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259 lines
13 KiB
259 lines
13 KiB
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(insert elite ascii graphic here)
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Ganbare Goemon! 1.01 (22 March 2010)
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Official Readme File!
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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I. Introduction
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II. Project
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IIa. Project Members
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IIb. Tools
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IIc. History
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IId. Known Issues
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III. End-User Information
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IV. Thx
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V. Legal stuff that would never hold up in court
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Introduction
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Hey everybody. This is a project that's been a LONG time coming, and I'm
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pretty damn glad to see it finished, considering the fact that I started it
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about ten and a half years ago. And, you know, this translation really
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couldn't be for a better game: the game that "started it all" and began the
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Goemon series of that Konami had going for a while. It's great fun, though
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confusing without a FAQ of some sort, and is just such a classic Konami game.
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It's got a very very basic River City Ransom fighting style going on, with
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some confusing mazes and hidden secrets in the style of the Goonies II. You
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should probably check it out sometime.
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So here's the story on the translation: back when I was first starting my
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translation news site and patch archive, I had to playtest a LOT of games. I
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tried out the old translation of Ganbare Goemon by Neo Demiforce from back in
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1998, and it was frustrating because the game was fun as hell, but the patch
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was for an old FFE dump of the ROM that no one used anymore and that no
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emulators even played. I WANTED to play it, though, and I was under the
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impression that not much in the game was actually translated, so I decided to
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translate it myself as a fun project.
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After getting Xeur to translate the script, I realized that inserting the
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script was going to be a huge pain, and instead of doing that I decided to
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hand it off to my friend kueller to finish up. His translation was pretty
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functional, but none of the pointers were changed, stuff was taken out, and
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it was generally kind of a slipshod work all told (graphics aside). Fast-
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forward to 2009 and I hear that there's EIGHT endings in all, and only the
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first one is done. I want it to get fixed, but since kueller's long gone and
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I don't want to continue his work without his permission, I just decided to
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do the whole thing from scratch myself. So there you have it.
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Project
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I had hoped to release this on October 15 of last year, which would have been
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the ten-year anniversary of the project (as far as I know), and I would have
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met it if I'd actually worked on it. As such, I got all the graphics and the
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script inserted, and then just kind of forgot about it for a few months.
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Whoops!
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While no doubt not impressive by most ROM hacker standards, this is by far the
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most advanced translation I've ever done. A small assembly hack was added to
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the between-level map screen to display the text horizontally rather than
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vertically, and I had to do some HELL of messing around with the palettes and
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attribute tables to have the title screen looking as good as it does. All of
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that kind of thing is a first for me, so I'm pretty proud of the end result
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over here.
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Members:
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--------
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Spinner 8 (http://donut.parodius.com)
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- text hacking
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Xeur
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- text translation
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Beckey (http://stringtheory.nfshost.com)
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- graphic design
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(While kueller's and Demi's translations were used on occasion as a frame of
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reference, and both my and kueller's projects are based off of the same
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translated script, it should be stressed that all hacking work is entirely my
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own.)
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Tools used:
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-----------
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Microsoft Windows 7 by Microsoft Corp.
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(http://www.microsoft.com)
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FCEUX 2.1.2 by zeromus, adelikat, et al.
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(http://fceux.com)
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Nestopia 1.40 by Martin Freij
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(http://nestopia.sourceforge.net)
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Tile Layer Pro 1.1 by Kent Hansen
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WindHex for Windows 2005.4.20 by Bongo`
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(http://stealth.romhack.net)
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Thingy 0.98 by necrosaro
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Atlas 1.06 by Klarth
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JWPce 1.50 by Glenn Rosenthal
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(http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~grosenth/jwpce.html)
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Lunar IPS 1.01 by FuSoYa
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(http://fusoya.eludevisibility.org)
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Patch history!
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--------------
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Version 1.01 - Corrected translation of the secret message that appears when
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you hold A+B while powering the system. What does it mean? You
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tell me, man.
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Version 1.00 - All text translated, including text that was likely dummied out
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of the final game. All graphics translated, aside from a few
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that were left alone for aesthetics.
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Known Issues
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------------
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- When jumping diagonally it is possible to get stuck in the background at the
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top of the screen. Normally you can jump back to the standard playing field
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and continue as normal, but there are places where you appear to sink into
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water and will die. This was present in the original game.
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- On the passes, the pixels that make up the word "PASS" are transparent,
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which makes the background colors visible behind it. This was also in the
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original game, but the characters were drawn so that it wasn't quite as
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noticeable.
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- The password that you receive after finishing the game was left alone, so it
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remains in Japanese in case you want to write it down and use it. Good luck
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to you, too, since I have no idea what it's used for, and the game has no
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way to input the password in the first place that I can see.
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- Along those lines, there are many graphics and lines of dialogue in the ROM
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that as far as I can tell aren't present in the game itself. They've still
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been translated, but if you run across them they may sound awkward due to a
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lack of context. If you see anything off, send me an email at
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spinner_8@parodius.com and let me know. A save state and an explanation of
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how to duplicate the issue would be incredibly helpful.
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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End-User
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Back in the day this section used to have information about how to patch this
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translation so you can play it, but patching has become easy enough at this
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point that no one really needs the help. So instead, let me write up a little
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mini-guide. You'll be glad you read it!
