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Just a few notes on my progress.

The code is full of jump tables, data tables, 3-byte address tables, short routines, and weird stuff.

At this point, expanding the ROM is a trivial proposition. Showing that the expansion worked without problems is somewhat dicier. It may not be nessecary in the end (see below).

There may be enough space lying around (or that will be lying around) in the code area to use some text compression scheme.

I found a couple interpreters in the ROM. One of them controls what character image is displayed when and such, and that is inline with the text stream.

The other interpreter is much tougher going. It probably controls stuff like the scripted char motion and such, but I'm not sure.

I have yet to find the combat system.

I have yet to figure out the charset encoding (not that I've been looking for it very hard).

I could probably write a program to dump the script if I knew the char encoding.

I'm currently taking a break to work on other stuff (like DarcNES), I'll probably pick this up again tomorrow night.

--Nyef

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> Just a few notes on my progress.

> The code is full of jump tables, data tables, 3-byte address tables, short routines, and weird stuff.

Ack, allways in my opinion, when it comes to the insides of the rom, weird stuff is bad stuff ^^ Though it does sound like game arts really put some thought into the programing of the it, allways nice to hear another debunking of the rumor that it's ga's unwanted child, so to speak. Though how people can say that considering the massive amounts of strolling/magic school related merchendice they've made...heck, they had an entire magical school lunar novel written, which from the one review I read, was actually very good, at least to the reviewer.

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> At this point, expanding the ROM is a trivial proposition.

Now THAT is news to make my former bit of gloom melt away. Rebecca is moving very fast in her translation of the script dump, and it's seeming more and more a shame that any of this masterpiece would have to remain unseen. I've been planning a windows based remake with the full text, but it's just not the same as seeing it all in the real thing ^_^ There's just something magical about knowing you're playing on that wonderous system of days gone by...
*sniff ^^

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>Showing that the expansion worked without problems is somewhat dicier.

bad ;{

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>It may not be nessecary in the end (see below).

Good ;)

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> There may be enough space lying around (or that will be lying around) in the code area to use some text compression scheme.

Ohhhh, hate to plagerise myself, but once again, that's some great news!

Quote

> I found a couple interpreters in the ROM.

Ohhhh, interesting!

Quote

>One of them controls what character image is displayed when and such, and that is inline with the text stream.

Ha, neat!

Quote

> The other interpreter is much tougher going. It probably controls stuff like the scripted char motion and such, but I'm not sure.

> I have yet to find the combat system.

Awww, but considering how much you have discovered, I'm still in total awe. I'm just a gophar, wannabie helper on this project, and you can tell how excited I am. I just (finally!) sent this url out to Esperknight, the founder of the project, so I think you're in for even more estatic joy then mine,if that's possible
-_^

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> I have yet to figure out the charset encoding (not that I've been looking for it very hard).

> I could probably write a program to dump the script if I knew the char encoding.

> I'm currently taking a break to work on other stuff (like DarcNES), I'll probably pick this up again tomorrow night.

Wow, again thanks!! I noticed in the last update of DarcNES there was a change in the pallete handling of game gear games, how's the game gear support going in it? I only had linux installed on my computer for about a week before it became necisary to totally wipe my hard drive, so sadly I've not yet had a chance to try anything other than the unofficial dos port, which looks like it's quite behind the official version by this point :) Even more sadly, I can't install linux untill I manage to post all my Japanese pce cd games, I really need a bigger hard drive ^^

Enough of my half assleap babling ;) Just want to thank you again for the help, it really is looking like once and for all the soiled reputation of this great game will finally be cleared to english speakers! More than that, it looks like everyone will finally see this game for the masterpice it is! I definitly rank it as one of the best 8bit rpg's ever made, though of course just my humble opinion ^^

Quote

> > Just a few notes on my progress.

> > The code is full of jump tables, data tables, 3-byte address tables, short routines, and weird stuff.

> Ack, allways in my opinion, when it comes to the insides of the rom, weird stuff is bad stuff ^^

When it comes to disassembling a rom, weird stuff is good stuff (because of the challenge of figuring out what the h*ll it's doing).

Quote

> Though it does sound like game arts really put some thought into the programing of the it, allways nice to hear another debunking of the rumor that it's ga's unwanted child, so to speak.

They might not have. It is quite possible that this is a generic game engine. The gameplay feels somewhat like the later Shining Force games.

