinks you downloaded an image, then mounted it in daemon tools to rip with TR.  But either way, enjoy the game.  

lol, i wondered if someone would ask that. but yes i do actually own the original pc engine version! i also own the snes version, and psp version. i could provide a pic if anyone wants, only thing thats missing is the spine card (which i didnt know about when i bought it many moons ago from guys from turbo zone direct, i actually overpaid for it but treasure it none the less)

btw i forgot to thank you for your help making it for my psp! works flawlessly.

[dairugger]

sorry for the bad pics, i had to change the settings onmy phone to lower the quality to fit onto the board.

[Bernie]

lol.  No need to prove it man.  Was just an assumption, and a wrong one at that on my part.  But, one has to wonder..  Why did you not rip the actual game with TurboRip, instead of ripping an image file?

[dairugger]

lol.  No need to prove it man.  Was just an assumption, and a wrong one at that on my part.  But, one has to wonder..  Why did you not rip the actual game with TurboRip, instead of ripping an image file? 

i wasnt offended, no worries!
the reason i ripped from my image was sheer laziness, lol. i had a image id made from my disc when the first patch came out in preperation for the final patch. the actual disc was in my game room and the image was a click away. sheer laziness i tell ya!

[DragonmasterDan]

I didn't see anything about this in the thread but I couldn't skip the German intro scene like on my actual copy of the game. I have to wait for it to go through and reach the title screen.

Added in edit: Ehh, it worked the second time I tried it.

[dairugger]

I didn't see anything about this in the thread but I couldn't skip the German intro scene like on my actual copy of the game. I have to wait for it to go through and reach the title screen.

i used to run into this only when i ran the game for the first time, after that initial time i would be able to skip the intro.

[Bernie]

Thats because you are forced to watch the intro in full until you actually create a save file. 

[dairugger]

In honor of this awesome project if it's OK with everybody id like to share some scans from my mag collection.

/egm55p88.jpg
Shot at 2012-06-22

/egm55p89.jpg
Shot at 2012-06-22

i have more if anyone's interested. I've loved Castlevania and especially Dracula X since as long as I can remember.

[spenoza]

I think that very 2-page spread may be what inspired me to look for DracX in stores the first time I went to Japan, back in '95 when you could still get a new copy in shrink wrap for 5700 yen or so.

[NightWolve]

Nice one dairugger, you stole my idea! I actually have those two pages cut out and sitting on top of my scanner. I was eventually gonna get them scanned in and find a spot to host them somewhere. ;) I had a third one taped together which I went ahead and scanned now which was the preview I guess:

I think that very 2-page spread may be what inspired me to look for DracX in stores the first time I went to Japan, back in '95 when you could still get a new copy in shrink wrap for 5700 yen or so.

Yup, I'm pretty sure that's what led to my purchasing it as well, breaking my price-point and paying what would be the most I've ever paid for a single game at $79.99! I still don't think I've ever gone over that, I've tied it with two Working Designs titles, "Lunar 2:EB" and "Arc The Lad Collection." There was "Ys VI: Ark of Napishtim" LE direct from Falcom, which came out to like $109 at the time, but my number one Ys fan/donor split the bill with me (donating the difference) and I only paid $60 for it.

[dairugger]

lol, great minds think alike night. ive got that one, its a great find too. one thing i like to do when i get a game is to read all about the previews, to get myself revved up i guess. heres a couple more i have. i have some more i need to scan em tho.

/gameprofeb95p152dracxpr.jpg
Shot at 2012-06-22

/gameprooct95draculaxxre.jpg
Shot at 2012-06-22

/egm75p32.jpg
Shot at 2012-06-22

/egm54p88.jpg
Shot at 2012-06-22

/egm49p76.jpg
Shot at 2012-06-22

/egm24p46.jpg
Shot at 2012-06-22

/dx1t.png
Shot at 2012-06-22

/dx2c.png
Shot at 2012-06-22

/drx07.jpg
Shot at 2012-06-22

/bvcvdxegm1995.jpg
Shot at 2012-06-22

[dairugger]

in the last post theres a dracula x ad, and i also put the snes dracula x previews in there. back before people knew it wasnt gonna be a straight up port.

heres three more that while they arent of drac x they are awesome and have to do with the series.


