Anuncio! Chaos Seed Español

Anunciamos que la primera traducción completa del Chaos Seed al español se encuentra en estos momentos en fase de desarrollo, realizada por Traducciones Crackowia en asociación y colaboración con el equipo de Dynamic Designs, quienes ya tradujeron el juego del japonés a la lengua de Shakespeare, y han tenido a bien facilitar al traductor del proyecto, Rod Mérida, las herramientas de edición que programaron para este juego, que Dynamic Designs utilizó en su día para trasladar este juego de rol-acción estratégico que no salió de Japón, del japonés al inglés.

En estos momentos algunos de los miembros destacados del equipo de Dynamic Designs, como Wildbill (responsable de facilitar las herramientas), Taskforce (experimentado ROMhacker anglófono) o Recca (conocido por la realización de las traducciones de Dynamic Designs, como Chrono Trigger o Robo Galaxy, al idioma rumano, otra lengua romance hermana del castellano y con algún grado de inteligibilidad mutua con éste, si bien remoto) están en estrecho contacto con el equipo de Crackowia a fin de orientar al bueno de Rod en el uso de las herramientas y ante la eventual aparición de cualquier complicación técnica que pudiera surgir. Estas herramientas van acompañadas de todos los textos ingleses ya extraídos de la ROM a un formato fácilmente editable y legible, así como de código fuente ensamblador que podrá ser empleado a la hora de llevar a cabo labores complejas de ROMhacking, ya que permite hallar la localización exacta en ROM de ciertos datos del juego cuya edición es necesaria para poder trasladarlo a la lengua de Cervantes.

Para llevar a cabo este trabajo de traducción y alteración de ROM (o por su voz inglesa "ROMhacking") el traductor, Rod Mérida, se valdrá de un sistema de edición mixto, que combinará la inserción de texto en bruto y caracteres especiales del castellano directamente en ROM, con el uso de las herramientas editoras y código fuente antes mencionados, todo lo cual esperamos que facilite la creación de un trabajo traductológico a la altura de un juego de este calibre y esta envergadura. Asimismo, Rod Mérida contará como parte de su equipo con la colaboración del ROMhacker español Gadesx (conocido por haber realizado la traducción al español del Baten Kaitos Origins, próxima a su lanzamiento), quien se encargará de la revisión final del guión, en toda su profundidad, y de la labor de probador beta.

English Translation of Announcement by Rod Mérida (edited by Wildbill)

We are honored to announce that the first complete translation of Chaos Seed to Spanish is underway, courtesy of Crackowia Translation Group in collaboration with Dynamic Designs, the group that previously ported this game into the language of Shakespeare. Through their good offices, D-D has provided me (Rod Mérida), the primary Spanish translator of this project, with the tools D-D used to create its English patch of this most challenging action RPG strategy game that was never officially released in other languages outside Japan.

At this time, prominent D-D members assisting Crackowia with crucial support, tools, and insertion advice include Wildbill (a writer/translator), Taskforce (a veteran ROMhacker) and Recca (co-creator of numerous English patches and Romanian ports of Chrono Trigger, Robo Galaxy, et al). As is Spanish, Romanian is also a Latin-root tongue with some crossover similarities in vocabulary. D-D was kind enough to provide Crackowia with its English-translated files. With these, we may easily translate, edit, and insert Spanish back into our working patch. D-D has also provided technical support data pertaining to re-assembly of the ROM structure that adapted game screen displays elegantly to Western languages. The tools will also help us resolve searches for chunks of hidden data, undergo complex decoding of text and graphic compression, and perform a myriad of important tasks as we proceed toward a masterpiece gem of a game written in the language of Don Quixote and Cervantes!

In our approach to achieve a near-perfect release, project coordinator Rod Mérida will employ a mixed ROM editing process, both directly inputting text and fonts inside the ROM and also using the insertion system coded by D-D. For a translation effort of this magnitude, we believe our dual approach will produce a Spanish patch of the highest quality possible, one that will be well worth waiting for by gamers who appreciate a professionally rendered product, complete with diacritical markings! Working closely with Rod Mérida will be the Spanish ROMhacker Gadesx (known in the community for the Spanish translation of "Baten Kaitos Origins", near release). Gadesx will conduct a final review and polishing of our Chaos Seed Spanish patch, as well as conduct a thorough beta test.

09/16/2022 - Rod Mérida, Wildbill, Taskforce, and Recca

Released! Hyper Iria v1.03

Here is the fix for the bomp issue on Hyper Iria I was supposed to release six or so years ago. Sorry, it just slipped my mind all this time. This changes the sliding bomb description so it says bomb instead of bomp. Again, sorry for forgetting to get this out a LONG TIME AGO! I've had this fixed since 2016, I just forgot I hadn't released it.

09/13/2022 - Taskforce and the Hyper Iria Team!

Released! Power of the Hired Romanian v1.00

We are proud to announce the release of yet another Romanian translation. This time around Recca tackled our release of Power of the Hired and again expertly created a lovely Romanian patch for those who do not speak English or Japanese as their native tongue. All of this while handling beta duties on another upcoming release and just after finishing Galaxy Robo no less. As always he did all of the work himself, but also as always he did an excellent job. We hope all of our Romanian audience also enjoys this wonderful Strategy RPG finally released in your native language and we look forward to bringing you even more Romanian patches in the future.

07/01/2021 - Recca, Gerb, Bongo`, Taskforce and the Entire D-D Team

Released! Galaxy Robo Romanian v1.00

We are proud to announce the release of another Romanian translation. This time Recca tackled our release of Galaxy Robo and expertly created a lovely Romanian patch for those who do not speak English or Japanese as their native tongue. As always he did all of the work himself (since unfortunately he is the only one on our team that speaks or reads Romanian), but also as always he did an excellent job. We hope all of our Romanian audience enjoys this wonderful Strategy RPG finally released in your native language and we look forward to bringing you more Romanian patches in the future.

07/01/2021 - Recca, Filler, Bongo` and the Entire D-D Team

Released! Power of the Hired v0.75

"Power of the Hired" is the first Strategy RPG that Dynamic-Designs has released in quite some time, but its style departs from several typical conventions that players encountered in "Feda Emblem of Justice" and the "Shining Force" series. Similar to how Arc the Lad on playstation worked, one departure from typical SRPG game play is the lack of town functionalities, wherein characters may walk around, visit shops, speak to NPCs, and so forth. PotH is divided into 18 scenarios, all of which must be cleared in order to keep advancing the game. Party composition selections occur in between scenarios, then game play resumes. Another sometimes disconcerting development is to have waves of fresh enemy replacements keep pouring onto the battlefield until you satisfy a previously stated objective!

Another unique PotH feature is Beast Magic. Up to two "monsters" acting as "familiar beasts" per playable character (not just Neina) may be added to the party roster prior to starting each scenario. Occasionally, These beasts increase their levels during battle, and they also provide their Beast Master various magics to use in battle as long as they are in a square directly horizontally or vertically adjacent with their Beast Master. No English FAQ/Walkthrough exists for this game, so while building this English patch, we may not have discovered the full capabilities of potentially more powerful fighter alignments.

Prior to Bongo` retiring from the translation "community", PotH was his pet project. He laid most of the groundwork for a fully playable patch and received that always critical translation support from Gerb. Eventually, Taskforce assumed the role of coordinator, but when the team finally got rolling on production, we discovered a number of areas in the game story that needed additional assembly modifications in order to achieve a more perfect dialogue flow. The end result means players will encounter a few unavoidable text and menu glitches, but in no way does this impede understanding the story and completing the game.

