I know everyone already has a lot they are working on and that it's not about the money. However, since my last standing offer expired, I thought I'd renew it for the new year.
I will pay (via Paypal) $150.00 to anyone who successfully makes a playable, English translated version of Anearth Fantasy Stories for the PC Engine.
I will also pay someone $40.00 to translate the following text for me into English.
http://m1sz1.com/pics/finaldumpclean.txt
Contact me if interested in translating the text.
Happy new year to all and good luck on all your projects!
Offer expires November 1, 2013
If I thought anyone could translate that game for $150 I would have offered ages ago.
To find someone who could even do it, who had the skills, wouldn't flake out, and could actually deliver the product in less than a couple of years...at that point the money is hardly even a factor.
I would gladly contribute money to such a project, I just don't know if it would actually help.
Pretty generous of you! Now wasn't EsperKnight and team (SamIAm) considering or already working on this ?? I thought this was on their list...
Another History Flashback: I dunno how many were aware of this, it *is* buried in the Ys IV Project History section of the ReadMe, but I once offered the famous Neill Corlett (of Secret of Mana 3/Bahamut Bagoon hack fame) $250 to get him back working on the Ys IV hacking (he DID leave me with the Ys IV decompression code) for two remaining difficult tasks mainly: 1) reverse the decompression code he had uncovered, 2) hack the font routine to support full English, variable width if possible. The 3rd task was to *MAYBE* go the distance, if possible, to implement subtitles for the voice acting... Anyhow, he considered my offer, told me it was very respectable, but ultimately turned it down to work on other things...
At the time, he was busy with his PSF system: software to extract sound code from Playstation1 games, store it, along with a Winamp plugin to play the format back. He tackled PS2 games after that as well. Funny enough, a couple of years later way after the Ys IV text patch was released, I randomly sent him an email asking about a technical question, DLL loading in Windows and the relocation concept, something like that, and as an aside he mentioned that he should've taken me up on that ole $250 offer! ;) Well, not only did I not have to pay someone for something that I couldn't do, David Shadoff, who eventually came through for the project and did what was necessary, wound up donating $100 to *me* to boot, in addition to his time/expertise!! =)
It's been on a couple of peoples lists over the years. Nightwolve, you may even remember this, but many years ago there was a group of about 7 or 8 of us offering money for someone to translate it and I think the reward was up to something like $600. Of course at that time it wasn't really even considered to be possible. :)
Like I said, I'm sure no one would go out of their way to do it just for the money but consider it my preorder if they do.
That sure as hell is news to me, I never heard about no $600!!!!! Given the 99% freeloading rate you statistically find here (fan translations), that figure is shocking to hear! ;)
It's very kind of you to offer, but I know I for one would rather not get paid for it. The pressure to deliver would ruin some of the fun, and adding money to the mix can strain relationships between people cooperating to get the job done.
I really wish Xanadu II would come faster, but Esperknight has a family and a full time job, so it's inevitable that the pace is going to be slow. Since it's all volunteer work on his part, though, I'm nothing but grateful for the work he puts in. Xanadu II is a pain in the ass to hack, as well.
On that note, I still think that the Saturn version of Anearth Fantasy Stories might be vastly easier to hack. That may take the magic away for folks on this forum, but you have to be practical about these things.
What the PCE translation scene needs above all else is hackers taking the initiative, because the whole process of translating a game starts with a script dump. I guarantee that if you advertised on romhacking.net that you had a clean, workable script dump of any one of the more impressive CD RPGs, you'd get a translator quickly enough.
SamIAm - I'm really looking forward to Xanadu II and appreciate the work you guys are putting into it. I promise not to pay you for it when it's complete. :lol: Seriously though, I understand what you're saying about money mucking up things at times.
The Saturn version would be pretty cool since they're essentially the same game but it still doesn't interest me as much as the PCE version.
Maybe the money should be offered to a hacker to dump and then re-insert the script. Translators are, as previously mentioned, much easier to find. It is possible that if many people are as willing as you are to pony up cash a cool sum could be accumulated.
In my experience it is best if the money is split between all major members of a translation and some form of compensation to everyone else who lent a hand. Really, that's the only fair way to go about it. $150 split between a few members isn't really much when you break it down. So that said, it is best that money takes a back seat until a translation is finished because really the goal of fan translators should be to produce a professional quality translation and that takes time, months to years. The amount of work that would have gone into a project cannot be covered by a few hundred bucks, unless you don't value the amount of work that goes into a translation, and it should be treated as a bonus for finishing a translation.
Quote from: m1savage on 01/06/2013, 10:26 AMI promise not to pay you for it when it's complete. :lol:
Well, that's the standard, default behavior of the public, so no worries... You're not ever gonna endanger it with such offers. ;)
I think what spenoza said makes sense, if you could find a hacker to build all the tools to extract the script, insert it back in, along with a font hack, and a decent patching system, etc. you can worry about finding a translator later. Get the difficult programming/reverse engineering stuff out of the way. After that, then try to find a translator. They're more likely to do the translation for free as well; most that I met are very anti-profit and all into the fan credo ideology (as in, fanatics). Shimarisu (
majority translator of Ys IV) was the only exception who was caught on eBay selling Ys IV originals with a fully-patched CD-R to up the price.
