Images

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Super SD System 3]

Would this potentially ruin flicker effects programmed around the timing of the original signal?

Happily, it would have zero effect on that. Internally, all the timing for horizontal and vertical interrupts is completely regular. It's only when H and V sync get combined into C sync at the output stage that things get funky.

This is what the PCE's internal sync signals look like when recorded by a logic analyzer. You've got separate H and V sync, then the combined C sync at the bottom that gets mixed with composite video pretty much as-is. Bearing in mind that it's falling edges that the TV counts, compare the number of falling edges in the H sync line to the C sync line. C sync is missing one pulse at the end of the long V sync period.



TVs built to accept broadcast signals sent out over the airwaves have a robust error-correction circuit for sync called AFC, or automatic frequency control. It's primarily to prevent interference from triggering a horizontal refresh at the wrong time, but some older game consoles (and VCRs, too) rely on AFC to fix quirks in the sync signal timing.

Without it, you get this. I took this picture myself of a PCE running on an Ikegami studio master monitor built after 2000:



But again, this is just because of the weird way that the system combines the H and V sync pulses. To the software and even the part of the video processor that draws the picture itself, it's completely invisible.

If you really want to get crazy, the NES and SNES usually draw one horizontal line in 1364 ticks of the 21MHz master clock, but there is one line near the top of the screen that alternates between 1364 ticks and 1360 ticks in length every other frame. Apparently it was made this way to reduce dot-crawl, but it can cause a tiny amount of jitter in the top few displayed lines on very sensitive displays that aren't built with strong AFC.

The crazy thing is, it's not just an early pulse; the processing time for that horizontal line itself is 4 ticks short, too. There's no way to turn it off, but a guy over on the shmups.com forums has come up with a very interesting fix that works in both systems: with an FPGA, he basically cuts off the master clock signal and halts the entire system for 4 ticks every time that short line gets drawn. The system can't even tell the difference.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / REPAIR GUIDE - Super CD-ROM²: Total Capacitor Replacement Chart]

Image is down due to Photobucket being terrible.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

Time to play devil's advocate.

Some of the coloring principles you see in the original maps that are on the chopping block now are applied elsewhere in the game and might be worth saving.

For example, the pink/purple shading you see on the dark lines. It turns out that if you look around, you can find many examples throughout the game of purple being used to shade brown.

You'll probably have to save and enlarge these images to see it.



On the ship, in the very first screen where the player takes control.



The wood on the floors in the first village.



Here, it's very subtle. You'll have to look at the shadow on the rocks on the right.



Another similar case, on the left.



Here, it's not so subtle. Zoom in, and you'll see purple all over the place.



The original map again, just for reference.

Purple isn't the only shading color that's ever used with brown, don't get me wrong, but it's in there a lot.

In the case of the maps, changing this purple to grey, along with changing the blue vegetation to green and upping the contrast a little, probably isn't going to cause a disruption in the visual style. It could be that it would fool everyone. If it helps things look not-stupid on an LCD, then cool, we can go for it.

However, I think we really need a CRT test to say for sure.

The updated map again, for comparison:

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Street Fighter II Dash double case?]

Read more about the launch of SFII' PCE here:

https://archives.tg-16.com/Gekkan_PC_Engine_1993_07.htm

(By the way, if you can help me decipher all the text in those ads, I would greatly appreciate it. This is an old page that I really need to fix/revise.)

Did you get your hands on Chun Li yet!?

Special coupon only with PC Engine Street Fighter II'! Act now, and everyone can receive their own Chun Li Fan Book!

NOT FOR SALE

CHUN LI FAN BOOK

- Special mini-manga starring Chun Li!
- Detailed analysis on Chun Li's fighter-data, and a strategy for a perfect play from director Akira Yamashita!
- Comes with a Street Fighter II' mini [folding] fan!

Offer expires August 31st (postmarked)

See the coupon with the game for details! Call us with questions at the Street Fighter II' office: [numbers].

Two large illustrations by Sailor Moon's Wako Tadano and Patlabor's Akemi Takada!

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / The Legend of Xanadu Dub Project - Auditions Wanted]

At last, the time has come. As of today, we are officially taking auditions for the Legend of Xanadu dub, as a part of the larger Legend of Xanadu fan-translation project.

If you've been following the main project thread, you probably don't need much of an introduction and can head right to the character-list page. You'll find everything you need to know to audition there. For some background on the games, we put together a quick little blurb that you might enjoy reading here.

If you are interested in playing a part, fire away. As far as we're concerned, the more auditions, the merrier, so please don't hesitate to try out for anything you think you might be able to handle.

The initial casting period will end May 19th.

Even if you're absolutely certain that you can't play a part yourself, you can still do us an enormous favor by passing on the word to anyone in your community who seems like they could. There are literally dozens of roles to fill, and we're going to have to cast our net as widely as possible in order to get good actors in all of them.

We even made this dorky little intro aimed at non-gamers to help you rope in your friends and family who otherwise would just be confused about what the heck this project is.

The fate of the translation is now in YOUR hands. Let's make this something incredible!

In the meantime, here are some pretty screenshots. and youtube videos of all of the voiced bits in Xanadu 1 and Xanadu 2.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Top selling, most anticipated, and highest rated PCE games as of early 1994]

Here's some fun data to chew on. In Gekkan PCE magazine's March 1994 final issue, they showed the top-ten best selling PCE games up to that point. Note that because of their weird dating system, this would have actually come out more like toward the beginning of February.

PCE magazines all published sales figures every month, but frustratingly, they divided the actual number by a factor that they deliberately kept secret. Someday, we might compute what factor each magazine used. For now, bear in mind that the figures below don't represent actual sales numbers, but rather something more like sales "points" that give you an idea of proportion.

The little blurbs next to each game are low-substance descriptions, so I won't translate them. If anyone is dying to know, however, I can.



1. Tengai Makyo II
[Released March 1992; the date they printed is wrong]
7148 points

2. F1 Circus
[Released September 1990; this date and all others are correct]
5529 points

3. Pro Baseball World Stadium 91
[Released March 1991]
5513 points

4. F1 Circus 91
[Released July 1991]
4979 points

5. PC Genjin 2
[Released July 1991]
4924 points

6. Momotaro Densetsu Turbo
[Released July 1990]
4709 points

7. Bomberman 93
[Released December 1992]
4113 points

8. Momotaro Densetsu II
[Released December 1990]
3985 points

9. Momotaro Katsugeki
[Released September 1990]
3869 points

10. Ys III
[Released March 1991]
3831 points

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PCE magazines also came with postcards that you could send in to let them know which games you were most eagerly anticipating, as well as which games you "were glad you played." Every month, they would put the results in top-10 charts right next to the sales-figures. I'll have to investigate later what exactly Gekkan's postcard let you fill in, but for now, here are the results.



"Anticipation = Sales"

"The anticipation score is a measurement of how much readers were anticipating a game before it went on sale. Naturally, it's fair to say that higher scores meant higher sales. However, it's important to be aware that the postponing of release dates could stretch these scores. In particular, the #2 ranking game, Monster Maker, maybe gets a yellow-card for this. It looks like it's finally going on sale on March 30th; since everyone has been waiting for so long, we hope that they aren't betrayed this time. We also want to pay attention to new games on the list: Emerald Dragon, Garou Densetsu 2, and The Legend of Xanadu. Those ought to sell pretty well!"

Most Anticipated Games:

1. Tengai Makyo II - Hudson (7800 yen) - 5586 points
2. Monster Maker - NEC Avenue (7200 yen) - 3978 points
3. Ys IV - Hudson (7800 yen) - 3599 points
4. Tengai Makyo Fuun Kabukiden - Hudson (7800 yen) - 3394 points
5. Ys III - Hudson (7200 yen) - 2884 points
6. Momotaro Densetsu II - Hudson (7200 yen) - 2246 points
7. Street Fighter II' - NEC Home Electronics (9800 yen) - 1818 points
8. Emerald Dragon - NEC Home Electronics (7800 yen) - 1224 points
9. Super Momotaro Dentetsu II - Hudson (6800 yen) - 1174 points
10. Genpei Toumaden - Namco (6800 yen) - 1161 points
11. PC Genjin 2 - Hudson (5800 yen) - 1151 points
12. Garou Densetsu 2 - Hudson (6900 yen) - 1137 points
13. Momotaro Katsugeki - Hudson (6500 yen) - 111 points
14. Super Darius - NEC Avenue (6800 yen) - 1077 points
15. Ranma 1/2 Ganso Musabetsu Kakutoryu - Masaiya (7200 yen) - 1033 points
16. Record of Lodoss War - Hudson (6800 yen) - 1022 points
17. The Legend of Xanadu - Nihon Falcom (price not determined) - 987 points
18. F1 Circus 91 - Nichibutsu (6900 yen) - 965 points
19. Afterburner II - NEC Avenue (7200 yen) - 960 points
20. Legend of Valkyrie - Namco (6200 yen) - 914 points



"Reader Survey - Games We're Glad We Played - Cumulative Top 20"

"The immortal masterpiece Ys I&II takes the top spot. Ys IV, released at the end of last year, is on its heels and apparently selling well.

It's no surprise that the top positions are occupied by the RPGs that represent the PC Engine.