At first blush, PotH may appear too easy. In time, however, the scenarios increase in difficulty. Toward the end, all of us who have played this game found some of the advanced battlegrounds to be quite tedious and challenging. On the whole, most of us would say beating PotH was more difficult than mastering Feda and Shining Force. The trick to prevailing in some of the hardest battles more adroitly toward the end may simply be a matter of uncovering the best strategies of combinations and alignments for harnessing beast magic more efficiently. In any case, we are happy to share this PotH English patch with all of you fine players worldwide!

Caveats: As mentioned, no one on the active team currently possesses the assembly and coding skills we need to rectify a small number of text and menu glitches. Otherwise, at this time, the patch is as finished as possible. The decision, again, was to release the fruits of our labors "as is".

We can't guarantee that we'll ever revise this patch and release a Version 1.00, but we are open to assistance regarding the imperfect text and menu features. For more information, check the readme included inside our zipped patch file.

Finally, kudos to Taskforce for coordinating the project. Quite recently, Wildbill, Recca and Draken played the beta and beat the game. Then I (Wildbill) concurred with Taskforce's suggestion that we release PotH in its current form. If someone can help us fix the dialogue and menu bugs or write a walkthrough/FAQ that cracks the full capabilities of beast magic, we would be gratified to see those enhancements to our efforts.

Dedicated to Taskforce!

04/02/2021 - Bongo`, Gerb, Taskforce, Wildbill, Recca, Draken, and the Entire D-D Team

Released! Shiji Hero Legend v0.90

This game is not for everyone. It is tough, tedious, different, and at times - downright exasperating! The plot mixes history (from the Chinese "Shiji", finished by Sima Qian in 94 B. C.) with legend, mysticism, and fantasy - rolling the whole shebang into a turn-based RPG format with a setting during the "Warring States Period" of Chinese history (circa 300 B. C.).

Therefore, we are happy to announce to all of you aficionados of historical fiction and the most hard core RPG gamers that we have finally released (John Hojnowsky) "Shiji Hero legend". As far as we know, "Shiji" is the only SNES classic turn-based role playing game ever built around almost 100% accurate historical and legendary accounts of actual events. The fiction component means that many characters - typical of everyday people during those "times" - are plugged into the story in order to bring the overall scenery to life.

Some NPCs in this game, however, are pulled from other eras, suggesting a possible "time-jump" or immortality implication on the part of the original writer(s). In summary, the Japanese author(s) "playfully" introduced a variety of famous people, legends, anecdotes, and even a chunk of prehistoric and current Japanese folklore into a plot that sort of "spills out" of the precise boundaries of the Warring States Period.

The major characters, however, are in just about every case traceable to the "movers and shakers" of that age. Even the hero (role-played by YOU) is a person who lived, breathed, and shaped ancient Chinese history significantly. One major disclaimer, though... This is ancient Chinese history viewed through Japanese eyes. A huge challenge we had completing this project reminds me of the name of an amateur translation group that emerged about 20 years ago, called "DeJap". Yes, that's exactly what we had to do with the story script at times too numerous to count - convert Japanese terminology and Katakana to correct Pinyin (English transliteration) matches, pertinent to mainland China.

For example, anything related to the Han Kingdom that transpired in 300 B. C. frequently displayed as "Korea" in the machine readouts that served as starting points. Go from there and multiply the translation experience with Han subjects seven times, and the labor quickly became daunting! The era of the game, 300 B. C. as previously stated, is called "The Warring States Period", a time when seven "princes" in seven realms battled to replace the fading Zhou Dynasty. Those kingdoms included Zhou, Han, Chu, Qi, Wei, Yan, and Qin.

This is the first game that I (Wildbill) translated 100%. Hausen was instrumental researching historical events and helping guide our overall efforts toward the greatest possible accuracy. Hausen, Recca, and I are the only people on Planet Earth to have played this entire English patch and beaten the game. Recca informed me that the game and puzzles are very difficult in places and that a guide of some sort would be most useful. Unfortunately, I don't have time to write one.

