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Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 1:40 am
by el_ash
slowbeef wrote:
el_ash wrote:I'm hoping the official "final" release will come out in July......just in time for my B-Day....LOL! \:D/
Hmmm... am I allowed to take bets on that?
In the words of Obama...YES YOU CAN!

As long as you don't delay the project just to win the bet! \:D/

keep up the good work Slowbeef! ...and to everyone working hard on this! :mrgreen:

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 6:22 pm
by TyrannoJack
i'm still so jazzed for this, i can't wait :D

just popping back in to let you know i check on the progress daily ;)

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 8:16 am
by Stratoslava
5 days with no one posting joyfully towards Policenaut's progress?

Any news? =)

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 8:33 am
by Charlie Johnson
Yes.

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 9:17 am
by Marc
slowbeef is away on a trip right now.

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 12:44 pm
by slowbeef
I'm back today! Well, yesterday, but I needed some recovery. Actually did some work in the airport.

So yeah, there's a game-breaking bug on Disc 2 I'm working on now - it's a new one that doesn't count toward the 16 remaining, but I think I might know what it is (no big deal)

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 1:15 pm
by Anubis
Ha, That was resolved quickly.

Thanks Slowbeef. I just started going reading your SD Snatcher LP. I tried to go through it, but gave up somewhere along the way. I feel it's about time to replay the original too.

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 1:53 pm
by slowbeef
Okay, fixed - that was pretty easy, fortunately.

Onto the 16 remaining!

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 8:22 pm
by akor1108
good job, you make me so happy.

don't forget to save!

keep it up team!

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 2:57 am
by Great Solid Snake
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! Can't wait until the final version comes out so we can dip into it.
I want to thank everyone who has been working so far on the patch and participated in the forums from the bottom of my heart. Special thanks to you Slowbeef for giving us hope again.


~Cheers mates

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 5:07 pm
by katsujinken
Hey JunkerHQ, I just wanted to tell you personally how much I look forward to playing Policenauts when it's done and how much I appreciate all the hard work you've all put into making that happen.

cheers

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 6:57 pm
by JimboKudo
Someone should keep a tally of how many members join just for a quick thank you.

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 8:00 pm
by seraphssavior
Someone should make a thank-you thread, so this one stops getting so cluttered.

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 10:21 pm
by DarkTetsuya
seraphssavior wrote:Someone should make a thank-you thread, so this one stops getting so cluttered.
I'm inclined to agree, I mean I'm sure they appreciate the kudos... but if they had a thread specifically for shoutouts/thank you letters/cookies/etc. (just not money, I know) then they could just use this for bug reports/status updates.

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 9:43 am
by ShinjiPG
akor1108 wrote:good job, you make me so happy.

don't forget to save!

keep it up team!
Oh. Thank you for stealing my avatar.

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 1:16 pm
by akor1108
you could have just pm'd me and let me know. I didn't steal your avatar. I found it long time ago and thought it really cool. plus it suits my furry tastes! but I'll change it.

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 4:00 am
by Kirbysuperstar
akor1108 wrote:plus it suits my furry tastes!
Goddammit.

UH SO ANYWAY HOW ABOUT THEM POLICENAUTS AYE

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:16 am
by slowbeef
I'm pretty damn close on another bug. In fact, I decided to just try something stupid since my bus was pulling into the Port Authority and lo and behold, it worked!

The count will most likely decrease from 16 a little later tonight (when I'm not at work), but I'll save that for when we actually have numbers. (Note: This bug will cascade into another one, so we might hit two in one shot.)

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:35 am
by seraphssavior
slowbeef wrote:I'm pretty damn close on another bug. In fact, I decided to just try something stupid since my bus was pulling into the Port Authority and lo and behold, it worked!
I've had that happen before in programming classes.

Teacher: How'd you make this work?
Me:...I have no fucking idea...
Teacher: Awesome.

I love it when that kind of bizarre solution fixes the problem.

