Once again I bring you the latest tidbits of news! I have released an alpha patch to those who are on the message board. It’s my way of saying thanks for supporting this project and helping the site grow. The rest of you will just have to wait! :P Progress will slow a bit in the coming weeks, as I will attempt to implement a VWF and a 2 bitplane font. You all know how VWF’s can be. Sometimes they don’t take too long… and sometimes… they’re a real tough challenge. After that I must code a script formatter for the new VWF font and reinsert what’s currently done. So that’s whats on the agenda for the coming weeks. I think the current patch will give you something to munch on until then! I’m not sure when the public release will be… I’m going to give my message board boys and girls a chance to play around with it and give me some feedback before a public release. The screenshots page has been updated with all new screenshots!! The progress page has also been updated! Thats about it! Keep checking back for the latest!

-Nightcrawler

Hello again, everybody’s favorite Nightcrawler here. Here’s the status: I’m pretty much ready for an alpha patch release. However, some last remaining things need to be translated and inserted. The problem is my current translator Sogabe has taken up a new job, and doesn’t have time to do it. So the only thing holding me back now is a translator. Anyone who wants to volunteer E-mail me! For anyone interested, the patch will consist of all menu’s being 90+% done.(some misc. things that don’t appear all the time are untranslated.) As well as all items,magic,monster names,weapons, and armor. And as an added bonus most of the text will be translated up to the first town. So I’m ready to go soon as I get another translator!! Lastly, I updated the progress page again. Nightcrawler out, Transmission terminated.

-Nightcrawler

In the ongoing struggle to make Do2 bow down to me, many accomplishments have been made since my last update. Firstly, the re-compressor is finished. I have re-compressed and 8×8 and 8×16 and jammed them right back in there where they came from!! So that’s outta’ the way. The biggest news however, is I have implemented 2 line items… BUT, it was not just any 2 line item hack. As you can see from the screenshots, you can mix and match both 2 lines of 8×8 with 1 line 8×16 all together! I’ve gotten most of the weapons translated and inserted as well as updated the progress page. Things are looking nice. Good things come to those who wait. The alpha patch I release will be much better now that these things have been accomplished. That alpha patch is almost ready. That’s it for now. So long!

-Nightcrawler

Not much to tell here. It turns out RLE was just the beginning. In fact,I have coded *15* different compression methods in my decompressor! My source code is nearly 10k!! Luckily, a lot of them are simply variations of the other methods. I’ve got all the big hitters like RLE,the LZxx methods.. and about 4 RLE variants. Some custom buffer copy and shifting routines. The list goes on! OK, anyways now that I’m done ranting about that. The good news is. The decompressor is FINISHED! I spent way too many hours on it this week. It’s still not 100% but it decompressed 3 out of 4 fonts perfectly(which is all I need). The compressed font that is stored in VRAM is actually split into multiple little fonts in different locations such as one for English, Katakana, 8×8 etc..I guess now I can start on a REcompressor. Hopefully I can get away with only using 1 or 2 methods for that. Also as far as the items go. They are only 8 characters long, so I’m gonna need to expand them to 2 lines and use an 8×8 font instead of 1 line 8×16. Plenty of crap work for me to do. This game sucks! Stay tuned for the latest! Also the message board has been a little dead lately, so don’t be afraid to post some new topics! :P Adios.

-Nightcrawler

Nightcrawler here once again! I seem to have gotten on a weekly update routine. I think it’s pretty cool being that I didn’t plan it that way! Anyways, some good news to report this week. Things have still been a little slow moving, but they are ready to pick back up again. Thanks to Jay from the J2e message board, The compression algorithm for the compressed font has been cracked. It uses RLE. If only I could of figured that out myself! Anyways, now that I know… I have already started coding a decompressor for it. It’s a little over half done and working nicely! I expect to finish it tomorrow! So the compressed font will not be a problem anymore. I got around to updating the Links page. I added quite a few that I thought deserved to be up there! : ) I also updated the progress page at long last! I put up some much better looking tables than that jumble of text that was there! It’s still not up to date yet, so the percentages are most likely better than what is there! I’ll be updating that hopefully sometime soon. So thats about it. Things are going pretty well.

