-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PSMC-Manual.txt
This file should be viewed using a mono-spaced font like "Courier".
Use a font size where 79 columns are visible.
Please don't distribute the ROM file in patched form.
Please don't distribute the PSMCrevA.IPS file without this file,
the NES ROM Expander.exe program, and PSMC-Map.jpg. Thanks.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The PORTOPIA Serial Murder Case
AKA
PORTOPIA Renzoku Satsujin Jiken
Suspense Adventure Game
Original Game Copyright 1985 by Enix
English Translation Copyright 2006 by DvD Translations
Patch Version: Rev A Release Date: June 16, 2006
DvD Translations
www.geocities.com/dvdtranslations
Text Translation by: shiroi
Text Context by: DvD
Text Editing by: DvD, shiroi, & KlD
Text Dump by: DvD
Code Deconstruction &
Re-Programming by: DvD
Tile Editing by: DvD
Alpha testing by: DvD & KlD
Full Beta testing by: Radical R
Some Beta testing by: Arnold Rimmer, DvD, & Dar
NES File Expander by: DvD
Manual by: DvD & Mika Takamura
Translation
Details by: DvD & Radical R
Map by: DvD
Old Map by: Mika Takamura
Old Character
Table by: Neil_
Translation of
1st Two Phrases by: Maht
----------------------------------- CONTENTS ----------------------------------
THE MANUAL
(1) Story
(2) Controls
(3) Main Menu #1
(4) Main Menu #2
(5) Helpful Hints
USING THE PATCH
(6) Expanding & Patching the ROM file
(7) Playing the game on an emulator
TRANSLATION DETAILS
(8) Why DvD chose to translate THIS game
&
Why YOU should bother playing THIS game
(9) DvD's Hacking Comments
(10) shiroi's Translation Comments
(11) Radical R's Beta Testing Comments
(12) Project Timeline Highlights
(13) Software Used In This Translation
---------------------------------- THE MANUAL ---------------------------------
(1)--------------------------------- Story ------------------------------------
It's 1982 in Kobe City, Japan. The newly completed man-made Port Island in
Kobe harbor is now a permanent fixture on the horizon. Evidence of the 6 month
long PORTOPIA '81 Expo remains on the island, but the large crowds of visitors
have all gone home and life is starting to return to normal throughought the
Kansai region.
But then it happens. For no apparent reason, a successful banker named Kouzou
was found dead in his house, the Yamakawa Mansion.
Two of his employees, his secretary, Fumie, and the security guard at the
mansion, Komiya, found him dead inside the mansion's study, with the only door
leading to the room locked tight. When they forced the door open to get
inside the room, his lifeless body was found lying on the floor with a single
stab wound to the neck and the murder weapon lying close by.
At first glance the evidence seemed to indicate Kouzou had taken his own life.
But the facts in the case didn't add up. Kouzou was a successful business man
and things had recently been going well for his company. There really didn't
seem to be a reason for him to commit suicide.
The police are beginning to suspect foul play.
This is where you come in.
You are a detective. One of the best...
Along with your faithful assistant, Yasu, it is up to you to figure out
who killed Kouzou, arrest them, and bring this investigation to a close.
But it won't be easy. It will take all your wits and a little luck to follow
the clues that bring the case to its exciting conclusion. And be careful,
because the killer is still on the loose, and until caught, no one is safe...
(2)-------------------------------- Controls ----------------------------------
Up, Down - Scroll through menu choices
Up, Down, Left, Right - Move magnifying glass or hammer
Pick key to dial on telephone
A - Accept a menu choice
Choose a location with the magnifying glass or hammer
Choose key to dial on telephone
Advance the text when you seen a down arrow
B - Switch between the two main menus
Cancel any menu choice
A, Start - Start the game
Select - not used
Note: At a certain point in the game you will move based on
the direction you push the control pad.
