10/31/2023: Localization News - Dead of the Brain 1!

No, NOT a trick, a Halloween treat! Presenting the Dead of the Brain 1 English patch by David Shadoff for the DEAD last official PC Engine CD game published by NEC before exiting the console biz in 1999! I helped edit/betatest and it's also a game I actually finished in 2023, yaaay! Shubibiman also did a French localization. github.com/dshadoff/DeadoftheBrain
twitter.com/NightWolve/PCENews
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Messages - gilbert

#1
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?

I think for whatever reasons, the English font in Japanese system card 3.0 is a bit different from those in 1.x as well (don't know when it was changed, either from v1 -> v2, or v2 -> v3), as the screenshots in game manuals of non-super CD games usually show letters that are a bit different from playing the game with system 3.0.
Edit: If Wikipedia is to be trusted, the 12x12 and 16x16 fonts were changed in Super System Card(i.e. since v3) to add more symbols and enhance readibility. Maybe for unknown reasons the western system card v3 still uses the old fonts?
#2
Porting from the NES/Famicom to PCE is relatively "easy" because, as mentioned, the PCE's CPU is almost identical to the Famicom, so a lot of the codes just run with little to no modification, but then there are still tweaks here and there to make stuff work due to hardware differences, etc.

Porting something from the SMS to the PCE, however, would only be harder, as these two systems use completely different CPU architecture (apart from other differences). That means a lot of work has to be done, in a game-by-game basis. It could help if there are source codes of the game in question (possibly from a disassembly, which does exist for this particular game it seems). With this some experienced coders may translate the source from Z80 assembly to 65(C)02 assembly(or reprogramme the whole thing completely, using the source codes as a reference), but that would still be A LOT of work (automated conversion tools may exist, but I expect a lot of fixes still has to be applied afterwards). So this definite is possible (as there shouldn't be anything in the game that the PCE cannot do), but it depends on whether there are people with that much skill, time and interest to do so, similar to how SMB was ported to the Mega Drive using the game's source code obtained from disassembly.
#3
Actually you see more than that, during the vertically panning full body scene just before the pic you mentioned.
However, after checking I found that she's not wearing her pants in the English version either:
(skip to around 14:30)

So it's possibly just my memory being bad, as the scene was not changed, though for some reasons I did remember seeing that scene with her pants on.
Not sure, but maybe it's the Mega CD version.
#4
Quote from: dshadoff on 11/27/2018, 10:29 PMFor Cosmic Fantasy, they also undid the censorship on graphics. I think all it was, was Babette flipping the bird to the computer, but I wasn't sure whether the shower scene was also affected. They said difficulty and gold had been adjusted, but to be honest, I didn't notice.  (Of course, I hadn't played it in like 15 or 20 years).
Don't know about the patch, but there is at least another subtly censored scene that I know of (but seems that no one talks about, or they just didn't notice) in the English version.
During the cutscene where Van/Ban fist met the captured and tied up Rim/Lim/Babette, Rim was actually not wearing any pants in the original Japanese version. She was given back her usual (hot) pants in the English release.
#5
Off-Topic / Re: Famicom Collection.
07/25/2018, 09:45 PM
Fantasy Zone! More faithful to the arcade version than the SMS version(to be fair the SMS version was developed concurrently with the arcade version and it's never supposed to be a perfect conversion) and MUCH better music than the PCE version(which was a shame, as the PCE version did every other thing right, but music being a high point of the game, there was no excuse in making them sound like crap). And this was the first game I got with the system.