-Nightcrawler

It’s been awhile since I updated. Firstly, as you can see I have added a new message board for you all to use!! It will hopefully make the site a little more enjoyable for you all. I hope a lot of you use it so my time spent setting it up and installing it were not in vein! : ) It’s a way for you to show appreciation for my work on Do2 as well! As far as Do2, I’ve translated the battle menu (check the screenshots page), and figured out the shop menus. The only thing holding me back from a beta patch release is the Items. I haven’t been able to figure out how they work. They use a compressed font. If the majority of you however don’t care too much about items, then E-mail me and let me know. I can simply release a patch without them! I love getting e-mails(except SPAM!) so don’t hesitate! More site updates are in the works. So sections will be updated. As always keep checking back. I will try to update a bit more than I have been lately!

-Nightcrawler

Well here is the latest. Things will be progressing rather slow over the next week or two due to a few things. One of which is I have been busy working a lot, and busy with college. The other is the fact that my girlfriend is going back to college soon which is about 3 hours away from me, so I will be spending more time with her before she goes. As far as the translation, I am going to delay a patch release for a little bit, as I have neglected some things that you will probably need to play the game. I never translated the battle menu yet! haha I have been concentrating so much on the dialog, I haven’t done much in other parts of the game. I would like to at least translate the battle commands and possibly some after battle text. As well as possibly some items before a patch release. Technically, you wouldn’t think it would take long for battle commands and battle text. However, Dual Orb 2 is the game from hell, and no text routine is coded the same, so it may present a challenge. Keep checking back though because I still have lots of things I am in the process of doing as far as the translation and the web site. I will keep you all posted. Have a nice day! : )

-Nightcrawler

Hey! Good news to report on this update. Firstly, I have finished the move to http://transcorp.parodius.com!! As you probably already know I have obliterated that pesky annoying 64 character limit!! YAY!!! I rewrote the 8×16 implementation myself and then cracked the limit. So the font routine is now mine to control!! There are a few minor bugs to be worked out with it, then I can hopefully move ahead and get some things done. Many good things lay in the near future! I will be updating a lot of the web site as most sections have not been updated recently. Also, we are getting nearer to a small beta patch release so you can try things out, however every time I say that more annoying pesky obstacles come up. So do stay tuned!! More updates to come! Oh, one last thing. I put up a link to the FAQ at the botton of the page.

-Nightcrawler

Hey! I have been pretty busy lately and haven’t had much time to work. Firstly, we will be moving to Parodius!A big thanks to to Koitsu and Neil_ for that! I am still in the midst of trying to rewrite the font routine. I’ve decided to shelve variable width for now, and concentrate on overcoming the 64 character limit. After that is complete, then I can work on variable width at anytime. The 64 character limit is definitely the problem that requires my attention the most. Since I have been mostly a one man team. The rest of the project is paused awaiting me to sort out the font routine. Keep checking back for the latest!

-Nightcrawler

I’m looking for a new host for this page… I’ve already been bothered by Earthlink for bandwidth. Kinda sad since I don’t have many visitors. So if anyone wants to host the page, E-mail me! Also if you guys would would put up a link to my page it would be appreciated. I’d like for more than 10 people to read my updates! haha. As you can see from the screenshots below progress is going well! Since the update below (July 28th) I have found that I can only have 64 characters total in the text box which is only 3 dialog lines. I already have a solution I am working on. I am working on variable font as well. Soon as those two things are complete. A patch will be released with the the intro translated, a small bit of the game, as well as the menus. I should be able to pick up the pace at that point with most of the hard obstacles overcome! Keep checking back for updates! I update a lot!

-Nightcrawler