Castlevania II (Simon's Quest) - Multilingual enhancement

[MathUser2929]

The blinking cursors is just as good as coloring them red. Good addition.

Edit: Why not a white glove in the design of Simons sprite? That'd also make more sense than a skeloton helping Simon out.

[Bisqwit]

The blinking cursors is just as good as coloring them red. Good addition.

It was blinking before, too.
Here's what it looked like before.

Edit: Why not a white glove in the design of Simons sprite? That'd also make more sense than a skeloton helping Simon out.

Hmm, well, if you consider it representing Simon's hand, then that might make sense.
I was thinking of the game's theme...

[keropi]

the glowing circle works for me, the current cursor is not so easy to spot on a tv btw (using composite...)

[Bregalad]

If it is of any relevance, CV3 uses a safety pin to show your position on the map, and CV-SOTN and upper uses a glowing circle which diameter's varies during time.

[MathUser2929]

Wow, I didn't know what those sparkles were before. How about leaving the cursor for current location, or making it a much bigger X, then using the glove or circle to show which location you want to go to next. While I like the idea of simons glove on the map, the circle is easier to see and understand.

You might also wanna add that info to the RHDN site, your readme, and your website. I totaly didn't know what those sparkles were.

[granz]

I've actually been putting off playing Castlavania II until someone decided to re-translate it. From what I researched about the official translation, the script contained blatant errors, and the good and bad endings were even mixed up.

Looks like I finally get a chance to experience this game

[Bisqwit]

If it is of any relevance, CV3 uses a safety pin to show your position on the map, and CV-SOTN and upper uses a glowing circle which diameter's varies during time.

Thanks. I went with the Final Fantasy III hand now. A safety pin is not a good symbol for something that moves, unless you have clear actions for detaching and attaching it...

Release version 1.3.5 is out. Changes include: The hand cursor symbol, and fix for the object table corruption caused by careless loop unrolling. There is still a small lag.

and the good and bad endings were even mixed up.

It is a bit confusing.
There are three endings in this game, listed here (abridged).

Quickest:
Original English = Peace and serenity. Simon will be remembered kindly.
Original Japanese = Blood and sweat enter ground. Happiness next spring. Toast!
Finnish = Peace and calm. Name of hero is Simon Belmont, that is you.  Toast!
Retranslation = Peace and serenity. Simon will be remembered kindly. Toast!

Average:
Original English = Although encounter ended, Simon did not survive. Transylvania's only hope is a new hero.
Original Japanese = Battle ended. But Simon passed away. Transylvanians keep praying for a new hero to appear. Toast!
Finnish = Battle ended. But Simon passed away. Transylvanians keep praying for a new hero to appear. Toast!
Retranslation = Battle ended. But Simon passed away. Transylvanians keep praying for a new hero to appear. Toast!

Slowest:
Original English = Blood and sweat enter ground. Bring magic & happiness.
Original Japanese = Peace and calm. Name of hero is Simmon Belmont, that is you. Toast!
Finnish = Blood and sweat enter ground. Happiness next spring. Toast!
Retranslation = Blood and sweat enter ground. Bring magic & happiness. Toast!

The story is that Simon is suffering from a curse, and the longer it takes for him to finish Dracula, the less likely he is to survive alive (think cancer).

I can't quite point out which version of the ending texts has it wrong. I did not re-translate the slowest and the quickest endings, but for the average ending I took the Japanese text, because it does not have so strong "you accomplished nothing" connotation as the English one had. In the Finnish version, I translated the Japanese texts except swapped them for the slowest and quickest endings.

[granz]

I'm not sure if this has already been mentioned, but I think I encountered a bug. One of the NPCs in Jova (or whatever the second village is called) says something along the lines of, "You look pale..." followed by a bunch of garbage data that runs off the dialog box. I think I might be using an earlier patch version, though. I think it's something like 1.2.x

[Bisqwit]

I'm not sure if this has already been mentioned, but I think I encountered a bug. One of the NPCs in Jova (or whatever the second village is called) says something along the lines of, "You look pale..." followed by a bunch of garbage data that runs off the dialog box. I think I might be using an earlier patch version, though. I think it's something like 1.2.x

Already reported and fixed in version 1.2.7 yesterday. Thanks anyway :-)

P.S. Looks like the game works even on Nesticle (in MMC1 version), even the map. Just two scanlines of garbage there, but they don't blink and the screen doesn't shake or anything. Quite surprising. On iNES 3.6, there's one blinking line of garbage.

[Bregalad]

OK I tested this versaion with both consoles (PAL and NTSC).

The map looks great on both, however there is still the occasional missed frame problem.

I had a crash that occurred on my NTSC console but I'm pretty sure this was due to a hardware problem because the game didn't work when I pressed reset, I had to power cycle it. If it was the software that crashed, a simple reset would have restarted the game.