Up - Move forward
Left - Rotate counter-clockwise
Right - Rotate clockwise
Down - Turn around 180 degrees
A - Bring up Main Menu
(3)------------------------------ Main Menu #1 --------------------------------
Move - Move to a new location
Some places you might go to:
Kobe City: a city on the coast of Japan, Area Code 078
Hanakuma: a part of Kobe City
Port Island: a man-made island in Kobe harbor
Shinkaichi: another part of Kobe, a place where
American military people hang out
Awaji Island: off the coast of Kobe
Sumoto: on Awaji Island.
Hanchou: the shopping district of Sumoto
Kyoto: a city far inland of Kobe
See "PSMC-Map.jpg" to see these places on a map.
Question Someone - Ask questions of the people:
* who are at your current location
or
* who you just called on the phone
Investigate Someone - Have Yasu tell you more about:
* suspects
or
* people at your current location
Show An Item - Show a piece of evidence to someone
at your current location. You can show:
* an item you picked up
or
* a photo you took.
Photos are used for field investigations only.
Look For Someone - Search for a suspect that you can't find.
Call Out - * At Police Headquarters,
have a suspect come for questioning
or
* simply yell the person's name
Arrest Someone - When enough evidence exists to arrest the person who you
are currently looking at, this is how you need to do it.
(4)------------------------------ Main Menu #2 --------------------------------
Investigate Thing - Examine a specific object at your current location
in greater detail. To examine objects taken as evidence
* go to the place you found them
or
* go to Police H.Q.
Magnify[ing] Glass - This will allow you to look in
further detail at any area in your
current location. Use the control
pad to move the magnifying glass.
Don't just try this once, a good
detective investigates an object
more than once in slightly different
locations each time to find clues.
Evidence - List all items taken into evidence.
Tap On or Hit - This will allow you to strike at any area at your current
location with a small hammer. Control is the same as
for the magnifying glass.
Take An Item - Attempt to take an item into evidence at your current
location or simply remove an item from its current
location. At Police H.Q., this also includes
taking pictures of people or having people remove their
clothing. Kinky.
Ponder Suspect - Discuss with Yasu which suspects are most likely to have
committed the crime.
Dial Phone - Call any phone number. Remember, this is 1982;
no cell phones. So, you can only use this command if a
phone exists at your current location.
Phone numbers in Japan are just like U.S. numbers with
3-digit area codes, and 7-digit phone numbers. And of
course you only have to dial the area code if you are out
of area. One difference is that both phone numbers and
area codes can start with any number, including 0 or 1,
which they can't in the U.S.
Some important numbers that may or may not be useful:
USA Japan
411 104 Phone directory service
911 110 Emergency (Police)
911 119 Emergency (Fire & Medical)
*66 *58 Repeat Dialing (Redials busy number)
*69 *55 Call Return
74#[0-9] *2[0-9] Speed Calling - Configure
#[0-9] *1[0-9] Speed Calling - Dial A Stored Number
Like in the US, special numbers only work on phones
where the customer has paid for the service.
Stop The Inquiry - When it's obvious who did it, you can stop the
investigation. Of course, if you stop when there is no
clear suspect, you might as well be saying:
I'm a lousy detective, and this case is too hard...
(5)----------------------------- Helpful Hints --------------------------------
* If you want a general hint as to what to do now,
just keep hitting the 0 key on a phone...
* Try every menu command at every location.
You'll soon start to see which things are always the same and which change
based on your location and which people happen to be there.
Sometimes you need to do the same command more than once.
* Remember the magnifying glass and hammer have to moved to a specific location
on the screen. All the unique screens have at least one important location
and many screens have more than one. It is important to make sure you use
the magnifying glass in the exact location you wish to investigate. It may
not always be in the center of an object, try looking at different areas of
an object. And if you are really stuck, remember to especially investigate
at and near the scene of a crime with your magnifying glass. That's what a
good detective would do.
* Don't be afraid to use the hammer.
* You cannot make a mistake. So try everything, even if you think it is wrong.
You may get a funny response or look like an idiot, but you can never do
anything that will get you fired (and prevent you from passing the game.)