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 7:02 pm
by slowbeef
Down to 14. Hooray! Sigh. Onto the next one...

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 7:16 pm
by akor1108
please don't give up! I consider you so amicably close to finishing this that it's rediculously joyous to know how you must feel. even though there will still be beta testing, by finishing alpha, the policenaut's patch will have leaped yet another hurdle!

"GOOD JOB RAIDEN!" Colonel (VR)

"You know what your doing... right?" Olga (VR)

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 12:07 am
by jamesb2147
so slowbeef, i hope you'll forgive me for asking but i was wondering why you decided to take on this project and especially when you did.

also, happy square root day everyone!!! :mrgreen:

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 12:33 am
by slowbeef
jamesb2147 wrote:so slowbeef, i hope you'll forgive me for asking but i was wondering why you decided to take on this project and especially when you did.

also, happy square root day everyone!!! :mrgreen:
It sorta fell into my lap, I guess. Marc gave me the script for the Prologue for the Let's Play and I didn't wanna bother him by asking for Act 1 right away, so I decided to bide my time and see just what the deal was with ROM hacking Policenauts. I noticed a trick about two weeks later you could do to double the amount of text in the same space, and with some help from friends, I managed to pull it off and show Marc. He thought it was pretty cool, so he and Artemio introduced me to the old programmer.

The double-text trick really didn't work at all (Policenauts actually already did it, so you didn't even need a trick), but after talking with the old programmer I realized exactly what the problem was (all the text pointers were in a compiled byte-code script, and therefore, really really hard to programmatically change.) I'm one of those people who can't leave puzzles unsolved and it was killing me so in a bathroom of a service area of the New Jersey Turnpike, it suddenly hit me that I needed text pointers and couldn't get around that. Maybe I could make my own new ones? But where would I store them... ...aha!

So the hack I came up with actually leaves the old text pointers alone and uses them to reference new ones so we can fit all the English however we want.

The old programmer agreed it was a sound idea and about a month later, I'd written all the assembly for it. This makes me sound smart, but in reality, I think Junker HQ just needed a fresh set of eyes. Anyway, after that, I invited Scarboy in, Artemio fired up his coding ... gloves, I guess - and with Marc on translation, etc. we were off to the races.

Back in July when I was doing the Let's Play - since I am a programmer after all - I did think at one point, "Could I ROM hack Policenauts?" and immediately afterwards, "God no, I don't know the first thing about ROM hacking."

But hey, some months later, here we are. 14 bugs to beta.

In all honesty, I think we're going into beta pretty solid. We've identified some really obscure bugs (in fact, our most severe bug is actually in the original game, so I'm going to see if I can fix Konami's mistake - admittedly it's a hard one to catch), so I'm hoping beta will go smoothly, but ya never know I suppose. This game has surprised me over and over and over with how complex (and to be completely frank with you, ridiculously overcomplicated for no good reason) it is.

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 4:38 pm
by Kojima_Devotee
Interesting story. Believe me, my friend, you've been more than just a new set of eyes.

I myself was coming here faithfully on an almost daily basis until about a year and a half ago. (I remember the days when the project's "hub" consisted of a single side page on Junker HQ.) Since my career has taken off, I've been coming here less and less, but I'm still far from ever forgetting this place. I give my support intermittently until I can start returning at a higher frequency.

I can recall when an entire year had passed with no news, and even the mention of the project was becoming horribly taboo. Not only did your revelation bring new life to the project, Slowbeef, but you've stuck with the team and devoted yourself like you've always been a part of the effort. Your bug reports alone have allowed us to relax knowing there's continued work on the translation.

It has always been a huge shame that Policenauts never found its way outside Japan, and Snatcher's excellence has always demanded an encore.

Keep up the good work, my friend. Words cannot describe our appreciation.

Re: Current Project Status (1/14/09): Alpha Testing

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 5:57 pm
by el_ash
something good happened in New Jersey? :mrgreen: