Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!

[Arjak]

I would just like to give this thread a bump, since it's been almost two months since the last status update.

[EsperKnight]

Plenty of progress  I finally started back into it full throttle and now have a complete toolkit to insert/(fake) compress/build/insert all into the CD  With this is in hand SamIAm and I are going to start really digging in as this automates everything.  Still bugs here and there but this at least makes it a lot simpler to test and figure out things

If anyone's curious about the fake compression, it's due to Xanadu 2 using a different prefilled buffer for decompressing with for each block, meaning if I don't have that buffer or something similar enough, it decompresses wrong.  So I now I just now set it so everything is not compressed but it still conforms to the compression scheme that Xanadu 2 uses (really any and all falcom games I found out).  Way too much time to find and use all those buffers that are needed and this works good enough for at least 99% of the cases I figure. The only cases it may not are those that go beyond the allocated buffer for loading it from the CD.  It may also slow it down a bit too but really none of the blocks are that big either so I'm not anticipating any issues at this time with the compression

Edit: Clarify it's each block that has a different buffer

[Bernie]

This is awesome news. The way these things have been churned out so quickly lately is just great!!  Hopefully this one wont take too much longer.

[roflmao]

Woo hoo!

[Burnt Lasagna]

I'm quite impressed EsperKnight 
I always think of this project as "The Little Engine that Could". Making progress, one step at a time...



Keep up the good work! I'm looking forward to playing this game for the first time!

[EsperKnight]

Nice   Yeah this one's definitely one of my PITA projects   Next up would maybe be Tengai Makyou Ziria but that one was a lot easier to automate (for the most part) than this one.  Although I do have one other that's even worse then X2 but that's cause of the amount of tediousness with tracking down stray sentences and all the asm fixes needing to be done....   Just wish there was more time in the day   Luckily though I'm getting a bit more free time to work on projects so trying to use it to my advantage   Thanks all for the encouragement!

[TurboXray]

I remember looking at the compression scheme of some PCE CD game a number of years back (could have been this game or Seiya Monogatari, or some other high profile game. Maybe even GoT, I forget since it's been so long). The LZSS circular buffer was pre-primed with a specific set of values every time a LZSS chunk was decoded. The primed values seemed to be the same for any type of text, but you had to have it in order to decompress the chunk correctly. You could get around it on recompressing if you didn't 'reference' the buffer before anything was written. Though it's kind of silly 'cause you needed to know the primed state to begin with in order to decompress, so you'd know it upon recompressing too. It's just that most LZSS compressors don't have this feature (none that I've seen, anyway).

[SamIAm]

There's a surge of activity happening right now. Today was my day off, and I put in a good 8 hours. I know Esperknight's been rocking it, too. I hope we have some amazing news soon.

Also, here's a dude on niconico playing PCE tunes on a piano. Hats off to anyone who can name all the songs just by hearing them (esteban?).

https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm2037838

EDIT: In that video, he plays a Monster Maker song at 3:40ish. I checked this game out, and the music in general is impressive. I guess the game's glitchy as hell, though. Too bad.

[Bernie]

There's a surge of activity happening right now. Today was my day off, and I put in a good 8 hours. I know Esperknight's been rocking it, too. I hope we have some amazing news soon.

Also, here's a dude on niconico playing PCE tunes on a piano. Hats off to anyone who can name all the songs just by hearing them (esteban?).

Dedication!!  Thats what Im talking about!!!

[LentFilms]

Good to hear another update! There are so many Esperknight projects I'm following I can't even count them all but "Legend of Xanadu II" is one of my most highly anticipated. I also played a minor role in the SamIAm's dub that was recorded back in 2011. I was probably the worst actor in the cast but it sure was a lot of fun and I can't wait to play the full game.

[NightWolve]

I would just like to give this thread a bump, since it's been almost two months since the last status update.

Having gotten Ys IV out of the way, Arjak continues the finish-the-patch poking! ;)

[PunkCryborg]

I can't wait to play this one! Keep up the good work guys it's definitely appreciated!

[Arjak]

I would just like to give this thread a bump, since it's been almost two months since the last status update.

