Fan Translations: Emulation & Hardware

[Melf]

We've been giving a lot of attention to the recent fan translations that have been appearing on the Genesis. From the wonderful Beggar Prince to the recent MIJET translations of two of the Phantasy Star II text adventures, it looks like the movement is finally gaining some steam. Site contributor Zebbe takes a deeper look into what's been done so far and what's still pending in his new article Fan Translations: Emulation & Hardware. It's a great chance to catch up on which Mega Drive games you can now play in English, so read our full article (http://www.sega-16.com/2007/08/fan-translations-emulation-hardware/) and get to playing!

[Joe Redifer]

The sound effects and percussion in Phantasy Star 2 is the same in the US version as the Japanese version with the exception of volume. The Japanese version has drums and sounds that are slightly louder. They rebalanced it for the US release, apparently. I'm glad they did, because drums that are too loud sound bad to me. As a result I think the US version sounds smoother.

[108 Stars]

I´m glad some people are doing ROM-hacking.
I´ve tried it myself, and it´s a damn boring and annoying work.

[Genesis Knight]

Good rundown; I'm glad to finally see a translation of DBZ, even if it's incomplete. Now someone needs to write an article on homebrews. Maybe even interview some of the programmers.

[megabomberman]

Welldone Zebbe, I always look forward to reading your stuff and this was no different, perhaps I should go out and get a sega cd and the mega cart eventually it sounds totally worth it after you've opened up the possibilities it has even further with that article, Keep em coming.....

[RedComet]

Is the MD Pro review not available yet? Other than that, nice article, Zebbe. :)

[Zebbe]

Joe Redifer: Higher volume IS superior when it comes to Mega Drive drums.

Genesis Knight: I've thought about interviewing MIJET, who I had some contact to.

megabomberman: Thanks. Yeah, go get a Mega CD and a Mega Cart. The Mega CD is highly underrated by the masses. There are a lot of great exclusive games for it.

RedComet: No, things got a little messed up. I first wrote and sent in the MD-Pro review, but it never reached Melf like this article did. Now he has it and it will hopefully be up on Friday. Thanks for the feedback. Looking forward to your Bare Knuckle III patch ;).

[RedComet]

RedComet: No, things got a little messed up. I first wrote and sent in the MD-Pro review, but it never reached Melf like this article did. Now he has it and it will hopefully be up on Friday. Thanks for the feedback. Looking forward to your Bare Knuckle III patch ;).

True story. Your article has actually motivated me to get back to work on BK3. :cool:

[Joe Redifer]

Joe Redifer: Higher volume IS superior when it comes to Mega Drive drums.
That's just stupid.

[Mr Smith]

Advanced Daisenryaku has always interested me. Only the Japanese would invent a game where you can play as the second worst dictator of the 20th Century.

In saying that somebody should make a Sim-Hitler game: you could chose what the tyrant had on his toast in the morning, which countries to invade, which minority group to oppress, whether to buy a new lamp for the Berghof and when to make sweet, sweet love to Eva Braun. God that would be awesome.

[GeckoYamori]

Advanced Daisenryaku cracked me up. I thought it would be another generic game based on some obscure anime or something, and the first thing I'm greeted with is "DAS DEUTSCHE REICH! SIEG HEIL! SIEG HEIL!"

[Genesis Knight]

A MIJET interview would be neat.

[108 Stars]

Advanced Daisenryaku has always interested me. Only the Japanese would invent a game where you can play as the second worst dictator of the 20th Century.

In saying that somebody should make a Sim-Hitler game: you could chose what the tyrant had on his toast in the morning, which countries to invade, which minority group to oppress, whether to buy a new lamp for the Berghof and when to make sweet, sweet love to Eva Braun. God that would be awesome.

Such a game actually exists, probably illegaly programmed by the Nazi scene here...
it´s for C64 and called simply "Adolf".
Basically it´s a text-based economy-sim. You have to pay the army, the SS, invade countries to get money, you have to start a progrom every now and then, be judge on court (mostly in cases of Germans against a Jew).
But at the same time you have to keep your wife entertained (with cash) and you can´t let the concentration camps down too much, or the Jews will start a rebellion.
Usually it ends with your wife or somebody backstabbing you.
Unfortunately, no sex-options are available.

