Once again I bring to you the latest update from TransCorp land! Things are still putzing around slowly. Mostly because I don’t have a bloody translator!! I need one to finish this project! Someone out there has got to know someone who knows someone with some good Japanese skills, love for video games and some free time!! Tell them toE-mail me now! Well, this update sure is quite demanding isn’t it! Well, it’s just that if I don’t get a translator.. none of us will ever get Dual Orb 2! I’ve gotten another script editor. Thanks to all who submitted. I’ll keep you all in mind if this person falls through. Too bad I don’t have all that much script for him to edit! In hacking news, I’ve taken care of some misc things that I didn’t have time for before. I got those pesky yes/no boxes done. It was compressed away with some graphics, but I wrote a routine to overwrite it in VRAM when it was needed. I located, figured out, and dumped the town and place names.. If I had a translator.. they could be done by now! I’ve also been working on a few insertion/script issues with the script I currently have. And other misc things I can’t remember now! I realize the current patch on the site is outdated and crap compared to current progress. I’m starting to formulate a new one for sometime in the near future. I still need to work out a few more issues though. That’s about it. I’ll go slip quietly back into the shadows now.

-Nightcrawler

It is a grand day indeed!! The site has returned to it’s former glory on the besthome on the net….Parodius! Thanks goes out to Koitsu for deciding to continue hosting me at his new location! The message board is back up too! Go there NOW!! Let’s get the wonderful board community we had back together! As far as Do2 news. It’s been a month since I’ve updated. Alot of time was spent coding a NEW(scrapped the old stuff) custom inserter and pointer re-calculator for the bizarre system Dual Orb 2 uses. That’s been completed and working MUCH better than the old programs I wrote. So inserting 340 text blocks won’t be quite as awful as it was. I have worked on a few misc issues over the past few weeks. As far as dialog translation and insertion… nothing at all really. I haven’t gotten anything from the translator in weeks, nor from the script editor. So I am looking for new people to fill these positions!! The ‘official’ script size of the main dialog is 276K in size. I am in GREAT need of a translator. I can’t do the project without a good translator. Also, a script editor is needed. Preferably someone with good English skills(grammar spelling) and the ability to make things sound good. So, basically without people to fill these positions, the project is at a standstill because all the hacking is done besides bugs and misc things which I have been working on. If you wish to apply for any of these positions, E-mail me! That’s about it! Over and out!

-Nightcrawler

Hey…it has just been brought to my attention just like everyone else here at parodius.com that the server will be going down for an indefinite amount of time starting this week! There have been some contractual negotiation problems. Read the story at www.parodius.com if your interested. So, that means the site will be going down on this server for an indefinite amount of time. However, The site will be temporarily be able to be found at http://home.sprintmail.com/~nightcrawler until a new suitable home arises, or parodius returns. If some kind soul would want to host the site please E-mail me! I need a host that will give me CGI access so we can get the message board back online. So, that’s it. The site will be going down this week, and a temporary outlet will be set up at the address mentioned. Hopefully, a new host can be found, or parodius will come back. Nightcrawler out. Transmission terminated.

-Nightcrawler

Greetings once again, from the man who moves in the night. Quite a bit was stirred up in the scene, from my 2002 Declaration. Firstly, I would like to say thank you to all who sent me e-mails of support, encouragement, and offers of help. I replied to each and every one of you! = ) I’d like to clear up one thing however, for some people out there. My motivation to hack and translate does not come from how many e-mails I get, or how many fans I have. My motivation up till this point has come from my desire to learn, and do something I could share with everyone. Also, to get a relatively unknown game out there. It may not be a square game…does that mean it’s not worth playing? Hell no! I did however, get to the point in this translation, where my motivation was fading. I have not much left to do on this project, but tedious work. It’s then that I needed that extra nudge. Then, that I needed to know that finishing the project had a purpose aside from self satisfaction. A lot of you came forward and spoke your opinions, and gave words of support. Perhaps, I was mistaken….There is a scene out there, maybe even a community. Perhaps, the real members of the scene in this day and age, are of a silent majority. However, it was definitely a nice feeling to know you are all out there, care, and we can all be “happy friends”!!(quote from Princess)

