The first part of the DREAM SPLASH! PREVIEW IS OUT!! Join me and someone...else for the first half of a rundown of all the great submissions to our Zeal Dream Splash!, begun in August! It's an interactive show; get started by clicking here or below! (~1 megabyte)



Let's keep the momentum going!  [1]  Download Captain B's new beta of the Chrono Trigger air shooter, Chrono Beat, by clicking here. There are now weapons reflecting each character and bosses!  [2]  JCE3000GT has released a new version of his SPC editor, capable of changing which samples are used in song instrumentation for several games. He'd love to have help naming samples; grab the utility here and comment in this thread.  [3]  I've restored assets from the Crimson Echoes herograw server, though a subdomain hasn't been restored for the Crimson Echoes project yet. They include the Japanese CT script and Chickenlump's updated compiled HTML help manual for Temporal Flux. I hope to restore the server soon and get the personal space back up for team members.  [4]  I've made a Chrono Cross savestate allowing quick battling of the Mystical Knights (Ozzie, Slash, and Flea) in the Bend of Time. It uses slot five on disc two. Grab it here.

You can now download all three parts of Retroware's TV special on Chrono Trigger. Grab the first part here, the second part here, and the third part here. Just for reference, the Compendium mention is in the second part towards the middle. That's it for now. Get ready for another BIG SURPRISE! We seem to have a lot of those in stock for 2008.
( Read more... )

Just wait until this evening...

     Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from all of us at the CTNP!  In keeping with the Christmas spirit, please enjoy this presentation by Linus van Pelt, friend of Charlie Brown.

     Now, getting to the update (wow, it's been a while, hasn't it?), we've got lots of new stuff.  In fan submissions, we have finally received Alejandro's sixth installment to the exclusive "Fourth Relevant Truth" fan-fiction series, as well as an English translation of Crono Bird's rendition of the first chapter of Chrono Trigger, told as a first-person narrative.  We have a new addition to the fan art page (Magus fans beware: you won't like it).  And, we have added a brand new and wholly unique section called "Fan Craft," which was inspired by the CTNP Handbag sent in by MagusChild.  We'd love to see more creative fan crafts like this one!

     We are very proud to announce our affiliation with DreamAuthentics, our first official corporate affiliate and a truly awesome company specializing in personal video arcade cabinets.  Check out their information here.  Also be sure to check out their ranking in the Top 10 Holiday Geek Gifts for the 2007 season.


     The CTNP will be making its second appearance at MAGFest 6, taking place January 3-7, 2008 in Alexandria, VA.  Jeremy ("Pezman"), Committee and Editorial Team member, will represent the project during the event.  We're very excited to be hosting an event this year, which will be a dramatic reading of one of the Demo Chapters that Saturday (1/6) at 11am.  This will be something to see, and we're doing what we can to be sure this event gets recorded.  If we can pull it off, it will definitely make its way to the site.

     Finally, we have some general updates.  Of particular importance are updates to our petition and support pages.  First, the petition is now being considered a supplemental part (as opposed to the sole part) of "Operation Ultimate Victory," which has been redefined as a specific strategy leading to the project's success.  OpUV essentially encompasses our strategy and efforts leading to the successful completion of this project.  This effort reflects the current strategy of the project, which scales back a bit from our previously heavy focus on the petition.  Of course, we still want people to sign, but we are no longer committing so many resources solely to this effort (this includes removal of the prize structure), because we feel that there are other matters of greater importance.  More details about the whole OpUV effort can be viewed here.  Other updates have been made to the Committee, Support Team, and Petition Info pages.

     And, to top it all off, we have a new poll in Wayne's Question about Frog's speech in the novel.  Enjoy!

Hey! Retroware TV's latest review is on Chrono Trigger, and part two of their three part video series came out yesterday. It blends together a lot of information smoothly, and also mentions the Chrono Compendium! Behold our blue and purple glory...but really, check it out! High quality versions of parts one and two are here and here, respectively. One part three comes out, we'll mirror the videos in our Downloads > Video section.

