Progress ~ Ancient Magic finally reaches beta
Ancient Magic
# Posted on Aug. 24, 2010, 2:43 p.m. by Gideon Zhi

Ugh, this game's programming is one horrible spaghetti mess! But it's finally in playtesting, which means that the end is in sight. Have a copy of the new title screen, and of one of the tougher issues (fade-in sprite text stored nine times in the rom! Ugh.)

Miscellaneous ~ And now for something completely different.
# Posted on May 22, 2010, 1:16 p.m. by Gideon Zhi

I was browsing YouTube a month or so ago for silly House of the Dead 2 stuff when I came across a band named after the game's infamous "Suffer, like G did" line. The recordings were shaky cams of live performances and weren't of very good quality, but the band has since released a three-track EP which you can download on their website. I've been taken completely aback by their stuff, as it's actually really good! Very jazzy. So yeah, this is a plug. Grab the EP (it's free) and if you like them, then spread the word.

Progress ~ Ancient Magic: Script Fully Inserted
Ancient Magic
# Posted on May 1, 2010, 8:35 a.m. by Gideon Zhi

A few days ago I finally managed to get Ancient Magic's auto-format routine working nearly 100%. What this means, in effect, is that I add a single control code at the start of a string, and the game itself adds line breaks where appropriate. This is complicated by Ancient Magic's text system for two reasons. First, there is no standard "line break" command like most games have; instead, the game has a "print cursor position" command, which takes X and Y parameter bytes. Second, the routine likes to recursively call itself, most notably to differentiate between the speech patterns of the male and female main characters. These have been fully retained in the text translation, and the routine is currently navigating said recursive jumps with about 98% accuracy. Of course we need 100%, but it's really cool to see nonetheless.

The *nice* thing about the super annoying Cursor Position command is that it lets me tweak menus like crazy, and take advantage of the double-spacing that ten-ten marks usually occupy. I've also managed to add max hp and max mp indicators to the battle window, which the original game did not have!

I don't know how much longer this will take, but I'd like to have it being playtested in a week or two. No guarantees on that, of course.

Major Release ~ Tactics Ogre, For Real This Time
Tactics Ogre ~ Let Us Cling Together
# Posted on April 7, 2010, 7:16 p.m. by Gideon Zhi

Yes, the actual English version is available now. Enjoy!

Miscellaneous ~ Pop! Goes The Weasel
Tactics Ogre ~ Let Us Cling Together
# Posted on April 1, 2010, 6:45 p.m. by Gideon Zhi

Well, as I'm sure most people have realized by now, the Tactics Ogre patch translates the game into Al Bhed and not English. Happy April Fool's Day, everyone! Consider this my way of getting back at all the are-we-there-yet whiners I've had to deal with over the years. If I truly intended to delay the patch two weeks for every person who asked when it'd be done, well, you'd probably be getting it on Christmas instead.

What's no joke, however, is the very real amount work that went into this. The actual translation patch - which will be coming in a few days, don't worry - will be nearly identical to the one available now. The Al Bhed version contains the full English text, sort of - I just used a different table file to insert it into the rom. In fact, if I didn't have to get up for my crazy weekend work schedule in the morning, I'd probably get things ready to go right now! But them's the breaks, and a few more days won't kill you. And for those of you who are curious, yes, the Al Bhed version of the patch will be moved to the Tactics Ogre page's "Extras" subsection, where it will be preserved for all who care to try it.

See you in a few days!

Major Release ~ Tactics Ogre, available now (in Al Bhed!)
Tactics Ogre ~ Let Us Cling Together
# Posted on March 31, 2010, 8:31 p.m. by Gideon Zhi

Frankly, I'm sick to death of looking at this thing. There are still a few minor cosmetic issues, all detailed in the readme, but they shouldn't really alter your enjoyment of the game on the whole.

You're welcome.

Progress ~ Tactics Ogre enters playtesting.
Tactics Ogre ~ Let Us Cling Together
# Posted on March 26, 2010, 5:25 p.m. by Gideon Zhi

Yeah, that's right! There are still two or three small things that need fixing, but things are pretty tight as it is. My testers are loaded with cheats and will hopefully run it pretty quickly. We're hoping for a speedy test phase, followed by a release!

Progress ~ Tactics Ogre much closer
Tactics Ogre ~ Let Us Cling Together
# Posted on March 6, 2010, 10:24 a.m. by Gideon Zhi

Attached below are screenshots of stuff I've fixed over the last couple of days. First one shows the finalized L-view character list, while the second shows an expanded S-view character portrait window and hacked "Start: Parameter" graphic. Expanding that window was a right pain in the arse, let me tell you - and it still doesn't function 100% correctly when the screen scrolls up or down. I've since fixed some major crashes, some nasty non-crash glitches, and a lot of really bizarre stuff, including stuff that worked breaking inexplicably later on down the line.

All that said, it's look a *lot* nicer, and aside from the introduction to politics if you let the game sit at the title screen twice, you can play up to the world map without encountering any Japanese or glitches. The Warren Report menus still need rather a lot of work, the dates still display in Japanese on the map, I haven't really tested much of the intermission stuff and the aforementioned political introduction is still broken (it's only displaying one line of four) but otherwise I think I've fixed most of the biggest issues. It's certainly a lot more stable than it used to be!

Progress ~ Alpha Has an Editor
Super Robot Wars Alpha
# Posted on Feb. 22, 2010, 5:56 p.m. by Gideon Zhi

Please welcome Antialias, recruited in desperation from the depths of /m on 4chan, to the SRW Alpha project. When he passed me these images two weeks ago he'd edited up through the route merge at scenario 6 (of 57.) So I've uploaded a bunch of the stuff he sent me to showcase his work! The two snaps below are now in the game's gallery, along with nine more new snaps. Enjoy!

Progress ~ Tactics, Making Progress
Tactics Ogre ~ Let Us Cling Together
# Posted on Feb. 22, 2010, 5:35 p.m. by Gideon Zhi

In the last 24 hours or so, I've fixed a couple of major issues. One of them was hopefully the last of the hiccups resulting from the conversion of the text routine into something that'll accept a different format of text. Another was a crash surrounding the default name for your squad. This means you can actually play past the third map now without the game blowing up in your face.

There are still a lot of issues, though. One of the tutorials has a bad button press in its script, which is causing it to go out of sync and lock up. A lot of the interfaces need to be tweaked, windows moved and expanded, and every once in a while there'll be a *really* horrible glitch with some of the graphics, though I have a feeling this is a result of a hook misfire with some of the code I've added to the game. I'll have to double check.

Getting much closer, though.