Quote from: NightWolve on 07/22/2018, 02:46 PMSo, I'm afraid I can't relate to your lust for Japanese Famicom carts. ;) Most of the good stuff Nintendo localized and I probably beat it thanks to rental mania back then. The NES and SNES were fantastic, well-supported systems and it was a privilege to grow up with them.
I don't agree with this though. In here(Hong Kong) BITD the NES failed completely. One main reason was that the game library of the NES sucked(bad localisations with censorship and other changes, lack of RPGs and Koei strategy games), and as we live in a PAL territory the PAL game library sucked even more. As we have a very free market people are used to having imports, so the imported Japanese Famicoms triumphed the officially released NES in every single way. Another reason was the removal of the expansion audio pin on the cartridge port(actually moved to the unused expansion port), making a number of games sound inferior on the NES and the inability to use the FDS(which was VERY popular here, for many "reasons") fully without jumping through hoops on the NES.
Though it wasn't really common to have TV sets compatible with both PAL and NTSC in the 80's(and early 90's), some people here just had their Famicoms (poorly) modded to output to PAL(which someone claimed might even damage the TVs after a while, among other compatibily issues) or, for more serious gamers, just bought a NTSC monitor(which many people already had, as Apple ][ clones were very popular here) and had their Famicoms modded to output to AV.

That Nintendo eventually produced a Hong Kong edition of the Famicom(supposed to have better compatibility with Japanese carts and output to PAL) late in the console's life should be an indication.

I think the SFC/SNES situation was similar, but less severe(I'm not really sure as I didn't care anymore, since the PCE was the last console I owned). The lack of any DQ games and the mess with the FF games on the SNES were good enough reasons to have the Japanese system instead.
#6
That with PCECP closing is a bad news(as mentioned the Brothers Duomazov pages are at least archived), as it was only half-broken (search function was not working but there were ways to read the entries) and now we couldn't even access any of its pages.
#7
Just my wild guess, though this is quite probably (one of) the main reason, that due to the failure of the TG16 in the overseas market there was no hope in exporting the game, so Konami just made a quick version of the game on a system marketable to other regions by reusing assets (just like how they ported Snatcher to Sega CD in foreign market instead of releasing the original game).

Super Valis is another similar example.
#8
Quote from: esteban on 04/24/2018, 05:01 PMMcDonald's fries are yummy.
Here, they (used to be) depended on the branches, the fries in some branches were okay, but otherwise, meh.

Because of the gutter oil incidents in recent years they changed their oil to some "safe alternative" and then their fries taste horrible, regardless of branches. At least they're more consistent in quality now.  :roll:
#9
Quote from: SignOfZeta on 04/16/2018, 09:50 AMNo self respecting 1980s adult Japanese would leave his Famicom cords strewn through his main room 24/7.
Not to mention that Famicom controllers are hardwired (unless you mod the console or plug an extra controller in the expansion slot, but those controllers aren't well known to have long cords either) so you are stuck with such short cables, but no one complained back in the good old days.
#10
Considering the track record of NEC Avenue, who got loads of licenses and having a number of them delayed for a long time (Strider, Monster Maker I, Madou Monogatari 1), some of which eventually canceled (Might & Magic II, Monster Maker II, Madou Monogatari 2 & 3, Space Fantasy Zone) it's a miracle this game eventually got released (it was featured in the "in development" section of game magazines alongside Strider, Madou Monogatari 1 and Space Fantasy Zone for a long, long time).

At least it still looks good compared to the arcade original and not that bad in gameplay, and most people found it a better effort than Strider, and it's not even an Arcade Card game (I think if they made a last minute decision to change it to using the Arcade Card, just like Strider, it may at least be possible to have all of each stage's assets loaded in one go and have CDDA BGM played throughout, without the need in streaming data, which was proven not very effective in the old, old Altered Beast), though that might make the game less accessible and could meet with much lower sales as few people would dare to buy the Arcade Card because of this game (but they did this with Strider, which I think people would not buy the upgrade for that particular game either).
#11
I think it's the mid-res, i.e. 300-something horizontal pixel mode, though most people just call it 320 pixel mode (including the developers) probably because of its connection to PC resolutions.

