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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. |
10/31/2023: Localization News - Dead of the Brain 1!
Recent posts
#1
Console Repair/Mod Center / Thank you to all!
Last post by forsigmar - Yesterday at 03:28 PM
Its been a while since I have been on here. I fired up my Duo for the first time in years only to find out the drive was constantly spinning and the laser moved all the way to the right and stopped. I was devastated, so I came here to find a solution. After scouring the the repair posts I learned it could possibly be a bad via, and it was! I wasn't the 3 closest to the light but it was in that general vicinity. I am happy to report the Duo is back up and running. Thank you all for the valuable information!
#2
Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / [WIP] Saber Rider and the Star...
Last post by gameblabla - 10/05/2026, 10:08 PMHere is my Reconstruction of the cancelled release of Saber Rider & The Star Sheriffs, based on the 1 level demo and spritesheets & assets released on social media.
A PC engine version was actually planned as a stretch goal, albeit only for Super CDROM2.
Obvious concessions had to be made compared to Saturn version but the game's content is (mostly) there.
The version as is has a few (visible) graphical issues that i hope to fix at the end of this week.
Let me tell you that the game as is would have not been possible on Super CDROM2 without major cutbacks or simply put, an entirely different game.
This was recorded from Mesen.
It was not tried on real hardware yet but others have tried it on MISTer. I will report back once someone does but fairly confident it will work as is but i believe it will work with little issues.
Supergrafx enhancements are planned for later.
You can download the WIP release here :
https://github.com/gameblabla/SaberRiderStarSheriffUnOfficial/releases/tag/1.1-pce
Fun fact : Aetherbyte / Arkhan were planned (or rather, Chris said he would use their services) for the PC engine version but obviously nothing was made. What you may not know are the circumstances :
no money was exchanged, no design document and Chris was certain the demo release and its graphics could have been done on PC engine Super CDROM2 without major concessions.
Arkhan said that was not possible, and that he was full of himself. (basically, i am paraphrasing)
After which no attempt was made to even make the PC Engine version a reality, in spite of Chris taking money from backers for said version.
(No refund was issued after the fallout of discussion, nor was another programmer found for the PC engine version)
#3
PC-FX Discussion / Re: [PC-FX Homebrew] Super Mar...
Last post by gameblabla - 09/20/2026, 12:49 PM
Yeah, i never did 100% on Super Mario world either. but i certainly did so for this game (offline) 
I suppose it helps i made it easier than the original but this does not play like the original SNES game.
The only similarity that i did introduce that the original hack did not have, is to allow Mario to jump over the enemies (somehow they decided not to do that).
I suppose it helps i made it easier than the original but this does not play like the original SNES game.
The only similarity that i did introduce that the original hack did not have, is to allow Mario to jump over the enemies (somehow they decided not to do that).
#4
PC-FX Discussion / Re: [PC-FX Homebrew] Super Mar...
Last post by NightWolve - 09/18/2026, 08:20 AM
Hey, pretty cool!
I never did get 100% in the original Super Mario World. I was stuck at 99% I think, couldn't figure out what secret I missed...
I never did get 100% in the original Super Mario World. I was stuck at 99% I think, couldn't figure out what secret I missed...
#5
PC-FX Discussion / [PC-FX Homebrew] Super Mario W...
Last post by gameblabla - 09/15/2026, 03:09 PM
This is a recreation of the Super Mario World Taiwanese bootleg (1996) by Gamtek (also known as Squirrel King in its original form).
It's playable from start to finish and has been confirmed to work on real hardware. Play through all of the levels from the mushroom kingdom, forest, and more !
Defeat enemies by jumping on them, throwing boxes or fireballs.
This is based upon the disassembly of the original Megadrive ROM.
This version also has a few enhancements :
- CD-DA Music
- Color blending for some scenes (like World 3, that was painful to look at previously)
- A bit easier / more forgiving to play (Your health regenerates between levels, you have infinite continues etc...)
Download :
https://github.com/gameblabla/smw_unlicensed_fx/releases
(this was recorded on PC, hence the mouse cursor, but i've tried it on real hardware and it does work properly)
#6
Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Spriggan Mark 2 English Tr...
Last post by 1slowrc - 08/08/2026, 07:01 PMQuote from: naju on 07/29/2026, 11:43 PMHi all, I've made an English patch for the PC Engine Super CD-ROM² game Spriggan Mark 2: Re-Terraform Project. It's a horizontal shooter with an extensive story told through cutscenes and in-game dialogue.
The patch adds subtitles to the voiced cutscenes and fully translates the in-game dialogue, menus, descriptions, and other text. It also adds a small QoL auto-save feature to allow continuing from the last finished level from the main menu.
I tested it fully on a PC Engine CoreGrafx with a Turbo EverDrive Pro.
https://github.com/gagnonpl/spriggan-mark2-en/
https://www.romhacking.net/translations/7662/
I do reverse engineering for a living but this is my first ever video game patch. Also I'm pretty new to this system but I just got my Coregrafx and I can't wait to play all the classics.
Anyway I hope you like it. Feedback/criticism welcome.
I'm also working on an English translation of the original Spriggan (Seirei Senshi Spriggan) for PC Engine CD.
You sir are awesome and thank you!!
#7
Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Spriggan Mark 2 English Tr...
Last post by naju - 08/02/2026, 02:37 PMHi NightWolve! Yeah I became aware of the previous project partway through. In fact their teaser on youtube inspired me to change my font for the level dialogs to make it proportional. But no I don't have any connection to that project.