* You are not going to pass the game in one setting. So, keep detailed notes.
Write down which actions cause you to:
- increase your suspect list
- allow you to go to new locations
- find pieces of evidence
You'll need this to quickly get back to where you were when you reset or
turn off your NES before passing the game.
* Sometimes there is more than one way to do something. So, don't be afraid
to turn off your NES and start again from the beginning. If you do things
in a different order, you may hear information that you weren't able to hear
the first time around.
* Make a map.
* While playing the game, whenever you are stuck, re-read this section and
the Main Menu sections. Many hints and necessary pieces of information are
given in both places.
* If you manage to complete the game, you will be given the name a web page.
This page will show you the 1 line of hidden text and the 1 image that you
never get to see in the game. Go to DvD Translations homepage and then
type the name of the page after the last /.
www.geocities.com/dvdtranslations/[type the page name here]
Good luck!
------------------------------- USING THE PATCH -------------------------------
(6)------------------- Expanding & Patching the ROM file ----------------------
For this translation, before patching the ROM file, you'll need to expand it
first.
Original game ROM size: 2 16k program ROM banks
&
1 8k character ROM bank
= 40 kBytes
= 40960 Bytes
Games designed for the original Famicom/NES hardware could be 1 or 2 16k
program banks and 1 8k character bank. Later, all games made for the NES used
special mapper chips to expand the size of the addressable ROM beyond these
limitations. As this game only uses 2 program banks, it is the largest a game
for the NES could be without using any mapper chips. This made it cheap to
produce, but tough for the designers to fit everything in. Because English
text uses roughly twice as many characters to say the same thing in Japanese,
we needed to expand the size of the ROM file to fit in the text. Although I
can think of a lot of other reasons this wasn't ported to the NES, (graphic
violence, adult themes, etc.), the fact that it needed to be expanded was a
big factor.
How to expand and patch the ROM file:
You need:
1) A ROM file. The file may or may not include the standard 16 byte iNES
header followed by the program ROM. With header, the ROM file is 40976
Bytes in size.
I'm not telling you how to get the ROM file, but once you do, call
it PRSJ.nes.
2) For PC users, use NES ROM Expander.exe, included with the patch.
It's pretty self explanatory. You'll have to rename the file to ".exe"
instead of ". exe". I changed it to this in the zip file so that people's
e-mail programs didn't block the zip. Just make sure you determine if
your ROM has a header or not before expanding it.
40976 bytes, with header - Choose Replace Existing Header
40960 bytes, no header - Choose Add New Header
NES ROM Expander.exe will not modify your original ROM file. It will
instead make a copy of the file and modify it tacking "_Expanded" on to
the end of the filename. Re-name the expanded file PSMC.nes.
If you don't own a PC, you'll have to expand the ROM file on your own using
a hex editor. I would have made a ROM expander for the Mac, but I no longer
have access to any Mac software development kits. Since King Mike was in
need of an expander too, I thought of creating a new standard for expanding
ROMs, like the IPS standard for patching them. This way, a savvy Mac or
Unix programmer could make their own expanders. Both King Mike and I are
interested in working on a standard but I'd like to hear if others in the
community would support it. Please, contact DvD if you are interested
in pursuing this venture.
Expanding using a Hex Editor:
First, if your ROM file has a header, remove the 16 byte header, the first
16 bytes of the ROM file. In other words, remove bytes 0000 through 000F.
Then triple the first 16 kBytes of the ROM file. In other words copy bytes
0000 through 3999 (hex) and then insert them twice at the beginning of the
ROM file. Finally, insert the following 16 byte header at the beginning of
the ROM file.
4E 45 53 1A 04 01 E0 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
3) Patch File: PSMCrevA.IPS
4) An IPS patching program
Remember to patch the file only after it has been expanded.
Recommended patching program for IBM PC:
Snes-Tool.exe by The M.C.A./Elite
Recommended patching program for Mac:
UIPS
Using SNES Tool:
a) If you haven't already, make a copy of the un-patched ROM.