Anyway, the main problem is all you did is make a post here and are essentially hoping for the best. You gotta be more of an activist for it than that. You need to market the offer in more places and also fire off emails/PMs to known hackers with a track record. EsperKnight came to mind, but SamIam spoke on that, but the next person off the top of my head is Bonknuts. He's an expert with the variable-width font hacks and could probably handle figuring out the text decompression code, etc. David Shadoff is another guy, as mentioned, but you probably couldn't tempt him, even with the full $600. He's been working on Cosmic Fantasy 1 for years, so it's an issue of time and since he does very well at his job as an IT consultant, $600 would be chump change to him not to mention the game in question has been on his list already!! ;)
I would've taken you up on that $600 offer if I had seen it years ago AND if it was for a PC game though! I got good enough to hack most PC games over time, given all the knowledge, tools, etc. available on the Windows platform and my prior x86 assembly experience going into it. With NEC games for an old 8-bit console, there was no interactive debugger with the emulators when the Ys IV project began and you've got primitive hardware/software, so it was hard for someone like me to dive into it. You needed very exceptional talent like a Neill Corlett for that aspect and compression algorithms were never my thing either, so David Shadoff saved the day after Neill.
With PC games, it's much easier to track down the decompression code, rip it out, figure out how the parameters work and compile it in your own project with additional "C" written modules to use. You don't have to understand it and when it comes to recompression, you can hack the executable to bypass normal procedures of decompress and load, and skip it forward to the loading, so you leave your image or text replacements as plain files, without compression, etc. That's how I got it done with my PC Ys projects. Later games use standard ZLIB (Zip/unzip) though which is freely available for download and use, so you'd never have to learn how the algorithm works. Early games used custom algorithms, I had a hunch Ys I Complete uses something called LZO, but yeah, it was irrelevant to me in the end. You have much more control and options to bypass problems like this on a Windows PC game than with an old console game and its primitive hardware/instruction set, along with the lack of advanced tools (advanced disassemblers) to work with it, etc. You don't get to cheat... ;) (I hear these days that Mednafen has a decent debugger though, but I've never tried it.)
It would be nice if there were some kind of "kickstarter" fund if you will for translations. I can see how money would really gum up the works though.
A little thank-you money put together after the release is one thing, but actually making a contract with someone using money as an incentive is quite another.
A key problem is that it's very hard to predict how many hours it will take to successfully hack a game. Xanadu II, for example, didn't appear at first to be anywhere near as hard as it's turned out to be. A hacker can't really predict if he's committing to 20 hours of work or 100. If he's not in it mostly for the fun of it, you probably stand an even greater chance of him flaking out before the work is done.
Lastly, I do have to mention that even though a lot of fan-translators are happy to work for free, it would be dangerous to pay the hacker hundreds of dollars while the translator gets nothing. I'd like to think I'd be fine if someone wanted to start paying Esperknight and not me, but I'm only human, and it could start to bother me after a while. I do paid translation work too, and I could definitely use $600 myself.
It seems very hard to me to find anyone to do the translation part. For example, the text file in my original post isn't very large (relatively) but since it's from a mahjong game, no one is interested. I posted it on Romhacking forums and asked anyone there to give me a price on translating it but not a single person responded. Luckily, I've got the menus, locations and mahjong terms translated and (half-assed) inserted so I'll just carry on from there for now.
I say just use something like google translate. Even if the translation isn't %100 perfect it's much better then not knowing what is being said at all. Much like what was done for STARTLING ODYSSEY II
this game seems to popup on many translation wish lists, mine included! This game is so awesome, if only I could understand what was actually going on...
I have no skills to offer as far as a translation project, but I'd be happy to help make this happen if I knew how. The work that went into the Ys IV english translation & dub is outstanding. I'm currently playing through it for the first time and am floored by the quality of the translation/voice acting. The fact that Xanadu II is in the works is also very exciting.
Anearth in english would be awesome. And even though it has been brought up and shot down a million times, I also wish Snatcher would get translated too. Yeah, the sega cd version is in english, but imo there is really no (other) reason to own a sega cd. Both Snatcher and Anearth would make great additions to the english scd library. Hopefully interest in PCE will continue to grow over time so that more translation-abled hackers will be interested in these projects, or any great pce game for that matter.
It seems that Anearth is on the order of 15 hours or so from start to finish, which means that the translation side is probably relatively manageable. Esperknight loves nothing more than to poke at games, so I'll ask him to take a look at this one. He's got plenty on his plate already, but he might give us an idea of whether it looks easy or difficult to hack.
EDIT:
About the Mahjong game, two things: A) You shouldn't use google because there's no kanji and lots of slang in that text file, which will drastically reduce google's already poor accuracy. B) A lot of those lines are context-specific and necessitate playing the game to properly work with. I don't know how feasible it would be, but if you could whip up a quick playthrough video and stick it on youtube (maybe edit it to keep the time short), that would make it way easier to deal with for translators who don't want to commit to learning the whole game.
Well at least this thread brought Anearth some interest again. A couple of things I've noticed about it is that there is English text and alphabet in the game and not an extreme amount of text. There is also a the debug version of the game available which may or may not help out. If anyone does take it upon themselves to give it a go, I've played through it many times and would be willing to do whatever I could to help out.
Thanks for the input on the mahjong game (Mahjong Gakuen). I have ran the text through every online translator I could find and also Atlas machine translation which as you can guess gave very mixed results. I have screenshots of every "spoken" part in the game and even have them grouped together by each person speaking if that would help anyone. As for the mahong terms, I already have those done for the most part though I'm sure there are some in the other text as well. Hmmmm....just got another idea.... :-k
Quote from: HercTNT on 01/06/2013, 10:07 PMIt would be nice if there were some kind of "kickstarter" fund if you will for translations. I can see how money would really gum up the works though.
