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Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 11:58 pm
by Zhukov
Is the Mother/EarthBound series as good as everyone says?? I tried playing the start of EarthBound, but I really couldnt get into it

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:08 am
by seraphssavior
Same here, it just seemed too bizarre.

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:37 am
by shidoni
Zhukov wrote:Is the Mother/EarthBound series as good as everyone says?? I tried playing the start of EarthBound, but I really couldnt get into it
It's totally wonderful if you 'get' the whole trippy groove of its story telling. If you're bored with conventional RPGs, and want to see something daring and original, you can't go wrong. It takes some patience though, and the SNES release came with a strategy guide for a reason. You just gotta be willing to throw yourself into the void.

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 4:13 am
by XenoMorph
I remember playing earthbound on SNES when I was a bit younger. I really digged the art direction in that game, something that no other game has even come close to copying. Plus the final boss fight in that game was awesome (Not to spoil antyhing for anyone, but it does take more than brawn to achieve victory)

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 8:08 am
by Marc
shidoni wrote:I guess everyone knows that the Mother 3 patch is out, eh?
Yeah, congrats to both them and the Tsumi team for their releases!

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 11:17 am
by Lonheartda60
hey are any of Suda 51's game translated? I really want to play.

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 11:41 am
by 8bitsonic
Lonheartda60 wrote:hey are any of Suda 51's game translated? I really want to play.
?! Aren't they almost ALL translated? Killer 7, No More Heroes, even obscure ones like Michigan: Report From Hell. Only a few aren't translated, like these early PSX adventure things.

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 1:37 pm
by slowbeef
Status update time? Why not.

So our next major goal is still Disc 1 Alpha. I did a quick, informal audit and there are currently:

4 bugs, 21 issues in the way.

21 issues sounds like a lot, but an "issue" could be something as simple as Marc saying, "here is a file, slowbeef", I run the patcher and it's done on the first try. This actually happened day before yesterday - he gave me two and it took me more time to actually play the game to test them than it did to patch them. (It actually only took a couple seconds to patch them.)

Of course, an issue could also be, "Hey Marc, can you fill out that giant line-for-line translation file I gave you that's about 3000 lines of Japanese?" I think that's actually our biggest issue, but Marc's nearing completion on that.

I'm currently working on Bug 1: The Summary Text you get when you load a saved game (similar again, to Metal Gear Solid). I expect to be able to knock that out today.

Bug 2 and 3 are two cinemas that I'm having trouble with - I'm 90% sure it's actually the same bug, but I haven't investigated enough to be sure.

Bug 4 is a single line ("Impressive!") in the voiceover scenes. That one, I'm leaving until last - Scarboy did the programming on the voiceover stuff, but he's tied up with exams, so I'll take a look if I finish everything else first.

Other bugs may crop up, but I figured the audit might give you some metric as to our progress (so next time I can say we're down to X bugs, Y issues). Also, if we do get down to 0 issues, then I'll start working on beta features again (we did some work on it, but alpha's more important right now.)

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:36 am
by snatchernaut
nice update slowbeef.
i love waking up in the morning checking the forum and seeing good news like this.
hopefully this will make my day at work easier.

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 2:12 pm
by 87th
If it hasn't already been asked, can you tell me how much you plan to have completed in the Alpha, as opposed to the Beta (and if you're skipping anything worthy of being called a beta, then the difference between Alpha and Final)?

If I had a more optimistic view, I'd assume the team would create the alpha, test it, remove any discovered bugs, and release it, but it sounds a little too simple and, to be frank, unlikely.

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 3:59 pm
by slowbeef
87th wrote:If it hasn't already been asked, can you tell me how much you plan to have completed in the Alpha, as opposed to the Beta (and if you're skipping anything worthy of being called a beta, then the difference between Alpha and Final)?

If I had a more optimistic view, I'd assume the team would create the alpha, test it, remove any discovered bugs, and release it, but it sounds a little too simple and, to be frank, unlikely.
We're not skipping beta. Our major milestones as far as I'm aware - and Artemio and Marc can correct me - is:

Alpha Disc 1 -> Alpha Disc 2 -> Beta Disc 1 -> Beta Disc 2 -> Release

We've got 4 bugs, 21 issues to reach Alpha Disc 1. I can't give any numbers for the later milestones because I simply won't know until we get to Alpha Disc 1.

Let's talk about a game you would know for a good example... let's say... hmmm... Metal Gear Solid.