When Bongo` first mentioned this game more than a decade ago, not too long after we released "Destiny of an Emperor-II", I became interested, even though the "DoaE-II" plot was based on people and events that occurred in about 220 A. D., and the Warring States Period in China transpired 500 years earlier. Finally, I started pestering Bongo` to resume working on an English insertion system for "Shiji". His coding skills were quite polished by that time, and here we are!

The Intentional Retention of Certain Ancient Chinese Pictographs:

Presently-used Hanzi and Kanji in the Chinese and Japanese-speaking world have evolved from archaic forms. In 300 B. C., written Chinese appeared differently, a configuration that scholars call "Greater Seal Script" (Da-zhuan 大篆 [1000 to 200 BC]). This system displaced an even earlier written language called "Oracle Bone Script". In this game, the Japanese designers wrote village shop signs in Greater Seal Script. For the purpose of retaining selective esoteric ambience in our game patch, team member Hausen suggested we NOT include shop signs that we had previously converted to English.

A Statement by Kazuo Fukushima ("Shiji" Scenario/Game Design) - Translated by Hausen:

What would happen if someone based an RPG on history? For quite some time, I had been considering that possibility absently. While indulging in the imaginary worlds of sword and sorcery - great fun was always there. Yet, having played various games, I began to feel something was lacking. When I came to realize this enveloping feeling was in fact 'emptiness', a vagrant idea in my head started to blossom into a more cogent plan.

"Fun" is probably the most important aspect of games. However, is the only fun attainable derived from just playing the game? In this mindset, games would be no different from any idle amusement. No, I'm not belittling the value of any form of entertainment, but what if something else could be added - an important ingredient - rather like "icing on a cake"? Comparing athletics, for example, we don't play sports merely for the fun aspect. We also engage in physical competition to stay healthy through exercise, practice teamwork, learn sportsmanship, and so on. All of these factors enhance the value of sports.

While deliberating such matters, my head started spinning like chibi characters moseying around some ancient Chinese setting. Many stories and historical figures began filtering through my mind. Yes, why not have the hero start out as an ordinary peasant during the Warring States Period in China and center the main action around [the ancient capital of] Luoyang? Surely, the hero would need friends, so why not start with Lin Xiangru? We would also need a legendary fighter, and Jing Ke would fill that role nicely. I didn't particularly want to include magic, but the Chinese concept of "qigong" wove in quite conveniently.

For the longest time, I was completely absorbed in planning and preparing my story. So, why did I choose Chinese history as a subject? After all, northern European settings with Norse mythology would have fit well into a "sword-and-sorcery world". Considering the recent boom in 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' games, I reasonably expected a Chinese setting might be a profitable enterprise. However, the ROTK theme had already saturated the gaming market, so I also considered the turbulent Spring and Autumn Era and the Warring States Period. Why not chose the latter time frame, I concluded?

The Warring States Period is the most original and interesting time in Chinese history, certain to introduce diverse characters, the fight for supremacy between the seven states, and familiar stories that we recall in the form of common anecdotes every day in our modern times. However, I didn't know how to deal with the Hanzi (Chinese Kanji). Regarding place names, people, etc., I could not disregard Hanzi entirely, but I wasn't well versed on the Hanzi script. Additionally, in my research, many Hanzi/Kanji not used normally in Japan came up frequently, so early on, I decided not to vex players with a plethora of esoteric and archaic [scripts and pictographs].

An 8x8 font was impossible, meaning I required a 16x16 format to design a proper display of languages. That limited me to 14 characters per line and only three rows of text on any given screen. With these limitations, we pondered whether we would frustrate players with constant scrolling in order to read the story. We hammered away with various configurations until somehow the dialogue screens appeared to be rather easy-to-read after all.

Some of the stories and proverbs weren't familiar to [the mainstream]. In addition to new literature, we delved into second-hand bookstores, chased discontinued titles, and utilized libraries to the maximum. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the authors of the literature we referenced that augmented our inspirations. Due to my paucity of knowledge at the time, I may have made a few mistakes. In addition, we simplified some game features for the convenience of players. Please understand the desireability of not over-complicating the game.

