Xanadu II Translation Development Blog

[SamIAm]

What about
The Legend of Xanadu
Dragon Slayer VIII

That is actually what Xanadu 1 is called in the credits. The thing is, that game doesn't have a tagline/message under the title graphic anywhere in it. It's just this one screen in Xanadu 2. Or is that what you meant?

Phase reminded me that the real tagline on the back of the case and in a lot of the advertisements is something like "The Legendary Wind Returns/Rises Again" (伝説の風再び), which would look fine other than maybe not being able to fit. There are a lot of things we could come up with that would work well enough in the role that THE LAST OF DRAGONSLAYER presently plays.

The thing is, I'd like to stick close to what the original says, and if that doesn't work, I'd say just cut it. I feel like I could look Falcom in the eye and tell them why I think THE LAST DRAGON SLAYER is close in spirit to what they had in the original and a smarter choice for native English speaking audiences. If need be, I could tell them why I thought it just had to go. But telling them that I felt entitled to put whatever I wanted in such a prominent place (well, sort of prominent) would be a very different thing.

There are times in story translation when you have to make up a small something on your own just to fill in a crack left by something untranslatable. This doesn't strike me as one of them, though.

Really, unless elmer finishes the games and tells me he objects, I think THE LAST DRAGON SLAYER works fine.

[TurboXray]

What about Faxanadu (Fa(micom) Xanadu)?

[SamIAm]

Hudson developed that one under license from Falcom, so it doesn't usually make the list of official Dragon Slayer series games. The story is completely unique, too.

[TurboXray]

How do you know Falcom wasn't involved in it? Falcom have worked with Hudson on quite a few projects.

[SamIAm]

I didn't know, so I just looked it up.

Hiromasa Iwasaki was a very prolific and prominent Hudson programmer. He contributed lots of articles and reviews to PC Engine magazines, and even showed up on TV a few times. One of the more impressive things he did was port Ys I&II.

Unlike a lot of Japanese developers who are quiet and private, he's always been very forthcoming with stories. Here, he tells a very long story about how the Ys port came to be, and it's pretty good. I'd translate it if I weren't so dang busy already.

http://peke.ojaru.jp/ys/

About Faxanadu and Ys...

Apparently, Hudson was supposed to do a fairly straight port of the original Xanadu to the Famicom. However, Iwasaki's colleague who was tasked with the job, a guy named Okuno, thought that the game stunk, so he changed it.

Wikipedia confirms that Famicom Xanadu was advertised as the original Xanadu right up until the release. When it came out, a lot of gamers were angry and disappointed, and reviews panned it on the point of being different alone.

According to Iwasaki, Falcom was pissed, too.

Some months later, Iwasaki was playing Ys on PC and thought it was great, so he approached Falcom together with Bomberman creator and then Hudson executive Shinichi Nakamoto about doing a port. They literally went to Falcom's office together to make their case, and Falcom's president sat across from them scoffing and otherwise looking none-too-friendly.

Iwasaki supposes that Falcom didn't want Hudson to port it, but also wanted to maintain a business relationship, and so didn't want to turn Hudson down outright. Instead, he thinks that the Falcom president offered them a price for the license that he was expecting to be too high. Nakamoto agreed to it immediately.

Back at headquarters, when asked how the hell they were ever going to make a profit, Nakamoto said "We're going to sell CD systems with this, that's how."

[NightWolve]

I didn't know, so I just looked it up.

Hiromasa Iwasaki was a very prolific and prominent Hudson programmer. He contributed lots of articles and reviews to PC Engine magazines, and even showed up on TV a few times. One of the more impressive things he did was port Ys I&II.

I can't find it ATM, and I know I've seen it before translated somewhere, but he shared that it was his idea to put both Ys I & II together to make it a more fuller/complete game. That was a condition he put forth, only wanting to port it if he could put them both together, something like that. Falcom later copied the idea with the limited edition of Ys I & II Complete back over for the Windows PC platform, putting them together and allowing for the launching of Ys II right after beating Ys I.

I thought it was here, http://shmuplations.com/ys/, but maybe it was in crazy John's Kickstarter book ? Darnet, I can't find where that interview was... I'm sure someone here must remember it, might've got linked here somewhere.

[SamIAm]

That's right. That's exactly what it says on that page.

[elmer]

I didn't know, so I just looked it up.

