Messages

[Off-Topic / The “What-Did-You-Buy-Today?” Thread]

Special PC Engine mini sale on Amazon Japan, 25% off!!!



Scored it for $77 total with today's USD/YEN exchange rate! They're limiting orders to 1 per person as well to fight scalpers/resellers also.

Loading: twitter.com/NightWolve75/status/1456015963137220617

Update: It was a clearance sale, the price fell to like $50 USD for a short time!!!!

Loading: twitter.com/Shhiin/status/1457002113095987210

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Shiryou Sensen/War of the Dead translation]

Hat tip to cccmar and crew for yet another PCE localization project, guess I didn't notice it at the time.

Threads needed more visuals during promotion, you gotta show the eye candy to get noticed, another reason Facebook/Twitter/Discord are winning due to how easy it is to share any photo/any time without worrying about an external host provider (that fails later like Image Shack)...

Anyway, I embedded the RHDN screenshots so they're also permanent here. We need a high quality super thread of all existing PCE localizations with at least 5 screenshots each, that'd be a good idea in the future.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: PCE Duo-R Won't read hu cards? What could be the cause?]

Wait, this was sold with the "Condition:For parts or not working" caveat. Sounds too good to be true...

It needed just a little cleaning ?? The seller wasn't bright enough to try some basics ?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: My Great Yard Sale Find!!]

I even talked the seller down to $20.

Ah, a broken Turbo Express for $25! Yeah, you got a 9X% chance to fix it yourself with a full capacitor replacement job! That's the same state mine was in after 5 years of storage and trying to turn it on back in 2012 I believe (it cost me $11 in SMD caps from Digikey).

I'd go the distance here, find/buy HQ Panasonic low-ESR capacitors, pay a little extra for more lasting power since you got a broken unit so cheap. Steve knows how to play with tantalum caps at the right spots to eliminate hum, but I don't trust that or novices (us regular folk moonlighting as EEs, don't try stepping in Steve/Voultar's lane) playing around, just replace electrolytic with electrolytic to play it safe.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: The first of Many! (Grabbed my first TG16 game since I sold off the collection]

Can Keith Courage still be bought for $10 these days ??

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: PCE Duo-R Won't read hu cards? What could be the cause?]

Welcome back, you were one of my account-undelete/rebuild experiments (about ~30-40) which works 100% now...

I extracted a better shot of the game, but no, I can make out what it is.



As for your repairs, we pretty much have only ONE active repair person (maybe two if you're willing to pay Canada shipping rates to Jodi/Turbo Reproductions as a last resort), ChrisComputers (KeithKourage). I'll forward him your thread, he's one of the few I privately invited to test the rebuilt forum and say hello.

TheSteve/TurboKon pretty much retired from repair/mod service, as did others... Voultar might take 1 Duo once in a blue moon as a special request for a friend, they require too much time to offer service for general customers. Oh, there's Leon on Twitter that's active.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: A small thing i did for PCFX...]

I noticed gameblabla's image/download links were broken for his PC-FX homebrew demo, so I went looking on Twitter to ask for updates. I got PMs back with new links migrated to github which should provide reliability (permanency).

github.com/gameblabla/simplebattlefx-pcfx
github.com/gameblabla/simplebattlefx-pcfx/raw/master/release/SimpleBattle_FX.zip

Ah, so basically you got a little Wizardry text battle engine up and running on the system with this.

Looks like I wrote the same thing years ago, it's a building-block ~Wizardry text-battle demo, how early RPG engines started off.

Might be hard to see the value but you have to consider the bigger picture, it has to start somewhere little by little. You may inspire/motivate someone else into developing a full homebrew game despite the odds being very low. Chris Covell does this all the time, many great demos are in his legacy to essentially leave breadcrumbs behind to inspire someone else to work off of them into something more/bigger/complete.

[General Gaming / Pixelization/Animation Perfection]

Wanted to branch out from the PC Engine Pixelization thread after Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys to include/link cool animations from any game/console.

To start it off, much credit again to Kishi's Gift of GIF, now a lost thread after the www.talking-time.net forum was scraped in 2020 and rebooted with XenForo. But thanks to WayBack and some grunt work we can dig out some of the best highlights!
Find more animated GIFs be it Falcom and others below e.g. Ys I-III PC-98 ports:

https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.snowy-day.net/grokyou/*
https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.snowy-day.net/grokyou/brandish/*


https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.snowy-day.net/grokyou/falcom/*












https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.snowy-day.net/grokyou/gradius/*




https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.snowy-day.net/grokyou/hideo/*






https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.snowy-day.net/grokyou/metroid/*




And finally some of Kishi's finest work, the NES/SNES Super Punch-Out Parade!

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/clv/manuals/en/pdf/CLV-P-NAATE.pdf


https://www.nintendo.co.jp/clvs/manuals/common/pdf/CLV-P-SAAXE.pdf






Arcade extra with Bald Bull:

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Question: Wave-phasing on the PC engine, how feasible is that?]

shape___artillery_wip_mednafen_by_michirin9801-dauhpi7.mp3 ^As you can hear in this WIP, not really... It's good for the higher-pitched notes, but if you put it in the lower pitches it sounds kinda crappy, the popping is very noticeable...