I cannot say if the genre of "historical RPGs" will endure. Upon release, I have no clue as how "Shiki Eiyuuden" will be received and critiqued. However, if you [players] take your time and explore every nook and granny [sic], I am confident this game will satisfy [those who enjoy RPGs]. Upon completion, you [players] will have an appreciation of Chinese history and literature from the "Shiji" and "Eighteenth History". You may even enjoy what you learned and be inspired to explore the subject further.

- Kazuo Fukushima (Scenario/Game Design)

Caveats:

Due to the lack of anyone on the team currently who possesses the skills of assembly coding and the ability to decompress, redraw, and re-compress graphics, a number of features in our English patch remain incomplete and even flawed in one instance. These include various puzzle logos scattered throughout and a gambling hall menu that appears midpoint in the game. Reportedly, the "casino" menu is inoperable, wherein a player is unable to purchase chips. (This could be "jumped" by opening the Japanese ROM with a player's SRM.) Additionally, some graphical menus appear in a mix of Chinese and English, but none of these unresolved issues prevent a player from completing the game in English.

Therefore, as in the case of several of our recent patch releases, this one remains unfinished. As we have explained previously, both time factors and downsizing in the diversification of our production team have dictated this reality. The dilemma remains to either share a fully playable patch "as is" or keep it in "cold storage" indefinitely, hoping we will eventually find ourselves in a position to build toward a more "perfect" patch.

We can't guarantee that we'll ever revise this patch and release a Version 1.00, but we are open to assistance regarding the unfinished graphical menus. For more information, check the readme included inside our zipped patch file.

Finally, kudos to Taskforce for creating the "Shiji" font, changing the date on the title screen twice, and helping get "Shiji" released! FlashPV designed our English title page, so a hearty "thanks" is extended to him. Quite recently, Recca played the beta from start to finish. I fixed Recca's observations as best I could, then Taskforce and I decided we would release Shiji in its present form. If someone can help us fix the puzzle menus and gambling game bug or write a walkthrough/FAQ, we would be majorly delighted!

Dedicated to Wildbill (Ha-ha! Taskforce put this in the readme template!)

01/24/2021 - Bongo`, Wildbill, Hausen, Taskforce, FlashPV, Recca and the Entire D-D Team

Released! Super Shell Monsters Story II v0.90

For quite some time, I (Wildbill) have deliberated over releasing this English patch to the general public.

However, the span of years that I've held this file is related more to losing the work that contained the most recent revisions. Finally, I searched the content on a loose HDD once mounted inside a PC in which I had installed increased storage capacity, and there it was, buried within a sealed packing box that was stacked inside a shut-off room, along with dozens of other moving containers.

It took some discussion, but my teammates finally convinced me that a fair number of good people in the world who really love vintage RPGs, folks who have extended enthusiastic and appreciative support over several decades, deserved to play these fruits of our labors. We will build a feedback forum on our SSMS-II message board, and as always, we'll respond to congenially-offered inputs, as well as errata involving gramatical miscues and such.

Here's the back story on how I became involved in coordinating the SSMS-II translation project. It all started shortly after we began working on SSMS-I, a partially completed patch that Bongo` extracted from a list of abandoned efforts. As we proceeded with the first game, my research turned up that a sequel existed but in Japanese only. I played some of SSMS-II in Japanese, then convinced Bongo` to start building an English insertion system.

Before bogging down, I translated about 80% of SSMS-II by myself, so I contacted Gerb (who translated our inherited English script for SSMS-I). He agreed to finish the 20% in SSMS-II, as well as back stop everything I had done previously. Working together, I thought Gerb and I made quite a team knocking out the SSMS-II story. Bongo` found the complex coding system quite tedious, but he kept hacking away at the challenges until everything began taking fine shape.