I'm reasonably good at what I do ... but your ability to be in a position to say things like that just puts me to shame at times. 

Apparently, Hudson was supposed to do a fairly straight port of the original Xanadu to the Famicom. However, Iwasaki's colleague who was tasked with the job, a guy named Okuno, thought that the game stunk, so he changed it.

Wikipedia confirms that Famicom Xanadu was advertised as the original Xanadu right up until the release. When it came out, a lot of gamers were angry and disappointed, and reviews panned it on the point of being different alone.

According to Iwasaki, Falcom was pissed, too.

That's not exactly unusual for the time period.

For anyone that's worked in an modern job that's had to deal with licensed properties, such as TV, movies, books, or sports, it'll probably seem like a very strange concept.

Modern companies protect their IP, and their "brand" vigorously.

It just wasn't like that in the 1980s and 1990s for Arcade Games and Video Games.

They just weren't seen as long-term investments in a "brand" that could make more money from marketing than from the original idea itself.

I never had to deal with, or consider, the wishes of the original creators, nor even talk to them, in anything that I did in the 1980s or early 1990s ... and that consists of a number of high-profile (at the time) properties.

It wasn't until later on that I dealt with Disney and Nickelodean that I really learned just how carefully some folks protect their IP, and how much control they insist on having over the final product (by which I mean "game", unfortunately ... the distinction between "entertainment" and "fun" and "joy",  and just plain "product" is one of the first things that you lose when you go "pro").

Back at headquarters, when asked how the hell they were ever going to make a profit, Nakamoto said "We're going to sell CD systems with this, that's how."

He wasn't exactly wrong, was he! A smart business-guy.

[joobloo]

How about:

The Legend of Xanadu: Tale of the Wind
The Legend of Xanadu II: The Last Dragon Slayer

Those are some pretty badass sounding games.  Also avoids the double "Legend" in the first game's title.  "Story of the Wind" could maybe work too?

[SamIAm]

I'm reasonably good at what I do ... but your ability to be in a position to say things like that just puts me to shame at times. 

Well, you're probably a better programmer than I am a translator. 

Anyway, it's nice to have access to this info when it's out there.

Actually, because the Japanese internet world is a little stunted compared the to English internet world, there is a lot less effort put into archiving information. Many pages full of interesting info put up 10-15 years ago by people in the industry or people typing up what they found in old magazines are gone now, like so many dinky little geocities pages.

I ought to see if I can find some Falcom retrospectives. They might even have something interesting to say about Faxanadu...it was, after all, a pretty cool creation on its own.

That's not exactly unusual for the time period.

For anyone that's worked in an modern job that's had to deal with licensed properties, such as TV, movies, books, or sports, it'll probably seem like a very strange concept.

Modern companies protect their IP, and their "brand" vigorously.

It just wasn't like that in the 1980s and 1990s for Arcade Games and Video Games.

They just weren't seen as long-term investments in a "brand" that could make more money from marketing than from the original idea itself.

I never had to deal with, or consider, the wishes of the original creators, nor even talk to them, in anything that I did in the 1980s or early 1990s ... and that consists of a number of high-profile (at the time) properties.

It wasn't until later on that I dealt with Disney and Nickelodean that I really learned just how carefully some folks protect their IP, and how much control they insist on having over the final product (by which I mean "game", unfortunately ... the distinction between "entertainment" and "fun" and "joy",  and just plain "product" is one of the first things that you lose when you go "pro").

Interesting. Would you say it was the mid-late 90s when that finally seemed to change and IP defensiveness became more universal in games?

[dshadoff]

Apparently, Hudson was supposed to do a fairly straight port of the original Xanadu to the Famicom. However, Iwasaki's colleague who was tasked with the job, a guy named Okuno, thought that the game stunk, so he changed it.

Wikipedia confirms that Famicom Xanadu was advertised as the original Xanadu right up until the release. When it came out, a lot of gamers were angry and disappointed, and reviews panned it on the point of being different alone.

According to Iwasaki, Falcom was pissed, too.

That's not exactly unusual for the time period.

I remember going to an intellectual property rights seminar as a teenager in the mid-80's, and the subject was the then-newish concept of moral rights.

In Canada at least, the Berne Convention (old law, predating computers) was the prevailing set of laws governing all works until the early '80's when they were refined - mostly based on the American updates made in the Copyright Act of 1976.  The Berne Convention had a lot of gaps in it, as compared to today's copyright laws.