You always want to keep the un-patched ROM around for later
revisions of the patch.
b) Place an un-patched but expanded ROM file
(I'll call it PSMC.nes), PSMCrevA.IPS, and
Snes-Tool.exe in the same directory.
c) Run Snes-Tool.exe
d) Type 'U' for "Use IPS"
e) Press the down arrow key until PSMCREVA.IPS
is highlighted.
f) Hit Enter.
g) Press the down arrow key until PSMC.NES is highlighted.
h) Hit Enter.
i) Hit 'Q' to quit.
(7)-------------------- Playing the game on an emulator -----------------------
Almost all emulators can play the original ROM file, since it doesn't use a
mapper, but unlike the two emulators I list below, most can't handle the
sound and many get the colors wrong.
For the PC, I recommend FCE Ultra, it supports Mapper 78 and gets the sound
and colors correct. For the Mac, NEStopia worked great. RockNES is the only
other emulator that I tried that worked fine on both PC and Mac, but any
emulator that can run "Uchuusen - Cosmo Carrier" by Jaleco should work with
the translated ROM. If you try to run the translated ROM in an emulator that
can't handle the mapper, and the emulator (like iNES!) still tries to run the
game, the game will technically run fine, but 2/3 of the text will be really
messed up, so don't bother.
Don't try to use Nesticle, iNES, or Loopy NES; they don't work. If you've got
a Mac, you'll need OS X, as all the Classic emulators don't work.
The game came out way before NES games had batteries and it doesn't have
a password save like Hydlide. Using an emulator, you can use save-states to
save your game, and I recommend it. Just remember, if you get stuck, you
might get different clues if you play the game from the beginning, so don't
hesitate to do this, since that is what all the Japanese kids had to do
when they played the game. In fact at least one part of the game was most
likely made easier/quicker than the original PC version to make it easier
to replay the game and quickly get to the same point where you left off.
----------------------------- TRANSLATION DETAILS -----------------------------
(8)------------------ Why DvD chose to translate THIS game --------------------
&
------------------- Why YOU should bother playing THIS game -------------------
Since the Famicom version of Door Door is completely in English (I know for
sure because I made myself play all 50 levels of the game), and Bongo & Shih
Tzu have graced us with an excellent full translation of Just Breed, PORTOPIA
was the only remaining game that Enix produced for the NES that has not been
translated, professionally or by one of us crazy people who do it for free.
That alone got me interested in the game. But, when I learned more about it,
I realized how important a role this game played in the history of console
gaming.
You may already know this, but the people behind early Enix are as follows.
Enix = Yukinobu Chida - Producer
CHUNSoft = Koichi Nakamura - Programmer
Armor Project = Yuji Horii - Designer
Bird Studio = Akira Toriyama - Artist (DragonBall Z)
Koichi Sugiyama - Professional Musician
The chronology of games that Enix produced for the Famicom/NES is:
1) Door Door - CHUNSoft
2) PORTOPIA Renzoku
Satsujin Jiken - Armor Project, CHUNSoft
3) Dragon Quest* - Armor Project, CHUNSoft, Bird Studio, Koichi Sugiyama
4) Dragon Quest II* - Armor Project, CHUNSoft, Bird Studio, Koichi Sugiyama
5) Dragon Quest III* - Armor Project, CHUNSoft, Bird Studio, Koichi Sugiyama
6) Dragon Quest IV* - Armor Project, CHUNSoft, Bird Studio, Koichi Sugiyama
7) Just Breed - Quintet
*Called "Dragon Warrior" in North America.
Some more stuff about this game:
(Much of the information in the following paragraphs I directly quote from
the Atari HQ review of Manga Dragon Quest e no Michi
www.atarihq.com/tsr/books/fc/dqm.html
and what CHAZumaru posted on
www.mmcafe.com/cgi-bin/forums/bbs/messages/11480.shtml.)
The fledgling game company Enix sponsored a national game programming contest
in 1982. Yuji Horii was a journalist for Jump Comics when he covered the game
design contest, and while covering the contest he decided to participate.
