/vr/ - Retro Games

| Translations |

Romhacking.net has some translations for NEC machines and the X68000, where you can find patches to play classics like Die Bahnwelt and Marble Cooking:
>http://www.romhacking.net/?page=translations&genre=&platform=3&status=&languageid=12&perpage=20&title=&author=&transsearch=Go
>http://www.romhacking.net/?page=translations&genre=&platform=2&status=&languageid=12&perpage=20&title=&author=&transsearch=Go
>http://www.romhacking.net/?page=translations&genre=&platform=30&status=&languageid=12&perpage=20&title=&author=&transsearch=Go

Sadly, Illusion City's translation effort has stalled due to reasons. At least folks want to translate Micro Cabin's games.

| Stuff to do as a J-PC gamer |

Many J-PC games do not require Japanese-to-x language translations for full enjoyment (titles from dbSOFT or Exact, for example). But translating documentation beneficial to J-PC ROM hacking is a long term goal worth pursuing. Some guys like Retroprograms are already pursuing these texts and scanning them for future use. More than a few of these games made it to the West for MS-DOS users—Sierra published Game Arts' games up to Zeliard, SoftEgg localized Princess Maker 2, and Megatech brought over Power DoLLS.

Japanese CRPGs got their start on the early 8-bit machines. Here's a great series of articles talking about games like Mugen no Shinzou and Poibos:
>http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2014/06/dark-age-of-jrpgs-11-mugen-no-shinzou.html

| Music |

Feel free to post music links, they're joyous.

Euphory (X1, Saito): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPsfwq25FiA
Gage (PC98, Koshiro): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy0h33s6NHI
Testament (PC88, Koise): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm-6LsIZ1J4
Genocide 2 (FM Towns, Shimono/Kimura): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FRKeUzzUQY
Neural Gear (X68000, Yonao): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyRm48xgw6c

Remember, Hoot Archive's your friend, and ApolloJoe's an active uploader. Now let's run.

So Chitty Chitty Train's this puzzle game we like: https://archive.foolz.us/vr/thread/1742869/#1744948

Has a kind of Japanese Richard Scarry-like aesthetic, with cursor-drawn pixel art and challenging junction switches to pull so your trains can make to the end of each stage.

Compile Disk Station volumes look interesting.

bump 4 u

What's the game in the OP picture about?

>>1774058
Hong Kong suffers a bio-tech calamity, leading both the UK and China (this was released back in 1991, China didn't govern HK yet) to hand jurisdiction over to a city-corp. Game's basically a Japanse Shadowrun-like setting and story, with some big-ass cult to battle and mutants/robots making up the bestiary. It uses Micro Cabin's VR engine, first developed for the Xak games, so everything's nicely animated and high-res.

This is the newest version of "Neko Project II fmgen", a PC98 emulator. Upload date is 11th of June 2014.

http://ux.getuploader.com/emu/download/87/np2fmgen.7z

Pass: 9801

>>1774074
Seems like there are many versions. Which is the recommended one?

>>1774113
PC-98 and FM Towns releases perform the best, but what's been translated only works on the MSX turboR right now. Devs apparently used a proprietary programming language for this game (and for Xak, presumably), so I think it's possible to port that unfinished translation to different PC chipsets if they originally did that for other releases. Micro Cabin games have been translated primarily for the MSX platform, thanks to WOOMB's efforts (wish I could get my hands on those translations).

Helpful thread: http://www.msx.org/forum/msx-talk/software-and-gaming/illusion-city?page=0

>>1774130
Thanks.

That Jewish dude who rules MobyGames with an iron fist reviewed the Mega CD release: http://www.mobygames.com/game/sega-cd/illusion-city-genei-toshi/reviews/reviewerId,6226/

It's been translated up to the sixth disc of eight, actually, but it's a Portuguese English translation, and it's not complete anyway.

>>1774268

Still worth it.

>>1774268
>Mega CD release

I played that version and I would still recommend the MSX version... the Mega CD release has awful scrolling (even worse than the Mega CD) and loadings.

>>1775059
A shame, since the Redbook audio arrangements haven't ever gotten an album release like the FM music has.

Here's the old FutureDisc magazine synopsis of Illusion City from the mid-'90s: http://www.hispamsx.org/files/docs/illucity.txt

>>1775059

The PC-98 version is good, apparently.

I'd just love to finish it some day, whatever the computer. Without studying Nip for years, that is. I'm working on that, though.

I find it really strange and impressive that EGGY scrolls best on a PC-6001: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-AqjoAvoos&t=268

Seriously, the version advertised on EGG is the MSX release, not the PC-88, nor this one. Z-80A emulation isn't some arcane art, either, and the 6001 chipset's basically just a knock-off of that family. This is what patient people get when they load up cassettes, maybe.

Is anyone translating Mujintou Monogatari on the SFC? Originally released for the PC-98

>>1777151
Not that I know of, but it'd be really cool. The third game's set in a post-disaster Tokyo, which is a more creative premise.

Backstory to this pic: Yoichi Yamaguchi worked as an art director for Artdink (A-Train, Carnage Heart) up until 1993, when he left to form a start-up called FlipFlop. He's the guy behind The Atlas series of games, too...Artdink only published Neo-Atlas 1 through III, he made the games. Thief Q's some kind of fast-paced adventure game for Windows 3.1 where you have to catch a master thief who's replaced the police chief. It has a few screens up, but no videos of any sort. Very interested in this and FlipFlop's first game, Primal Space.

>>1773824
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNWAfQ6Ybb4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDz8AWqHoiE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUe6ufdrWUE

Speaking of Tecno Soft, Yuichi Toyama's angry letter he hid in MSX Herzog's code still needs to be translated: http://www.ca.sakura.ne.jp/~sakura/babobi/msx/yami/herzog.html

For that matter, I still need to play their pre-Thunder Force II catalogue.

>>1779957
Huh, something about being an Araki fan?

>>1780096
Good catch! JoJo first serialized in the late-'80s, a shame Toyama's never gotten to work on a JoJo game.

Anyone ever noticed how your daughter's hair looks water-colored in PM2? It's the back part, everything else is sharply defined and pixellated. Gives off a weird effect, makes her stand out from the other characters...I like.

>>1773849
Man this game is fast as shit, I can't even beat that level. Cool game but very hard.

>>1780369
Which emulator you using? As I think in the first one I tried it in, it ran really fast but now I run it in I think Neko Project II and it runs better.

>>1780501
anex86

Seems to run alright the cursor is a little screwed up but that doesn't really affect it too much

>>1780504
Well I managed to get past 5 and now I'm stuck on 6

I'm a dipshit, how do I get Chitty Chitty Train working in an emulator? I have Neko Project II and Anex86 and mounting the file doesn't do anything for me. I have some other roms in .fdi format that load fine but I don't know how to load this one!

Also, is there some font I need to install for them to display Japanese correctly? I have my region set to JP already so file paths/names work right but the in-game text is still unicode gibberish. Looking for katakana usually gets me through a menu so I figure it's worth figuring it out. Thx anon

So I'm an aspiring (read: shit) documentary film maker and I've been interested in doing a film about the history of Japanese PC gaming.

I've already got a lot of information, particularly on Sharp and NEC's history and products, but I'm interested in what you guys would like to see in a potential thing like this. Any games you think are important, events, etc?

Obviously there'll be a lot on Falcom and on some of the PC ports of arcade stuff like Castlevania on the X68000 but are there any other big PC companies? It's sort of hard to find this stuff on the English speaking web, for obvious reasons.

>>1782106
For me I just downloaded it and it ran on the first try with anex86

I downloaded the game here:
https://mega.co.nz/#F!F59WkSqQ!quGKSFIswBgv0rxAAaF8Pg

It's located under the "ち" directory and is written in kana "チキチキトレイン"

>>1782256
>https://mega.co.nz/#F!F59WkSqQ!quGKSFIswBgv0rxAAaF8Pg

Awesome, thanks. I downloaded the archive.org pack but I couldn't find it in there. Will try.

>>1782304
Works, thanks!

Nothing stops this Chitty Chitty Train.

>>1782173
Are we talking internet videos or stuff that could theoretically make it to screen venues? I've pondered making commentated videos about certain games, but I still need to play them and would rather translate technical info so I can hack PC-98 ROMs.

>>1782385
Almost certainly internet videos, but that doesn't mean it won't have actual production values. In the vein of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdUZfpcpt5s

>>1782173
>are there any other big PC companies?
Look into AliceSoft, they're known for the long running Rance series
Could also look into how the doujin software market came to be with the older computers too.

>>1782414
Ah yeah, I know Alicesoft and was planning to talk about them in relation to Ys' influence. Might expand a bit more on them though depending on how big their non-Rance games were.

Also doujin will obviously be a big part of it, especially when it comes to non-/vr/ territory.

Thanks for the help!

>>1782424
I'm assuming you did that video you posted. Good stuff, like the last bit about the first electronic gaming device.

Focus less on individual games and more on identifiable teams/developers/publishers. Here's a brief list I can give:

•Enix (got its start in gaming by hosting competitions for programmers to submit a winning game—we wouldn't have Yuji Horii and the Portopia Serial Murder Case without this)
•Arsys Software, aka K. Yoshimura and company (developed Tecno Soft's first games starting in 1982, themed around space combat; worth comparing with Game Arts)
•KOEI (made the first popular eroge and the first Japanese CRPGs, though ASCII made the first Japanese text adventure just before them)
•ASCII (operated many J-PC enthusiast mags and published a wide array of games)
•T&E Soft (created early graphical text adventures influenced by Sierra, as well as the direct predecessor to Zelda; later made Daiva, a saga of largely similar action-strategy hybrid games, each with a different story, most of which were unique releases for different J-PCs)
•dbSOFT (start-up responsible for arcade-style games like Flappy, as well as action-adventures like Woody Poco)
•Artdink (prominent sim-game dev-pubs responsible for A-Train, basically the Japanese Maxis but more ambitious)
•Falcom
•Compile (moved to consoles eventually, but they pushed the MSX machines' limits with tough STGs and a wide variety of smaller games; popularized disk magazines loaded with demos, dev commentary, &c.)
•JAST (old guard of dating sims)
•Elf (old guard of menu-based dating adventure games)
•Bothtec (did both small arcade fare like EGGY and high-concept releases like Relics, the latter of which is a well-known staple for J-PC gamers)
•Micro Cabin (top-notch JRPG output, and cool music usually)
•Square (got their start on J-PCs)
•Zoom/Exact (X68k action wizards)

Make sure you use the links in the OP pastebin, there's databases and online stores worth perusing.

>>1782492
The video I linked is made by a colleague of mine that I helped create but nothing I've solely produced is as close in terms of /vr/ relation or scope. Just to give an idea of what to expect. I'll let him know that you enjoyed it though.

And thanks for all the help. I'll be sure to keep lurking these threads.

Here's the first YT vid of Chitty Chitty Train, since an Anon posted it several days ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV9trL5GvUk

Has anyone tried messing with clock speeds to see if that affects the trains' movement?

Also, if you're on GOG, this is the wishlist for getting Project EGG games onto the site: http://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/more_japanese_games

>>1783642
It's odd, when I run in Anex86 the game runs quite fast, yet when I run in T98-Next (using the 20100525 version) or Neko Project II (using the fmgen version linked above) the game runs slower.

My best attempt at a webm showing it's speed in Neko Project II.

>>1783818
That is way slower than it is for me with anex86. Seems a lot easier too

What is this thing trying to tell me?

>>1783920

It means that he can't find a bootable disk.

>>1783920
What >>1783930 said, and to add to that, if you select the disk image while it's booting you'll have to restart the machine (Emulate -> Reset) and then it'll see the disk image.