There was a particular case which made headlines around that time. however: Snow v Eaton Center.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_v_Eaton_Centre_Ltd

The summary is that Eaton Centre (a mall) had bought a work of art - a set of sculptures of geese in flight, intended to displayed in a particular way.  During the Christmas season of 1981, somebody got the smart idea of tying red ribbons around the necks of the goose sculptures.

The artist sued and eventually won.  His point was that they had effectively defaced the sculpture and (in his opinion) caused damage to his reputation.  So by extending that logic, the originator of a work has moral rights of how a work is to be used, beyond ownership of the work itself.

Of course, this was all new stuff in law (which tends to move slowly), and was certainly not part of any multi-country signatory treaty yet... but I understood at the time that there were a few similar cases occurring in other countries too.

Now, For Faxanadu to be blatantly changed dramatically would probably not pass muster under this law (but this was new stuff, and as I said... didn't apply everywhere yet).  But I still would have expected it to happen differently than described in two key ways:

1) I would have thought that Falcom would have been smart enough to put a clause into the contract that they would have a right of approval over the final work.  But I guess this period was still early days and they were green.  And this was Japan.

2) I would have expected the decision to change the game to have been made by a team, a team lead, or a manager of some sort, rather than an individual programmer.  That's what surprised me most about this story.

Interesting. Would you say it was the mid-late 90s when that finally seemed to change and IP defensiveness became more universal in games?

Well... in North America, I think that the Atari/"E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" debacle was probably the point at which people started to think "maybe I should take an active role in what the game looks like".  there was likely a counterpart in the NES timeframe too.

-Dave

[SamIAm]

2) I would have expected the decision to change the game to have been made by a team, a team lead, or a manager of some sort, rather than an individual programmer.  That's what surprised me most about this story.

A couple of quick notes.

Mr. Okuno is listed as a programmer in many games, but he is also described as the "core developer" of the first Power League games. He might have been programmer and leader of the Faxanadu project.

Curiously, the only credits I can find for Faxanadu list two people: Okuno and the music composer.

Also, Takahashi Meijin's ephemeral blog, captured here in archive (I'm telling you, there are tons of dead links out there to really interesting looking stuff), makes it sound like it might have been more of a group decision. Without saying who thought it, he says it was thought that the puzzle elements of Xanadu would be too difficult for elementary school students, and that was a strong impetus for changing the game.

[TurboXray]

So Hudson went on to do Popful Mail, Ys 3, the two Legend of Heroes games - all ports. But non of these Legend of Xanadu games are ports. If Falcom and Hudson didn't have this cozy relationship, then what exactly are these games if they aren't ports? Ys IV is an odd one out here as well (which Falcom claims isn't the official version). Because Falcom only did computer stuff.

[CrackTiger]

So Hudson went on to do Popful Mail, Ys 3, the two Legend of Heroes games - all ports. But non of these Legend of Xanadu games are ports. If Falcom and Hudson didn't have this cozy relationship, then what exactly are these games if they aren't ports? Ys IV is an odd one out here as well (which Falcom claims isn't the official version). Because Falcom only did computer stuff.

The first The Legend of Xanadu was published by NEC.

[elmer]

But non of these Legend of Xanadu games are ports. If Falcom and Hudson didn't have this cozy relationship, then what exactly are these games if they aren't ports? Ys IV is an odd one out here as well (which Falcom claims isn't the official version). Because Falcom only did computer stuff.

This is the whole point with the Legend of Xanadu games ... they're unique games created specifically for the PC Engine by Falcom themselves. There's no Hudson involvement.

Legend of Xanadu 1 is the very first console game that Falcom ever did themselves.

Legend of Xanadu 2 is the 3rd console game that Falcom ever did themselves (SNES Popful Mail is the  2nd, and hardly counts because it was just an upgraded port of their own earlier game).

[CrackTiger]

But non of these Legend of Xanadu games are ports. If Falcom and Hudson didn't have this cozy relationship, then what exactly are these games if they aren't ports? Ys IV is an odd one out here as well (which Falcom claims isn't the official version). Because Falcom only did computer stuff.

This is the whole point with the Legend of Xanadu games ... they're unique games created specifically for the PC Engine by Falcom themselves. There's no Hudson involvement.

Legend of Xanadu 1 is the very first console game that Falcom ever did themselves.