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Ganbare Goemon is thirteen levels long, and the goal of the first eleven is to
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collect three passes in order to get through the gated checkpoint. There's
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three ways to collect passes: they can be found in the secret passageway, in
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the underground chambers, or if you're lazy enough (and rich enough),
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you can buy them from certain shops. You don't need any passes in the last two
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levels, so don't even bother looking. The game doesn't tell you this either.
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Secret passageways are little 3D mazes that you can explore, and there's one
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per level. You can get a lot of treasure from there, plus they're the only
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place where you can get extra lives. The underground chambers are ALSO a
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secret, and the stairways to enter them can only be found by jumping over
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them. So yeah, you'll be doing a lot of random hopping around everywhere in
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the constant hopes of uncovering these stairways.
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That's basically it, so here's a rundown of most of the items you can get:
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- A slingshot (called "sling" in the pawn shop) will probably be the first
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thing you find. At that point you can put away that big pipe you hit people
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with and shoot at your foes from a distance. For whatever reason, you get
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the sling from those little pawing cat idols that appear from pots and such.
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- You can get shoes which will make you run faster. Very helpful! You can get
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a maximum of three. You get the shoes from some weird octopus mask that just
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looks like a coinpurse to me, if you find it from pots. Keep an eye out!
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- Food is in plentiful supply in the game, and eating dumplings or miso soup
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will instantly refill your health. You can also buy rice balls (which are
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embarrassingly called "food" in the pawn shop) that go into your inventory
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and will automatically restore your health if it ever goes to zero.
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- You can buy straw hats, helmets, and armor to protect yourself from various
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obstacles and projectiles. Like, a helmet will deflect falling rocks, and
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hats deflect those little white things that birds drop on you.
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- In level 2 you'll notice the annoying taxi couriers that run around. If you
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run into one, they'll not only take some of your money, but send you back to
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the beginning of the level. SO annoying! To protect yourself, buy a Charm
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from a shop. It looks like a red price tag with the letter K on it.
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- Herbs are cool, but kind of annoying. They look kind of like a black beer
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can, and they'll instantly restore any health that you lose when you get
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hit, up to five times. Nice, but you can't control when it happens. If you
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have them in your inventory while in a 3D maze, you can press A+B to see a
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map, even if you don't have that maze's map in your possession.
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- Jumping around to find those stupid staircases is annoying as hell, but if
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you buy a candle they'll all be made visible to you for a limited time.
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- Also be on the lookout for scrolls while underground. There's only four in
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the game (including one on the first level!), and they permanently raise
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your maximum health.
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Damn, that was long. Remember back when video games actually NEEDED manuals?
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Thanks!
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This translation is dedicated to ReyVGM, owner of the Video Game Museum at
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www.vgmuseum.com. While playing through the game for his site he noticed that
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only the first of eight endings were translated, and was gracious enough to
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provide me with save states and screenshots for testing. It's safe to say that
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without him, this translation would never have existed.
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Thanks to Beckey, who after months of begging and guilting and yelling and
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punching, came through one hundred percent with her great graphical designs,
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including a completely awesome title screen. I'm still amazed at how well that
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turned out, and I'm proud to have it in my translation.
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Thanks to Xeur, one of my best friends from those heady early days of ROM
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translation. Thanks again for doing the script for me, and whatever you're
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doing, I hope you're awesome while doing it.
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Thanks to Sardius, who did a run-through of the near-final product and gave me
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some useful suggestions, not to mention that he totally managed to break the
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game. If that's not the sign of a good beta tester, I don't know what is.
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Thanks to Procyon, who near-single-handedly wrote the best guide to Ganbare
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Goemon on the internet, at strategywiki.org. I spent WAY less time testing
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this game than I would have without that walkthrough.
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Thanks to tummai and KingMike for some unsolicited help on the Romhacking.net
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forum. I didn't need the information they gave per se, but it saved my newbie
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self a good two hours that would have been spent flailing about and searching
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on my own. How sad!
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Thanks to InVerse, who I bounced ideas off of for a good long while during the
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period when I was considering using the game's subtitle "Karakuri Douchuu" as
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part of the title screen. Literally translated it means "tricky journey", but
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by itself it gives the wrong connotation, as "tricky" in this case means "sly"
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or "clever" like a thief, not "difficult" as the phrase implies. Racking my
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brain for a suitable synonym took weeks, if not months, and eventually I came
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to the unrelated conclusion that the subtitle wasn't really needed anyways.
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Thanks again to oddigy for the webspace. We've known each other HOW many
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years? And we're HOW many hours away from each other? We need to rectify this
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not-having-ever-hung-out situation, and quick!
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Thanks to those who came before, namely Demi and kueller. Apologies in
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particular are long overdue to Demi, whose translation I finally was able to
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play just a few months ago, and it's a hell of a great piece of work that's
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just as complete as Dragoon-X's is, and a LOT better polished. If I had known
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back then how good that translation was, I honestly would've never bothered.
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Legal Made-up Stuff
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Naturally, Ganbare Goemon remains the sole property of Konami, and this
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translation is not and has never intended to infringe on their intellectual
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property. It's being released to the fans, as a way to play the games they
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love with all respect that's due to them. In keeping with this hobbyist
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spirit, feel free to re-distribute this patch (this means YOU Underground
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Gamer! WAVES!), but it is forbidden to distribute this patch along with the
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Ganbare Goemon ROM image, either separately or pre-patched. Anyone doing so,
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does so entirely without my consent, knowledge, or approval. |