I'd much rather contribute to a kickstarter to translate a PCE RPG than something like Pier Solar ports. But it would need to have a translator and hacker lined up with a plan.
Quote from: m1savage on 01/07/2013, 12:14 AMIt seems very hard to me to find anyone to do the translation part. For example, the text file in my original post isn't very large (relatively) but since it's from a mahjong game, no one is interested. I posted it on Romhacking forums and asked anyone there to give me a price on translating it but not a single person responded. Luckily, I've got the menus, locations and mahjong terms translated and (half-assed) inserted so I'll just carry on from there for now.
If its not snes/nes related, most of those guys at romhacking.net will ignore it. If its mostly spoken dialog, my brother might be able to help as he lives over there in Japan and that's what he does for a living. Finding the time for him to do it is a another thing....
Quote from: guest on 01/07/2013, 09:06 AMQuote from: HercTNT on 01/06/2013, 10:07 PMIt would be nice if there were some kind of "kickstarter" fund if you will for translations. I can see how money would really gum up the works though.
I'd much rather contribute to a kickstarter to translate a PCE RPG than something like Pier Solar ports. But it would need to have a translator and hacker lined up with a plan.
Completely agreed, i should have specified. Pce rpg's would be my top priority in such a scenario as well.
Quote from: HercTNT on 01/07/2013, 02:33 PMQuote from: guest on 01/07/2013, 09:06 AMQuote from: HercTNT on 01/06/2013, 10:07 PMIt would be nice if there were some kind of "kickstarter" fund if you will for translations. I can see how money would really gum up the works though.
I'd much rather contribute to a kickstarter to translate a PCE RPG than something like Pier Solar ports. But it would need to have a translator and hacker lined up with a plan.
Completely agreed, i should have specified. Pce rpg's would be my top priority in such a scenario as well.
I 3rd that motion!
I'm jumping in late on this one but I don't think I could take money for guaranteeing that I hack/translate a project since due to real life you never know what would come up. Donations I'm cool with (and would gladly except cause free money is good ;D ) but with the caveat that I may never finish whatever I'm working on cause you know, real life and such :) I love doing this stuff though so don't see myself stopping anytime soon :)
Now far as Anearth goes I did look at it a loooooooong time ago. Here's my notes too just in case anyones curious as I don't mind who works on something as long as it gets done :
!!!!! -- Seiya Monogatari - Anearth Fantasy Stories --
Compression Text : Yes, LZSS
Example of text block : 275800 (LZSS block appears to start at 27580C, not sure about bytes before it though)
Compression Graphics :
Example of graphics block :
Notes :
*Letter loading is done at $72DC, uses 1 byte characters too that don't match up to SJIS, dictionary values as well
*Right before name entry screen shows, loads $DA000 ($6D/0000) with compressed block, after name entry its uncompressed to $F7009 (Routine around $56A6)
*Compressed block is loaded into $A000
*Buffer is 0xFFF in size, starts at 0xFEE
Now how easy it is from there to get the script, not sure as really all I did was quick looksy. Also I looked at quite a few more too but sadly didn't write (type) them all down. I may have them somewhere else though too... I tend to forget :) (Some others: Eiyuu Densetsu II, Gulliver Boy, Mateki Densetsu Astralius, Private Eye Dol, all from the notes file I found).
Also, Xanadu 1/2 is probably one of the worst I've worked on far as extracting scripts go :D Falcom in general is I think. At least they keep the same compression scheme the same for all their games :D So anything is easier then X1/2 :) (I throw in 1 as I believe I looked at it and it used the same stuff as X2... could be wrong though :)
I'll take a bit more of a look at Anearth and see what I come up with but as SamIAm said, you never know until you really start digging into it :)
Quote from: guest on 01/07/2013, 09:06 AMQuote from: HercTNT on 01/06/2013, 10:07 PMIt would be nice if there were some kind of "kickstarter" fund if you will for translations. I can see how money would really gum up the works though.
I'd much rather contribute to a kickstarter to translate a PCE RPG than something like Pier Solar ports. But it would need to have a translator and hacker lined up with a plan.
This would be awesome I think but I wonder how fast it'd get C&Ded since arguably what we do is not quite legal (depending on where you live REing something that is not yours is illegal). Course if we could guarantee the rights for the project then that'd definitely work. Definitely an awesome idea though :)
Well my theory would be to donate money in general. The idea being people donate for the sake of donating, and not expecting anything in return. The money would go to pay people for there time and not the project. I would also like to see a system set up were if the person or persons doing the project were not able to finish, would be open to passing the project on to new people willing to take up the torch. Its kinda rough ground to tread on though as people who do translations often feel like people are freeloaders. Yet also refuse compensation claiming its unethical. Makes it tough for those who do wanna help. I have often seen as well that people doing projects can allow the behavior of a mere few reflect poorly on the majority. A kickstarter in a tight knit community could go a long way to getting projects done, while minimizing the chances that a few bag eggs are gonna ruin the party for everyone else. Such a scenario could be beneficial to both parties. The translators feel appreciated and maybe even compensated, and the community hopefully eventually gets to play new games.
Donations can help, very true. I do think the kickstarter idea would be helpful but I just worry it also may attract the wrong crowd (those who do it just for money expecting to be compensated). Course if we just kept it to those that are trustworthy somehow... but then again I guess those doing the work could setup a donate button on there site which would work as well. Course this wouldn't persuade anyone to go after certain games. Then again I'd hate for a translator to tackle something he doesn't like as that can lead to a poor translation.
