Generation Xth: Code Hazard [PC] Fan Translation Demo

If you like dungeon crawlers as much as I do(I'm kind of obsessed), the idea of a modern-futuristic cyberpunk RPG should sound like paradise.

At least until Soul Hackers comes out, anyway.

From the project lead, Shram:

Team Muramasa, to exaggerate slightly, are responsible for the resurgence of Wizardry-clones (old-school, first-person dungeon romps) in the East, and subsequently in the West. The popularity of their official Wizardry games, Xth and Xth 2 on the PS2, caused a flood of games like Elminage, Etrian Odyssey, Unchained Blades, and many more.

The Wizardry Xth games boasted a fairly open world, an extremely intuitive but in-depth crafting system, and many overall improvements to the Wizardry formula, particularly focusing on speed and efficiency of controls. They took that formula to the indie PC scene in 2007 and created the Generation Xth trilogy, the first entry of which, Code Hazard, is the reason why you are here now.

Team Muramasa continued after the Generation Xth trilogy to create Meikyu X Cross Blood, then Students of the Round, which was successful enough to warrant a 360 and PSP port, and now they're working on two new dungeon games for the PSVita and 360 under Kadokawa publishing, called Demon Gaze and The Stranger of the Town of the Blade (Tsurugi no Machi no Ihoujin).

Info website: http://www.exp-inc.jp/xth/

Hope you all find them as enjoyable as I do.


Here's some screens:











And the demo just came out today:

http://www.mediafire.com/?4d4h3o48h93sy2p

It's a beta, so tread cautiously, and enjoy.
<br /> <br /> <br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="480" src="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/cjiwakura/EP/gx.jpg" width="640" /><br /> <br /> If you like dungeon crawlers as much as I do(I'm kind of obsessed), the idea of a modern-futuristic cyberpunk RPG should sound like paradise.<br /> <br /> At least until Soul Hackers comes out, anyway.<br /> <br /> From the project lead, Shram:<br /> <br /> <i>Team Muramasa, to exaggerate slightly, are responsible for the resurgence of Wizardry-clones (old-school, first-person dungeon romps) in the East, and subsequently in the West. The popularity of their official Wizardry games, Xth and Xth 2 on the PS2, caused a flood of games like Elminage, Etrian Odyssey, Unchained Blades, and many more.<br /> <br /> The Wizardry Xth games boasted a fairly open world, an extremely intuitive but in-depth crafting system, and many overall improvements to the Wizardry formula, particularly focusing on speed and efficiency of controls. They took that formula to the indie PC scene in 2007 and created the Generation Xth trilogy, the first entry of which, Code Hazard, is the reason why you are here now.<br /> <br /> Team Muramasa continued after the Generation Xth trilogy to create Meikyu X Cross Blood, then Students of the Round, which was successful enough to warrant a 360 and PSP port, and now they're working on two new dungeon games for the PSVita and 360 under Kadokawa publishing, called Demon Gaze and The Stranger of the Town of the Blade (Tsurugi no Machi no Ihoujin).<br /> <br /> Info website: <a href="http://www.exp-inc.jp/xth/" target="_blank">http://www.exp-inc.jp/xth/</a><br /> <br /> Hope you all find them as enjoyable as I do. </i><br /> <br /> <br /> Here's some screens:<br /> <br /> <br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="481" src="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/cjiwakura/EP/gx3.jpg" width="640" /><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="488" src="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/cjiwakura/EP/gx6.jpg" width="640" /><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="474" src="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/cjiwakura/EP/gx14.jpg" width="640" /><br /> <br /> And the demo just came out today:<br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?4d4h3o48h93sy2p" target="_blank">http://www.mediafire.com/?4d4h3o48h93sy2p</a><br /> <br /> It's a beta, so tread cautiously, and enjoy.

Romance of the Forgotten Kingdom English Fan Translation

After one and-a-half years, I'm finally able to present my fan translation for the Korean DOS RPG Mangguk Jeon'gi (망국전기), or Romance of The Forgotten Kingdom by Mirinae Software. This is the first ever fully playable fan translation of a Korean RPG!