_{► /8/shape___artillery_wip_mednafen_by_michirin9801-dauhpi7.mp3}

I applied some WayBack magic to Michirin9801's intro thread here, it recovered her MP3 chiptune recordings and some images (I returned to further embed everyone's images). That and I kinda like this MP3 I quoted while listening to it a second ago after the WayBack recovery, hence worthy of a bump I thought.

_{EDIT: We have a pretty significant harassment problem in PC Engine fandom which needs to be tackled one way or another, I recently learned michirin9801 was targeted by multiple [banned] turbo trolls here/elsewhere and I suspect she deactivated her DeviantArt profile as a consequence (which hosts these MP3s)... I invited her back without knowing about it, but now I understand her polite reply better...}

[Off-Topic / Re: Random Pictures Thread]

Ready for the sequel?

Dear lord... I don't think we'd survive it!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: PC Engine Pixelization - Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys]

Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys | Falcom & Hudson Soft | PC Engine CDRom² | 1993








Credit: Kishi's Gift of GIF - Thank goodness for Wayback machine, that talking-time forum was scraped in 2020, rebooted with XenForo, and the thread these were posted in is lost or offline currently! I'm using Wayback links mostly going forward, they should last the longest given the mission of that group.

Addendum: Find more Falcom animated GIFs and others by Kishi below e.g. from Ys I-III PC-98 ports. I might make a separate thread for it all:

wayback.snowy-day.net/grokyou/falcom/*
wayback.snowy-day.net/grokyou/brandish/*


And while not pertinent to the exact purpose of the thread (pixel animations), pretty Ys IV portraits/eye candy get thrown in while I'm here just for the heck of it:

[Off-Topic / WayBack Runtime Lost Photo/IMG Retrieve Plugin/Patch/Fix]

Synopsis: Dead/broken IMG links plague forums in Random Photo Threads like these, but what if runtime JavaScript could loop through broken/missing images, prepend a special WayBack link (https://web.archive.org/web/0im_/) to search for them in their database and seamlessly return the lost image ??    Let's try!

http://www.sparkcaster.com/demotivational/images/a%20pony.jpg




Dead IMG Link:
https://www.storochliten.se/themes/storochliten/content/images/stor-och-liten-symbol-large.png

Working via WayBack:

Back in the 80 we had Big&Little that was THE toystore here back then, that has somehow
remerged online for being gone in like 20 years time, nostalgic for us...

That logo is for us what TRU are for Americans.

Dead IMG Link (11 years old):
http://chzgifs.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/girlsfartp1.gif

Dead IMG Link (10 years old):
http://asset.soup.io/asset/1180/6135_062f.png

I waslike WTHMF

Dead IMG Link (10 years old):
http://images.paraorkut.com/img/funnypics/images/b/bruce_lee_loves_birthdays-13330.jpg




Here's one of the more interesting cases with lifetime member and former mod GameSack Joe Redifer! When he started off, turns out instead of using his later joeredifer.com domain to share images, he owned/used pixelcraze.film-tech.net circa 2002 (then pixelcraze.com)!

An example post in question:
https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=3082.msg40362#msg40362

In it, he shared this "pixelcraze.film-tech.net/crap/turbogames.jpg", but that domain is dead and not many files are found on Way Back!

So is all hope lost ? No, I remembered his /crap/ folder being associated with joeredifer, so what if I swap domains and try looking in WayBack again ???

Before : pixelcraze.film-tech.net/crap/turbogames.jpg
After  : joeredifer.com/crap/turbogames.jpg



And voila, now it works, the image can found! *catches breath* But, it's not over yet, searching the forum with Joe's "pixelcraze.film-tech.net" which became "pixelcraze.com" returns dozens of results (60+), so a global find/replace to "joeredifer.com" is needed to lead to most images from 2006-2007 working again! A little more grunt work to recover what is lost, but I made a script for that. It's a bit dangerous though, no mistakes can be made, you make sure the text is 100% unique, no undos if you make a mistake!

So yeah, it's an interesting case where a little extra effort can recover more images/history!


And so on. It's hit or miss, since Aaron kept the forum mostly private in its 2 decades, spiders couldn't archive as much, so if the link was only posted here and nowhere else, it's likely gone forever...

The JavaScript code goes something like this, just a single function called on the onload() event and relies on the fact that SMF forums will set dead image objects to width=0/height=0 so they're not noticed. This idea happened on accident as I was trying to track down where this is happening to stop SMF from setting their dimensions to zero since I want to know a link is dead to fix it manually. But with runtime code you can fix some cases automatically by way of WayBack magic.

Code Select Expand

function ShowLostImages() {
var aLink1, aLink2;
for ( i = 0; i < document.images.length; i++ )
if ( document.images[i].width == 0 || (!document.images[i].complete && document.images[i].width <= 28) ) {
document.images[i].border = 1;
aLink1 = document.images[i].src;
document.images[i].alt = document.images[i].title = aLink1;
aLink2 = "https://web.archive.org/web/0im_/" + aLink1;
document.images[i].src = aLink2;
aLink1 = "https://archive.org/..." + aLink1.substring(aLink1.lastIndexOf("/"));
document.images[i].outerHTML += "<BR><b><font color=red>WayBack Repair:</font></b> <a href=\"" + aLink2 + "\" target=\"_blank\">" + aLink1 + "</a>";
         
document.images[i].onclick = function(event) {
var a = document.createElement("a");
a.target = "_blank";
a.href = this.src;
a.click();
}
}
}


[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Introducing myself and Turbo Views......]