Koichi Nakamura placed with his game, Door Door, and Horii placed with a tennis
game; both were hired by Enix. Together, the winners all used their prizes,
trips to America, and went to AppleFest '83 in San Francisco. There they got
to play the RPG, Wizardry, for the first time. Once he returned home, Horii
bought an Apple to play the Wizardry on. He still worked part-time for Jump.
Enix started out making games for the NEC PC-8801, a Japanese personal
computer. Released in 1983, Door Door was (probably) their first release for
the system. Later that same year, Horii wrote and directed PORTOPIA Renzoku
Satsujin Jiken for the NEC PC-8801. He incorporated the dungeon crawler aspect
of Wizardry, but none of the RPG elements. The game had a crude text parser
that required you to type two words like "get" "book" to do all of you actions.
Also, screens had to be drawn with lines and fills which actually took some
time. Still, the game was a huge hit and the inspiration for all future
Japanese visual novels, much like how DQ is the source of all modern Japanese
RPGs. For instance, one could argue Snatcher was to PORTOPIA what Final
Fantasy was to Dragon Quest.
Enix continued to make games for the PC-8801. Many were of a similar style
to PORTOPIA. It is also rumored that an NEC PC-6001 version of the game was
also made, most likely at the same time, but I have no concrete evidence of
this. Thanks go to Radical R for a picture of the PC-8801 version of the game
which can be seen on the DvD Translations website.
When the Famicom was released, Enix first ported Door Door to it in July 18,
1985. It did well enough that Horii wanted to work on Dragon Quest next, but
Nakamura and Chida agreed that, although they'd love to release an RPG for the
FC, the time wasn't right yet as the console was still fully an action game
platform.
So it was decided to first port The PORTOPIA Serial Murder Case on the console
to test how well an adventure game would do on the Famicom. To convert the
game to a system that didn't have a keyboard, commands were now entered usually
using menus and sometimes cursors. And the graphics, although more crude due
to no mapper chips being used to increase the amount of graphics tiles used in
the game, were drawn very quickly when moving from one room to another. These
two changes made the game go much faster. Most agree that even though you
couldn't save the game on the Famicom, it was the superior version. Again,
unlike Dragon Quest, PORTOPIA was small enough that it didn't require a mapper
chip for expanding the ROM beyond the addressable space of the Famicom, which
kept the costs down. Plus, porting the successful PORTOPIA was much less work
than creating a new game from scratch. Still, I can tell you that it did
require some fancy programming to get all of the text and decision making
aspects to fit in such a small space. Plus some aspects of the game were
changed to make it easier/quicker than the original PC version to make it
easier to replay the game and quickly get to the same point where you left off.
As it turns out, PORTOPIA sold rather well. The console gamers in the
Japanese market were interested in an game that required thinking instead of
button mashing. Now, Horii convinced Chida and Enix that a console RPG
was the best next step. Work on Dragon Quest began. The general scenario was
done by Horii, and Nakamura made the game system. He and Chida decided on a
combination of the overworld from Ultima and the battle and stats screens from
Wizardry. For DQ, Enix hired professionals in the areas of graphics and music,
to improve the two things that PORTOPIA really could have used some help
with! Sugiyama, who met with the crew after writing a consumer response
card for PORTOPIA was contracted to make the DQ music, against Nakamura's
wishes. Toriyama, of Dragon Ball fame, who met Horii while they were both
doing work for Shonen Jump was contracted to make the monster graphics.
And the rest is history!
It is rumored that, like Door Door, DQ 1, and DQ 2 were, PORTOPIA was also
ported to the MSX, but as with the PC-6001, I have seen no concrete evidence
of this.
In case you didn't know, between Dragon Quest II and III, Yuji Horii made a
sequel to PORTOPIA for the Famicom with a company called LoginSoft:
Hokkaidou Rensa Satsujin
Ohotsuku ni Kiyu
And... no, I am not planning on translating it... But, if anyone else is,
contact me, as I would be interested in contributing to the project.
