Messages

1

News/Info / Re: Happy Console Gamer marks the 25th Anniversary of Ys (Parts 1&2)

« on: Aug. 06, 2012, 01:47:55 PM »

I really enjoyed watching his videos and hearing recollection of his original experiences with Ys. For me it was very similar, but maybe not on a technological standpoint since I didn't get a chance to play most of the series until just before Ys VI was coming out in Japan. A friend introduced me to the series and every Ys experience since then has been pure gaming magic. : )

-Thomas

2

Ys I & II Complete / Re: Ys I & II Chronicles for PC

« on: May. 05, 2010, 11:40:04 PM »

Well, limited improvements aside, I was wondering if it might be a feasible project in the future to have this version of Ys I & II be translated since this is technically the most complete package of Ys I & II to date, especially considering that it has all of the previous content/graphics and music with a few added bonus features this time around. I for one would love to have a patch for this at some point. I've already placed and order for this and Zwei II+ with Falcom's weekly sale, though I wonder if it will get processed in time since it was Golden Week in Japan when I placed the order originally...: 0

The PSP version of Chronicles has the best overall soundtrack of the music of Ys I & II in my opinion as well. It is really fantastic throughout!

-Thomas

3

Ys I & II Complete / Re: Ys COMPLETE Bonus Items and Events

« on: May. 01, 2009, 07:59:47 AM »

After reading TDOMMX's points in Ys DS, I would have to agree that there is indeed way too many map transitions. And some of them are put in places that lead to complete and utter dead ends. Perhaps it is just where they draw the county line on the map, but it does get annoying sometimes especially in the Ice Ridge of Noltia and Lamia village when you have to wait for the screen to load the next map only to find that the only new discovery is that you're now at a dead end. Then you have load the previous map again, just to continue back to what you were doing before.

I don't know, general rule of thumb I guess. If you have to make a player wait twice within 10 seconds of gameplay, you are doing something wrong as a game designer. The worst candidate of this I've ever seen is in Sonic the Hedgehog for the Xbox 360. Anyone who has ever played that will know exactly what I'm talking about.

-Thomas

4

General / Re: Odin Sphere for Playstation 2

« on: Apr. 15, 2009, 10:36:19 AM »

Odin Sphere is incredible. It's seriously one of the best Action-Rpgs to come out in years. The visuals, the characters, dialogue, the music, it is all fantastic and poetically orchestrated to give the player the ultimate fantasy/storybook telling experience.

The only downside to it is quite repetitive in that even though many of the characters you play as have different control schemes, you are constantly revisiting the same areas and fighting the same enemies over and over again. This makes the game much more tedious than it needs to be and also quite long. I've put in around 40 hours so far and currently I'm mid-way through the 5th unlockable character's storyline. And even still, after looking at the Scenario Timeline, it looks like that character is not the final chapter in the least. Apparently there's quite a bit more in the game that I can unlock after completing the 5th character's story.

Still, even though it is repetitive, the game is good enough to make me want to eventually finish it. It's that good. And you definitely owe it to yourself to at least play through Gwendolyn's story (the first character). The game can also be found for practically nothing now.

I'm very happy because I was able to pick up a small artbook for Odin Sphere at a used game shop in Japan that apparently was released with the limited edition version of the game in Japan. It definitely has some of the prettiest looking water color character designs I've ever seen, ever... : )

Edit: And it's Justus for Great Justice! It's been awhile! Good to see you around again.

-Thomas

5

Ys I & II Complete / Re: Ys COMPLETE Bonus Items and Events

« on: Apr. 03, 2009, 11:17:56 PM »

That's a great site! I never knew that there were that many extras and hidden easter eggs in the first two Ys games. Makes me wonder if other games in the series have a few hidden ones as well!

And yes, the DS version of Ys I & II took a lot of hidden easter eggs out, but some are still there such as the ability to kill all of the monsters in the basement in Lance village, collecting an extra chest of gold after fighting Velagunder in a hidden room, and the ability to give/feed items to certain NPCs such as Lilia and Tarf.

-Thomas

6

News/Info / Re: Ys Month @ "Dwelling of Duels"

« on: Mar. 29, 2009, 08:16:59 PM »

I've been waiting for this Ys Dwelling of Duels to start. Glad to see that it's finally arrived! And now I go check out many new Ys remixes! : )

-Thomas

7

General / Re: Ys Utopia !

« on: Mar. 27, 2009, 10:51:40 AM »

Sorry it's taken me a bit to make a first post since you've reopened the doors. I've been very busy trying to work on a personal business related website and a fan gaming project for Xanadu to possibly get into some kind of game industry related internship over the summer. I've got this weekend to build everything to make it all happen and so far I'm not off to the best start! : )

Other than that, I've been in a Falcom game collecting mood lately and I've been considering starting up a new website project that deals with action-adventure rpgs and has extensive sections on a few titles such as Ys, Xak (Already got that part mostly done from XyZ), Golvellius, Crystalis and the entire line of Xanadu/Faxanadu games, filled with all kinds of content treasures the likes of which not even hardcore Japanese Xanadu sites have seen! : )

Anyhow, it's great to see your place back online and I'll hopefully get a chance to be more active as soon as I can manage to dig up some free time! Also, I think the banner/logo looks very nice. I can always take a crack at designing a big one for the main Ys Utopia index page one of these days if you feel like you can use it.

 -Thomas

8

General / Re: What are YOU watching on youtube at the moment?

« on: Sep. 13, 2007, 11:36:37 AM »

Well I finished the first part of this at least. lol

The Xak Series Retrospective - Part I - Intro-SkyeWelse

9

General / Re: Snatcher Pc Engine Scd Translation

« on: Aug. 02, 2007, 06:59:30 PM »

Well I'm going to try and see if I can at least get a webpage concept started for the idea. Turbofan offered to help me find some information that might help get the process started, so that's good to know since I'm probably the last person to even know where to start when trying to put together a PC-Engine related site. Even though I love the system and I love many of the games on the system, I really don't know all that much about it, so putting something like this together would be a learning process.