This project will indeed continue. I have received some new help in the areas of script editing, and script dumping in the form of Eros Canni and (wraith). Yes, he is our favorite Whirlpoolie!. This should definitely help me out. On to the actual beef of this news! hehe I’ve updated the screenshots page with updated pics of the VWF and the new work over the past few months. There are some new shots in there mixed in with just updated shots(same shots, just with updated font). Check them out. Somewhere along the line, I made a MAJOR miscalculation in the amount of text in the game. It must have been after 1AM back in late August! : ) It seems there are now 340+ text blocks for main dialouge script. How f’in tedious is that? Thanks to (wraith), we have 178 of them dumped totaling 472K of text so far! There is only a mere 27 of those inserted(27K). Insertion is truly a task, due to the bizarre pointer methods and text setup in Do2, as well as the sheer mass number of different blocks. The dumper, translator, script editor, and inserter(me!) definitely, have their work cut out for them. So, that’s things in a nutshell. It’s certainly going to take some time to weed through this massive amount of work. But, hey at least the next patch release will be a hell of a lot more playable!! = ) Keep checking back for the latest. Thanks again to all those, whom took the time just to drop me a line! Peace out!

-Nightcrawler

The New Year has arrived…what does that mean for Translation Corporation? Here is my declaration of things, my thoughts, and feelings. I’ve been in the ROM hacking scene for a long time. Since 1996. I started hacking around the time the first SNES emulators were coming out. Long before the days of ZSNES. Times were different then. Translators and emu authors got e-mails of encouragement and support. It was a happy community, everyone cared (well not everyone, but alot of people).

Fast forward to 2002. While I may not have made my claim to fame with any 100% finished games (due to my car accident), I have still been around the scene for years and know how things have been and are. My e-mail box hasn’t had a single message of feedback, support, or encouragement for this project, since the few I received back in November! Even then, they were very scarce. It has come to the point now where no one seems to give a damn about this project. If they do, they are only greedy hoarders whom only want the finished product. They have no interest in what I do, nor any respect. People have been talking recently about dropped emulators and translations. Should there be any question as to why they were dropped? It’s really quite obvious from my perspective.

Dual Orb 2 is very near completion. Only dialog, and misc. issues remain. The question is… Will it ever get completed? It would definitely be a shame if it didn’t since it is so close to being finished. But, does anyone really care? I almost have enough script now to satisfy myself. I can play the game. I would love to share the joy of this game with others, but I have to wonder. Is it worth it to work and complete it? I have lost a lot of motivation. I feel like my work is in vein. It’s been quite a workload for one person and a translator. I am considering putting this project on indefinite hold. Perhaps to remain there forever. I could definitely use some help finishing this project. E-mail me if you are interested in helping out. I would like to thank the message board crew on my board. Definitely a bunch of cool guys/gals, and I appreciate their support for the project, and the site.

With that I will end my New Years Declaration. What will the new year hold? Maybe nothing….then again with a little change, buds could blossom into flowers… Do2 at 100% could see the light of day, not to mention it’s younger sibling Do1 as seen in the pic above. Am I leaving the scene? Abandoning the project?? No, not yet… but it is a definite possibility.

-Nightcrawler

Well, as you can see the Corporation is finally in Christmas spirits!! This will be the last update of 2001! I really wanted to give you all an x-mas present and release a patch, but things didn’t pan out the way I expected them to, and all those bugs and problems set me back. Not to mention the ‘threats’ from Gideon about christmas releases! : ) I’m sure he will give you all a nice present to hold you over! OK, anyway finally at long last I have hacked 8×16 into the top line of all menus!! Even translated some of them! I think they have been put off forever! But it’s now done (naturally not including the usual bugs to work out). That concludes the last programming hack I will be making for the game. All hacks are completed!!! I even got some more script translated too! Yay Sogabe! :) So things are going great as we approach the new year. Depending on the pace script translating and editing goes, the project could see beta anytime after January. The only thing left to do on this project is minor outstanding issues, bugs, touch up work and script! I have some time off from work and school for the holidays, so we should see some good progress in the next update in the new year! It certainly feels good to be so close to completion! But perhaps I am counting my chickens too soon! Everyone knows how unexpected issues come up and just kill your plans! Well that’s the latest so far. Things are looking great. I hope you all enjoy your Christmas! I know I will! So be safe over the holidays, enjoy the time spent with your loved ones, and look forward to the new year which will include the English release of Dual Orb 2!! Happy Holidays!!! = )