It's not quite a 100% complete patch, though. Some battle status displays I couldn't find the graphics for, and there are several other minor issues my hacking skills aren't sufficient to solve. Some skill and equipment names remain in Korean, too, because their function in the game remains unclear and a literal translation is impossible. This release should be regarded as a public beta version, although any future updates would have to rely on outside help. Regardless, the whole game can be completed in English without problems.



While Romance of the Forgotten Kingdom is a flawed game with lots of QA issues and the writing isn't that hot, either, the scenario is quite unique, it features two different paths and endings, and uses a (though unpolished) ATB variant for combat. For an RPG the game is rather short, and can easily be completed within about 10 hours.



It is extremely hard to get hold of the game legitimately, but neither publisher nor developer exist anymore, and the game's director Kim Kyongsoo doesn't mind you getting ahold of it through grey area channels. The game is quite easy to find through its Korean title (망국전기).



The Patch (complete with a translation of the original manual) is available here:

http://translation.derboo.de/Romance_of_the_Forgotten_Kingdom_English_v09.zip

EDIT: Since some people are having problems installing the game in the first place, here's a manual:

1. Take the game install files and extract them to a folder that you mount it in DOSBox (can be a subfolder).

2. Switch to the folder in DOSBox and type INSTALL.

3. First the setup asks for the source folder, this should be correct by default, so just press enter.

4. The game automatically installs to C:\Mirinae\RPG\ (in the DOSBox file system). After installing, you can move the folder wherever you want.

5. During the install process, the game asks you several times to insert the next floppy. Since you're likely using the CD-ROM release, just press enter and it goes on.

6. Next up is sound configuration. Chose the first menu point, then the second (the one with the "100%" in the text).

7. The second through fourth menu points are the usual Sound Blaster setting. Set the adress to 220, IRQ to 7 and DMA to 1, then go back with the bottom choice.

8. Chose the second point, then once again the line with the "100%".

9. The third menu point saves the settings and quits.

10. Quit DOSBox and run the Romance_of_the_Forgotten_Kingdom_English_v09.exe

11. Just browse for the folder the game is installed in and click "Install".

12. Start DOSBox, go to the game directory and type PLAY.

<center><img src="http://translation.derboo.de/romance-01.png"></center><br /><br />After one and-a-half years, I'm finally able to present my fan translation for the Korean DOS RPG <i>Mangguk Jeon'gi</i> (망국전기), or <i>Romance of The Forgotten Kingdom</i> by Mirinae Software. This is the first ever fully playable fan translation of a Korean RPG!<br /><br /><center><img src="http://translation.derboo.de/romance-03.png"></center><br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><br />It's not quite a 100% complete patch, though. Some battle status displays I couldn't find the graphics for, and there are several other minor issues my hacking skills aren't sufficient to solve. Some skill and equipment names remain in Korean, too, because their function in the game remains unclear and a literal translation is impossible. This release should be regarded as a public beta version, although any future updates would have to rely on outside help. Regardless, the whole game can be completed in English without problems.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://translation.derboo.de/romance-05.png"></center><br /><br />While <i>Romance of the Forgotten Kingdom</i> is a flawed game with lots of QA issues and the writing isn't that hot, either, the scenario is quite unique, it features two different paths and endings, and uses a (though unpolished) ATB variant for combat. For an RPG the game is rather short, and can easily be completed within about 10 hours.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://translation.derboo.de/romance-02.png"></center><br /><br />It is extremely hard to get hold of the game legitimately, but neither publisher nor developer exist anymore, and <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/korea/specials/interview-mirinae.htm">the game's director Kim Kyongsoo</a> doesn't mind you getting ahold of it through grey area channels. The game is quite easy to find through its Korean title (망국전기).<br /><br /><center><img src="http://translation.derboo.de/romance-04.png"></center><br /><br />The Patch (complete with a translation of the original manual) is available here:<br /><br /><a href="http://translation.derboo.de/Romance_of_the_Forgotten_Kingdom_English_v09.zip">http://translation.derboo.de/Romance_of_the_Forgotten_Kingdom_English_v09.zip</a><br /><br />EDIT: Since some people are having problems installing the game in the first place, here's a manual:<br /><br />1. Take the game install files and extract them to a folder that you mount it in DOSBox (can be a subfolder).<br /><br />2. Switch to the folder in DOSBox and type INSTALL.<br /><br />3. First the setup asks for the source folder, this should be correct by default, so just press enter.<br /><br />4. The game automatically installs to C:\Mirinae\RPG\ (in the DOSBox file system). After installing, you can move the folder wherever you want.<br /><br />5. During the install process, the game asks you several times to insert the next floppy. Since you're likely using the CD-ROM release, just press enter and it goes on.<br /><br />6. Next up is sound configuration. Chose the first menu point, then the second (the one with the "100%" in the text).<br /><br />7. The second through fourth menu points are the usual Sound Blaster setting. Set the adress to 220, IRQ to 7 and DMA to 1, then go back with the bottom choice.<br /><br />8. Chose the second point, then once again the line with the "100%".<br /><br />9. The third menu point saves the settings and quits.<br /><br />10. Quit DOSBox and run the Romance_of_the_Forgotten_Kingdom_English_v09.exe<br /><br />11. Just browse for the folder the game is installed in and click "Install".<br /><br />12. Start DOSBox, go to the game directory and type PLAY.<br /></span>

Japanese Game Price Watch - Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen

Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen, otherwise what would have been known as Fatal Frame 4 (in North America) or Project Zero 4 (in Europe) got caught in a bad position. Unlike the previous games of the series, which were published directly by Tecmo, the latest release was handled by Nintendo themselves. The game apparently shipped with some annoying bugs. The way I understand it, Nintendo ask Tecmo to fix these issues, and Tecmo told them to, more or less, shove it. It was vaguely almost scheduled for a European release, at least, but that fell through the cracks for any number of reasons.

The awesome thing about the current generation of consoles is that they're much closer to modern computers than the 8, 16 or even 32-bit days. This means that, programming wise, they tend to be much easier to hack. We've already seen fan translations for Tales of Innocence and Soma Bringer picking up the slack where Namco-Bandai and Nintendo have failed. Well, there's now an English translation for Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen, going under the name Fatal Frame 4: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. What's more, you don't have to resort to piracy to get the patch working - I've heard it won't even worked with pirated versions, although there appears to be torrents around that suggest otherwise.

Assuming you want to play the game legitimately, you'll need a copy of the game. - the problem is, finding it.

Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen is a year and a half old now, having been released in July 2008. Most import retailers no longer carry it, or are still carrying it at retail price. My eyebrows furrow when stuff like this happens, because while prices can plummet in the Japanese marketplace pretty quickly, the importers usually never drop their prices unless it's a huge failure or it gets a reprint, so new titles that can be found on the streets for a few thousand yen are still being sold to the rest of the world for the equivalent of $75. It's good to be aware when you're being gouged!

So I checked with Amazon Japan and:



Yeah, it's still pretty expensive over there, too. Of course, like other marketplaces, Amazon isn't the be-all-end-all of price gauging, but it certainly hasn't dropped all that much, either. The cheapest used copy there is 4900 yen or about $55. I browser around a bit and all of the other internet retailers I found still listed it for a bit under the retail price, about 6200 for this one here. (Does HMV Japan ship outside the country?) All of the other Zero games can be found cheap in Japan since they all got reprints, but given all of the drama surrounding this release, that may not be the case. In other words, if you're curious, you might want to grab this soon before it completely disappears.

Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen, otherwise what would have been known as Fatal Frame 4 (in North America) or Project Zero 4 (in Europe) got caught in a bad position. Unlike the previous games of the series, which were published directly by Tecmo, the latest release was handled by Nintendo themselves. The game apparently shipped with some annoying bugs. The way I understand it, Nintendo ask Tecmo to fix these issues, and Tecmo told them to, more or less, shove it. It was vaguely almost scheduled for a European release, at least, but that fell through the cracks for any number of reasons. <br /><br />The awesome thing about the current generation of consoles is that they're much closer to modern computers than the 8, 16 or even 32-bit days. This means that, programming wise, they tend to be much easier to hack. We've already seen fan translations for <a href="http://www.absolutezerotranslations.com/">Tales of Innocence</a> and <a href="http://somatrans.referata.com/wiki/Main_Page">Soma Bringer</a> picking up the slack where Namco-Bandai and Nintendo have failed. Well, there's now an <a href="http://zero4.higashinoeden.com/">English translation for Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen</a>, going under the name Fatal Frame 4: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. What's more, you don't have to resort to piracy to get the patch working - I've heard it won't even worked with pirated versions, although there appears to be torrents around that suggest otherwise.<br /><br />Assuming you want to play the game legitimately, you'll need a copy of the game. - the problem is, finding it. <br /><span class="fullpost"><br />Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen is a year and a half old now, having been released in July 2008. Most import retailers no longer carry it, or are still carrying it <a href="http://www.yesasia.com/us/1011052948-0-0-cid.226_cuc.USD_ac.2RCWI0P0-en/assocred.html">at retail price</a>. My eyebrows furrow when stuff like this happens, because while prices can plummet in the Japanese marketplace pretty quickly, the importers usually never drop their prices unless it's a huge failure or it gets a reprint, so new titles that can be found on the streets for a few thousand yen are still being sold to the rest of the world for the equivalent of $75. It's good to be aware when you're being gouged!<br /><br />So I checked with <a href="http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E4%BB%BB%E5%A4%A9%E5%A0%82-193719011-%E9%9B%B6-~%E6%9C%88%E8%9D%95%E3%81%AE%E4%BB%AE%E9%9D%A2~/dp/B001ADW51S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1267989071&sr=8-1">Amazon Japan</a> and:<br /><br /><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/fatalframe4.jpg"></center><br /><br />Yeah, it's still pretty expensive over there, too. Of course, like other marketplaces, Amazon isn't the be-all-end-all of price gauging, but it certainly hasn't dropped all that much, either. The cheapest used copy there is 4900 yen or about $55. I browser around a bit and all of the <a href="http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/product/detail/2742584">other internet retailers</a> I found still listed it for a bit under the retail price, about 6200 for this one here. (Does HMV Japan ship outside the country?) All of the other Zero games can be found cheap in Japan since they all got reprints, but given all of the drama surrounding this release, that may not be the case. In other words, if you're curious, you might want to grab this soon before it completely disappears.<br /></span>

Ys IV: Dawn of Ys – fan dub

(This post has been updated regarding the availability to Nightwolve's translation patches, which can be found at Ys Utopia. Nightwolve has officially endorsed the dubbing project. We apologize for the error.)



That’s right, those loveable chaps at the Voice Acting Alliance are going to be dubbing Ys IV on the Turbo Duo, and they want YOU to audition!

The Ys series is a long running one, with many awesome remakes and offshoots, the majority of which never left Japan. Most have been fan-translated (the text for Ys V on the SFC has been translated last time I checked, but the patch hasn’t been coded yet).

Ys IV is one of the best games in the series, with solid and extremely fun battle mechanics, lots of cool anime cinemas, a neat self-contained story, and a lot of polish. It’s probably the best of the older console titles before they upped the quality with the PC installments.




For more information on the Ys IV dub, visit the Voice Acting Alliance topic on the subject. They’re requesting audition samples to be sent via email, and the deadline for the next batch is NOVEMBER 21st. So get ‘em sent and good luck.