Legend of Xanadu 2 is the 3rd console game that Falcom ever did themselves (SNES Popful Mail is the  2nd, and hardly counts because it was just an upgraded port of their own earlier game).

The only thing that Popful Mail for SFC and Mega-CD share with their earlier game is characters, and misc events and items. Only the PC Engine version is an upgraded console port of the original.

[SamIAm]

So Hudson went on to do Popful Mail, Ys 3, the two Legend of Heroes games - all ports. But non of these Legend of Xanadu games are ports. If Falcom and Hudson didn't have this cozy relationship, then what exactly are these games if they aren't ports? Ys IV is an odd one out here as well (which Falcom claims isn't the official version). Because Falcom only did computer stuff.

Faxanadu came out in November 1987, while The Legend of Xanadu 1 was announced in the spring of 1992.

When the port of Ys 1&2 came out in December 1989, it was received as the best version of the game(s) and a general triumph for reasons we all know, and I'm sure this success helped thaw any cold feelings between the companies. Ys 3 and the Dragon Slayer - Legend of Heroes games, all ported by Hudson, were basically well received, too. I think Falcom was justifiably excited by the CD platform and the Falcom fans that had congregated to it when they decided to make The Legend of Xanadu.

Ys 4 was a unique experiment. Falcom made the game only as far as the design document and musical score, then handed it out to three developers working on three different platforms to actually create - Hudson for the PCE, Tonkin House for the Super Famicom, and Sega for the Mega CD.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who knows this, but there was indeed supposed to be a Mega CD version of Ys 4. Sega and Falcom were buddy-buddy because a couple of the executives were friends on a private basis. The whole story about Popful Mail being originally slated to come to the Mega CD as Sister Sonic is true - I have an article from a period magazine that describes all of this. Anyway, we all know which ideas they decided to go with and which they didn't.

It appears, by the way, that Ys 4 on Super Famicom was accepted as canon because it stuck to Falcom's design document more closely.

But yes, the Legend of Xanadu games on PCE were both the first Falcom games on PCE that weren't ports, and also the very first console games that Falcom actually made themselves. Until they started making games for the PSP in 2006, they only made four console games in-house total: Legend of Xanadu 1 and 2 for PCE, and Popful Mail and Ys 5 for Super Famicom. All four came out in 1994 and 1995.

If you're interested, I actually attempted a "Let's Read" of the PC Engine Fan magazine issue where Ys 4 and The Legend of Xanadu were announced. At the time, there were no details given about The Legend of Xanadu, even the title. Still, Hudson described it as being as important as Squaresoft deciding to make games for Nintendo.

https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=18877.msg401745#msg401745

The first The Legend of Xanadu was published by NEC.

Yes, but only published. It was created entirely by Falcom themselves.

Also, according to the Japanese wikipedia article, NEC paid for a roughly $3,000,000 TV ad campaign for Legend of Xanadu 1. I wouldn't be surprised if that had been promised at the beginning to help get Falcom aboard.

The only thing that Popful Mail for SFC and Mega-CD share with their earlier game is characters, and misc events and items. Only the PC Engine version is an upgraded console port of the original.

The point is, it was made in-house by Falcom, unlike the Mega CD version that was made by Sega or the PCE version that was made by NEC Home Electronics.  That, and the SFC game isn't unique enough to be as outstanding on a timeline as a completely new game.

Although it seems Falcom didn't seem to have their best people working on the Super Famicom, because Popful Mail SFC and Ys 5 aren't very good.

EDIT: I'll be damned. The same guy who programmed the PC original also did the SFC version.

As a Popful Mail fan, I have to add, it wouldn't be fair to say that the SFC and Mega CD versions of Popful Mail are equally removed from the original. The SFC version is a pretty drastic reimagining, but the Mega CD version's game progression, map layout, and even script are based heavily on the original.

PS: One of my favorite things about The Legend of Xanadu 1 is that it has some Popful Mail in its blood. Yoshio Kiya directed them both. Popful Mail is much goofier, and Xanadu 1 has a much more developed story, but the games share the same kind of Falcom-esque goofiness.

[ParanoiaDragon]

I thought I heard Falcom originally considered DoY cannon. Though that might've been based on the fact that when they were shopping around for someone to do an anime, it was based on the DoY art style, rather than MotS?

[SamIAm]

I'm not sure about that one. If you're really interested, I could try to track it down in Japanese.