Having gotten Ys IV out of the way, Arjak continues the finish-the-patch poking! ;)

Well, I have no skills that would allow me to help out at this point, so being a nuisance and forcing status updates is the best I can do!

[EsperKnight]

@TurboXray/Bonknuts, you're right in that the buffer shouldn't matter but for X2 at least it depends if you get lucky   When decompressing, X2 will load it's prefilled buffer and somehow it'll get messed up when it decompresses my compressed version that uses 0x00.  Not sure how it's doing it as I can decompress mine and theirs fine regardless but it's some quirk that I must not have included in mine.  So I get around it by just not compressing any of it and just making it look like it is.  Figure that'll work for 99% of the cases hopefully   Anything is better then doing a buffer for each block (500+)

Edit: Just thought about that you would need to know the original buffer IF they end up using the original/latest LZSS algorithm (I've seen an older one where it doesn't use binary trees).  The original LZSS has a quirk/unintended side effect (I suspect) of RLEing data that matches what's in the original buffer setup.  So in that case, yeah you would need to know how the original buffer is setup

LentFilms, what's bad is I have so many I tend to forget about which ones need what work

[LentFilms]

LentFilms, what's bad is I have so many I tend to forget about which ones need what work

Addie's Present, 4th Unit, Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, Team Innocent, Captain Rainbow, the Yarudora Series (not sure about that one), and many many more. You are a mad man sir and I have a great deal of respect for all your hard work and enthusiasm.

[NightWolve]

You know, a little late, but welcome to the forums, LentFilms! Did I read that there are 3 brothers total in the Lasagna clan or just you ? You drew the Ys IV stuff, right ? I thought it was interesting that you were merely recent Ys converts, it wasn't something you had grown up with or knew about for all that long.

[LentFilms]

You know, a little late, but welcome to the forums, LentFilms! Did I read that there are 3 brothers total in the Lasagna clan or just you ? You drew the Ys IV stuff, right ? I thought it was interesting that you were merely recent Ys converts, it wasn't something you had grown up with or knew about for all that long.

Thank you.
In total I have 5 brothers including Lasagna and Tim who drew the Ys IV artwork and the fake Rondo of Blood cover. Tim also did the envelope art on the letter we sent to Retronauts and I drew the picture of Adol on the letter itself.

And yeah my brothers and I are new Ys fans, so new that I've only really finished one game in the series.
I first found out about the Ys franchise when Ys Books I & II was released on the Wii's Virtual Console in 2008. I actually avoided the Ys series for a while because of people's comments on the game's "bump and run" gameplay. I only started playing the series in 2010 thanks to sites like Retroware TV, Retronauts, HG101, and XSEED releasing Ys Seven. 2010 was also the same year that Lasagna, Tim, and I all played Sakura Wars 5 together witch indirectly lead to the Ys IV Dub.

[Keranu]

Thank you.
In total I have 5 brothers including Lasagna and Tim who drew the Ys IV artwork and the fake Rondo of Blood cover. Tim also did the envelope art on the letter we sent to Retronauts and I drew the picture of Adol on the letter itself.

Wow, you got my family beat! I only have four brothers and I'm smack dab in the middle! Ain't it great when you have enough siblings to fill up a Turbo Tap?

[Burnt Lasagna]

Ain't it great when you have enough siblings to fill up a Turbo Tap?

Ha, all fun and games till someone wins for the third time in a row. Then it's an all out dog fight on the sibling that won, "stares at half broken controllers"

[Opethian]

Xanaduder deuce!@!!!

[EsperKnight]

Addie's Present, 4th Unit, Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, Team Innocent, Captain Rainbow, the Yarudora Series (not sure about that one), and many many more. You are a mad man sir and I have a great deal of respect for all your hard work and enthusiasm.

Wow!  Always great to know someone's waiting on some of the others   None of the games in the Yarudora series has any translators as of yet but Filler is interested so maybe after some of the others he's doing...   Course anyone who's interested is free to offer *wink wink nudge nudge* ;)  And thanks!  I love doing this

[esteban]

There's a surge of activity happening right now. Today was my day off, and I put in a good 8 hours. I know Esperknight's been rocking it, too. I hope we have some amazing news soon.