/gamefan05p32sotnpreview.jpg
Shot at 2012-06-22

/gamefan05p33sotnpreview.jpg
Shot at 2012-06-22

/gamefan05p34sotnpreview.jpg
Shot at 2012-06-22

/gamefan05p35sotnpreview.jpg
Shot at 2012-06-22

[NightWolve]

What the heck, I didn't know about some Playstation remake ? I want !!! What year is that from ? That looks awesome, Dracula X with powered-up PS1 graphics!

[dairugger]

the psx scan? oh, thats the beginning of castlevania sotn. the beginning of the game has a recap of the end of drac x, complete with spruced up grafx.

[NightWolve]

Yeah, durrr, I kept looking at it over and over and then could make out Alucard in the review and was like, oh crap, it's just SOTN. I forgot all about some Dracula X opening though, that threw me off. I own the game, but I only beat it once as I recall.

[dairugger]

heres the others. these were from gamefan who always had the way of making games look freakin awesome on page. i also have others from the snes dracula x if anyones interested. i noticed i accidentally posted a beta pic of castlevania 4, if it bothers anyone ill remove it.

/scan0003ox.jpg
Shot at 2012-06-22

/scan0004k.jpg
Shot at 2012-06-22

/scan0006js.jpg
Shot at 2012-06-22

/scan0005r.jpg
Shot at 2012-06-22

[dairugger]

Yeah, durrr, I kept looking at it over and over and then could make out Alucard in the review and was like, oh crap, it's just SOTN. I forgot all about some Dracula X opening though, that threw me off. I own the game, but I only beat it once as I recall.

i play it all the time on my pspgo, the revised version on the dracula x chronicles is awesome! i also have some scans from way back when castlevania sotn was called castlevania V, some of them have dark spy photos of the game and wrong info that they thought about the game, about it being a belmont game and alucard was one of other characters you could choose. on another note its sad we never got the port they planned for the sega 32x. but i believe that project turned into another game called castlevania bloodletting which ultimatley turned into castlevania sotn!

thats why im so thankful for this project and the awesome people who made it possible.   i wonder if it would be possible to translate the pc engine version of popful mail and use the audio from the sega cd version. i love that series and both games, even tho the pc engine has extra levels not found in the sega cd so that might be a problem.

[Burnt Lasagna]

Alright here's some new English box art that I full hearty indorse 

dl.dropbox.com/u/47184537/DraculaX%20English/test%20box.png

The art is courtesy of my bro!

[Bernie]

HA!  If I had not already made a Lightscribe label, I would use this.

[DragonmasterDan]

Alright here's some new English box art that I full hearty indorse 

/DraculaX%20English/test%20box.png

The art is courtesy of my bro!

If NEC were doing the box art and it came out in the US, that's exactly how it would have looked too.

[city41]

If NEC were doing the box art and it came out in the US, that's exactly how it would have looked too.

They'd make sure to make Maria's gender ambiguous.

[NightWolve]

Haha! Nice! The thread was all serious and then you dropped that one on us. Good call, dude!

[Spooniest]

There's only one bit of Japanese left in the game, and it's the announcement Death makes when you reach the top of the ship at the end of Stage 5.

"Koko kurasaki niwaiyu kasenou!" (Phonetic, to the best of my memory)

The PSP is "You will go no further!"

Other than that, an immaculate English translation. You even changed the quotes at the player select screen! The end credits don't bother me at all, I do what I always do when watching credits, light a cigarette.

[Burnt Lasagna]

"Koko kurasaki niwaiyu kasenou!" (Phonetic, to the best of my memory)

The PSP is "You will go no further!"

Wait, did I forget to insert that clip!?
Well crap, I could of sworn that I included that. I'll look into this later today and I will have a fix up shortly.

[Spooniest]

Dracula's battle quote:

"Ware ne chikuru..."

Is also still in Japanese.