TurboViews tackles Capcom's legendary Street Fighter II: Champion Edition!

Chris "TurboViews" Bucci, a PCE pillar of the TurboGrafx-16 community, will focus on import HuCards after a decade+ of reviewing every US TG-16 game wraps up. A New Challenger Appears, the world phenomenon of "Street Fighter II" which prolonged the declining arcade business! Its arrival on consoles was a big deal. With a TurboExpress and region adapter, you were the cool kid on the block, best portable port at the time if you were lucky! Turns out Chris was one of those kids, even bringing it to school to show off, heh. ; )



I joined the SFII arcade craze with the Hyper Fighting upgrade and at first I didn't understand the appeal of 2 fighters over a static background (I understood Double Dragon/Ninja Gaiden co-ops, the traveling/adventure/stages, not this!), but eventually I got hooked along with Mortal Kombat and dropped countless quarters throughout my High School days. For home consoles I began with the SFII:World Warrior SNES port, but regretted I didn't wait for the HF upgrade... I never dreamed of import shopping off gaming mags, it took Dracula X & Ys IV to make that leap later, so I missed out on the PCE port. By then, SNES ports satisfied the need so it was moot. Anyway, click/watch below for the YouTube Retroview to see what Chris has to say!

The Turbo Views (the TurboGrafx-16 / TurboDuo review series) Facebook Group -

#turboviews #turbografx #turboduo #spida1a #youtube #retrogaming

HQ image assets I used to make this 2021 news entry:

https://www.pcengine-fx.com/images/SFIICE-Manual.jpg
https://www.pcengine-fx.com/images/SFIICE-TurboViewsThumb.jpg
https://www.pcengine-fx.com/images/SFIICE-PCEnginefan_jp_1993-06-2.jpg

(A GIF of the 3 images above made with JSAC Animation Shop)
https://www.pcengine-fx.com/images/SFIICE-TurboView.gif

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Top Ten PCE/PCE CD/TG16 games?]

Thanks for testing/stopping by, LionHeart! I thought you were another "lionheart" member we had from some years back, but no connection as you said. ; )

Note: PCEFX New Era is still in development, I haven't sent out a newsletter to the 5k registered membership to invite some back, so don't expect much posts for the time being until I finish the theme/repairs/import/upgrades and send those emails out.

That being said, I'll think up my ~Top 10 PCE list right quick. This is a rough estimate I'd say, I'd love to really sit down and go through my rental/owned/emulation gaming history of TG-16 to create a definitive list of my thoughts, but I dunno when I'd ever make the dedicated time for that... So best I can do on short notice is:

• Ys Book I & II 
  (Speaks for itself, fell in love with it the second the opening cinema began, led to my Ys IV localization project!)
• Dracula X
  (Legendary! Castevania times 10!)
• Super Star Soldier
  (My TurboExpress is quite familiar with this HuCard!)
• Gate of Thunder/Lords of Thunder 
  (My first CD shooters, still hold best videogame soundtrack status!)
• Neutopia 1 & 2 / series
  (Loved these Zelda clones, I was a NES kid after all; rented the 1st, bought the 2nd via TurboZoneDirect I believe!)
• Cosmic Fantasy 2
  (I was a big RPG fan by this point too in addition to shooters, Working Designs did not disappoint!)
• Bloody Wolf
  (I won this game with a TurboGrafx-16 system & Keith Courage, played it *many* times! Loads of bad ass fun, here's a recent Twitter thread!)
• Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys 
  (Very special place in my heart, and my dream localization project I made reality!)
• Bonk 1, 2, 3 / series 
  (While 3 was the worst, the Bonk series overall provided lots of rental replay value, fun, etc. and deserves respect!)
• Exile 1 & 2 / series
  (I bought both for my CD collection, tried to grab all Working Designs releases, interesting story, cool action!)
• Ninja Spirit
  (I reevaluated my last pick... Almost went with SplatterHouse, then remembered of Dragon Spirit which had more replay/fun and great chiptune music, so ranks higher for me. But Ninja Spirit... was my pack-in Turbo Duo HuCard, loved it, mountains of replay value, so it's gotta be on the list somewhere!)

Honorable mentions: Valis series, Star Parodier (newly discovered on my Konami mini, charming/fun/lovable cute'em up shooter), Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes, Ys III (greatest soundtrack in videogame history), Dungeon Explorer, Cadash, Raiden.

Reference:

- My Incomplete TG-16 Backloggery/History -
https://backloggery.com/games.php?user=nightwolve&console=TDuo

Addendum:

Speaking of Bloody Wolf, it was covered by GameSack Joe recently on July 18th's episode!

Turbo still standing strong even in 2021!

Joe has a shtick in throughout the video: every time he says "Bloody Wolf," a barking-dog sound clip must be played, heh... Why didn't he use a howling wolf ? I dunno, that's the joke, play off wolves and dogs being distant cousins.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Ys History: Ys Book I & II VA dub features Hollywood stars!]

While Alan Oppenheimer is fairly famous for all his voice-acting work in 80's cartoons (He-Man, The Smurfs, The Transformers, Scooby-Doo, etc.) and did a great job voicing Darm and the opening narrator for Ys Book I & II, there's somebody else that worked on the game who achieved far greater fame that's worth mentioning when one fondly looks back at a great classic such as this for the NEC PC Engine/TurboGrafx-CD system! Take a look at this credits roll:



Something I once learned from a Game Sack episode (thanks to Joe Redifer) and never was the wiser till it was explicitly pointed out: See that Thomas H. Church credit for Goban Toba ? Yep, that's one in the same as Thomas Haden Church, the Hollywood actor last known for playing SandMan in Spider-Man 3! The Ys Book I & II dub was well-funded after all and still is one of the best that I know of in a videogame!