>>1782173
>PC companies

Koei, Artdink, Elf, Riverhill Soft, Microcabin, KSS.

>>1784030

Oops, forgot about Zain Soft. They made the only game that had voice acting on PC-88MC. Sadly, there are no copies online and the guys on Tokugawa have been looking for it for a while.

>>1783818
>>1783878

In anex86

Config-> System

There's a min and max value, click them both.
put 100000 for the min and 1250000 to 1750000 for the maximum.

>>1784049
Speaking of voice acting, I wonder how Data West's Psychic Detective series might make it over here. Fitting subs into the game files would be difficult, but maybe the emulator standalone could play them over the video files.

>>1784206

Well, I guess the hard part could be decoding and reencoding the files, all the games developed by Data West used a specific propietary encoder called DAPS (Datawest Active Picture System), but the Win9x releases use AVI files according to Wikipedia. The other problem will be the res, the video quality is Myst tier.

This game looks cool. Anyone know what it's about?

>>1773818
>links start with >
>cannot right click go to
Anon, I...
I want to play Misty Blue now that I heard the music. I've got m88 and pc88win emulators but they won't load the rom. Wat do?

>>1782414
I've never played the Rance game, is there any value to them has videogames or are they just lewd for lewds sake?

>>1784365
It's apparently got a deep story/lore with many characters, and it's one of the longest running adult-themed game series.

>>1784365
Well, the main character is very funny.
The female lead's nice too.

>>1784280
Alternatively, port the Windows releases if they're just straight conversions from DOS to OS. We'd have to compare and contrast versions to see if anything was removed or added from/to the games.

These games were animated by Kyoto Animation, what a world.

>>1784336
The only information I can find is from this blog—writer has mixed opinions on it, looks like a real-time tactics game with visual novel stuff atop: http://uralpha.blog85.fc2.com/blog-entry-254.html

>>1784363
Misty Blue has a PC98 port, try digging for the image and use Neko Project II fmgen (latest version's been posted higher up). Check the Emulation links in the OP if you want to try for the PC88 version.

Big mystery man for me atm: Mark Flint. He's this top-notch programmer who did a couple of System Sacom's earliest games (Highway Star: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRwzqqYrLw4)), and he did games like Evolution and Brown's Run later on. GDRI linked to one interview with him, which isn't too informative on his Sacom years. I wonder if he had much creative involvement with games like Yuureikun or Soft de Hard na Monogatari.

>>1785291
>Misty Blue has a PC98 port

That version has a game breaking bug that doesnt allow you to get one of the endings (I don't remember which one).

>>1785879
Woohoo.

One idea: try and load Misty Blue's disk image with QUASI88 (might not even run, last release I know of is for 32-bit Windows). A common trick is to reset the emulator after loading the image. I'm guessing the emulator doesn't recognize any media in its virtual drive in this scenario (maybe Anon's version of BASIC has issues), but resetting works most of the time.

>>11021114

?

>>1787121
@#$%, here it is

>>1787127

>mfw someone on /vr/ post the pic I made for the 70s and 80s mecha thread.

>>1784280
I suppose it depends on what video codec they used for the Win9x release, if it's one that's easily available in terms of encoding/decoding then it should be easy to do.

>>1780296
>Anyone ever noticed how your daughter's hair looks water-colored in PM2?
Probably because it is.

>>1787634
I figured the graphic would look more pixellated if they just imported it, so some advanced dithering's going on.

So get this: Katsunori Yoshimura, the programmer/designer/artist behind WiBARM and Star Cruiser (Arsys in general), got a sex change in the last decade. I noticed this when I started seeing Kotori Yoshimura as an alternate name; at first this seemed like a different translation, but no, that's her name now. I'm also surprised to see she's good friends with Shinji Hosoe and SuperSweep, though that might be because they released Toshiya Yamanaka's Star Cruiser tribute album. Unfortunately, she's stuck programming games in the Japanese mobile market, and her Google+ profile implies that Galaxy Knights, Arsys' last game, is still unfinished.

And she really likes Star Trek, even the Abrams movies. Explains the cover for 1982's Star Fleet. Fuck it, Star Cruiser music time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNDPoTxugEc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdUlm1LmqZw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpIANNt8ElA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGfUNrkReOs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIFVNvAiPQM

>>1773818
I really want to get a PC-98 and have wanted to for fucking ever. Anyone know of a reasonable place to find one?

>>1787760
Most I can say is check out Yahoo Auctions and assuming you're not in Japan you can use the Buyee site that's advertised on Yahoo Auctions for a proxy shipping service.

You might be able to find some on ebay but I don't know how common they'd be on there.

>>1787760
Yahoo works, but Suruga-ya might work if you can get in touch with a proxy buyer/service. Tons of PC-98 bodies listed for bidding, far as I've seen.

Does anybody know of a decent PC-88 emulator for Mac? The only one I've been able to find is of poor quality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFSF6RhFJak

>>1788357

Fuck, I always wanted to play Premonitioner based on aesthetics alone.

>>1788635
Possessioner, actually. Yeah, that animation's gotta be some kind of technical feat, what with the dithering atop.

>>1788392
I'm not sure how if QUASI88's ever going to have an Intel Mac port...pretty unlikely now that it's not in development. You're screwed, unfortunately, though you can try double-emulating (QUASI88 Mac OS 9 in SheepShaver).

>>1788395
So someone noticed Master of Monsters started on the PC-88, even though that's the Mega Drive soundtrack (awesome taste).

Here's a real-estate app Kotori Yoshimura wrote back around the turn of the millennium, when Arsys had changed names to Cyberhead before closing: https://www.voistage.com/ur018

Updated the GOG wishlist with new game entries.

>>1788357

Just go to the Off-World Colonies already, yeesh.

>>1787603

Well, the only problem will be finding those versions. I doubt those games were ever dumped, I've looked for them in japanese p2p and couldnt get anything. There are a couple of clips of the Windows version of the first game in NicoNico.

>>1789518
considering how big the eyes are compared to the rest of the head, there might be something wrong with her. Anyone with genetic defectswasn`t allowed to go to the colonies so she has to stay on earth with all those kipple

So here's a very VERY basic translated Chitty Chitty Train, basic since my Japanese language skills aren't so good and had to work only using double-byte characters which limited how much text I could fit as well.
Also, as it says in the readme file, anyone is free to use it as a base for any future translations if they really want to.

https://mega.co.nz/#!Aod2BBZT!pJlPmpbJf-FBXJM85B61xHzBYvkKxewOdu2qSHMTnlo

>>1789635
Hmm, someone had to have bought the Windows releases when they came out. Otherwise, we're entering a new frame of reference where the best and most portable versions are now rare.

>>1789770
I wonder if this is a plot point in any Japanese sci-fi media ever, lol.

Which J-PC games do you want to play the most, but can't due to translation issues or copy protection barriers in emulation?

>>1790723
Missed this because I didn't have auto-scroll on, but awesome work here. Was the text ASCII-format in the editor?

>>1790738
>Hmm, someone had to have bought the Windows releases when they came out.

Probably, but we don't know how many copies are out there. And the Windows versions were released back when Data West decided to abandon the gaming industry.

>>1790772
If you mean inside the game's executable, then yeah it's easily viewable/editable.

>>1790794
It could be on a hybrid cd that contains multiple versions of the game, I've come across a few on Perfect Dark like one that had the PC98, FM Town, Win3.1 and Win95 versions of a game on one disc.

Well, you can get Vol. 5 Nightmare off of Suruga-ya if you buy through a middleman: http://www.suruga-ya.jp/product/detail/145007865001

Also, Data West was so proud of DAPS they made a system demo disc for Windows: http://page7.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/g128456304

Some Umemoto music now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLOqRHi927g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGMuvuLVb4g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CflmETk_CE

EGG Music should update more often...

Turns out Gunbuster, my favorite anime, has a PC-8801 eroge made by Gainax. It's got some wicked art.

>>1791703

>>1791727
mai waifu

>>1790723
THANKS!

>>1791685
>Ryu Umemoto
Why was he so good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDhIt5xOhPg

You guys can try out the remake of Kure Software Koubou's First Queen in Flash at their site (no Japanese knowledge needed to fumble about and kick ass), because it's like some weird games of Snake where your line of troops detach to whack at monsters: http://www.kure.sakura.ne.jp/FQ1AS_0/index.html

They're the guys behind SIlver Ghost, an influence the creator of Shining Force have cited. Very cool brand of games, like Bokosuka Wars updated for more strategic action.

•

I don't understand why Rieks W. Torringa hasn't yet released the WOOMB translations (Xak I/II, Fray, Golvellius) as IPS patches. He said he'd release them after Project Melancholia, the SD Snatcher re-translation, is finished, but progress seems either to have stalled since the demo release or that release is the full patch and he hasn't completed his duties. Django's MSX translations, as basic and messy as they are, have made tons more interesting games playable. The community's certainly analyzed the shit out of their machines, so hex editing and additional assembly work is less of a chore now.

>>1793093

You can organize them in a variety of formations as well. I don't have much trouble with the menu, but I'm fucked if I know where to go.

>>1793343
Not that many options for formations, but yes, there are a few. From what I can tell, it's possible to split the main party up into separate, individually-controllable groups that can fight independently of the original.

>mfw Amano did First Queen art

>get excited for some sexy looking tactical games for the PC-98
>they're all real-time garbage

>Koei's Rekoeition games like Taikou Risshiden will never be translated
>The JRPG predecessor to E.V.O - The Search for Eden called "46 Okunen Monogatari: The Shinka Ron" will never be translated
The pain.

>>1794091
KSK games are hardly representative, lol. You can play the Farland Story games right now to scratch that itch. Nothing's sexier than Daisenryaku anyway.

>>1794097
It'll happen sometime. Enix games are going to get priority over a lot of contenders in the fan translation scene.

>>1794097

>ikuchiosutega

What? Is that an organism name based on the parts involved?

>>1794196

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthyostega

>>1794202

I hate how the goddamn Japanese have to make every word fit into their grorious language.

>>1794097
Fuck, PC-98 EVO is fucking insane. I'd love to see a spiritual sequel of some sort that borrows more from it than the SNES game.

For those playing the First Queen demo, here's a guide you can sort of read with Google Translate: http://www.kure.sakura.ne.jp/FQ1ASSOUSA/index.html

In other news, Kotori Yoshimura is more amazing than I ever could have imagined— model programmer, magnificent sci-fi game designer, transgender lesbian. She's the Wendy Carlos of Japanese PC games! Here's one of her early Tecno Soft games, Planet Wars, for the FM-7, 1982. Must be inspired by Missle Command (you have to shoot down comets and meteors to protect the earth), it looks good: http://fm-7.com/museum/softhouse/tecnosoft/330600900.html

>>1794761
Old Technosoft art is so amateurish it's cool.

100 posts now, time for a present.

This link's a Tokugawa forum member's upload of Genocide 2 for MS-DOS, aka the Korean version with English text, the X68000 OP/ED, and FM Towns stuff everywhere else (from Genocide Squared). Make sure to get the Redbook audio working, it's so rad: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/88446209/Games/G2.rar

If you have any trouble getting it to work in DOSBox, the upload thread's got some help in it: http://fullmotionvideo.free.fr/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1463&sid=27d0ab1b84b256d735336178af9136c8

And now sum of dat Zoom music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbk7T_wEYu4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6moeXrMasE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSsruvvhkG0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPz5Ly1l7j8

>>1791742
I'm trying to run this game in Neko Project 2 fmgen but the file is HDI. When I mount it on the hard disk it takes me to the prompt. What else should I do?

>>1796719

Type "dir" and guess what is the game executable/starting batch file.

>>1796719
You getting a prompt kind of like >>1783920 ? Try resetting the emulator and then it might see the disk image. HDI should work.