There are some drawbacks in using this mode though, as NEC has imposed a limitation that at most 14 sprites can be placed in each line(as opposed to 16). Whether most of the games using this mode tried to stick to this limitation is unknown, but Hudson Soft certainly got a slap in the face by breaking this limitation without knowing when making R-Type and got a "One time only. Don't do this again!" warning from NEC. Irem probably made some changes to make the game stick to the limitation when making the Complete CD version (possibly already done in the western card release though).
#12
The player's ship looks like the one in Hellfire, but it's definitely not this game, not even rotating the picture by 90 degrees.
#13
And if you haven't already known yet (and if it's not mentioned in any of the linked video, which I obviously didn't watch). The show America's Funniest Home Video was inspired by some segments of the Kato & Ken variety show. If you read (or pause) fast enough at the end of each episode of AFV there is actually an acknowledge about this, even to this day, after the show has been on air for decades and most people still don't know(or care) about its origin.
#14
As I mentioned, both games were made by the same people and published by the same company. They're actually more similar in style than Cyber Core too, as they're more anime-inspired and had anime cutscenes (though this could attribute to the media used, and the direction of most games published by Telenet Japan). The similarities stop here. It's not something serious, and whether the developers intended them to be related is unknown (unlike the cases of Spriggan and the Thunder games), as in the case with Cyber Core and Psychic Storm, where I see no definite sign of the intention of the developers on whether they are related.
#15
By spiritual successor as I mentioned before I meant like the two Spriggan games (and the two "Thunder" games, but here they're more similar), as they're both shooters developed by the same people (though it doesn't say much as Alfa System was involved in probably >50% of the PCE CD library) and published by the same company.

In Spriggan's and  "Thunder's" cases the latter games were obviously intended as successors to the previous installments from their names, even though in Spriggan's case the two games were so different (same thing in the two Alfa system shooters). If you must argue the games have to be similar, there are many Compile "Aleste/Zanic" shooters on the PCE that are more similar to the first Spriggan game than Spriggan Mk.2. (And in Gate of Thunder's case it can even said to be a spinoff from the Thunder Force series as it was developed by some ex-Technosoft members who previously worked on the Thunder Force games.)
#16
For a "screenshot" Iwasaki actually had a follow-up article on it, which included a tiny and blurry b/w photo.

Also that was taken in a computer show in May of 1987, which a number of people bitd had memory of seeing it but couldn't remember any detail. To be precise, that was used to show the powess of CD-ROM gaming, 1.5 years before the release of the CDROM system, and a few months even before the PCE itself was released. As Iwasaki pointed out, the development of the CDROM system had just started, so that game was probably just the original prototype with CDDA music stuffed in as a concept demo. When the PCE and later the real CD system came out the demo game was completely forgotten and no one talked about it anymore.

Edit:
About where that rumour came from, according to the citation of the Wikipedia page, it was actually mentioned in a tweet by Sakurada Meijin, who was one of the numerous "Famicom game experts" hired by Hudson, not unlike Takahashi Mejin/Master Higgins, who said that the game was completed but canned for unknown reasons. As Iwasaki was a programming director in Hudson and he tried to ask his old colleagues for info as much as possible Iwasaki's version of the story (that it was just a demo game on a prototype system, rather than a fully completed one on a released system) should be more believable.
#17
Those shooters using evolution as a concept could be attributed to Data East's 'Darwin' meta-series of games (which included the arcade games Darwin 4078, SRD, Act-fancer and the MD game Darwin 4081) though, so one may argue they're following the concept of these Darwin games.

That said, it was rumoured that Hudson ported Darwin 4078 to the PCE but the game was unreleased (Hudson had already ported the game to the MSX), which was even mentioned on Wikipedia. A more believable version is that Hudson did make a test game for the prototype of the PCE as a demonstration of the chip's ability in displaying large and numerous sprites. How complete this version is unknown, but it was probably never intended to be released and since Hudson switched partner during development of the chipsets the game probably won't run without major rewrites on a real PCE.