BTW: Who is the worst dictator in the 20th century? I thought it was Hitler, but I may be a bit biased...my next-best bets would be Mao Zedong and Stalin.

[Zebbe]

True story. Your article has actually motivated me to get back to work on BK3. :cool:

Sweeeet :).

Joe Redifer: No. I think the drums are too low in many Mega Drive games.

108 Stars: Stalin ofcourse. He is responsible for the most deaths, and that is usually what counts when it comes to "worst dictator". Now, who is the BEST dictator of the 20th century? That's harder.

[Genesis Knight]

Stalin killed the most, but Mao was probably the most destructive/oppressive. This is, of course, sort of impossible to quantify.

[108 Stars]

Ho, this sounds like a new game that has to be made for MD!

A beat´em up with Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong, Saddam Hussein, Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, Pol Pot, Fidel Castro and Benito Mussolini fighting for the title of the world´s most bad-ass dictator!

http://www.dictatorofthemonth.com/

[megabomberman]

I can't find any thread to post on!! Every one of them is either on about communism or dictatorships..... Is there something ye guys aren't telling me?

[Genesis Knight]

Yeah. You're next on the shipping list to my gulag.

[segagamer]

I agree with Joe that the US version of PSII sounds smoother and more natural to the ear than the JP version.

[Mr Smith]

Such a game actually exists, probably illegaly programmed by the Nazi scene here...
it´s for C64 and called simply "Adolf".
Basically it´s a text-based economy-sim. You have to pay the army, the SS, invade countries to get money, you have to start a progrom every now and then, be judge on court (mostly in cases of Germans against a Jew).
But at the same time you have to keep your wife entertained (with cash) and you can´t let the concentration camps down too much, or the Jews will start a rebellion.
Usually it ends with your wife or somebody backstabbing you.
Unfortunately, no sex-options are available.

BTW: Who is the worst dictator in the 20th century? I thought it was Hitler, but I may be a bit biased...my next-best bets would be Mao Zedong and Stalin.
That game sounds interesting. All it needed was female nudity (and to be released on a better platform) and it would have been awesome.

By worst dictator I was referring to Stalin. Hitler for all his vices was consistant in his genocide targets and he owned an awesome big dog. Pol Pot was a bit of a tosser as well.

[GeckoYamori]

As for the best dictator, Fidel Castro has been doing a pretty good job on keeping his regime up and running.

[Mr Smith]

As for the best dictator, Fidel Castro has been doing a pretty good job on keeping his regime up and running.
Mikhail Gorbachev was the best 20th Century dictator. A true legend of a man whose achievements stand out as a beacon for all humanity.

[Jules Walter]

Nice little article, anything that draws some attention to fan translations, and even better, Sega fan translations, is a good thing in my book. Though you remind me once more of how much I wish some damn body would translate Surging Aura.
Also, the Taiwanese RPG known in the rom world as Conquering The World 3 is awesome. I hope that's what Superfighterteam's been working on.

[108 Stars]

108 Stars:
CMA Death Adder once told me it would not be Tiger Hunter Hero Novel because it used too many stolen graphics.

Another RPG, Conquering the World III seems to be using character designs of an official Sega game, Sangokushi Retsuden, so this is an unlikely release as well.

CMA Death Adder:
Yeah, the graphics (and some sound elements) would certainly need to be changed, to avoid possible lawsuits. That's a hefty job which isn't cost-effective. It's a shame they decided to "borrow" these elements from other games rather than producing them from scratch on their own.

So, chances are low for that game:(

[Zebbe]

What good old times reading this thread puts me back into... :P

This article is revised with some new entries and updates, the latest one being the great Barver Battle Saga by Bramsworth of these forums. Enjoy.

[Christuserloeser]

The link doesn't work.

[Phantar]

The link doesn't work.

There You go: http://www.sega-16.com/feature_page.php?id=172&title=Fan%20Translations:%20Emulation%20and%20Hard ware

Nice seeing a translation for "Barver Battle Saga" finally. I've always wondered what this game was about since I had first come upon a game called "Final Fantasy (ru)". Will definitely check that one out.