>>1796719
What does DOS say? If you're in A: you should try the dir /w command and change to a fitting directory.

>>1796736
Yeah that worked. Thanks! I've never had to use HDIs for games so far.

>>1796747
Most HDI I've dealt with had an autoexec.bat that included the game but a few didn't.
A notable diference between PC-98 DOS and IBM DOS is that the boot drive is always A: instead of A: and B: being reserved for floppy drives like in IBM clones.

Anon who did that basic TL of Chitty Chitty Train here, I decided to look inside Chitty Chitty Train's TRAIN.EXE some more and figured out a little bit of how it points to text. Still no clue how to get it to work with single-byte characters but hopefully it'll help, if I had any (good) knowledge of programming aside from Ruby I'd try making some kind of POC for a text editor.

http://pastebin.com/pzC8xBpj

>>1796897
It's worth checking other games by Bit2 to see if they use a similar pointer system. At least the text isn't compressed to begin with. With single-byte characters figured out, the translator should have a clear pipeline for getting the pointers to work for new text.

>>1796934
What other PC98 games did they do? Can't seem to find any other than Chitty Chitty Train, and the games they did for MSX2 appear to already have English in them from the videos and pictures I found. Though the game they did for the X68000, Shoot Range, looks cool and could possibly look into that at some point.

>>1797014
Yeah, looks like there's something called Block Battler, with no info or screens on Mercenary Force whatsoever. Shoot Range would be it; the MSX2 games have been treated well, though Cutthroat Mansion needs a translation.

More old Tecno Soft games! Their very first two games were based off of Kubrick's 2001, which makes sense and also dooms them to never getting released ever again. You can remove HAL 9000's system disks and pilot the EVA pod to do whatever. The cover art's truly special, as it looks to be rendered in pastel Crayola, such is its low quality.

2001: A Space Odyssey Part II takes place past the Star Gate, which means Bowman kinda sorta gets to play Centipede...must say something about the rest of the game. I wonder how Also Sprach Zarathustra sounds in PSG!

Links from Oh! FM-7 here:
http://fm-7.com/museum/softhouse/tecnosoft/330600100.html
http://fm-7.com/museum/softhouse/tecnosoft/330600200.html

>>1788357
Please tell me more about this game.
>>1788635
If it's really called Premonitioner I'd want some links to more about it cause google ain't giving shit on that.

>>1797262
It's called Possessioner
I don't know shit about it, but here's a CG rip
http://exhentai.org/g/539973/1470649aa0/

>>1783920

I love how Nip manuals or computers always say please when they tell you to do something.

>>1797287
Thanks anon you made my night!

Does anyone have some good resources for hacking/translating the PC-98? I'm having trouble recognizing the encoding for the Japanese text in some games on a modern computer.

>>1797913
I don't think there's a whole lot for documentation, you could try contacting the people who have done translations for PC-98 games in the past and see if they could help point you in the right direction. It's possible that the encoding for the text could just be in plain SHIFT-JIS too, which you just need a hex editor that can work with that encoding type. Oh and there is a version of Neko Project II that can gives instruction and memory logger while the game is running.
http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/453/

You could also try looking at assembly documentation for the kind of CPU the PC-98 uses as well, which from my quick search it's apparently a 80486 CPU. I wish there was an OllyDBG for PC-98 executables.

What games you looking at? I could take a look at them as well.

>>1797262
There ain't any Premonitioner game for any J-PC, but Koei did make Progenitor, which is actually grammatically correct.

http://mercenaryforce.web.fc2.com/pc9801/pc98/02207.html

>>1798306
All PC-98 models have x86-compatible chipsets, so a 16-bit debugger/analyzer could work.

>>1798379
After some searching around I found that there's a DOS program debug.exe, so I checked through various HDI/FDI images and found one that has debug.exe on it. Now I just need to figure out how to properly use said program.

>>1773818

bumping

I wonder if there's any way to contact the Sierra On-Line members directly responsible for localizing Thexder, WiBARM, Sorcerian, &c.

One thing to note about their version of Sorcerian: the level order's been changed (as have the corresponding music tracks), with some quests totally modified thanks to omissions replaced with components taken from the Scenario disks. Most of the Sierra localizations didn't change much of anything, usually because they were action games with little English anyway. But they must have felt they could mess around with a non-linear action-adventure game and get away with it, which at least makes some sense.

The near-perfect audio conversion from Yamaha synth to AdLib for Princess Maker 2's localization is still the most fascinating thing, I think.

Wondering where this was

>>1800838

>>1798306
I was looking at some of the older Koei strategy games. A whole lot of them are on PC-98. The later ones seem to be in Shift JIS (such as Nobunaga no Yabou: Bushou Fuunroku), but for some of the earlier, pre-1991 or so ones (like Nobunaga no Yabou: Sengoku Gunyuuden) I can't get any of the text out of no matter what encoding I use. I know their very early strategy games (the first Nobunaga's Ambition and Genghis Khan games) were supposed to have been written in BASIC, but that doesn't seem to be the case for their later games.

>>1801857
They probably used a higher-level language like C when BASIC lost its uses, and assembly was always an option when it came time to rein in memory issues. Definitely something worth asking any of their old programmers, if someone as well-connected/-funded as Sczepaniak took the chance.

•

TitS FC coming out this Tuesday has reminded me of a later Micro Cabin JRPG, Gal Act Heroism (Volunteer Heroes, alternatively). It's centered on life at a girl adventurers' school, which means lots of little quests, tests, and advancement to higher grades. Something about the non-linear quest structure reminds me of how much freedom you have to do Bracer stuff. Falcom and Micro Cabin both seem to have modular quest structure in their history; Xanadu and Sorcerian are about nothing but the quests themselves, with towns acting as level-up central.

>>1801857
You looking to translate a Nobunaga's Ambition game? That would be darn cool. I always wanted to play the middle-games before the series went real-time.

>>1802752
>Gal Act Heroism

I played Eiyuu Shigan, it's a really interesting game. According to your actions in the game and how you raise the girls stats you'll get different endings. The game had a Saturn port too (it was originally planned for the PC-FX). The only problem is that you really need to learn how to manage time to complete the largest amount of quests possible (you only have six months in-game time).

>>1803797
Micro Cabin really wanted the PC-FX to be a thing, which explains why they tried to get their latest PC games ported to it. I know there's an upgraded version of Konpeki no Kantai/2 Perfect available for it. Didn't think anyone here would have played Eiyuu Shigan, thank you for the write-up.

Old Koei games really do need translations, since they're not all cut-and-dry iterations of previous titles.

On a side note, help me guys, I can't stop listening to Sorcerian's massive soundtrack. Koshiro/Ishikawa is a force to be reckoned with; you got any contemporary J-PC music favorites to bat this off?

>>1803482
Guess someone's gotta do it because Koei's a musou machine now.

>>1804116
I liked the soundtrack of Night Slave.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8HQL2Q35Q8

>>1803482
>>1804116
>>1804513
Koei was one of the most prolific non-eroge producers for the PC-98 (though they made a couple of them as well) and some of their best games never made it overseas. For example, Nobunaga's Ambition: Tenshouki and Romance of the Three Kingdoms V are often listed online as being most popular iterations of their respective series in Japan. Other games never even got a single iteration from their series to come over, like Taikou Risshiden and Ishin no Arashi. Koei mostly focused on historical strategy in the PC-98 era, but they also produced some completely off the wall games like Tamashii no Mon, a (bad) platformer where you play as Dante exploring Hell.

I've been playing with the idea of translating them myself but I'm pretty lacking in technical know-how. I can do the most simple text replacement via a hex editor, but this leads to the obvious problem of space constraints. For now I've just been messing around with the very first Nobunaga's Ambition game, written entirely in BASIC, but getting access to the files is a pain.

>>1804797
Honestly, it's all about Super Dog World. But we'll be around to help you out; I'd love to play the older Nobunaga and Sangokushi installments. Their band-sim games also look interesting, and Kamigami no Daichi Kojiki Gaiden's an intriguing Rekoeition game. I'm surprised how well curated the Koei Wikia is, since there's information available for so many of their obscure games.

>>1804743
That's the good stuff right there, thank you based Anon.

>>1804116
I saw this version of Stones while searching:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hFLGho6Bnw

While I was bumping that Vantage Master thread (>>1804963), I came across Kurt Kulata's WIP pages for the pre-Kiseki Legend of Heroes games (http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/loh/loh.htm):

>For some reason, the Japanese PC game market just never really caught on. While companies such as Konami and Square heavily supported computers like the MSX or PC88, most developers to quick to abandon these platforms in favor of console development.

This is a dated idea.

Companies like Data West made Rayxanbar to supplement their Psychic Detective games, not the other way around. Most gamers of his age focus on console-borne games simply because 16-bit-era TV PCs were built to replicate the universally-accessible arcade experience at home. Games like Hagane and Dragon Quest V were made for consoles because NEC PCs couldn't handle such scrolling, or because casual JRPGs were marketed to families, not to PC owners who could get disk mags, &c. It's more like the Japanese PC game market never caught on *in the United States*, simply because we weren't trying to import text-heavy games that might be good but who knows, we can't all read Japanese; anyone can play Bulk Slash with a little patience to learn the menus. Look at how quickly gamers have taken to the Sharp X68000, which gets attention for its arcade ports and action/STG/puzzle games, not adventure/SLG/sim/CRPG games.

The many mid-sized companies that did support the PC-98 and FM Towns made content out of our reach for a long time. It's only now that translations for most of these games are looking plausible for small groups to start and finish. But that doesn't mean the Japanese PC gaming market never caught on, it means that things don't matter to the writer until they're popular in his market. Not that I hate Kurt for saying this, as it's been many years since he wrote the WIP. Hard to deny that the J-PC market is mostly shit now, but not then.

A quick, lazy run through a hex editor, but I'm sure there has got to be a better way to do this. I need to find the pointers for this game so I won't be limited by space.

>>1807969
Nifty anyway

>>1807969
I could try looking for the pointers, where's some of the text located in the game files?

>>1807969
That's readable to me. Anyone seriously getting into the game would start with an English manual, so abbreviations are nothing.

>>1809294
Does everybody start with knowledge of the Sengoku generals and clans?
I would suggest using Kunrei-Shiki instead of Hepburn (e.g. si instead of shi, tu instead of tsu).

>>1808748
This was mostly just a test. If you're interested, this specific game is actually available in English as "Lord of Darkness" on the SNES. It doesn't look as nice as the PC-98 version, though.

>>1808850
This is actually one of the biggest problems I've encountered. The PC98 files are disk images, and the individual files are archived within the images. Editdisk should be able to unpack them, but for some reason it's having trouble reading images of Koei games. Because it's actually multiple files compressed as a single image, the text is distributed kind of unevenly but the bulk of the in game text starts at offset 4e160. Luckily it seems to be all in SJIS, as opposed to the earlier games which used older JIS.

>>1809294
I'll need to type something up once I actually get far enough to actually have something worth being called a translation. With some space, I can at least make abbreviations that make some sense like "Dvlp" for "Develop", but some things like "RI" as shorthand for Rice prices and "TR" as shorthand for the price to hire troops aren't entirely clear. Koei games should have some tutorial anyway; even if everything is translated perfectly, it's ambiguous what exactly something like "Culture" is needed for.

>>1809319
If it comes down to it I might have to go with that. "Singen" would fit in the six allotted spaces, but I would like to get at least eight spaces for "Nobunaga" (or hopefully nine for "Chosokabe", but that might be getting greedy).

>>1809483
>Editdisk should be able to unpack them, but for some reason it's having trouble reading images of Koei games.

