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Project Melancholia

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 11:15 am
by biscuits


Hey guys, this is prob my first post since I joined years back but I better thought I should bring this to your attention as it looks like no-one has posted a thing about it yet....

Finally a proper re-translation of SD Snatcher from the Netherlands MSX Scene! This was shown at Event Eleven a month or so ago, but they just posted a demo version of their translation! It's worlds better than the old Oasis translation we've playing since the early 90's, even in the oh-so-short demo there are massive differences in the script, plays and sounds more like a proper Kojima game now, its also got a Variable Width Font with 7 Characters for the Character Name (that's right no more GILIAN, you can finally spell Seed's name properly!).

They've also made some tweaks to how the game runs, it'll now take advantage of the Turbo mode built into MSX2+ and MSX Turbo R (and of course this is emulated in BlueMSX!) giving you quicker loading times and smoother animations. Unfortunately they are charging 10 Euros for the patch when it gets released early next year but for a game this obscure and of such high caliber its a wonder anyone's bothered to give it a second look and probably worth every penny.

Attached is the demo IPS patch for the first 15-30min or so of the game till you meet Katrina. It can only be applied to a disk image of the original Japanese SD Snatcher (no Oasis or Starcracks!).

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 12:37 pm
by AwesomeBrand
isn't it, like, illegal to charge for translation patches or something?
Also, how much is this in $US?

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 1:04 pm
by Charlie Johnson
Yeah, charging money for a practically illegal patch is really shitty, fuck those guys and steal their patch!

Oh who am I kidding, it's not like I'm ever gonna play the game again anyway.

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 3:16 pm
by biscuits
funny thing is I don't think it really bothers Konami, as they were one of the sponsors of Event Eleven, which is where they unveiled the patch, perhaps they're treating it as free publicity to go along with sdatcher. Perhaps depending on interest there could be a new Snatcher still in the pipeline in which case the more people that know about it the better for them...

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 6:30 pm
by Marc
AwesomeBrand wrote:isn't it, like, illegal to charge for translation patches or something?
Technically it's illegal to translate anything for which one doesn't own the copyright. However, companies usually don't object, for the same reason the IP in question was never localized in the first place -- it probably isn't profitable.

I'm not aware of an unofficial game translation patch where the creators charged for it, though. There have been projects with "donate" buttons before, but I'm not sure if anyone has ever sold one. Will be interesting to see where this goes.

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 7:23 pm
by biscuits
Oasis charged for their translation back in the 1990s too, mind you this was before the internet made it so easy just to download a set of disk images so it would've been more feasible to just buy it rather than downloading it all from a BBS

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 7:25 pm
by Marc
biscuits wrote:Oasis charged for their translation back in the 1990s too, mind you this was before the internet made it so easy just to download a set of disk images so it would've been more feasible to just buy it rather than downloading it all from a BBS
That's true, I forgot about that. Neat coincidence. :)

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 8:03 pm
by Artemio
The assumption that if a local Konami distributor "doesn't mind" then all of Konami doesn't mind if very questionable. I applaud this effort, and I would personally be against charging for it due to the nature of the project. They are free to do so, since it is their work. In that regard my only complain would be jeopardizing the project at this stage by announcing it as such.

I may even buy it, who knows. I do understand what is needed, and value it, after Policenauts and other projects. We'll see how it goes and I wish them success.

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 12:15 pm
by best name ever
This is awesome! :mrgreen:

Aside from the legality of it being questionable I wouldn't mind paying for this considering all the new things there adding to it. Especially since I’ve never played SD Snatcher, but this patch fixes all the reasons for why I was hesitant towards playing it.

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 5:13 pm
by GirianSeed573
best name ever wrote:this patch fixes all the reasons for why I was hesitant towards playing it.
Hell, I played through most of the Japanese Version, just to avoid "OFF COURSE". :-/

Either way, I'm still loking foward to it.

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 12:58 pm
by SnatcherMkII
http://www.project-melancholia.org/progress.html
March 24th:
Started the final proofread of the Elijah demo.
Early 2012 release my ass.

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 8:46 pm
by Kojima Hideo
Oh man, can't wait for this! I pre-ordered the patch.
I recently bought SD Snatcher and an MSX 2.

I tried it once, I simply can't put into words how the game sounds.
I will play the sh*t out of this game.

Who played it already? Is it as good as it sounds?

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 9:26 pm
by GirianSeed573
Kojima Hideo wrote:I recently bought SD Snatcher and an MSX 2.
You, you... what!?

*Mouth starts to foam from jealousy*

Oh, and SD Snatcher is good.
It does get kind of tedious sometimes, mostly from all the redundant battles you go through.

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 9:49 pm
by Kojima Hideo
GirianSeed573 wrote:
Kojima Hideo wrote:I recently bought SD Snatcher and an MSX 2.
You, you... what!?

*Mouth starts to foam from jealousy*

Oh, and SD Snatcher is good.
It does get kind of tedious sometimes, mostly from all the redundant battles you go through.
Yeah, it started with all the games from 'Treasure', than it got out of hand, and a little farther down the road I decided that I must own all the games from Hideo.

Did you play the Oasis version or the Japanese one?