Thomas Haden Church
As SandMan	As Goban Toba, leader of the Thieves' Den
Ys Book I&II ADPCM Track #02 "Oh I have heard about your bravery... You're going to Darm Tower to the find book, aren't you? ..."

How about that ? I was pretty surprised when I first learned about it! In addition to a high-quality dub, Ys Book I & II sports one of THE greatest soundtracks in videogame history (as does Ys III to Ys IV!) which is mostly thanks to legends like Yuzo Koshiro and Ryo Yonemitsu's post-arrangement magic which is a big reason why I and many others became such devout Ys fans!!!!

The magic of when I first fired up Ys Book I & II on my brand new Turbo Duo in the 90's still remains with me to this day and for better or worse it's what also led me into fan localization projects like the final "Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys" sequel! The partnership of Hudson Soft and Falcom led to some great things in gaming history, but it's too bad Hudson is no longer with us having been absorbed by Konami and mostly sidelined thereafter (not until the PC Engine/TurboGrafx minis at least)...

References:
https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/video-games/Ys-Book-I-and-II/




Ys Book I & II Reviews:
https://www.rpgfan.com/review/ys-book-i-ii-2/
https://www.rpgfan.com/review/ys-book-i-ii/

For a recently translated interview of the Ys IV: Dawn of Ys staff (both from Hudson & Falcom), check this out as well:
https://shmuplations.com/ysiv/


I just remembered my side project of extracting some of these voice-acting recordings/dubs.

-The TurboGrafx CD Ys games are better than anything XSEED Games has put out.

Ha, I wouldn't know boycotting all their product, but funny to hear you say that.

As to the question, because I grew up with "Ys Book I & II" after I bought a Turbo Duo and it's what made me a lifelong Ys fan, I pronounce "Adol" the way Lilia/she (Mea Martineau as Lilia) says it here:

1)

_{► /audio/YS12_01_005E0000.mp3}

Or, here she is again from the redbook audio track 37:

2)

_{► /audio/37-YsBookI&II.mp3}

3) Incidentally, here is Thomas Haden Church's raw ADPCM clip extracted and converted to MP3 below. I wanted the best possible voice-acting samples for my dub research project (which I still wanna finish).

_{► /audio/YS12_02_00620000.mp3}

(His only recorded line in the game BTW.)

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Finally picked this up, what took me so long?]

Best shooter on the system?  Just might be.

[Blazing Lasers]

What is your favorite?

Blazing Lasers is excellent, one of the best for sure and it's in my top 5, but in reality the under-the-radar Super Star Soldier is unquestionably THE BEST PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 shooter!

When I finished all the TG-16 HuCard games I ever rented or purchased, SSS (and sometimes Dragon Spirit) was the one I could keep slipping into my Turbo Express and playing over and over again while sick in bed or when the random mood struck years apart in leisure. Very high replay value!

Side note: I never traveled with my Express for fear of it being lost or stolen, just how I felt about it. Moreover, it never felt comfortable to play-on-the-go, it's just outside my preferences/habits. Shooters you can justify for portable devices, but say RPGs, my other favorite genre ? No, I wanna play comfortably in front of a TV/panel.

Super Star Soldier > Blazing Lasers







Favorite tracks of stage 2 and 6:

A Chris "TurboViews" Bucci review/gameplay video for a final good measure!

Added a sprite rip collection, may be useful some time for smiley/icon creation. That's how Keith Kursor was forged!

[Feature/News Archive / Kickstarter-triumph Battle Princess Madelyn Released - (posted Dec 6, 2018)!]

Kickstarter-triumph "Battle Princess Madelyn" Released! -  12/6/2018!
Inspired by and a love letter to the NEC SuperGrafx Ghouls 'n Ghosts port!


https://.steampowered/.../Battle_Princess_Madelyn/

Classic retro gameplay for a whole new era!

* Tru NEC SuperGrafx Origin Story: [Developer] Chris Obritsch' daughter Madelyn loved to watch him play Daimakaimura/Ghouls 'n Ghosts on his SuperGrafx which led to her wanting to be IN the game! So eureka, dad's solution was to make her the star of her own!!!

* With the retro feel of Ghouls 'n Ghosts and Wonder Boy 3, this will conjure up memories of the arcade era with its Unity driven hand-drawn pixel art

* 10 levels with five stages each, they're replayable with no starting over (that is unless you want to)

* Two modes including story (by a professional children's author) and arcade (for the experts)

* Hidden collectibles with extra rewards, weapons are upgradeable depending on your armour, which you can find through the blacksmith in story mode

* Madelyn's pet ghost dog "Fritzy" acts as both a weapon and a way to solve puzzles, allowing the player to tackle boss fights and maneuver puzzles.

* Weapons are specific to certain areas, providing access to secret locations

>> Kickstarter History/Game Discussion thread.  <<

[Off-Topic / Re: Random Pictures Thread]

Loading: twitter.com/AliceProverbio/status/1050672406543486977

Weird one off Twitter, it's a motion illusion effect from a totally static JPEG, i.e. it's NOT an animated GIF! It might make your eyes hurt/or you dizzy from looking at it too long!