----------------

A couple things I've read about Yoshio Kiya, director of the Dragon Slayer series who quit after The Legend of Xanadu 1.

- He's from the same part of Japan where I live now!

- Became a certified auto mechanic out of high school.

- Loves motorcycles. The president of Falcom bought him multiple cars in exchange for making him promise not to ride motorcycles because of how dangerous they are. Started riding again after quitting Falcom.

- Got his first PC, an NEC PC-6001, at 20 years old, which should be in 1980.

- Developed the original Dragon Slayer on his own over the course of about six months before actually joining Falcom (not sure if he got help with the art, though). It went on sale right after he was hired, which would be in 1984. He had apparently sold a few of his other home-developed games to Falcom before that.

- Was director and main programmer of all the games in the old Dragon Slayer series, except The Legend of Xanadu 2, which was made after he quit.

- As director, was a self-professed dictator. Got personally involved as much as he could, but stayed away from the music side of things. He is listed as a scenario writer in some games.

- Was only the director of Popful Mail, not the main programmer. Same goes for Brandish.

- After leaving Falcom, joined the company Nihon Application, now called Creansmaerd. He still works there today, and his job doesn't seem to be related to games, at least directly. Creansmaerd seems to be a digital payment system company. Wikipedia says he's he's involved in some kind of games division, though.

- Post Falcom, he was closely involved in only five games. Four are in an obscure PC series called Gekirin.　Here's one.

- The other and last, very sadly, was Last Imperial Prince on PC-FX. He was the producer. I say sadly because this game sucks. I wonder if he was burnt out at this point. I at least like to imagine that the low quality of LIP was do to resource constraints and other staff problems...

[NightWolve]

- Became a certified auto mechanic out of high school.

- Loves motorcycles. The president of Falcom bought him multiple cars in exchange for making him promise not to ride motorcycles because of how dangerous they are. Started riding again after quitting Falcom.

Hah, cool dude!

[NightWolve]

I didn't know, so I just looked it up.

Hiromasa Iwasaki was a very prolific and prominent Hudson programmer. He contributed lots of articles and reviews to PC Engine magazines, and even showed up on TV a few times. One of the more impressive things he did was port Ys I&II.

I can't find it ATM, and I know I've seen it before translated somewhere, but he shared that it was his idea to put both Ys I & II together to make it a more fuller/complete game. That was a condition he put forth, only wanting to port it if he could put them both together, something like that. Falcom later copied the idea with the limited edition of Ys I & II Complete back over for the Windows PC platform, putting them together and allowing for the launching of Ys II right after beating Ys I.

I thought it was here, shmuplations.com/ys/, but maybe it was in crazy John's Kickstarter book ? Darnet, I can't find where that interview was... I'm sure someone here must remember it, might've got linked here somewhere.

That's right. That's exactly what it says on that page.

Alright, more Ys history tangent time. Yep, it was our good pal crazy John in an issue of GamesTM!

Speaking to main programmer Hiromasa Iwasaki, who was a freelancer for Hudson at the time, reveals amazing things. "In winter 1988, I loved to play Ys II for PC, and when I played, Shinichi Nakamoto [executive producer at Hudson] came to my place and he said: 'Do you want to transplant it to PC Engine?' I replied to him: 'Mr. Nakamoto, I wanna do it if you can accept my condition. Ys is one story made from two parts of a game. I want to transplant two games into one CD. If we do so, we can promote how the capacity of CDs is bigger than ROM cartridges.' Nakamtoto soon replied: 'Okay, we will do this.' So we visited Tokyo, went to Falcom and made a deal."

And that ladies and gentlemen is how history was made: Ys Book I & II.

[elmer]

You posted that a while ago now ... but I just wanted to say "Thanks!" ... that's an interesting read. 

[NightWolve]

You're welcome! I had help for that too, SkyeWelse, who offered to scan the mag into readable form. My biggest donor (a friend who works at Intel) actually donated a copy of that GamesTM magazine to me, so I also own it and could've done it, but SkyeWelse saved me the trouble/grunt work. Anyway, it is some legendary history-making of how "Ys Book I & II" came to be merged proper ever since and it's great that behind the scenes stuff like that got captured to cherish the industry that much more!

[geise]

I love Ys Book I & II so much!  Thanks for the Ys history lesson.

[ashrion]

You know when we will have the xanadu one available?

You can not talk to the pc engine works, to create a beautiful edition?