That is quite odd, I even tried running them through VFIC (both converting the image and just plain extracting it) and still got nothing. So what I did was I made a HDD image, booted into DOS environment, copied over the files from each disk into folders, then extracted the folders from that HDD image with Editdisk.

https://mega.co.nz/#!QtpTiJqC!QOD_bEqfCcDeVXrm38JRsku8_8xSw-gAGRJp2Nxbb2M

>>1809483
>Koei games should have some tutorial anyway
I think this was the age where you're basically expected to read the manual in place of a tutorial actually.

>>1809982
That's how people learned to play A-Train. The manual came with a step-by-step tutorial, as coding an entirely unique tutorial mode into the game for the DOS port would have taken some time.

Cool to see the Koei project's going places. Not sure I can join in on the programming front...I feel the need to learn a modern language before learning C and assembly, otherwise I'd feel swamped and completely out of my realm. And I have my most busy semester of school to look forward to this fall, which will get in the way.

>>1794002
lewd

Someone posted that train game in /jp/ btw

Did a little digging recently and found the best PC-98 internal-spec site around: http://euc.jp/articles/pc9800.en.html

This will be useful for any low-level machine utilization projects.

Three possibilities for the beginnings of K. Yoshimura's Star Fleet:

•Tecno Soft had an Atari 8-bit PC with Star Raiders at their office; a direct influence from this game would explain the background hissing noise one hears during spaceflight
•Yoshimura or someone else at the start-up had played Spasim, that old multiplayer PLATO game adapting the Star Trek text-strategy series, which would depend on whether there were any accessible PLATO systems operating in Japan, probably at wherever Yoshimura went to school
•Finally, Yoshimura is an ancient Trek fan, so familiarity with the original text games is presumed and, logically, that love of the games would have lead to Star Fleet's creation

I bet my dad would love to chat with her about the above.

>>1809945
I was completely stymied by why I could see the contents of the disk via DOS but nothing was recognized in Editdisk; it never actually occurred to me to just copy things over to a HDD. Thanks, anon.

>>1809982
It would actually be pretty nice to get ahold of a manual for these games. A few have been scanned and posted online, maybe a Koei game or two is among them.

>>1810034
I always found it amusing how very early Koei got good money from porn games before they ended up going for dry history simulators. I always likened it to a young graduate student paying for their degree by stripping on the side.

>>1811076
Well, it's not as though Yoichi Erikawa expected his games to explode in popularity. He programmed the first Japanese CRPGs, the first eroge game, and the first Nobunaga installment just to pay for his computer and music hobbies. Koei was still a different kind of business before reincorporating as a consumer entertainment company. No surprise that Falcom got in on the 8-bit J-PC gaming scene quickly, too, being responsible for Apple II ports of Western CRPGs to Japan. Question is, where did Cosmo(s) Computer (Regional Power series and, in late 1984, Courageous Perseus) come from?

>remake for DS not even translated
Not that interested, but it looks fun to translate.

I mentioned Primal Space a while back, didn't I?

It's a post-Big Bang god game of sorts, your goal being to create star systems that interconnect and can ultimately bear life. Along the way, you get to form constellations, foster interstellar trade, and keep systems/galaxies from colliding with each other through a simplified physics model.

Have some footage: http://polsy.org.uk/play/nico/?vidid=sm16041503

Be seeing y'all in about nine hours.

Really interested.
Please, have Brandish 4.

>>1773849
>Richard Scarry
Busytown, right? I sorta see it, thx for the nostalgia too.

>>1813719
I wonder if we still have the old Windows remake of the DOS game...not on GOG yet!

Mercurius Pretty's the precursor to Pixy Garden, another NEC Avenue title that got a Windows release. Both games are raising sims, though MP's mainly about raising one critter rather than a whole environment of them. Like the Princess Maker games, you can get a shit-ton of unique endings; in this case, you can end up with a completely different form of creature than otherwise anticipated. Game looks gorgeous, that's for sure.

It hurts me that Wonder Project J never got a port to any J-PC despite perhaps operating best with mouse controls.

This machine.

>>1812107
This game looks interesting, guessing it's a kind of mystery game?

>>1815114
Yup. It's got point-and-click adventure segments resembling Clock Tower, also in real-time. Another part of the game's spent as a visual novel, where you wander around town gathering information and advancing the plot some. Very cool hybrid of genres, I'd love to play it in English.

>>1815128
So since I saw my only copy of Twilight Busters in the archive are Install disks I went to try and make an installed copy to upload. Figured out that it needs a boot disk for it to run so what I did was I took a pre-existing DOS 6.2 boot disk I already had and changed the AUTOEXEC.BAT. Would love to play this game in English too, hopefully it happens at some point, I'll have to take a look at the game's files and see what's there.

Uploaded to the Mega folder
https://mega.co.nz/#F!F59WkSqQ!quGKSFIswBgv0rxAAaF8Pg

>>1815128
Maybe someone could hack the DS version first. Can't be worse than 7th Dragon.

>>1815361
ty :>

>>1815361
Huh, found out something interesting, it appears the game has support for single-width characters but doesn't fully load the string after reading the first character even if there's still double-width in the string. Wonder why it does that and curious if there's a way to make it read the rest of the string.

>>1815030
Sharp doesn't make the X1 anymore, not even for hobbyists, but they're putting out PC-TV interface kits with X1 cases, so that's kinda cool.

>>1815424
Single-width as in half-width? Should save a lot of space if the draw issue gets fixed.

Looks like I can buy Trails in the Sky FC on Steam AND GOG AND GamersGate, but the last site's kind of lame anyway.

Back on topic: have a White Witch screen. I'm always really satisfied to see color matching in game art, even when the color palette forces the task upon artists and programmers. 16 colors really was just enough for PC-98 devs, though. This game has a lovely amber grade that's preserved it over the years.

>>1816765
Damn, that looks gorgeous.

I take it there's no option for original art in the PSP version?

>>1817215
Most likely not, because Bandai did the PSP remakes. Pattern dithering's gone out of style anyway (but not The Legend of Heroes!).

By Kiya, almost all of the translated J-PC CRPGs are either on MSX or MS-DOS platforms. This needs to change or I need to learn Japanese.

>>1812804
The old Brandish general: https://archive.foolz.us/vr/thread/1558754/

Bout time we revived it.

>>1817448
>J-PC CRPGs
Are all those abbreviations necessary?

>either on MSX or MS-DOS platforms. This needs to change
I think emulation is often a better option than those lousy Win95 ports. The MSX bias needs to stop though.

>>1818810
Most games haven't received Windows ports and won't. They'll have to be patched and then run in an emulator for the most part. XSEED's having a lot of trouble getting a 2004 Windows game to work right for Steam; I think there'll be more direct memory issues to fix at the benefit of easy emulation.

MSX bias is understandable...I don't like it either.

>>1818873
I was thinking of stuff like the Alice games where 7 had the Windows port translated. For 4.1 and 4.2 it was for 16 bit Winodws so you needed to emulate it from a 64 bit Windows anyway.

>>1818440

I haven't played all of them, but the earlier Brandish games don't seem to have much going for them apart from a kickass art style that should be brought back.

Made this recently (game is Merry-Go-Round for the PC-98). No reason why we should ignore Korean/Taiwanese/Chinese/whatever games.

>>1818993
I hear many positive opinions about even the first Brandish, just not the SFC ports. The original games at least give you a compass in the HUD to let you know where you're facing.

Cross-posting this from the other thread. Look at dat background pattern.

>>1820020
>Taiwanese/Chinese/whatever games
Is there any, though? I thought the rest of Asia were too poorfag to own PCs back then

>>1820043
The English-language MS-DOS port of Genocide 2 I posted here came out in Korea. We mostly talk about Japanese PC games on /vr/ and in threads like these, but here's an article on Korean games: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/korea/part1/korea1.htm

Taiwanese and Chinese games were a thing too. A thread on Holy Island (DOS, Taiwan in 1997): http://fullmotionvideo.free.fr/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1432&sid=1d9f03267136dcba9814798910ec4931

So they exist, but getting info on them is harder.

None of this matters to me until I can play CRW in English. There's a PSX port of the original, but 2 is PC-only.

>>1780296

HOLY MOTHER OF FUCK!

This picture just flashbacked me hard into the past, totally forgot that game existed
>must... playit...now...

>>1788357
>>1797262
>>1797287
i can't find a rom, anyone have one?

>>1821363
Check in this archive for ポゼッショナー: https://mega.co.nz/#F!F59WkSqQ!quGKSFIswBgv0rxAAaF8Pg

If it's not there, search for the same Japanese name/English name in one of the Internet Archive sets. I'm sure it's in there somewhere.

>>1820453
You can find the files at Abandonia: http://www.abandonia.com/games/181/

>>1821363
a.pomf.se/isczxb.zip

>>1821413
>>1821416
thanks guys
is the xmas version a different version? i saw a few things about that

captcha: different hatadds

>>1821438
Differences are most likely cosmetic. Not much is known on Possessioner aside from the CG rips and general setting.

>>1821447
ah, thanks
English patches or no?

>>1821451
Very unlikely it's been patched, would be cool.

>>1821462
yeah.
thanks again!

Looks like Eiyuu Densetsu Saga (1984, Micro Cabin) has English commands in its menu, in case anyone's willing to give it a shot. Not related to Falcom's Legend of Heroes, the game was well known in its time for having impressive imported art and dithering, as well as a more traditional fantasy setting compared to that of contemporary Japanese adventures. How fitting that Micro Cabin should a Legend of Heroes first!

>>1822664

If a nip game doesn't use any Kana, no one has any excuse for why they can't play it. You can learn to read Kana in a few weeks (at most) of hard work. Go to Real Kana and get cracking.

It won't mean you'll understand everything, but get a dictionary and you'll learn to navigate menus pretty quick.

Now I'm working on Thexder, up to the second level. I had trouble near the end of the first, but only because I kept shooting into the breakable squares and activating the Eye which would then kill me outright (going for the no-shield bonus, so I wasn't about to expend energy). Very fun game, what with the energy management and leading of phasers and enemies.

>>1823467

*if a nip game doesn't use any Kanji

Should have caught that earlier...

>>1807170
It goes without saying that localization costs were bad enough that import enthusiasts stood alone. Best there was was Working Designs and Renovation.

Daiva's on a lot of PCs. What's the most accessible installment I could play right now?

>>1827240
Famicom one is actually translated

>>1827240
Asura's Bloodfeud for the MSX was translated, just gotta find the patch (Sargon).

Not gonna play Thexder just yet: my copy of Szczepaniak's book arrived while I was at work. It looks great already, but I still don't know if he's with-holding interview content for another book that I might have to buy myself (which would be rude towards a platinum backer).

>Mr. Hidaka bends his arm and shows off a chiseled bicep that could break rocks (pg. 53)
This man is flat-out awesome. Not hard to infer that he's a Hokuto no Ken fan, although he mainly worked with one of Go Nagai's proteges on Eldorado Denki and Gandhara. Hidaka says his disassembler ROOT88 is also the best program of its type for PC-88 games. We'd have to contact him in order to get it.

I can't learn japanese

>>1823467
It is really satisfying to navigate a menu solely by sounding out katakana loan words. Suuu taaa to? Got it!

>>1820020
>No reason why we should ignore Korean/Taiwanese/Chinese/whatever games.

I think the reason is, nobody knows fucking anything about them. Maybe you can start us off?

>>1829079
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/korea/part1/korea1.htm

Szczepaniak's book is ridiculous. He got interviews with many of the programmers who first formed Game Arts, back when they were making games and demos for the AX series on the PC-6001 w/ASCII. Now the author says he got an interview with Yoshio Kiya and an anonymous alumnus of Zainsoft. Excellent.

>>1827668
>>1827359
Thanks guys.

I heard Szczepaniak got Daiva interviews, too.

