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16
Chrono Trigger Modification / Re: Chrono Trigger - Music Expansion
« on: June 05, 2022, 07:35:24 pm »It is an edit of your version. We took the intro that you had written, but moved the loop point to a few measures later. Ben wanted the intro to only play once. So yes, you should definitely be credited on that one!
It's not. Mine already only played the intro once, so you wouldn't have needed to make that modification. The note durations and stuff like that are a little different too. There was another guy who did it after me on RHDN, so you may have snagged that one instead.
17
Chrono Trigger Modification / Re: Chrono Trigger - Music Expansion
« on: June 04, 2022, 11:12:31 am »
That's not my version of Frog's Theme, which is fine if you decided not to use mine for whatever reason. I just figured I should mention it since you talked about using mine in CT+ and crediting me. I wouldn't want to accidentally take credit for something I didn't do.
18
Chrono Trigger Modification / Re: One Sunny Day When We Met (PSX/DS Bonus Track) SPC
« on: May 31, 2022, 06:33:47 pm »
Cool! I'm glad somebody found a use for them. Thanks for letting me know! Now I'm curious to hear how the other tracks came out.
19
Other Topics and the Prerelease / Re: Robo Racing an Empty Jetbike? (V.Net Dash Paper ROM Magazine Scans)
« on: February 02, 2022, 02:41:48 am »
I just noticed a bug that's relevant to my description of the differences between builds. I'm sure somebody's probably noticed it before, but I wasn't aware of it until now.
I had mentioned before that the "gray pixels" were removed from the dialogue font for the final build, but that's not exactly true. Instead, it looks like the palette for the dialogue font was changed and those light gray pixels were just made much darker. The bug is that entering a battle causes a different palette to load for the battle UI (which includes the light gray), and the correct palette for dialogue doesn't get reloaded until you leave the area, so the appearance of the dialogue font changes a little depending on whether you've fought a battle on the current screen or not. This extends to the English version as well. Here's a comparison gif of reading the sign at the entrance to Guardia Forest before and after engaging in battle.
I had mentioned before that the "gray pixels" were removed from the dialogue font for the final build, but that's not exactly true. Instead, it looks like the palette for the dialogue font was changed and those light gray pixels were just made much darker. The bug is that entering a battle causes a different palette to load for the battle UI (which includes the light gray), and the correct palette for dialogue doesn't get reloaded until you leave the area, so the appearance of the dialogue font changes a little depending on whether you've fought a battle on the current screen or not. This extends to the English version as well. Here's a comparison gif of reading the sign at the entrance to Guardia Forest before and after engaging in battle.
20
Other Topics and the Prerelease / Re: Robo Racing an Empty Jetbike? (V.Net Dash Paper ROM Magazine Scans)
« on: January 27, 2022, 08:30:09 pm »
I'm back to dump some more scans.
First up is The Super Famicom Sep 16 1994
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
These aren't really new, as they were already scanned by VG Densetsu, but I scanned these myself in case we want our own copies here at the Compendium.
Next is Game On Dec 1994
Page 1
I originally scanned this one a while ago, but never uploaded it for some reason. Just a little one-pager with some old screenshots.
Next is Famimaga No. 24 from Dec. 2 1994
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
There are some nice shots here. Page 5 was particularly interesting to me, as it shows what appears to be the boss battle from Manoria Cathedral, but with a Goon (Papa Bat) instead of Yakra. We've seen at least one shot of this before, but these go into a bit more depth. I did one of my hack-job translations on it, which is enough to get the gist of what's going on.
Page 5 Translated
Basically it's a demonstration of the "ATEL" event system, which is what they were calling the ability to wander around while a dialogue box is open. Apparently the Goon would actually react to you doing that during his monologue.
On the same page you can see an earlier gate key graphic. It shows up in at least one of the old VJump scans that are already on the Compendium, but I'd never noticed it before personally. Kinda looks like a weird gun or something.
On page 6 is an earlier version of Lucca's mom Lara. Just a generic old lady sprite. She appears to be standing, but since she's kinda half overlapping the bed maybe she was meant to be sitting on the edge of it. The door to the balcony area is blocked with pots for some reason. Looks like she and Taban were sleeping in separate beds too.
On page 7 you can get a look at Melchior's Millenial Fair inventory, and there's an old man selling accessories near the tent where you can exchange silver points in the final.
Silver points were apparently not a thing in this version, as you can also see that fighting Gato will win you 100 gold instead of 15 silver points.
There's a little blond boy where the old man sitting down to his lunch should be. Can't see if the lunch is there or not.
There's a barrel near the drinking contest guy. It's a sprite, which would sort of imply that it'd be interactable. Maybe it's the drinking contest guy's "keg", and you could opt to drain it or something, which would play into the trial later. Could also be a debug object, or just purely for decoration.
Next is Famimaga No. 26 from Dec. 30 1994
Pages 1 & 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
Page 17
Page 18
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
Page 25
Page 26
Most of the new shots in this one seem to come from the "Prerelease"/Sample ROM build, but there are a few insteresting older ones.
On page 5 theres a shot of an old 65,000,000 BC overworld that doesn't really seem to match up with anything that made it to the final build, and it features a couple of the unused overworld sprites. I don't think we've ever seen those in action before. Seems like it's a representation of the Ioka meeting site events.
Next to that are a couple of shots of the Dactyl Nest looking pretty Algetty-esque. I kinda suspect that the Algetty tileset was originally meant for 65,000,000 BC.
On page 13 at the bottom there are a few shots of the Fake Chancellor just before the Yakra battle, and it seems to indicate that the whole ATEL wandering around and getting a reaction thing was still in play at this point. I actually ended up trying it in both the "Prerelease" and the final version because I thought maybe I'd just forgotten or never tried it, but you're definitely locked in place during his monologue in those versions.
There are some relatively large early world maps in this one.
On page 21 you can see more clearly that the brown pyramid in 600 AD is in fact just a brown version of the pyramid and not some unique graphic. I think I know what happened there. In the "Prerelease" and the final game the pyramid has its own palette entries, but the values for the shades of blue are identical to the shades of blue used in 1000 AD roof tiles. I think the pyramid originally shared a palette with those roof tiles, and since the equivalent roof tiles in 600 AD are brown the pyramid turned brown as well. So basically just a technical oversight that was later corrected.
On page 23 you can see that the sewer access is missing from the 2300 AD map.
There are a bunch of tiny differences in the 65,000,000 BC overworld on page 24. For example, if you look at the top right screen shot on that same page and compare it to the world map at the bottom you can see that the little guard tower thingy was originally a bush.
Next is Dengeki Super Famicom No. 3 from Feb 24 1995
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Pages 7 & 8
A real mishmash of screenshots from different builds in this one, and some more world maps.
The world maps seem to be mostly consistent with what's in Famimaga 26, except for the colliseum island in 2300 AD on page 4. It's near the middle of the map instead of in the bottom left corner. I kind of wonder if this was a mistake made when stitching the screenshots together to make the map. You can see the seams around the individual shots used, and that island is all by itself in its shot, so there wouldn't really be anything misaligned to give it away if they put it in the wrong spot. If it's legit I'd place it as slightly earlier than the one in Famimaga 26.
Next is Dengeki Super Famicom No. 4 from Mar 10 1995
Pages 1 & 2
Pages 3 & 4
Pages 5 & 6
Pages 7 & 8
Pages 9 & 10
This would be nice to have translated as it seems to be mostly developer interviews (including a whole "CD-ROM" section, which could prove interesting), but I don't really trust my DeepL machine translation hackery with this much text.
Finally, here's a foldout from the VJump Jan 1995 issue
Foldout
There are already scans for this issue up on the site, but this foldout was apparently skipped (probably because it was a pain to scan, or maybe it was just missing since there's a poster on the other side). Features a big ol' 1000 AD map and some old Millenial Fair shots. One interesting thing about this map is that there's no bridge to Lucca's place. It's just a strip of beach.
BONUS: Foldout Posters
Heckran Battle
Dactyl Ride
Medina Battle
Magic Cave
Pendant
Cast
Forest Camp
Magus Battle
These are mostly from VJump issues, with the last two being from the VJump Strategy Guide. Those two were already scanned by someone else, but I figured i might as well do them while i'm at it. I cleaned these up and tried to get them as close to the quality of the Heritage Auctions "Resting at Lucca's" scan as I could, but they're all old magazine-quality prints so there's only so much you can do. The Medina Battle one came out the best in my opinion.
Comparison Images
I put together some comparison shots of different versions of the game. I've been sort of roughly categorizing the different builds we've seen evidence of as follows:
V-Fes 94
The most ancient version. "Flat" overworlds, floating crystal islands, rough character sprites, etc. I suspect these actually represent various incremental builds, but there isn't really anything to distinguish them as the shots pretty much all came out at once. The only difference I can point to is that there are two shots of the earliest version of the telepod exhibit, one where the telepod is all black and white, and one where color has been added.
