Messages

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Rondo of Blood PSP dub for PC-Engine.]

That title screen ain't bad at all. Fitting all the data back into the game probably wouldn't be an issue, but I guess there are what you'd call tile limitations in how many unique 8x8 tiles the game can use at a time.

Yea, I didn't change any tiles though.  Just the title logo (which is a sprite).

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Rondo of Blood PSP dub for PC-Engine.]

I'm not sure what kind of RAM/VRAM constraints the title screen is under, but i can tell you the 'Castlevania' logo and the 'Rondo of Blood' subtitle both fit nicely into a 16-color, 176x128 sprite block.  That totals up to 11,284 bytes of data in RAM/VRAM.  Not much at all, really.  In contrast, the original title logo looks like it's 256x80, which comes out to 10,284 bytes in RAM/VRAM.  So the new logo would literally only be 1000 bytes more in RAM/VRAM... hmm.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Rondo of Blood PSP dub for PC-Engine.]

I can definitely see this as the games title, maybe with some minor adjustments (Like NecroPhile said the o in "of" shouldn't be capitalized). It also might look good with the frame around Castlevania removed.

More like this?

fragmare.mindrec.com/dracx_new_title01b.gif

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Rondo of Blood PSP dub for PC-Engine.]

I made a little concept title screen with a subtitle I cooked up.  What do you guys think?

fragmare.mindrec.com/dracx_new_title01.gif

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Rondo of Blood PSP dub for PC-Engine.]

Konami basically did bring it over here bitd, when they presented the SNES version as being the same game and they titled it "Castlevania: Dracula X".

The official name for the game in English is Castlevania: Rondo of Blood because that’s what Konami called it in 2007 for the PSP port, also that’s what it was called for the VC port in 2010 . The PSP/VC ports are also complete ports of the game, not some weird half port like the SNES version.

Case closed.

Amen, trust the Konami! 

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Rondo of Blood PSP dub for PC-Engine.]

Personally, I vote for the title screen showing what Konami *WOULD* have titled the game in the U.S... i.e., 'Castlevania X - Rondo Of Blood' or something similar.  That's just me.  After all, the only reason we call it Dracula X is because the series is known as Akumajou in Japan.  Here, in the US, it's known as Castlevania... so why not call it what's supposed to be called here?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Which announced but unreleased Turbo game are you most disappointed about?]

Way to not steal the board, idiot!

a.) I was 15 at the time.
b.) It was locked onto the Turbo Express itself, which was bolted onto the display.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Which announced but unreleased Turbo game are you most disappointed about?]

I can confirm, for sure, that TV Sports Baseball was finished (or at least nearly finished) for the TG-16.  I was at the '92 Summer CES in McCormick Place in Chicago.  They had TV Sports Baseball running on a Turbo Express at the back of the TTI booth.  I played it for about 10 minutes before moving on to other games at the booth.  It wasn't in TurboChip form yet (it was still on a green PCB sticking out of the back of the TurboExpress).  There were a ton of games I played there that never made it to the states.  They had a big Home Run Derby set up near the front of the booth for World Class Baseball '93.  Their booth was actually more impressive than Sega's... Though Nintendo's booth really took the cake there.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Startling Odyssey 2 translation patch released!]

Is there a comprehensive site out there with all the PC-Engine translation patches to date?  It seems I've missed a lot of these.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: CD-ROM2 memory]

So how do you explain the bit about the Super System Card's memory not adding up? If it's correct, it's quite ambiguous and hard to fathom.

It's not talking about the 8KB of work RAM in the PC-Engine base unit itself.  It's strictly talking about the CD work RAM for loading data directly off the CD (which does indeed add up to 64KB or 256KB for the CD-ROM2 and Super CD-ROM2 respectively).  The 8KB of work RAM in the base unit could potentially be utilized for this purpose, and so could the 64KB of ADPCM RAM for that matter, but that was not their intended purpose.  Please see, ccovell's diagram... it'll give you a pretty good idea of how the whole thing was arranged, in terms of RAM.

