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News Submissions / Re: Translations: Go for it, Goemon! Depose the Odd Shōgun McGuinness! (Alpha version) Released!

« on: September 03, 2020, 12:29:44 pm »

That doesn't tell us much about what to expect. Maybe one is more literal, or more comical, or something.

You can also simply play both and see for yourself. Am I right?

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Gaming Discussion / Re: Favorite period for each genre?

« on: July 24, 2020, 12:02:17 pm »

The 1987~1994 range was the sweet spot to most oldschool/traditional genres, imo. Not too archaic, not too modern. Just right.

By that point, 8bit games had fully matured (like how NES/Famicom games got complex mappers), and 16bit was at its prime (bigger roms were possible, PC Engine / Mega Drive got their CD addons, etc).

Can't say much about the 32bit era and beyond since I focus more into 8/16bit stuff.

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Gaming Discussion / Re: please can you recommend me a rpg on this site that has female protagonist

« on: July 05, 2020, 05:55:37 pm »

Nobody mentioned Phantasy Star yet, so...

By far one of the best SMS games.

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Gaming Discussion / Re: Anyone else checked out Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth yet?

« on: April 28, 2020, 02:04:41 pm »

This looks at least 100x better than Bloodstained. Real pixel art, just like SotN. Not 2.5D pretending to be 2D.

Will definitely try it out when I can.

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Gaming Discussion / Re: Does anyone know what game this is?

« on: February 22, 2020, 01:20:17 pm »

I got a game that I've been trying to track down since childhood. It's an old Mame style arcade game. It's a lot like golden axe where it's a full directional beat em up with fantasy characters, and every time you beat a boss, the paths branch more and more. I ran out of quarters before I reached the end. I do know that if you die while fighting a boss, their image appears on the continue screen and taunts you until the timer runs out or you insert a coin. I would really like to play this game again as it's one of the few arcade games I would actually spend all my money on, but I just can't remember the name.

Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom.

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Gaming Discussion / Re: Is there a comprehensive resource anywhere for "foreign" English games?

« on: December 28, 2019, 11:19:56 am »

I don't know of a list, but another example that comes to mind is Super Black Onyx (Famicom).

Despite being only released in Japan, that version of the game is completely in English.

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Personal Projects / Re: Final Fantasy NES Trilogy Translations

« on: October 25, 2019, 02:53:12 pm »

Thank you for your contributions, Chaos Rush. I'll make sure to play all your translations until the end when I have the time to do so.

And best of luck in your own game!

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Gaming Discussion / Re: Technically retraux?

« on: October 25, 2019, 11:49:42 am »

Yet they are considered the pinnacle of modern retro games.

There's no such thing as a "modern retro game". It's either modern or retro. "Classic" is a more accurate term to refer to those older games (made in the 80s/90s), while retro is a style that imitates those of classic games. You can't be retro (imitative of a style, fashion, or design from the recent past) if there was nothing to imitate in first place. That's actually a misnomer which unfortunately got popularized.

http://www.geekerific.com/2011/02/11/semantics-rant-retro-vs-classic/

By that logic, something like Super Castlevania IV is a classic, Castlevania ReBirth is retro, and Lords of Shadow is modern.

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News Submissions / Re: Translations: Pop Star Debut (Idol Hakkenden) Unofficial Localization

« on: September 06, 2019, 10:46:58 pm »

There are some "translators" out there that are extremely Japanophobic and pretty much bend over backwards trying to find English replacements for everything, removing every Japanese trace from the game in question. No respect towards the culture or the original authors.

It doesn't seem to be Polinym's case, however. Judging from their readme they just want to provide alternative ways to play those games (localized as opposed to translated). But yeah, if those are really their goals, I echo the others' thoughts and would recommend sticking solely to games that have already been properly translated. It's a way to save yourself from the flak you could end up getting otherwise (I've seen it happen around here before, typically with anything coming from Dynamic Designs).