Lunatic Dawn MUST be translated

>>1829281
Yes, yes it must. Artdink was using the Gagharv LoH games' battle system for the first two Lunatic Dawn titles years before Falcom. I wonder if the online functions for III and IV could be rebooted with the right gear. Otherwise, at least one die-hard from RPGCodex reports that they're solid dungeon-crawlers.

>>1830603
This looks more like a clone of Rusty than something that went into development.

>>1829293
So it's real time or something?

>>1830858
Lunatic Dawn I/II are both real-time, though map travel's done in a flash. III/IV are most likely turn-based, not sure about real-time with pause.

Looks like the first stealth game, Manbiki Shounen (Shoplifting Boy) from 1979, is still around in the form of a type-in BASIC listing. That should already work on all J-PC OSes, assuming you have the system ROMs. Hiroshi Suzuki's a cool guy, also made The Cockpit and got the AX-series programmers involved with Taito before they did their games at ASCII for the 6001.

>>1831583
>III/IV are most likely turn-based

The third and fourth game are quite different than the first two, they are similar to Diablo.

>>1831597
Not all dungeon-crawlers are focused on loot. LDIII/IV seems to be a more general type of CRPG than Diablo, at least.

Speaking of which, Artdink just recently ported Lunatic Dawn The 3rd Book to Windows 7 and8, you can a downloadable copy from their e-store: http://www.artdink.co.jp/eshop/luna_3rd.html

It looks like they're also bringing/keeping The 3rd Book's servers online, which means you can play with friends if so desired. Here's some footage of exploring and battling, looks like turn-based battling to me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHVfmvw5Ra4

For comparison, a demo of LDII's real-time battle system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrvOGWNC4UQ

I'm finding a ton of Lunatic Dawn fansites all of a sudden, too, which should keep me occupied.

Excellent thread.

Fuck it all, Artdink was working on a new Lunatic Dawn several years back! Book of Eternity (Escalation?) was set to release around the turn of the decade, but they cancelled it without disclosure. Here's a cute retrospective of the game's development history: http://blog.livedoor.jp/mejyuka/archives/3302671.html

The game doesn't look aesthetically consistent from preview screens, which I'm sure didn't help at the time it was announced. Carnage Heart EXA turned out great, what was going on with the team working on this title?

A couple of fansites:
http://www.antian.sakura.ne.jp/games/LD/LD.html
http://www.geocities.jp/lunadonsucker/

The mention of other East Asian games made me wanna look inside my PC & DOS games folder to see if I had any. In it I found a Taiwanese game "Adith The Forgottoh Alchemy" (It has "forgottoh" on the title screen). Looks like I've got both a CD image and a pre-installed copy of the game along with a cheat and walk-through file...in Chinese. Screenshots are from I believe a Korean version, dunno if it's a fan translation or an official Korean release. I've also got a folder called "DOS H GAMES." Can go about uploading this stuff if anyone wants.

When looking up info about that Adith game I came across this site which appears to have Korean-language games
http://nemo838.tistory.com/

Knights of Xendar, anyone? Played it long ago. Megatech also did Power DoLLS, which I heard of but didn't get a chance to try. The games made me horny enough.

>>1833345
>Knights of Xendar, anyone?
Almost forgot about it. That and Cobra City were my intro to Japanese games.

>>1833345
First JRPG I played.
Still the best I played.

>>1833150
Looks like an Atelier clone at first glance. Mind uploading it if you can? I want to check it out for morbid curiosity

Has anyone here played the 銀河英雄伝説 (Legend of Galactic Heroes) PC-98 games? They look hard as shit but I'm interested in them.

>>1833345

I played all the games in the series. Knights of Xentar (Dragon Knight 3) feels really different if you played the other two games in the series, since in features every character from the previous games.

>>1833776
Here you go, includes both Taiwanese and Korean versions of the game
https://mega.co.nz/#F!FpMXTDKD!DUMFVQJDQvUyyUkIpIn7pQ

>>1833981
Thanks

While I was looking up Lunadon content, I decided to peek onto 2ch's PC/retro game boards. They had a Project EGG general going, the 11th so far; someone posted a funny-lookin' blog to imply that EGG's had legal trouble: http://ameblo.jp/akatenjpn/entry-10158393627.html

It looks like someone working at D4 Enterprises embezzled a fairly large amount of cash, and there's a connection between a Shimizu and a Suzuki that I can't make out. I heard a vague hint some whiles back that D4 was shady, so I want to know who's who in this court war. Google Translate's mostly useless, I might take this to the burgeoning Japanese thread on this board.

•

I sat down and looked through Kogado's history of older games. It turns out they had a boom in productivity following the first Power DoLLS.

Instead of making traditional CRPGs like they had been before 1994, KS' internal teams rapidly diversified, making games somewhat like Power DoLLS (real-time-with-pause strategy titles like Sequence Palladium and Blue Flow), VNs, sci-fi city-building games (The Mars Project, >>1833703), and small RTSes (Rasetsu series). This was all in addition to regular releases of new Power DoLLS installments and Schwarzschild gaiden games for Windows. In fact, Power DoLLS 6 and Schwarzschild V came out within the same time-frame. Members of Team Rabbit, the guys behind Power DoLLS, split off to make games at Shuwa System(s), these being Spiritual Soul 1/2 and Remote Presence.

tl;dr Kogado's golden age happened during the downfall of Japanese PC gaming, which is perplexing. The only game I was familiar with from this era was Psychic War 2 (http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/psychicwar/psychicwar.htm)), and even then no one's really given these games a look.

>>1831717
>Not all dungeon-crawlers are focused on loot.

It's actually more similar to Diablo than to other CRPG. Of course you have quests like in the other games in the series where you have to kill a specific character or deliver some item, but most of the time it feels like a poor man Diablo, I've seen that line on some japanese reviews.

Also... apparently one of the best games in the series is Lunatic Dawn FX.

>>1835117
Calling it a "poor man's Diablo" doesn't seem fair. There's plenty of dungeon crawling and a detailed loot system, but the first Diablo is little but the lower levels, whereas the Windows Lunatic Dawn games have town exploration and a well-sized overworld. Whether for better or worse, Artdink's games mix the Wizardry and Ultima paradigms. From what I can tell, The 3rd Book and its predecessors are free-form, catering to multiple audiences. If you like dungeon crawling, you'll like this for certain, but there's above-world quests in abundance and nearly endless ways to recruit party members too. Special events are divided between boss fights underground and sequences taking place on the overworld. There's more potential for social choices & consequences, not to mention a turn-based battle system.

Besides, the dungeon crawling wasn't included because of Diablo, it was there since the PC-98 originals, where there was less to do in town (until LDII). antian.sakura.ne.jp mentions Ultima Online in the series overview, and the games went more towards the Ultima style as time went on.

>>1835190
LDIII (and IV, which was more of an expansion), is closer to Diablo through its direct combat controls, but it looks like they were buggy and unwieldy games even after patching. Artdink quickly returned to the first two Windows games' style after the mis-step. The 3rd Book used dedicated servers for the online marketplace, useful for getting items or sharing game worlds, and traditional save-anywhere functionality got replaced with enforced auto-saves (I assume Artdink designed the fixed game areas around this). II and The 3rd Book get the most attention in the 2ch Lunadon threads.

So, I started playing Possessioner, as this thread made me want it bad.
I really wish I could understand moonspeak, it just seems so good. The art, the characters, everything looks great.
Dat intro.

Since this is about japanese games, that rely heavily on text I might ask this here:

Is there something like an OCR software, that can recognize kanji and convert them to text so they can be translated easier?

>>1835403
KanjiTomo, chiitrans, ITH.

>>1835405
Thanks! That`s exactly what I need.

It *is* weird that town exploration's done through menus in most LD installments. I do like the focus on food and resource management when crossing the overworld, since it's a logical mechanic for Artdink to use from their other sim games.

>>1833852
Bothtec's other games are more important to me, but I can see /m/ translating these if they got together. Meanwhile, the Schwarzschild series needs heavy consideration. Kogado's franchise essentially adapts LoGH to an original strategy framework, which may or may not be comparable to the 4X systems of Masters of Orion. Lots of more recent games: III through V are available on Windows, and all the gaidens except GX and EX are Windows originals.

Here, a link to the old Schwarzschild Circle homepage: http://www.mars.dti.ne.jp/~leyphath/sch/schwarzschild.html

got very interested reading the thread, but the only game I played is some of the Rance series.

any reccomendations on games?

>>1835617
Night Slave for the PC-98. It's action/mecha with an FAQ on GameFAQs, so little JP knowledge is needed unless you wish to read the VN sections.

>>1835002
I guess trying to be active in that time (when companies like Falcom were already bailing out to consoles) is why they're comatose today except for a handful of Otome game releases here and there on the PSP.

I... I just want Kogado to make more Aoi Umi No Tristia again... and Power DoLLs ;_;

>>1835681
The only PC-98 action game I played had awful sprite flickering and movement lag. Does this, too?

>>1835617
Which Rance games have you played? The strategy titles or the earlier CRPGs?

There's a good many genres to choose from, regardless of the machine. Official translations/localizations are usually all for DOS, but fan translations patch the original game files for emulator usage. Some of English-translated games by genre:

•WiBARM, side-scrolling/first-person action adventure, DOS local.
•Power DoLLS, hex-based wargame strategy, DOS local.
•Die Bahnwelt, top-down run and gun, fan patch for the X68000
•The Screamer, CRPG, fan patch for the PC-88
•A-Train, city-builder sim game by way of economy, DOS local.
•Thexder, action platformer, DOS local.
•Daiva: Ashura's Bloodfeud, space strategy, fan patch for the MSX
•Omotesandou Adventure, English-compatible text adventure, PC-88

Other games that aren't translated/localized, but don't require you to read:

•Thunder Force, STG, Sharp X1
•Mike's Lonely Journey, action, Fujitsu FM-7 (not sure where to find the ROM)
•Yuureikun (Mr. Ghost), cute-em-up, MSX
•The Scheme, Metroid-like action adventure, PC-88
•Chitty Chitty Train, puzzle, PC-98 (we've been working on this one for a while now)

>>1835694
Operating costs, even at a small outfit like Kogado, likely would have crushed the software division after several bombs. So they must have hit a vein with Power DoLLS at the least, using little on The Mars Project and diverting resources to Rasetsu and SP.

>>1835696
As a PC-98 action game, it's obviously not silky smooth 60 FPS, but it still controls and looks pretty well actually.

Almost technical wizardry to get a PC-98 action game like it, if you ask me

>>1835719
>Operating costs, even at a small outfit like Kogado, likely would have crushed the software division after several bombs. So they must have hit a vein with Power DoLLS at the least, using little on The Mars Project and diverting resources to Rasetsu and SP.
I guess that vein must have dried up by now then...

>>1835828
Must have. Later games like Pointers, Geotail, and Gadget Trial look simplified next to great ideas like Guys & Dolls (a Power DoLLS spinoff where you predict danmaku-like bullet patterns and prepare to dodge them). Kogado's software calendar hasn't shown a new release for about two years! Who knows what Studios Usagi, Kuma, and Kitsune are doing atm.

>>1821438
>>1821447

The "Christmas version" just has a shitty cracktro by an English release group (meaning they got it from another source and rebranded it for their shitty release site).

>>1835838
Come to think of it, it's probably the Power DoLLs series that eventually bombed and killed itself which is causing this. I remember a website humourously describing PD6 as "Black History" (a Gundam reference) because it was so bad everyone pretends it doesn't exist.

Kogado's relative obscurity in English speaking regions is causing me some trouble: I really want to play some of their PC/Windows games now that my Japanese isn't completely terrible, but I can't find anything other than dead torrents.