IMO Kaidan 00 is more like a spirtual successor to Phychic Storm, as they're both developed by Alfa System and published by Telenet Japan (though via their two different brands, Lasersoft and Riot, and that PS was vertical whereas K00 was horizontal, but that's like how the two Spriggan games differed).
#18
Yeah, Geise got it. It's Yaksa, the PCE spinoff, rather than the PC original.
Well, by "sucks" I did mean the picture and the game itself.  :derpcat:
I haven't used my tablets for a long time and I just realised it didn't work after upgrading to Win10 (could move cursor with stylus but couldn't left click, possibly need some tweaking of the settings or updating the drivers) and I didn't spend much time on it.
It's almost universally agreed upon that the game sucks, though. It has a lot of awesome ideas(and good screenshots too), which are great on paper but horrible on execution.
#19
IMG
Yes. It sucks.
#20
Quote from: CrackTiger on 03/25/2018, 10:30 PMI searched all over and couldn't find a screenshot, so I just looked at a youtube video. :P
Actually searching for "willow video game" gave me the answer immediately (searching just "willow" will give you more images form the movie than needed) and I could confirm it just by looking at a thumbnail.
#21
Willow

I original thought it was Dracula X, but the player didn't match, and I narrowed it to either Legend of Hero Toma or Willow, googling Willow gave me an screenshot which was a exact match, so, GREAT work!
#22
Quote from: TurboXray on 03/20/2018, 12:02 PMThat's pretty cool!
Actually Iwasaki's blog is a treasure of PCE development history, as he was a programming director in Hudson, involved with many CD projects, if you can read Japanese that is (I can read 60-70% of Japanese myself, the more Kanji the better), but web translation can help I think.

I don't know where he first started mentioning and explaining about IV, as I haven't read his enormous pile of articles yet, but it's mentioned many times in various places, that IV was extensively used (especially in CD games) and assembly codings were minimal. For example, he mentioned here about the assignment of programmers in a project, that starting from Far East of Eden II, they had one IV programmer writing IV scripts on a single state of the game (anyone played the game knew that it;s separated into various states/countries that you could travel around) so they probably had much more IV script writers than assembly coders.
#23
Someone should make a Hitler rant video about the inflation of the retro video game market, if it's not done already.  :stoned:
#24
Hudson itself used an scripting language called IV in their PCE games, which was used extensively in especially games that speed is not the most concerned, like adventure games or RPGs (first or third party ones, doesn't matter, as it's in their official development kit AFAIK). With this they could easily design game events and data structures without using much assembly, just by using a parser/interpreter engine while executed. Without this, HUGE games such as Far East of Eden II simply couldn't be made.

I don't know whether they used IV in their Famicom (or even Super Famicom) games but it is a possibility, as they only need to have written parser engines on different systems so as to (re)use data formated similarly, especially most of the official development tools on the PCE were cross-platform supporting both Famicom and PCE (internal ones used by Hudson at least, the tools they provided 3rd party developers had the Famicom support removed so as not to confuse them).
#25
Plugging in a Save-kun (which is the same thing as MB128; it was named differently just because it was sold by Koei) won't give you typical backup RAM function though. You could only save with games supporting(or requiring) the MB128, so if the PAC didn't have built-in backup RAM (which it did have) you're screwed up, unable to save in most of the games(and a large portion of the PCE library are RPGs).

As for SG support, IMO they should instead include SG support in the original DUO already, as it was meant to be the ultimate all-in-one system (and signified the death of the core concept as they eventually decided that you didn't need the expansion slot to connect to any other things). They just gave up the SG completely really early, long before even someone would consider making a CD game with SG support.
#26
Well. That's odd. Maybe the word is considered offensive in the west (and to Asians living in the west). For Asians living in, errr...  Asia we don't really care (or, probably, don't know about any implications).
#27
Quote from: guest on 02/09/2018, 11:45 AMHey, "oriental" is a bad word now? That's new to me.
I never know this either. Does this mean many brand names, such as certain hotel names, are offensive now?
#28
I'm not sure but I think the HuCard slot might not have enough pins for it, otherwise people would manage to attach a CD unit to the Shuttle first (unless this was done already).
#29
Quote from: guest on 02/06/2018, 12:47 PMSo would you consider PCECP or PCEdaisakusen the better source of game titles?
I've actually completely forgotten about PCE Daisakusen even though it's in my bookmark.
And I may know why now. This is their page for the same game, which contains very few information, in particular, no cover scan or screenshot. Possibly no contributer has them.
As far as I remember, though data may be sparse, (nearly?) all the entries have cover scans and screenshots (though quality may not be good) in PCECP, plus it had a comprehensive search system... until it was broken that is...

