[RHDNBot]

Update By: cccmar

Hello everyone!
This is a little commemoration project we came up with a couple of weeks ago. The original War of the Dead was released 30 years ago for MSX2. We figured we'd translate the PCE version though, as it's likely one of the more playable ports. Despite quite a few gameplay differences, the story in each version is the same. The game is quite unusual in its setting, being a horror-themed action RPG that came out before the likes of much more well-known games, such as Sweet Home. Either way, here it is - we hope you enjoy it. Be sure to check the readme/text version of the manual for additional tips/pieces of advice!

RHDN Project Page

Relevant Link

[filler]

Yay! I've been interested in this game forever. I even translated a bunch of the script on SSTranslations wiki. Always liked how the characters are named after horror movie directors and such. I may have to check this out.

[Griever_GF]

Interesting! I thought the real Sweet Home predecessor is Laplace no Ma, which contains horror mansion exporation. But this seems intriguing... Too bad I can't find more proper release date that just "1987". Laplace no Ma release date is "Jul 04, 1987"

[xttx]

EDIT** Figured out my issue. Thanks for all the hard work on this classic gem. 

[cccmar]

Yay! I've been interested in this game forever. I even translated a bunch of the script. Always liked how the characters are named after horror movie directors and such. I may have to check this out.

Hah, noticed they have quite a few interesting game scripts on the wiki - a bit of a shame not much came out of it, but at the very least it is some motivation for others to do more work. Like this game for instance: http://sstranslations.wikia.com/wiki/Necros_(PC_Engine).

Anyway, it sure is curious how they named most characters after actors, directors and so on. They also used Bach's music in the church, because why not. Overall, I'd say that this is likely the most playable port; the MSX2 version rolls for encounters constantly (even when you stand still), and in the PC-88 port you can't run from battles (though it had the most interesting enemy designs, probably).

[SCO]

This one doesn't work with no-intro right? Sometimes you can apply a ips file to a non-matching checksum and they work, but the no-intro dump apparently has a different size (my guess is, no copier headers).

[cccmar]

This one doesn't work with no-intro right? Sometimes you can apply a ips file to a non-matching checksum and they work, but the no-intro dump apparently has a different size (my guess is, no copier headers).

If the no-intro ROM is not headered then nope, it won't work (which is why we put 'header' in the Patching Information section). We may make a patch for the no-intro version in the future as well though, considering that it's quite easy to find.

[butfluffy]

none of my roms are matching either. how do i check if a pce rom is headered or not? how can i add an header if there is not one?

[Zandig]

Excellent. Thanks for this. One I've been looking forward too.

[KingMike]

PCE headers are the same size as SNES, so like SNES in Windows it is as simple as checking the file size in Windows Explorer. Odd size (129KB, 257KB, etc.) = header.
Likewise, you can use SNESTool (if not other programs as well) to add/remove them (since the data itself isn't important, just the size).

[mziab]

People keep recommending SNESTool, but does it actually run on modern systems? It's an old dos app after all, so support on Windows 10 might be a bit spotty, if at all existent.

I think TUSH is a nice and simple gui tool made for this express purpose. Although personally I just use ucon64 and its --stp and --ins options from the command line for all my header manipulation needs.

[jackic]

Great work! I was actually about to start playing the sequel as I could not stand the first one on msx, this pce version is way more bearable and I was finally able to play, enjoy and finish this game. Not the best game ever but an interesting one nonetheless. Anyway I found what I think its a game breaking bug right in the end of the game, without getting into detail, you need to open a door after you acquire 6 holy relics, what happens is that, somewhere around the line, you get an story related item (a picture) that you are not supposed to have in your inventory when you get there, if you happen to have that item, the last dialogue box before the door will glitch and the door will remain permanently closed. I fixed this going back to the church, getting a password, resetting the game and inputting the aforementioned code. I think this happen because I played all the game on "single seating" since I have been playing on retroarch and I used savesates instead of the password system.

I hope this can help if anybody finds him/herself on the same situation.

 

[butfluffy]

i found an headered rom with the correct filesize but the SHA info does not match. is it ok to patch and play without problems or does the rom have to be the exact one with matching SHA info?

[celcion]

Hello. I probably should mention that, but this patch was made from GoodPCE ROM. If that's important, I can make an additional patch for no-intro ROM.

[butfluffy]

yeah a patch for no intro version would be great. i've downloaded a few roms and so far none matched. saying that i guess will try and find the goodroms set or a page with individual goodroms for download and get the exact rom.

 edit - i don't get it. i downloaded the rom with exact filename from a site with the goodset and the SHA still does not match the info.

[justarandomguy]

Thanks for the translation! I beated this game in japanese, and now I can finally understand what it's happening!

About the bug that jackic mentioned: I have a save just before opening the last door, and I have the picture in the inventory.
you have to access the door twice,  the dialogue box opens with nothing inside, but  the second time you bump into it it opens. maybe you have to do it twice?.

[jackic]

Thanks for the translation! I beated this game in japanese, and now I can finally understand what it's happening!

About the bug that jackic mentioned: I have a save just before opening the last door, and I have the picture in the inventory.
you have to access the door twice,  the dialogue box opens with nothing inside, but  the second time you bump into it it opens. maybe you have to do it twice?.

I made sure to try and open the door twice (as I saw on the only youtube video covering this part of the game) but nothing happened and the picture remained on the inventory. No biggie since you can just type a password and finish the game.

[Sliver X]

People keep recommending SNESTool, but does it actually run on modern systems? It's an old dos app after all, so support on Windows 10 might be a bit spotty, if at all existent.

I think TUSH is a nice and simple gui tool made for this express purpose. Although personally I just use ucon64 and its --stp and --ins options from the command line for all my header manipulation needs.

All 32 bit versions of Windows NT include the NTVDM subsystem, which allows many DOS programs to run. All 64 bit versions of Windows lack NTVDM, however.

I also use ucon64 for those rare times I need to do header manipulation. It's also got a mind boggling amount of other ROM manipulation features for many, many systems.

As for the translation, it's pretty awesome so far. The PC Engine/Turbo Grafx 16 doesn't get enough love like this. Thanks to all involved.

[Blomman]

Has anyone else noticed a bug where if you duck and hold the jump button you can press left or right to slide along the ground? Sliding around seems to only change where the sprite is drawn and not where the game logic considers you to be for collision checks and leaving the area.

[Pluvius]

Sorry for the necro, but I just wanted to note for any weirdos like me out there who prefer to use MagicEngine for PCE play that in that emulator, text mysteriously starts disappearing about 75% of the way into the game, around the time you have to thoroughly explore the ruins.  Probably related to the small expansion that was done.  It works fine on RetroArch/Mednafen.  If you've already made progress under MagicEngine, just get a password (the text asking you if you want a password is missing, but the password itself shows up if you just press Button I).