Maybe they're still floating around on some Chinese sites or something (which is where I get most of my PC-98 stuff) but I'm not really familiar with that community at all.

>>1835719

Played the first rance, the art and the gameplay was really interesting.

Not very into eroge though.

I'll check the recommendations, thanks!

>>1835889
What can you tell is wrong or unpopular with PD6? The polygonal visuals look bare-bones, but I don't know what if anything changed mechanically. The Shuwa System exodus might have affected the series' quality in absence of the original developers, but PD5 must have done well enough to get two more editions.

Omnishop says it takes international credit cards, so the worst case is to get a middleman and buy from Kogado. They also sell digital downloads, which would make getting some games quicker.

>>1835897
Np, will help again.

>>1835949
I only got 2nd hand information from the small amount of reviews floating on it but apparently...

1) It's a 3D FPS action game rather than a strategy game. Making that jump is not good.

(Incidentally, PD had kind of a troubled sequel syndrome just like RoTK or Nobunaga's Ambition, it seems. PD3 and 4 became RTS, then returned to TBS in 5, 6 was an FPS then the remake of 1 returned to being TBS, but the damage was probably done by then)

2) The complaints are just that it's generally bad as an FPS game, including...

- Poor controls/mouse sensitivity.
- Bad "feedback" as there is no sense of impact or damage gauge when fighting with an enemy.
- AI partners are terrible, getting stuck in terrain and generally being all-round ineffective.
- Mission objectives confusing.
- Too small selection of weapons, usable mechs...

"PD6 would be embarassing for a doujin game, let alone an actual established game developer" seems like a common sentiment.

>>1836023
Wow. I've only seen third-person footage of the walking mecha and thought there was a separate strategy screen, but this is a game-changer. They should have made a new IP to try out a mech FPS, not remodel Power DoLLS and inadvertently piss off the regulars. Explains why it's not on the Omnishop catalog...

Not enough Japanese game developers make FPSes anyway, especially not with ideal kb/m controls.

>>1835889
Chinese sites
http://pan.baidu.com/s/1qW4Ut68 password: 0yyq

>>1835617
Asuka 120%

Probably the only fighting games worth playing on these PCs (X68000 & FM Towns)

>>1836567
Dat Keichi Yonao.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1zM4f53PV0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrC8Dfu3GXo

Fill-In-Cafe was a strong developer for the X68000 and FM Towns. They also did Mad Stalker, a very fun belt-scroller brawler with complex combos to pull off. The creator of Umihara Kawase hails from the company, what a thought.

>>1835889
>Kogado

You can find most of the Kogado stuff in japanese p2p networks (winny, share and perfect dark), just use this tag 工画堂.

For some reason, the Sharp MZ computers have a lot more documentation online than I expected. Most of the games were BASIC type-in listings found in mags of the era, but packaged games grew in number from 1982 onward. It seems that Bond Soft's text adventures stood out for their playability compared to contemporary games.

All of the MZ game review sites make special notice of Adventure in the Wonder-Forest (or Adventure Forest in Wonderland), created by a Mr. Nekojara (most likely a pseudonym). Since there's a patch for converting Roman-character inputs to their kana equivalents, I'm assuming the original MZ-700 release lets you use generic English commands for the parser, which is useful. Not exactly sure what the plot/premise is, but Sierra graphical adventures were popular imports at the time, so a fantastic forest adventure would likely have a hodge-podge of puzzles and macro mysteries to solve. Some links to reviews, info, and other MZ games:

http://marus.ekakisan.net/omake/mz80soft/fusigi.html
http://we-love-mz.sakura.ne.jp/wiki/?%C9%D4%BB%D7%B5%C4%A4%CE%BF%B9%A4%CE%A5%A2%A5%C9%A5%D9%A5%F3%A5%C1%A5%E3%A1%BC
http://t-kun.sakura.ne.jp/fo/room03/mz06.htm#mzes04

Time Secret and Time Tunnel, the two succeeding adventures from Nekojara, have been documented well enough; you hop between time periods and place in order to solve mysteries, which means the games predate Day of the Tentacle and similar time-travel adventures. They also came out for the PC-88, so those ROMs should be easier to find. Figuring out Nekojara's identity will be fun, if he's still alive. Some links for the Time games:

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%BF%E3%82%A4%E3%83%A0%E3%82%B7%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AC%E3%83%83%E3%83%88
http://bgm.sub.jp/TIME/TSINTRO.html
http://bgm.sub.jp/TIME/T2INTRO.html

>>1838118
Correction: Sierra's Time Zone came out in 1981.It apparently got flack for shoddy design and programming, so there's a chance Bond Soft's take might be better.

>>1838121
1982, actually. They would have needed an Apple II to play Time Zone.

>>1837524
I've tried to do that, but none of these programs work for me and keeps cutting me off after connecting... I assume some router issues going on but I have no idea how to fix them.

Either that or I'm not using the right server lists or something

>>1838467

You need to open ports for the program to work correctly. If you cant forward the ports correctly it will never connect.

>>1838467
You need to open ports as well as add a list of nodes if you're using Perfect Dark, and you need to have your unity accumulate to a certain amount too.

>>1838534
>>1838550
I swear I did those (I followed a guide) though...

>>1838768
Okay, I scoured /m/ for their Power DoLLS/Kogado posts and found some recent uploads:
https://archive.foolz.us/m/thread/10705798/
https://archive.foolz.us/m/thread/10983257/#10986274

You'll get access to PD1 2009, APD2, PD3, Rasetsu 2, and a Chinese port of Sequence Palladium the first. Gadget Trial also got a English fan patch sometime back, which is bizarre but welcome: http://yu-ri.is.moelicious.be/index.htm

Also, some Power DoLLS OSTs, because Hiroto Saito is an awesome game musician: https://mega.co.nz/#!gZJ0WapR!e6A2Rk0EqXqyiciu-djt6GQSngVHLX4qdY1SZflyxQo

Seems I'm the first poster to mention Schwarzschild on either /m/ or this board. Maybe it's time to introduce them to the other LOGH. Please see if you can get the games to work, Kogado Anon, I wanna see some pics of PD3.

>>1839436
Well, I don't know how to put this...

But that was me. I uploaded those games. Which is my entire collection.

(Man, I really want to play 5 + 5X)

>>1787698
>sex change
Don't let tumblr see this!

I didn't know Arsys did Thunder Force. Was Star Cruiser on the Genesis ever considered for localization?

>>1839474
Small world, lol.

>>1840015
Namco wanted to publish it as Star Quest around the time Star Fox came out, and they finished a translation of NCS' port, but that didn't have a release.

Speaking of NCS Masaya, Langrisser and Der Langrisser (Langrisser II for the Saturn) both got ported to Windows 9x by a small tabletop-game studio called Imbalance. Nothing's listed on the company site anymore, but these versions of Langrisser came out as budget packs, a rare choice for J-PC publishing. I've also heard of a Korean/Chinese Windows port, and it could very well be the same as Imbalance's, though I saw Japanese characters on their site. There are English patches available for Langrisser II at the least, and there's probably a retranslation patch for Langrisser I.

>>1839474
>(Man, I really want to play 5 + 5X)

https://mega.co.nz/#!IkUxDQrK!6RgHEZku7g7hb488bnPotnYAmxFDENG65xBE8haEx9M

>>1814138
Have the Dreamcast copy of this, still haven't played it. Japanese Creatures, I guess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4XPe8TtXEE

>>1840342
Holy shit thanks

(Do you have 5X also?)

>>1841000

I can get it... I'll check the japanese p2p to see if I can find a complete copy.

Hey, wanna see a real poor man's Diablo? By poor man, I mean salaryman living in Korea with a reasonably equipped Windows PC tower.

Midgard's a generic dungeon crawler with clunky controls, dated polygonal visuals, and uninspiring level design. And it's exclusive to Japanese and Korean markets, where it will most likely stay until anyone challenges Derboo's investigation and opinion The engine looks nice, at least.

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/kusoge/kusoge-midgard.htm

Someone should archive FM Towns CD and MIDI soundtracks, since there's an archive up for Hoot files.

How likely am I to find these kinds of games in Akiba PC shops? I don't think the console stores or Hard Offs will have anything other than Falcom and recent hits.

>>1843087
There's a good chance of getting them off Yahoo! Auctions, actually. I've been looking through a pile of obscure early Windows games (from studios like GruppoOne, 404, System Soft Alpha) and this strange beast popped up: http://page8.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/h175810110

Also, Yoshio Kiya made games after Falcom. No kidding, he did the Gekirin (Outrage) series (FM Towns and Windows) at Nihon Applications, and I suspect he was the driving force behind Last Imperial Prince for the PC-FX. None of this is new to MobyGames, surprisingly, though most of the other stuff I've searched for is.

Brandish playlist for late night:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEz6HZDjXbo&index=2&list=PLUDqa6qgNinwR5WBSWqQBajlCpertTRxT

>>1844654
>Still no guide for Brandish 4

>>1843426

http://next.rikunabi.com/tech/docs/ct_s03600.jsp?p=001275

Here is a recent interview with Kiya, he talks a little big about Gekirin, but he doesnt talk about other games from Nihon Applications. But Im sure he worked in Imperial Prince, that game is just too similar to other Falcom games from those days, specially Kaze no Densetsu Xanadu that was one of the lasts games Kiya worked on while he was on Falcom.

>>1845345
>little big

*little bit

>>1845345
I don't see any talk about Gekirin, but it's a good interview. Figures that Sorcerian's his favorite: he got to realize a large set of fantasy quests rather than simply provide a dungeon crawling framework. It's interesting that he got away from games like Drasle Family to do Brandish, a top-down dungeon game. The text I can read reveals his interest in amateur radio, and that Nihon Falcom hired up around the time he got them to sell his first game at the storefront.

ApolloJoe's updated his channel with some music from Navitune, Aiza (Takeru-published Ys-like), Schwarzschild IV, Rome Wasn't Built In A Day, and How Many Robots 2. I can hear some vintage Hiroto Saito in the Schwarzschild selection, and you should too.

Today I'm going to update the pastebin with some websites I've already scoured for connections and obscurities. This will include the D4 Enterprise embezzlement situation. Also, I need to get a good capture card for recording emulator footage at 30 FPS, ideally to work within a Windows VM (which itself is going to get an upgrade when I move to a new laptop).

>>1800442
...I knew that version of Sorcerian was missing something, or so it felt. Sounds like KOEI's butchering of Brandish for the SNES.

>>1800442
>>1846950
I think I remember reading, although I doubt it was a reliable source, that it was the Romancia scenario that was an issue, I imagine because no one in the US market would get the reference at all.

I think that sort of makes some sense. The early missions had their music tracks intact, but then the later ones are all jumbled up.

>>1847304
They should have taken the opportunity to advertise future Falcom releases within the Romancia scenario, lol. It'd have been a nice meta-joke for Sierra at that time.

Found some old Comptiq scans from 1995 with screens of Thief Q, Tokio 2, CRW 2...yeah, that's only three of the most rare and desirable Japanese PC games of that year.

Was about to post it in the retro PC general, but here's Computer Chronicles' Japan industry episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vzm_L000PhM&index=1&list=PLE146B21C2E1A6F12

Most of the Japanese guys speak English here.

Tokio 2 + Schwarzschild EX

CRW 2

Thief Q

Also, Restricted Area looks like an interesting adventure game, if those screens of hacking into an online network have anything to say.

>>1849965
>>1849967
>>1849970
no bigger scan ?

>>1850163
Having flipped through Tokugawa Corps' magazine threads, it seems that Comptiq issues are rarely scanned due to price escalation in the Japanese market. So this is the best quality I can find, and the text's legible anyway. A shame, since Comptiq was easily the most detailed and content-rich of the Japanese PC mags, focusing on the game developers much of the time. I really want to see those early Windows mags, like Oh! PC.