This build is mostly unrepresented in these new comparison shots.
Pre-Spaceworld
Gradientless dialogue windows.
All Millenial Fair tents are closed.
All Millenial Fair tents are purple.
Taban wears a purple shirt and has blond hair.
Gold chests in Manorial Cathedral.
Manoria Cathedral Goon battle instead of Yakra.
Spaceworld
This is the build that was shown off at Spaceworld 1994, as seen in the Brut Press video coverage.
Gradientless dialogue windows.
All Millenial Fair tents are closed.
Some Millenial Fair tents are now blue.
Taban wears a yellow shirt and has green hair.
Purple chests in Manoria Cathedral.
Yakra battle added.
Post-Spaceworld
This one shows up in the second VJump promotional video.
Gradient added to dialogue windows.
Font still matches the Spaceworld build.
Basically a build right between the Spaceworld build and the "Prerelease" build.
"Prerelease"/Sample ROM
Font changed to near-final state.
We all have access to this one so we're pretty familiar with it.
Final Build
Dialogue window gradient refined.
Gray pixels removed from font.
Additional minor font changes.
Obviously the build most people know best.
That's not an exhaustive list of differences, and obviously I have no way of knowing exactly how many builds there actually were. Certainly in-house there would have been many more incremental builds, but this categorization is at least giving me a point of reference when looking for differences.
Here are the images:
Millenial Fair Gif
I tried to cobble together as much of the Millenial Fair map as I could using old screenshots, and then made this comparison gif of the different versions I've identified.
Millenial Fair Pre-Spaceworld
Millenial Fair Spaceworld
The gif is super busy and kind of hard to take in, so I also made these png files of just the two builds cobbled together from magazine shots.
1000 AD Shots
Just a bunch of various scenes from 1000 AD.
Chrono's Room
Gate Scene
Lucca's House
There are some notable differences here, in addition to the obvious changes to Lara. The earliest screenshots show a vertically oriented wrench on the table in the main room that I don't think appears anywhere else. The black cylindrical things on the floor aren't as tall in the oldest shots. There seems to be something wrong with the red palette used for the chair cushions and books on the bookshelf. It looks like the darkest red shade was set to a light gray instead.
Manoria Cathedral 1
These are largely the reason I think the build in the second VJump promo video fits between the Spaceworld build and the "Prerelease" build. If you look at the first screenshot in the "Post-Spaceworld" column, the map and the font match the earlier build, but the dialogue window has the gradient from the later build.
Manoria Cathedral 2
Manoria Cathedral 3
First up is The Super Famicom Sep 16 1994
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
These aren't really new, as they were already scanned by VG Densetsu, but I scanned these myself in case we want our own copies here at the Compendium.
Next is Game On Dec 1994
Page 1
I originally scanned this one a while ago, but never uploaded it for some reason. Just a little one-pager with some old screenshots.
Next is Famimaga No. 24 from Dec. 2 1994
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
There are some nice shots here. Page 5 was particularly interesting to me, as it shows what appears to be the boss battle from Manoria Cathedral, but with a Goon (Papa Bat) instead of Yakra. We've seen at least one shot of this before, but these go into a bit more depth. I did one of my hack-job translations on it, which is enough to get the gist of what's going on.
Page 5 Translated
Basically it's a demonstration of the "ATEL" event system, which is what they were calling the ability to wander around while a dialogue box is open. Apparently the Goon would actually react to you doing that during his monologue.
On the same page you can see an earlier gate key graphic. It shows up in at least one of the old VJump scans that are already on the Compendium, but I'd never noticed it before personally. Kinda looks like a weird gun or something.
On page 6 is an earlier version of Lucca's mom Lara. Just a generic old lady sprite. She appears to be standing, but since she's kinda half overlapping the bed maybe she was meant to be sitting on the edge of it. The door to the balcony area is blocked with pots for some reason. Looks like she and Taban were sleeping in separate beds too.
On page 7 you can get a look at Melchior's Millenial Fair inventory, and there's an old man selling accessories near the tent where you can exchange silver points in the final.
Silver points were apparently not a thing in this version, as you can also see that fighting Gato will win you 100 gold instead of 15 silver points.
There's a little blond boy where the old man sitting down to his lunch should be. Can't see if the lunch is there or not.
