Progress ~ Tactics Ogre much closer Tactics Ogre ~ Let Us Cling Together
# Posted on March 6th, 2010 06:24 PM by Gideon ZhiAttached below are screenshots of stuff I´ve fixed over the last couple of days. First one shows the finalized L-view character list, while the second shows an expanded S-view character portrait window and hacked "Start: Parameter" graphic. Expanding that window was a right pain in the arse, let me tell you - and it still doesn´t function 100% correctly when the screen scrolls up or down. I´ve since fixed some major crashes, some nasty non-crash glitches, and a lot of really bizarre stuff, including stuff that worked breaking inexplicably later on down the line.
All that said, it´s look a *lot* nicer, and aside from the introduction to politics if you let the game sit at the title screen twice, you can play up to the world map without encountering any Japanese or glitches. The Warren Report menus still need rather a lot of work, the dates still display in Japanese on the map, I haven´t really tested much of the intermission stuff and the aforementioned political introduction is still broken (it´s only displaying one line of four) but otherwise I think I´ve fixed most of the biggest issues. It´s certainly a lot more stable than it used to be!
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Progress ~ Alpha Has an Editor Super Robot Wars Alpha
# Posted on February 23rd, 2010 01:56 AM by Gideon ZhiPlease welcome Antialias, recruited in desperation from the depths of /m on 4chan, to the SRW Alpha project. When he passed me these images two weeks ago he´d edited up through the route merge at scenario 6 (of 57.) So I´ve uploaded a bunch of the stuff he sent me to showcase his work! The two snaps below are now in the game´s gallery, along with nine more new snaps. Enjoy!
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Progress ~ Tactics, Making Progress Tactics Ogre ~ Let Us Cling Together
# Posted on February 23rd, 2010 01:35 AM by Gideon ZhiIn the last 24 hours or so, I´ve fixed a couple of major issues. One of them was hopefully the last of the hiccups resulting from the conversion of the text routine into something that´ll accept a different format of text. Another was a crash surrounding the default name for your squad. This means you can actually play past the third map now without the game blowing up in your face.
There are still a lot of issues, though. One of the tutorials has a bad button press in its script, which is causing it to go out of sync and lock up. A lot of the interfaces need to be tweaked, windows moved and expanded, and every once in a while there´ll be a *really* horrible glitch with some of the graphics, though I have a feeling this is a result of a hook misfire with some of the code I´ve added to the game. I´ll have to double check.
Getting much closer, though.
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Progress ~ Merry Christmas, and Apologies
# Posted on December 26th, 2009 08:15 PM by Gideon ZhiI´d hoped to have Megami Tensei (as in, the original) out yesterday, but due in part to being with relatives for the last 48 hours (without internet) I was unable to post this yesterday. Unfortunately this is not the biggest problem with my plan, as several extraordinarily nasty bugs (including the one pictured in the screens below, which refused to die and killed my entire party quite handily) have reared their heads and are preventing the release. The game is mostly done, I think, though I do want to get some of the more nonsensical text segments doublechecked, but the issue is largely due to the physical expansion of the ROM.
Physical expansion (i.e. making the game bigger and being able to fit more text in) is a relatively easy task when dealing with SNES games. Not so with the NES. The glitches - possibly related to timing and interrupts - were initially discovered to be causing visual corruption in the maze layouts. These are easily ameliorated by simply turning your view, but given that this is a first-person dungeon crawl, the bug was deemed serious enough to hold back a release. However when I endeavored to play further, I encountered several further problems, including the Mappa spell´s output (a minimap in the left-hand pane) locking in place instead of moving with the player, Nakajima dropping to level 1 after gaining a level in battle yet retaining all of his statistics while Yumiko progressed normally, and of course, the nasty creature pictured in the attached screens, which frankly seemed to be unkillable. Given the severity of these issues, I cannot yet in good faith release the game to the public.
(I´ve actually just finished talking with Liana, who you may remember from Metal Max Returns. She´s done some research and apparently the Bug enemy is not a bug. I hope that sounds as odd to you as it did when I wrote it! The other issues still stand, though.)
However, I *HAVE* done a lot of work on the game in the last week. I´ve tweaked the font to be a bit more uniform and much more readable (I´ve un-bolded a few of the letters and straightened out the heights), and I´ve redrawn the bland "DON" that appears when you bang into a wall to be a much more fancy "BAM" (pictured below.) I´ve re-researched all of the enemy names and brought them up to speed with proper romanizations. Several of them don´t appear in any other Megami Tensei title, or certainly not in any that have been released in English - examples include Akhushtal, Viy, A Bao A Qu, Bathym and Myrrha. I´ve inserted most, if not all, of the miscellaneous text in the game - and Lord knows there´s plenty of the stuff. I wouldn´t be at all surprised to find out that I´d missed some.