Far as those people who think that people who enjoy their work are freeloaders, that's nuts to me. Mind you I have seen it too that they think people don't appreciate what they've done due to some idiots posting bad stuff about them and their project and what not so I know what you mean. To me though, as long as one person enjoys it other than myself, I'm happy :)
agreed, i'm more or less talking in general as i only know the story from my side of the fence. i have never been in your shoes or delt with the kinda stuff you guys deal with. Frankly i'm just tickled that there are people on this planet with the skills to translate. I just wish there were an easy comfortable solution for everyone to encourage more pce games to get translated. other systems have got alot of love, not so much for the pce.
I have trouble with keeping a consistent nick for different forums, but I've done a lot of translations, mostly NES, and eventually I plan on giving the PCE some love. Unlike most translation hackers, I am/was a PCE nut and purchased a MIB Turbo Duo and a used PCFX, which I sold here years ago with somewhat shameful behavior. I already have a PCE project in the preliminary stages and I'll probably invest some time on it once I clear my plate a bit which is somewhat full at the moment.
Also, I think most translators/hackers do this for their own enjoyment, I personally treat my translations as a puzzle that needs to be solved, and to improve/maintain their language skills.
Quote from: HercTNT on 01/07/2013, 08:52 PMI just wish there were an easy comfortable solution for everyone to encourage more pce games to get translated. other systems have got alot of love, not so much for the pce.
I'm not so sure that other system have gotten a lot of love. From what I've noticed, really the SNES and NES are the ones who get the most love. Maybe PSX next. Otherwise sadly a lot of systems get neglected :( Mind you this is just from personal observation not numbers so I could completely wrong. (I do recall someone did look at the numbers and NES/SNES were the top two translation releases for Romhacking.net).
I think the issue is due to lack of documentation on how to hack on it, lack of tools, and the lack of nostalgia. For me, I didn't grow up on the PCE but on the SNES and NES. Once I saw it emulated though then I got really into it and kept coming back to it wanting to hack on it. Took me a long while to really dig into it and figure stuff out. I'm still no where near as good as Bonknuts or others but at least I know my way around :) Really though we have everything we need. Documentation is there by Charles MacDonald and others. Tools, you have Mednafen which is really all you need. Nostalgia.. well... Admittedly though the PCE is a pain to hack as there's no file system to speak so no easy extraction of files (although SNES or NES doesn't either...). It's also hard to subtitle them too due to how VRAM is used and lack of VRAM. Course we do have dubbing so that alleviates that or even text files which can work as well. Possibly other options too that I may now know of. Really though I think it comes down to nostalgia and just love of the system. Never know though, as we get more games translated people may flock :)
I'd be willing to help out (PhotoShopping English versions of manual/maps/materials) and hosting and even $$$ within my budget. I'd be much happier supporting a good cause than, say, paying $80 now for games that I'll just buy next year.
:pcgs:
I sat down and played about an hour each of the Saturn and PCE versions of AFS.
The PCE version has four distinct advantages:
1. AFS in general has way more charm as a quality late-era PCE game than as an otherwise unremarkable early Saturn game.
2. The music quality is better.
3. The sound effects aren't grating.
4. The character portraits are better.
However, the Saturn one has some advantages of its own:
1. Higher res, more colors, more tiles, more layering, light and water effects, etc. Side by side, it's a pretty stark difference.
2. Way, way more voice acting. All the music is chip-generated, so there's space on the CD.
3. Extra areas and content.
4. The text doesn't display in-sync with the voices. This makes things easier to work with for a translation.
5. The game is apparently a little better balanced, but I've only read that, not seen it. AFS sure takes its sweet time getting to an actual fight!
So there's that.
By the way, what about Cosmic Fantasy 4 part 2? That's supposed to be pretty good, and I read in another post by Tom that the text is uncompressed, which makes things a hell of a lot easier to hack.
EDIT: God, I can't freaking count.
Having played through both versions now more times than a sane person should (would?) I'd say your points about The PCE version are pretty much spot on. The Saturn version does a couple of things different though I would say it's seems a bit easier rather than better balanced. Either way they're both fun.
I wish someone could tell me the whole story behind the demo version -
(http://m1sz1.com/pics/CD_8F93AADA-002.png)
Who is TWI Soft? What were they planning on doing with this game in 1995? It's fun to play around with as there are some very interesting screens -
(http://m1sz1.com/pics/CD_8F93AADA-013.png)
(http://m1sz1.com/pics/CD_8F93AADA-016.png)
Hope to hear the story on this someday. :-k
Haven't checked out Anearth Fantasy just yet but hope to do it this weekend :) The good thing about compression I have to admit is that it can be useful in telling if you have a legitimate script block or whatever type you may be looking for. For another game I used it to my advantage for ripping graphics since they were all compressed that way :D Course you can miss a few here or there but hey :) Hopefully Anearth's compression will make it easier. At least from what I wrote and recall it appears to just use standard LZSS I'm thinking since standard LZSS always started off the buffer at 0xFEE if I remember right... but as long as it's not as bad as Falcom's we'll be good ;D
Regarding the PCE vs Saturn, I'd like to do both honestly :D Most likely I'd say at least 95% of the script matches (say they added a few scenes here or there maybe) so it wouldn't be too bad to do both. And the Saturn's not a bad platform to hack on as I've poked at few on there :) Plus with it's file system base it may be easier to extract the scripts from there and then match them to what's extracted to the PCE version to filter out the junk :D (We know all about junk in scripts don't we SamIAm :) ) So hopefully this weekend maybe I'll have something :)
Edit: Checking out Anearth for the Saturn... This is the first console game I've seen that comes with a readme on the disc 0_0
Edit Edit: Going through google translate, words from the guys who worked on this, very cool :D
Quote from: m1savage on 01/10/2013, 10:06 PMHaving played through both versions now more times than a sane person should (would?) I'd say your points about The PCE version are pretty much spot on. The Saturn version does a couple of things different though I would say it's seems a bit easier rather than better balanced. Either way they're both fun.