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 9:54 pm
by GirianSeed573
I played the Oasis version for a little bit, but when I decided to try to actually finish the game, I played the Japanese one, being my Otaku self.

Wait Treasure? Like the former Konami employees? I love those guys!

Gradius V rules!

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 10:21 pm
by Kojima Hideo
GirianSeed573 wrote:I played the Oasis version for a little bit, but when I decided to try to actually finish the game, I played the Japanese one, being my Otaku self.

Wait Treasure? Like the former Konami employees? I love those guys!

Gradius V rules!
Yes, THE Treasure. You liked Gradius V? Than I also take it that you played Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga? If I may recommend a game, get Bangai-O Spirits. It's a hidden gem.

I can go on and on about those guys, but won't do that here.

But can you speak Japanese? If so, than it's my turn to be jealous.

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 10:36 pm
by GirianSeed573
I have Ikaruga for GameCube and I plan on buying Radiant Silvergun on XBLive when I get some money.

No, I don't speak Japanese. At least not yet.
I study on my own time when I have time.

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 8:44 am
by Kojima Hideo
GirianSeed573 wrote:I have Ikaruga for GameCube and I plan on buying Radiant Silvergun on XBLive when I get some money.

No, I don't speak Japanese. At least not yet.
I study on my own time when I have time.
Ah man, than you´re in for a treat. I own the Saturn version and loved every inch of the game. I still need to get the English Xbox arcade version. If you have some money to burn, also get Guardian Heroes, another fantastic game. I´ll open a topic in the general gaming section soon, because the attention to detail Treasure puts in their games reminds me of none other than...Kojima (sort of).

Did you get the story of SD Snatcher when you played it in Japanese? How much does the game differ from (the cd versions of) Snatcher?

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 9:17 am
by GirianSeed573
Kojima Hideo wrote:Did you get the story of SD Snatcher when you played it in Japanese? How much does the game differ from (the cd versions of) Snatcher?
Well, I actually knew the story from watching playthroughs of the game on YouTube beforehand.

The story is pretty much the same as Snatcher except...
Spoiler:
-There are 10,000+ robots crawling around Neo Kobe
-Freddy doesn't make an appearance
-You viloate the Junker bylaws.
-Queen Hospital isn't destroyed
-The Snatchers use a cave system and the Sewers as opposed to the Tube Liner
-Act 3 is almost completely different
-Elijah isn't a madman
-The Ending is the originally planed ending from the PC-88/MSX2 version, which means...

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 11:04 am
by Kojima Hideo
GirianSeed573 wrote:
Kojima Hideo wrote:Did you get the story of SD Snatcher when you played it in Japanese? How much does the game differ from (the cd versions of) Snatcher?
Well, I actually knew the story from watching playthroughs of the game on YouTube beforehand.

The story is pretty much the same as Snatcher except...
Spoiler:
-There are 10,000+ robots crawling around Neo Kobe
-Freddy doesn't make an appearance
-You viloate the Junker bylaws.
-Queen Hospital isn't destroyed
-The Snatchers use a cave system and the Sewers as opposed to the Tube Liner
-Act 3 is almost completely different
-Elijah isn't a madman
-The Ending is the originally planed ending from the PC-88/MSX2 version, which means...
Spoiler:
Which means that the ending of SD Snatcher is the ending which Kojima had in mind all along....??

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 11:07 am
by GirianSeed573
Kojima Hideo wrote:
Spoiler:
Which means that the ending of SD Snatcher is the ending which Kojima had in mind all along....??
Pretty much, except when it was adapted for the PC-Engine version, a little something had to be changed.
I'll let you figure it out.

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 11:42 am
by Kojima Hideo
GirianSeed573 wrote:
Kojima Hideo wrote:
Spoiler:
Which means that the ending of SD Snatcher is the ending which Kojima had in mind all along....??
Pretty much, except when it was adapted for the PC-Engine version, a little something had to be changed.
I'll let you figure it out.
No way man, no way. Damn, I hope that the patch is finished soon! Thanks for letting me figure it out myself, I don't like spoilers. I know some little details about SD Snatcher, but that's it.

Just like Snatcher, I knew very little before actually playing the game. And damn, that only strenghtens the experience by a factor of, oh what, ninethousand? :-P

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 3:58 pm
by SnatcherMkII
Kojima Hideo wrote:Oh man, can't wait for this! I pre-ordered the patch.
I recently bought SD Snatcher and an MSX 2.
Image

You must be pack loads of money. How on earth can you get so much?
But seriously, do you know how to dump an MSX rom or patch the actual floppy discs?

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 5:08 pm
by GirianSeed573
SnatcherMkII wrote:But seriously, do you know how to dump an MSX rom or patch the actual floppy discs?
You'd have to create a Disk Image, patch it, and the write the Image to a Blank Floppy.

Re: Project Melancholia

Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 5:42 pm
by SnatcherMkII
GirianSeed573 wrote:
SnatcherMkII wrote:But seriously, do you know how to dump an MSX rom or patch the actual floppy discs?
You'd have to create a Disk Image, patch it, and the write the Image to a Blank Floppy.
OIC

I was thinking that's how you patch it from a copy, but I wasn't sure.