[Off-Topic / Re: What do you depise AT THIS MOMENT, literally....]

This is what I get for being a "hot glue cowboy" like thesteve, hot glue blister burn... ;)

Damn dude! 

Ha, relevant use of a fireball smiley, well played!

I know some of the smileys there are totally stupid, useless, that it'd be nigh impossible to find the context where to appropriately apply them (a few have never been used), but this wasn't one of those times, heh!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Third party TG16 pad, has anyone tried it?]

Most modern aftermarket third party controllers are cheap crap made with shortcuts taken throughout the entire process. I'm hoping this is a quality product as a TG16 pad with a convertor cable is no longer nearly as inexpensive as it was just a few years ago.

Yeah, I have a whole drawer of USB PlayStation knockoff PC gamepads, nothing came close to the originals, but maybe it was my fault for settling at a $19.99 pricepoint when I saw one...

The 8bitdo SNES30 really is the best unlicensed counterfeit I ever bought - the weight, the texture, the concave/convex buttons between top/bottom rows, all match the original SNES pads. Feels weird for the first time to get a console "feel" with my Windows PC box, I can play a game so much better (until my thumb pinched nerves kick up, that is)...

One thing, I did buy a $4 SNES knockoff that let me fix my original SNES pad that broke, the Left side button just stopped working one day, the IC/chip just died as there was no physical damage. So I bought a $4 knockoff from a Chinese seller for parts, soldered out the chip from that and actually fixed my original! Hard to believe that it worked, but I pulled it off.

Anyway, my TurboDuo pad works, I even went to the trouble of soldering an extension wire years ago when I was more active. It's cool to see new pads still being manufactured for others if needed. Definitely would be nice to see maintenance packs with just the rubber/foamy material for the buttons and d-pad to swap it out if control/contact is not as good anymore from wear (I'm sure that's already available, just never looked).

[News / Re: PCEngineFX Change/Update Log]

** December/January 2019 ** (Dating not too accurate, some things done in December)

* I increased the font size of Post/Preview buttons and added a pre/post space charatacter (e.g. " POST ", " PREVIEW ") and also removed Spell Check since it didn't work and your Chrome client browser takes care of that with red underlining. This makes the buttons friendly on a 5-6" smartphone without zooming, so a little convenience.

* "Keith Kursor" was implemented as the default web cursor for a more PCE theme. I figured out how to make it work as a ".cur" file for FireFox even - it required 24-bit true color mode instead of leaving it 256 colors as it was from the raw sprites out of the game, or it would appear garbled.

* Chatbox was defaulted back to "Fast Mode" to reduce server load.

* The ban logs/triggers from the normal ban system were significantly cleaned out from most of Psycho Nintega's garbage... I implemented the newer "Banned" group which is less of a server load, only matters when the account logs in instead, a KEY difference!

The forum should be a little faster because now the SMF PHP code doesn't have to loop through hundreds of IP addresses to compare against *your* IP in the endless sock puppet/alt accounts that he created across 10 years (as well as other members), to decide to allow you to view the board or not (if in ban range). It's a much more efficient ban technique. But yeah, his alt accounts being added with IP range bans kept adding to more comparison operations every IP address that comes here has to be checked against (if that makes sense)... :/

Sidenote: Unfortunately, Psycho Punch & Darkkobold noticed the normal ban system cleanup, and were identified spying/stalking PCEFX again due to Guest mode and were banned yet again (Punch, as Nintega, has 50 IP Ranges, can't be stopped, drives around like a loon for WiFi hotspots perhaps)... This shows that like Creepy Psycho Nintega, you'll never be able to get rid of them...

* If I didn't already mention it, some Guest viewing was enabled to help regrow the forum, keep Google ad flow/revenue, while bandwidth balancing was considered - I banned some spambot IP Ranges to make that work out which seemed OK for months... Up to Aaron if it stays that way in the future.

* Aaron has his own update/announcement to mention going forward for 2019 that should make some of you Nulltard Avengers quite giddy... Not sure of the future of PCEFX, registrations will now freeze and any other upgrade plans are nixed - the unsolicited harassment by John Luedtke (KingDrool/jlued686 AKA The Mad Chatroom Stalker), JoshuaTurboTrollX-16, Tim Favro and certainly thanks to the greatest PCE Community menace/saboteur/destroyer, AtherButt Arkhan, helped lead to this outcome in their bitter, vindictive desire for revenge/sabotage...

Darkkobold and Nulltard tagteam trolling/cornering Aaron on Sarumaru's Facebook post also helped play a role I imagine, with Psycho John Nulltard/Bullity/Spamity/Insanity/Harassity/Doxxity and his DuoDildoDoxPhile gang's crazed PCEFX chatbox harassment being the root cause after all...

[Off-Topic / Re: What do you depise AT THIS MOMENT, literally....]

This is what I get for being a "hot glue cowboy" like thesteve, hot glue blister burn... ;)

I was fixing my fridge, modded it to add 2 more fans to keep the compressor motor from overheating, I soldered the 120V lines very nicely, it was almost a perfect job, but I wanted hot glue on the wire joints before applying black electrical tape, well, the gun spilled a bit of glue on my thumb as I moved it to the wires, should've wore my work gloves but paid the price for being lazy...