Anyway, back to topic! Too bad I wouldn't get the Super SD System 3, as I only own a PCE Duo.
#30
Yeah. The search no longer works, but you can still click the tiny PCE or PC-FX icons on the two top corners to get the lists of games for the respective systems.
#31
CD Mahjong is also a relatively good game (as long as you can play mahjong that is), considering it is a clone of the Super Real Mahjong games, and that the artist later worked on True Love Story (very obvious).

Also, hilarious voice actings.
#32
I'm not familiar with Shape Shifter, but according to its credits two people and two companies were responsible for its soundtracks. As they're not listed as composers, it's not clear whether the two people composed all the music tracks in the game, and what role those two companies play(whatever the word "soundtracks" means). Maybe these companies just provided equipments and studio, etc. Maybe some of the tracks in the game were acquired from a library provided by them, thus it would not be impossible for these tracks to be (re)used by other media.

On the other hand, it's possible that some games themselves use pieces of music in the public domain(Loom is a classical(pun) example) or sometimes just license tracks from other media. One relevant example here is Might & Magic (I) for the PCE. In one of their magazine ads it was claimed that the game contained music from Joe Hisaishi, and then NEC Avenue received some complaints on false claims. In fact, the game used in its cutscenes 3 tracks from a documentary called The Universe Within which Hisaishi composed for, and that the soundtrack CDs were published by... none other than NEC Avenue itself. They later added fine prints clarifying this in their ads.

It is also not unheard of, when a composer reuse their own music in different media.
#33
Pop'n Magic?

Or Parasol Star.
#34
Quote from: PapaSmurf on 01/28/2018, 01:21 PMIt was a Capcom game, so it had to be good, right?  Nope. 
...
The game is repetitive and boring.  I clearly remember saying, many times, "didn't I just kill this thing in the last level."  And "this spinny circle thing again???"
Capcom was actually known for many repetitive games though, such as Exed Exes and 1942. Even the much improved 1943 and 1943 Kai weren't offering much variations either. (I think the 19xx series got more variations much later, when they decided to ditch all the realistic overtones.) At least SideArms offered more variations in the settings(a lot of weapon options, vertically scrolling stages, shooting at either sides, etc.), and mecha combination! Though Nichibutsu games offered more crazy combinations.

I'm a bit biased though, as having nostalgic memories playing a lot the arcade version(and not so well, couldn't even get past the second stage) and the LOADS of Anime plagiarismsreferences in it certainly helped (that Akiman being part of the graphics team could be a reason), which people not getting into ANIME in that era might not understand.

The PCE version (actually the CD "Special" version, which is the only version I own) does have a number of features compromised, such as having to pause when changing weapons, no backgrounds in some of the boss fights(those wheels, actually) and (obviously) lack of 2-player mode, but it's still a mostly accurate port, which was as close as you could get for console conversions at that time (I think all the artworks were lifted directly from the arcade version, so they're just pixel perfect). Many of the changes are minor at best, if you accept them. The need to pause when changing weapons actually makes the game easier and the lack of 2-player mode isn't that seriously a downgrade, as you'd like to keep your mecha combined at all time anyway (I think it's actually a design flaw to leave one of the players almost useless in the combined state, but not being able to play with the beta robot is certainly missed, and that you couldn't have beta-alpha combination, which some people claimed was a more powerful form in the arcade version). At least I could beat this version (but not the Before Christ mode, which I personally think is a trainwreck for changing almost everything to make the game nearly unplayable, but it's just free stuff so I couldn't complain) so I love this version even more. (And yeah, even though I don't own the Hucard version, I think the new stage one tune is nice, though why they decided to add this was a mystery.)
#35
It's sad to see a counterfeit reproduction could get this far, when I could have gotten an original sealed copy at the original price but I turned down the offer. ](*,)

I still regret this decision, even though 20 years had passed.  :cry:
#36
Quote from: guest on 01/01/2018, 11:37 AMI don't think we played the same game.
Probably not, as I'd only play the Japanese version, though the difference could be minimal given that they probably spent minimal effort in localisation, and obviously the vocal song in the ending would be replaced by an instrumental one in the US version.

