Progress ~ Ancient Magic's Script is Translated
Ancient Magic
# Posted on May 2, 2007, 8:55 p.m. by Gideon Zhi

Eien ni Hen turned in Ancient Magic's completed text translation a few days ago. I've just now inserted the first of five major text blocks; they all need some formatting insofar as screenspace constraints are concerned, and they're an absolute nightmare of control codes, but there should be relatively little truly difficult about putting them back in. Just a lot of boring grunt work, sigh.

Have a screenshot or two. This guy's name is Feyr, by the way. Haven't gotten around to putting that particular text chunk back into the game yet.

Progress ~ Lagrange Point: Script (kind of) Inserted
Lagrange Point
# Posted on May 1, 2007, 7:40 p.m. by Gideon Zhi

Lagrange Point has been updated with seven totally new screenshots. The translation is still Tomato's, but the hacking work is now mine and Guest's entirely. I've scrapped the eight-lines-per-window thing in favor of a more-readable four lines, although I have shifted the text over to grant more characters per line than the game originally allowed. The main dialogue script is now fully inserted, minus a few untranslated strings and some cutscenes. It's also now loading relatively-uncompressed text from ROM, by which I mean it's still got DTE and Dictionary support to shrink the scripts to roughly 45% of their original heft. They fit but I haven't added any control codes or anything, so I can't guarantee they'll stay that way. The scripts also need a good going-over, as the writing is a little flat on the whole.

To sum up, it's a lot closer than it used to be, but it's still a while off. Go see the new screenshots and be happy. More to come as I edit and format it.

Major Release ~ Snoopy Concert ~ In Memoriam Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)
Snoopy Concert
# Posted on April 12, 2007, 4:20 p.m. by Gideon Zhi

It is with a heavy heart that I bear the news of Kurt Vonnegut's passing. His was a scathing wit, and he shall be missed.

In the spirit of trying to keep things happy, however, I present today a completed translation of Snoopy Concert. The Peanuts gang's all here; the patch is both done and relatively bug-free. Enjoy!

Miscellaneous ~ Metal Max Nearly Ready for Beta
Metal Max Returns
# Posted on April 11, 2007, 9:23 p.m. by Gideon Zhi

Just a quick post to air out an old project. I picked Metal Max Returns up a few days ago with the intention of finishing it; lo and behold, it's nearly done. I'm _NOT_ going to be expanding character names, I'm afraid - the menu alterations would just be too much work - but otherwise, I think it looks pretty good.

I've finally finished translating the shops, I think, and I'm working on the subscreen now. Afterwards, I may have one or two things to tinker with in combat, one word to translate on the BSCon, and a few town names to center in a few menus, and it'll be ready for testing!

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm seriously excited about this project. The game offers tons of customization options for the enterprising tank fiend, plus a fair amount of bonus games and optional material for you to do when you're not hunting bounty heads. Here are a few snapshots indicative of current progress. As I progress I'll be replacing the old screenshot slideshow with new meat, so be sure to be on the lookout for that as well.

Progress ~ Tactics Ogre not crashing... nearly as often
Tactics Ogre ~ Let Us Cling Together
# Posted on April 4, 2007, 8:51 p.m. by Gideon Zhi

About an hour's worth of detective work tonight discovered the nature of what appear to be the remainder of Tactics Ogre's dialogue crashes. It's still not exactly performing to spec; if you try to save, the game basically explodes, and it's still displaying memory card messages as an artifact from the PSX release. Might have to get that block retranslated... but eh. I otherwise played through three scenarios with no major problems (although I did hit a few minor ones.)

Here are some images.

Progress ~ New Fire Emblem screenshots.
# Posted on April 2, 2007, 10:15 a.m. by Gideon Zhi

I've added sixteen new screenshots to Fire Emblem's project page. These completely replace the old screenshots (all two of them) and are indicative of the project's current status. A lot of rewriting still needs to be done - I've done maybe 7 chapters of 45 or more - but it's getting places, slowly but surely.

Major Release ~ Dark Law was released ten years ago today.
Dark Law ~ Meaning of Death
# Posted on March 28, 2007, 2:05 p.m. by Gideon Zhi

I refer, of course, to the original game. Now, however, ten years later, it is available in English for the first time. Despite the amount of effort that went into this (it has, by far, more assembly code in it than Rudra had) I am somehow lacking in things to say, other than that I hope you enjoy the patch and the game!

Progress ~ Dark Law enters playtesting.
Dark Law ~ Meaning of Death
# Posted on March 22, 2007, 8:43 p.m. by Gideon Zhi

Dark Law ~ Meaning of Death has entered playtesting. It's not without issues; there's still some rather nasty problems with the auto-center routines, especially when item descriptions or number variables factor into the equation, but it's looking mighty fine enough already.

Currently, the patch is 360K. I've hacked thirteen font routines for this sucker - 8 variable-width ones, two 8x16 fixed routines, and three 8x8s. The amount of code that's gone into this is mind boggling!

I expect to release the patch on Wednesday, in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the game's original release.

Progress ~ Dark Law is nearly done.
Dark Law ~ Meaning of Death
# Posted on March 19, 2007, 6:18 p.m. by Gideon Zhi

Here are a few statistics:

Assembly code (so far) in Dark Law: 102KB. Number of variable-width font hacks: 6 (so far - it probably needs at least two more.) Amount of raw text: 232,112 bytes. Number of advils taken: 10 (best guess.)

Here are some of the features you can expect to see in the final version:
--Fully variable-width menus
--Expanded list files for enemies, spells, and items. Originally fixed at 8 characters max, I now have as much screen and romspace as necessary.
--Expanded names for NPC characters - originally 6 characters max, "Antoniana" now fits.
--Expanded names for scenarios and locales - originally 8 characters max, I now have 256 pixels of space available for both.
--Expanded names for jobs (originally fixed at three characters on the subscreen, should be able to fit up to seven 16x16 tiles.

I've updated the screenshots slideshow on the project page to reflect the new progress. It's hires, so be sure to click the slideshow to bring up full-resolution screenshots. Here are a few samples:

Major Release ~ Kunio Release - Oh god, this is so much easier
Shodai Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-Kun
# Posted on March 7, 2007, 11:20 a.m. by Gideon Zhi

So yeah, here's the release I promised for today. Shodai Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-Kun, AKA "River City Ransom 2" although that's not really correct at all. I've included a bit of a mini-manual with the patch to help you through some problem spots with items and gameplay mechanics, so be sure to read it!