Quote

> Though how people can say that considering the massive amounts of strolling/magic school related merchendice they've made...heck, they had an entire magical school lunar novel written, which from the one review I read, was actually very good, at least to the reviewer.

How can they say that? I dunno, maybe they don't like flying redheaded females. :-)

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> > At this point, expanding the ROM is a trivial proposition.

> Now THAT is news to make my former bit of gloom melt away. Rebecca is moving very fast in her translation of the script dump, and it's seeming more and more a shame that any of this masterpiece would have to remain unseen.

I thought you'd like it. I suspect, however, that the final problem will be people fighting over editing the translation ('Iniquity'? WTF?!?).

Quote

> I've been planning a windows based remake with the full text, but it's just not the same as seeing it all in the real thing ^_^

True enough. Besides, a gg rom image is reasonably multi-platform, whereas a windows app won't run on as many systems (that doesn't make sense, does it?).

Quote

> There's just something magical about knowing you're playing on that wonderous system of days gone by...

Even when you are using an 8-meg part? (twice as large as anything I've seen on that system)

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> > There may be enough space lying around (or that will be lying around) in the code area to use some text compression scheme.

> Ohhhh, hate to plagerise myself, but once again, that's some great news!

"I thought you'd like it".

Quote

> > I found a couple interpreters in the ROM.

> Ohhhh, interesting!

> >One of them controls what character image is displayed when and such, and that is inline with the text stream.

> Ha, neat!

Yah. It poses a problem, however, as the compression scheme I have in mind won't work on it.

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> > The other interpreter is much tougher going. It probably controls stuff like the scripted char motion and such, but I'm not sure.

> > I have yet to find the combat system.

> Awww, but considering how much you have discovered, I'm still in total awe. I'm just a gophar, wannabie helper on this project, and you can tell how excited I am.

So I noticed. And it's either "Zophar" or "Gopher". At this rate I may have to insist on final editorial oversight. ;-)

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> I just (finally!) sent this url out to Esperknight, the founder of the project, so I think you're in for even more estatic joy then mine,if that's possible -_^

Uh-oh. :-)

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> > I have yet to figure out the charset encoding (not that I've been looking for it very hard).

> > I could probably write a program to dump the script if I knew the char encoding.

> > I'm currently taking a break to work on other stuff (like DarcNES), I'll probably pick this up again tomorrow night.

> Wow, again thanks!! I noticed in the last update of DarcNES there was a change in the pallete handling of game gear games, how's the game gear support going in it?

Well enough. To run Lunar on it you need to find a line "is_gg = 0;" in sms.c and change the 0 to a 1, however.

There are some graphics glitches with Lunar that don't appear in Meka. If I didn't know any better, I'd say the problem was the CPU core. Unfortunately, finding bugs in that CPU core is almost impossible.

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> I only had linux installed on my computer for about a week before it became necisary to totally wipe my hard drive, so sadly I've not yet had a chance to try anything other than the unofficial dos port, which looks like it's quite behind the official version by this point :)

Yah. Why not install DJGPP and compile your own? With the sound system changes it's dead easy (and you can get it to run Lunar). :-)

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> Even more sadly, I can't install linux untill I manage to post all my Japanese pce cd games, I really need a bigger hard drive ^^

That's funny, all my japanese pce cd games are on cd (legit copies, too).

[self note: 'Fix 6280 cores, get DraculaX running, move pce_cd.c to official distribution, tell Zeograd he can start releasing his source again'].

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> Enough of my half assleap babling ;) Just want to thank you again for the help, it really is looking like once and for all the soiled reputation of this great game will finally be cleared to english speakers!

I wasn't aware that Lunar had a rep before you mentioned it. Shows how out of touch I am. :-)

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> More than that, it looks like everyone will finally see this game for the masterpice it is! I definitly rank it as one of the best 8bit rpg's ever made, though of course just my humble opinion ^^

Indeed. I'm putting it just below PS on my list for playing, and just above for disassembling (the guts of PS aren't nearly as interesting yet, but I haven't found the dungeon code or combat system there yet...).

--Nyef

Whoah! Sounds good so far! I hoep you can pull this off! Also email me at esperknight@hotmail.com if you have any updates or anything :) Also I'd like to thaknk you for all your help! Thanks man!