Here is a simplified block diagram of the PCE, PCE+CD, and Duo memory arrangement.  The physical arrangement of chips (and chip count) doesn't matter as much as the logical arrangement and how it is accessed.
Let me know if you find any major errors.

You might as well include the 32x6 bytes of truncated RAM used by the PSG sound channels for the sake of being all-inclusive.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Possible Dos game port project]

Never heard of that game before. It looks interesting. But.... I still vote Keen Dreams.

Wow really?  I thought anybody old enough to remember DOS would remember DoTT.  It's the sequel to Maniac Mansion... and it's awesome! 

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: The possibility of repro Instruction Booklets?]

In creating the instruction booklet for Xymati in Photoshop, I pretty much got exact font/spacing/layout of the old TurboGrafx-16 booklets down to a science.  If I had scans of old booklets, I could easily reproduce them in super hi-res form.  Though, getting them commercially might cost a pretty penny...

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Possible Dos game port project]

Woa, I just saw this thread.  Four fucking words... DAY. OF. THE. TENTACLE!   

/dott01.gif
/dott02.gif

A couple of 9-bitified screen shots for obeying minds. 

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: CD-ROM2 memory]

I can't help much concerning the technical specs, but I'd love to contribute to other areas.

The 'Technical Specifications' part of the Wikipedia article is actually correct and factual (albeit probably a bit too verbose).  I edited and corrected that specific portion of the Wikipedia article a few years back and I've been watching it like a hawk ever since (to make sure nobody adds erroneous info).

[PC-FX Discussion / Re: Do you like the PC-FX?]

To be perfectly honest, I will PCE Obey Til My Last Day.  The PC-FX... i really couldn't care less about.  </heresy>

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Whats the largest hucard game?]

8Mbit HuCards
--------------
Quiz Toukou Shashin
Lady Sword
Fire Pro Wrestling 3 - Legend Bout
Bomberman '94
Strip Fighter II
Parodius Da!
Daimakaimura (Ghouls N Ghosts)
Bonk III
Aldynes
1941

6Mbit Hucards
-------------
Super Momotarou Densetsu
Power League '93
Momotarou Densetsu II
F1 Circus '92
Darius Plus
Bubblegum Crash!
Raiden
Power League V
Neutopia II

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Rondo of Blood PSP dub for PC-Engine.]

Hah!  This is great!  I'll help out with the graphics editing, if you need it. 

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xymati]

/xy_title06.gif
/biomoon05.gif

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xymati]

Update: Both PC-Engine and XBLA progress has resumed on this.  Yes, I said PC-Engine.

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

I really like Gunhed/Blazing Lazers.  Love it, in fact.  For coming out so early on in the system's life, it has a very "16-bit" look and feel, as opposed to to a lot of the stuff that was coming out in 87-89 for the PCE.  The only real crit I can find is that the levels can drone on at times, but that's Compile for you.  Pretty much all Compile shmups I can think of are the same way... with that being said, I still love Compile games.  And yes, level 9 is ball-smashingly hard in comparison with levels 1-8.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: PC Engine colour palette for artists]

You know, I never really did get much use out of copying colors from a pre-made palette.  I did it that way for a while, but eventually I found manually typing in the colors I need until I end up with the 15 colors I want for that sprite/tileset is much more effective and efficient.  Rule of 36 FTW  

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: PC Engine as the successor to the NES/Famicom: Where are all the sequels?]

Hells yes. TMNT would have been a great title to see on SCD.

Hell, it would've been fine on a 6 or 8Mbit HuCard for that matter.  There's really not much too the game.  The music sounds like it would translate fairly well to PSG too... at least to my untrained ear.  You could use the PSG's DDA sound output for the various sampled voices ("Cowabunga", "Pizza Time!", etc.)

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

I chose... R-Type.  Maybe some Ninja Spirit too.  I'm Irem-ing it up today. 

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: PC Engine as the successor to the NES/Famicom: Where are all the sequels?]