I think it's not so surprising it works on Nesticle. Many games does switch the CHR-ROM mid-frame, and also toggles the BG's pattern table midframe, and Nesticle, as inaccurate as it is, emulate this. It does so with very approximative timing, therefore the few lines of garbage (where the CHR-ROM is wrong).

PS : Oh and did you convert the map's graphics with some tool ? It has this "converted" look to me, although I could be wrong.

[Bisqwit]

the game didn't work when I pressed reset, I had to power cycle it. If it was the software that crashed, a simple reset would have restarted the game.

I think I will have to check on how the mapper is reset at reset, since this is the second report of that kind.
EDIT: At MMC3 reset the game puts $00 into $8000.
At VRC6 reset, the game puts $00 into $B003.
At MMC1 reset, the game first does an INC $FFFF (puts $C0 into $FFFF, then puts $C1 into $FFFF); and soon later puts $1E into $8000 one bit at time LSB-first in 5 writes.
This appear to the best I can do.

PS : Oh and did you convert the map's graphics with some tool ? It has this "converted" look to me, although I could be wrong.

Of course I use tools. It is the same program I used in test_ppu_read_buffer emulator accuracy test (composite NTSC filter recommended!).

[granz]

I found a typo. One of the clue books hidden in the second castle reads "CRUSE" instead of "CURSE."

[Bisqwit]

I found a typo. One of the clue books hidden in the second castle reads "CRUSE" instead of "CURSE."

Correct. Already fixed in 1.3.5 :-) Thanks for the report.

[Bregalad]

composite NTSC filter recommended

Oh this just remembered me, I wanted to mention it in my previous post but forgot :
The added text on the title screen is illegible on a real NES with the composite artefacts, especially on PAL.

PS : Aren't you thefox from Nesdev by any chance ?

[Bisqwit]

Oh this just remembered me, I wanted to mention it in my previous post but forgot :
The added text on the title screen is illegible on a real NES with the composite artefacts, especially on PAL.

Yeah, well there is a reason why they used two-pixel wide vertical lines in fonts that day. That is unfortunately not an option for that infobox, because of the amount of text crammed into it. Well, I could make them all white color, which would somewhat improve readability, but that'd completely blow them out of proportion visually compared to the rest of the title screen. Is it really more illegible than this image? This image was captured in my emulator, which does the most severe NTSC filter of all emulators I know having this feature.



On NESDev I use this same nickname, and I have posted several NTSC related articles there.

[keropi]

great news, thanks for the update Bisqwit 

@Bregalad:

what donor cart are you using? a mmc-3? I can't test it atm because I forgot my cart at my office  but what happens if you leave the game powered on for ~1hr? I just put Simon on the upper left ledge at the starting town (so ghouls can't reach him at night) and see if the game behaves fine after that time... at ~50mins mark on my case I had some random tiles replacing the background. Ofcourse Bisqwit might have fixed that but it would be nice to verify this on another hardware combo. Once this corruption starts I had to power-cycle my famicom to get rid of that , it looked like this:





personally I like the red circle more than the FF hand on the map , IMHO the hand is too cartoonish

[Bisqwit]

I'm running a crash test now, on the MMC3 version. Running it at 240% turbo in Nestopia, leaving Simon standing in the spot you mentioned, running now. In another window, running at 240% speed idle at map screen.
EDIT: After 30 minutes (corresponding to 2 hours, or 20 in-game days), neither instance has suffered a glitch of any kind.

personally I like the red circle more than the FF hand on the map , IMHO the hand is too cartoonish

Anyone else with an opinion?

[granz]

Another text issue: When you collect both the morningstar and the laurel pouch, the R in the morningstar string gets cut off. (because the pouch icon is encroaching on it)

[Bisqwit]

Another text issue: When you collect both the morningstar and the laurel pouch, the R in the morningstar string gets cut off. (because the pouch icon is encroaching on it)

Known problem. Category: Won't-fix. Thanks anyway for reporting it.
Same goes for most of the whip names in the Finnish translation.
EDIT: Well, technically I could try moving the silk bag next to the crystal, since the special item number 7 is unused in the game and does not exist...
EDIT: Done, and it will be included in next version (1.3.6).
EDIT: Actually, on second thought, I'll move the rosary instead of the bag. Incidentally, you now have one more selectable item! (Which does nothing, but in any case.)

[granz]

A minor grammatical issue: One of the townspersons says, "YOU AGAIN!! LAST YEAR I WAS HOPING TO NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN."

The infinite is split. It should be, "LAST YEAR I WAS HOPING NEVER TO SEE YOU AGAIN."

I suppose most people don't care. (much less notice) Still, I think avoiding split infinitives polishes the script somewhat.