*Caveat: *

Our patch appears to have only one random bug and a few places where Japanese Kana appears in graphic battle messages. Unfortunately, no one remaining on the team is capable of decompressing that Kana and remapping it into English. The bug is the possibility of some NPCs speaking in garbled text. This is quite random and appears to be related to using save-states. If it occurs, the workaround is to walk to a place where you may save your game. Restart after saving, then return to the character who spoke the gibberish. In every case, this always fixed my game.

For more information, check the readme included inside our zipped patch file. We can't guarantee that we'll ever revise this patch and release a Version 1.00, but we are open to assistance regarding the compressed battle and other messages that still display in Japanese.

Kudos to Taskforce for helping get this direct sequel to SSMS-I released quickly, within just a few days of me rediscovering my lost work. FlashPV designed what some are calling our best ever English title page! Also, I want to heap some praise on our members and friends who thoroughly beta tested the English game some time ago, akualung, MariusB, Swordmaster, and Recca.

Dedicated to Gerb

11/11/2020 - Bongo`, Wildbill, Gerb, Taskforce, Filler, Draken, SylarDean, Recca, FlashPV, Swordmaster, akualung, MariusB and the Entire D-D Team

Update! Released! Aretha II v0.91

Finally, after much more time passed than we intended, D-D is releasing a fully playable English patch for this game. Aretha II is a direct sequel to our previously released Aretha (I [English]) patch. This is the good news. However, our efforts are not polished to the finely-tuned levels of our usual fare over the past nearly two decades.

While reviewing the status of this and several other unreleased D-D projects, we arrived at a consensus that the better choice is to make what we have available to the game-playing world, rather than allow our work to languish in an indefinite state of limbo. Following is a couple of disclaimer paragraphs we have incorporated into our Aretha II readme document that accompanies the patch in our zipped release file.

*Caveat and Invitation:

In a MAJOR departure from our previous policy, we are releasing an unfinished patch. This is due to both time factors and downsizing in the diversification of our production team. In no way are we suggesting anything but positive support for all of our highly dedicated and hardworking teammates in the past. It's simply that changing life circumstances for some of us have dictated the realities of where we find ourselves today.

At this time, we active members of D-D cannot guarantee that we'll ever revise this patch in any way. This means we may never release a Version 1.00. At the same time, we're not saying we won't. As per usual, D-D will establish a feedback topic within the Aretha II forum on our WWWBoard. After receiving the patch "as-is" and playing the game, if someone comes along who really loves this work and possesses the know-how to rectify certain technical issues, we will be standing by, ready and willing to discuss the matter."

We have proceeded through an in-house beta process and fine-tuned the game as best we can. However, in consideration of the small amount of issues still remaining, we have decided it's best to release the game in a beta state of Version 0.90 instead of calling it Version 1.00. Obviously, this release will place the patch in its current form within the public domain. As always, we welcome anyone to provide any and all inputs. However, be sure to pore over the Readme document, so you will be aware of what we don't need reported.

At this time, I (Wildbill) want to thank Taskforce for the many hours he spent reformatting this game for "long" names. He also cleaned up a multitude of glitches throughout the play. Meanwhile, we hope you will enjoy Aretha II (English). FYI, this game plays seamlessly with its predecessor. Those who haven't tried Aretha I might enjoy it more in the double-play mode. Feel free to download the patch either from the PROJECT page or from our DOWNLOAD page.

Dedicated to Bongo`

02/24/2020 - Bongo`, Filler, Wildbill, Taskforce, Draken and the Entire D-D Team

Released! Ranma ½ Hard Battle II Super Move Hustle Romanian v1.00

We would like to announce and release Ranma ½ Hard Battle II Super Move Hustle Romanian. Recca is a big Ranma ½ fan and really wanted to get this game into Romanian after our English release. So he asked if he could, and he knocked it out in short order once I finally got the stuff together and got it to him. We hope you enjoy it.

12/03/2019 - Recca, Filler, Bongo`, Taskforce and the Entire D-D Team