Not really an NES sequel, per se, but a proper conversion of the original TMNT arcade game by Konami would have been a perfect fit on the PCE, imo.  The graphics are colorful, the PCE's mid-res mode would handle the arcade resolution well, there's not a fuck-ton of parallax that would need faked, and the Turbotap would have been perfect for 4-player co-op.  Here's some pics of what it might of have looked like, in 9-bit glory...

fragmare.mindrec.com/tmnt0003b.png
fragmare.mindrec.com/tmnt0016b.png
fragmare.mindrec.com/tmnt0002b.png
fragmare.mindrec.com/tmnt0000b.png
fragmare.mindrec.com/tmnt_b.png

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: PC Engine as the successor to the NES/Famicom: Where are all the sequels?]

Abadox anyone?   

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Suggest retro arcade games for Arkhan (and others) to create for the PCE]

Demon Attack! 

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Sad state of the PCE entry in Wikipedia]

A couple years ago i totally redid all the Tech Spec info and have been guarding it like a hawk ever since.  I also reworded a lot of the Struggles In North America section so that it was quite a bit more neutral than it was before.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Sound effects]

Do a sound like the Hunter weapon from Thunderforce III/IV 

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Best technical and artistic tricks on the PCE]

I took a look at frag's first image in particular as it looks like it can be done with tiles alone. Looks like it would require 40 tile updates per frame, but split across three or perhaps four individual copies, depending on how much memory you're putting aside for unique pattern combinations. Even HuC can pull this off with ease if planned well enough. Shooters rarely require a ton of copies for sprites, so you can use that saved time to do stuff like this.

The second one looks like it's a palette cycle... but I can't be 100% sure without looking at the individual frames.

The first image is easy to explain.  The very topmost layer is the "normal" non-animated background tiles.  They scroll at 2 pixels per vblank and they have a palette shift applied to some pixels on the edges to make it appear like they're glowing.  The next layer down consists of two 32x16 tile-chunks that repeat vertically and scroll at 1 px/vblank.  The next one down consists of two 24x16 chunks that repeat vertically and scroll at 1 px every 2 vblanks.  the next one is two 16x16 chunks that scroll at 1 px every 4 vblanks.  the deepest layer is two 8x16 chunks that scroll at 1 px every 8 vblanks.  All layers except the very top (normal scroll) layer are made of animated tiles and have the "wiggle" effect built in.  In addition, each of the animated tiles consists of only 4 colors, so they can be "bitplane packed", and the space used in VRAM by them is effectively halved.  As a result, the entire background tile set uses like ~16KB of VRAM space or something like that... pretty minimal for the visual wow-factor generated.

The second image is just a static 64x64 tile chunk that repeats across the screen, has a sine wave applied to it along with a palette cycle.  What I'd *REALLY* like to do with that background, however, is something like the trippy effect from Gaiares lv3 (the hyperspace scene) on the Sega Genesis.  I'm pretty sure one of the bg layers of the hyperspace scene from Gaiares uses a DOUBLE sine wave or something, but I can't be sure until somebody diddles with the ROM in a debugger.  The animated GIF i made just uses a regular sine wave.

For those who've not seen that level of Gaiares, check this link out:

Still, one of the most amazing levels of any 16-bit era shooter, imo...

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Best technical and artistic tricks on the PCE]

Dracula X - Rondo Of Blood is an obvious choice... it's like a tour de force of artistic and clever bg/sprite tricks that make it seem like the system can do things it's not supposed to.

I've always thought the multidirectional software parallax in lv1 and lv2 of Ninja Spirit was both technically and visually impressive.  It's all done with tile animation, but it's so convincing that it's hardware-based parallax, somebody would have to point it out to you in detail to know that it wasn't.

All the games with tons of horizontal interrupt scrolling look great doing it (Coryoon, Air Zonk, Dead Moon, etc.) but it's no great technical feat.  In that same vein, the games that use line scrolling (like SFII' CE's floors) or sine wave effects (like the lv2 boss background in Sinistron) are always crowd pleasers.  All of these effects are essentially acheived the same way; by way of controlling the horizontal interrupt, sometimes on a per-scanline basis.

The "rolling barrell" effect in lv3 of Metamor Jupiter is pretty simple to do but also pretty nice eye candy.  As is the "horizon" effect from Chris Covell's Axelay demo.  They both use the same scanline trick, i believe. 