These days, it's all about the CD games, but more than half of the positions here are occupied by Hucards - a testament to how many good games there have been over the years. We pray that there will be more that can give these a run for their money."


1. Ys I&II - Hudson (7800 yen) - 17879 points
2. Tengai Makyo II - Hudson (7800 yen) - 17345 points
3. Momotaro Densetsu II - Hudson (7200 yen) - 5810 points
4. Tengai Makyo Ziria  - Hudson (7200 yen) - 5648 points
5. Super Momotaro Dentetsu - Hudson (5800 yen) - 4739 points
6. Snatcher - Konami (7800 yen) - 4208 points
7. Bomberman - Hudson (5300 yen) - 3662 points
8. Dragon Slayer Eiyuu Densetsu - Hudson (6800 yen) - 3419 points
9. Super Momotaro Dentetsu II - Hudson (6800 yen) - 2398 points
10. Tengai Makyo Fuun Kabukiden - Hudson (7800 yen) - 2062 points
11. Bomberman '93 - Hudson (6500 yen) - 2059 points
12. Street Fighter II' - NEC Home Electronics (9800 yen) - 1922 points
13. Super Star Soldier - Hudson (6500 yen) - 1806 points
14. Ys III - Hudson (7200 yen) - 1803 points
15. Momotaro Densetsu Turbo II - Hudson (5800 yen) - 1759 points
16. Momotaro Katsugeki - Hudson (6500 yen) - 1747 points
17. F1 Circus 91 - Nichibutsu (6900 yen) - 1689 points
18. F1 Circus - Nichibutsu (6900 yen) - 1526 points
19. Power League III  - Hudson (5800 yen) - 1386 points
20. Fire Pro Wrestling 2nd Bout - Human (6900 yen) - 1356 points

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / A few short "Making-Of" featurettes from PCE Fan magazine]

Only a small number of PCE Fan issues from 1990 had these. They were titled ゲームができるまで which is something like "Until the Game is Done" and were little quarter-page blurbs where they gave developers a chance to reflect on a game they had already made.

There is nothing profoundly revealing here, but I hope you'll find it interesting to look at nonetheless.

-----------------------------------------------------



Space Harrier (Jan. 1990)

The original is a 3D-feeling arcade game. In addition to NEC Avenue's PC Engine adaptation, it's also been ported to the Master System and the X68000 personal computer. What follows is an account from Mr. Tabeda of NEC Avenue, who directly approached Sega for the rights to port the game despite being unacquainted with the company.

"When porting Space Harrier to a 'hobby machine', there are some areas where you have to push yourself, and to use the hardware to the fullest extent possible. A game like Space Harrier lets players see exactly where hardware limits lie. We picked this up when the PC Engine had only just been released and hadn't yet achieved many sales; what we wanted to do with it was to distinguish the PC Engine from the Famicom and the Master System by realizing things on it that couldn't be done with the others.

(Pink text: Everyone was really happy when Space Harrier got ported)

For the port, we extracted data from the original arcade game itself. The process began with disassembling enemy movement patterns, which we later modified. We shrank the enemy graphics and simplified them to a degree, and thanks to this, we were able to make the scrolling speed very fast. Also, by choosing to ignore the fact that putting more than 256 sprite pixels on one line causes flickering, we could put lots of enemies on the screen and make them very aggressive.

We were always asking ourselves how close we could make the game to the X68000 port, but because our version doesn't stop in between stages and smoothly moves its backgrounds with sprites, I think it surpasses it in some ways.




R-Type (Feb. 1990)

"We thought that this would be impossible to port as-is, but that's exactly what eventually happened.

For the most part, we ported R-Type by playing the arcade version and reproducing the feel of the visuals. We would say to each other "Get to the fifth stage without picking up any powerups other than the Bits!" and some guys could actually do it. All eight people on the team could clear the first loop. After all, anytime we wanted to confirm something, we would do it by playing the game. We would run our version side-by-side with the arcade version, which is why the movement really is identical.

In stage seven of the arcade game, so many enemies appear that the game slows down, but this didn't happen in our port. We knew that the slowdown was deliberate, but we decided to let the PC Engine port be as it was. The original game's graphics have sixteen degrees of gradation, which we had to reduce to four. The [worm in stage 2] originally had five movement patterns, which we reduced to three, and by rounding-out the graphics, we were able to make it less jerky.

(Pink text: Even with this many characters appearing, the game doesn't slow down.)

The biggest problem was space. We decided to somehow squeeze the first four stages into two megabits and split the game rather than hack off parts of it. We did things that pushed the hardware to its limits, and I'm actually surprised that there weren't more bugs. Finally, this game brings back a lot of memories of working with Yuji Izumi, with whom I'll no longer have the pleasure of working now that Nectaris is completed."

Mikio Ueyama (Hudson)




Dragon Spirit (Mar. 1990)

After their big arcade hit Xevious, Namco hadn't made any auto-scrolling vertical shooters for a long time. Finally, they began work on Dragon Spirit. The basis for the game was the developer's intense desire to create a dragon-world and a dragon-protagonist. Dragon Spirit was programmed so that it would have movement that gives a feeling of living creatures instead of inorganic machines.

(Pink text: The vertical scrolling shooting game. Its graphics and sound are both beautiful.)

For the PC Engine port, we struggled on how to partition the two megabit memory for graphics, music and program code. If we lost the gameplay, what would remain would be an entirely different game with only the husk of the original. What players want is the arcade game as-is, and coming as close as possible was of great importance to us. Despite this, the difference in memory between the arcade and the PC Engine versions was so dramatic that we were forced to make the regrettable choice to cut the "undersea" and "darkness" stages. We drove the melody and the rhythm [percussion?] separately, we flipped half of the dragon's graphics, and other things to bring down the memory requirements. However, if we had wanted to squeeze something from the original arcade game "as-is" into the two megabit space, I don't think there would be room for much more than a single boss character. We made adjustments to the speed of enemies since the game is being displayed on a horizontal screen rather than a vertical one, and completed the best PC Engine Dragon Spirit that we could.




Valis II (May 1990)

This time, we're taking a look at the CD-ROM game Valis II, and we sat down with Mr. Hanari of Shin Nihon Lasersoft, a company that is actively involving itself in CD-ROM game development.

"First, the basic difference between CD-ROMs and HuCARD games is space. The biggest HuCARDs are four mega[bits], while CD-ROMs are 540 mega[bytes], and we always ask ourselves how we can use this tremendous space. For Valis II, this meant putting animations in every scene and asking voice actors to come record for us.

When we started production, we had not only programmers doing programming, but animators doing animation, and voice actors recording in a studio we rented. We had to deal with things other than game development, and it was tough. I think you can say this about all CD-ROM games, not just Valis II, but the cost it takes to make one of these adds up to several times more than the cost of a HuCARD game. That's the most stressful thing.

With CD-ROM games, everything comes down to how you use that giant amount of space. Most CD-ROM games sell themselves on their animation, music and voice acting. It's only natural that the amount of capital it takes to fund one of them is quite a lot.

If we compare games to movies, CD-ROM games are like the big [hundred-million dollar] productions."




Battle Ace (Jun. 1990)

This time, "Until the game is done" is looking at Battle Ace, the first game for the high-spec version of the PC Engine, the PC Engine Supergrafx (hereafter abbreviated as "SG").

We spoke with the person at Hudson who developed it.

"One thing that was hard for us was that the SG hardware was in flux while we were making the game. When it seemed like we had finished the game to a degree, the hardware would change, and we would have to reprogram things to accommodate those changes. This happened again and again. It really was the most painful thing about the process. In the early versions, we had the player's craft on screen like in "Afterburner". This was when we were also pushing Tengai Makyo along, and we were pulling a lot of all-nighters.

When you see this game, I think you'll agree that it has 3D graphics that use the SG's capability for a high number of sprites to its fullest. We made lots of different enemies and bosses attack you one after another, and I feel like we got a good performance out of the system. Next, I want to make a game that gets 120% out of it!"

The first games to come out on a system get a lot of attention. Whether software meets people's expectations or doesn't affects their impression of the hardware itself. There aren't many SG games yet, but the ones that do exist are uniformly excellent. If you try them, we're sure that you'll be able to understand what the developers were aiming for.




Moto Roader (Jul. 1990)

Everyone knows that the PC Engine has a multi-tap that lets up to five people play simultaneously. One unforgettable multiplayer game is Moto Roader.

NCS's Moto Roader sells itself on diverse courses and 5-player simultaneous play. We asked NCS's main programmer to tell us what was difficult about making it.

"The thing that gave me the most trouble was, in short, data creation.

(Pink text: Moto Roader, the car racing game that five players can play at once.)

In general, game programming has a way of just dragging on and on. Sometimes, when we should be making data, we sneak back to coding.

With Moto Roader, we created the course data primitively, by hand. I thought it was going to kill me. We wrote codes into graph paper, and I had to keep inputting those for what felt like an eternity. I'd close my eyes at night and see graph paper."

Such were the difficulties of making one game, as told to us haltingly by the developer.

Despite the programmer being attacked by visions of graph paper, Moto Roader was completed without incident and released to the world.

Hearing stories like this makes us think that we must not make light of games as we play them.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / September 1991 - Developers' opinions of Super CD format]

Translation, from the top left:

There are presently 45 developers in total who make games for the PC Engine. We conducted a survey among all of them, asking how they feel about the Super CD-ROM format. NEC Consumer Electronics (who makes the hardware) and Sario declined to comment. We put the results of the remaining 43 developers into the graphs below.

----

Q1. Do you plan on developing Super CD-ROM games?
PINK: We are already. (25)
GREEN: We're thinking about it. (7)
YELLOW: No plans. (8 )
ORANGE: Yes, but we haven't started. (2)
LIGHT BLUE: Other (1)

27 developers, a majority, are either developing Super CD games or have committed to it. Most devs who have made a PCE CD game in the past are now making Super CD games. One newcomer also plans on making Super CD games.

----

Q2. To which do you give the most weight/resources: Super CD games, normal CD games, bi-compatible games, or Hucards?
PINK: Super CD (17)
ORANGE: Normal CD (1)
YELLOW: Bi-compatible (7)
GREEN: Hucard (3)
LIGHT BLUE: Can't say (14)
DARK BLUE: Other (2)

As we expected, the PCE world is centering more and more on the CD-ROM system, and the Super CD format is the main one. There is only one developer making software for the 2.0 system. For Hucards, it's only three. We expect to see fewer and fewer Hucard games from now on.

----

Q3. Do you think the Super System Card 3.0 is expensive?

PINK: Very expensive (8 )
ORANGE: A little expensive (24)
YELLOW: Just right (5)
GREEN: A bit cheap (1)
LIGHT BLUE: A great deal (1)
BLUE/PURPLE: Other/no comment (4)

For CD-ROM system owners, the Super System Card is a savior. For many developers, it seems expensive. Many fear that the price will inhibit the spread of the format. Some even feel you should be able to trade in your other card for one.

----

Q4. The Super CD is at a disadvantage against the Mega CD in terms of specs. Do you think it can compete?
PINK: It can compete (15)
ORANGE: It can't compete (2)
YELLOW: Can't say (23)
GREEN/LIGHT BLUE: Other/No comment (3)

How do they see the Mega CD, the rival everyone is worried about? Mostly, they think that the know-how they've cultivated and the success they've had in the marketplace so far will allow them to compete with it. Also, they said that game [systems] are made and broken not by hardware specs, but by software. Will everything depend on the coming lineup, we wonder?

----

Q5. Be honest: do you expect the Super CD system to spread in the market?
PINK: Absolutely (4)
ORANGE: To a degree (27)
YELLOW: No (1)
GREEN: I don't know (9)
LIGHT BLUE: No comment (2)

Of course, it all depends on the users, but most developers expect the new system to spread. There are, however, some who are worried about the price of the new system card and the confusion caused by all of the different hardware. At any rate, with the advent of the Super CD system, the PCE is at a turning point.

----

[Lower box]

Mr. Tabeda of NEC Avenue (pro-PCE) vs. Mr. Miyaji of Game Arts (pro-Mega CD)

Editor: The Mega Drive's CD system is on the horizon. Which do you think is going to be more successful, that or the PCE CD-ROM?

Miyaji: When it comes to CD-ROM units, the Mega CD is at an advantage. It's got faster seeking, six megabits of work RAM just like a computer, and another CPU.

Tabeda: In terms of specs, yes, it's true. The PCE CD-ROM's new version does strike me as something of a half-measure. If they're going to bother, I'd rather see a bigger change.

Miyaji: The Mega CD has scaling and rotation hardware, as well.

Tabeda: I think that the PCE can cover that difference. The Mega Drive can display only 64 colors simultaneously, while the PCE can do 512. No matter how much more memory either gets, the PCE is absolutely going to have superior display abilities. Everything around the PCE's CPU is very fast as well, and it's easy to make software for it. I think it can fight using these innate characteristics.

Miyaji: We haven't seen a change in market shares yet. The PCE's achievements are great, including that it brought CD-ROMs into people's homes. I think that from here on, we're going to shift into to a period when people scrutinize the software's quality itself.

Mr. Tabeda produced Super Darius, and has been involved in PCE software since the beginning. Mr Miyaji created Silpheed on PC and is eager to work on the Mega CD, along with the rest of his company.

----------------------

I recently picked up a few PCE magazines from 1990 and 1991. Those years, to me, are in many ways the most interesting period for the hardware itself, and for Hudson/NEC. The Super Famicom's release in Japan caused a drop in Hucard development and software/hardware sales, and the rise of the Genesis in North America made it hard to hope for growth in that market. Getting behind the new 3.0 system so strongly was a risky move, but it worked, and it gave us another few years of good CD games.

I'll try to see what else I can find that paints of picture of what it was like at this juncture in the PCE's history in Japan.

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

Well, in that case, I'll go ahead and post this. It's an magazine write-up from shortly before the Tennokoe Bank came out. Apologies for the table-breaking size, but the characters are hard to read if I shrink it down more.



"The Tennokoe Bank allays one worry of owners of the Tennokoe 2 and the CD-ROM system: lack of backup memory. To be precise, it gives you four times as much extra backup memory, and since it's also a card, you can easily carry it around. Recent RPGs and simulations require a lot of space in order to save, and many find themselves having to delete other data in order to do it. With the Tennokoe Bank, you can just copy it to your card. You can copy it back to the system later, and you can also swap the data back and forth at once. With the data on a card, it will be a piece of cake to take it anywhere. It goes on sale September 6th for 3800 yen."

On one hand, they were definitely aware that the 2000-block internal BRAM wasn't going to be enough for some people, and they seemed to be aware of a rise in popularity of games that need more memory. On the other hand, there's that "portability" aspect popping up again. That might really be the reason for the four-bank structure; they wanted to make it as easy as possible to play on a friend's system.

I'll see if I can find a proper advertisement, since that would be from Hudson themselves and not some magazine writer.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Image warping on Ikegami pro monitor despite LM1881]

OK, I think I'm understanding this a little better.



See how there continue to be H-sync pulses during the V-sync period in composite sync? Those are called serration pulses, and it's these that are screwed up in the PCE.

Here are viletim's oscilloscope scans:
http://etim.net.au/temp/forum/v_sync_nes/
http://etim.net.au/temp/forum/v_sync_pce/
(Note: These waveforms are inverted compared to the pic above, as that's how TV sync actually is.)

If I'm reading everything correctly, the situation looks like this:

1. The PCE's V-sync pulse starts 4uS late.
2. H-sync serration pulses during the V-sync period are also delayed relative to the H-sync pulses before the V-sync period.
3. V-sync finishes when it was originally supposed to rather than also being 4uS late.
4. One H-sync pulse that should have happened during the V-sync period winds up being cut out, but the delay in H-sync pulses also disappears.

Whether this is actually being caused by a clock issue, I can't say. Regardless, this isn't something that is easily fixed on the composite video sync signal itself. Rather, it's necessary to get H and V sync directly from the HuC6260, as it appears that these timing errors don't yet exist there.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

Nice work, elmer! Things are coming right along for both of us again!

While I was at it, it annoyed me that that message was displayed in white (actor speech color) text instead of cyan (game narration color) text, and so I tried to fix that at the same time.

Here's the result ...

That looks good! I might like to get rid of the line-break after the first sentence, but we'll just see. That's the kind of minor detail we can settle on during a later phase. 

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: PC-FX systems for sale]

Here is the box that you can get with the pretty one.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / FS: N64 Treasure Games, Mario & Kirby 64, MSX2+ box, AV Famicom box]

The triumvirate. All are complete and in good condition.

Mischief Makers (JP): $15
Bangai-O: $70
Sin and Punishment: $40

$110 gets all three.

Shipping is from Japan. Cost will depend on weight and speed of service.


Just in case someone is interested, here are two more:


Mario 64: $15
Kirby: $8





Does anyone want this stupid MSX2 box? There is no manual, but there is styrofoam. I'll wrap it up in paper and send it to you for the cost of whatever stamp you want to put on it.

Same goes for this:



PM me if you're interested. Thanks! 



PS: On the off chance that anyone wants these controller boxes, I'll put them up here. They, too, are in danger of being purged.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Anyone want a SuperGrafx box?]

I'm just not a collector. What's more, I don't have space for all of my dumb boxes. However, it would pain me to throw them away, so I'll offer them up here.



The manual and various plastic sleeves are included. I don't know how authentic the plastic is because I bought everything used.

I'm in Japan, but I'll ship this anywhere via any service available at the post office (EMS, economy airmail, surface mail). It's so light that it shouldn't cost much. The exact price will depend on whether you want me to put it inside its own box, or if you're OK with just wrapping it in paper. I'm guessing EMS would be around $20.

Would it be crazy to ask for $5 on top of shipping? Let me know what you think. PM me and we'll talk. Thanks!

[Buy/Sell/Trade / PC-FX systems for sale]

It's time to get some crap out of my house.



I have five PC-FX systems that I bought "broken" and fixed by increasing the power of the lasers via a tiny turn of one potentiometer. Each one has performed without error during half-hour tests, and I'll test each one again before I send anything out.

Obviously, this isn't as good as having a system that works with the original setting. There is also the fact that each system comes alone and, aside from one of them, all have yellowed to varying degrees. That's why I'm going to price them low: $20.

The dingiest looking one on the left with the memory-card door broken off, I'll let you have for $15.

The pretty one, I will combine with the box/manuals for my own system and offer for $40. Note that this still comes without a controller.

If you would like a controller, I might be able to source you a brand-new one. The supply looks limited, and it will have to be shipped to me first, but you can have it for $20 total. Please understand that this is the only source I'm willing to go through to provide a controller.

The system weighs 2.9 kilograms according to the spec sheet, so shipping from Japan to the US via EMS will probably be 8000 yen. That lets us go up to 4.5 kilograms, which we'll want for packaging. If you want a controller or the pretty one with the box, let's go with 8700 yen just to be safe (that allows 5.0 kilograms). Economy air mail looks like it will be around 6500 yen. Surface mail (2-3 months) is about 4000 yen.

Shipping might be slightly stalled while I search for suitable packaging from free sources. If you would like me to hurry, consider adding $2 so I can just buy a box at the post office. Padding will be newspaper; if you want something more fancy, that's fine, but it might incur its own fee.

If it sounds like I'm being stingy, just remember that my profit margin on this is next to nothing, and I could go in the red very easily if I get hit for a couple of dollars on each system.

I'll ship to any country, as long as you pay the cost.

If you're interested, let me know via PM. Thank you!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Emerald Dragon QQs...]

Can anyone translate what the shortcuts are for a 6-button controller?

It doesn't look that helpful

Buttons 5 and 6 are remaps of buttons 2 and 1 respectively. Button 3 looks like it is for Map. I can't make out the Kanji for button 4. Maybe it's to open a party menu?

That's 相談, which is basically used to talk to your party members. At any time, you can press this button and see a conversation with your party in a closed off screen like you see in the lower right. Usually, they just remind you where you need to go. Occasionally, they say something more entertaining or significant, IIRC.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

This leaves nothing to be desired, really. Great work, Phase. 



(CRT capture-weirdness on this last one. Sorry.)

I want to emphasize that anyone who wants to can still submit an idea. Even a rough idea is nice to see if it shows any promise.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

That would definitely take care of the problem in the cleanest and most well-rounded way. 

If a palette shift can't work for whatever reason, the only real problem is the one darker-green edge shade (72, 180, 180). I think it only stands out when there are two of those color pixels next to each other horizontally, and even then, only in certainly places.

Also, like I said, the only spots that really stand out are the X-and-a connection and the a-and-d tails. It might be best to erase those connecting pixels regardless of what the palette is.

Original:


X-and-a and tail connections erased:

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

Looking damn good, Phase.



Here, you can see what it looks like against the black background up close and at a slight angle. Notice that some green pixels are standing out now, like between in the tails of the a and the d, and between the X and the a.



I see by looking at the raw png that it wouldn't be easy to erase those without making an inconsistency in the outline pattern, but it also looks like you could probably "cheat" a little and get away with blanking a select few of them. Fiddling around on my own, I was able to separate the X and the a and the tails in a way that I think would work fine with just a few clicks.

After that, we have to wonder what to do with the interiors of the a and d, the upper interior of the n, and the lower interior of the u. Against the black, they do look kind of green. However, it's possibly negligible.

This is all RGB, by the way.

EDIT: Here's a head-on shot from a little further away. I cropped the image because my dumb reflection showed up a lot more in this one.



-----------------------

Elmer fixed the sparkle effect. Here is short, effectively sound-free demo of it working. I couldn't be bothered to turn on my speakers, or to edit the video at all before I uploaded it. 

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

yeah, I noticed a few goofy spots like the lower left end on the X could be better will try and touch it up some more.

The lower left end of the X is the first and maybe only thing that stands out to me as potentially benefiting from some tweaking. It seems a bit stubby and high. I don't know if that's what you were talking about, but anyway... :-

This is quick and dirty, but I lengthened the leg a few pixels and squeezed in the curly part slightly. Does it look at all better to you guys just in terms of proportion?

(My mod is on top; Phase's recent one is on the bottom)


Part of me likes the longer leg more, and part of me thinks it makes the X a little out of balance. Anyway, I just wanted to bounce this off you guys.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

Note that the above problem does not happen with a 240x32 image.

EDIT: Also, the problem does not happen with the same ISO in Mednafen.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

As promised. Oversized pics incoming.

This looks nice.


Try to ignore the handsome man in his pajamas. Also, spot the PC-FX for bonus points.


However, this does not look good. It appears right before the fade-in starts.


This is also troubling. It looks this way during the fade-in.


What's your diagnosis, Dr. elmer? 

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

Thanks!

By the way, I just ran across this and can't help posting it.



The original Pepsi logo, 1898-1905.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

I watched the whole Xanadu 1 credits, and when they're through, the logo fades back out of the wall to look like this:



It was cool to see that the director, Yoshio Kiya, was also one of the main programmers. 

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

Were these ever posted earlier in the thread? I don't remember, and it would take a long time to check, so let me put up some fresh ones.

This is what the title graphic looks like in Xanadu 1. It dissolves in on a totally black screen, and almost immediately after the panning background comes in, starts dissolving right back out.



---------------------------------------

Also, this is from the credit roll of Xanadu 1. What happens is, the graphic dissolves in from blackness, just like the one above. Then it palette-shifts into becoming part of the stone background, over which the credits start rising.

I have to admit, in terms of sheer dimension, this is larger than I was remembering. It also makes me feel a little better about the prospect of using all-cursive in the title screen for Xanadu 2. However, I would still want it to be tight, whispy, and modestly colored. I think it would only work in 64-high.

Note that it does not appear in the credit roll of Xanadu 2, which I just checked, nor anywhere else in that game IIRC.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

Hopefully you won't regret asking, since I'm not skimping on the how and why, instead of just saying "I disagree".

Not a bit, let's get into it. 

I was all for a faithful English version of that Japanese logo, but it actually doesn't match the art and tone of the rest of the game so well. Perhaps we'll eventually find out that it matches the intimate details of the story and dialogue, but my "exciting" logo that you commented on is the one which much better matches the game's aesthetics.

The boss battles that you posted are supposed to be special. I would estimate that an ordinary player is going to be looking at those screens for literally only ~2% of his total play-time. The rest is much, much more subdued.

Xanadu 2 is very detailed, but as a whole it's also quite dark and subtle. I would describe the palette of the game as centering on washed-out blues and greens or washed-out browns and greys, depending on the area.

Perhaps this is only to my own eye, but when switching back and forth between this and Xanadu 1, the first thing that hits me is just how much darker it is.

Even those shots you posted are not particularly bright on average.

The overhead sections may use drab colors for the backgrounds, but their artwork is still super detailed and exciting by 16-bit standards and it's contrasted by vibrantly colored and nicely shaded player and misc sprites... just like my last take on the title screen.

The only one I would describe as being vibrantly colored is Pyrra. For the most part, even though they use lighter colors, I would still say that all the character sprites including NPCs lean toward a washed-out look, if only slightly or partially.

All that I did for the shading is the inverse of the existing logo. Instead 4 or 5 shades running through the outline, I had them run through the letters and made the outlinee a single color. The color for both is the same as the original, I just used some lighter and darker shades. The II uses the exact colors of the cinematic logo in The Legend of Xanadu and the glitzy green text staggers the shades exactly the same as that existing logo does. So the coloring and shading is faithful to the series, as well as the lettering itself.

Xanadu 2 is such a huge stylistic departure from Xanadu 1 that I don't think we need any kind of through-line in the palette.

Taking colors away from the outline and putting them toward the inner blue-green might be a winning idea. Nonetheless, your current logo still strikes me as being a bit too intense. That's even in comparison to the relatively colorful boss fight screens, which again, represent the game at its very flashiest.

But again, if you think that matching the aesthetics and tone of the game is more important, if anything it's not nearly glitzy and exciting enough:

Let alone the rest of the cinemas, which are full of superfluous just-for-the-sake-of-it parallax, special effects and over-the-top artwork.

Actually, I think if you watch all the cinemas again, you'll find them to be rather static. In terms of color, there are some richer greens, some open blue skies, and some of the only use of red, orange, yellow and purple in the entire game, but that's about it. They are not orgies of color, much less animation and special effects.

Also, none of them approach the showiness of that intro. Even the first screens of the ending are still relaxed with a yellow tint and feature very little movement.

I just have to wonder, why didn't Falcom give the Japanese logo glitzy coloring?

It seems to me that whatever short bursts of vibrancy the game has, the overriding style is washed out, dark, and subtle. The bright and colorful bits are little periodic sweeteners.

If you're also talking about the overall composition of lining everything up horizontally feeling fatter, that's fair. Even if it's over-the-top, it's still a real official logo and I remember it appearing in-game in at least the first game.

It appears only once, in the credit roll, and it's fairly small.

But as I pointed out, aspiring towards over-the-top will only help balance the title screen and it with the game further. But it still can't compete ostentatiously with the cinemas or boss battles. If you wanted a title to surpass that stuff, I can do it, but it'll require lots of palettes and screen space.

I don't want to surpass that stuff or even match it. I think those moments misrepresent the game as a whole.

My favorite thing about Xanadu 2 in the graphics, story and music alike is that it's subtle.

I think that you're influenced too much by the script and don't take in the aesthetics as much as the rest of us. The Legend of Xanadu II, so much more than the first game, is the Sapphire of 16-bit RPG'ish games.

By the same token, I might say you're too influenced by how much prettier this is than other PC Engine games. It is probably the nicest looking game on the system.

Taken completely on its own and as a whole, this just isn't a flashy game. It's beautiful, it's detailed, it animates well, but it's not flashy.

I already proved that that's exactly the kind of thing I'd do:

Like I said before, that design was totally fine until we realized we needed "The". Now it's flawed, and I hope we can do better.

If the ceiling rises by even just a few pixels, we might be able to fix it, too.

It's exactly the kind of thing that the better pixelart game localizations did. Like Dragon Warrior. If you have to make a compromise, you at least try to maintain the spirit of the original, like the Ghouls 'n Ghosts logo. And even if you're making an original pixelart era game logo from scratch, you have to think up unique things to add in to keep it from looking like your plain The Legend of Xanadu II logo.

With that said, again that was just my first sit-down-spurt to rework it for the shorter height and all kinds of things could be done with it. But if a logo isn't going to be faithful to the Kaze no Densetu one, it should at least be as faithful a take on the official The Legend of Xanadu one as possible.

I'm very happy if we can come up with something that takes a lot from authentic Falcom Xanadu materials.

I also understand that some risk has to be taken if we're going to go with something original.

I guess all I can say is, I haven't seen anything from you yet that I think will work, especially in 240x32. Your latest idea might evolve into something good. We'll just have to see. I understand that what you posted is just a "beta-version".

This is exactly what I did, except I took into account that Falcom never used the The Legend of Xanadu logo anywhere with any kind of sequel numbering. I realized that if they ever did, in-game or otherwise, that they definitely wouldn't use a squiggly II and that they'd do what so many similar Japanese logos have done, -stick a II behind it, which itself is in a similar style to the "Kaze no Densetsu II" II. I didn't have a chance the other days to describe all of my decisions behind the last couple logos, but I also thought that if they did a horizintal take on it and were going to put the II on the end, they'd do a KnDII-style II that's italic... which Phase just did and it's a major improvement.

That's not really what I was talking about.

If you had never seen either the cover-art cursive OR the kaze-no-densetsu logo in any of their incarnations, and you only knew the game itself and the background of the title screen, how would you draw "The Legend of Xanadu II" in 240x32?

So much of what you've said for a while now seems to go against pixelart game era sensibilities, even though it would make sense for totally different products. Once again, I really don't have time to post countless examples of existing games. I can't cite examples like Makaimura, Devil's Crash, Ankoku/Makyou Densutsu, Zelda no Densetsu, Street Fighter II, etc, because I know you'll say again that you don't believe that The Legend of Xanadu II is a flashy or exciting game. But I've literally never heard anyone who's experienced it say that before, only the opposite.

I'm no student of pixel-art, but I think there's a very good reason why Falcom didn't make their title screen glitzy. Xanadu 2 is supposed to be somewhat sophisticated. Many other games from the era cultivate a bright kids-cartoony atmosphere, but this one doesn't.

It's a fine wine. It knows it mostly sells itself.

Title screens are a huge deal for pixelart era game fans, which is why there are endless articles and passionate discussions about them. Whenever a homebrew game is being developed, game fans always stress the importance of a knock-your-socks-off title screen. It's not just an introductory functional menu, it is one of the most significant elements of classic games.

I would love to get something more beautiful than my utilitarian logo. I don't, however, want use something that is gaudy or structurally/functionally flawed.

In closing, I'll say that if 240x64 works, then your cursive will go to the top of the list. Whether it will stay there, I simply can't say.

Anyway, thanks for posting. Let's keep up the discussion moving forward. 

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

That is some skilled work on CrackTiger's part. I know I couldn't do that.

I'd like to draw people's attention to something, though:



You might look at that and think wow, the English looks even better than the Japanese! And that would be understandable, because the English here is very exciting to look at.

However, keep in mind that the original Japanese graphic, in relation to the art in the rest of the game, is not dull. Tonally, it's very well-matched, with just a little touch of its own style like a good logo should have.

At the very least, I for one would like to see BT's work de-glitzified a bit, e.g. using milder coloring and maybe making letters like the X a bit tighter, along with slimming the background II at least a little.

However, in 240x32 especially, where it's all forced to get kind of fat, and even in 240x64, I'm afraid that that box-art-style cursive might be a little over-the-top. I felt this about Phase's rendition of it, too. It's really abandoning the subtle sensibility of the original logo entirely. If we use it, then in Xanadu 2's case especially, it will be by far the most ostentatious graphic in the game.

Xanadu 2 is not a wild party or a swashbuckling adventure, nor is it a particularly glamorous affair. It's a story of the somewhat mild-mannered characters from the first game wandering almost helplessly through an unknown continent that is full of ruin and dark, beautiful nature. Even the towns in the earlier parts of the game that are clean and pretty are also very subdued.

My work is not the height of perfection, but I do think it's a lot more in line with the tone of the game itself. I'd love for someone who can draw to do what it does even better.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

One more.

It occurred to me that with light coming in from above, the tops of each letter should have the lightest shade on them.

Here, I not only brought down the banding, but I changed it so that the larger letters have slightly different boundaries. I think it works, and it makes it look more like natural lighting.

The bottom band is only about 14 pixels high now, instead of 18 like before.


(238x32)

The next big thing to do is start thinking about how to use other colors via the open palette spaces to soften this. If you zoom in, you can see that Phase's logo has a lot of anti-aliasing to soften it via colors not yet set by the game, while mine has none and works in the game as-is.

Maybe we could agree on a set of extra colors to use so that poor elmer doesn't go insane trying to accommodate different palettes for each entry?

Bear in mind, we still don't know how anti-aliasing is going to look coming out of real hardware. That's something to test sooner rather than later.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

Looking good, Phase.

Here's my first crack at changing the outline to use differing shades of light blue like the original does. I had thought there were only two, but there are really three shades in there, and the original has four bands total, with the colors arranged from top to bottom like 1, 2, 3, 2.

I originally tried to use four bands, but in short, this forced only the tails of the f and g to have the fourth, brighter band, and it looked weird. This has just three bands, in the order you would expect. It seems to make a nice gradient if I put the first two bands higher up, and so those two are each only 7 pixels tall. I might alter them later.

Or, I might do something completely different. 

Also, I added automated drop shadow on the left. This is the same color as the internal shading. I tried adding it on the bottom as well (see how the light is coming in from the upper right?), but that actually looked bad. If I do attempt to add bottom drop-shadow, it will have to be done in a customized and sparing kind of way. This is good, though - it means I don't have to resize anything to fit 31 pixels.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

You guys realize that we cannot go over 32 pixels in height, right?

That whole thing is 63 pixels high. The X alone is 43.

Let's squish it down:



You have to work that into something that looks good. This image is only scaled to 480x64, too. Once you take it down to 240x32, it starts having major problems. I scaled this down to the proper size, then scaled it back up:



And don't forget, that's (proportionally) 240 pixels wide, but Xanadu 1 only allows 224.

You might be able to make this concept work, but I have to say, if you set such a low ceiling/floor in order to make the background II work, the actual words are probably going to have to be tiny.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

This fixes (or at least attempts to fix) the last of the major things I was worried about.

(237x32)

- The T is much improved at the cost of only 1 horizontal pixel.
- The tips of the h and d's are modified so that they're not so dang round anymore.
- The left base of the h is also de-rounded.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

Managed to get that e rounded out a bit. It cost me two horizontal pixels, which isn't bad.


(238x32)

I'm not sure whether I really like it, though. "Sharpness" itself is supposed to be an element of the font. Once I round out the e, there is more pressure to round out the n, and once you've done that, the whole thing is a bit less striking. Also, even though it looks good after the h, the rounded e doesn't jive so well with the g or the n.

However, this did get me to realize that it would actually not be difficult at all to go back to the original e and just lengthen its tail a little, which it needed.

I like that we aren't coming too close to the maximum size with the original e. 236 feels like it isn't quite spilling out of the background border yet. I also remember elmer saying that Nintendo would reject a game for having a title that spanned to much of the screen.

While I was at it, I put the X-and-the-a and the d-and-the-u each one pixel closer to each other, then turned that savings around to spread the The-and-the-Legend and the u-and-the-II out one pixel further apart.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

That does look good, a few of the letters are a little sharp like the E. I'm curious how that would look not italic?

"Italic" is basically an element that's baked into the font itself, so even the non-italic version actually renders about the same.

Another problem is that we're very short on space, and you'll notice how tightly things are packed around the two e's in "Legend" in particular. If rounding them out displaces the next letter by very much at all, it'll be a problem.

You could definitely call it an inherent flaw of this whole design.

But maybe there is another e from another font that fits the style and doesn't have the sharpness. I'll have to experiment.

Updated the letter spacing, smaller II, also tightened the word spacing a little to get it to fit within the background tablet.
Are we just using the colors on the title screen or is there a palette? I think I used some colors from the original concept, and perhaps the outline is a little bright right now.

AFAIK, we'll need to keep this within the colors you see in the original graphic only, which is made of sprites and uses its own palette. None of the extra colors from the background layer can be copied. So, that's two shades of light blue for the outline, two shades of dark green for shading, and one shade of moderately dark blue-green for the main body.

Those might be changeable, but I'm not sure if it's possible to go beyond five colors.

I think you've got this one looking better than ever, but I'm afraid that once it gets simplified into the limited palette, it will look a little rough. The font itself is also still maybe a little on the gaudy side.