That said, what you do is up to you, but if you're going to release it publicly, be prepared for the criticism. It's not my own concern anyway as I can just play the original JP versions. Got some understanding of the language and am working into improving it, but there are those who still mostly depend on such translations. Trust me that's a real bummer when you finally get the chance to play something, and then it's presented in a dumbed down/4kids way. We're in 2019, not 1989.

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Gaming Discussion / Re: RetroArch 1.7.8 introduces integrated machine translation

« on: August 31, 2019, 10:56:21 pm »

As a side note, I've been thinking for a few weeks now about a system that would be a mix of Clyde Mandellin's Wanderbar and the one shown in this video. (...)

I thought of something similar as well. It'd not be very different from stuff like YouTube's "Add new subtitles or CC" feature. I.e. replacing unreliable automated translations with human made ones.

No need to hack the ROM directly to play such translations, which in turn means no more need to worry about character limit, bugs, or whatever other problems that may arise as a result of romhacking.

It'd also be an alternative way for people to play those translations that had their scripts fully translated for a while, but have been stuck in limbo/abandoned due to technical difficulties in the hacking process (Romancing SaGa 2 comes to mind).

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Gaming Discussion / Re: [Fan Game] My Retro Fangames

« on: August 29, 2019, 10:36:14 pm »

I swear I have seen a creature like that in the second image. Isn't that a boss from Castlevania portrait of ruin?

Yes. That's Dagon, one of the bosses in PoR (just with a different palette).

In fact, most of the enemies/bosses above are borrowed from different Castlevania games. Examples: the Skull Dragon is Stage 2 boss from Akumajou Dracula X68000/Castlevania Chronicles, the Cerberus in the second .gif is from Dracula X (SNES), the Minotaur in the third is from Circle of the Moon, the horned beast with him is from Aria of Sorrow (Catoblepas to be more specific), and so on.

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Gaming Discussion / Re: Does anyone know what game this is?

« on: August 10, 2019, 01:01:49 pm »

My step dad didn't own a computer back then. I'm certain, positive, absolutely sure it was an NES game. I don't know what a TG-16 even looks like.

PC Engine/TG-16 is a console, despite what its name suggests. That's the reason I brought it up.

Anyway, if you're absolutely confident it's a NES game, then I can't think of anything else that looks like your description which was not already mentioned by others here. Can't really help you any further, sorry. :/

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Gaming Discussion / Re: Does anyone know what game this is?

« on: August 09, 2019, 07:02:41 pm »

@curseofnight86: This makes me think of "Genpei Touma Den - Kan no Ni / Samurai Ghost", but it's for the PC Engine/TG-16. Since your memory is hazy, maybe you could be misremembering the system?

You can jump in that game though, but it sounds close enough to your description.

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Gaming Discussion / Re: Square-Enix is doubling down on re-releases.

« on: July 11, 2019, 05:37:21 pm »

One thing I'm hoping for is a "Romancing SaGa Collection". Japan will be getting a remake of the third game later this year, while the western version is still TBA. It'd be pretty nice to get a collection of the original SFC trilogy along with that (similar to what they did with Mana).

That would be a good opportunity to finally introduce those titles to western territories properly. They're among Square's greatest classics in Japan, so it'd certainly be worth it.

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Gaming Discussion / Re: Bloodstained - Ritual of The Night

« on: July 11, 2019, 05:05:16 pm »

I backed this game, but so much time has passed since then that I more or less lost my interest on it after a while.

If I find enough time to play it, the Switch version will be my personal choice. But judging from the things I heard, I guess it'd be better to wait a bit so they can fix/polish it some more. Oh well then.

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Personal Projects / Re: Final Fantasy NES Trilogy Translations

« on: July 11, 2019, 11:07:30 am »

Now, I don’t want to go too overboard with patch options, but if people want the name connection to Chaos maintained, I’m willing to provide that as an alternate patch option. Either that, or call them “Four Fiends” but throw in the full “Four Fiends of Chaos” somewhere just once in the script (though I worry even that would piss people off).