<i>(This post has been updated regarding the availability to Nightwolve's translation patches, which can be found at <a href="http://www.ysutopia.net/">Ys Utopia</a>. Nightwolve has officially endorsed the dubbing project. We apologize for the error.)</i><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjft11atG3VvkI_71agRb-c8QxjXWDRYRKUMwfuX1zLuhFynKsLAgHF03syEYWZt1vySPvwQBJn9nD1veOssmbW_jyrd1duDxAc7SNg72nLe1mxIxnHW2yekZSpQbK1s-FkVQa9Lg86RtY/s1600-h/Logo.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5396477072521537938" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjft11atG3VvkI_71agRb-c8QxjXWDRYRKUMwfuX1zLuhFynKsLAgHF03syEYWZt1vySPvwQBJn9nD1veOssmbW_jyrd1duDxAc7SNg72nLe1mxIxnHW2yekZSpQbK1s-FkVQa9Lg86RtY/s400/Logo.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 296px; height: 224px;" /></a><br />That’s right, those loveable chaps at the <a href="http://voiceactingalliance.com/">Voice Acting Alliance</a> are going to be dubbing <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/ys/ys3.htm">Ys IV</a> on the Turbo Duo, and they want YOU to audition!<br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/ys/ys.htm">The Ys series is a long running one</a>, with many awesome remakes and offshoots, the majority of which never left Japan. <a href="http://www.romhacking.net/?languageid=12&perpage=20&page=translations&title=Ys&startpage=2">Most have been fan-translated</a> (the text for Ys V on the SFC has been translated last time I checked, but the patch hasn’t been coded yet).<br /></p><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiowyuYPYDnqB9Tk64O4wJtt4FDOFEItMKmNddxP1RGvpxRGM5oRcb4-V1QjvCY3BCyOqUKIeeLLpnMo7rMMLyzfH9CKm-QRBI33ryUzhbZZU064dxBkJF0AqtXizmYKR6DkZNTvjVFZMY/s1600-h/Karna.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5396477172281356130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiowyuYPYDnqB9Tk64O4wJtt4FDOFEItMKmNddxP1RGvpxRGM5oRcb4-V1QjvCY3BCyOqUKIeeLLpnMo7rMMLyzfH9CKm-QRBI33ryUzhbZZU064dxBkJF0AqtXizmYKR6DkZNTvjVFZMY/s400/Karna.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 296px; height: 224px;" /></a><br /><span class="fullpost"> Ys IV is one of the best games in the series, with solid and extremely fun battle mechanics, lots of cool anime cinemas, a neat self-contained story, and a lot of polish. It’s probably the best of the older console titles before they upped the quality with the PC installments.<br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNQhcJRfC7PWpgbEmUF7U8EZRXg8KgSA0ckzFA9UM5_MNo8soB4I-IQioG-_nxYsekJwiT21yShLssf53gQiO4OXdz-5E-GKmxQOCdELBL_fLkFN3kpDEj293hCXrx8ENxAr2KiXkZY84/s1600-h/Reah.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5396477314359244946" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNQhcJRfC7PWpgbEmUF7U8EZRXg8KgSA0ckzFA9UM5_MNo8soB4I-IQioG-_nxYsekJwiT21yShLssf53gQiO4OXdz-5E-GKmxQOCdELBL_fLkFN3kpDEj293hCXrx8ENxAr2KiXkZY84/s400/Reah.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" /></a><span class="fullpost"><br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqOhddltseFQVnIr9dmTcXPlCBJPL8cslwYgFVmcYV_ME-SrmOQIVx8k3WQ2YadngNFO9SSiqerejVMyNX7AMJj9tVh_W1Czi2SRZBy6uXthbUs31lxlhLOr4uEc6vNJwTCCJduaFleYo/s1600-h/Lilia.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5396477264074265794" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqOhddltseFQVnIr9dmTcXPlCBJPL8cslwYgFVmcYV_ME-SrmOQIVx8k3WQ2YadngNFO9SSiqerejVMyNX7AMJj9tVh_W1Czi2SRZBy6uXthbUs31lxlhLOr4uEc6vNJwTCCJduaFleYo/s400/Lilia.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 296px; height: 224px;" /></a><br />For more information on the Ys IV dub, visit the <a href="http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/showthread.php?t=45645">Voice Acting Alliance topic on the subject</a>. They’re requesting audition samples to be sent via email, and the deadline for the next batch is NOVEMBER 21st. So get ‘em sent and good luck.<br /><br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPF1UJ7XJnOP_gIEqiwFyaM6g-jn8gI_2XPNyJK5GPsdCTzSVkwjdxSqOChyphenhyphenvPnP3mBvoVo8t7GD5N-cJQJreeXQ6TFF0JEYaVU470ozIOH7zYC-xZDOMxTVIB8WqvF5H6xBqdDEljxAQ/s1600-h/Leeza.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5396477219993326210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPF1UJ7XJnOP_gIEqiwFyaM6g-jn8gI_2XPNyJK5GPsdCTzSVkwjdxSqOChyphenhyphenvPnP3mBvoVo8t7GD5N-cJQJreeXQ6TFF0JEYaVU470ozIOH7zYC-xZDOMxTVIB8WqvF5H6xBqdDEljxAQ/s400/Leeza.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 296px; height: 224px;" /></a>