The PSP is "Give... me... POWER..."

With those two out of the way, all the (spoken) Japanese will be in English.

[dairugger]

heres a sotn proto scan. notice the description.. wonder what they were thinking..?

egm89p44.jpg
Shot at 2012-06-26

[ParanoiaDragon]

Hmm, it just sounds like it was progression from the 32X game, & they eventually made the decision to just have Alucard, instead of a plethora of character's.  Unless my eyes decieve me, the only recognizable protaganist in those pics, is Alucard.  I don't see anyone toting a whip

[MottZilla]

Richter, Maria, and Alucard are playable characters. Who knows who the rumored 4th was supposed to be, might as well assume Vic Viper.

[dairugger]

Richter, Maria, and Alucard are playable characters. Who knows who the rumored 4th was supposed to be, might as well assume Vic Viper.

in the original psx sotn maria was not playable, and richter was only playable after beating the game and inputting his name, hardly what id call a real playable character. plus when you play as him the game is really dry, boring even.

[DragonmasterDan]

Richter, Maria, and Alucard are playable characters. Who knows who the rumored 4th was supposed to be, might as well assume Vic Viper.

Axelord

[Burnt Lasagna]

Richter, Maria, and Alucard are playable characters. Who knows who the rumored 4th was supposed to be, might as well assume Vic Viper.

Could of been this dude...

Richters supposed rival in the canceled 32x game Castlevania: The Bloodletting.
It apparently got canceled because all of the games devlopment staff merged onto SOTN, so maybe they might have planned at one point to have him reprise his role in SOTN.
castlevania.wikia.com/wiki/Castlevania:_The_Bloodletting

[dairugger]

Richter, Maria, and Alucard are playable characters. Who knows who the rumored 4th was supposed to be, might as well assume Vic Viper.

Could of been this dude...

Richters supposed rival in the canceled 32x game Castlevania: The Bloodletting.
It apparently got canceled because all of the games development staff merged onto SOTN, so maybe they might have planned at one point to have him reprise his role in SOTN.
castlevania.wikia.com/wiki/Castlevania:_The_Bloodletting

i knew a bit about this but damn, i didnt know about the other characters. crazy. i wonder if screens of the 32x build ever leaked out.

[cubanraul]

@cubanraul : Heya BTW! I made the connection that it was you from years ago that had originally started the project. Didn't know you were on this board! Has it really been ~8 years since the project began? I just read the ReadMe and was reminded of that history, back when you came to me for help, man, I guess I did also encourage you, but at the same time, I thought it was technically a waste of time, would likely never get anywhere, nobody would ever be able to (nor want to) do a font-hack for the opening text, etc. yet here we were are today with essentially a fully completed patch (of course, in large part thanks to Konami!!)! Wish I hadn't played this game so much to where I'm pretty sick of it, though the patch did motivate me to play it through one more time at 68%. ;) I didn't save Maria on that run, but I'll try again at some point. Anyway, congrats!

@NightWolve:  Hi, been a really long time.  As of this month it has somehow been a full 8 years since it started.  You helped me see that the process of working on this is what makes it fun and not just the end result.  Because of how much time I've spent with this game it is by far my favorite of the series.

[Keith Courage]

I finally downloaded the 1.01 patch for this. I had been using the 0.95 patch up until now. I like all the additions and it's some amazing work by everyone. The only thing I don't like over the 0.95 patch is the voice for the first Enemy(grim reaper). The voice sounded much better in the 0.95 patch that you originally had up. In the new patch it sounds like some guy yelling down a hallway. Then again, he only has two lines so I guess I can live with it  

[Spooniest]

In the older patch it was Burnt's brother doing the voice...the newer one is actually the sampled voice from the PSP version.

[Keith Courage]

Maybe it sounds funny cause the audio was designed to come out of those tiny PSP speakers. The recording of Burnt's brother actually sounds more professional in my opinion. Anyone have any idea on how to paste that part back into the patch?

[esadajr]

I just tried the patch last night on my Duo R. This is excellent, thanks for your hard work translation team.