I quickly ran to the sink, flushed it in cold water for as much as I could but it got me good, it was too late to avoid a painful burn/blister...

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Third party TG16 pad, has anyone tried it?]

I looked at it, wondered why they defaulted to the TG-16 connector, but then saw the adapter cable from TG-16-to-Duo and thought, "Oh good, smart!"



If it works and feels close to the original, then great. I'm wary of knock-offs though after the experience with SNES pads until I bought an 8bitdo SNES30 which really comes close to the feel of an original pad only with much better features!

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys Project Origins: My 2nd PC Engine CD Import Purchase!]

4K: https://postimg.cc/FYvHVKtd

Ys Blast from the Past: Preserving old PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 receipts as they represent history for a very small group of gamers relative to more successful consoles (e.g NES/SNES/PS1).

Reflections: I shared this receipt in the past but I figured I'd include the original game CD/case as well this time! Found a Turbo Zone Direct flyer also, so I threw that in for good measure!

My purchase represents far more history worth capturing because it IS the reason for my Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys English localization project, it's WHY you can play it in English right now, a dream of mine realized having fallen in love with the Ys series thanks to my TurboDuo purchase from TTi that included Ys Book I & II!!!!

I was VERY hesitant to purchase a Japanese RPG at the time in 1996, I was 21, I didn't game as much as my university studies kicked off, I knew I'd probably get stuck, BUT because of the TurboDuo purchase with Ys Book I & II, and later Ys III: Wanderers from Ys, I knew that I would at least get a legendary soundtrack 100% guaranteed!

The other hesitancy was spending $55 bucks on an import... It was Dracula X that made me do it for the first time ($85 total with shipping), because everybody told me it was excellent, "Castlevania times ten," and even though it's Japanese you'll be able to mostly enjoy it. So Ys IV marked the 2nd time I was willing to buy imports because most of the US games I rented (HuCards-only), owned or didn't interest me, and I wanted to enjoy my TurboDuo for all that it was worth having run out of US options!

Sure enough, I did get stuck in the game as predicted: the white soldier who blocks the door back to the castle you escaped from, and not knowing you had to equip your 1st level armor/sword/shield (the idea being that it's the equipment you stole from that castle when you left, so it makes you "look" like a white soldier but without actual graphical effects)... Sad to say I really gave up, left it on the backburner, and wouldn't beat the game until years later with the help of a guide! But I DID return to it, glad I can say that!

Anyway, that's about it, I may have more thoughts to share some other time, but if you look at the Ys IV ReadMe, I already shared quite a bit of history on all that made the fan localization project possible, so there's more to read there if interested.

Until next time, take it Ysssy!

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: The Official Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys Translation Project (100% English with dubs)!]

PlaceHolder - History Log

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys Localization Project (100% English with dubs)!]

ysutopia.net/projects/ys4/

Presto! It's magic!!! 

Discussion

   Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys English Dub Patch Released!

Downloads

   ysutopia.net/downloads/ys4/ - Everything!
   Ys IV Text Patch v.95 (442 KB)
   Ys IV Dub Patch v1.1 (105 MB)
   Full HTML ReadMe

YouTube Promotionals

Ys IV Dub Trailer on YouTube

Other

   Dracula X Translation Project also by BurntLasagna
   https://ys4.ysutopia.net/
   ysutopia.net/forums/index.php?topic=395


TO DO: WIP

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Is there a Wiki ?]

It's a nice idea, but I wonder for how long it'll be maintained and the Wiki he linked (http://pcedev.wikia.com) didn't go anywhere not unsurprisingly. But yeah, a Wiki with free hosting somewhere where everybody can input information and that is always available would be useful in principle - I hope you're up for the battle to stay motivated to really populate it, Dave.

[Off-Topic / The “What-Did-You-Buy-Today?” Thread]

Sorry Dan, you know I gotta "josh" with you about your Dragon Master alias. ;)

If you wanna blame someone, blame Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and the Star Wars Nerds episode.

Every time I see your alias, it makes me think of "Blackwolf the Dragon Master" (unofficial Wizard of New York) who eats at Burger King, WHERE ALL Dragon Masters dine before heading out to tame the lands, explore, conquer, enjoy the days of high adventure...

[Off-Topic / The “What-Did-You-Buy-Today?” Thread]

Because it had the word Dragon in it?

You get to master playing with your dragon AND spear while admiring:

The boob physics are amazing!  lol

How is such a game not right up your alley, Dan ??

[Off-Topic / The “What-Did-You-Buy-Today?” Thread]

If those Senran games are your thing and you like Golden Axe, check out Dragon Spear on Steam.... 

Sounds like a game...DragonMasterDan would love to play, heh heh.

[Off-Topic / The “What-Did-You-Buy-Today?” Thread]

Hmmmm, so Flare is a Senran Kagura guy, huh ?? 

Somethin' about those guys...make me nervous, I dunno... They're not so "marvelous" if you will...

[General Gaming / Re: The Sega Genesis Challenge Returns!!!]

So you're an agent of FEKA, err, SEGA, huh ??? ;)

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Re: Le TurboDoodle: Xmas]

I've gotta say, I do find the cursor super distracting!

The obvious solution is menu options for such things, but how to integrate one, where to put it ? Then I remembered one of the next upgrades I wanted to tackle was a right-click menu before eventually working on this ugly pink/blue Habboland theme.