-Nightcrawler

Hello boys and girls, friendly neighborhood Nightcrawler here. It’s been awhile since the last update. That’s mostly because there hasn’t been anything significant going on. On a good note though,the problems mentioned in the previous update have been solved. Everything seems to be working well so far. Lately, I’ve been working on some bugs in the script formatter, as well as some other misc issues. Things have been going along a bit slow lately, but in a positive direction none the less! I’m ready to forge ahead on the dialog, however the translator isn’t! I am waiting on Sogabe right now.(Current translator.) Sometimes that’s like waiting for that winning lottery ticket! : ) So if any translators out there would like to take over translating, contact me! So, looks like there will be a lot of waiting time for now…waiting on translated dialog. In the meantime, I will continue working on misc issues, such as fixing bugs, improving things, and finishing some outstanding issues that weren’t done from the last patch. (like translating after battle text, and that pesky top line on the menu’s.) Most of the major tasks have been completed on this project! I guess we’re moving down the home front now. = ) I leave with a little sample of some of my recent work. (100% working 2bp shadowed VWF font) Comments are appreciated! Thankfully we don’t have to look at that blasted priest on the snowy mountain pic anymore! :)

-Nightcrawler

Greetings to you all! Both good and bad news to report this time around! The good news is, I modified the VWF to fully work with 2bp font, so finally we’re gonna see a font with shadow!(Still no screenshots though). Next, I got right to work on a script formatter for the new VWF. Finished that all up minus the bugs I haven’t discovered yet! : ) Thus ends the good news. Now with all this done, the only thing remaining is finishing the dialog and touch up work(like finishing the last few things on the menu’s and fixing bugs). That would be great… BUT(cue bad news) unfortunately, since I have recompiled a new patch for myself reflecting the new work put all together, some semi-serious problems have arisen. Since Do2’s programming team was on crack when they made the game, it was difficult to get a VWF to work without screen blitter(appearance that the game draws overtop of something that was already there). Some modifications were made to the tilemap (one of the things Byuu helped out with.) to fix this problem, thus making the VWF look beautiful. Problem is, that really f’d up the menu text. It will probably take awhile to find an easy solution to this problem. I may have to completely redo all the menu’s using another method, but I *REALLY* don’t want to do that(painfully tedious). One other problem that cropped up, is that my VWF code doesn’t correctly handle some control codes used by the Japanese text, thus when you reach any untranslated text, the game will crash! So as you can see, I am so close…yet so far. If this issues can be resolved somehow, this project will speed on ahead. I forsee it being extremely tricky to get the VWF and Menu’s to find a happy medium. The game uses interleaved code, so the Menu does not use the VWF code fully, it only jumps in in certain places, one of which is where the tilemap mods we made. Anyway, I plan on having some turkey,cranberry sauce and pumpkin bread on Thursday! That will definitely make me feel better!! Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!

-Nightcrawler

Ya know what? Oreo cookies are definitely better than VWF’s! :-) It’s been awhile since my last update! This was mainly because there was nothing to update!! haha! I’ve been out enjoying life instead of cramped up in this boxed room hacking! However, I got my butt back to work and churned out a VWF!! As you can see from the screenshot below it is working very well! I’d like to clear a few things up regaurding Byuu’s involvement in the VWF, as some of you have seen the screenshots he posted on the message board and his own web page. The VWF you see below is my own work. I did however, ask Byuu for help in locating some VRAM pointers and making an 8×16 system to work differently than the one I currently had, to make coding a VWF possible. He went above and beyond and coded his own VWF routine(roughly 80% complete) for the game. This, I did not ask for. Don’t get me wrong, Byuu was definitely very helpful and my current VWF would not be working as wonderfully, without his help with the new base 8×16 I worked from. I was going to use his routine, but it had a few limitations that I wasn’t willing to except. So rather than try to modify his existing code, I set out to code my own VWF. (My first one at that!) I do give credit where credit is do, so I send out a big thanks to Byuu for the help he did provide! So behold my own baby(in the screenshot below)…my first ever VWF!! I refuse to use the Chicago font that everyone and their mother uses!! I know it’s nice, but it’s too overused!! This font probably will NOT be the final font used as I will add a 2bp font eventually. But it won’t be Chicago! That’s it for now! Don’t forget to eat your Oreo Cookies!!

-Nightcrawler

Well at long last, the public Alpha Patch release is upon us! Read the Readme for all the details!! (Oh and please note that the script has only been roughly edited!!) If you have any questions comments, or concerns regarding the patch, feel free to join the message board! Thats where you’ll most likely find answers. Or if you want to send me words of encouragement you can E-mail me and let me know! Enjoy the Patch! Enjoy the game!

In other news I haven’t done much hacking over the last week or so. Just made some minor changes to the message board patch I gave out. I have started the VWF, but it’s not done yet, and in fact I think I am going to scratch what I have and start over with a different method to do VWF that would probably work better in this game then my current method. But never the less progress continues in a forward direction! Sometimes, even the best of us have to take a break and enjoy other things in life! = ) After all, we do try to live a normal life with girlfriends and social lives when we are not hacking! Anyways, that’s all from the man who blends and moves with the night!

-Nightcrawler