I wish someone could tell me the whole story behind the demo version -
(http://m1sz1.com/pics/CD_8F93AADA-002.png)
Who is TWI Soft? What were they planning on doing with this game in 1995? It's fun to play around with as there are some very interesting screens -
(http://m1sz1.com/pics/CD_8F93AADA-013.png)
(http://m1sz1.com/pics/CD_8F93AADA-016.png)
Hope to hear the story on this someday. :-k
Wait, are you saying there's a demo of Holy Night on AFS? Are those picks from Holy Night, as I thought it was only a digital comic from what I recall seeing.
^^"Seiya" (as in Seiya Monogatari, the Japanese title for which "Anearth Fantasy Stories" is just a subtitle) means holy night, so isn't that it? Is there another game called Holy Night on the PCE?
Anyway, maybe I shouldn't spill the beans just yet, but something is happening with AFS. It looks like the script is stored in a much simpler way than Xanadu II. We might get a clean, complete script dump very soon. Stay tuned, I guess.
By the way, has anyone seen Bonknuts? It looks like he hasn't logged on in over a month. We could really use that dude right now, both for Spriggan mk2 and for a little advice on Xanadu II.
Woot! I'm gettin' my hopes up!
Quote from: SamIAm on 01/17/2013, 07:55 AM^^"Seiya" (as in Seiya Monogatari, the Japanese title for which "Anearth Fantasy Stories" is just a subtitle) means holy night, so isn't that it? Is there another game called Holy Night on the PCE?
Anyway, maybe I shouldn't spill the beans just yet, but something is happening with AFS. It looks like the script is stored in a much simpler way than Xanadu II. We might get a clean, complete script dump very soon. Stay tuned, I guess.
By the way, has anyone seen Bonknuts? It looks like he hasn't logged on in over a month. We could really use that dude right now, both for Spriggan mk2 and for a little advice on Xanadu II.
There's some prototype game that I think I have a rip of somewhere, it's called something like Holy Night, or might've been something like Holy 2 Night...I'm too tired to remember right now :P
Here's a listing for it on Paul's site http://www.pcengine.co.uk/HTML_Games/Angels_2-Holy_Night.htm
Quote from: SamIAm on 01/17/2013, 07:55 AMAnyway, maybe I shouldn't spill the beans just yet, but something is happening with AFS. It looks like the script is stored in a much simpler way than Xanadu II. We might get a clean, complete script dump very soon. Stay tuned, I guess.
gah this is so exciting! keep us updated :dance: :dance: :dance:
Glad to hear about the progress. The pictures I posted are from the "debug" version of Anearth. The caped crusaders and the 2 guys sitting at the PC in the pics are just a couple of examples of some goofiness added to the original game for some unknown reason.
It certainly is a good time for the turbo these days. Old games getting translated always warms my heart, especially if it's an old game that I've owned forever.
So far, the game owned you :P
I'm giving the game a play right now. I just arrived in Rostarl for the first time.
It's pretty good. I want to keep playing it, which is a good sign.
The good:
1. Decent music most of the time.
2. Graphics have good color, variety, and blending of tiles.
3. No random battles is always nice.
4. Decent pace. Each area takes about an hour, and there are 15-20 areas.
5. Many aspects of the battle system are fun.
6. The "maze full of treasures" dungeons are nice.
The bad:
1. The PSG music is bland and a little sloppy, and the redbook tracks get recycled a lot.
2. The shop menus make it a pain to figure out how much better an item is than what you currently have.
3. The battle engine spends a lot of time just scrolling left and right when no characters are even moving. They probably should have grouped everyone closer together.
4. There isn't much character development so far. This is especially true for your party members. The protagonist is basically silent, and the other members have very few lines and establish nothing in the way of relationships.
5. Few graphical flourishes. The Street Fighter II flooring in the battle engine is cool, but some water is begging for palette cycling and/or alternate tiles, and the battle engine would have looked much cooler with a little parallax.
We'll see how things evolve.
Out of curiosity, what character are you playing as?
The thief.
Are you a thief?
Quote from: Tatsujin on 01/20/2013, 05:19 AMAre you a thief?
I once stole a bar of soap from a corner store.
Luckily, I made a clean getaway.
Quote from: SamIAm on 01/20/2013, 10:01 AMQuote from: Tatsujin on 01/20/2013, 05:19 AMAre you a thief?
I once stole a bar of soap from a corner store.
Luckily, I made a clean getaway.
That pun is about as bad as saying "this dwarf is mine." :P
Next time I'll be sure to write it in block letters over a picture of a cat. That always helps. :)
Stupidity aside, I've played about two thirds of the game now. It looks like a 15-20 hour affair in total, which is just about right in my book. I'm definitely enjoying myself.
