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202 lines
9.1 KiB
202 lines
9.1 KiB
Dragonball Z 3: Killer Androids
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English Patch
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Version 1.00 IPS
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Current Release: Apr. 29, 2007
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Intial Release: Aug. 10, 2006
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by Twilight Translations
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copyright 2006
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--------------------------------------
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1. Introduction
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2. Development
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3. Notes
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4. Patch History
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5. Bugs
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6. Credits
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7. Acknowledgements
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--------------------------------------
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1. Introduction
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--------------------------------------
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Dragonball Z 3: Killer Andriods (known as Hot Battle! The Androids in some circles,
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more on this in a little bit) is the third DBZ RPG released for the Famicom. It was
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released in 1992 by Bandai. DBZ3, as I will refer to it from here on, is a
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continuation of the first two Dragonball Z RPGs for the Famicom:
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Dragonball Z: Assault of the Saiyans and Dragonball Z 2: Lord Freeza's Fury (an
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English patch is available for the former from Twilight Translations, while the
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latter is still in production).
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As far as RPGs go, DBZ3, like its predecessors, is a bit different. Instead of your
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traditional RPGs (read: Dragon Quest clones), your movement and battle options are
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decided entirely upon which of five randomly decided cards you chose. Some may allow
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you to do extra damage in battle, while others may replenish some health. This
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element of randomness associated with the card events adds a small amount of strategy
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to an otherwise straight forward game. It's decidedly not for everyone, but you
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should at least give it a shot.
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One thing that is interesting to note is the ending of the game, which I won't spoil,
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though you probably already know what happens if you're a DBZ fan. During the final
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few strings, "the next episode of Dragonball Z" is mentioned. Whether there were
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plans to make a sequel to this instead of Gaiden: Plan to Eliminate the Saiyans
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(we're working on that one, too) on the Famicom or in place of the Legend of the
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Super Saiyan on the Super Famicom (both of which were made after this game) is
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unknown. If anyone has any information, I would be interested in it. See below for
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contacting me.
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--------------------------------------
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2. Development
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--------------------------------------
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Originally I had only intended to translate Assault of the Saiyans, but the
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prospect of playing as Vegeta was just too titillating to pass on. Actually, I
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don't remember why I started working on this. But the story goes, I dumped the
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scripts and posted an Ad on the now defunct Whirlpool in the summer of 2005 and a
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man - no, a GOD answered: D.D.S.. He DESTROYED those scripts! In a matter of a
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week or two I had all 6 text blocks translated and ready to sit on my harddrive for
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the next year. Reason being, I wanted to take some time to invest in adding some sort
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of compression to the game so D.D.S.'s wonderful work wouldn't have to be cut down
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any. I went off to try adding this to Assault of the Saiyans, since, programming-wise,
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it was a much simpler game.
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Fast forward to about 6 months later and I slowly begin to resume work on DBZ3. Along
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the way, I hit a few snags, and ultimately stopped work around March 2006 due to bugs
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in my code, laziness, and my insertion tools needing an overhaul. I picked up the
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project again in late May when I started work on revamping my compression tools to be
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an all in one insertion tool. That took about a month, add in time to format the
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scripts, and tweak various things and we end up in late July, when Alpha testing began. Big
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thanks go out to snesmaster and mrfreeze for being such diligent testers.
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There were a lot of bugs, too. Most were due to the NES's limited memory, which lead
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to a number of things that I won't go into. For this reason, I'll have to really give
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any future NES projects serious thought before jumping in head first, as I had been up
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until now. Luckily a little "n00b" magic fixed the major problems. By that I mean, I
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wanted to do like I've done in every situation since I learned ASM: hack the rom to
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death. The solution was some meticulous use of a near-forgotten artificat: the squishy
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tile; I bet you can't guess where they're used either.
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Once Alpha testing finished, the bugs and glitches were fixed and the patch entered
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Beta testing. Which brings us to now.
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This has truly been one hell of a project. I've grown as a programmer and more, but
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most importantly, after all was said and done, I enjoyed playing the game once it was
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in English! The music, I think is really what helped though. Vegeta's theme and the
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tune that plays during his and Goku's training sessions mid-game, really kept me going.