Also, some of the tricks used in Soldier Blade are pretty impressive.  The overpasses that "parallax" over the city, and the huge tank-like boss that is cleverly comprised of both tiles and sprites.  Not to mention the vertical "metal canyon" that uses faked column-scrolling when the huge crack in the Earth opens up.

The transparency effect in Jackie Chan is also very neat.

The rotating "Gunstar-style" title screen of Chris Covell's Tongueman's Logic is also pretty nice looking.  Makes the average person think, "Woa, the PCE can do THAT?!"

Not to blow my own horn, but I made some pretty neat effects for Xymati that are completely doable on the PCE...

/magma06.gif
/hyperspace03.gif

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What are the top 15 CD games on the system??]

Oh... I have always loved Spriggan.  I bought it imported back in like 92 or 93 and played the hell out of it.  It's my favorite vertical shmup on the system (though Blazing Lazers and Soldier Blade come pretty close) and also my favorite shmup Compile has ever created/assisted with.  It's essentially the PCE CD version of MUSHA or Robo Aleste, though I like better than either of those.

<3 Spriggan
<3 Compile
<3 Naxat

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

As far as the actual gameplay and in-game graphics and sound, i think it's a really good conversion from the arcade.  Could it have been better?  Of course, but not by much.  Though the little cut scene before the game starts with the house and the lightning... the art is so bad on that screen on the TG16 version it hurts my soul.  And the red mask in the TG16 version?  WTF was that all about?

As far as the actual game itself, it's... ehhh... mediocre or slightly above mediocre.  The gameplay is a bit stiff and clunky and, yea, the game can be pretty cheap in spots.  You can make the most faithful and accurate arcade conversion you want, but if the original arcade game is only average, your end product will also be... average.  If you polish a turd, it's still a turd. 

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Darius games PCE vs SNES]

The quick answer?  Don't bother, they all suck.  Seriously, the only Darius games that are worth playing are Darius Gaiden and G-Darius... both things of beauty.  All the others were snore-tastic (arcade, home conversion, or otherwise)

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Biggest lost opportunities for the PCE]

On this same topic, a small processor chip in the 1-2 MHz range for handling the PSG would have been nice.  As it stands, the Hu6280 CPU handles the PSG sound, and it eats up 5-10% of processing time that could be freed up for game code.  Not a huge deal, but still would have been nice.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Biggest lost opportunities for the PCE]

Where do you even BEGIN to list the PCE/TG16's missed opportunities???  There are so many!  As was mentioned previously in this thread, the SuperGrafx in and of itself a was a HUGE missed opportunity.  Maybe not in Japan.  That thing was going to fail there, no matter what.  But if they'd have delayed the US release a few months and released the SGX here in the US with, say, 50+ quality PCE games, the western market (for the most part) wouldn't have even known any better that it was derived from inferior hardware.  Then you'd have a situation where the PCE was still getting plenty of support in Japan and the SGX would have been getting support in the west, similar to the Genesis (assuming NEC America would have marketed the thing properly, which is an awfully big assumption).

With 50+ quality SGX games, yes, it very well could have been a success in America, but where do you get the 50+ million dollars to make such stuff? The weirdly huge success of the Genesis in the US happened with a library that was *heavily* US influenced. The EA sports stuff and MK with a lot of Sonic...and quite a few of the Sonic games were US developed.

Its not really a "missed opourtunity" if it could only happen in a parallel universe, at that point its just a fantasy.

Two things make this impossible 1) where the hell are those 50 games going to come from when even the Japanese only had 6, and they were not even slightly impressive 2) Americans are cheap-asses and the Japanese, especially back then, will buy almost any gadget you throw at them. If they didn't buy the SGX nobody would.

BTW, I am SO glad that never happened. I would have loved to see the TG16 succeed by being what it was, but having it transformed into a sleezy Football/Mortal Kombat machine. Oh lord. Good taste is a hurdle to be leaped, not limboed under!