There's a barrel near the drinking contest guy. It's a sprite, which would sort of imply that it'd be interactable. Maybe it's the drinking contest guy's "keg", and you could opt to drain it or something, which would play into the trial later. Could also be a debug object, or just purely for decoration.
Next is Famimaga No. 26 from Dec. 30 1994
Pages 1 & 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
Page 17
Page 18
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
Page 25
Page 26
Most of the new shots in this one seem to come from the "Prerelease"/Sample ROM build, but there are a few insteresting older ones.
On page 5 theres a shot of an old 65,000,000 BC overworld that doesn't really seem to match up with anything that made it to the final build, and it features a couple of the unused overworld sprites. I don't think we've ever seen those in action before. Seems like it's a representation of the Ioka meeting site events.
Next to that are a couple of shots of the Dactyl Nest looking pretty Algetty-esque. I kinda suspect that the Algetty tileset was originally meant for 65,000,000 BC.
On page 13 at the bottom there are a few shots of the Fake Chancellor just before the Yakra battle, and it seems to indicate that the whole ATEL wandering around and getting a reaction thing was still in play at this point. I actually ended up trying it in both the "Prerelease" and the final version because I thought maybe I'd just forgotten or never tried it, but you're definitely locked in place during his monologue in those versions.
There are some relatively large early world maps in this one.
On page 21 you can see more clearly that the brown pyramid in 600 AD is in fact just a brown version of the pyramid and not some unique graphic. I think I know what happened there. In the "Prerelease" and the final game the pyramid has its own palette entries, but the values for the shades of blue are identical to the shades of blue used in 1000 AD roof tiles. I think the pyramid originally shared a palette with those roof tiles, and since the equivalent roof tiles in 600 AD are brown the pyramid turned brown as well. So basically just a technical oversight that was later corrected.
On page 23 you can see that the sewer access is missing from the 2300 AD map.
There are a bunch of tiny differences in the 65,000,000 BC overworld on page 24. For example, if you look at the top right screen shot on that same page and compare it to the world map at the bottom you can see that the little guard tower thingy was originally a bush.
Next is Dengeki Super Famicom No. 3 from Feb 24 1995
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Pages 7 & 8
A real mishmash of screenshots from different builds in this one, and some more world maps.
The world maps seem to be mostly consistent with what's in Famimaga 26, except for the colliseum island in 2300 AD on page 4. It's near the middle of the map instead of in the bottom left corner. I kind of wonder if this was a mistake made when stitching the screenshots together to make the map. You can see the seams around the individual shots used, and that island is all by itself in its shot, so there wouldn't really be anything misaligned to give it away if they put it in the wrong spot. If it's legit I'd place it as slightly earlier than the one in Famimaga 26.
Next is Dengeki Super Famicom No. 4 from Mar 10 1995
Pages 1 & 2
Pages 3 & 4
Pages 5 & 6
Pages 7 & 8
Pages 9 & 10
This would be nice to have translated as it seems to be mostly developer interviews (including a whole "CD-ROM" section, which could prove interesting), but I don't really trust my DeepL machine translation hackery with this much text.
Finally, here's a foldout from the VJump Jan 1995 issue
Foldout
There are already scans for this issue up on the site, but this foldout was apparently skipped (probably because it was a pain to scan, or maybe it was just missing since there's a poster on the other side). Features a big ol' 1000 AD map and some old Millenial Fair shots. One interesting thing about this map is that there's no bridge to Lucca's place. It's just a strip of beach.
BONUS: Foldout Posters
Heckran Battle
Dactyl Ride
Medina Battle
Magic Cave
Pendant
Cast
Forest Camp
Magus Battle
These are mostly from VJump issues, with the last two being from the VJump Strategy Guide. Those two were already scanned by someone else, but I figured i might as well do them while i'm at it. I cleaned these up and tried to get them as close to the quality of the Heritage Auctions "Resting at Lucca's" scan as I could, but they're all old magazine-quality prints so there's only so much you can do. The Medina Battle one came out the best in my opinion.
Comparison Images
I put together some comparison shots of different versions of the game. I've been sort of roughly categorizing the different builds we've seen evidence of as follows:
V-Fes 94
The most ancient version. "Flat" overworlds, floating crystal islands, rough character sprites, etc. I suspect these actually represent various incremental builds, but there isn't really anything to distinguish them as the shots pretty much all came out at once. The only difference I can point to is that there are two shots of the earliest version of the telepod exhibit, one where the telepod is all black and white, and one where color has been added.
This build is mostly unrepresented in these new comparison shots.