But graphics I can do and a general layout I can do. I just need to find some time to brainstorm it some and bring it all together.

First there needs to be a name for the site and right now I'm thinking that to make it apparent as to what the site's main focus would be about, something along the lines of: Turbo Grafx/PC-Engine-Scene or at least something that had both names of the system Japanese and English. The reason for that being that I've discovered that many of my friends who once enjoyed playing Turbo Grafx games have absolutely no idea what I'm referring to when I mention the PC-Engine. The site itself can explain briefly about the system and what the intentions of the site would focus on as well as a generous link to the wikipedia article on the system. From there I can start adding some sections and content slowly. This could work... maybe...

Any other suggestions of names for the site?

-SkyeWelse

10

General / Re: Snatcher Pc Engine Scd Translation

« on: Jul. 26, 2007, 06:44:32 PM »

Well, I'm not sure exactly how beautiful I can make the website if I tried to do it, but if it came down to it, I'd probably at least give it a go if no one else out there was interested in designing it. Thing is, I've pretty much already got my work cut out for me with the one website I'm working on called XyZ and I'm finding that with my higher level college classes that I've had less and less time to work on it. But we'll see. I've got about two weeks off until my next set of classes begin. Maybe I can at least brainstorm some ideas and designs. I do have server space to at least get something like that off the ground, but maintained and constantly updated... that's a another story entirely.

Thanks for sharing some of those links by the way. I'd like to look into some of those in further detail when I can grab an opportunity.

-SkyeWelse

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General / Re: Snatcher Pc Engine Scd Translation

« on: Jul. 25, 2007, 08:45:06 PM »

All the more reason to have a site that encompasses all of that information, which games have been worked on in the past, which projects have been completed, et cetera. I wouldn't mind knowing the full list of completed projects simply out of curiosity. I think part of what keeps the scene from getting off the ground again since the days of Rigg (which sadly I was not around at the time to be active in) is that the information of PC-Engine games, projects and overall interest are too far spread out and spread too thin. Having a site that ties most or all of that information together would give people who are interested in starting, continuing or even just reading about said projects a good resource to use and a wealth of information at their disposal. I hope that this idea sparks some interest because I'd be really psyched to help out with it... but unfortunately I don't think I have time enough as it is now to head the development of such a site/community.

However I would always be interested in assisting or working with someone who is also interested in putting something like that together, and I do have vbulletin forum space (even if it is an older version) that is open for projects such as this over at MiraiGamer.net forums. The entire idea of that MG forums is so that interesting gaming projects can get started off the ground and most of the forums that are there now act pretty independently of each other as individual communities anyway.

Just food for thought with a dash of random babbling to myself...

-SkyeWelse

12

General / Re: Snatcher Pc Engine Scd Translation

« on: Jul. 25, 2007, 02:04:04 PM »

Anyway, I wish I could jump start the PCE CD translation scene. Everything seems to be focused on SNES at the moment (as it has been in the past) :/

That's true. SNES pretty much takes the cake as far as rom translations go. Matter of fact, other than Plight of the Fan Translator, Frozen Utopia and the site for the Snatcher PCE project, I've not seen any others save for some occasional discussion on the Magic Engine forums. Jump-starting the PCE CD translation scene would be a fun challenge though. Perhaps what is needed is a site with a generalized name like... "The PC-Engine Translation Scene" heh, that has a community or message board like the Pantheon over at AGTP Translations that links all of the known PCE projects together and keeps it active. I think the problem is that since there are not a great deal of people who know how to hack PC-Engine games, perhaps there is less interest in working on PCE projects. If a site came together to showcase current dev projects, possible or "preferred" projects to be worked on in the future, (with screenshots) tools and guides for how to really get in there and start learning how the process is done, more interest is almost certain to come about.

I'd certainly be interested in helping set something like that up and I'm sure others here would gladly do the same. Besides if the information on how to learn how to romhack and translate PC-Engine games was set up in a resource guide format, I'd certainly want to take on a PC-Engine translation project of my own one of these days. If anything I'd certainly give it a try if it meant that there was a chance to one day see a translated version of Xak I & II for PCE.

Anyhow I think it could be done and if you all decide to give something like that a try I'll definitely sign up for a piece of that action.

-SkyeWelse

13

General / Re: Slap Fight!!!

« on: Jul. 24, 2007, 06:24:53 PM »

Very amusing. Thanks for pointing that little gem out. : )

-SkyeWelse

14

General / Re: Snatcher Pc Engine Scd Translation

« on: Jul. 24, 2007, 06:10:42 PM »

Wow, cool project. I'm excited to try it out when the patch is ready, though I still need to finish Snatcher for Sega CD sometime. College classes end in another week or so, so maybe I can find some game time in the two weeks of what is left of Summer vacation.

Malducci, you mentioned that you were finishing up a "translated version" of Downtown Nekketsu? Or did I mistake what you said with something I'm just assuming... That is the PC-Engine version of River City Ransom isn't it? That would be all kinds of badass mixed with a dash of nostalgia. Do you all have a project website that I could refer to sometime?

Sorry for all the questions and good luck with your projects.

-SkyeWelse

15

General / Re: Lucky 7s: [Wedding] Date of 7/7/07

« on: Jul. 10, 2007, 04:51:57 PM »

Indeed, congratulations Psycho DeuceBag!

Actually, I'm in the process of saving up enough for a engagement ring, so I'm probably not too far behind in as far as marriages go. Maybe a year from now.

-SkyeWelse

16

Ys I & II Complete / Re: My gift to the Ys community

« on: May. 24, 2007, 07:47:25 PM »

Wow! This sounds like a very interesting project you took on there. I'm going to try it out later this weekend if I can. College life has been pretty busy so I haven't had much time for games. : ( Thanks for doing this and I hope you won't mind if I link to it someday when and if I can ever find enough time to develop the Ys content of my XyZ site that I've been plugging away at.