I wasn't talking about 50+ newly developed SGX games.  I was talking about releasing the SGX in the US with 50+ ALREADY EXISTING PCE games, at launch.  The average US consumer, at the time, wouldn't have known any different that those games were developed in Japan for a slightly inferior system.  All people would have known here is that a system was launching with 50 or even 100 killer games, right out of the gate, and they meant business.  Oh, and BTW, i'm not talking about the ubiquitous bullshit software that trickled into the US market for the first year.  Think about all the Jp HuCards that were released by 1990 that you'd rate at 7+ out of 10.  Consider ALL those games being available at launch in the US.  Now THAT'S a strong system launch.

As for the system being an MK/sports machine, you're missing my point.  If games like MK and Madden had reached the US market, it would have contributed GREATLY to the success of the system in the west, and you'd have seen much better third party support for the system (because it would have been far more popular and had a larger user base).  Perhaps, then you'd have seen more things Contra, Final Fight, Rocket Knight, Gunstar Heroes, etc., not to mention English translations of all the games that never reached US shores, but should have (Dracula X, Gradius, Gradius II, Salamander, SF2' CE...)

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Biggest lost opportunities for the PCE]

Where do you even BEGIN to list the PCE/TG16's missed opportunities???  There are so many!  As was mentioned previously in this thread, the SuperGrafx in and of itself a was a HUGE missed opportunity.  Maybe not in Japan.  That thing was going to fail there, no matter what.  But if they'd have delayed the US release a few months and released the SGX here in the US with, say, 50+ quality PCE games, the western market (for the most part) wouldn't have even known any better that it was derived from inferior hardware.  Then you'd have a situation where the PCE was still getting plenty of support in Japan and the SGX would have been getting support in the west, similar to the Genesis (assuming NEC America would have marketed the thing properly, which is an awfully big assumption).

As for software, the list is basically endless... the PCE never got a Contra game (seriously, Konami?).  A proper conversion of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game would have filled the beat-em-up gap quite nicely.  As would a conversion of the Battle Toads arcade game (it even used one of the PCE's native res modes, 512x224).  Final Fight as a 8 or 12Mbit HuCard would have been pretty faithful, I'd imagine.  Mortal Kombat was originally planned as a PCE *exclusive* but NEC's higher-ups turned it down because they thought the fighting game genre was losing steam (just... lol).  A proper conversion by Irem of R-Type II would have been nice, and completely doable on the PCE.  Black Tiger would also have been dead simple on the PCE using the SAME engine Capcom used for Son Son II (seriously, go play them both back-to-back... they're essentially the same game).  And, yea, the platformer library on the PCE was seriously lacking.  Also, not that I'm a huge sports game fan or anything, but some greater support by EA would have done wonders for the western market.  They finally threw TTI a bone in '93 when they made Madden Duo Football or whatever it was (it was essentially a CD-ROM version of Madden '93), but by then it was too little, too late.

Then there are the quality Jp region games that never made it to the states.  That list is quite long as well.  Rondo of Blood, Gradius I/II, Salamander, Spriggan, Kaze Kiri, SFII' CE.  It goes on and on...

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What system looks the best??]

None of the above.  I pick the SuperGrafx... it's so ugly, it's beautiful.  It looks like NEC consulted HR Giger for the case design.  lol

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Greatest HuCard of all time - Poll]

All this talk about SF2:CE PCE makes me want to revive this project.  I completed all the graphical touch-ups, but nothing ever really got completed.   

https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=7056.msg118845#msg118845

At least this much did-

http://pcedev.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/sf2-work/

WOA!  That's my bg edit, alright... Tom must've started doing something with it.  O_O

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Greatest HuCard of all time - Poll]

All this talk about SF2:CE PCE makes me want to revive this project.  I completed all the graphical touch-ups, but nothing ever really got completed.   

https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=7056.msg118845#msg118845

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Greatest HuCard of all time - Poll]

Okay, I did a little more number crunching and I can say that unequivocally, absolutely, and without question there's NO way to fit all the SFII' CE data into 2Mbit (256KB) of RAM, even if you used the 64KB of ADPCM RAM for more data.  Take a look at the sprite rip of Chun Li below from the Genesis SFII:SCE.