Only able to reach the 5 level without knowing any Japanese.

thanks for yor work ^^

[elmer]

You know when we will have the xanadu one available?

When both it and Xanadu 2 are done. Unfortunately, there's no exact way to figure out when that will be.

You can not talk to the pc engine works, to create a beautiful edition?

<sigh> Again? <sigh> 

Nope.

Only able to reach the 5 level without knowing any Japanese.

Then I think that you're going to be in for a real treat when we're finally finished, and you can play through the game and understand it.

[SamIAm]

You know when we will have the xanadu one available?

You can not talk to the pc engine works, to create a beautiful edition?

Only able to reach the 5 level without knowing any Japanese.

thanks for yor work ^^

We appreciate your interest.

Elmer and I don't know exactly when we will be finished. Both games will be released at the same time. It is likely that we can do it before the end of the year, but we cannot promise anything.

Basically, we don't want to see any reproduction-editions. There are too many legal and ethical problems with them.

We especially don't want to see PCE Works make reproductions. The person behind PCE Works, a guy named Tobias, has a history of lying and stealing. He tried to sell his reproduction of Sapphire as the original version, and he has used many translations without permission.

I understand your desire to have a nice physical copy, but please understand that we want to be respectful to the original developers. We also want translators like us to be safe from legal trouble, and not to feel like their translations may be stolen.

[jtucci31]

Xanadu 1 comes in a nice double case that has space for a burned cdr of the translated game for when the time comes

[ashrion]

thanks reply, only one clarification.
i today 440 original pcengine games and all complete fx, incluide fxga- fx board and pc9821 from use boards, all spine cards

440 games, all expensive games original, falle all game to sport, mahong, pachinko, all shooting games,
all games whit spine card, all games in greath condition.
My fisrt shappire buy in 1997, suruga shop 54500y, buy in japan akihabara dead of the brain 1&2 in end 1999.

Yes item of tobias i don t like only copys shappires, faussette, or kazekiri is a shit, buy others stile twin bee or force gear of tokimeki is fantastic idea.

Many more new games, made by fans, who did not reach the quality of official 1987

[elmer]

It's been a long time since I updated this thread, but I'm glad to say that I'm finally playtesting Xanadu 2 and finally getting to see and enjoy the differences between Xanadu 1 and Xanadu 2.

Of course, it's also and opportunity to help find and fix the (hopefully few) bugs in my translation coding, and in SamIAm's actual translation.

So far, the game is beautiful ... but it's pointing out a few areas that I put-off polishing, or even really looking at too deeply

Xanadu 1 is a massively-complex game, but it runs through a fairly straight-forward game engine.

In Xanadu 2, Falcom took the opportunity to refine and tweak a whole bunch of things.

That makes the game look and play a lot more "polished" than Xanadu 1 ... but it also means that there are a lot more "edge" cases and one-time-use code that needs to be fixed.

When playing yesterday, I found the first "big" screw-up in the translation.

I was playing, and moved to a different area and suddenly this text box popped-up that was full of garbage characters.




Well, after hours of tracking down, it turned out to be the "You've played for an hour, now take a break." message.

But that message is a part of the Game Code overlay ... and that overlay is full, so there's no room left to fix things.

What followed is the entire day spent reorganizing memory and testing the results in order to free up enough space to put in the proper message in the proper place.

While I was at it, it annoyed me that that message was displayed in white (actor speech color) text instead of cyan (game narration color) text, and so I tried to fix that at the same time.

Here's the result ...




Now ... I really need to get rid of that annoying half-space before the flashing cursor ... but perhaps I can put that off for another few days.

Tomorrow it's back to playing the game again! 

[technozombie]

It's been a long time since I updated this thread, but I'm glad to say that I'm finally playtesting Xanadu 2 and finally getting to see and enjoy the differences between Xanadu 1 and Xanadu 2.

Of course, it's also and opportunity to help find and fix the (hopefully few) bugs in my translation coding, and in SamIAm's actual translation.

So far, the game is beautiful ... but it's pointing out a few areas that I put-off polishing, or even really looking at too deeply

Xanadu 1 is a massively-complex game, but it runs through a fairly straight-forward game engine.

In Xanadu 2, Falcom took the opportunity to refine and tweak a whole bunch of things.

That makes the game look and play a lot more "polished" than Xanadu 1 ... but it also means that there are a lot more "edge" cases and one-time-use code that needs to be fixed.