-Thomas

17

Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim / Re: Ys VI The Ark of Napishtim - Possible Way to Continue Project?

« on: May. 21, 2007, 10:42:41 PM »

"If" you should ever decide to continue it in any form and you're in need of additional help be it testing, graphics or basically anything to make the task less annoying or cumbersome I'll be glad to lend a hand. It would be well worth it. : )

-SkyeWelse

18

General / Re: Spiderman 3

« on: May. 14, 2007, 08:35:20 AM »

Some people really like it and some people feel it was a bit over the top with making the movie seem a bit more like "Peter Parker 3" rather than Spiderman 3. In a way I think that there might not have been just the right kind of balance between everything, but I feel that Sam Raimi did a good enough job considering all of the different plot devices and characters he had to cover in the movie. Point being, it sure as shit did a hell of a lot better job with organizing it so that the plot flows than how they did it with X-Men 3.

I liked it quite a bit, but I really didn't like how they did Venom nor the actor they got to play Eddie Brock. Granted Venom was a villian before he was ever a hero, but it would have been nice if they had tried to spend a little more time fleshing out his character. (i.e. more than 5 minutes.) I think they did a wonderful job with the Sandman though.

-SkyeWelse

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Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim / Re: Ys VI The Ark of Napishtim - Possible Way to Continue Project?

« on: May. 04, 2007, 07:50:54 AM »

No problem. It was just on my mind so I thought I'd mention it. This process would certaintly take a lot of effort in making sure the distribution of the patch worked as intended. The idea may not even be foolproof, so this is all just for you to brainstorm on if and when you should ever feel like getting back into that project.

-SkyeWelse

20

General / Re: Ys Strategy on Nintendo DS

« on: Apr. 28, 2007, 08:16:48 AM »

I was under the impression that the game took place before Ys I and Abel was someone completely different from Adol. Though I've yet to finish the game.

But yeah, I would agree that it isn't a whole lot of fun to play and it is pretty fugly for DS game when DS games are usually of a higher graphical calibur. I suppose the drawn artwork is decent, but the game's overall graphics are pretty horrendous.

The only redeeming part about it is that if you enjoy Game geography like I do, then you'll get a chance to learn about additional places within the Ys world. But then, I'm a map guy so maybe that only fascinates me...

-SkyeWelse

21

Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim / Ys VI The Ark of Napishtim - Possible Way to Continue Project?

« on: Apr. 27, 2007, 03:35:25 PM »

Feel free to tell me that I'm a fool and that this will never work if you like, but I've been thinkiing alot about this lately and about what has previously been discussed about why it would not be a good idea to release a fan translation patch for the Japanese PC Ys VI.

One day it hit me when recalling that discussion that Konami has purchased the localization rights to release Ys VI in English form in the United States. So, by all accounts, offering another translation or means of playing the game in English as an alternative to buying Konami's version would be a possible conflict with Konami's interests in selling this game to the U.S. gaming populous. However, if a player purchased the U.S. version of Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim for PS2, then they have the right to play Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim in English. However, they would not have the rights to play the Japanese PC version of Ys VI, unless they owned it, then of course they too would have the legal right to play the Japanese version of Ys VI for PC.

So... all confusion aside, here's my method of thought. If one owns the right to play the Japanese version of Ys VI for PC and owns the right to play Ys VI in English, then they would own the legal right to play Ys VI for PC in English. If A + B then ABys.

So what it would come down to is that if your Ys VI project were to one day continue and be completed, you could more than likely release this patch under strict guidelines to those who legally own both games. In that respect there would have to be a way of confirming that said player does in fact own both games and once they can confirm that they do, (If serial information doesn't work, perhaps a photo of the individual holding both games in their hands side-by-side) they could perhaps get a patch that is good for only a one time use of patching before it self-destructs... that is to say if that there is such a capability of a file. If there were such a self-destructive capability and verification check program associated with an Ys VI patch, then there wouldn't really be a way for the file to get leaked around making it only available to those who really do in fact own the legal rights to even play the patch.

If this process generates more sales for Konami's PS2 English version of Ys VI rather than act as a deterrent for purchasing their version, then I'd highly doubt they'd have a problem with it since they've already made the sale and are not in fact getting an alternative to purchasing their English version of the game. Everybody wins in that respect, the developer, the publisher and the consumer and you since you could now have the means of offering this patch as an "optional alternate English translation patch" to donators and not as a "You don't have to buy the Konami version of Ys VI patch".

Anyway, I wanted to post this now and see what you thought. It's just an idea afterall, especially when you all have already spent so much time developing part of the translation patch and there still is a high demand to play a significantly improved translated version of Ys VI.

-SkyeWelse

22

General / Re: Ys Characters for M.U.G.E.N.

« on: Apr. 27, 2007, 03:18:19 PM »

Good luck with that project. Actually, I came across a Japanese Xak series (similar to Ys)  fansite] that showcased some previous Grapple project work of a Xak series/fan characters fighting game. Not sure if this will help, but they have many of the frames available to give you an idea of some poses and animations to try. They even have a playable demo where you can play as two versions of Latok Kart and one version of Pumpkin Head from Xak III. A shame because I've been trying to contact this individual who made this site/project for quite some time, but I believe the entire project and site is now completely abandoned. I was hoping to possibly one day see a fighting game where you can play as Adol, Latok and Link. That would be a dream! : )

But hey, listen if there is anything I can do to help with this project, such as sprite editing and or graphics of some kind, I'll be happy to lend assistance when I have the time. Right now college is taking most of my free time as well it should I suppose.

-SkyeWelse

Edit: Oh and you do know that if you make Dogi character, he's got to have a "Ball Crusher" move. : )

23

Ys: The Oath In Felghana / Re: Calling Nightwolve, I would like to hopefully clear up a mistake.

« on: Mar. 14, 2007, 09:14:27 AM »

"So yeah, all patches available here lack a legal blessing in the form of a license. I could be sent a cease and desist order at any time, which has happened to other groups in the past despite the fact that they were giving out their unlicensed patches freely. "Free" didn't make it any more or less legal... There is no legal to be found here."

This much is definitely true of several companies as I too have seen several cease and desist orders given to various fan projects, probably the most notable one being that of Akumajou Dracula X Rondo no Chi (Castlevania: Rondo of Blood). Then there was Ocarina of Time 2D, Chrono Ressurection, and even our own fangame project (which probably would have gotten the axe before completion) of a Suikoden fangame. It happens all the time and especially to groups taking the liberties of releasing content deemed unsuitable for non-license holders to produce. And by that you, Nightwolve are hereby GUILTY!

However...

There are some small, but very significant differences from other 'illegal projects' in your approach to produce these English patches.

A) You are doing them so that the Ys series gains a bigger fanbase outside of Japan i.e. through marketing, and you do so by promoting international sales for Falcom. And on that note, we've heard many testimonials from other members such as Justus who has mentioned on occasion how they alone have spread Ys interest in their area and have ordered several copies of many of the Ys games directly from Falcom. If 10,000 people download your patches, there is a rough estimate that at least 20% (500 people) of them or more are in fact not pirates. At anywhere from $40 to $60 to even $80 a game (Let's say $50 for the minimum that someone spends), Falcom expects to make an additional $25,000 in international sales at least provided that the statistics are correct that at least 500 people interested in your patches buy from Falcom and are not Warezerererslol111.

B) Falcom has no U.S. Branch and may also possibly never have a U.S. Branch. So any sales that Falcom gets from international sales I would assume Falcom would appreciate, since without projects such as this they would not be getting this extra attention.

C) You respect other license holders such as Konami who own the rights to release Ys VI here in the United States and PAL territories. You do not foolishly say, "Well screw their sales, I can make a better translated version" and you leave their version as the only one available in English in which consumers can get a hold of.

So, yeah, basically you are in fact doing an 'illegal' operation, meaning you do not have Falcom's direct permission to do what you are doing. But you also are providing an advertising model that is both effective and successful in accomplishing international sales that equal extra money into the pockets of the Nihon Falcom Corporation. Also your current and future plans for your model of developing these patches as you have stated is to provide a service for Ys fans provided they have an original copy of the game. I can really appreciate this fact that you are trying to make it extremely hard for pirates to use your patches as this shows once again your commitment to Falcom's international sales.

I would wager that Falcom knows of your existence in some form or another and it is possible that at first they may have wanted to shut the operation down in the beginning. But I'm also betting that over time they've noticed how many international hits they get coming directly from your website and how many international sales they are recieving due to your operation.

Personally it would surprise me if you recieved a cease and desist letter from Falcom since it wouldn't make sense for them finanically unless they had plans to build an operation of their own in the United States which could and hopefully will happen one of these days.... but doubtful.

If you did recieve a letter to stop this site and what you are doing, I'd argue the fact that you are doing this to promote international sales for Falcom and give them a estimated figure as to how much extra money they are indeed making off your patches without having to give you any course of commision. Even if you decided to quit it all based on fear of lawsuit, I myself and  others would surely argue your case for you directly to the corporation and perhaps through that end a legal compromise could somehow get underway for this operation to continue in some form or another from that point on.

So yeah, I don't know. I've always kind of though of this whole thing you're doing as something heroic in that you are not making these patches to be used with illegal roms or copies of the games while spreading the 'Ys Love' to rest of the English speaking populous. Your whole talk above kinda puts a negative spin on what you are doing as something illegal and unjust and something that you shouldn't be doing that you perhaps feel a bit guilty for doing... But I hope this outlook shows that you are in fact doing quite the opposite and you feel good about yourself, what you are doing, your methods of your work regarding these patches. : ) I personally think that Falcom should one day send you an a big fat ありがとうございました for all of your hard work.

I'm personally trying to promote sales for the Xak series and it's developer Microcabin in my own way and through my own means of advertising the series. Recently I've been very excited to hear that many of the Xak series titles have been picked up for English release and now I can finally advertise the heck out of it so that Microcabin too profits from international interest in their series. I just hope I can be at least 1/4, no 1/8 as successful as your site has been in promoting sales of the Ys games for Falcom. When I start on the Ys content of XyZ, I also want to try and promote international sales for Falcom as well when that time arises.

Anyway, don't feel bad about what you are doing. You're doing the right thing. : )

-SkyeWelse

24

General / Re: Ys Online

« on: Mar. 05, 2007, 01:49:36 PM »

Gamemusicfreak beat me to the punch but you can also see it here at here.

I saw it for the first time today and it doesn't look quite that bad actually in terms of graphics and the fact that it is an MMORPG. Though it is doubtful that we'll be seeing this game playable in English form anytime soon if ever. This is a shame since I would certainly play it if I could access it easily from North American servers.

-SkyeWelse

25

General / Re: Visual Novel Translations~

« on: Mar. 03, 2007, 07:56:43 AM »

The only visual novel-esque games I've played are Radical Dreamers, Phoenix Wright, Another Mind, Genso Suikogaiden vol. 1&2, and Super Adventure Rockman. I do really like the genre from what I've played but there is so much text to translate that it makes it quite difficult to warrant it to be published outside of Japan since most of America doesn't seem "ready" for it quite yet. However, I think especially with the DS there are several Visual Novel-esque titles coming out, Hotel Dusk for one which is a very interesting game so far.

-SkyeWelse

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General / Re: Happy Birthday Deuce and omgfloofy!

« on: Mar. 02, 2007, 04:50:52 PM »

Happy Birthday indeed. I had no idea Psycho DeuceBag was 33.  : )

I guess I fall into the category of a higher age group as well as I'll be 27 in December. I'm glad that you manage a control over "stripped English/Internet lingo" at this forum Nightwolve. You can completely feel a difference between this community, which does seem to be comprised of mature members for the most part over the "other" internet communities. I personally find this place to be a relaxing safehaven from forums that seem more and more rapant with spammers and english/engrish shortcuts.

-SkyeWelse

27

Xak III: The Eternal Recurrence / Xak I: The Art of Visual Stage - Official English Release

« on: Mar. 02, 2007, 12:13:10 PM »

Very recently, the first game in the Xak series titled "Xak: The Art of Visual Stage" for MSX2 was officially released in English and licensed through WOOMB.net. I spoke a bit with a representative with their group who told me that they have plans to release the entire MSX2 series, meaning Xak I, Xak II, Xak: Tower of Gazzel and Fray In Magical Adventure. There are currently no plans to release an official version of Xak III at this time however.

I'm hoping that since Woomb.net is affilated with D4, the company behind the MSX game transitions to the Nintendo Wii virtual console line-up in Japan will perhaps means future MSX releases such as the Xak series for the Nintendo WII VC in American and Europe.

-SkyeWelse

28

General / Re: About NW last big speech

« on: Feb. 20, 2007, 07:18:23 PM »

Hehe, this has turned into quite an interesting debate. From what I've been able to tell over the years, I've discovered that if a person believes in more conservative views, you'll see quite clearly just how liberal the majority of the media and academia really is. However, if you believe in a more liberal approach, you simply don't see the arguements being made by fellow liberals as being liberal.

LOL @ drive-by media!  Puh-lease!  Read What Liberal Media by Eric Alterman and you'll see how conservative the media is.

I have a liberal friend who said the very same thing to me, well not the specific article verbatum, but he also pointed out that he believed the media to be controlled by conservatives, especially from that of Fox.

I'd agree that Fox is mostly a conservative network, but it honestly is one of the few true conservative mediums that exist out there besides that of various talk-radio syndicated programing. (which unfortunately will be taken down once Hillary takes the Oval Office.) The rest, including several, several major newpapers are indeed undisputedly liberal. CNN and NBC are extremely liberal.

Also, another interesting fact to through out there is that if on election day it rains, there has been a study done to show that less democrats will go out to vote than republicans would when the weather is bad. Oftentimes jokes are made in that if there is to be bad weather on election day, it puts the democratic party at a disadvantage.

-SkyeWelse

29

General / Re: About NW last big speech

« on: Feb. 15, 2007, 10:40:31 PM »

He's just a piece of garbage that looked for some justification to make his leak moral and my donation incentive-generating period immoral, e.g., as a way to tell me here's why you deserved it, etc. He wanted his "high" of course, having been put in an opportunity to be the "hero" of the warez. In the meantime, it's thrown me off schedule and caused delays cause I haven't felt like working on it as much or as fast.

Well irregardless if this guy was on a donators list or not (as I'm not sure if he was or not) dispersing the patch early without consent is considered theft. Whether or not he considers your donation period as a scam or not has absolutely no weight as an arguement since he essentually has stolen your work and has committed copyright infringement.

Unfortunately program leaks happen all the time. It has happened with Magic Engine over time, it happened the day before the release of the Surreal64 N64 emu for Xbox and I'm sure it has been done to several others on the net. Most retail games and movies these days are released before the official release date by dishonest employee's, who like you said, want to become a self-proclaimed "hero" of the warez community. These people don't care about you or anyone else for that matter. It is hard to combat that type of mentality, so my advice is to not let it keep you stressed out as it wasn't your fault that it happened and I doubt there is little that might have been done in hindsight to prevent it. If it wasn't this @sshole, there would be another ass down the line that would eventually fill the shoes. The general rule of the internet these days is that "if it costs money, it shall be warezed".

This is just my opinion, but personally if it were me I would post a simple message to those who visit your site and other sites that explain that this leak has happened before the patch was ready and that if people really are thankful and support what your projects stand for, then they will have the integrity to either wait for the official patch release or donate to help support your cause and hard work.

Heh-heh. Zell Miller made the greatest speech I ever saw a man deliver at that '04 Republican National Convention. I watched it so many damn times on MSNBC's site and I loved every minute of it. It even brought a tear to my eye on occasion.

Zell Miller's speech at the Republican convention was indeed one of the finest I've ever heard as well. If you only knew what he did for the state of Georgia and the legacy he left behind in terms of state fund generations and education. It's because of his creation of the HOPE scholarship that I am able to afford college right now. HOPE is a $3000 year college scholarship that is awarded to students who apply themselves during school and obtain and keep at least a 3.0 GPA.

-SkyeWelse

30

General / Re: About NW last big speech

« on: Feb. 15, 2007, 06:01:40 PM »

Well thanks Nightwolve. I hoped the post at least adds something useful to the table for those who might still have questions about your decision/decision making processes going on right now. But seriously, I wouldn't let it all get to you or you might burn out from it. God knows I'm burned out on the Genso Suikoden series after spending years with the Suikoden community and even running a Suikoden website/web forum for awhile only to eventually find it in the state of hostile takeover from idiotic posters who would post a great deal of childish drama, nonsense and spam who would complain about how things were run there when they never paid a dime toward webspace or bandwidth. So in a way I can relate a bit to how you feel about not getting thanks from many people.

There was actually one point that I think I forgot to touch base on in that in some of the earlier posts, some members were hoping that someone would come along and donate a hefty sum of money to help alleviate some of your financial stress. Though, while I'm sure you wouldn't mind getting a hefty sum of money as I'm sure we all would, I'm betting you'd rather instead see a larger quantity of donations rather than sheer amount, which I'm also betting is the entire idea behind why you posted in the first place. Am I right about this?

OK, now I'm curious. You can't possibly be a liberal. Please say no!

I vote for the best candidate who will do the best at his job in office. However, usually this falls more in line with conservative views which usually means mostly voting  a straight Republican ticket across the board. However, I'd vote for Zell Miller in a heartbeat because even though he is/was a Democrat, he's certaintly a man of integrity and has accomplished great things already in his lifetime as the ex-governor of Georgia several years back.