 
Side by side isn't too close, and it is turbo related heh. I also like that its clean and the tall text kinda gives it a chisel
look to go with the background tablet/stone. On the other hand you are right that it doesn't have any connection.

Well, all of them are interesting   

Definitely 

This last one is my favorite of the ones you've done, and I would say it's already a very serious contender. The "chiseled" look is something I was hoping I could incorporate into a lowercase rendition, but I can't seem to find anything that will work for that.

I don't think it looks too similar to the Final Fantasy or Turbo Grafx fonts. However, I do worry that it's a pretty big stylistic departure. It looks so powerful and in-your-face, but the original games as a whole, especially the second one, are a little more subtle and gentle in terms of overall style.

When you load up Xanadu 2, you see only the background layer first, and then the title graphic dissolves in. When it's finished, this music starts. Eventually the background layer fades to black, and you see twinkling blue crystal shards start falling down the screen behind the title graphic like snow while the music continues. It's all supposed to be very pretty.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

The latest version. (236x32)

- Lowercase letters re-rendered and stretched to be one pixel taller before applying outline. With the f at 32 pixels tall, we're now at the maximum height for the image.
- T and L raised in height by one pixel, done by hand.
- The II is redone to be a couple of pixels larger and sit one pixel beneath everything else.
- The old X was sloppy and shorter than the T and L. I re-did it and brought it in line.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

After more failed experiments, I went back and tweaked this one some more:



- Increased size of T, L, and X.
- Tweaked tips of d and h (maybe made them worse, though)
- Merged II
- Moved things a little closer together - now it's 234x29

I find it highly unlikely that anything I make is actually going to wind up being used, but nonetheless, this is pretty fun. It's actually the first time I've ever fooled around in a modern graphics editor, and the first time I've drawn pixels since high school. 

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

That one I posted was just an experiment to see if I could get shadable, legible cursive letters in 240x32. 

Here's another version of that last one I posted. I removed the nightcaps, though the tips could still be improved, and I enlarged the II.



If I do anything else to it, it will be to increase the height of the capital T and L by a pixel or two.

Next, I'll try a straighter, possibly thicker and more rigid font.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

(239x31)

I tried bolding and shading the last one I made. The X got funky when I modified away some of the weirdness introduced by the bolding, and I still don't like the nightcaps on the d and h. Also, at the moment, the shading is a little harsh - I used only the darker of the two colors.

Overall, not too shabby.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

Thanks, Phase! I dig it!

Could you try making the II a little sleeker, and increasing the amount of space between the words?

I whipped another one up real quick. This kind of thing would be hard to shade, but I don't think it looks terrible. The tips of the lowercase H and D I could do without...


(239x31)

Right now, I'm looking at stuff of the fancy-thin-liney variety, and most of it doesn't work. Since we need a light blue outline around a dark blue-green primary color, it seems necessary to keep some real width in there.

Using cursive because Falcom used cursive seemed reasonable enough to me at first, but I'm starting to think that if we have to stick with this color scheme, where the line can never be thinner than three pixels wide and needs to be four for shading, we're probably better off going with some kind of italicized print unless we can find a simple fat cursive that doesn't look bad.

The extra width forced by the outline might keep us from wanting to use the original cursive style. That, and the fact that it is a bit on the gaudy side.  Anyway, Phase, if you don't mind making a couple of quick modifications like I mentioned above, I'd really love to see what it looks like.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

Another not-awesome-but-thought-provoking mock-up:


(234x30, Deftone Stylus)

I chose this font as an example of a thicker cursive style that is really easy to shade (not that I did a particularly great job of shading). The image I posted previously had a few places where there was only one dark blue-green pixel in between the light blue outline, such as the upper left parts of the lowercase A's, and it became impossible to apply formulaic interior shading there. With something like this, that's not a problem. There's even enough room to apply something like a horizontal gradient shade if we want to.

With this font, I can't say I'm in love with the T, the X, or of course the II. Don't ask me why the lowercase U came out so short, either. Anyway, it's interesting. If the question is "Can we fit legible, cursive, outlined letters in that space and still have room for shading?" this gives us the answer: absolutely.

Something just a little "tighter" all around could look nice.

Next, I'll try something more print-like.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

To get the ball rolling, here's my first mock-up with a sloppy attempt at shading.



I think it at least shows that we ought to be able to get shading in there even with equal sized lettering.

Next, I'll try some different fonts.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

                 

Three out of three people I have asked, with no explanation beyond presenting both images at the same time and asking which they prefer, have pointed to the mock-up with equal-sized lettering.

Two of those people were Japanese, and they said something kind of obvious from which I think a lesson can be drawn: The equal-sized lettering is much easier to read.

If you take any one letter from BT's image, excluding the THE and the OF, and compare it to the corresponding letter from the mock-up I made, BT's letter looks better, no question. However, I still think the fact that it was retro-fitted from having no THE at all to its current state has made it deeply flawed. Otherwise, my highly amateur mock-up shouldn't have been able to even compete with it.

Elmer's latest version is a definite improvement. Besides the larger THE, the II really needed more separation, and now it's got it. If we go with that, I'll basically be satisfied.

However, I would really be interested in seeing more mock-ups made with equal-sized lettering (or at least closer to equal if someone can make that work - I obviously couldn't). I honestly think that if we took that approach with a better font than the one I used, then took the time to add a bit of shading and touch up whatever else by hand, we could get something that has the best of both worlds.

Black Tiger, if you would like to make that kind of mock-up, I'd love to see it.

At this point, I want to see a whole smorgasbord of mock-ups, and in addition to making more of my own, I would like to invite anyone else who has a vision of what this title screen could look like to contribute. After all, if I can make a mock-up, anyone can. You wouldn't need to polish anything - just make sure it fits into 240x32 and uses the same colors from the original.

Here's a blank background and the original image:
           

Of course, "The Legend of Xanadu II" and "Xanadu - Legend of the Wind II" (dropping or changing the hyphen is fine) are both welcome.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

We've only got 240-pixels maximum width for the logo on the Opening Visual.

I guess that one option would be to just chop off the leading "The" on that Opening Visual, that would make it fit.

Would that bother anyone?

Surely we can come up with a more elegant solution.

Black Tiger, I know you spent a long time on that original graphic, but in all honesty, both the "of" and the "the" are a bit too small now, and the "the" especially looks a bit on the tacked-on side.

I'm a lousy artist, and this might sound totally naive, but based on a little goofing around with Gimp over the original background, it looks to me like 240x32 is enough to fit "The Legend of Xanadu II" comfortably enough, even with all the letters of a uniform size, as long one is willing to go with a different style. We have a few colors available for shading or outlining...elmer could probably tell us if it's an option to change the palette, too...and we can keep it simple.

Here's a quick-n-dirty mock-up. It's just Palatino Linotype Bold Italic with an outline and no shading. Let me emphasize that I don't think think this is beautiful or stylistically ideal so much as I just think it demonstrates what's possible within our size limitations. Although I see now that I accidentally made it 33 pixels tall, the important thing is that it's only 232 pixels wide.



A prettier font and some hand shading/touching up, and I think we can do this. It's fine to make the "The" and "of" smaller, too, as long as it's in moderation.

EDIT - Rebalanced the sizes just a bit. This is 239x32:

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

I thought that "The Last of Dragon Slayer" sounded hokey until it was explained to me that "Dragon Slayer" is the name of the sword, and that the continuity in the rather-disjointed series is proved by the sword itself.

As such ... "The Last of Dragon Slayer" actually seems quite appropriate to me, now.

If I'm understanding it right, the series of games is named after the sword itself, and "Xanadu" is the name of the planet/world where Falcom set this series of games.

If the meaning is more along the lines of "the sword's last outing" than "the final game in the series", then there is certainly no problem story-wise. However...and I'm open to discussion on this...I think you would need to say "The Last of the Dragon Slayer". If you leave out "the", then Dragon Slayer becomes a more directly addressed entity like Peter or Mark, and I have to leave out "the" everywhere just as I would never say "The Peter" or "The Mark".

"Hand over Dragon Slayer!"

"We better find Dragon Slayer."

"Only Dragon Slayer can defeat him."

It kind of reminds me of the way Tolkien had weapons with real names in The Lord of the Rings, like Glamdring, and treated them almost like living beings. Here, though, I have to say that I still prefer the sound of the Dragon Slayer. Like I said, I'm open to discussion on this.

However, do we have the space to insert a "the" there?

Japanese people have a terrible time grasping the proper use of "a" and "the" since they don't exist in the Japanese language, by the way.

Also, for what it's worth, I've never read any explanation for why "Xanadu" is in the title. It might be out there somewhere. I assume it's the name of the world, but I wouldn't say I'm confident about that.

As Vimtoman said "Maybe lose the II on the English text.".

But still ... something doesn't seem right.

If we were just doing subtitles on the voice-overs and leaving other Japanese text in the game, then I could understand going with the subtitled logo.

But if we're going to the trouble of trying to do an English dub, and we're doing a lot of work to replace every other piece of Japanese text within the game, then leaving this one seems ... lazy.

IMHO, it's definitely not what would have happened if the game had been professionally localized back-in-the-day.

I agree.

I'm really curious to see what it looks like when "The" gets put in there and the letters get squished some more or done in a different style entirely.

Moving forward, I've figured out how all the character's names in the Xanadu 2 Opening Visual actually work, and they can now be replaced.

They're all stored in a black-and-white (1bpp) image that should be easy to change into English (but there are some size restrictions).

Nice work. 

I'll PM you. Those are the names of each character with the name of the actor who provided the voice.

If people like 1 pixel text overlapping, I'll try add a THE to the English logo when I have a chance to work at my computer.

Adding a horizontal THE which doesn't overlap would rrquire as much extra space on the opposite end to be centered.

A Zelda style logo could be dobe, with tony text above Xanadu, but it would look like it's a Xabadu game.

I'm thinking a vertical "The" probably wouldn't look so hot, so let's stick with horizontal

I'm no artist, but for these longer titles, I would be fine with basically tossing the style of the original altogether. It's all right if it doesn't look as much like a proper logo, per se, as long as it looks pretty and appropriate as a title.

I'd start experimenting with thin cursive if I knew where to begin.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu II Translation Development Blog]

"The Last Of Dragon Slayer" is something I think we can say is not really part of the title. It doesn't appear once in either the manual or in any of the game's articles or advertisements in PCE Fan magazine between the time it was announced and the time it was released and after. Yes, I have all of them, and yes, I just checked.

Also, that should probably be changed to something like "The Last Dragon Slayer" or "The Final Dragon Slayer". I think what they want to say is that this is going to be the final game in the Dragon Slayer series.

Two little side notes: first, the magazine refers to both games strictly as kaze no densetsu, with "The Legend of Xanadu" appearing only as the golden cursive graphic in advertisements. Second,  it's interesting to note that the oft-repeated tagline for Xanadu 2, which is even on the back of the case, is 伝説の風再び..., which means literally "The Legendary Wind Once More..." and is really something like "The Legendary Wind Returns/Rises Again".

Even though it may still be impossible, this tilts me a little further toward preferring "Xanadu - Legend of the Wind".

Anyway...

There is literally only one pixel of unused space at the top and bottom of the TLoXII logo, so if the English logo is scrapped and subtitles are used and the size/palette cannot be expanded, this is how it would work:

I could definitely live with this. Maybe it's because the Japanese is easy on my eyes anyway, but this looks like a very tasteful compromise.

Thanks for taking the time to look into this, Black Tiger. I'm very grateful for your help, and again, I'm sorry that I didn't pick up on this issue earlier. 

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu I and II - General Translation Project(s) Thread]

The pre-production work on the dub is almost done. There are only sound effects to get in there now. Luckily, there are lots of places where I can get the sounds out of the original audio and seamlessly splice it with the new audio (and in fact, I've already done this).

Anyway, this is what one of about 35 Audacity project files looks like.



There's BGM from the soundtrack, the original Japanese audio for comparison (to be muted later), and then each character's line set up as its own track, with numbers corresponding to the line numbering in the script. The audio you see in each character-line track is white noise filler, placed exactly where it needs to go and occupying exactly as much time as the original Japanese.

Dropping in English lines that people send will literally be as simple as double-click/Ctrl+V for each one, and this will be very useful for showing people how their takes are mixing very quickly, ideally encouraging them to do retakes before they lose interest.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Production qty's]

I've googled this a lot in Japanese, but with very few results to show for it.

In PCE magazines, they released sales rankings with "scores" that were based on the actual sales number divided by some mystery variable. To make matters worse, every now and then, they even changed the variable. If we could find out some hard numbers for particular games and make up a database of all the "scores", we might start to get somewhere, but there just isn't a reliable enough source out there.

A lot of people do say that Tengai Makyo II was the best selling game, but even then, the numbers are all over the place. There was a magazine that said 500k. Hudson said 300k. The writer/director said 200k. And there's a sales records website that says 130k.

I personally think there is room to doubt whether TMII really was the top selling game. We know from multiple reliable sources there were about 1 million Japanese Duo owners, about 3.8 million base PCE owners, and that about 1 million of those base PCE owners had the CD expansion. That's twice as many people who can play Hucards as can play CDs. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if the best selling game is one of the Hucards from late 1989/early 1990, just because that was the peak time for the system.

This chart came from a PCE magazine from 1993 (I think). The bars are base PCE systems (white) and CD-ROM systems (black) and the lines are total Hucard sales (red) and CD game sales (green). The left y-axis corresponds to the systems, and goes up to 4 million, while the right y-axis corresponds to game sales and goes to 6 million.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / (3/6/2016 - 3/12/2016) Game of the Week: Silent Debuggers]

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March 6 - March 12: Silent Debuggers
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(chosen by MNKyDeth)

"Players explore a large cargo station in search of treasure which then accidentally triggered the self-destruct sequence. The player must progress from level to level, killing every monster in order to advance. On the lowest level is a computer that must be "debugged" in order to stop a self-destruct sequence. The player is assisted by a fellow debugger named Leon who provides information and weapon and is also your buddy. The game featured a minimal ability to look up and down. Selecting a harder difficulty generated a blob-like monster that moved on the ceiling."

I always thought this game reminded me of Aliens the movie when I was growing up with the console. It always scared the crap out of me just like the movie did. The sound "atmosphere" of the monster sensor and the rushing around trying to memorize where you were so you could get back to the inner areas to protect it always made this game exciting to me. I feel this game is very underrated for the potential it has and showed. I hope everyone gets the excitement from this game like I did when I was young and scared of things that go bump in the night.

The 3d view to me was very impressive for the time and mixed with the objectives of destroying and protecting made the game even more frantic. It has been a while since I played it so hopefully it still feels the same way it did all those years ago as I remember it.

(First paragraph from Wikipedia)

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GOTW Schedule:
1. (1/3/2016 - 1/9/2016) Liquid Kids (lukester)
3. (1/17/2016 - 1/23/2016) Super Dimension Fortress Macross 2036 (Gentlegamer)
4. (1/24/2016 - 1/30/2016) Fushigi no Yume no Alice (EmperorIng)
5. (1/31/2016 - 2/6/2016) Valkyrie no Densetsu (Gredler)
6. (2/7/2016 - 2/13/2016) Bikkuriman World (jtucci31)
7. (2/14/2016 - 2/20/2016) Dragon's Curse (seieienbu)
8. (2/21/2016 - 2/27/2016) Yo, Bro! (grolt)
9. (2/28/2016 - 3/5/2016) Formation Armed F (nopepper)
10. (3/6/2016 - 3/12/2016) Silent Debuggers (MNKyDeth)
More submissions welcome!

Rules:
-All members are allowed one submission. When there are no further submissions, we will have a reset and everyone will be able to submit another game.
-Each game may only be submitted once.
-If you wish to retract your submission, please do so at least two weeks before your game is due. Your next submission will go to the back of the cue.
-Please don't submit games that have a high language barrier or will take too long to complete (particularly RPGs).

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / (2/28/2016 - 3/5/2016) Game of the Week: Formation Armed F]

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February 28 - March 5: Formation Armed F
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(chosen by nopepper)

I know "underrated" gets thrown around liberally, but in the case of Formation Armed F, it is absolutely applicable. This game is not only underrated by members of this board (and elsewhere in the interweb), but it is absolutely a brilliant game, with great level designs, wonderful music and tough, but fair gameplay. The game is consistently intense, every level brings forth a new challenge, the music is fantastic and while the graphics are nothing special, they are stylish and memorable (and play a role in the game's challenge - see #9 below). In a lot of ways, this game reminds me of the classic Mega Man games. Challenging and satisfying games with great level designs, with not technically impressive graphics that are still pleasing, and with fantastic music.

Anyway, I am going to borrow the description Sinistron wrote back in 2009 (with some edits), as I feel he eloquently explains the game's strong point very thoroughly:

1) It's tough- but not in a way that makes me not want to play it- more so in a way that makes me want to go home- pop it in and get a little further.  It's definitely fun.

2) the chip music is GREAT.  Love the music on stage 1 and it starts to take on an Iremish feel in following levels.

3) Speaking of Irem- stage three really feels like it would've been right at home in Image Fight.

4) The levels are long- but rewarding.  It seems like a new weapon is introduced each level- I'm only on level four at the moment and haven't seen a new weapon on this level yet- but level 1 has side sweeping beams and then a laser weapon is introduced, level two introduces homing missiles, and then powerful diagonal beams which continue into stage 3- each weapon gets powered up three times- unless your previous weapon was powered at full- then the new one is automatically strong.

5) I read on vgden that the ship is too slow and half your time is spent looking for speed-ups- I don't find this to be the case at all.  Speed-ups come fairly often- and I've found that getting more than ONE can prove hazardous- very easy to slam right into a wall if you're quicker than that.

6) No continues! I like it!    (Edit- I've found that using the continue trick [SELECT 10 times during game over screen] is an absolute must to learn the levels, but after memorizing sections, it's actually very doable to complete the game in a single credit)

7) The levels don't seem mindless at all- they're structured quite nice- and there's little surprises- take the level one boss for instance- I've always fought him from the bottom of the screen- and he can prove tricky- from this angle you have to smother his spread shots with a forward projected option pod and then move along with him to keep it up- but it doesn't always work so smoothly- if he gets that shot through it can throw you off and you just might smash into the rock trying to avoid a corner shot...  however- I found out just last night that if you fight this boss from above- that his entire attack is different.  Gone are the spread shots- instead he shoots these weak little slugs at you and you can destroy them easily by turning your pods down and blasting away- it's a surefire way to destroy this boss each time.