EsperKnight

Author	Message
Nyef Guest	GG Lunar (for Naflign) Posted: Mon Nov 01, 1999 2:15 am
Nyef Guest	Just a few notes on my progress. The code is full of jump tables, data tables, 3-byte address tables, short routines, and weird stuff. At this point, expanding the ROM is a trivial proposition. Showing that the expansion worked without problems is somewhat dicier. It may not be nessecary in the end (see below). There may be enough space lying around (or that will be lying around) in the code area to use some text compression scheme. I found a couple interpreters in the ROM. One of them controls what character image is displayed when and such, and that is inline with the text stream. The other interpreter is much tougher going. It probably controls stuff like the scripted char motion and such, but I'm not sure. I have yet to find the combat system. I have yet to figure out the charset encoding (not that I've been looking for it very hard). I could probably write a program to dump the script if I knew the char encoding. I'm currently taking a break to work on other stuff (like DarcNES), I'll probably pick this up again tomorrow night. --Nyef

Naflign Guest	Ohhhh, all time best haloween treat! Posted: Mon Nov 01, 1999 9:23 am
Naflign Guest	Quote > Just a few notes on my progress. > The code is full of jump tables, data tables, 3-byte address tables, short routines, and weird stuff. Ack, allways in my opinion, when it comes to the insides of the rom, weird stuff is bad stuff ^^ Though it does sound like game arts really put some thought into the programing of the it, allways nice to hear another debunking of the rumor that it's ga's unwanted child, so to speak. Though how people can say that considering the massive amounts of strolling/magic school related merchendice they've made...heck, they had an entire magical school lunar novel written, which from the one review I read, was actually very good, at least to the reviewer. Quote > At this point, expanding the ROM is a trivial proposition. Now THAT is news to make my former bit of gloom melt away. Rebecca is moving very fast in her translation of the script dump, and it's seeming more and more a shame that any of this masterpiece would have to remain unseen. I've been planning a windows based remake with the full text, but it's just not the same as seeing it all in the real thing ^_^ There's just something magical about knowing you're playing on that wonderous system of days gone by... *sniff ^^ Quote >Showing that the expansion worked without problems is somewhat dicier. bad ;{ Quote >It may not be nessecary in the end (see below). Good ;) Quote > There may be enough space lying around (or that will be lying around) in the code area to use some text compression scheme. Ohhhh, hate to plagerise myself, but once again, that's some great news! Quote > I found a couple interpreters in the ROM. Ohhhh, interesting! Quote >One of them controls what character image is displayed when and such, and that is inline with the text stream. Ha, neat! Quote > The other interpreter is much tougher going. It probably controls stuff like the scripted char motion and such, but I'm not sure. > I have yet to find the combat system. Awww, but considering how much you have discovered, I'm still in total awe. I'm just a gophar, wannabie helper on this project, and you can tell how excited I am. I just (finally!) sent this url out to Esperknight, the founder of the project, so I think you're in for even more estatic joy then mine,if that's possible -_^ Quote > I have yet to figure out the charset encoding (not that I've been looking for it very hard). > I could probably write a program to dump the script if I knew the char encoding. > I'm currently taking a break to work on other stuff (like DarcNES), I'll probably pick this up again tomorrow night. Wow, again thanks!! I noticed in the last update of DarcNES there was a change in the pallete handling of game gear games, how's the game gear support going in it? I only had linux installed on my computer for about a week before it became necisary to totally wipe my hard drive, so sadly I've not yet had a chance to try anything other than the unofficial dos port, which looks like it's quite behind the official version by this point :) Even more sadly, I can't install linux untill I manage to post all my Japanese pce cd games, I really need a bigger hard drive ^^ Enough of my half assleap babling ;) Just want to thank you again for the help, it really is looking like once and for all the soiled reputation of this great game will finally be cleared to english speakers! More than that, it looks like everyone will finally see this game for the masterpice it is! I definitly rank it as one of the best 8bit rpg's ever made, though of course just my humble opinion ^^

