Dreamcast - RENT-A-HERO No.1 - [ENG] Released!

[Felipefpl]

Dear Heroes,

To simplify and report any eventual translation issues (hopefully not that many!), I've cooked up a brand new function displaying scenario number on the bottom left part of the screen.

It can be enabled/disabled at will, by pressing a specific key-combo.
This feature will be removed from final, so well, hope it'll be useful!

Next week will make a dedicate post regarding Betatesting instructions, can't believe we're finally there!

This is a GREAT idea. Never saw an ID for scenes made before. Kongrats for that. 

[VincentNL]

Beta Testing applications are now officially open.

Please read all details here, Thank you!

[Mkol103]

Wow, I'm so excited to see this finally in the Beta Testing phase. This is the one fan translation project that I consistently check in on to see how progress is going. It is a shame I mostly emulate games on an Android-based device, so I can't be a part of the beta test, but I will be rooting from the sidelines lol.

[VincentNL]

Dear Heroes,

Thanks to our Beta Testing team spectacular work, I've been able to patch 116 issues with 3 critical ones which halted game progress!
Special Thanks to ToddlerPichu and Guimli, without their input the game would not be as good as it does now!

There's more to do, but I'm starting to see the finish line!

[Felipefpl]

I'm curious, why dont you post the github's link in the 1st post and in your signature? It'd be easier to gather ppl to help you or you want to select only a small number of ppl to help ya?

[KiryuRealty]

I'm curious, why dont you post the github's link in the 1st post and in your signature? It'd be easier to gather ppl to help you or you want to select only a small number of ppl to help ya?

Dude, don't be so lazy, type the word "people".

[Nintenja]

Beta Testing applications are now officially open.

Please read all details here, Thank you!

I didnt see this until now..can i possibly get in as a beta tester too?

[VincentNL]

I'll consider an eventual second private beta testing phase after completing the first one

[VincentNL]

Rent-A-Hero No.1 developers tried really hard to meet deadlines.
Such a rush caused a number of partially-implemented code and 3D modelling issues being mastered into the official GD-ROM release.

Thanks to our Beta testers Pichu and Guimli we got busy with fixes, but for today let's talk about the Bottle Cat:

As the story progresses you'll eventually meet Ms.Chae,
a wealthy old lady with an adorable multi-colored cat clipping through her dress... Wait, what?

For some reason, devs didn't pack the poor cat texture but used a bottle image instead!
Since the cat texture didn't exist and its U/V were unusable, we decided to redo the cat model.



Here's the task list (in order):

• Locate texture, identify model format (Egregiousguy)
  
• Extract and convert it in .NJ (Egregiousguy)
  
• Redo U/V in Blender and design a new cat texture following the art style (VincentNL)
  
• MODEL_ALL.bin PVR Extractor / Reimporter script (VincentNL)
  
• Recreate by hand new face index U/V data as per model format (Egregiousguy)
  
• Rotate / align model in order to fix the clipping issue(VincentNL)
  

It's a lot of work for such a tiny cat, but I hope you'll appreciate the final result!

Regarding second Beta testing phase, I'm happy to announce it'll start this week!
For those who are interested, before sending a PM please read guidelines first, Thanks!

[RetroProf]

During the hacking process to translate it, is there any possibility of fixing the absolutely godawful spaghetti code that governs the display output?

Long ago I bought a retail copy of the original Japanese version. I live in the UK, had a British PAL Dreamcast, and would boot all my imports using the ActionReplay demo disc given away with DC-UK magazine. I ran all my games, including imports, over RGB SCART to a UK CRT TV capable of handling a 60Hz NTSC signal.

I only ever had trouble with 2 import games.

The American Skies of Arcadia refused to display correctly. I think I fixed this either by switching to AV composite cable, or maybe even RF lead. It was worth the sacrifice for 60Hz, since the UK PAL version of the game was locked at 50Hz.

The other game was this, Rent-a-Hero No.1.

No matter what boot disc I tried (ActionReplay, Utopia), no matter what cable (RGB SCART, AV, RF), the screen was broken. It seemed to shift 50% to the left and 50% down, looping over the other side of the screen, and it rolled continuously. A non-stop rolling, distorted mess.

Eventually, after exhausting all options, I traded the game in at a local indie game store and bought something else.

Later I would play through the English Xbox release.

