46 OkuMen - PC-98 Translations

[kuoushi]

Not only is it near, it's done!

https://46okumen.com/2017/07/01/time-to-visit-neo-japan-and-quell-those-insurrections-crws-english-translation-patch-is-now-released/

We updated our patching process to be even more compatible with more formats and more Windows versions, so please, please, please give us some feedback on that as we're planning to use it going forward, as well as offer it as a patching tool for other hackers in the Retro JPC community.

Aside from that, have fun!

(The RHDN translation page and news post are coming soon enough. Takes a bit to get through the queue sometimes.)

[mikeprado30]

You are THE BEST ONES! 

Now I can't wait about which one will be the next 

[Gamerhenky]

CRW metal jacket Gameplay video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWlBbJnI2Hk

[elmer]

Super cool stuff guys, thanks! 

[kuoushi]

Since we didn't hear too many people complaining about our updated patching process not working for them, we've now updated our E.V.O.: The Theory of Evolution and Rusty patches to use Pachy98 to help get some further testing done on it.

Oh, and that's what we're calling our new patcher. We've done a rather long write up about it and are releasing a beta version to other PC-98 hackers/translators that might want to use it to release their patches. Once we've gotten some more feedback on it we'll most likely upload the 1.0.0 to RHDN as a Utility as well.

For now though, check out the Pachy98 page on our site for more details on how it works and how to use it.

[Magma MK-II]

The program worked fine here.

[kuoushi]

We just announced that we are officially working on Different Realm as an active translation project. It's a pretty damn good game, but it'll take a while for us to complete. Check out these links to read more about that.

https://46okumen.com/2017/07/10/announcing-a-new-project-different-realm-the-eternal-sage/
https://46okumen.com/projects/different-realm-kuon-no-kenja/

We also posted up some progress on Appareden. I've finished the rough draft of the interface text and I'm going through the dialog and story at the moment (there's a lot). Check the project page for Appareden to see some status on that.

https://46okumen.com/projects/appareden-fukuryuu-no-shou/

Here's some screenshots too.

[KingMike]

Since you speak of Emerald Dragon, I wonder if it would be worth doing at some point.
While the SFC version was enjoyable (if ridiculously easy) on its own, I hear it is FAR inferior to any other version of the game (even the PC-Engine CD, its only other console version, was supposedly much closer to the Japanese PC originals).

[kuoushi]

From what I've learned about Glodia games in general, if they made an FM-Towns version of the game, that is the best version of the game. It's true for the Vain Dream series, the Bible Master series, and as far as I can tell it looks true for Emerald Dragon. Graphics look better, they generally include much nicer opening animations, and they'll sometimes add in voice lines. All of that, with pretty much the exact same map/tile layouts, monster and story data, and sometimes even extra story that had to be cut out, which happened in at least one game that I can't remember offhand here.

I haven't had a chance to check how much of that applies to Emerald Dragon specifically yet, but judging from the screenshots on Mobygames and a quick glance through a playthrough of the game, it looks decently accurate here.

That being said, FM-Towns games are currently beyond our scope. Is it impossible? Nope, certainly not. But we've got a ton of other PC-98 exclusive titles that we're looking at for the time being. We do like Glodia though, so if no one else gets to it when we're more open to games from other systems, we might pick it up.

Edit: I know Nightwolve was working on the PC-Engine version of the game, but he seems to be stalled on it until "maybe" starting back on it this winter.

[hollowaytape]

I am curious about Emerald Dragon, since it was Glodia's biggest success.

Someone is currently translating the PCE version of Emerald Dragon, so that's happening at least.

From what I hear, there is no currently available FM Towns debugging emulator, so that's a big obstacle to anyone hoping to translate games for it. Looks like byuu was interested in translating Emerald Dragon for it, but Unz's developer will not publicly release his debugging version of it. I hope that will change in a few years, since FM Towns seems like the last frontier in this already quite inaccessible field of Japanese PCs.

[Starscream]

Doesn't MAME include debugging functions? It's FM Towns emulation is of course not the best. It's technically still marked as not working, though that doesn't tell you a lot in my experience...wouldn't be different if it was "working" though 

[MrTagoMago]

Sorry if wrong place to ask but i really wanna play this game but didnt know where else to ask. I place the fdi images in the same directory as Pachy98 but it doesnt translate them just gives me the manual and cover art. It says error uncaught exception in a log but im not tech savy enough to understand what that means.

[kuoushi]

Hey MrTagoMago, that's an unfortunate problem! We haven't been hearing any issues reported for Pachy98 so it's rare that you're having one and we'd love to help you with that. Please copy the contents of the log file Pachy98 created and send that to me in a PM and we'll try to sort your problem out.

[ObiKKa]

Oh, I just found out about another game that came to the PC-98 called Digan no Maseki. It's an adventurous RPG with pretty nice visuals (eg. in the cutscenes) that was drawn by a good Japanese artist. It first came on PC-88 and MSX2 but was then ported to the PC-98, though the top-down in-game world exploration still looks to be very much PC-88 graphics.

Also you may want to take a look at the many beautiful screens of games on the PC-98 and some other Japanese computers here. I think it'll be worth your while.

[hollowaytape]

Oh, I just found out about another game that came to the PC-98 called Digan no Maseki...

Maybe you and I both read the same thing recently! I am definitely interested in that game, and I'm hoping to check it out pretty soon. I've been finding a lot of these PC-98 JRPGs with WRPG twists on them, like nonlinear plots and meaningful dialogue choices. Would be fun to work on one of those at some point, but quite a time investment.

I really like that thread too, lots of cool stuff in there. Good links to further resources, too.

[filler]

I've taken a stab a translating a couple of Japanese PC ADV and RPGs, and one refreshing thing is the standard of writing tends to be significantly higher as the intended audience is at an adult reading level. They also tend to use a lot of kanji which can make reading raw a challenge, but are helpful in translation as the intended meanings are clearer.

[ObiKKa]

Maybe you and I both read the same thing recently! ...

Yes, that's correct.

I've taken a stab a translating a couple of Japanese PC ADV and RPGs, and one refreshing thing is the standard of writing tends to be significantly higher as the intended audience is at an adult reading level. They also tend to use a lot of kanji which can make reading raw a challenge, but are helpful in translation as the intended meanings are clearer.

Nice.

[kuoushi]

I know things have been a bit quiet from us, but that's due to the fact that there's A LOT of text in Appareden that I'm still working through. The hacking portions are all going well and in place though, so once I can get through the draft we'll be into revisions and playtesting at a good pace soon after that, hopefully. No guarantees on any of that though. These things take time, as usual.

In some other news, we've added a list of project candidates to our page that updates from a sheet we've been using to track things we're interested in. We posted a link to it in our recent blog post about the team celebrating our two year anniversary.

Here's a link to the candidates page if you want to see what we're interested in for future projects after we clear up our current set.

https://46okumen.com/projects/project-candidates-page/

And here's a link to the two year anniversary blog post.

https://46okumen.com/2017/09/25/46-okumen-is-now-two-years-older/

Thanks for following our progress with things, hope to have more patches out before the end of the year!

[mikeprado30]

Your contribution to the Rom Hacking scene is very valuable indeed.  Please keep on this great route! 

[Magma MK-II]

I hope this project can inspire more translations not only for the PC-98, but other Japanese computers as well!

By the way, do you guys by any chance have a tool capable of ripping PC-98 games's graphics and sprites that you could make public? I'm currently running a ripping project on TSR (https://www.vg-resource.com/thread-31460.html) and I'd definitely like to tacke some PC-98 titles.