Though, lately I find myself becoming more of a Libertarian, but since they have little chance in big office elections, I have to stick with one of the partisans. And yes, I also support the Fair Tax Bill as well we all should.

-SkyeWelse

31

General / Re: About NW last big speech

« on: Feb. 14, 2007, 11:32:07 PM »

Well I got lost somewhere in between the posts between NW and Shinji, but I wanted to comment on this as well since I'm just now finding out about all of this today.

Personally, I'm a donator. I donated $15 dollars and it would probably have been more if I could afford more with my current income situation. But I didn't donate to get a quick fix of a beta version of the Felghana patch, I donated because I'm thankful for what Nightwolve and Psycho DeuceBag have been doing with their spare time over the years. It is because of their hardwork and dedication that I was able to discover what the Ys series (And Xak series) was all about, and to me that in itself holds sentimental value. Getting an early version of the patch was simply a bonus icing on the top of the much larger cake that has already been given to the Ys community. I'm a student and I'm struggling to get through college with the money that I have, but I find that $15 is a reasonable amount of cash to part with if it is going to a good cause, which it is. To me, $5 is not an expensive amount to ask for and as you clarified in the announcement, it's basically like spotting a lunch for you, which is peanuts in comparion to what has been given to the Ys community in the long run.

Yes, some fan translations are free and perhaps it is good that they remain free in certain cases, however asking for a reasonable donation price for high quality translations of something you'll likely never see a translation of anywhere or anytime else is perfectly acceptable in my book. Back when I used to be into Anime, I'd pay for the translations for fansubs when I wanted to see the show because I didn't think anything of it. The groups were providing a service so that I could enjoy something and asking for compensation of only a bit of their time and the tapes they would have to buy and shipping costs it would take to send them to me. But nowadays with the internet being a warez warehouse for everything that exists in digital form, more and more people have grown into a concept or mindset rather of becoming a thankless society of scavengers who take what they can find and praise their own hard work of spending the time to procure something free of costs. I'm sure even I have been guilty of this on occasion as I'm sure many of us websurfers have been. But the point is, there is large base of people who do have a great deal of respect for what you have provided us and want to show our appreciation by donating. And to us, it isn't much to ask for especially since the skills involved with reverse-engineering and translating do not come cheap even in the professional industry and I can say first hand that the quality of this patch is of a superior quality than that of many, many official localizations I've seen in present day on even newly released games. The quality is there I can tell you that.

Not sure if many people know this, but the industry as I've been told pays translators currently around $.13 per kanji and anywhere from $2-10 per line of code for programmers. To have two very gifted people who are both willing to come in and  translate and code the game using up a great deal of time they could have spent doing other things, $5 is nothing when looking at how much it could have cost you when and if it had been licensed, localized and sold with a crappier translation and with possible, incorrectible bugs/glitches on a lesser graphically intense console platform for around $49.99 a pop.

But the fact of the matter is what I mentioned above, the internet overtime has led more and more people into a thought process that if something is created by a fan, it should be free and therefore someone should not charge money for it. But this is the "thankless internet society" as I'd like to call them that end up ruining and breaking people's spirits and making people like yourself get burned out and not want to do it anymore. The same thing happened a long time ago with my girlfriend, of whom is Japanese and used to be a fantranslator at a Genso Suikoden webring known as Suikosource. She would put so much time and effort into translating and scanning material and buying books in which to translate even more content for fans and eventually the "thankless" fans started to greatly outweigh the "thankful" fans and she eventually burned herself out and had to quit it all due to all the stress and drama it caused. I completely agreed with her, which brings me to my next point.

I'd have to say that even though I love the Ys series so much and I'm so very thankful that you've dedicated so much time and effort into making it possible for several Ys fans to play the games in English, I'd be the first one to jump in and tell you that you should probably quit while you are ahead. I don't personally want you to quit because honestly I can't seen anyone filling your shoes and it would most likely ultimately mean that we would not see any English translations of newer Ys games for quite some time if ever, but if it is causing you this much stress and anguish, I think you should retire from it. If you don't, chances are just as in the case with my girlfriend, and Kiriko the poster just before me, it is very likely you'll burn yourself out completely and end up possibly never wanting to look at an Ys game ever again. lol If not retire completely, then at least take an extended hiatus. Get into an MMORPG such as WoW or Guild Wars, that'd be a sure way to get you immersed into something that would take your mind off of the situation.

If you do decide to continue, I'd suggest working only at a pace you feel completely comfortable with and make it shareware. If people give you grief about it, let them. They don't really have the right to give you grief about it anyhow since it should be obvious that they are not thankful that an English patch exists. If you do Ys Origin (hopes...) then definitely make it shareware, however it will be expected that anything, even your inexpensive patch, that costs money will eventually be leaked to the internet to be downloaded for free. You might be able to halt the early stages of it, but eventually it will become warez like everything else out there. As for Ys VI, that'd be kickass to see another translation of that game for PC, but this would be the one case where I would suggest not charging money for it since Konami owns the rights to publishing Ys VI in America, even if it is for PS2 and PSP, they still have the license and when money starts getting thrown around for something that is licensed in America, that's when big corporations start to come in and shut people down. Although, you would probably get a cease and desist letter before anything major happened, but if that happened, it'd be likely that would have an adverse effect on future translation possibilities.

Anyhow, I hope things get better for you and I'm sorry that all of this is stressing you out so much. Good luck with whatever you should decide to do from hereon out.

That avatar of yours is really something, I gotta say. I think 'scarecrow' every time I see it.

It's from the opening skit of a movie called "Amazon Women on the Moon", which is either the sequel or prequel (I can't remember) of "Kentucky Fried Movie". The image is of a man who is having an extremely bad and unlucky day who has just shocked himself trying to plug in a television. It's a pretty funny movie if you ever want to check it out sometime.