Just my 2 cents, but I wonder how bothered people would really get over Four Fiends of Chaos. "Four Fiends" is retained, the rest is just a complement. Besides, "Chaos" is a word everyone is already familiar with because of the final boss. It's not like it's an unknown/alien term that was never used anywhere.

To me it sounds so natural that while I know I can't speak for others, I imagine most of them would not even shake while reading it.

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Personal Projects / Re: Final Fantasy NES Trilogy Translations

« on: July 09, 2019, 12:42:06 am »

I've been following this thread but only decided to post now. First of all, thank you for the good work, Chaos Rush. I just played a bit of the new FF3 translation and casually compared some of the lines with the Japanese originals. Everything seems to be on spot, and that's how I think translations should be: with accuracy and professionalism above all else. I think you're very qualified to take on any of the 6 original games.

Personally when playing through a series for the first time, I like to play a game in its original form rather than a remake so than I can see how its gameplay, graphics, and presentation evolved. Going from GBA/PSP FF2 to NES FF3 is a little strange to me, because then FF3 isn’t really much of an upgrade. Likewise going from DS FF4 to SNES FF5 is just as strange to me. Of course, once I’ve beaten a game in its original form then I’ll play the remake so I can appreciate the updates it offers.

For example, going from NES FF1 to NES FF2 you get to see how FF2 improved on these areas:
* improved battle HUD with new sliding menu
* expanded battle backgrounds a teeny tiny bit
* final boss actually has its own music
* an improved text engine with line scrolling within text boxes
* a much more character-driven story with twice the dialogue

Sure, the remake versions of FF1 already offer all of that, but then going from remake FF1 to remake FF2, FF2 suddenly upgrades a lot less to FF1.

Likewise, going from NES FF2 to NES FF3 you get:
* the classic “big blue bar at bottom” battle HUD is established for the first time
* improvements to battle HUD in general, such as the ability to view your entire inventory
* auto-targeting is added
* bosses now have boss music too, not just final boss
* major improvements to menus all-around, the original FF3 established the basic menu layout used from FF3-FF9

Again, you lose all these things when going from remake FF2 to either version of FF3, since then FF2 would already have all of these improvements, making FF3 suddenly offer a lot less that’s new.
I think you’d be missing the point of doing a FF1 translation, to be honest. Sounds like what you’re looking for is a title screen patch for FFR or GFF.

The whole point of translating the Famicom version of FF1 is so that people who want to play the original game with all of its original quirks intact can play it as it is. My projects aren’t “definitive edition” hacks, they’re just plain and simple translations with no gameplay alterations whatsoever. I would have no idea what kind of “addendum” I would do to a complete hack like FFR or GFF.

Couldn't agree more. And that's one of the reasons I opted to play through the original DQ1~4 (Famicom) titles in chronological order. It was a very satisfying experience, as I could enjoy all the little updates each subsequent title added (especially every newly added monster, which are among my favorite things in those games). This is the only way you can appreciate a series' evolution to the fullest.
____________________________

On the note of bugfixes, I agree that any of them should be strictly optional. Unlike some people are claiming, I don't think the original FF1 (even in its pristine bugged state) is unplayable by any stretch of imagination. Even the original Dragon Quest (DQ1 not DW1), which was released 1 year earlier in a 64kb ROM, isn't unplayable. For anyone who thinks FF1 is really that bad, try to play something like Hoshi wo miru Hito.

That's all I wanted to say. Not sure if I will post much anymore after this, unless if there's something else I really want to add. Chaos Rush, just follow Da_GPer's advice and keep doing what you're doing. It's great stuff, really.

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Personal Projects / Re: Final Fantasy V - GBA Script Port (v1.14) Project Thread

« on: September 05, 2018, 12:42:14 am »

Is there not any other place to grab that FFe Text Editor v1.6 other than slickproductions.org? I've been trying for several days already but the site never seems to be online. Is there any particular reason the editor isn't available for download here in this site?