I think I can safely say that the game didn't blow all its creativity during the first third, and that it's a fairly even distribution with nice surprises all along the way. That's a big relief, and I hope it keeps it up to the end.
Not having to go through random or recurring battles is pretty darn cool. I do miss the action sometimes, though.
It looks like it will be easy to dump the script. The translation side looks like cake so far, and if reinsertion and battle engine/menu hacking isn't a pain, then this could be a relatively simple project to get through.
On the other hand, when it comes to priority, it's hard to say whether this one should be at the top. There's lots of demand, yes, but that's maybe the strongest reason it's got going for it. I hate to say it, but you're really not missing much by playing this via a walkthrough even if you can't read Japanese.
The two other PCE games I'd be most interested in getting scripts for are Xanadu 1 and Tenshi no Uta 2. In Xanadu 1's case, a translation would be extremely useful, because the game is next to unplayable in an unfamiliar language unless a super-detailed walkthrough holds your hand every step of the way. Not to mention, if anyone does Xanadu 1, it makes sense for it to be Esperknight and me.
From what I've seen (roughly 3 hours) and read about Tenshi no Uta 2, it's heavy on drama between characters, and the dialogue itself is much more important. It's also worth mentioning that Japanese PCE fans rate it about as highly as any other RPG on the whole system. I'm thinking of finishing it after I play AFS.
I'll have to get Esperknight's input on the hacking sides of each of these, but what do you guys think?
Well, if you're going to translate Tenshi no Uta II, you'll want to translate the first one first. A lot of things in part 2 will make more sense and carry more weight if the player has experienced part 1.
Full walkthroughs and lots of screens for them can be found here:
Tenshi no Uta walkthrough (http://www.thebrothersduomazov.com/2011/08/tenshi-no-uta-strategy-guide.html)
Tenshi no Uta II walkthrough (http://www.thebrothersduomazov.com/2011/08/tenshi-no-uta-ii-strategy-guide.html)
Quote from: SamIAm on 01/20/2013, 07:19 PMStupidity aside, I've played about two thirds of the game now. It looks like a 15-20 hour affair in total, which is just about right in my book. I'm definitely enjoying myself.
I think I can safely say that the game didn't blow all its creativity during the first third, and that it's a fairly even distribution with nice surprises all along the way. That's a big relief, and I hope it keeps it up to the end.
Not having to go through random or recurring battles is pretty darn cool. I do miss the action sometimes, though.
It looks like it will be easy to dump the script. The translation side looks like cake so far, and if reinsertion and battle engine/menu hacking isn't a pain, then this could be a relatively simple project to get through.
On the other hand, when it comes to priority, it's hard to say whether this one should be at the top. There's lots of demand, yes, but that's maybe the strongest reason it's got going for it. I hate to say it, but you're really not missing much by playing this via a walkthrough even if you can't read Japanese.
The two other PCE games I'd be most interested in getting scripts for are Xanadu 1 and Tenshi no Uta 2. In Xanadu 1's case, a translation would be extremely useful, because the game is next to unplayable in an unfamiliar language unless a super-detailed walkthrough holds your hand every step of the way. Not to mention, if anyone does Xanadu 1, it makes sense for it to be Esperknight and me.
From what I've seen (roughly 3 hours) and read about Tenshi no Uta 2, it's heavy on drama between characters, and the dialogue itself is much more important. It's also worth mentioning that Japanese PCE fans rate it about as highly as any other RPG on the whole system. I'm thinking of finishing it after I play AFS.
I'll have to get Esperknight's input on the hacking sides of each of these, but what do you guys think?
Not to compplicate things, but what about Neo Metal Fantasy? I seem to recall it being considered one of the top tier RPG's on the PCE?
Quote from: runinruder on 01/20/2013, 07:39 PMWell, if you're going to translate Tenshi no Uta II, you'll want to translate the first one first. A lot of things in part 2 will make more sense and carry more weight if the player has experienced part 1.
Full walkthroughs and lots of screens for them can be found here:
Tenshi no Uta walkthrough (http://www.thebrothersduomazov.com/2011/08/tenshi-no-uta-strategy-guide.html)
Tenshi no Uta II walkthrough (http://www.thebrothersduomazov.com/2011/08/tenshi-no-uta-ii-strategy-guide.html)
That makes sense, but if only one of them ever gets done, it looks to me like it should be the second one.
Quote from: ParanoiaDragon on 01/20/2013, 07:50 PMNot to compplicate things, but what about Neo Metal Fantasy? I seem to recall it being considered one of the top tier RPG's on the PCE?
I mean this affectionately, but if I asked you guys to make a list of all the "top-tier" RPGs in need of translation, I think I'd basically get a list of every single untranslated RPG on the system.
Neo Metal Fantasy looks interesting, but Japanese reviews suggest it was just "all right" and that it didn't make much of a splash. I'll give it a "maybe later".
Gotta set priorities.
Quote from: SamIAm on 01/20/2013, 07:52 PMI mean this affectionately, but if I asked you guys to make a list of all the "top-tier" RPGs in need of translation, I think I'd basically get a list of every single untranslated RPG on the system.
Neo Metal Fantasy looks interesting, but Japanese reviews suggest it was just "all right" and that it didn't make much of a splash. I'll give it a "maybe later".
Gotta set priorities.
Ha ha, true dat! I haven't played the game much myself, I just seem to recall hearing fanfare for that game. What about La Valeur or Auleria. They're nothing special, but, maybe with them being older/more primitive games, the code might be simpler? Or maybe it doesn't work that way. Maybe as people got used to coding for the PCE, they learned new tricks to make it simpler?