[1]  Captain B has made a rough version of a Chrono Trigger air shooter named Chrono Beat. Check it out here.  [2]  Moving on, cool stuff's being found on NICOVideo and by searching the Japanese name for the "Chrono" series in Youtube, like an visually artful MIDI rendition of several songs found by justin3009. If you want to search these sites and perform a great service to the Chrono community by discovering things never seen before by Western audiences, check out this thread and post what you find. Instructions on how to access NICOVideo and search the Japanese stuff are included.  [3]  If you didn't get them last time, download the instrument sample packs for Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross (incomplete), and Radical Dreamers by clicking here, here, and here. Find more at BlitzKrieg Innovations.

Guru of Reason Chrono'99 found a new CT mixtape on NICOVideo by DJ-Dr.MNM, a Japanese remixer. To view and download the tracks, click the "comment" text below. ( Read more... )

Clovis15, the power behind Chrono Trigger Unglued, stopped by to note that they have a new forum here and that CTU episode 16 should be out in a couple weeks. Can't wait! For new fan art, we have ChronoWeapon's latest piece, A Time for... featuring Queen Zeal, Lynx, Dalton, and Harle.

Recently, I linked Nicovideo on the forums here to encourage exploration. That's paid off now that dan_death has found a copy of the second V-Jump promotional video, illustrating a version of Chrono Trigger slightly predating the Prerelease. I've thoroughly analyzed the differences; find an entire graphical breakdown here or click the banner:



At this stage in development, Square also used different instrument samples, leading to some interesting song versions. You can download the individual tracks by going here and clicking 'Alpha Tracks'. Thanks to Chrono'99 for developer identification and Radical R for the NICO suggestion.

Let's get to the good stuff.  [1]  JCE3000GT is releasing his sample pack, which contains the source instrument samples used to make game music for several games (including Chrono Trigger). You can download it here. Once file exploration is complete, Chrono Cross samples will probably join the list thanks to the PSound utility.  [2]  There's a new glitch in the glitches section for Chrono Cross. If you defeat Radius in the tutorial battle at a certain point, Serge will be stuck there and all his attacks will inflict self-injury. Watch the video here.  [3]  The Concerts page is virtually finished. Check it out here and grab all the goodies, like the complete audio recording of the PLAY! Stockholm performance. It took a lot of work, but I'm glad it's done.

Doujin rush! I've added nine new doujins to the Albums and Doujins page thanks to niki. Though he no longer has time to seek out these Japanese remix albums, he's passed the torch at this GFF thread. The new doujins include 5-4 Takepod - SII, Ace - Art - Chrono Trigger Arrange, Bau-hauss - Le Cercueil du Reve - Chrono Trigger Arrange, JPS - Nidhoggr, Piano Forte - Chrono Trigger Arranged -Tsuyokute New Game, Piano Squall's GAME album, Super Tecnico - BJD, yh-suke - Battle野郎 ～100万発のメガフレア～, and Select Start. Stop by this page if only to check out the CD art galleries beneath Art and Bau-hauss's entries (B-H especially, which has multiple pages). As a sidenote, the addition of these new concert and album listings bumps up the number of Corridors of Time remixes to roughly 70. Check out the guys who played it live in japan, Low-tech Son.

Here's a short update. The Concerts page is still in progress (you wouldn't believe how many PLAY videos are out there). We've also got a new pirate effort underway to search out unique Chrono videos never before seen by occidental eyes. Find out how to raid these ports here. Also, if you can help explore Chrono Cross and decode its 3D model format, help FaustWolf and the rest of us here.

[1]  I finally located information on the official Eminence disc sold earlier this year. If you don't remember, Eminence is an Australian orchestra which tours and plays VGM. For their Passion! concert, they recorded an official disc directed by Mitsuda and Sakimoto (who also played in a few concerts). Finding information on the disc was a challenge and it really seems hard to come by. A big thanks to Radical_R goes out on this point, and for the Nicovideo thing mentioned above. Find the listing on the Albums and Doujins page.  [2]  By accident, I found three new photos of Mitsuda rehearsing with the Eminence guys for the Passion! concert tour earlier this year. They've been added to the appropriate review feature, but you can also view them here: [ One - Two - Three ]  [3]  Here are some new encyclopedia pages: [ Nikki Fan - Yu and Mi - Magical Dreamers Ship ]  Rest assured, it's nothing you don't already know, save for the Nikki Fan entry. Check out her texture and spot the Nikki badge she wears!