Well, I should really get some rest. I need to be up in 4 hours to get to school and take a test. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have written such a long post. lol

-SkyeWelse

32

General / Re: What are YOU watching on youtube at the moment?

« on: Feb. 08, 2007, 06:00:41 PM »

Funny stuff. I had not heard of this guy until now.

Here are a few links I found interesting on Youtube:

Lasse Gjertsen's MusicRecording/Mixing Genius.

The Angry Nintendo Nerd Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesProbably one of the funniest of all the Angry Nerd stuff.
Warning: May contain 'Strong Poetic Profanity' that may be unsuitable for all audiences. The rest of them are pretty funny too.

-SkyeWelse

33

Ys Origin / Re: Patch for the Ys Origin Setup/Config Utility

« on: Jan. 29, 2007, 03:46:16 PM »

Eh, my advice, don't be playing or thinking about video games during your college days. That's your make or break period, and you don't need distractions.

That's good advice. I'm also in a semester of college right now after not having been in school for a few years. Right now I probably should be moving on to my next study to work on, but I'm just so damn addicted to Ys Origin right now that I can't get away from it for too long. lol

-SkyeWelse

34

General / Re: Finally! My first post

« on: Jan. 27, 2007, 05:49:42 PM »

Hello everybody, im ghosting around here since a long time & finally have a bit of spare time
to be more active here & post from time to time. Been waitin' fer a looong time to do so!

This sounds a lot like me. I used to lurk around here for years before deciding to finally step in and do some posts. The one great thing about this forum is that most of the members here really know their stuff when it comes to some of these older games and enjoy talking/discussing them in an intelligent fashion, which is more than I can say for many gaming forums that exist on the nets these days. Anyhow, I'd like to welcome you as well. : )

-SkyeWelse

35

Ys Origin / Re: Patch for the Ys Origin Setup/Config Utility

« on: Jan. 27, 2007, 05:45:25 PM »

Appreciate the work on the patch Nightwolve. : ) Now I can tweak the settings a bit more. And yeah I'm also hoping there turns out to be a legitimate way to unlock the Time Attack Adol rather than creating files and such manually.

-SkyeWelse

36

Xak III: The Eternal Recurrence / Re: Xak III Ending Cutscene Dialogue (Spoilers)

« on: Dec. 29, 2006, 05:07:38 PM »

Yeah, I'll try to finish it up sometime provided I can make out what they are saying. It is especially hard to hear certain characters, mainly Fray, in their dialogue sequences and there is a ton of dialogue to translate. 0_0

A shame, I was hoping that the other cutscene dialogues were somehow embedded in the script text of the game somewhere too.

-SkyeWelse

37

Xak III: The Eternal Recurrence / Xak III Ending Cutscene Dialogue (Spoilers)

« on: Dec. 29, 2006, 10:48:06 AM »

Hi Nightwolve,

I was finishing Xak III again yesterday and in the process of putting together a cutscene dialogue text document for the visual cutscenes during the game to accompany the actual download of the game. I noticed that most of the visual cutscene dialogues were translated and included in your downloadable Xak III Eng-Jap HTML script, however I did not see the ending cutscene there. I checked the other script file you had as well, but it ended in the same place. I guess I'm just wondering if the ending was translated and if there was a script translation of the ending dialogue available somewhere at your site. If one does not exist, is there any way I might be able to find the Japanese script of the ending cutscene somewhere or is there a way I might be able to rip it from the game on my own? I know you are pretty busy these days, especially having just released the Felghana patch, but if there is anyway you could check into this sometime I would be very thankful. : )

I have the audio mp3 of the ending sequence and I was hoping that worse comes to worst I could try to translate what I can and possibly ask my girlfriend who is native Japanese to help me with the rest of it. But there is quite a bit of dialogue in the ending and asking her to translate that much content for a game she has no interest in might not sit too well and possibly cause a battle or at the very least a rupture in the space-time-continuum cotton/polyester fabric.

Thanks,

-Thomas
(SkyeWelse)

The following is what I've put together so far:

SPOILERS BELOW!

Xak III: The Eternal Recurrence Visual Scenario Cutscene Dialogue Script

*Note* This script is put together from Nightwolve's Xak III script in an attempt to create a single document that will

accompany players who wish to have the dialogue translated from the FMV cutscene intermissions that are spreadout in the

game. For the purpose of keeping information consistant between other translations of the Xak series games and also with

official English names written by various Microcabin endorsed guidebooks and the Xak III: Eternal Recurrence Novel, some of

the names have been changed from the original translation.

The following names and places have been changed in this document:

Ratok Kurt = Latok Kart
King Webis = King Wavis
Gafuh the Sorcerer = Gahoe the Warlock
Mt. Fuji = Mt. Ginganul
Hoan Ashtar = Horn Ashtar
Lou Millie Pixie = Lou Miri Pixie

Original Translation copyright by Nightwolve (Plight of the Fantranslator)


-===- Visual Scenario 1: In the Throne Room of King Arband Wavis (OST MP3 Track: 28) -===-


King Wavis:That was quite a
ceremony, Latok. Farland's
acts were quite impressive
this time!
 
Latok:Oh, king... Uh... Good
to...uh...

King Wavis:Enough with the
formalities. More than that,
there's a lady who wants to
meet you.

Latok:

Latok:Pixie?!

Pixie:Thought you could
leave me behind?

Latok:Did you shrink or
something?

Pixie:It's hard to get power
from the demon world, due to
their recent attack. So, I
couldn't maintain human size
and I shrunk.

General Beluga:I predict the
next attack from the demons
will be worse. We can't be
caught off guard.

King Wavis:Wavis is taking
care of its preparations.
Even our citizens are doing
their share of the work.

Latok:Does "Gate" mean
anything to you?

King Wavis:Yes.

Magician:How about I explain
that to you.

Magician:The story of the
"Gate" dates far back, to
the era of the War of
Sealing.

Latok:War of Sealing...