I agree about LoX1. Ofcoarse, anything Falcom I'll take. I wonder, since Sorcerian was done by Victor/JVC, & not Falcom, maybe there's a chance of it being easier to hack, unless Falcom did indeed have some hand in it. AFAIK, Falcom only did the 2 LoX's, but I suppose they could've gotten involved in Popful Mail or Brandish(which, text-wise might be fairly limited actually).
Quote from: SamIAm on 01/20/2013, 07:19 PMOn the other hand, when it comes to priority, it's hard to say whether this one should be at the top. There's lots of demand, yes, but that's maybe the strongest reason it's got going for it. I hate to say it, but you're really not missing much by playing this via a walkthrough even if you can't read Japanese.
The two other PCE games I'd be most interested in getting scripts for are Xanadu 1 and Tenshi no Uta 2. In Xanadu 1's case, a translation would be extremely useful, because the game is next to unplayable in an unfamiliar language unless a super-detailed walkthrough holds your hand every step of the way. Not to mention, if anyone does Xanadu 1, it makes sense for it to be Esperknight and me.
I'll have to get Esperknight's input on the hacking sides of each of these, but what do you guys think?
While I know nothing of the hacking/translating side of this, I really feel that the demand for having this game translated cannot be understated. This game has always had an air of hype around it, which I can remember back from the TurboList days of the late 90's when I first read about it.
While everyone seemed to have their own reason for holding the game in high regard, it always seemed interesting to me due to the high production values. From the first scene outside of the church where you can see the color of the stained glass windows and the characters leaving footprints in the snow, the beauty of the details had me wide eyed. You can't deny that it has a SFC RPG quality to it. I'm not by any means holding that above games that have the distinct PCE quality about them, but in the 16 bit days you could not deny that the colorful sprites of the sfc rpgs was a very pleasing aesthetic that to this day has aged gracefully (imo).
Sure, there are quite a few PCE RPGs that still look great and have great gameplay. Can I argue why this game should be chosen over Xanadu I? Probably not, as having either game in english would be awesome! I just finished Ys IV today and am so impressed by the hard work volunteered to translate/dub it so nerds like me could experience it in their native language 8) I will, and will always, vote for an Anearth translation because it is a game that I've always wanted to understand/enjoy completely, and the experience of using a walkthrough will always be a consolation prize that I'm not ready to accept.
I would just like to say that as a total sponge who contributes nothing to the hacking/translating scene (not sure what I could contribute, honestly) that I will play virtually any RPG that gets translated for PCE.
Same here. I am happy with any PC engine RPG translation. So if the coding is easier to figure out on another game then move on to that game instead.
Quote from: SamIAm on 01/20/2013, 10:01 AMQuote from: Tatsujin on 01/20/2013, 05:19 AMAre you a thief?
I once stole a bar of soap from a corner store.
Luckily, I made a clean getaway.
Lucky you, I bet the soap was a great help.
I've always wanted to play this :)
Quote from: SignOfZeta on 01/21/2013, 03:47 AMI would just like to say that as a total sponge who contributes nothing to the hacking/translating scene (not sure what I could contribute, honestly) that I will play virtually any RPG that gets translated for PCE.
Nothing wrong with being a total sponge as you're the ones I hack these for :D Nothing like seeing someone play what you've done and enjoy it :)
Taking a look at all three. Anearth I've almost dumped fully as I just need to mark out some of the script commands such as color and other things related to displaying the text.
Xanadu 1 uses the same scripting system as X2, yay! This doesn't always happen so it's quite nice :D And I mean, even the way it grabs the CD sectors is in the same position which is really surprising 0_0 Now here's even the most surprising bit, the compression is different. It's odd to me as I've worked on quite a number of Falcom games (just checking them out out curiosity and such) and this is the first that doesn't use Falcom's standard compression. From what I'm seeing it appears to be just a regular ol' RLE algorithm which is really surprising as LZSS is the norm. But hey, can't complain right? :D The only other thing I see that may be an issue is if X2 added some script commands but that'll be easy enough to tell so not a huge deal.
Tenshi no Uta II may be the worst out of the bunch. Not a big deal getting the scripts. More it's a big deal getting a nice clean script dump out of it as it loads a huge swath of blocks off the CD and I need to see if it's uniform in the positions of how it's getting things or what. I do see some hard coded positions regarding this but that's related to getting the actual line positions for the town and scene dialogue. So next up is just finding out whether the CD positions are hard coded in the code or hopefully loaded from a nice table. We'll see though :) Doesn't mean it can't be done, just want to make sure it's less work for SamIAm :D
Quote from: EsperKnight on 01/21/2013, 05:43 PMQuote from: SignOfZeta on 01/21/2013, 03:47 AMI would just like to say that as a total sponge who contributes nothing to the hacking/translating scene (not sure what I could contribute, honestly) that I will play virtually any RPG that gets translated for PCE.
Nothing wrong with being a total sponge as you're the ones I hack these for :D Nothing like seeing someone play what you've done and enjoy it :)
Taking a look at all three. Anearth I've almost dumped fully as I just need to mark out some of the script commands such as color and other things related to displaying the text.