Wiz, the devs behind CRW and its sequel, made one more mech strategy game, this time for Windows. It's called Black Magic, possibly as a reference to Masamune Shirow's seminal cyberpunk manga (he did the art for all three of these games, too). The only impression online is self-reportedly biased, coming from a Shirow fan-page mostly focused on the art, not the game. Here's the animated opening movie, which I kind of like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv4k5P5Rx24

>>1782173
>>1782501
Are you still lurking around? I need a video better than the one Game Sack did.

Speaking of CRW, anyone got a HD image of 1 and 2?

>>1851605
There should be a CRW 2 .nfd here:
https://mega.co.nz/#F!F59WkSqQ!quGKSFIswBgv0rxAAaF8Pg

Someone found CRW files in one of the archives and wrote them to a virtual HD, here's the posts to follow: https://archive.foolz.us/vr/search/text/CRW/

>>1849970

BTW, anyone has a copy of Kaito Q (Thief Q)? I can only find the korean version of the game...

>>1851726
Erm, you'll have to use P2P. Cheapest auction listing is $37 off without shipping/middleman.

>>1851686
CRW's in the Internet Archive download in the OP.

I just learned that Masterpiece's The Conveni, that series of games where you start a convenience store and manage a chain, started out as a Windows release in 1996. This explains their relationship with Artdink, though I guess the devs partnered with Human for some other reasons. Windows releases were self-published, but both of the other companies did console releases of The Conveni and its fantasy-world gaiden game; Human developed The Conveni 2 themselves. 3 and 4 also came out for Windows, with support for online feature as well.

FlipFlop, Masterpiece, and Artdink stuck together in those years, though only Artdink's had the ballast to float so long. Masterpiece is mobile game and IT now, and Yoichi Yamaguchi's presumably somewhere else. Also, I really like the papercraft Conveni models Masterpiece built, but I bet they're hard to reproduce.

>>1845685
this

>>1852701
He shouldn't have trouble finding a capture card for what he needs.

>>1854812
I don't think there's a need in a capture card to capture footage on your computer screen at all

>>1784420
>deep story/lore
>>1784539
>Well, the main character is very funny.
So how would you explain pic related?

>>1854927
I see both deep lore and a funny character in this screenshot, what's your problem?

>>1854889
I'm not sure how many Japanese PC emus come with good video recording; this would be the other option.

Back to Thexder. Stage 2's a damned difficulty spike for sure. It's placed so early in order to teach players to use their shield if necessary. This I don't mind, but putting the energy-resplendent UFOs in a tight opening part of the way through the map is a bit cruel. Still, very fun so far. Stage 3's got some more breathing room.

>>1855546
Just install OBS, it lets you record whatever window you want, you don't need a god damn capture card for that.

>>1855003
Are you mentally challenged?

>>1855003
>hurr he said rape its funny
I bet South Park is your favourite TV show

>>1855804
I am, actually, but it isn't all that bad.

>>1855808
Nope, my favorite show is Maison Ikkoku.

I'm sensing some topic derailment into a bad direction. So here's a Power DoLLs 5 screenshot.

>>1856031
He doesn't skip leg day.

I think it's the right place to ask about it - do you people avec any informations about the Legend of Galactic Heroes J-PC games?

>>1856229
Far as I know, LOGH 4EX is the best of the Bothtec games simply because it includes diplomacy, the ability to stage a coup, and military economic strategies, as well as occupation options and such. The other games are usually based around the engagements themselves, with less attention devoted to the build-up. 4EX also has a good selection of original music + anime tunes and classical pieces included for good measure. There isn't much difference between this set of systems and what Schwarzschild has happening. The game's available for early versions of Windows, which will make it easier to translate and then run in a VM for those who can't get it working in compatibility mode.

Each game has a set of scenarios you must beat either standalone or as part of a campaign, and the power-up kits/deluxe editions don't change anything other than the quantity of content included. Here's some links I've cobbled up:

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%8A%80%E6%B2%B3%E8%8B%B1%E9%9B%84%E4%BC%9D%E8%AA%AC_(%E3%82%B2%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A0)#.E3.83.91.E3.82.BD.E3.82.B3.E3.83.B3.E7.89.88
http://polsy.org.uk/play/nico/?vidid=sm767087

Not that much footage of the early games on NND, surprisingly. I guess Schwarzschild is more actively remembered from that time-frame, since the newer LOGH games get more attention.

>>1856146
More like she, if we're talking about the mecha thighs.

>>1855748
Excellent recommendation! I'll get this working in due time.

>>1856229
>>1856653
I don't suppose there's a download of LoGH 4EX floating around on the net then?

>>1857441
Not individually. ROMs like this are stuck in sets, so you'll have to dl and see if it's there. Windows version might be on Perfect Dark.

>>1857467
Makes me sad I can't use JP P2P programs at all. I would probably grab all of these and slap it up on mega or something.

>>1857531
I put up a search for it on Perfect Dark, if it ever pops up and fully downloads I'll go and upload it somewhere (probably Mega).

Does anyone know if the difficulty level of Akumajou Dorakyura on the x68000 can be changed? I'm playing it now and it's way too easy, yet I've read that it's supposed to be more difficult. Is it possible that I am playing a softened up version or something?

>>1857823
The game loops after each playthrough, with each loop more difficult than the last (six playthroughs total).

>>1858497
Damn, it gets up to level 6 difficulty? What even happens at that level of difficulty?

Also, you wouldn't happen to know why the emulator I'm using (WinX68kHighSpeed) doesn't save my game data, would you? Not that I mind playing through multiple times, but I'm not interested in doing it six times in one setting just to get the full difficulty scale.

>>1857531
>>1857752
Thanks in advance to both of you if it works - and thanks Don for your informations. Another good reason to continue learning japanese.

>>1858724
That emulator hasn't seen an update in years; I'm more interested in XM6-Pro, MIJET's fork that comes with a lot of advantages over the alternatives: http://mijet.eludevisibility.org/XM6%20Pro-68k/XM6%20Pro-68k.html

See if that lets you save easier.

>>1858926
np

Was bored so I decided to just make some HD images of some games which I don't think have any to save people some time.

First, "Mobile Suit Gundam - Stardust Operation"

https://mega.co.nz/#!QMwnTKiQ!q0ROaMd-E4HCkL2wTLNKKj2kiTfI3OM-rFS7LK03KqU

Forgot to mention but these are all PC-98 games.

Next, the Tekkaman Blade... uh, RTS? In the same way that Ogre Battle is an RTS.

https://mega.co.nz/#!9MAX3BYT!OayEvv5nMiJPjRA4xy6HWOKmEcwtJIbip4G-ZTR4Grs

Last - Youjuu Senki 2. Strategy Wargame about Female soldiers VS Tentacley Aliens.

https://mega.co.nz/#!ZdRjTRqI!fDaZyaUrPVmP-XMVr4VoSNw2w4LGXYNsSSpkVq44hbM

The shitty remake of the first game in the series on Windows was actually localized. Shitty because it kept the outdated gameplay but removed the good PC-98 art for some really terrible "modern" style replacements.

This buttcheek got the smack dab on me in Level 4. Figured out how to get the UFOs tucked away in Level 2, that + general ease of Level 3 meant three no-shield bonuses in a row. Maybe I'll play Theseus after beating Thexder.

>>1860394
>>1860396
>>1860404
Excellent work. Could you try making an image of the .nfds for CRW 2?

>>1852410
I love that work, it's amazing.

I don't take it you can play those games without being pretty good at reading Japanese.

>>1860394
The portrait looks good but the GMs look really amateurish. Now I see why they just do headshots only for SRW games.

Not that I don't appreciate your work here. Just commenting on the game is all.

>>1849965
>Schwarzschild
>not LOGH 4EX
Me a dumbo.

>>1862260
Some of the menu text might be familiar if you've played other sim games in Japanese, and there's nothing unique about a convenience-store economic simulator, but it's full of windows and numbers, so having it all in English would make for better operability.

>>1835719
So, you guys translate PC-98 related stuff?

Ever thought about tacking Kanno's pre YU-NO works? Eve Burst Error and some of those other titles are translated and ported to Windows but they're brought down by horrible image and music quality. It would be nice to see the originals translated.

>>1862980
For any of these VNs, hacking the current translation into the original ROMs will require patient experimentation, assuming the English Windows translation didn't account for monospaced characters (using arbitrary spacing, rather). We'd have to figure out if we can fit the text in while keeping file sizes similar, and maybe redefine printing behavior and/or the size of text boxes. It's not simple enough to copy and paste.

Another idea: a team could extract the tile-based graphics, save them in a file format compatible with the Windows' games' code, and do a graphics replacement mod + highest-quality-recorded FM synth tracks (and their MIDI counterparts). This would avoid the hassles of the former solution. Unfortunately, since we wouldn't have access to the original images for rescanning and dithering in 16 simultaneous colors, we're still using the original graphics. That would mean no scaling for higher resolutions...hope you don't mind playing it windowed on a larger monitor.

I personally don't care for playing an exact emulation of the originals w/English text, as modded Windows ports with the original content might run faster.

>>1862273
Better than nothing, I suppose. You don't get to see the LOGH ships most of the time in the PC-98 games.

>>1852410

>ze konbini

stop not saying the whole word in addition to mangling it Japan

Damn

>>1863584
>テレビ

KazuyaGames has a bunch of CMs and documentaries up on YouTube worth watching. Here's the part of one video covering NEC Interchannel (and others) where one of the guys behind Pixy Garden's interviewed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZgWS1CKpOA&t=392

Don't miss the Sharp infomercial with the New-Life People ad, it's a classic.

>>1856031
How goes the game? I'm going to try the DOS port of the original once I can clear Thexder.

>>1835403
It's funny: you posted the PS version of Deserted Island, but there's a PC port, Mujintou Monogatari: Another World, that's lacking in documentation online. A shame, though the other Uninhabited Island Story games at least have walkthroughs.

>>1863939
>How goes the game? I'm going to try the DOS port of the original once I can clear Thexder.
I like it.

I'm also pretty terrible at it though. The joke on /m/ was that the game was "Mecha Lesbian X-Com" and that's actually not that far off as far as the combat system goes. (Sadly the overarching meta-game is much better in X-Com)

It has kind of a bit of X-Com style high lethality in that if you were dumb enough to walk around a blind corner with no remaining AP into a group of enemies you can expect your DoLLs to be blown up on enemy phase.

Each mission takes some really careful scouting, prediction and planning to get through. Equipment set-up is really important, so you want to read the mission briefing really carefully or trial and error a mission a couple of times to see what you need)

I think the game does a very bad job of explaining certain things though. Even in the 5th game in the series, apparently they still haven't discovered the concept of tutorials and there are some mechanics I had to read outside sources to discover (or maybe they were supposed to be in the manual, which I don't own, welp). For example, every unit is basically mandatory to be equipped with a "D1" type weapon because it's the only weapon that allows you to use "opportunity fire" on the enemy phase.

>>1863939
>Mujintou Monogatari: Another World

I tried looking for that one and the only thing I was able to find was the intro video and some chinese screenshots IIRC. Even in japanese p2p networks I found almost every game in the series, light novels and anime, but that game was missing.

>>1863584
>ze
lrn2 katakana

>>1864401

I still get se and sa confused sometimes.

>>1864039
Yeah, translated manuals are a necessity for strategy games. What kind of meta-game does Power DoLLS 5 have?

>>1864390
Out of almost every game in the series, did you come across the fourth installment for Windows? Desert Island was never going to have a big audience amongst fans, but 4 is a major departure in terms of interface (switching to an isometric world view), and it's an enhanced remake of the first game.