I´ll post more news when I have it. Can´t say when that´ll be, though, and I apologize again if I´ve disappointed anyone.
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Major Release ~ LUNAR: Walking School LUNAR Walking School
# Posted on December 17th, 2009 10:17 PM by Gideon ZhiAt long last, it´s done! Sorry it took so long.
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Miscellaneous ~ Site Maintenance Complete.# Posted on December 17th, 2009 09:10 PM by Gideon ZhiChanges include...
-Twitter has replaced the blog link in the nav bar
-About Me has been updated
-Links Removed: RPGOne (site is dead)
-Links Updated: Kitsune´s Den, DQ Translations (Formerly Kojiro Translations), Yonin no Translators (Change of address)
-Links Added: Boojum Snark, Stardust Crusaders, The Romhacking Aerie
-Donate Button Added
Stay tuned: LUNAR is coming very shortly!
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Miscellaneous ~ We´re changing some.# Posted on December 12th, 2009 04:27 AM by Gideon ZhiOver the next few days (hopefully no more than that) you´ll begin to notice some changes as we tinker with the website a bit. It´s nothing drastic, no major overhaul like when the current layout launched; rather, it´s a culling of the stuff that doesn´t work so well, and an addition of new things. The blog link will be replaced by a twitter link, the About Me will get a much-needed overhaul, the links page will get an update...
... but most visibly (and probably most controversial) is that a PayPal donate button will be going up on the site. This will direct you to a page detailing how our donation system works (with the actual button on the bottom of said page.) But since it´s not up yet and people are immediately going to start crying foul, I figured I should explain right now.
Aeon Genesis is a loose collective of programmers, writers, and Japanese speakers. I spearhead the operation but by no means could I do this without lots and lots of help. As such I have been extremely hesitant to place a donate button on the site in the past. How could any funds added to the account ever be fairly distributed amongst all of the contributors? A few months ago, I hit upon the answer: a rainy day fund.
I´m still hashing out the details, but essentially we will have a private forum (possibly public-viewable) within the Pantheon wherein contributors can request funds. There needs to be a valid reason for a withdrawal from the fund. In my case, for instance, my student loan payments have dropped off in the past several months due in no small part to emergency veterinary bills, but this is a drastic example. The money could help finance a PS2 for Tyria so he could play the PS2 SRW games he´s always wanted. It could go towards a pizza for a translator who´s just finished a script, or who´s motivation is flagging. It could help pay bus fare to help a contributor visit a sick family member. Stuff like that. Wide ranging, but not frivolous.
It´s important to note that any donations made to the fund are strictly done as thanks for translations already released. We will not accept money for anything we have not produced, and do not want the pressure of someone claiming that they paid us for work that hasn´t shown up yet. Furthermore, we will never withhold any releases due to lack of contributions to the fund. It would be nice to have an emergency pillow to fall back on, but everyone understands that times are tough, and I will not hold my work for ransom in this manner.
All that said, frankly, my finances are not very sound right now. I would not be doing this if I felt I didn´t need to. I´d actually considered investigating Project Wonderful and placing an ad or two on the site, but figured that this would be, by far, the preferable next step. So when the button does go up, please, do what you can. We´ll all appreciate it.
So, with all that out of the way, I´d just like to say that LUNAR *is* coming, hopefully within a few days if not a few weeks, and I hope to have something *else* for everyone on Christmas day. Better get my act in gear, eh?
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Progress ~ LUNAR not quite ready LUNAR Walking School
# Posted on December 5th, 2009 01:56 AM by Gideon ZhiI´ve edited Chapter 9 and am a good way through 10 (just done with the townie text), but 11 and 12 are going to be long ones. However, I have been posting brief updates to Twitter when they´re available. I´m working hard on it, but LUNAR has a very particular flavor to it, and getting that across while still maintaining textual accuracy can be very tiring.
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Progress ~ LUNAR: No promises, but... LUNAR Walking School
# Posted on November 30th, 2009 02:44 AM by Gideon ZhiNo promises, but if I can manage to edit even one chapter each day this week, LUNAR: Walking School might just be available by the weekend. I finished editing Chapter 7 (of 12) today, and as a bonus plowed through 8. Four left...
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Major Release ~ Holy Umbrella is done. Holy Umbrella: Dondera´s Wild!!
# Posted on November 3rd, 2009 03:40 AM by Gideon ZhiEnjoy!
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