I'll finish with new fan art from ChronoWeapon. The piece is "Timeless Halloween" and features several creatures in costume. Here's a dramatic VISUAL PREVIEW! Click on it for the full piece:

SadNES cITy translation group have released a comprehensive Italian translation of Chrono Cross. To download and check it out, visit this page. Also, thanks to Sephiroth 1311 for helping with ripping Chrono Cross's assets. Here are some quick screenshots; many more await you on SNC's page! Download from a Compendium mirror by clicking here.



By the way, if you weren't here for Halloween, flash dooooown \/ \/ \/ for a Chrono Crisis art update. Now, an important update to the Chrono Trigger SPC soundtrack. Myria made a few alterations to the SPCs for 02 Chrono Trigger and 22 The Hidden Truth, making both play their entire pieces according to OSV length. Basically, this means no more two-part songs! Though a one-shot Chrono Trigger SPC was naturally available from the Prerelease, this is the first time such a thing's been done and publicly released for Chrono Trigger music. Update your archive by downloading the soundtrack here, and learn how Myria did it in this forum thread. Let's give it up for Myria, who helped release the English translation of Final Fantasy V ten years ago.

Let's move to general news.  [1]  I've created a Concerts page to cover filmed concerts involving Chrono series music. Only concerts in which a video or audio recording of a Chrono song exists will be included. Where online videos are available, they're linked next to track names. There's a lot of good stuff here; thanks to Radical R for giving me the impetus to finally do this. Find it here. It's a work in progress, though.  [2]  Luminaire85 has modified a work of Cory Doctorow to create a Chrono Fan Project Failure Disclaimer. It's pretty hilarious (and true), so if you'd like to see it, it's above the Abandoned section of our fan projects page.  [3]  Here's the fan art update. Thanks to V Translanka for bringing the BLOM pics to my attention. [ Flash of Green - Science (Lucca) || Bryon Lee O'malley (website is here) - Harle - Leah ]

Lastly, we're by no means done ripping the assets of Chrono Cross (or you'd see some character models in this update). If you want to help, check the File Structure page and File Exploration thread.

Special update today! Be sure to check out www.chrono-crisis.com too!

Firstly, something I'm sure everyone will be excited to see... finalized artwork for Xavier, Matison, and Celia! All done by our wonderful new artist, Dice. I'm sure you'll notice that Matison's outfit is different, this is because I felt the old design didn't really catch Matison's personality and battle style perfectly. I also wanted to give her a more futuristic look and a cool accessory. (Headphones! XD)

Here's the new artwork of Xavier, Matison, and Celia:






Secondly, there's a new screenshot available in the Gallery. Don't you just love convenience stores?





Next up, a new music clip has been put up in Downloads, "Forward to the Past." It's an old version of the intro that has made it's way to be used in a different way. Where though, is a secret. ^__~

Roe's Cross remix, "Dreaming By Your Side," is going to be featured in Crisis. To give it a listen, find it in Roe's Soundclick:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=255190




Finally, I had our second new artist prepare a teaser poster for this occasion. Check out it: (Click for bigger size!)



This poster is an ad for an upcoming concert in the Crisis world, featuring the hottest music artist in Guardia, Calypso. Calypso used to be a somewhat different character who went by another name. Hardcore fans may remember the old version of her, do you?

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed this update! Happy Halloween! Now go out and do something fun!

Sweet friggen jesus I'm slow, huh? Anyways, I've been trying to build myself a website (thanks in large part to people who said they'd help but never effing did. I'm looking at you Dan/Saridon.) Anyways, what ended up happened to slow me down was a combination of things: for one, College is never easy, so I'm resorting to drawing in the middle of class, leaving me a scant hour to 2 hour window in which to do 2 tasks at the same time.

Also adding to my list o' problems was The Tower of Gheddon painting, which sold for about 500 if I recall correctly. I HAD a pic, but my god ole' tower, which last never 18 hours shifts for 5 years, friggen died and my image along with it. So sorry about that, but its gone.

Positive note: I'm doing another one. Gonna Ebay it if anybody is interested. Please? I need the cash! I'm in debt dammit! :o

So yep, I've basically had a hard summer trying to get transfer credits from my college to go to AOAUSF.

But, I did manage to churn out page 2 somewhere along the lines.