QuoteI can't remember a single song being good except the beach song. Everything else was poor. They didn't even include the classic monster land final castle theme!! If tatsujin wasn't on the Facebook groups he'd be telling us all how the "great nick wood composed a masterpiece"
It's just personally taste, and I couldn't really get into the tinny sounds of the FM synth of the MD. Whether the musics are poor is quite subjective. And for the classic tracks, since I'm not familiar with the Wonderboy games I'm not sure how great they could be. The reason for changing (some of?) these music is obvious though, as the PCE version is not a Wonderboy game they probably wanted to strip as much references out as possible.

QuoteAll the bosses looked weird and out of place. And if Paranoia is correct then missing a boss is a big deal. The final boss was also neutered since the buzzsaw was removed.
Again this is more personal taste, and for the buzzsaw thing, it's misblamed, since the PCE version is a port of the original Japanese MD version, which doesn't have it. Personally I prefer easily beatable games to too challenging ones, so it's a blessing (to me) to have the game follow the easier version. I'm not sure whether the PCE version is missing a boss though as I couldn't remember.

QuoteThis wasn't just simple parallax. The snowy and underwater levels looked absolutely stunning. I was appalled when I tried the pce port, these beautiful scenes looked so flat and empty.
Maybe my memory is hazy, but as far as I remember they're not that special, at least not technically groundbreaking, so I don't miss them much (though it can be more due to personal prejudice; isn't this more the purpose of this thread?) but indeed Alfa System was lazy here, doubtlessly. Anyway, to each his own.

QuoteA vocal ending? Eh. I think we are reaching for straws here.
Yes. At least in the version I played.

QuoteIs dynastic hero a bad game? No it's fantastic. But there's practically no reason to play it over the original unless you're curious about the differences.
There is a reason if you only have a PCE, not a MD, like me. But yeah, I played both just for comparisons, and I still choose the PCE version over the original, though probably more due to personal bias.
#37
About Dynastic Hero, I never owned the games but I've played them back-to-back before, which I personally prefer the PCE version massively much to the MD version.

Neither of them were bad and of course the MD version was the original, but I found the PCE version heavily improved in the graphical and audio departments (okay not as heavily in the graphical side).

I like the red book tracks more than the FM tunes and the new boss designs are more interesting(those in the MD version are "standard" Wonder Boy stuff). Also, the additional animated opening and ending (together with the vocal ending theme) are the main reasons to go for the PCE version.

I think the fairy/whatever companions are more varied in their ability too, whereas in the MD version they are more or less the same.

Personally I found the missing parallax scrolling not so important here, as it's not really ground-breaking but of course it'd be nice to have some of these included.

The major let-down of the PCE version, though, is that there is no visual indication of the equipments on your character (I think only the weapon is changed, another game suffering from this is Princess Minerva, that in the original PC version the equipments of the characters are reflected in the walking characters on the field and in combat). It may be due to hardware difference that the PCE is more powerful in displaying larger sprites whereas the MD being more capable in displaying a large number of small sprites, thus there are more games with overlapping sprites (and more games with segmented bosses, and "oddities" like Ernest Evans), though I think it's more due to the laziness of the developers.
#38
For the missing tracks in Ys, it's probably a space issue.
Even though the media was considered incredibly huge back at the day, CDDA ate up a VERY large portion of the disc, and that in the original Red Book specification, a disc could only hold up to 74 minutes of audio, and according to Yellow Book, only up to 60 minutes(or, around 540MB) of data. Also, disc mastering wasn't reliable at the time, when a disc hit the 70-minute line and Ys was already close to the limit. Nowadays CD-R(OM)s could reliably hold 700MB+ of data, but it's not the case at the time.