When playing yesterday, I found the first "big" screw-up in the translation.

I was playing, and moved to a different area and suddenly this text box popped-up that was full of garbage characters.




Well, after hours of tracking down, it turned out to be the "You've played for an hour, now take a break." message.

But that message is a part of the Game Code overlay ... and that overlay is full, so there's no room left to fix things.

What followed is the entire day spent reorganizing memory and testing the results in order to free up enough space to put in the proper message in the proper place.

While I was at it, it annoyed me that that message was displayed in white (actor speech color) text instead of cyan (game narration color) text, and so I tried to fix that at the same time.

Here's the result ...




Now ... I really need to get rid of that annoying half-space before the flashing cursor ... but perhaps I can put that off for another few days.

Tomorrow it's back to playing the game again! 

Today I learned my mom has something in common with Japanese game developers. I never listened to her and took breaks, and I sure as hell am not putting this game down when I get my dirty paws on it.

[SamIAm]

Nice work, elmer! Things are coming right along for both of us again!

While I was at it, it annoyed me that that message was displayed in white (actor speech color) text instead of cyan (game narration color) text, and so I tried to fix that at the same time.

Here's the result ...

That looks good! I might like to get rid of the line-break after the first sentence, but we'll just see. That's the kind of minor detail we can settle on during a later phase. 

[elmer]

That looks good! I might like to get rid of the line-break after the first sentence, but we'll just see. That's the kind of minor detail we can settle on during a later phase. 

Yep, it fits better with your other translations when it doesn't have the line break.

I was also using the wrong blue/cyan tint.

Here's the updated version ...

[SamIAm]

That's it.

[spenoza]

Does it do that every hour or only after the first?

[SamIAm]

I think it does it every hour.

You can turn it off in the menu if you'd prefer not to see it.

[elmer]

I think it does it every hour.

Yep, I'm seeing it every hour-or-so of gameplay, and didn't know that you could disable it in the menu.

This is a beautiful game! Really, really professionally done.

I just finished Chapter 3, so I'm about halfway done on my 1st play-through.

There are only a very, very few text boxes that might need a little tweaking.

SamIAm has done an amazing job on this translation! 

It's going to be really, really interesting to hear everyone's thoughts and preferences about the 2 games when we're finally finished and release them. They're very, very different in style.

[elmer]

OK! I'm on the last level now, working my way through the Citadel to the Really Big Baddie (tm). 

No problems so far ... once the voice-over is recorded, processed and inserted, it shouldn't be too long before we can release these (well, that means *hopefully* this year from my POV).

Sometime things that you didn't anticipate, actually still work out well.

I had no idea that Xanadu 2 had a couple of "flashback" story sequences that are signified by having no background text box, and using a sepia-tone color palette.

I'm really amazed (and pleased) by how the drop-shadow on the text helps those to be readable.

Here's an example (without giving away the story) ...

[SamIAm]

Holy cow, that was fast. 

Yep, the last big thing is the cutscenes. I'm doing work on that now! 

[elmer]

Holy cow, that was fast. 

To paraphrase ... I came to chew bubblegum, and kick ass; and I was all out of bubblegum! 



So now Falcom go all French on us??? 

*************

Anyway ... the credits roll is all screwed-up, so that's another thing to fix, and then there are still the chapter title graphics and a few other things still to do, so I've got plenty to keep me busy while SamIAm deals with the incredibly difficult job of herding the voice-over talent into a semblance of order, and then whipping them into giving good performances to honor Falcom's original source-material.

But, "practically", if I got hit by the proverbial bus tomorrow, then these games would still get finished and released.

Now that I've (finally) played through both games, I'm really looking forward to seeing the cutscenes in English and understanding the part of the story that I missed.

It's definitely going to be good to talk to folks after this is done.

There's such a huge difference in style between Xanadu 1 and Xanadu 2.

I wouldn't say that one is "better" than the other ... they seemed aimed at different audiences.

They're both stunningly-good examples of 1990s RPG at its best, and of developers exploring the limits/freedom of the 1st generation of CD-ROM hardware.

[mj9123456]

Really excited to play this, thanks for all the updates.

[NightWolve]

Really great work, guys! It brings a tear to my eye to have witnessed a great team come together like this and have gotten so far, so fast, and already so close to the finish line evidently! Seems to also be true with Old Rover and Sarumaru!