As you can see, I've dropped the inking. It takes me too much time, and it doesn't look that nice, so I'm leaving that for anybody who wants it.

Alright, time to get down to the gritty: I need help getting this thing going.

I'm having a hard enough time trying to get a comic out without having to go into dreamweaver and making the whole site from scratch.

So I'm looking a Website designer.

Otherwise, this is going on my Deviantart, which should be linked in my profile menu.


So there you go, I'm gonna get to work on page 3 and my essay on Anime vs. Cartoons now.

SOMEONE FRIGGEN HELP!

"Chrono Ideologues" has been the tentative title for the last few months, indicating the evolution that the project has undergone over the years.  It's still evolving, but all is not well.

It comes down to a lack of manpower.  Not so long ago, we lost our main programmer and, at the same time, came to the realization that a full 3D game was beyond our capabilities.  It was a hard pill to swallow, since we had promised it and didn't want to go back on our word.  However, we simply don't have the time, manpower, or resources to create a 3D game, never mind one that we would be satisfied with.

In the meantime, I've been looking at the scripts, counting the huge number of lines I'd written.  Recently, I've been working to pare down the lines, scenes, and plot elements to what's necessary and effective.  To give an example, one annotated version of the first act was 130 pages long.  The next version was 36.  I hope to streamline it even further, cutting down non-interactive "cinema" scenes to what's absolutely necessary.  It's a work in progress and, with the current lack of manpower, I'm not exactly pressured to keep up with anything (as nice as that sounds, it also means a lack of motivation, sometimes).

Before I move on to revealing details of what's ahead, I'd like to start with what we need.  We've decided to start from the ground up, beginning by working on the actual statistical engine: how the game actually works.  We've ironed out a competent battle system, but the devil really is in the details.  Because of that, our foremost priority is:

Mathematician/Statistician - Not necessarily a professional one, mind you; our needs aren't that great.  It's just that my hands are full with the plot and I haven't practiced math for at least two years.  We don't need a genius, just someone who's up-to-date to help us create damage and development formulae.  Education up to Calculus would be nice, but it probably isn't necessary.  This is, by far, the first position that needs to be filled.  All the graphics and programming the world are meaningless without a core system to build it all around.

Programmer - Expect us to narrow this down as we get a better idea of what we need.  Since we intend to build this world from scratch, we need someone who can put it all together.  Gangis says applicants need to be "capable of developing in a C++ cross-platform environment with OpenGL/SDL."

Anyone interested, please send me a PM and I'll relay the info.

Now that that's out of the way, I think it's high time some details were released.  To be honest, we've held back what we were intending for far too long, and what I've intended in the plot has changed over the years.  So, without further ado, I'll now let you all know some of what's planned...

The protagonist of our story is a girl named Simone Veritas, the star pupil of Crono Anrui and the main instructor of his swordsmanship academy.  She trains children in the way of the sword and the calming of the soul, passing to them the same gifts that her master had given to her.  For most of her pupils, it's a way of keeping reality at bay, their friends and family fighting and dying in the war against the People's Alliance of Zenan, the coalition of secessionist provinces led by Porre.  Meanwhile, her master remains cloistered among memories and meditations; she can sense the great weight on his shoulders and the many burdens he carries, even if he refuses to relate them.

In Guardia Castle, tensions are escalating.  The King has fallen ill, bearing the weight of his years and the sacrifice made by the young in the war.  Even though he's still the sovereign, day-to-day administration has passed to his daughter, Nadia, and her husband, the Heir Apparent Sören.  As these young heirs struggle to be taken seriously among the noble families of the Court, it becomes clear that the blemishes of their respective pasts have taken root and now bear fruit in the form of secret whispers and looks.  Meanwhile, the innovative tactics of the Alliance's brilliant commanders are starting to take their toll.  Around Truce and the other cities still loyal to the Kingdom, some begin to whisper about the unthinkable, others begin to consider the impossible.

Against this backdrop, Simone discovers the power to enter another world.  Its existence is beyond time and space, yet is inextricably linked to both, each one having significant effects on the other.  Using the hearts of people around her as gates, she can traverse to the expansive realm accessible only through dreams.  From there, she discovers what once was, what is, and what shall be in her world...

Naturally, I intend to update further as time goes on and, hopefully, we pick up new staff members.  Until then, thank you all for taking the time to read this.