The development team had worked very hard in calculating space usage, especially in the audio apartment, that each music track should be either CDDA, chip tune, ADPCM(and there were cut-scene tracks), how long each track should be, and some of the tracks had to be outright omitted. Even the boss theme of Ys II had to be dropped, which they regretted, that if they could put 2 more minutes into the disc they wouldn't make this omission.
#39
While "run" has its frequent usage in English (like "run a business", as the numerous examples you provided) I think it's less common for a Japanese/Asian consumer to come across it in non-computer terms though, back in the late 80's, where home computers were not as common. For them(me) the word was more associated with er... "traveling on your feet but not walking" or starting a computer programme. I think it's actually not related with it being Engrish or not, but whether the original target consumers were familiar with it or not.
#40
Of course that's the main reason, but I think the concern in this thread is that why is it RUN, not BEGIN, GO, PLAY or other similar words that consumers (at that time) would more likely understand. The use of I and II (or 1 and 2) is obvious and logical, but not RUN, apparently. It is quite possible that as NEC itself was a major computer manufacturer (not to mention that Hudson itself wrote implementations of BASIC on various 8-bit computers, that included Family Basic on the Famicom; too bad its sorta equivalent on the PCE, the Tsushin Booster, got canned), so they're in the mindset of "running" or "executing" programmes, and indeed it was a time where BASIC was a prominent programming language on home computers, so there were at least people who were familiar with "RUNning" their BASIC programmes.

Anyway, this (alongside the not-so-fortunate truth of having only one controller port) became one of the most well-known characteristics on the system.
#41
Just imagine. Its W.E.I.R.D.TM music coming out from the PCE's sound chip!
#42
I am always a fan of the original Terra Cresta, and the PCE sequel is great too, especially when a remixed version of the original theme tune comes up. I've heard that the Saturn 3D sequel isn't very good though.

IMO the Famicom version is already a fantastic conversion of the original given the hardware limitation. Among the games in Nichibutsu's combining mecha "series", I'd rather see MagMax on the PCE and I think it could make a very good conversion, at least it won't sacrifice the parallax ground like the Famicom version. (Don't get me wrong, a port of the original game on the PCE would be great too.)
#43
Just change the name to 'PC Transform'  :roll:, unless Hasbro manages to sue you (not that likely, as the word Henshin is a foreign word outside Japan it's more reasonable to have been trademarked in non-Japanese countries, whereas the word "transform" is quite generic to be trademarkable, though it didn't stop M$ from trying to TM words like Office and... well... Word, and, you guys mentioned it already, SAGA).
#44
Quote from: exodus on 11/17/2017, 02:36 AMi guess the most noticeable thing is the sound!
I haven't (re)watched the comparison clip yet, but AFAIK (I immediately made the comparison once I bought the game BiTD), under SCD the opening movie was broken up into segments with disc accesses between these segments, and had ADPCM audio; whereas under ACD the whole movie was loaded into memory so there was no disc accesses in between, and that the audio was one long CDDA track. There were also some subtle enhancements like adding more animations (the one scene I remembered the most was that the handles inside the train were animated in ACD, but static in SCD). There may be more additional animations like this in game, but embarrassedly I never really played the game far to check it.

I think in Gulliver Boy, apart from having the data of more visited places residing in memory (before they're switched out to hold data of another place you just reach) it also enhanced  the HuVideo a bit. I think under SCD, there were small hiccups once a while during video playback, likely to seek for more data for streaming (or whatever), but under ACD the movies played smoother. The difference was subtle, and possibly just a placebo effect that I imagined was there though.