"Itadaki Street" for the Famicom was also designed by Horii. It was created
by LoginSoft and published by ASCII. The newest version of this game
was just released by Square-Enix for the PS2 and contains characters from
both Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.
So, let's recount what makes The POPTOPIA Serial Murder Case special:
1) According to multiple sources, PORTOPIA was THE FIRST ADVENTURE GAME MADE
for the a Japanese PC AND the first adventure game made for the NES. So,
whereas Dragon Quest is the granddad of all console RPGs, this is, in many
respects, is the great-granddad.
2) The ONLY Adventure, RPG, or Action RPG titles ever made for the NES that
used the original NES hardware only (no mapper chips to extend the games ROM
size) are: PORTOPIA and Hydlide. Other games of this size, like Namco's "The
Tower of Druaga" and Game Arts/Square's first release "Thexder", that have some
elements of adventure, are not what I would call Action RPGs. Hydlide and
PORTOPIA were ported from and to multiple Japanese PCs along with the Famicom.
But only PORTOPIA was really improved for the Famicom release.
3) When asked for the first time a story in a game really struck him, Hideo
Kojima, the man behind Konami's Metal Gear series, was quoted as saying:
"It was when I played Portopia Murder Case (Famicom) by Yuji Horii
(Dragon Quest). Along with my encountering Super Mario Bros., experiencing
this game led to my working in this industry... There's mystery, a 3D dungeon,
humor, and a proper background and explanation of why the murderer committed
the crime. That is why there was drama in this game. My encountering this
game expanded the potential of video games in my mind."
(from Greg Kasavin's article for Game Stop)
4) Lastly, the game is not simply a choose-your-own-adventure with screens and
objects, like it may seem at first. Incredibly they were even able to fit in
a dungeon crawler portion to the game!... the part of Wizardry that didn't make
it into Dragon Quest!
5) This game is so good, Square-Enix recently ported it again! Now if you live
in Japan and can read Japanese you can play it on you iPhone. See for yourself
at: www.square-enix.co.jp/mobile/portopia.html
(9)------------------------- DvD's Hacking Comments ---------------------------
Anyway, since the game is so small, I thought it would be relatively easy to
work on. Boy, was I wrong! Because the game ROM is so small, there is
literally no unused space in the ROM. Not only are the text and graphics
compressed, but Nakamura even had to compress the rest with something I call
PseudoCode just to make it all fit.
Unlike a simple table, PseudoCode is like a whole different language that the
game reads with a custom interpreter. The main type of PseudoCode is used for
displaying all the 496 pieces of text below the window. Along with displaying
this text, and performing if..then statements, this code can jump to other
pieces of PseudoCode or call portions of the normal code; that is really what
makes it different from just a complex compression table. 2 other types of
PseudoCode are used for the handling the menus and the magnifying glass/hammer
location checking. I wrote a custom disassembler for the main PseudoCode and
menus as the latter was short enough to do by hand.
Because all this compression was already in place, there was nothing left
for me to compress. I had to expand the ROM with a mapper chip to fit in the
English text. But, I only needed a really basic chip that simply doubles the
lower bank of program ROM as this is where all the 496 blocks of text are
stored. I would simply swap it based on which of the pieces of text need to
be displayed at any moment.
It turned out that Mapper 78, the Irem 74HC161/32 chip was perfect. With it
you could have any number of program banks replace the first program bank, but
not change the second program bank--exactly what I needed. You can switch
character banks with it too, but I didn't need that. Supposedly, "several
Japanese Irem titles use this mapper", but I could only find two.