Also, here's a dude on niconico playing PCE tunes on a piano. Hats off to anyone who can name all the songs just by hearing them (esteban?).

EDIT: In that video, he plays a Monster Maker song at 3:40ish. I checked this game out, and the music in general is impressive. I guess the game's glitchy as hell, though. Too bad.

I have to register again to watch the video!

I can't remember my old login info.



ALSO: I concur, Monster Maker does have nice songs ...

_{► /Monster_Maker/Track_09.mp3}

_{► /Monster_Maker/Track_10.mp3}

_{► /Monster_Maker/Track_11.mp3}

_{► /Monster_Maker/Track_12.mp3}

_{► /Monster_Maker/Track_13.mp3}

_{► /Monster_Maker/Track_14.mp3}

<--this is the track from the video you linked to!

_{► /Monster_Maker/Track_08.mp3}

[SamIAm]

Thanks a lot for posting all those links.

I've already got the tracks, but Monster Maker is a decent addition to any VGM collection, so I hope others nab them!

Anyway, I stumbled upon that video while watching a LoX2 longplay (for the purpose of searching for specific lines). Niconico definitely has some interesting stuff that you won't find on youtube.

[PunkCryborg]

Whenever i look for pce longplay vids i look on nico. Most stuff on YouTube is tool assist vids or just the opening video or even worse some nerds annoying commentary.

[esteban]

...just the opening video or even worse some nerds annoying commentary.

SO TRUE. Not that I look for videos often, but whenever I do, I cringe at the results.

Thanks a lot for posting all those links.

I've already got the tracks, but Monster Maker is a decent addition to any VGM collection, so I hope others nab them!

Anyway, I stumbled upon that video while watching a LoX2 longplay (for the purpose of searching for specific lines). Niconico definitely has some interesting stuff that you won't find on youtube.

No problem. The funny thing is that I had never heard of the game until I was grabbing desktop wallpaper from pcenginebible.uk.love many years ago...Paul had just added a nice desktop image for Monster Maker and I was intrigued.  What is this game?

UPDATE: http://pcengine.co.uk/Wallpapers_index.htm (for folks who may not know about sunteam_paul's old stuff)

[SamIAm]

I was reading about Monster Maker in Japanese. It's a tragic story, really. Or a story of incompetence, whichever you prefer.

The project actually started in like 1991 or so, and it had a famous producer who made good stuff but took forever doing it. Wouldn't you know, Monster Maker got delayed. Then it got moved to the Super CD, and was delayed again. Then they decided to redraw the character art, so they had another massive delay. They said in interviews that they wanted to make the best RPG anyone had ever seen.

Who knows exactly what was going on behind their doors? But I'd guess that the management at NEC Avenue lost their shit at some point and ordered them to finish it and turn it out within a few months or else. The game that came out in late '94, over two years past its original release date, was loaded with bugs and only half-finished. Seriously, there was supposed to be an equally large part-two in the works, but it was canned. More alarmingly, the game came with a small pink piece of paper saying "once you go into this one tower, don't come out until you have this one conversation or the event data will get borked and your game-save will be ruined forever." And that's just the worst of a long list of bugs.

It looks like it could have been really cool, too. I like the moody piano music and the funky pastel art. What a shame.

Anyone here play it all the way through? There's a full play on niconico, but speak of the devil, it's got a Japanese nerd talking over it the whole way (saying the most obvious crap in the world, too).

[CrackTiger]

I only had one bug happen before getting worked over by the game ruining bug. Early on in a castle with a boss a few weird things happened and I couldn't get events to move forward after killing the respawning boss over and over and I believe that eventually it crashed. It was no big deal though, because I just reloaded my save and everything was fine up until that late game tower.

Since I had no idea about that very specific bug, I didn't clear the tower before coming back out and saving again, which permanently prevents you from clearing the tower. The reason I didn't beat it in one go, is that Monster Maker is full of hidden staircases and chests. After igniting the bug, there is a floor in the tower where you see that you should have taken the other staircase from the previous floor. But it instead takes you to some other floor.