Xanadu 1 uses the same scripting system as X2, yay! This doesn't always happen so it's quite nice :D And I mean, even the way it grabs the CD sectors is in the same position which is really surprising 0_0 Now here's even the most surprising bit, the compression is different. It's odd to me as I've worked on quite a number of Falcom games (just checking them out out curiosity and such) and this is the first that doesn't use Falcom's standard compression. From what I'm seeing it appears to be just a regular ol' RLE algorithm which is really surprising as LZSS is the norm. But hey, can't complain right? :D The only other thing I see that may be an issue is if X2 added some script commands but that'll be easy enough to tell so not a huge deal.
Tenshi no Uta II may be the worst out of the bunch. Not a big deal getting the scripts. More it's a big deal getting a nice clean script dump out of it as it loads a huge swath of blocks off the CD and I need to see if it's uniform in the positions of how it's getting things or what. I do see some hard coded positions regarding this but that's related to getting the actual line positions for the town and scene dialogue. So next up is just finding out whether the CD positions are hard coded in the code or hopefully loaded from a nice table. We'll see though :) Doesn't mean it can't be done, just want to make sure it's less work for SamIAm :D
If you ever get the chance, maybe you could look into La Valeur & Auleria. I'm hoping/wondering if them being simpler older games, means they might be easy hacks?
Quote from: EsperKnight on 01/21/2013, 05:43 PMTaking a look at all three. Anearth I've almost dumped fully as I just need to mark out some of the script commands such as color and other things related to displaying the text.
Good news indeed!
Delicious.
Quote from: SignOfZeta on 01/21/2013, 03:47 AMI would just like to say that as a total sponge who contributes nothing to the hacking/translating scene (not sure what I could contribute, honestly) that I will play virtually any RPG that gets translated for PCE.
^This is me. :mrgreen:
Although, actually, I am trying to see if my English skills can be useful for proofreading translations... We'll see...
I'm going to go ahead and give Anearth a green light for translation, as long as Esperknight is in (and I'm 99% sure he is). I can start as soon as the script gets a proper dump.
I am undeniably having fun playing this, but the clincher is that I don't think translation projects on this system will ever come any easier. The script is stored in a simple way, the dialogue is not particularly dense or complex, the game is short, and maybe best of all, it won't need a dub or custom subtitling. As far as I can remember of what I've played, literally every voiced line is accompanied by a text box. If there are any exceptions, they would be so minor that it wouldn't really matter, and maybe a footnote in the readme would suffice.
So there we go. I hope this starts soon and goes well!
Quote from: SamIAm on 01/22/2013, 04:38 AMI'm going to go ahead and give Anearth a green light for translation, as long as Esperknight is in (and I'm 99% sure he is). I can start as soon as the script gets a proper dump.
I am undeniably having fun playing this, but the clincher is that I don't think translation projects on this system will ever come any easier. The script is stored in a simple way, the dialogue is not particularly dense or complex, the game is short, and maybe best of all, it won't need a dub or custom subtitling. As far as I can remember of what I've played, literally every voiced line is accompanied by a text box. If there are any exceptions, they would be so minor that it wouldn't really matter, and maybe a footnote in the readme would suffice.
So there we go. I hope this starts soon and goes well!
Awesome. :D This game both deserves and will greatly benefit from an English translation.
QuoteWhile everyone seemed to have their own reason for holding the game in high regard, it always seemed interesting to me due to the high production values. From the first scene outside of the church where you can see the color of the stained glass windows and the characters leaving footprints in the snow, the beauty of the details had me wide eyed. You can't deny that it has a SFC RPG quality to it. I'm not by any means holding that above games that have the distinct PCE quality about them, but in the 16 bit days you could not deny that the colorful sprites of the sfc rpgs was a very pleasing aesthetic that to this day has aged gracefully (imo).
Sounds like you just need to play more PCE RPGs. :wink:
STATUS: Green light.
REACTION: :pcgs: :pcgs: :pcgs: :pcgs:
Wait, so what just happened back here in this thread?
M1savage offered reward money to motivate somebody to translate a game that he wanted to see translated but had so far been ignored, and guys who would reject reward money outright or a guaranteed deal (agreed upon work in exchange for payment by the end of it) decided to take up the project regardless ??
That about right? Heh. Well hey, guess you lucked out m1! ;) I was gonna suggest firing off an email or PM to Bonknuts to make sure your offer got more visibility to somebody that was actually capable of the work needed, but that was a crapshoot anyway, as whatever free time he has is likely going towards Megaman stuff and what not.
Very Exciting news! Thank you Sam and EsperKnight! I wish you luck on this and your many other projects.
Well said lent :) I agree, this is good news.
I can do spelling and grammar editing, should it be needed.
Quote from: esteban on 01/24/2013, 08:54 AMSTATUS: Green light.
REACTION: :pcgs: :pcgs: :pcgs: :pcgs:
Agreed, some of best news EVER in the PCE hacking/translation areas.
Ohhh yeah.....
Hooray! More PCE translation love! How many of these projects does SamIAm have, now!? At this rate, half the games still in Japanese will be on that list before long! Don't burn yourself out now, Sam! :P
I just reached the end of my first playthrough of AFS.
I have to say, it finished very strongly. The last quarter or so of the game is probably the best part of the whole thing.
It actually took me about 28 hours altogether, but that's because I did some grinding here and there, and spent a lot of time wandering dungeons. I think I could play it again in under 20, no problem.
I won't give it perfect marks, but my critique can wait. Basically it was good, and if the script gets extracted easily, I'm all for doing it. It gives me something to do while Esperknight gets the Xanadu II translation into the playable-beta stage.