Imagine MGS was never released here and we were ROM hacking that. To me, Alpha would mean that the Codec calls and the cutscene subtitles would all be English. Good English too, not that "THIS TEXT IS SHRTNED" bullshit you see in crappy ROM hacks. It would mean that the game were playable and enjoyable.

But let's say the telops were a beta feature like in Policenauts. When Solid Snake appears, you see:

Solid Snake
(David Hayter)

in Japanese. That's a beta feature because no, it doesn't look like a professionally localized game with that in Japanese, certainly, but hey. I mean, it's playable and you can still enjoy the story.

At the end of the day, I guess I'd like you to play it and have the matter of "Does this look like a pro job" be as subjective as possible. I would like it if there weren't anything missing in there that you could definitely say, "Konami would have changed ______ in an official release."

(Except for the voice dubbing.)

Alpha, for us, means the game is a run-of-the-mill ROM hack. You could play the Alpha and finally understand the story of Policenauts.

Beta is more like, "This is what Policenauts in English would have been... oh shit there's a bug."

Release: "This is what Policenauts in English would have been."

Without the source code and art assets, there's only so much we can do, but Artemio and Marc are pretty strict when it comes to keeping me honest. (i.e. "No, slowbeef, we consider almost everything critical for version 1.00 and there will not be a version 0.99")

Let's get more specific.

Where we are - In reaching toward Alpha, that means we are currently patching and testing the English. We require no major development; all necessary tools are developed. There is testing and bug-fixing to be done, but that is all.

Alpha - all in-game text, name badges, cutscene subtitles (movie and voiceover), and menus (in-game and system) are completely in English and working correctly. The game is playable and enjoyable to an English speaker. There's no "okay this cutscene is in Japanese but you get the gist" type of thing. You might raise an eyebrow because someone spelled the guy's name "Isida" on an ID card or something, when his name is Ishida.

Beta Development we need to do - We need further development on some of the graphics tools. We have some of these in a state of partial development, but more work needs doing. I haven't really done an in-depth sort of audit on beta, because honestly, we really do need to get to Alpha to be able to ascertain that.

Beta - Everything looks good to an English speaker, period. If there were Engrishy things in the background or foreground graphics, we've edited them. Telops are also in English. Even the credits are in English. Bugs may remain, but we do not intend to do any additive work except for fixing them.

Does this help at all?

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 7:09 pm
by 87th
slowbeef wrote: Does this help at all?
Oh, absolutely! I wasn't expecting such a comprehensive reply, though I think you may have shot yourself in the foot a little by explaining how enjoyable the Alpha version will be to play. If you're inundated with requests to hand-out the incomplete patch, I'm sorry for asking about it. :lol:

It's great to hear of your dedication to make such a professional localisation. One of my most justifiable reasons for enjoying Hideo Kojima's games so much is the care, attention-to-detail and high standard of coding that is so commonplace in his titles. It sounds like the team recognises this in his work, and really cares about the game as much as anyone reading this text.

Admittedly, after talking to members of the team on this forum over the development of this project, I'm sure to be forgiving enough to overlook any errors I might find in it, but this doesn't sound like an issue, as the team working on it really seem to be the right people to do it. I don't say this as a prediction of a flawed result, but in effort to relieve any stress or worries the team may have about the fans' reactions.

I've never been so confident about the quality of an unreleased fan-project before, but I am sure that the end result will meet my high-hopes. I am very thankful to the team for taking the incredible amount of time and effort to produce this, and wish I could offer something beyond praise towards the project. That said, I am sure never to shut up about this once it's done. :P

PS- Sorry for the late reply. I had trouble making posts a little earlier, but Artemio's fixed it now, thanks.

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 3:53 pm
by slowbeef
The count is still 4 bugs, but 19 issues remaining. Sorry - we hit a couple bugs resolving those 2 issues and I had to spend time knocking them down. Still working on summary text.

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 4:30 pm
by X_Lupin
slowbeef wrote:The count is still 4 bugs, but 19 issues remaining. Sorry - we hit a couple bugs resolving those 2 issues and I had to spend time knocking them down. Still working on summary text.
Digging the comprehensive updates. Keep up the good work, man.

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 12:12 am
by whitetrashshayno
Man thanks for all your hardwork guys. Is thier a place to give donations?
I'm so stoked on the realease of this. And i know im a noob for asking but.

How is this gonna be released as a ps one emulator thing, or are u guys gonna be able to make disks and put it on modded psones?

either way im tottaly stoked and sorry bout sounding noobish.

thanks guys

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 7:41 am
by akor1108
Oh man.

THIS IS FAN-F*CKIN'-TASTIC news!