It's still a full length game and a great one with some unique aspects. Definitely worth playing through. Since the tower bug has been figured out for gaijins, there's no doubt you can beat the game and even if you only made it as far as I did, it is a hell of a ride.

I wonder if the same team was working on Space Fantasy Zone? Both games were advertised together for a very long time as they continued to be delayed.

[runinruder]

I was reading about Monster Maker in Japanese. It's a tragic story, really. Or a story of incompetence, whichever you prefer.

Anyone here play it all the way through?

Yes, I've played through Monster Maker.  Here's a review of it, with info and screens concerning the infamous tower bug:

wayback://thebrothersduomazov.com/./monster-maker.html

[NightWolve]

I was reading about Monster Maker in Japanese. It's a tragic story, really. Or a story of incompetence, whichever you prefer.

Anyone here play it all the way through?

Yes, I've played through Monster Maker.  Here's a review of it, with info and screens concerning the infamous tower bug:

wayback://thebrothersduomazov.com/./monster-maker.html

That looks good, the coloring/graphics comes close to looking SNES-RPGish. Is this on your list of possible translation projects, Sam ? That why you brought it up ?

[ParanoiaDragon]

Damn, I never knew the game was riddled with bugs!  I've played a bit of it, I forget how far I got.  It's pretty & has some nice music for sure!

[runinruder]

I'm just copying this from a post I made here a few years ago, but it's a description of another strange bug I found in MM:

"I discovered another weird glitch a little earlier in the game.  The orcs give you a hot-air balloon that you're supposed to ride to a (different) tower.  Instead of hopping into the balloon immediately, I wandered off to do some leveling up.  Occasionally, when I'd re-enter the screen with the balloon, it'd be replaced by some sort of garbage sprite.  At first I paid no attention to this sprite, but after it appeared multiple times, I finally inspected it, and found myself warped back to an old kobold-inhabited town.

From that point, you can revisit the old locations (which might actually be kinda worthwhile if you think you missed something, like a spell or a treasure chest) and even re-recruit old party members who left (although they'll leave again at the appropriate spots in the story).  I should probably mention that I'm not 100% sure that you can make it back to where you were, because I got sick of repeating the old stuff after just a few minutes and loaded up my proper file, but it seems entirely possible (the boat you need to sail across the sea to a different area is right back at its original dock, for instance).  And, from what I saw, you don't need to re-fight bosses.

Along with these glitches, the game occasionally freezes during voice-acted parts and frequently chokes while loading up combat scenes.  It's strange how a game can seem so nice and polished in many different ways (especially the battle graphics) and be so screwy in others."

[Bernie]

I just got MM in the mail the other day, so I will be giving it a go soon.

[esteban]

I was reading about Monster Maker in Japanese. It's a tragic story, really. Or a story of incompetence, whichever you prefer.

The project actually started in like 1991 or so, and it had a famous producer who made good stuff but took forever doing it. Wouldn't you know, Monster Maker got delayed. Then it got moved to the Super CD, and was delayed again. Then they decided to redraw the character art, so they had another massive delay. They said in interviews that they wanted to make the best RPG anyone had ever seen.

Who knows exactly what was going on behind their doors? But I'd guess that the management at NEC Avenue lost their shit at some point and ordered them to finish it and turn it out within a few months or else. The game that came out in late '94, over two years past its original release date, was loaded with bugs and only half-finished. Seriously, there was supposed to be an equally large part-two in the works, but it was canned. More alarmingly, the game came with a small pink piece of paper saying "once you go into this one tower, don't come out until you have this one conversation or the event data will get borked and your game-save will be ruined forever." And that's just the worst of a long list of bugs.

It looks like it could have been really cool, too. I like the moody piano music and the funky pastel art. What a shame.

Anyone here play it all the way through? There's a full play on niconico, but speak of the devil, it's got a Japanese nerd talking over it the whole way (saying the most obvious crap in the world, too).

Thanks for providing context to this game--I have a greater appreciation for it now. I played through a significant portion of the game before encountering a bug/problem that I was unable to overcome. I don't think I had a bug, per se, but just was stumped and lost interest.

A two-year delay at that point in the PCE's lifespan could only hurt overall sales, I would think...