Edit:
Apart from this, a slightly related item was that Far East of Eden 1 was later re-released as SCD, and there were claims that the frequency required for disc accesses was reduced. I remember far far back when I didn't even have the system yet I've seen people playing this game (the original version, obviously as the SCD system wasn't even out yet) in department stores and the loadings were horrid. Later I got the re-released SCD version and the disc accesses were still horrible, like what I've seen from the original version. I didn't own the original version to make comparisons, but I always suspected the re-released version was just the same damn thing, with added codes so that it won't run on a regular CD system, so to encourage more people to upgrade.
#45
Quote from: gilbert on 11/16/2017, 09:27 PMSince this is brought up, maybe it's also a good idea to make another thread about differences in games that support both regular CD and Super CD (unless it was done already).
A quick list from this page and PCECP (the search function is a bit borked ATM):

Macross 2036
Ranma 1/2 Datou, Ganso Musabetsu Kakutou-ryuu!
Space Fantasy Zone (Proto)
Super Schwartzschild
Vanilla Syndrome
Naritore The Sugoroku '92 NARIAGARI TRENDY
Record of Lodoss Wars
Quiz Tono Sama no Yabou
Quiz Caravan Cult Q

I'm quite sure this game belongs here too, but not listed in both sites:
Cosmic Fantasy 3

The following two games are listed as such in PCECP, but I have doubt about it:
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective Vol.2:
Has both icons on the box of the western release, but I think it's only regular CD like the 1st game, TTI probably did this to show that this game worked with both systems, so to promote the sales of the DUO. That Japanese page just outright listed it as SCD.
Syd Mead's Terra Forming:
Only labeled as SCD on the covers of both regions, not sure whether it plays runs on a regular system.

I think the differences are probably even less noticeable than SCD/ACD games though.
Edit: Opps! I meant to edit my post to fix minor stuff and ended up quoted the entire thing. Mods, please delete this.
#46
Since this is brought up, maybe it's also a good idea to make another thread about differences in games that support both regular CD and Super CD (unless it was done already).
A quick list from this page and PCECP (the search function is a bit borked ATM):

Macross 2036
Ranma 1/2 Datou, Ganso Musabetsu Kakutou-ryuu!
Space Fantasy Zone (Proto)
Super Schwartzschild
Vanilla Syndrome
Naritore The Sugoroku '92 NARIAGARI TRENDY
Record of Lodoss Wars
Quiz Tono Sama no Yabou
Quiz Caravan Cult Q

I'm quite sure this game belongs here too, but not listed in both sites:
Cosmic Fantasy 3

The following two games are listed as such in PCECP, but I have doubt about it:
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective Vol.2:
Has both icons on the box of the western release, but I think it's only regular CD like the 1st game, TTI probably did this to show that this game worked with both systems, so to promote the sales of the DUO. That Japanese page just outright listed it as SCD.
Syd Mead's Terra Forming:
Only labeled as SCD on the covers of both regions, not sure whether it plays runs on a regular system.

I think the differences are probably even less noticeable than SCD/ACD games though.
#47
Quote from: Bernie on 11/16/2017, 08:04 AMBecause this is Turbo, so a WALK button would not be sufficient.  :)
In that case, what didn't they call it boost?

...Wait... They did release a series of booster add-ons for the system. Mystery solved!
#48
Well, the Zillion box does look odd, but it's just bland and does not represent what the game is about. I don't think it's really bad. It could be better if it's just shown with the gun, but then people may misinterpret it as a Zillion light-gun game.

The Black Belt box... It really fits the game and I find it awesome. I don't understand why someone will find it bad. Simple designs aren't necessarily bland or bad.
#49
As far as I remember this MEGA CD version was an adventure game using the same engine as Silky Lip. Too bad the PCE Silky Lip sequel ended up canceled. At least there are some prototypes floating around.

Telenet Japan was in very bad shape at that time I think.

And after Telenet's demise, the script of the PCE Silky Lip was remade as a new game and bundled with an adult Silky Lip sequel.

The subtitle of A Rank Thunder also hinted that it COULD have sequel, so it's even possible to have a sequel on the PCE, but I think this game flopped and was forgotten immediately so no one cared.
#50
Quote from: PukeSter on 11/07/2017, 07:29 PMThey gave Opa-Opa a pilot in the boxart, which is Bigly wrong. He's a sentinent ship!
Yeah, and he even has a father. But but but... He also has a cockpit! You may consider it like this. I think Twinbees are sometimes depicted as sentient and sometimes not, but officially they also have pilots, so they're like buddy-linked together or whatever.

If all covers go the extreme route, I bet no one would complain.  :-({|=