Since the default right-click menu sucks anyway, besides back/forward/reload options, a custom PCEFX version would be nice with a PCEFX board link tree, recent posts/unread replies options all there, Inbox, etc. and at the bottom there could be "Cursor Options:" with either Keith, System Default, etc. or any more I might do like with Dracula X's Richter or Valis' Yuko, since you need PCE characters with swords/whips to pull it off. Sorry Bonk, can't make that work...

And voila, problem solved for those that don't like a custom-themed PC Engine cursor.

One protip with the cursor given the button effects I added to links is to move from the bottom to top, that will avoid the back'n'forth flashing that occurs if you move from top to bottom and the link moves down 1px to simulate a button effect, which moves it out of hotspot range, so then the cursor flashes endlessly to arrow/hand modes till you position it better.

Fact is though the "Keith Kursor" is dead accurate, the sword tip nails a hotspot rectangle region at the top/left perfectly when it comes to linked content... With the default arrow/hand combo, the hand has a rounded tip and it moves a bit. I think perhaps you guys would've preferred it to stay in the 32x32 standard range, but Keith is bigger in the 48x48 range.

But anyway, I do want it to be the PCE default, and then have a right-click menu that lets you change it back to the cheap arrow/hand system combo as an eventual solution when I get around to it.

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

Yes, Sam provided some kind of an update recently.

To anyone waiting for the Xanadu translations: Thank you for your patience. After a long and much needed down-time, elmer and I have been making regular and meaningful progress on the dub for weeks now. The project has never been dead, and will never be dead. These things just take time. We hope you'll all be excited to play the translations when they're finished.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: WTB bomberman 93 for PCE]

Hey Eric, thought you were lost to Facebook only dwelling since like 3 years ago ? Good to cya around again.

Good luck finding Bomberman 93, fun little game.

[Off-Topic / Re: What are YOU watching on YouTube.com?]

Good Mortal Kombat find by Byron.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Broken TG-CD need repair]

Yeah, both Keith Courage and thesteve are active and taking repair orders. You can PM them for rates.

Given the burnt electronics smell, I'd recommend Steve more for serious damage like that as he's a fully trained electrical engineer.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Looking for someone to do some repairs and mods]

Wow, he's got a lot of stuff to keep you busy!

thesteve is also available if need be.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: System Card Font Fix]

I'm not familiar with English systems, but AFAIK they also play Japanese games without any problem(or so I've heard), so the Japanese font should be included in the western system cards as well.
So, does it mean that the western system cards included the original Japanese font, but somehow changed the English font for whatever reasons (copyright issues, maybe)?
Edit: Or do you mean that the English fonts in the system cards suck (regardless of region), but it's only less annoying when most of the text are in Japanese?

The PCE/TG-16 System cards all have the S-JIS character set but only up to 0x9872, which covers about half the possible Japanese Kanji representation (JIS Level 1).

See: https://www.ysutopia.net/projects/s-jis/

If you look at the above S-JIS guide I left around when I first started the Xak III project in 2001, you can click on the 0x97-0x98 range to see where it ends.

S-JIS also has English, Greek and Russian characters covered, but in the case of the System card, they're stored in a really ugly 12x12 & 16x16 font as Dave demonstrated below with Exile which used 12x12.

Here's a snapshot ripped directly from a System Card 3 ROM (using fedian) below:

Cmd: "php feidian.php -r 12,12,10,7,0x30998 syscard3.pce S-JIS"

For comparison, here's the even uglier 16x16 font:

Cmd: "php feidian.php -r 16,16,16,15,66048 syscard3.pce S-JIS"

Dave's idea here is simply based on what if you just overwrite those English alphabet tiles in the System Card 3 ROM with a better looking font and boot a game with it ??

Before/After Results:

In the early days, you were limited to emulators, but now you can take an edited ROM file to real NEC hardware using a Turbo Everdrive flashcart which is pretty standard nowadays, and voila, you'll get to play a game with a slightly better font or even other possibilities...

Unfortunately, as you can see, there's only mild improvement, only so much you can do for a fixed-width 12x12 (or 16x16) English font, it'd be more ideal to switch the game over to an 8x12 or 8x16 font, but that would involve extensive hacking work on the ROM of the game itself...

This is a bit of a tangent, the Xak III tangent if you will, but same concept that can be applied to *SOME* PC Engine CDs and HuCards if-and-ONLY-if the font tiles are not compressed as is the case for the System Card ROM! You must find the offset in the data track where the font tiles are and simply overwrite them with other font tile sprites and voila, you can change the font into something better!

Xak III was the perfect candidate because it was ready-to-go with nice English 8x16 font support built-in with no font compression, no expert hackers necessary! Just take tile data from one game, even SNES, and overwrite it at the correct offset(s) and you can accomplish this:

https://www.ysutopia.net/images/xak3/font.html

Lufia [SNES] 8x16	Lagoon [SNES] 8x16	Neutopia [PCE] 8x16

Es magnifique my friend, es magnifique! 

[Off-Topic / Re: TurboViews FB Group orphaned, Chris "TurboViews" Bucci Deactivated Account! WHY?]

Thanks jperry, yeah, I asked Bernie and actually reached out to that co-admin right before he posted that publicly, he said:

Hey Nicolas, Chris is fine. He does this often to refresh himself from social media and focus on himself. He'll be back soon!