I'm just copying this from a post I made here a few years ago, but it's a description of another strange bug I found in MM:

"I discovered another weird glitch a little earlier in the game.  The orcs give you a hot-air balloon that you're supposed to ride to a (different) tower.  Instead of hopping into the balloon immediately, I wandered off to do some leveling up.  Occasionally, when I'd re-enter the screen with the balloon, it'd be replaced by some sort of garbage sprite.  At first I paid no attention to this sprite, but after it appeared multiple times, I finally inspected it, and found myself warped back to an old kobold-inhabited town.

From that point, you can revisit the old locations (which might actually be kinda worthwhile if you think you missed something, like a spell or a treasure chest) and even re-recruit old party members who left (although they'll leave again at the appropriate spots in the story).  I should probably mention that I'm not 100% sure that you can make it back to where you were, because I got sick of repeating the old stuff after just a few minutes and loaded up my proper file, but it seems entirely possible (the boat you need to sail across the sea to a different area is right back at its original dock, for instance).  And, from what I saw, you don't need to re-fight bosses.

Along with these glitches, the game occasionally freezes during voice-acted parts and frequently chokes while loading up combat scenes.  It's strange how a game can seem so nice and polished in many different ways (especially the battle graphics) and be so screwy in others." 

Hey runin, is this post still here (at pcefx.com) or did you save some old threads? If you have old threads saved, could I see them? (I'm just curious about stuff that has been buried with little-to-no-chance of ever being unearthed to see the light of day again). Thanks in advance.

[SamIAm]

That looks good, the coloring/graphics comes close to looking SNES-RPGish. Is this on your list of possible translation projects, Sam ? That why you brought it up ?

I hope to have final drafts of my two big translation projects done within the next 6-8 weeks, though that will depend partially on how the hacking goes. After that, I'll have time for something new. I'm on alert for something to really grab me.

The Tengai Makyo 2 script was requested a long while ago by the guy working on Ziria (non-Bonknuts Tom), so I don't have anything in my cue. One possibility I've been discussing with Esperknight just a little is Xanadu 1. Apparently, some significant number of the hacking breakthroughs from Xanadu 2 would apply to Xanadu 1, and given how difficult the hacking side is for CD games, it would almost be a waste not to take advantage of the situation. I'll have to play it all the way through first, though. That's my rule after the Emerald Dragon affair.

Monster Maker looks like it could be cool, but there's just too many bugs. Some might be easily fixed, but some might not.

Thanks for providing context to this game--I have a greater appreciation for it now. I played through a significant portion of the game before encountering a bug/problem that I was unable to overcome. I don't think I had a bug, per se, but just was stumped and lost interest.

A two-year delay at that point in the PCE's lifespan could only hurt overall sales, I would think...

One thing I remember reading is that during the more than two years between the original release date and the actual release date, another Monster Maker game was announced and released on the SNES. That's part of why I imagine NEC Avenue's execs would have demanded that they rush the game out after a certain point.

[Arjak]

If you decide to do LoX1, let me know. I'd be glad to reprise my role as Nuse, if possible.

Tengai Makyo 2 is one that I'm REALLY looking forward to! I would LOVE to try out for some parts in that one, my dream part being Kabuki! I really enjoy playing loud, over-the-top characters!

[CrackTiger]

There is also a computer version of Monster Maker featured in magazines that looks similar to the PCE version. The SNES versions are both different games from the PCE version.

Other than making use of the hacking breakthroughs made with LoXII, the first LoX is one of the PCE RPGs that would most benefit from a translation, since it involves so many specific tasks.

[SamIAm]

I remember you mentioning that. I'd definitely be interested in doing it if I can enjoy a good playthrough of it.

All in good time, though. I'm going to be really busy in the next couple months if either hacker gives me a complete insertion to test.

 
You guys should shower Esperknight in praise so he keeps working on LoX2 like he has in the past 2 weeks.

[esteban]

A two-year delay at that point in the PCE's lifespan could only hurt overall sales, I would think...

One thing I remember reading is that during the more than two years between the original release date and the actual release date, another Monster Maker game was announced and released on the SNES. That's part of why I imagine NEC Avenue's execs would have demanded that they rush the game out after a certain point.