Does 無人島 mean "uninhabited island" or "deserted island"? Pretty sure it's more the latter, as you meet native tribes on the islands in these games, with "deserted" used more in the sense that they're not considered civilized.

>>1864707

Yes, I have the Windows version of the fourth game, never tried it though.

>Does 無人島 mean "uninhabited island"

Uninhabited island actually...

>無人島(むじんとう)とは、島のうち、有人でなく無人のもの。

>人が住んでいない島。⇔有人島。

>>1864707
Hmm, I wonder why I used the word meta-game. Anyway the term should probably be "strategic layer"

It's basically a mostly linear mission game where you just get pre-determined new units, weapons and girls each mission. Which is something that hasn't changed in 6 games (more actually if you count the expansions) and makes me kind of sad, I would love to play a PD game with R&D, tech research, free-form mission selection etc.

Oh look, a later Elf adventure with an actual inventory and puzzling!

http://mercenaryforce.web.fc2.com/pc9801/pc98/00600.html
http://fullmotionvideo.free.fr/screen/G1629.html

>Includes envelope used for copy protection check. However, almost the entire first shipment of the game was missing the envelope

Now that's a hassle, assuming we can break the check.

>>1865403
It'd be something to work on if they ever get a chance. The focus has understandably shifted to Web Power DoLLS these days, though Kogado appears to have idled for two years straight. Who knows if the software house of the company will take their IPs with them if they close, or if they'll sell them off to whoever.

>>1864835
Stranded Island Story works better for describing the game mechanics and exact nature of each scenario, but oh well.

>>1828561
>being a quitter
How else are ya gonna play all dat sweet moon vidya, anon? Wait some 5~10 years for someone to translate maybe 50-70% of one game and possibly give up before completion?

>>1866053
I dunno.
Is japanese easier to learn than spanish ?

>>1866080
For me it was, but then again, my mother tongue is grammatically closer to it than to Spanish. Your mileage may vary (and really, it mostly depends on the person. Some may find one easier etc. etc. you get the gist).

>>1865780

Isaku is really unique for a japanese adventure game, the sequels are quite different though because you actually play as the janitor.

There are also some similar games on Saturn and PC/DC.

Doukoku Soshite
http://vndb.org/v218

Revive
http://vndb.org/v217

Wow, the "Net Shop" feature in the Windows version of Aoi Umi No Tristia still works.

It basically connects to Kogado's server which returns different items to buy every day, I think. Sort of like the feature in Dragon Quest 9 or the 2nd Fire Emblem for the DS. Guess they were ahead of their time.

I wonder if they ever keep track of how many people still connect to it?

(Also JP Wikipedia says this game is loosely connected to Schwarzchild apparently, mostly just using some of the same names)

>>1866080
No, but what games in Spanish only are worth playing apart from La Abadia del Crimen and that Don Quixote text adventure game on MSX, as opposed to the thousands of Japanese games that will never be translated?

>>1866848
Because I was always aweful at spanish. So learning an even more difficult language may be too much for my brain.

>>1866909
And English by the looks of things.

I had to learn Spanish in secondary school, and the teachers got worse at their job the further into the state curriculum I proceeded. It's a language I'd like to relearn, to speak and write properly (and, in my area, frequently), but I'm going to need Japanese as a secondary language in the future. There's plenty of good resources for both at the collegiate level and beyond; I'm sure it'll take time and effort even with the best of help.

Gotta get back to Thexder tonight. Some of the best games speak through mechanics, not text.

>>1867181
Fuck narrative and story conveyance amirite?

>>1866909

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Cliche shit I know, but not any less true for it.

>>1867161
You are really useful. Thanks for the epic reaction face.

Spent some time watching episodes of PC Sunday and got interested in the older gentleman they had on the show around the time Sharp was promoting it.

His name is Yoshimichi Miyanaga (宮永好道), the so-called PC Hermit (as well as Mr. PC), and he had a history of the Japanese personal computer published a year before his death in 1999: http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E8%AA%B0%E3%82%82%E6%9B%B8%E3%81%91%E3%81%AA%E3%81%8B%E3%81%A3%E3%81%9F%E3%83%91%E3%82%BD%E3%82%B3%E3%83%B3%E3%81%AE%E8%A3%8F%E4%BA%8B%E6%83%85-%E5%AE%AE%E6%B0%B8-%E5%A5%BD%E9%81%93/dp/4890631011

Mr. PC was a math professor originally, but he also worked at Toshiba back when they did mainframes. Most of this book's based around his experiences consulting for Sharp and Toshiba, and how the Japanese PC scene had evolved from the earliest hobby machines to the Windows takeover. There's apparently a chart within it detailing the most and least successful Japanese PCs by general quality and financial success. Reviews seem good, so the task now is to track it down and do some translation.

>>1812542
Why not just link to Nico Nico? It's easy for anyone to sign up.

>>1791685

damn...

>>1869676
Less shit to load when it's just an HTML page and embed.

>>1788357
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSESVOPCjc4&list=UUQ4Rny7rVyp44EclyAcE0mw

>>1866641
So how alike is it to Atelier games?

>>1873131
Compared to Atelier, the gameplay's pretty basic. Item creation is essentially "buy component materials, roll dice for percentage change of creation" compared to Atelier's really complex mechanics in this department.

The games have mechanics where you have to sell items to shops in order to unlock new things and build up the city (so I guess it's more of an "invention patent" simulation game), which will unlock new items and scenes, but it's also pretty simple, so eventually you'll basically just be selling everything you can get your hands on.

No combat system at all, which seems rather strange considering the protagonist owns a giant robot.

The game's strengths is mostly in world-building IMO, and the gameplay is merely spice that helps to relieve the fatigue of constantly reading which happens to a lot of regular VNs.

皆さんは何を遊んでいるの?

>>1873489
I'm playing through Thexder, almost done with the first third of the game. Kogado Anon's playing Power DoLLS 5, and I'm sure >>1835617 is trying out some of the games we recommended.

Here's an IT research study from 2000 detailing the reasons for NEC's rise and fall in the PC industry, focusing on the PC-98 being outmoded by DOS/V, Compaq clones, and Windows: http://www.cob.sjsu.edu/WEST_J/Papers/WestDedrick2000.pdf

Nothing that new here, but I didn't know NEC was a lesser body in the mainframe market.

>>1873489

Well, the last game I finnished was DE-JA 2. Then tried Ryouki no Ori, but it's a really hard game, might give it another try later. Then I played a little bit of The Conveni IV, but that one isnt retro.

Note on lvl 3 of Thexder: every wave of enemies in the top half is preceded by either a platform or a set of barriers below the player. They're almost all diagonal travelers, so they can be fucked with if you're careful. After that, the level's easy.

Lvl 4's slightly more difficult than the second, so there's some kind of pattern emerging.

>>1874309
Hard to read or hard to play?

I don't know shit about jap PC games but it's been pretty cool looking through the thread and some of the links.

Finished Aoi Umi No Tristia, probably going to go back to banging my head on Power DoLLs.

Or maybe I should try to check out one of the Schwarzchild game. Still, no English resources to play them though.

>>1877090

Hard to play mostly. You have 7 days to solve the case and some events are triggered at a specific time of the day... if you miss the event you get a bad ending. It's still a good game... but without a walkthrough or a hint book can be quite frustrating.

>>1857441
Hey I'm the guy who was asking about the games >>1856229 here, and I just found a link for the Windows version of the game on mediafire thanks to /m/. Are you still interessed?

>>1878831
Sure, I'm still interested.

>>1879142
http://pastebin com/SC4jcpun

Here, glad I could help. Tell us your impressions afterwards! I'm very interessed in this game.

>>1879489
Alright, got it but uh, first impressions after playing with it a while - this might be a bit above my Japanese skill level.

Holy fudge, don't ever go into the upper-left lava room in level 4. It's not worth the risk of suddenly trapping yourself under enemies with no room to wiggle around, shoot them, and then retreat back over the wall. On top of that, I'm dying at the start of level 2 because I'm suddenly trapped between two flippers, which hasn't happened ever. Thexder usually isn't this cruel.

Glad to see LOGH 4EX is around now.

>>1833539
Cobra City for DOS was mostly a new game by Megatech. It had a fresh new overworld that looked like crap next to the og graphics.

>>1823406
this looks goddamn awesome

>>1782395
This was an interesting watch. Couldn't we do a thread about documentaries about games/retro games somewhere else here with stuff like this? I love watching them but i suck at finding them.

>>1835617
Thunder Force 2 was released on the Sharp PC first, go for that.

Someone in Japan's been hosting Sharp X1 hardware documentation for a time now: http://x1center.org/

The site has the original circuit board print-out, info on I/O programming, details on each model of X1/Turbo...you name it, it's there. Z-80 ASM's been documented in detail elsewhere.

GORRY's another ancient Sharp user who programmed tools and doujin games for the X1 and X68k; be sure to check out DIALIDE if you've got your X1 emulator working: http://gorry.haun.org/

Also: Clannad's coming to Steam. The Japanese digital download exodus is slow but assuring.

So apparently there was going to be an Arcade Quiz game starring Elf's Dragon Knight franchise (look, it's Luna and Rolf in the screenshot!), made by Atlus of all people.

Searching for information on it, there was an interview that stated, unfortunately, test runs all came back with the same feedback: "Too lewd for the public" so it was scrapped.

I imagine any remaining data has been scrapped by now but man it would be interesting if someone managed to find anything that remains of this and dumped it in a playble form.

Has anyone played Legend of Xanadu 2?

>>1887334

I finished both games a couple of weeks ago.

>>1887051
I'm guessing it'd make money thanks to the franchise's pull, not the ELF connection or the lewd stuff they'd have to cut for release. Maybe Atlus will keep the prototype around as long as Elf's interested in a home release. If they can localize Space Griffon, anything's up to snuff.

There don't seem to be many VNs set at universities or trade schools, definitely not from before the turn of the millennium.

>>1887454
>There don't seem to be many VNs set at universities or trade schools, definitely not from before the turn of the millennium.
It's a cultural thing, I believe. High school is where the struggle is, whether romantically or for future career prospects.

In comparison, once you're actually in a University, it's almost kind of a formality before you enter the working world. I imagine the cliques and social groups are a lot less varied too, so it will probably stretch a lot of plausibility if you still try to fit in the female stereotypes (Artsy, Sporty, Nerdy, what have you) in a University context.

The only VN I can think of with University aged characters is White Album, which kind of fits its theme of how distance and careers keep people apart (this was written before the age of cellphones)

>>1887334
Based FALCOM if I'm not mistaken?

>>1887642
>It's a cultural thing

It's a market thing too. Most people went to high school, but not everyone went to college, so those games set a scenario that a lot of users cant relate to.

There were also the Refrain Love games, both were released for PC, but they are not easy to find online unless you want the korean versions.

>>1887924
I have the first one on Saturn. It comes with a music cd shaped like a heart.

This came in the mail today.

>>1888162
What's it about? How much did it cost you?

>>1888274
http://vndb.org/v7993
Mmm, wasn't exactly expecting consensual cuddling from the covert art...

>download the emulator pack
>download the PC-98 pack
>crack open the archives and dig around
>proceed to panic

Also, should I use applocale for these?

>>1888587
Yes. If you play a lot of Japanese games anyway you should switch your system's locale entirely to Japanese.

>>1888597
I was using the applocale feature to hide my powerlevel, but I guess you're right.

>>1888652

Actually some Windows games wont work properly using applocale.

>>1888661
Are you talking about applocale or change the system locale entirely?

>>1888703

About applocale. If you have problems with some japanese game on Windows using applocale, the most common solution is switching the system locale entirely.

>>1888718
Gotcha.

Will probably just switch it over since I need moonrunes enabled to browse through the titles in the first place.