The variable-width font wasn't that big of a deal to be honest. I had ripped an 8x8 font I found on the System Card (it's the same font used in the Backup RAM menu, but the BIOS API doesn't make it available for games). So I adjusted the glyphs horizontally on my font sheet, then made an extra table for the x width of each glyph. The BIOS text drawing function itself takes care of drawing on the background at a specified X/Y coord and supports an external (non-BIOS) font.
For the cutscenes I still use a monospaced font because the subs are sprites (can't use the BIOS routine above) and because the rendering engine I made needs a fixed grid of 10x10 cells to be able to outline the letters fast enough. Outlining is crucial because the game cutscenes weren't designed with subs in mind so the contrast is rather poor in many scenes (e.g. very light background). It should be possible to upgrade it for proportional fonts though. Maybe a future upgrade.
There's a gold mine of great but not-yet-localized games on the PCE, especially CDROM² games. It's just the perfect system for audio narration over cutscenes so unfortunately they didn't bother with text most of the time, which makes it harder to localize. I'm working on the first Spriggan game right now, but there's many more that people have suggested.
The variable-width font wasn't that big of a deal to be honest. I had ripped an 8x8 font I found on the System Card (it's the same font used in the Backup RAM menu, but the BIOS API doesn't make it available for games). So I adjusted the glyphs horizontally on my font sheet, then made an extra table for the x width of each glyph. The BIOS text drawing function itself takes care of drawing on the background at a specified X/Y coord and supports an external (non-BIOS) font.
For the cutscenes I still use a monospaced font because the subs are sprites (can't use the BIOS routine above) and because the rendering engine I made needs a fixed grid of 10x10 cells to be able to outline the letters fast enough. Outlining is crucial because the game cutscenes weren't designed with subs in mind so the contrast is rather poor in many scenes (e.g. very light background). It should be possible to upgrade it for proportional fonts though. Maybe a future upgrade.
There's a gold mine of great but not-yet-localized games on the PCE, especially CDROM² games. It's just the perfect system for audio narration over cutscenes so unfortunately they didn't bother with text most of the time, which makes it harder to localize. I'm working on the first Spriggan game right now, but there's many more that people have suggested.
#8
Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Spriggan Mark 2 English Tr...
Last post by NightWolve - 08/01/2026, 12:28 PMHey naju and welcome!
Thanks for sharing! Not often someone would register for news on a new localization project!
Very interesting, I could swear this was one of the abandoned projects by TurboXray and BurntLasagna many years ago.
How did you accomplish all the variable width font work?? That looks very impressive, similar to what only Supper and TurboXray are able to accomplish. So you are totally new at this and your project has no connection or help to the prior attempt??
Wow, yeah, now that I looked at the screenshots I'm very impressed! Hope you'll tackle more PC Engine CD games in the future!
Once again, thanks for registering here to let us know. I appreciate the heads up as localization is something I've been passionate about since 2001 when I started the Xak III project!
Thanks for sharing! Not often someone would register for news on a new localization project!
Very interesting, I could swear this was one of the abandoned projects by TurboXray and BurntLasagna many years ago.
How did you accomplish all the variable width font work?? That looks very impressive, similar to what only Supper and TurboXray are able to accomplish. So you are totally new at this and your project has no connection or help to the prior attempt??
Wow, yeah, now that I looked at the screenshots I'm very impressed! Hope you'll tackle more PC Engine CD games in the future!
Once again, thanks for registering here to let us know. I appreciate the heads up as localization is something I've been passionate about since 2001 when I started the Xak III project!
#9
Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Spriggan Mark 2 English Transl...
Last post by naju - 07/29/2026, 11:43 PMHi all, I've made an English patch for the PC Engine Super CD-ROM² game Spriggan Mark 2: Re-Terraform Project. It's a horizontal shooter with an extensive story told through cutscenes and in-game dialogue.
The patch adds subtitles to the voiced cutscenes and fully translates the in-game dialogue, menus, descriptions, and other text. It also adds a small QoL auto-save feature to allow continuing from the last finished level from the main menu.
I tested it fully on a PC Engine CoreGrafx with a Turbo EverDrive Pro.
https://github.com/gagnonpl/spriggan-mark2-en/
https://www.romhacking.net/translations/7662/
I do reverse engineering for a living but this is my first ever video game patch. Also I'm pretty new to this system but I just got my Coregrafx and I can't wait to play all the classics.
Anyway I hope you like it. Feedback/criticism welcome.
I'm also working on an English translation of the original Spriggan (Seirei Senshi Spriggan) for PC Engine CD.
The patch adds subtitles to the voiced cutscenes and fully translates the in-game dialogue, menus, descriptions, and other text. It also adds a small QoL auto-save feature to allow continuing from the last finished level from the main menu.
I tested it fully on a PC Engine CoreGrafx with a Turbo EverDrive Pro.
https://github.com/gagnonpl/spriggan-mark2-en/
https://www.romhacking.net/translations/7662/
I do reverse engineering for a living but this is my first ever video game patch. Also I'm pretty new to this system but I just got my Coregrafx and I can't wait to play all the classics.
Anyway I hope you like it. Feedback/criticism welcome.
I'm also working on an English translation of the original Spriggan (Seirei Senshi Spriggan) for PC Engine CD.
#10
PC-FX Discussion / Re: Doom for PC-FX (Shareware ...
Last post by NightWolve - 07/26/2026, 03:03 PM
The Day that Doom would come for the NEC PC-FX! ; )
No one thought ever!
No one thought ever!