Nyef Guest	Re: Ohhhh, all time best haloween treat! Posted: Mon Nov 01, 1999 1:43 pm
Nyef Guest	Quote > > Just a few notes on my progress. > > The code is full of jump tables, data tables, 3-byte address tables, short routines, and weird stuff. > Ack, allways in my opinion, when it comes to the insides of the rom, weird stuff is bad stuff ^^ When it comes to disassembling a rom, weird stuff is good stuff (because of the challenge of figuring out what the h*ll it's doing). Quote > Though it does sound like game arts really put some thought into the programing of the it, allways nice to hear another debunking of the rumor that it's ga's unwanted child, so to speak. They might not have. It is quite possible that this is a generic game engine. The gameplay feels somewhat like the later Shining Force games. Quote > Though how people can say that considering the massive amounts of strolling/magic school related merchendice they've made...heck, they had an entire magical school lunar novel written, which from the one review I read, was actually very good, at least to the reviewer. How can they say that? I dunno, maybe they don't like flying redheaded females. :-) Quote > > At this point, expanding the ROM is a trivial proposition. > Now THAT is news to make my former bit of gloom melt away. Rebecca is moving very fast in her translation of the script dump, and it's seeming more and more a shame that any of this masterpiece would have to remain unseen. I thought you'd like it. I suspect, however, that the final problem will be people fighting over editing the translation ('Iniquity'? WTF?!?). Quote > I've been planning a windows based remake with the full text, but it's just not the same as seeing it all in the real thing ^_^ True enough. Besides, a gg rom image is reasonably multi-platform, whereas a windows app won't run on as many systems (that doesn't make sense, does it?). Quote > There's just something magical about knowing you're playing on that wonderous system of days gone by... Even when you are using an 8-meg part? (twice as large as anything I've seen on that system) Quote > > There may be enough space lying around (or that will be lying around) in the code area to use some text compression scheme. > Ohhhh, hate to plagerise myself, but once again, that's some great news! "I thought you'd like it". Quote > > I found a couple interpreters in the ROM. > Ohhhh, interesting! > >One of them controls what character image is displayed when and such, and that is inline with the text stream. > Ha, neat! Yah. It poses a problem, however, as the compression scheme I have in mind won't work on it. Quote > > The other interpreter is much tougher going. It probably controls stuff like the scripted char motion and such, but I'm not sure. > > I have yet to find the combat system. > Awww, but considering how much you have discovered, I'm still in total awe. I'm just a gophar, wannabie helper on this project, and you can tell how excited I am. So I noticed. And it's either "Zophar" or "Gopher". At this rate I may have to insist on final editorial oversight. ;-) Quote > I just (finally!) sent this url out to Esperknight, the founder of the project, so I think you're in for even more estatic joy then mine,if that's possible -_^ Uh-oh. :-) Quote > > I have yet to figure out the charset encoding (not that I've been looking for it very hard). > > I could probably write a program to dump the script if I knew the char encoding. > > I'm currently taking a break to work on other stuff (like DarcNES), I'll probably pick this up again tomorrow night. > Wow, again thanks!! I noticed in the last update of DarcNES there was a change in the pallete handling of game gear games, how's the game gear support going in it? Well enough. To run Lunar on it you need to find a line "is_gg = 0;" in sms.c and change the 0 to a 1, however. There are some graphics glitches with Lunar that don't appear in Meka. If I didn't know any better, I'd say the problem was the CPU core. Unfortunately, finding bugs in that CPU core is almost impossible. Quote > I only had linux installed on my computer for about a week before it became necisary to totally wipe my hard drive, so sadly I've not yet had a chance to try anything other than the unofficial dos port, which looks like it's quite behind the official version by this point :) Yah. Why not install DJGPP and compile your own? With the sound system changes it's dead easy (and you can get it to run Lunar). :-) Quote > Even more sadly, I can't install linux untill I manage to post all my Japanese pce cd games, I really need a bigger hard drive ^^ That's funny, all my japanese pce cd games are on cd (legit copies, too). [self note: 'Fix 6280 cores, get DraculaX running, move pce_cd.c to official distribution, tell Zeograd he can start releasing his source again']. Quote > Enough of my half assleap babling ;) Just want to thank you again for the help, it really is looking like once and for all the soiled reputation of this great game will finally be cleared to english speakers! I wasn't aware that Lunar had a rep before you mentioned it. Shows how out of touch I am. :-) Quote > More than that, it looks like everyone will finally see this game for the masterpice it is! I definitly rank it as one of the best 8bit rpg's ever made, though of course just my humble opinion ^^ Indeed. I'm putting it just below PS on my list for playing, and just above for disassembling (the guts of PS aren't nearly as interesting yet, but I haven't found the dungeon code or combat system there yet...). --Nyef

EsperKnight Guest	Re: Ohhhh, all time best haloween treat! Posted: Mon Nov 01, 1999 7:54 pm
EsperKnight Guest	Whoah! Sounds good so far! I hoep you can pull this off! Also email me at esperknight@hotmail.com if you have any updates or anything :) Also I'd like to thaknk you for all your help! Thanks man! EsperKnight

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