I count 96 unique character frames.  So (96 frames x ~2KB per frame) x 2 characters = ~384KB.  Also consider this may or may not be a complete sprite rip, so if there are additional frames not in the sprite sheet, that adds more to the total.

Then I looked at the backgrounds from SFII' CE and they seem to use anywhere from 800-1000 unique 8x8 tiles.  Each 8x8 tile uses 32 bytes of RAM/ROM, so that means each background image uses roughly 24KB - 32KB of space.

So we're already up to ~416KB... Add in another ~8KB for misc. background sprites, another ~16KB for music/sound effects code, and sampled voices, and a possible ~32KB for game code and we arrive at ~472KB... WAYYYY more than would fit in the Super CD-ROM systems RAM.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Greatest HuCard of all time - Poll]

Yeah, I see what you are saying. I was looking at it from even if each sprite was 1meg each, the system with SCD card + console ram is 2.5meg.

The Super CD-ROM system used 2.0Mbit (256KB) of RAM, not 2.5Mbit.  There was 64KB built into the unit and the Super System Card added another 192KB.  In a Duo, the 64KB and 192KB were both simply just built onto the system board.

It really doesn't matter how you divide up the way you believe the HuCard allocated the data.  It doesn't change the fact that each full character animation set used around 1Mbit (128KB) at a MINIMUM.  I'm looking at this from a PCE pixel artist perspective... if someone told me to try to fit two SF2 characters into 256KB of RAM and still have room for code, backgrounds, and voices, I'd tell them they basically have three options: 1.) Compress the graphical data and suffer slowdown, 2.) Drop some animation frames and suffer choppy animation, or 3.) Fuck right off.  There's just no way all that data is getting crammed into 2Mbit of RAM.   

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Greatest HuCard of all time - Poll]

Where the hell are SF2:CE and Nectaris/Military Madness?!  Better question... where the hell is Ninja Spirit?!?!?!  In lieu of those, I voted Devil's Crush.  The music is amazing, and the replay value is better than anything else on this list, except for maybe Bomberman 93/04 in Battle mode.

I'd also like to point out that many of the enemies in WoT/LoT use "ball n' chain" sprite mechanics, which require next to no animation frames stored in RAM/VRAM.  All you need is a body, a head, and a somewhat circular sprite you can chain together to form the "neck".  The actual animation of said enemy is just executed in code by moving around those three sprites.  Simple but effective... elegant, really.  Dracula X, on the other hand, is a marvel... there are so many animated frames, it's ridiculous.  Then again, it accesses the CD quite frequently.

I'll be pretty honest here and just say fitting two SF2:CE characters, the background tiles, voices, and code into 2Mbit (256KB) of RAM (at least without sacrificing animation frames) is pretty impossible.  Have you ever gone through and looked at all the SF2 characters' frames?  There are a LOT.  Consider that each 16x16 sprite uses 128 bytes of RAM/ROM.  Each SF2 character frame is comprised of ~16 of those sprites (give or take, depending on the particular animation frame).  That's 2KB.  Let's say each SF2 character has 64 unique animation frames (a pretty conservative estimate).  That's 128KB.  Double that, since there are two characters on-screen, and that's your 2Mbit (256KB) of RAM used up in character animation ALONE... that's not even counting background tiles and code.  Perhaps if the Super System Card was 3 or 4Mbit, they could have pulled this off... but as it was, HuCard was the obvious choice for mass appeal without sacrificing the game's integrity.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Graphics remapping techniques?]

Chris,
The best method I've found for remapping a 24-bit image into dithered 9-bit color is one you've already discovered how to attain the end results of, but my method might be a bit simpler.  Here's what I do in Photoshop...