* Uchuusen - Cosmo Carrier by Jaleco
* Holy Diver by irem
And they switch banks quite differently, so in reality they are actually two
completely different mapper chips. Holy Diver's mapper needed a special 256
byte table to work... yuck, I didn't have that kind of room to waste. But
Uchuusen's mapper, you simply load the bank number you want into register A
and then perform this 4 byte piece of code. Easy and efficient.
tay ;A8
sta $d548,y ;99 48 D5
Of course, not all emulators support Mapper 78, but FCE Ultra does, and it
gets the sound and colors right too. One thing, FCE Ultra didn't like it
when I simply doubled the lower bank, I had to triple it as it only likes an
even number of total program banks with Mapper 78, something Uchuusen and Holy
Diver both have, so I guess that's fair; although RockNES was okay with it
either way. Looking at how much space we use, I could have fit the text in
if I had only doubled the first bank, but I would have had to actually use
the text compression table for more than just the people who are speaking and
character names. By tripling the first bank, I had to get lucky on fitting
in my more complicated bank switching code. After writing it as efficiently
as I could, I still needed 1 byte. Arrgh! So, I modified the code that
calls it to do things in a more efficient way and put two bytes of it there.
And thus I didn't have to utilize the text compression table for
anything but names and I didn't have to cut out ANY of shiroi's text.
But, the bigger issue is that this game relies heavily on the text being
correct to be interesting. The script was initially translated without any
context. In that state, I was able to alpha test the game, but aspects of the
story didn't really make sense. So extensive analysis of the code had to be
done to determine when pieces of text are displayed in the game. Every piece
of text was edited to not only have the individual sentences make sense, but to
make the whole story make sense. It was a VERY time consuming process.
There were 2 pieces of text in the game that you couldn't see.
One was due to an obvious coding typo. I fixed it so you can see it.
Enix may not have noticed this one, as it doesn't affect the game,
There is one picture drawn with some sprite graphics that you can't see.
Pass the game and I'll give you a link to a page that shows you both the text
and graphics you can't see.
There are many items/events that seem important but are not actually
necessary to pass the game.
The game has one true bug.
The bug would not prevent you from passing the game but would make you re-do
something you had already done. I felt it was okay to remove this bug and
still be a faithful translation because:
1) I'm sure it is a bug.
2) I'm sure Enix was soon aware of this bug after releasing the game in Japan
and would have removed it for the North American release.
3) The bug was common enough for Radical R to actually stumble upon it
in his initial beta testing.
4) I had done so much work analyzing the ROM that fixing it was easy.
Since the game is port, the graphics that are not used in the final game may
have been used in a scene in the original game but couldn't be used here
because there wasn't enough room for code to display them in this version of
the game. The text you can't see, and the actions you do that should be
important but aren't, are closely related. I believe this part of the game
was changed over in the port because you could not save the game in the
Famicom version and making the player do this part over and over every time
they restarted the game would have been really annoying.
Once again, shiroi worked with me on this as a translator. I dumped the
menus and game speech in January 2004 and shiroi quickly finished an initial
translation of the menus. But, the whole project took practically two years!
Essentially, the last year and half was spent finding all the context for the
496 phrases used in the game, editing the text and testing the game. I saw no
point in releasing this translation, until I felt it both complete and
polished, unlike some other translations I've seen come out in these last two
years...
Anyway, many thanks to shiroi for hanging in with me until we finished this
thing. You know I can be a little anal. Thanks to KlD, my wife, for helping
me out with testing and editing. Thanks to all our beta testers, we now know
where people would have gotten stuck. Thanks especially to Radical R, for
passing the game so quickly and getting stuck so few times, and for helping to
proofread not only the game but this document too. I hope to work with you
again in the future.
(10)-------------------- shiroi's Translation Comments ------------------------
wow, two years on this one game. without any kanji, it was sometimes a little
tricky, but we muddled through i guess. i ended up really liking this game.
poor little yasu-kun! anyway, i don't really have that much to add here,
just to say thanks to DvD and KlD for putting up with me. I hope everybody has
fun with the game!