Now that's totally crazy/ridiculous. SFC announced. Released. PCE version? Nowhere to be found.

[ParanoiaDragon]

I remember you mentioning that. I'd definitely be interested in doing it if I can enjoy a good playthrough of it.

All in good time, though. I'm going to be really busy in the next couple months if either hacker gives me a complete insertion to test.

 
You guys should shower Esperknight in praise so he keeps working on LoX2 like he has in the past 2 weeks.

Esperknight be praised!  May Esperknight live on until times indefinite!   Seriously though, Esper is cool & hardworking, & dedicated, this can't be easy work!

[SamIAm]

Thanks.

Here's the pink slip of paper in Monster Maker if anyone's interested, btw:


If you play it, watch out of the バッソ Tower on the ソルレンド continent. It's the 2nd one you come to, apparently.

[CrackTiger]

A two-year delay at that point in the PCE's lifespan could only hurt overall sales, I would think...

One thing I remember reading is that during the more than two years between the original release date and the actual release date, another Monster Maker game was announced and released on the SNES. That's part of why I imagine NEC Avenue's execs would have demanded that they rush the game out after a certain point.

Now that's totally crazy/ridiculous. SFC announced. Released. PCE version? Nowhere to be found.

I'm pretty sure that the first SFC Monster Maker title was just a board game.

[SamIAm]

Nope, it's the second one. First one was Monster Maker III in Dec. 1993, then Monster Maker Kids (the board game) in Nov. 1994.

My bad about the PCE one, though - it came out in March 1994, not later in the year.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Huzzah, just checked mine, & yes indeedy, it has the pink slip

[SamIAm]

Weeee!



By the way, I don't know for sure, but I think the plan is to eventually use a variable-width-font.

[EsperKnight]

Man your fast Sam   But yeah I'd say hopefully all of the kinks have been worked out of the compressor.  One big thing I forgot since I hadn't looked at it in so long (but was reminded when typing up about the RLE use in LZSS) was that I also implemented the RLE as well (this code is used by other projects).  This of course causes issue with Falcom's routine or can if you hit it just right with the RLE... oi.  So with that removed and a few other things I think it should be hopefully accurate enough to work through the whole game.  I did extensive testing this time and can at least confirm I can uncompress all my compressed versions of the chunks with 100% accuracy   So now that this is out of the way it's just tweaking the text extractor since I still haven't captured all the different codes and we have some messed up lines due to it.  This at least is much simpler to fix and just needs to be handled by a case by cases basis.  Also need to remove any junk output in the scripts themselves but at least it's easy.  Just tedious is all   So yeah I'd say from here on out it should be a lot easier to test and fix, yay

And yup, plan is to implement a VWF.  I just wanted to make sure everything else was working before hand before starting in on it again (I still have my old version for TMZ that I need to redo as it breaks on the real deal) and I'm thinking we may be there

And thanks all for the support everyone

[dshadoff]

You don't even have to implement variable-width... fixed-width would be fine (as long as it's better than the system font).
Something like 8x12 could work really well, and require less code and effort.

[EsperKnight]

Very true but you need a nice font for that I think...  Would you happen to have any that would fit?  I suck at font creation and usually just use the system font but VWFed

[TurboXray]

I'd say go with a 6x12 font. It looks great (Dracula X intro uses it). It's great in that it's easy because almost all PCE CD games use the 12x12 system card font, so hacking the 12x12 print routine to show FWF 6x12 is pretty minimal, with great results.

[NightWolve]

Very true but you need a nice font for that I think...  Would you happen to have any that would fit?  I suck at font creation and usually just use the system font but VWFed

Well, if you can do 8x12, here go two Ys-related fonts attached. The first is Courrier and is what the current Ys IV patch uses. The 2nd one is a hacked version (converted to 8x12) taken from Ys Book I&II; it might be used on a future Ys IV patch, that or perhaps I give the user an option to choose between the two during the patching phase.

[Arjak]

Awesome screens, SamIAm! I'm super excited about this project coming together. EsperKnight, you're doing an excellent job. Keep up the good work, you two!