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My only complaint is the track starts over when you open and exit a menu. Another thing
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that made this game fun to work on were the people. Everyone who has been in involved
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has been supportive (I bet D.D.S. thought for a long time his work was going to go
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unused) and enthusiastic.
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In the end, I hope the final product is a reflection of the many, many hours the team
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has invested in this project.
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--------------------------------------
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3. Notes
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--------------------------------------
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While I tried my best to avoid it, a few of the ideas I originally wanted to implement
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had to either be scrapped or reworked. But fortunately all of the major things were
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added. One thing you'll notice, though, is the KI window is slightly wider on the right
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side, giving the screen an non-symmetric look. Not much could be done about this without
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introducing a whole slew of bugs. There are a few other windows with this problem, but
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you probably won't notice it as much.
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As for the translation of the technique names, the same goes for this as with the patch
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for Assault of the Saiyans patch: they're translated how they're translated and nobody
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wants to hear about how they're "wrong" from the DBZ/Inu-Yasha (they evolved, heh)
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kiddies based on what some guy posted on his blog right before he coerced three thirteen
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year old little boys to have sex with him. If you don't like them, tough; get a live
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journal so you can whine about it.
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That out of the way, I would like to say something about our decision to translate the
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subtitle as "Killer Andriods" instead of the more popular, and widely known, "Hot Battle!
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The Androids". I personally love the crazy Japanese titles used in the DBZ games and
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movies, but there simply wasn't enough screen space to make it look as good as the
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"Killer Androids" ended up. Props to Elf for doing such a phenomenal job on the title.
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--------------------------------------
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4. Patch History
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--------------------------------------
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-Version 1.00 IPS
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The patch is now available in both NINJA format and the more common IPS format. NINJA
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can apply both or you can use LunarIPS. No changes have been made to the contents of the
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patch.
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-Version 1.00
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Everything is translated and thoroughly tested. That doesn't mean that there aren't
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still bugs lurking around, just that we didn't find them. If you find any read
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below in section 5 for reporting them.
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The patch is in NINJA format, for information on this see the official site at:
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http://ninja.cinnamonpirate.com/
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Over all, I'm extremely happy with this patch, and do not see an update needing to
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be made in the future.
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Please note that the rom only works in FCEU (and its offshoots) and FWNES. Rocknes
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won't play the game, nor will NEStopia. This isn't due to the translation; the original
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unpatched roms will not play either. I suspect there are more than just these two that
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won't play the rom, though. If you're emulator of choice doesn't work, you may consider
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switching to FCEU temporarily.
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--------------------------------------
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5. Bugs
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There are no known bugs. However, if you manage to find one, I would like the
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following sent to me: a screenshot, a save state in FCEU format before the bug occurs,
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a brief description of the bug (even if you think it's obvious), and the circumstances
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under which it occured. Send that to my email at redcomet at rpgclassics dot com with
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Dragonball Z 3 or something similar in the subject line (so I won't trash it with the
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mountain of spam I get every day).
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--------------------------------------
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6. Credits
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--------------------------------------
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Dragonball Z 3: Killer Androids
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Translation Team:
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RedComet - Programmer (me)
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D.D.S. - Translator
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Elf - Graphics
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Testing and QA Team:
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snesmaster
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mrfreeze
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--------------------------------------
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7. Acknowledgements
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--------------------------------------
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In addition to the people listed in the Credits section, a few people deserve a special
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mention, without whom, this project would have gone no where fast and ended up being
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"just another dead DBZ translation":
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* danke - helped me out with a few last minute translations and some odds and ends.
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* Crotanks - my go to guy for all things DBZ. Seriously, this kid needs a hobby. *ahem*
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* MO's Board & the many wonderful translators who frequented it.
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* ROMHacking.net - a great place for getting help, feedback, and spreading news.
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...And all the ones I cannot remember, which, knowing me, is a lot.
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I hope you enjoy this patch. Expect more great (even some non-DBZ!) things from
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Twilight Translations in the future! Until next time, enjoy! |