Magician:Yes. The War of
Sealing, where the Gods
fought to seal off the
demons. It turns out that
the "Gate" is an instrument
of magic, made during that
war.
 
Pixie:Okay, so what is this
"Gate?"

Magician:Apparently, a large
scale magical teleportation
device. That is all I know.

Beluga:It's a rather
interesting story,
strategically speaking.

Latok:So, where might this
"Gate" be?

Magician:I couldn't even
tell you if I wanted to.

Latok:No clues, huh...

Magician:But there's
something else I remembered.
There's a warlock named
Gahoe, living in a tower he
built beyond Mt. Ginganul. He
might know more of these
kinds of magic devices.

King Wavis:Does this Gahoe
have knowledge of such weird
machines?

Magician:He seems to have
devoted his life entirely to
such things.

Latok:Anyways, I'll find
this Gahoe and ask him. Mt.
Ginganul, right?

Magician:That is correct.

Latok:Can someone that knows
the way to Mt. Ginganul help me
out?

Pixie:I know the way.
I've likely forgotten, but I
was a palace messenger, so I
know most of the area at
Wavis.

Latok:Okay! Let's depart!

King Wavis:We must do what
we must do in these times.
Anyway, take this.

(Got Gemil Potion and
1000 Gold )

King Wavis:The "Gate" is a
threat to our existence.
Latok, I'll leave this
"Gate" business to you.

Latok:Certainly.

Latok:Pixie? Something
wrong?

Pixie:I can really relax on
your shoulders.

Latok:Even if I'd ask, you
wouldn't get off, eh?

Pixie:Of course not!

Latok:...Oh well.

Pixie:But, if you don't
like it...

Latok:H-Hey! Pixie! That
tickles! Aren't my shoulders
more comfortable?

Pixie:But your chest is also
nice and warm.

Latok:...

-===- Visual Scenario 2: Meeting Fray Outside of the Wavis Royal Palace (OST MP3 Track: 31) -===-

<SCRIPT PARTS MISSING>

Fray:What?

Pixie:"What?" What
should we do now?!

As usual, just
staring into space!

Fray:What? I'm not
staring!

Pixie:Really? Then
tell us where to go
from here!

Fray:Well... Uh...

Pixie:See! You can't
answer! Fine! From
here, we'll go see
Gahoe, the Warlock
at Mt. Ginganul!

Latok:Oh, I see.
 
Pixie:...

-===- Visual Scenario 3: The demise of the Necromancer and dialogue with Latok's Father (OST MP3 Track: 32) -===-

<SCRIPT PARTS MISSING>

Xak Sword:Latok! Descendant
of the violent Thunder God!
The time has come!

Latok:That's right, Xak
Sword! Let's end this now!

Xak Sword:My thoughts
exactly, Duel Knight!

Latok:Father...I'll continue
your will! Please protect me
somehow...

Let's go, Xak Sword! To
defeat Zekishis!

Xak Sword:Yes!

-===- Visual Scenario 4: Admiral Leo, Sunkan, Fray, Rune, Mesuron and Yunker Dialogue (OST MP3 Track: 29) -===-

<SCRIPT MISSING>

-===- Visual Scenario 5: An audience with the faerie princess Lou Miri Pixie in Oceanity (OST MP3 Track: 33) -===-

<SCRIPT MISSING>

-===- Visual Scenario 6: Latok's arrival. The Return to Fearless (OST MP3 Track: 34) -===-

<SCRIPT MISSING>

-===- Visual Scenario 7: Horn Ashtar's Forgotten Myth -===-

<SCRIPT MISSING>

38

Ys: The Oath In Felghana / Re: Ys: The Oath in Felghana Translation

« on: Dec. 13, 2006, 09:44:14 PM »

Welcome JTKirk. Good to see more Ys fans who are interested in supporting NW's projects financially. Actuallly I had been meaning to donate for quite awhile now as well, but seeing as you just recently joined and donated right on the spot, it more or less reminded me that it was high time I contributed a bit as well. So I guess I should thank you for that extra push to get it done.  : )

I'm really looking forward to the patch as well. From what I've heard it's a fantastic game. Though I'm waiting for the English patch rather than attempting to waddle through the Japanese version without too much of a clue of what I'm doing aside from the order of events of Wanderers from Ys.

-SkyeWelse

39

General / Re: Michael Richards (aka K-K-Kramer) flips out! Reveals he's a racist pig.

« on: Nov. 26, 2006, 09:18:58 AM »

I for one have yet to watch the videos, purposely. Everything I'm feeling towards Michael Richards right now is pretty much only based on the things I've heard about "the comments" he made. Sure I'm very upset to hear this news since his character of Kramer on Seinfeld has always been a personal favorite of mine. I'm sure if I were to actually sit down and watch the video in action, it would put a terrible thought/feeling/taste, whatever you want to call it in my head about watching his character in Seinfeld from hereon out. I think I'd prefer to just leave this news as news about the actor Michael Richards and not the character of Kramer that he played on Seinfeld. It's an image that I'm fairly sure I don't want to ruin for myself.

-SkyeWelse

40

General / Re: Something funny for you Ys and Xak fans.

« on: Nov. 15, 2006, 07:58:08 PM »

Just noticed these. The Ys one wasn't all that funny, but I did like the "walking simulator" reference to Xak: The Art of Visual Stage. That video was of the Super Famicom version of the first game in the series.

It refers to the fact that most people who would start the game (Any version of Xak, doesn't matter) would have to know what they are doing or be able to read Japanese in order to exit the first town. So yes, in a sense it is a walking simulator as you try to find a way out of the village.

To actually exit the village you have to speak with the blonde haired girl in the house, Elise, and go find her grandfather's glasses that are found next to one of the pews inside the village church. Once you find the glasses and return them to Elise, you can commence with the plot and gain a reason for leaving the village in the first place. That nets you money in which to purchase some armour and a sword and then you can leave the village.

-SkyeWelse