[Christuserloeser]

Awesome article! I read it a while ago but it's great to see it updated.

Streets of Rage 3 has a lot of totally unnecessary and absolutely pointless changes that led to further changes that were even more unnecessary and pointless. - Like, if they would have kept the character's colors that were established in and which they left untouched in the first two games, they could have kept the part of the intro where Axel punched the screen. Stuff like that.
If the only things they'd have changed were the story and removing Ash, it'd have been totally acceptable. It's the core gameplay that counts. - And that's the worst thing about Streets of Rage 3: they fucked up the game's balance. Where in Bare Knuckle III weapons, items and power ups (your special moves were upgradable) were in perfect balance to the increasing speed, attack power and health of your enemies -as you'd expect from a Streets of Rage/Bare Knuckle game-, they turned it into some barely playable mess that seems amateurish, even unfinished! It's so frustrating to keep loosing your special moves all the time, and the enemies are too fast to catch up with, and even the lowest thugs actually do more damage to you than you do to them. It should be a blast to fight your way through all these thugs, yet these changes make it tedious, boring and frustrating beyond belief!

God, I hate that game so much!



A guy called Shion released an enhancement to the old patch by DeJap and Demiforce in May 2008. The update adds previously missing text, corrects spelling and grammar errors and fixes bugs, among other things. I have played through both patches and can without doubt say I enjoyed the game more with the new patch.

Wow! Really!? Are there any specific things you remember that made the new patch better ?




Stalin killed the most

I think those numbers are wildly exagerrated. The internet says 30 million, but I read in some Amnesty International (or was it Red Cross?) publication a few years ago that it was like 3 million people that died in Gulags - and that included captured German WW2 soldiers.


EDIT - Also, even if 30 million would be true, wouldn't Hitler be somewhat responsible for WW2? At least a little bit? And that's like what? 60 million dead? - See, either way, we got the even more insane mass murderer! Hooray!

[Zebbe]

Awesome article! I read it a while ago but it's great to see it updated.

Thank you :). I hope I can update it quite a few more times, with entries for Rent-A-Hero, Surging Aura, Shadowrun (CD), Puzzle & Action series and more Taiwanese games :).


Streets of Rage 3 has a lot of totally unnecessary and absolutely pointless changes that led to further changes that were even more unnecessary and pointless. - Like, if they would have kept the character's colors that were established in and which they left untouched in the first two games, they could have kept the part of the intro where Axel punched the screen. Stuff like that.
If the only things they'd have changed were the story and removing Ash, it'd have been totally acceptable. It's the core gameplay that counts. - And that's the worst thing about Streets of Rage 3: they fucked up the game's balance. Where in Bare Knuckle III weapons, items and power ups (your special moves were upgradable) were in perfect balance to the increasing speed, attack power and health of your enemies -as you'd expect from a Streets of Rage/Bare Knuckle game-, they turned it into some barely playable mess that seems amateurish, even unfinished! It's so frustrating to keep loosing your special moves all the time, and the enemies are too fast to catch up with, and even the lowest thugs actually do more damage to you than you do to them. It should be a blast to fight your way through all these thugs, yet these changes make it tedious, boring and frustrating beyond belief!

God, I hate that game so much!

I didn't know any of this when I rented SoR3 lots of times back in the day, I actually really enjoyed it although it was very hard. When I came back into Mega Drive collecting about seven years later, BKIII was my first Japanese game after I heard all about the changes.


Wow! Really!? Are there any specific things you remember that made the new patch better ?

Nothing specific. It's hard to put a finger on it, it just felt like a more complete experience the second time.


I think those numbers are wildly exagerrated. The internet says 30 million, but I read in some Amnesty International (or was it Red Cross?) publication a few years ago that it was like 3 million people that died in Gulags - and that included captured German WW2 soldiers.

EDIT - Also, even if 30 million would be true, wouldn't Hitler be somewhat responsible for WW2? At least a little bit? And that's like what? 60 million dead? - See, either way, we got the even more insane mass murderer! Hooray!

The numbers don't really matter, Stalin and Hitler were equally terrible humans that are not worthy of our time here at the fine Sega-16 forums.