I know most people here are NTSC gamers. And I know most Dreamcast fans will be emulating or using VGA. But for the tiny percentage of us who play PAL systems and run them over RGB SCART onto a CRT TV (all three of us ), do you think you could look at the code governing screen output?

Because I never encountered this with any other Dreamcast game.

Did anyone in the hacking team come across or figure out how / why the game refuses to output correctly to RGB through SCART? As described above? Can 60Hz RGB output be patched in?

[VincentNL]

It's a very specific setup, which I cannot replicate for testing.

Is there any existing cheat / patch that you know of that fixes it on your side?

[RetroProf]

It's a very specific setup, which I cannot replicate for testing.

Is there any existing cheat / patch that you know of that fixes it on your side?

Yes. Only one solution I know of. Booting problem games using the "Code Breaker" cheat disc fixes screen issues. NTSC games which normally only boot in 50Hz also run in 60Hz.

You just load the cheat disc (or ISO if you're using an ODE) and then select start game without selecting any cheats. (I think it works with RAH1, though I haven't booted my DC up in about a year now so can't remember...)

The Code Breaker ISO is easily found and is a couple of megabytes only.

It's a solution, it gets the job done, but it's a bit of a faff. I just thought since you guys went all out with the cat graphics etc., this might be something easy to implement.

I have an ODE in my DC, and Code Breaker, and a PAL system running through RGB on a 60Hz compatible CRT TV.

If you do all the other more important stuff, and feel like trying to correct/adjust the screen output, I am happy to be tester for this specific anomaly.

For the record: I do not know how or why Code Breaker fixes screen issues with various games. Other cheat discs or boot discs do nothing. utopia, Action Replay, whatever, only the Code Breaker disc seems to have a specific bit of code that boots games in their native 60Hz.

[VincentNL]

Yes. Only one solution I know of. Booting problem games using the "Code Breaker" cheat disc fixes screen issues. NTSC games which normally only boot in 50Hz also run in 60Hz.

You just load the cheat disc (or ISO if you're using an ODE) and then select start game without selecting any cheats. (I think it works with RAH1, though I haven't booted my DC up in about a year now so can't remember...)

The Code Breaker ISO is easily found and is a couple of megabytes only.

It's a solution, it gets the job done, but it's a bit of a faff. I just thought since you guys went all out with the cat graphics etc., this might be something easy to implement.

I have an ODE in my DC, and Code Breaker, and a PAL system running through RGB on a 60Hz compatible CRT TV.

If you do all the other more important stuff, and feel like trying to correct/adjust the screen output, I am happy to be tester for this specific anomaly.

For the record: I do not know how or why Code Breaker fixes screen issues with various games. Other cheat discs or boot discs do nothing. utopia, Action Replay, whatever, only the Code Breaker disc seems to have a specific bit of code that boots games in their native 60Hz.

Which ODE do you have?

[RetroProf]

Which ODE do you have?

USB-GDROM

https://8bitplus.co.uk/projects/dreamcast-usb-gdrom-ode-board/

[VincentNL]

USB-GDROM

https://8bitplus.co.uk/projects/dreamcast-usb-gdrom-ode-board/

Got it thanks for the info.

[VincentNL]

Dear Heroes,

with the second round of betatesting still going on, I've taken abit of time to build the new Battle Debug mode, with own dedicate interface!

Yes you can now play your Vectorman battles! ( and see the inner workings of a Virtua Fighter-like collision system )

Wish you and your family an awesome 2023 Year!

[VincentNL]

A little surprise to our non-english speaking friends:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/rah-french-77593108

Please let me know if you need any other letter, otherwise will just finalize it as is

[RetroProf]

The letter N/n with an umlaut?

Just in case one wishes to name themselves Spinal Tap.

[VincentNL]

During our last development rush, we took some time to investigate RAH's VMU "blank screen" issue:
Probably due to strict deadlines, RAH developers simply didn't implement anything except for a few seconds during loading, saving and work!

Any attempt to hack existing functions would had no point because VMU frames were hardcoded to their relative scenes.
The only solution here were to code a brand new system using scripts to display animations at will, hope you'll enjoy this video!

Please note:

This system can be easily ported to any other DC / Naomi game using a VMU and Shinobi library, if you are interested to use it please let me know!

[Felipefpl]

The only solution here were to code a brand new system using scripts to display animations at will, hope you'll enjoy this video!

Thank you very much for that.  I wonder how many weeks you had to work to make something like this.