(11)------------------ Radical R's Beta Testing Comments ----------------------
Well, what is there to say? I saw the post from King Mike on romhacking.net and
figured since my translator had disappeared for a while (Real life is such a
burden) that I could do some beta-testing, since I have had some experience
with Rom-hacking - Yes, I'm THAT Radical R.. So I emailed DvD and after a few
emails, I was set. The part I hated the most was the dungeon crawler. I always
seem to get lost in those. But I completed the game and I can honestly say that
it wasn't who I expected. Who was it? Play the game yourself; it's worth it.
Thanks to DvD for putting up with me when I got lost. Also, thanks to KlD for
giving me hints even though she wasn't supposed to (just kidding :P). I look
toward to the next project I get.
(12)--------------------- Project Timeline Highlights -------------------------
Jan 9 2004 - Text Dumped
Feb 2 2004 - Text indexes added, 000 through 1EF
Character Name Table Dump Added
Feb 4 2004 - Main Speech PseudoCode disassembler written
Feb 15 2004 - Phone Number Dialing Text Dump Added
Feb 17 2004 - Sound Effects Played Before Text Added
Feb 20 2004 - Bank Switching Code Completed
Feb 23 2004 - Script Inserter Finished, Script sent to shiroi
[shiroi busy with real life, time passes...]
Aug 7 2004 - Complete Translated Script File sent back to DvD
Aug 12 2004 - 1st Script Inserted DvD
Sep 17 2004 - Hacking done!! (Name) extra space problem fixed!!
Early 2005 - Finally finished determining when every Speech PS gets called
from Main Code, Menu PS, or from other Speech PS
Feb 9 2005 - Finished analysis of in game variables not related to text,
started matching up all speech to speech PS to define context
Feb 22 2005 - 25% of context is 100% done.
[DvD busy with real life, time passes...]
June 9 2005 - Context is 100% done, Version 0.5 script inserted,
this Manual written, DvD can finally alpha test the game!
shiroi & DvD speak for the first time and edit some of the
more key pieces of text together
Jun 14 2005 - DvD passed the game, Walkthrough finished,
Script sent to shiroi for polishing now that she actually
has the context of all of these phrases
Jul 28 2005 - DvD sends State of Completion doc to shiroi, Editing is 78% done
[shiroi busy with real life, time passes...]
Nov 24 2005 - shiroi sends back here edits, Editing is 94% done
Dec 14 2005 - Editing is 100% done, Beta script inserted, ready for testing
? ? 2005 - Version 1.0 script inserted, ready for release
[various beta testers are unable to get the job done]
Apr 5 2006 - Radical R started beta testing the game
Apr 25 2006 - Radical R passed the game
May 6 2006 - Final Patch Made, Final Testing of Final Patch Begins, new map
created by DvD
May 19 2006 - Game name changed to PORTOPIA, history of game greatly edited
in the manual
Jun 16 2006 - History editing done, game released
(13)------------------ Software Used In This Translation ----------------------
* Emulators
PC
- FCE Ultra 0.94
by Bero & xodnizel
- FCE Ultra 0.98.12 (the newest, but buggy, use 0.94 if you can find it!)
- RockNES 1.952
Mac OS X
- NEStopia 1.2.3
- RockNES 4.0
* Disassembler
NES Disassembler v1.0 beta4
by Morgan Johansson
* Table Dumper, PseudoCode Disassembler, Script Inserter
Table Dumper (many versions!)
by DvD
* Hex Editors, Script Dumper
- Thingy Version 0.98
by necrosaro
- frhed 1.0.156 beta 1
by Raihan Kibria
* Script Dumper
Thingy
* Script Editing
JWPce 1.42
by Glenn Rosenthal
Whatever shiroi uses!
* Disassembled Code And Table Analysis
WordPad (Win 98)
by Microsoft
* Manual Creation
Notepad (Win 98)
by Microsoft
WordPad (Win 98)
by Microsoft [This file got too big for Notepad!]
* Tile Editor
Tile Layer Pro 1.0
by Kent Hansen
* Mapper 78 Info
Mappers.exe
by ?
* ROM file expander
NES ROM Expander
by DvD
* IPS Patch File Creator
Snes-Tool Version 1.2
by The M.C.A./Elite
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