-First, take the image into photoshop (duh)
-Then posterize using 8 levels (9-bit color)
-Reduce that image to indexed color using 'palette: exact' and 'dither: none'
-Then go back in the history or simply 'undo' until you're back at the original 24-bit image
-Now posterize using 15 levels (this gives you 12-bit color, which is 4-bits per RGB color channel.  This allows for exactly TWICE the number of colors per channel as the PCE could generate)
-Then index that image once again, but this time use 'palette: previous' and 'dither: pattern'

Voila!  Then what i normally do is use tilepile.exe to break the image down into 8x8 tiles and then batch convert them to 15+1 colors in Photoshop.  The difficult part is palette mapping the image to 16 total background palettes.  Tom found a couple programs that do this.  The one with the best results seemed to be a program called NitroCharacter from the DS devkit, but it's licensed software only or something.  :/

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Sonic the Hedgehog, a question for coders]

Kind of off topic, yet on topic too... if anybody plans on doing anything else with this demo, or another Sonic demo entirely, I made this quite a long time ago...

It's basically a custom sprite set for Sonic.  I started out ripping the frames from Sonic CD, but ended up using everything from Sonic, Sonic CD, Sonic 2 and even Sonic 2 beta version.  I also did quite a bit of tweaking and color editing in order to get the ultimate Sonic sprite sheet.  I didn't use Sonic 3 simply because I've never been a fan of how that version of Sonic looked.

Anyway, if someone ever makes another PCE Sonic demo, this might come in handy. 

[Fighting Street / Re: Favourite fucking position...]

Doggy style all the way... rough and hard.  I'm talking pulling her hair, grabbing her shoulders, smacking her ass, grabbing her hips so her knees don't even touch the bed any more and bruising some cervix.   

I only like girl on top if the girl knows wtf she's doing... i've been with girls before where they got on top and i've actually leaned over and looked at the clock to see how long that boring shit has been going on.  I like a girl on top who bounces up and down... not that back and forth grinding crap.  probably feels great for them, but i'm not into it.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xymati]

I was curious.  You mentioned that the XBL version will be just like it was on the Turbo, is that going to include sprite count, bg layers, etc?  Just something that was running thru my mind.

Yep... sprite count, bg layer, color palettes, resolution, everything.  The only thing I can foresee being different is how the sound effects will sound (obviously) due to the sound hardware being radically different.

Does that mean that there hasn't been any programer since the beginning?

No, Bt started off programming the game(s) but moved on to other things.  I kept drawing graphics in the hopes that someone would pick up the banner, but that has not happened as of yet.  A couple of programmers expressed interest, but nothing has been done on the PCE end yet at this point.  Then Bt recently emailed me to say he wants to start programming the games again, but this time for XNA.  As for the PCE ports of Xymati (and PC-Gunjiin), I guess it'll happen when the PCE dev scene gets its collective head out of its ass and someone can actually finish a project they start.  It's irritating to see people try to juggle about 8 million little demo projects and never finish any of them, and see so many abandoned projects strewn throughout the PCE dev landscape like rotting corpses on a battlefield.  I'd rather have a finished game on some platform or another than keep waiting around on a PCE programmer to show enough dedication to maybe one day do something for the PCE.  You know what they say, you can wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which fills up faster...

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Some PCE logos in large PNG form for PC-Engine devs making manual/traycard art]

http://fragmare.mindrec.com/various_pce_logos.zip

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: PCE-volution Poster Have Been Ordered! Should be Available week of 10/3]

One of these days, I want to get an "upright vacuum" setup (SuperGrafX + Jp SCD2) with a duo tap, two NEC Ave 6-button pads, an Arcade Card, and a PCE flash HuCard... my life would be complete.  :p

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: PC Engine Screen-shot quiz]

That crap D&D game for the TG16?  lol  :p

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xymati]

I have a sneaking suspicion that, unfortunately, a Turbo port may never happen now.

Eh, I think it will... It just depends on *which* PCE programmer wants to do it and when.  Arkhan has expressed interest in it, after the Retrocade project is complete.  Tom has taken a couple steps in that direction as well.  Like I said, I'd rather have it released somewhere on SOMETHING, rather than risk having all the artwork i've drawn (not to mention all the music that Nate of Vodkatron has composed) go to waste.  If i could program HuC6280 ASM, I'd have already started... but i can't so I'm reliant on others to actually code the game.  If i didn't firmly believe there would eventually be a PCE release, I'd simply start drawing the graphics without PCE restrictions and touch up the old graphics.  But I do believe a PCE programmer will step up and code the game at some point... it's just a question of who and when...