8- The option pods are really cool if you have the formation f power-ups- you can shoot them far ahead of you or behind you- it's perfect for destroying enemies at a distance in hard to reach spots- and it definitely helps out big time in stage 3.

9) Level 4.  They must have done this on purpose- it'd be an easy board- easier than stage 3- if it wasn't for the goddamn colors.  The background here is done in variations of bright pink- which makes the pink enemy shots hard as hell to discern.  You can see them- but you're mostly straining to- and while doing that you're likely to miss something else happening.

---------------------------------------------------

GOTW Schedule:
1. (1/3/2016 - 1/9/2016) Liquid Kids (lukester)
3. (1/17/2016 - 1/23/2016) Super Dimension Fortress Macross 2036 (Gentlegamer)
4. (1/24/2016 - 1/30/2016) Fushigi no Yume no Alice (EmperorIng)
5. (1/31/2016 - 2/6/2016) Valkyrie no Densetsu (Gredler)
6. (2/7/2016 - 2/13/2016) Bikkuriman World (jtucci31)
7. (2/14/2016 - 2/20/2016) Dragon's Curse (seieienbu)
8. (2/21/2016 - 2/27/2016) Yo, Bro! (grolt)
9. (2/28/2016 - 3/5/2016) Formation Armed F (nopepper)
10. (3/6/2016 - 3/12/2016) Silent Debuggers (MNKyDeth)
More submissions welcome!

Rules:
-All members are allowed one submission. When there are no further submissions, we will have a reset and everyone will be able to submit another game.
-Each game may only be submitted once.
-If you wish to retract your submission, please do so at least two weeks before your game is due. Your next submission will go to the back of the cue.
-Please don't submit games that have a high language barrier or will take too long to complete (particularly RPGs).

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / (2/21/2016 - 2/27/2016) Game of the Week: Yo, Bro!]

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February 21 - February 27: Yo, Bro!
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(chosen by grolt)

For most, the Game of the Week is a chance to celebrate a fun game from the past.  Resurrecting a classic for the world to experience anew.  For me, it's a support group.  YO, BRO! is a game that has haunted me for a long time – not because it is terrible, although that's a sentiment many here believe, but because of that damned Amoeba stage.  Before that, it's kind of a charming game with some great Beach Boys chiptunes, a zany assortment of bad guys (including dinosaurs with sneakers, fire throwing gargoyles and bunnies, lots of bunnies) and unique isometric map-traversing gameplay.  Taking out the hub bosses, rescuing kids and skateboarding around levels makes for a fusion of gameplay experience that you don't really get in other games.  Unfortunately, you also don't get control this frustrating in other games either, as the usual pitfalls of an isometric vantage point make it tough to gauge direction, which is only exacerbated by the speed of the bear's wheel-based motion.

Still, once you get a hang of the perspective and the controls, the game's originality mostly carries it through, but then that Amoeba stage happens.  There are just so many of them, and they take so many hits to die, and the longer you take to blast them the more they multiply.  Even saving all your weapon power ups for that single level still proves futile.  And then those skateboarding dogs come to take you out every time you get settled in a good spot to attack.  That level is just impossible, and despite all my best efforts over multiple playthroughs, I just can't break on past it.  I'm hoping that by making this the game of the week that someone else can beat it for me, or at least offer a strategy that will allow me, and the other brave souls who have tried and failed, to finally beat that level.  Looking at videos online, the levels following seem more comparable with the levels before it, that is to say not all that difficult.  But that level is the level from hell and must be conquered, and it must come from you, PCFX.

But why play this game in the first place, you might ask?  It's allegedly one of the worst on the system.  Again, don't get me wrong, the control is tough and the Amoeba stage uncompromisingly difficult, but otherwise it is a fun time.  There's a lot of personality to the game, with colorful graphics and that California cool.  On the bottom on-screen console there's even some commentary from the main character every time you encounter an enemy.  "It's cool, mon!" our rasta bear says, or perhaps more fittingly to the Amoeba level he often asks "You like pain?" And when it comes to this game, I just sorta do.  ICOM Simulations, who made the game as well as many others in the TurboGrafx library, never seem to get much credit, but they always made games with a lot of character and strived for new kind of gaming experiences.  Games like the SHADOWGATE and SHERLOCK HOLMES: CONSULTING DETECTIVE series show their commitment to presentation, and YO, BRO!'s sequel, CAMP CALIFORNIA, which is a completely different platformer, show they were a company that never just rested on their laurels.  GHOST MANOR is another favorite of mine from ICOM that shows that they knew how to give their games creative charm.  Even looking within YO,BRO! there are essentially three gameplay engines throughout, including bonus shooter levels, one from an overhead vertical perspective and another from a side-facing horizontal position.

Yeah, yeah, YO, BRO! is not a game for everyone, but I always like it for a quick jaunt.  Even if you're having a rough time with the control, those great Beach Boys tunes are all fun.  But enough fun – this is work...PCFX, I implore you: The Amoeba stage...we must prevail.  I lose sleep thinking that that level has done to me.  So help me, Rhonda, help me get the Amoeba out of my heart!

Soundtrack link:

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GOTW Schedule:
1. (1/3/2016 - 1/9/2016) Liquid Kids (lukester)
2. (1/10/2016 - 1/16/2016) Buster Bros. (Punch)
3. (1/17/2016 - 1/23/2016) Super Dimension Fortress Macross 2036 (Gentlegamer)
4. (1/24/2016 - 1/30/2016) Fushigi no Yume no Alice (EmperorIng)
5. (1/31/2016 - 2/6/2016) Valkyrie no Densetsu (Gredler)
6. (2/7/2016 - 2/13/2016) Bikkuriman World (jtucci31)
7. (2/14/2016 - 2/20/2016) Dragon's Curse (seieienbu)
8. (2/21/2016 - 2/27/2016) Yo, Bro! (grolt)
9. (2/28/2016 - 3/5/2016) Formation Armed F (nopepper)
10. (3/6/2016 - 3/12/2016) Silent Debuggers (MNKyDeth)
11. (3/13/2016 - 3/19/2016) Super Star Soldier (o.pwuaioc)
More submissions welcome!

Rules:
-All members are allowed one submission. When there are no further submissions, we will have a reset and everyone will be able to submit another game.
-Each game may only be submitted once.
-If you wish to retract your submission, please do so at least two weeks before your game is due. Your next submission will go to the back of the cue.
-Please don't submit games that have a high language barrier or will take too long to complete (particularly RPGs).

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / (2/14/2016 - 2/20/2016) Game of the Week: Dragon's Curse]

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February 14 - February 20: Dragon's Curse
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(chosen by seieienbu)

Released in 1991 for our beloved Turbo Grafx, Hudson's Dragon's Curse is the fourth game in the Adventure Island/Wonderboy series; it is a free roaming platformer that starts you off as powerful as you would be in the end of an ordinary game.  After a brief level exploring a castle you face the boss of the castle; after the defeat of your adversary, Mecha Dragon, you are weakened and placed in a cursed form and the game truly begins.

A very forward thinking game, the scope of Dragon's Curse is in a class of its own among US HuCard titles.  As you progress through the world you gain new abilities allowing for further exploration and requiring a bit of backtracking rather than simply traversing from one level to the next.  The different forms you control all play very different and enable you to solve problems in new and interesting ways.  The gameplay mostly feels like another Adventure Island with exploration elements similar to Metroid games while there are hints of an action RPG with regards to becoming more powerful via collecting more hit points and finding and spending money.

The art is cartoony, bright, and colorful making good use of the turbo's color palette.  The music is jaunty, cheerful, and well suited for the game.  The play control is as expected from an Adventure Island title:  a tad slippery making the platforming aspects challenging but still allowing for good control over your character.  Overall, this is an excellent title that every Turbografx owner should have in his or her library.

Wonderboy Thread: pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=9249.0

Hardcore Gaming Series discussion: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/wonderboy/wonderboy.htm

Wikipedia:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Boy_III:_The_Dragon's_Trap

Soundtrack:

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GOTW Schedule:
1. (1/3/2016 - 1/9/2016) Liquid Kids (lukester)
3. (1/17/2016 - 1/23/2016) Super Dimension Fortress Macross 2036 (Gentlegamer)
4. (1/24/2016 - 1/30/2016) Fushigi no Yume no Alice (EmperorIng)
5. (1/31/2016 - 2/6/2016) Valkyrie no Densetsu (Gredler)
6. (2/7/2016 - 2/13/2016) Bikkuriman World (jtucci31)
7. (2/14/2016 - 2/20/2016) Dragon's Curse (seieienbu)
8. (2/21/2016 - 2/27/2016) Yo, Bro! (grolt)
9. (2/28/2016 - 3/5/2016) Formation Armed F (nopepper)
10. (3/6/2016 - 3/12/2016) Silent Debuggers (MNKyDeth)
More submissions welcome!

Rules:
-All members are allowed one submission. When there are no further submissions, we will have a reset and everyone will be able to submit another game.
-Each game may only be submitted once.
-If you wish to retract your submission, please do so at least two weeks before your game is due. Your next submission will go to the back of the cue.
-Please don't submit games that have a high language barrier or will take too long to complete (particularly RPGs).