What's interesting about that is it orphaned the TurboViews group such that the banner is gone and it looks archived... Bernie said the same thing, he does this once in a while, tunes out of Facebook, to maybe just "get away" from it all... I know the feeling I guess, but I thought the timing was rather strange because he just released a new DVD volume of his show to market/sell, so it could cost him some sales.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Brothers DuoMazov (thebrothersduomazov.com) Domain Expired 6/4/2018 - The End ??]

BUMP

Well, I checked again, thebrothersduomazov.com is indeed still expired and RuninRider is not reachable anywhere via email or Facebook. So you can officially RIP good bye it...

I held off on any more imports because EmeraldRocker felt Runin might be bothered that we are saving some of his reviews here, so I thought I should give it more time till 2019, see if he returns, but it looks like he's still MIA, the site is dead...

If you wanna help me, you can start downloading all articles I don't have here, https://www.pcengine-fx.com/reviews/duomazov/, and give me a ZIP when it's all finished, I could use help like that to know somebody else cares enough.

The process for downloading starts with The WayBack Machine at this link, use Chrome preferably:
https://web.archive.org/web/20171105071508/http://www.thebrothersduomazov.com/

esteban has also agreed to hosting /duomazov/ someday on his www.tg-16.com site, he's known to host alternative PCE content when fans are in need. I asked a few months ago in case there's a problem with Aaron hosting it here, and given Sparky's gloating earlier today that he has been harassing Aaron to sabotage my relations with him going forward in 2019, we may need to keep that option in mind in the future...

That's about all, there's no rush I suppose since all the articles are safe in WayBack, but they're not Google friendly/searchable as nopepper pointed out, you have to know you wanna search for DuoMazov AT the WayBack site it seems. But yeah, I do hope someone can help with this and to help perfect the clean-up of the formatting, it was quite a bit of grunt work for what I already did...


2023 Update:

I happen to notice that someone closed/privated/deleted the DuoMazov Facebook page...
https://www.facebook.com/The-Brothers-Duomazov-577412522283559/
That used to be public, available at all times and doesn't cost a dime in hosting... So why go back and shut it down/scrub it from the Internet ? Guess Runin's not proud of it now ?? Oh well. : (

[Off-Topic / Re: Where would you go to watch a retrogaming stream?]

I would say YouTube has the highest visibility than the others. Even the earliest SmartTV Operating Systems came with a YouTube app, so if want guaranteed views across all platforms, that's the way to go. I sometimes watch GameSack on my TV, more convenient than with my phone. Although it's more a show while their "Playing with Sacks" content is more in line with live streaming and then just publishing it to YouTube when it's over.

[Off-Topic / TurboViews FB Group / Chris "TurboViews" Bucci Restored!]

Originally: TurboViews FB Group orphaned, Chris "TurboViews" Bucci Deactivated Account! WHY?

https://www.facebook.com/groups/65214321555/

Anybody know why Chris Bucci deactivated his Facebook account all of a sudden ??? It seems to have orphaned his Facebook group a bit as the banner image is gone, but all the posts/threads are there and his co-admin... Very strange, I have seen him log in a few times here and some months ago I asked him for permission to include his TurboViews videos here.

I hope it's temporary and nothing bad happened... :/

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Merry Xmas! Giving away a Rondo of Blood Blu-ray (No Strings Attached!)]

Wow, so Rob Nava was legit (I wasn't sure about this raffle), the Christmas raffle prize already arrived! I'm already in love with the BluRay cover artwork!!!

(Used my scanner for these photos below since my PC was booted for medicwheat's problem, and I didn't like the shots from my phone)




PCE Works...for the LOVE of it! 

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: CDRom2 need a few values]

Did you try the search feature already to see if there are screenshots of the PCB ?? Gotta be something lying around somewhere...

[General Gaming / Re: Was given an Xbox 360. What do?]

I was at a GameStop yesterday.

Speaking of GameStop, it's been in the news lately due to an Angry Grrrrr GamerThug about to pull a can of whip ass out for being called "sir..."

"Marthafocker, take it outside and I WILL GIVE YOU A SIR!!!! SAY SIR ONE MORE TIME!!! SAY SIR ONE MORE TIME!!!!!!"

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Merry Xmas! Giving away a Rondo of Blood Blu-ray (No Strings Attached!)]

Thanks, I'll be on the lookout.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Le TurboDoodle: Xmas]

OH! No kidding, Le TurboDoodle is back with a Christmas in New Jersey special!!! I didn't see that one coming!

Bah humbug, it's 2 years old, you tricked us ?? Much nostalgia though, good flashback.

P.S What has happened to this sites cursor!

Keith Courage Turbo-Takeover, he couldn't be stopped! ;)

P. S. I hope that wasn't just a passive-aggressive way to express dislike for it, I mean, I never thought I'd see a cursor creation based on raw PCE sprites before, I quite like it (it's created from a raw sprite dump from the game itself). I was hoping to use Bonk somehow, but obviously for pointer purposes, it's gotta be a character with a sword like Keith, Yuna (from Valis), or a whip like Ritcher (that could work with diagonal adjustments, etc.).

[Off-Topic / Re: What are YOU watching on YouTube.com?]

Why did this weird thing get stuck in my head ?? Somehow they made it work with annoying and catchy parts.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Merry Xmas! Giving away a Rondo of Blood Blu-ray (No Strings Attached!)]

Ah, good, I started to think you bailed...