It may not be the release, but just the sign and constant update on the progress of the patch makes me happy.

It is people like you that keep the world going. willing to make a few sacrifices for the greater good (or enjoyment).

you will not be forgotten!

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 2:06 pm
by X_Lupin
whitetrashshayno wrote:Man thanks for all your hardwork guys. Is thier a place to give donations?
I'm so stoked on the realease of this. And i know im a noob for asking but.

How is this gonna be released as a ps one emulator thing, or are u guys gonna be able to make disks and put it on modded psones?

either way im tottaly stoked and sorry bout sounding noobish.

thanks guys
I've been begging them to let me donate for a while, but I think they're not accepting ANY money for additional legal butt-coverage.

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 3:02 pm
by JimboKudo
X_Lupin wrote:
whitetrashshayno wrote:Man thanks for all your hardwork guys. Is thier a place to give donations?
I'm so stoked on the realease of this. And i know im a noob for asking but.

How is this gonna be released as a ps one emulator thing, or are u guys gonna be able to make disks and put it on modded psones?

either way im tottaly stoked and sorry bout sounding noobish.

thanks guys
I've been begging them to let me donate for a while, but I think they're not accepting ANY money for additional legal butt-coverage.
They could always start a "charity" where we donate money to the needy (programmers working on this). If anybody was brought to court, then Konami would seem like massive jerks for suing a charitable organization. :evil:
Nah, I don't think it would be good to have donations anyway (at least not until the patch is completed), because that sometimes causes problems with motivation. At least that's how I usually am. I do a ton of charity work, and if I'm ever forced to take money then I don't feel as good about what I just did. As akor said, they are making a sacrifice for humanity! :D

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 4:06 pm
by snatchernaut
They could always start a "charity" where we donate money to the needy (programmers working on this). If anybody was brought to court, then Konami would seem like massive jerks for suing a charitable organization. :evil:
Nah, I don't think it would be good to have donations anyway (at least not until the patch is completed), because that sometimes causes problems with motivation. At least that's how I usually am. I do a ton of charity work, and if I'm ever forced to take money then I don't feel as good about what I just did. As akor said, they are making a sacrifice for humanity! :D
dont think they would sue. aslong as we have original copies of the games i dontthink there is a lot the could do.
nor do i think they even care

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 4:25 pm
by Artemio
It has been stated numerous times in the past and in the FAQs for the project. And that is not the most important reason. We simply don't need the donations. I mean, that is not our motive, that is not our goal and it would only change the way things work for us. We are doing this because we want to, for ourselves and to share it with whoever cares about the game.

Accepting donations would simply go against it in so many ways that it simply isn't worth it for anyone.

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 6:35 pm
by akor1108
You guys make my heart happy to know the goodness that is the team working on the project and the progress of the project itself!

We need more dedicated modest and non-greedy people like you.

Patience is beginning to pay off!

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 7:41 pm
by Letiumtide
I'm really looking forward to this, being a huge snatcher fan I've been dying to play Policenauts (in English, don't know any Japanese... yet)

Keep up the good work guys, It seems like it's really coming along quite nice.

If you ever need a beta tester I'd be glad to help =)

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 10:20 pm
by khmr33
First post here!

I've been reading this board for over a year now and decided to join when my friend returned from Japan with a PS1 The Best copy of Policenauts for me. I was so excited! I already owned the Saturn version but was afraid I'd have to wait longer for subsequent versions of the patch.
It is likely I will play both versions if given the chance though.

Artemio, I played through the MSX2 version of Snatcher thanks to you. It motivated me to finally track down the SegaCD version. Your site set off my quest for international versions of Kojima games. Though judging by the prices for some of vintage MSX versions nowadays we'll all have a hard time catching up to you!

A great deal of thanks for the whole Policenauts team, can't wait to play this game!

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 11:44 pm
by slowbeef
Letiumtide wrote:If you ever need a beta tester I'd be glad to help =)
Thank you for the offer, but this guy has it covered.

Image

Re: Current Project Status

Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 12:10 am
by whitetrashshayno
Artemio wrote:It has been stated numerous times in the past and in the FAQs for the project. And that is not the most important reason. We simply don't need the donations. I mean, that is not our motive, that is not our goal and it would only change the way things work for us. We are doing this because we want to, for ourselves and to share it with whoever cares about the game.

Accepting donations would simply go against it in so many ways that it simply isn't worth it for anyone.
I was just think'n bout doing it as a thank you, but i guess a big ol

THANK YOU!!!!!!
will suffice