So now Falcom go all French on us??? 

They did use a French female narrator for the opening of Ys Origin. And while "fin" is technically Latin and also applies to Spanish (and "le fine" for Italian), it is a good bet the folks at Falcom are Francophiles. ;)

[elmer]

Really great work, guys! It brings a tear to my eye to have witnessed a great team come together like this and have gotten so far, so fast, and already so close to the finish line evidently!

Thanks for the kind words! 

Both games are fully playable in English, so it's just cleanup and polishing that are left on my plate.

Like normal ... I'm sure that those jobs will expand to take up whatever time is available while SamIAm works on the dub.

Anyway ... the credits roll is all screwed-up, so that's another thing to fix, and then there are still the chapter title graphics and a few other things still to do, so I've got plenty to keep me busy.

Well, the whole credits sequence turned out to be a bit of a PITA, with it using its own customized script-interpreter, and an embedded script within the code-overlay itself that hadn't been extracted before.

On top of which, it's using yet-another custom text-printing routine (1bpp black-and-white) that needed to be hacked.

That's been done now, and I've put in a 2bpp VWF text-printing routine so that we can use our regular fonts with a drop-shadow.

The script-interpreter has also been modified to handle new commands to switch between the condensed and normal fonts, and also to "tab" out the printing to allow for columns of VWF text.

Now it just needs translations for all of the credits.

***************

I've also finally done the remaining (fairly major) hacks to the Xanadu 2 Opening cutscene to change the character portraits into English.

This turned-out to be a severe PITA too, since once-again, it was originally designed to only "sparkle/fade" in a 1bpp (white-or-transparent) bitmap overlay with the name onto the underlying portrait sprites, and there was never any thought put in to allowing a palette entry for a drop-shadow.

Luckily, all the portraits included "black" in them (except for one), so it was mainly a case of extracting the original graphics and then remapping the images and color palettes so that black was always color 14, and white was always color 15.

Then a set of modifications to the "sparkle/fade" code to handle 2 bitplanes, and a set of new graphics for the text overlay, and Bob's-your-Uncle!

Here's the result, together with the latest (and probably final) revision to the subtitle to say "The Last Dragon Slayer".

The font for the character names isn't set-in-stone, and may change if someone with artistic skills wants to give it a try and comes up with something that looks better, but I'm not unhappy with it as it is.

[esteban]

GORGEOUS! 

[SamIAm]

That is some exciting stuff! Well done!

[SuperPlay]

phenomenal stuff :-)

[ashrion]

fantastic news 

[elmer]

Here's an interesting glitch in the Xanadu 2 opening cutscene.

Perhaps it's just the ISO image that I'm using for development, but I can also see how it could have slipped through Falcom's testing.

If you look at these 2 frames of the animation from Areios's introduction, then you can see a couple of stray black pixels on the right hand edge of the screen.



These are probably cut off by the overscan at the edge of the screen on a normal TV and may not have been visible to Falcom's testers.

Or perhaps they were ... I'm developing in Mednafen, and not on a real PCE, so it's not too easy for me to check it out on a real system.

Someone with a Sony PVM or BVM could toggle the underscan mode on the monitor and see the entire frame to check if these show up on the shipped Xanadu 2 CD.

Anyway ... it annoyed me enough that I've tracked down where those frames are located in the cutscene data, and I'm now clearing the bad data during script-insertion so that the stray pixels are gone. 


If someone has really good eyes, they may also be able to see a 1/60th second glitch on screen when the cutscene transitions to display the Dragon Slayer sword scrolling across the screen, but only on the 2nd and 3rd time it is displayed during the cutscene, and not the 1st time.



This one would be a huge pain to track down and fix because it's a timing problem, and not a data problem.

I think that this is one glitch may just have to stay the way that Falcom left it when they shipped the game.

[esteban]

Elmer: Sadly, this glitch may have beaten us all. Even the best of us.

[elmer]

Elmer: Sadly, this glitch may have beaten us all. Even the best of us.

Hahaha ... you're not going to "psych" me into working on it that easily! 

*************

After months of specifically avoiding the horrors of the Save Slot screen, the extra familiarity with the code from so many months of working with it, actually made it not-too-bad to tackle this time around ...



But it shows that this is another one of those screens that actually cries-out for some modification to the background graphics in order to put a drop-shadow on the other text-in-graphic elements on the screen.