Pre-Spaceworld
Gradientless dialogue windows.
All Millenial Fair tents are closed.
All Millenial Fair tents are purple.
Taban wears a purple shirt and has blond hair.
Gold chests in Manorial Cathedral.
Manoria Cathedral Goon battle instead of Yakra.
Spaceworld
This is the build that was shown off at Spaceworld 1994, as seen in the Brut Press video coverage.
Gradientless dialogue windows.
All Millenial Fair tents are closed.
Some Millenial Fair tents are now blue.
Taban wears a yellow shirt and has green hair.
Purple chests in Manoria Cathedral.
Yakra battle added.
Post-Spaceworld
This one shows up in the second VJump promotional video.
Gradient added to dialogue windows.
Font still matches the Spaceworld build.
Basically a build right between the Spaceworld build and the "Prerelease" build.
"Prerelease"/Sample ROM
Font changed to near-final state.
We all have access to this one so we're pretty familiar with it.
Final Build
Dialogue window gradient refined.
Gray pixels removed from font.
Additional minor font changes.
Obviously the build most people know best.
That's not an exhaustive list of differences, and obviously I have no way of knowing exactly how many builds there actually were. Certainly in-house there would have been many more incremental builds, but this categorization is at least giving me a point of reference when looking for differences.
Here are the images:
Millenial Fair Gif
I tried to cobble together as much of the Millenial Fair map as I could using old screenshots, and then made this comparison gif of the different versions I've identified.
Millenial Fair Pre-Spaceworld
Millenial Fair Spaceworld
The gif is super busy and kind of hard to take in, so I also made these png files of just the two builds cobbled together from magazine shots.
1000 AD Shots
Just a bunch of various scenes from 1000 AD.
Chrono's Room
Gate Scene
Lucca's House
There are some notable differences here, in addition to the obvious changes to Lara. The earliest screenshots show a vertically oriented wrench on the table in the main room that I don't think appears anywhere else. The black cylindrical things on the floor aren't as tall in the oldest shots. There seems to be something wrong with the red palette used for the chair cushions and books on the bookshelf. It looks like the darkest red shade was set to a light gray instead.
Manoria Cathedral 1
These are largely the reason I think the build in the second VJump promo video fits between the Spaceworld build and the "Prerelease" build. If you look at the first screenshot in the "Post-Spaceworld" column, the map and the font match the earlier build, but the dialogue window has the gradient from the later build.
Manoria Cathedral 2
Manoria Cathedral 3
21
Other Topics and the Prerelease / Re: Robo Racing an Empty Jetbike? (V.Net Dash Paper ROM Magazine Scans)
« on: March 15, 2021, 12:34:18 am »
That's weird... why misc. events? I see it down there now, but the way it's written how would anybody even know where to go to activate it?
22
Other Topics and the Prerelease / Re: Robo Racing an Empty Jetbike? (V.Net Dash Paper ROM Magazine Scans)
« on: March 15, 2021, 12:21:17 am »
To be clear, I didn't do anything but repoint the event data. I didn't do anything with string indexes. There are cheat codes on this site to do the same for the other Medina locations, but not this one, so I made my own.
23
Other Topics and the Prerelease / Re: Robo Racing an Empty Jetbike? (V.Net Dash Paper ROM Magazine Scans)
« on: March 14, 2021, 11:22:41 pm »
So... I was wrong about Melchior's Hut not being in the Prerelease/Sample ROM. To be honest I've never really played with it much because this site has covered it so thoroughly, but today I finally tried messing with some of the "Explore The Prerelease" cheat codes on here and headed over to Medina. Melchior's Hut is there. It's just where the Medina Inn is supposed to be.
More interestingly, the Ozzie XIII/Weiner/Ketchappa scene in the mayor's manor is also intact, not just the dialogue.
More interestingly, the Ozzie XIII/Weiner/Ketchappa scene in the mayor's manor is also intact, not just the dialogue.
Code: [Select]
Cheat codes to activate Ozzie XIII/Weiner/Ketchappa events:
F7211DA5
F7211E9F
24
Chrono News / Re: Unseen Magus Artwork for CT's 26th Anniversary!
« on: March 13, 2021, 06:46:43 am »
It's two different magazines. The Playstation one with all the anime character sheets is from 1999, but The Super Famicom one with the Flea artwork would have almost certainly been from somewhere around 1994 or 1995. Unless it was some kind of retrospective article.
25
Chrono News / Re: Unseen Magus Artwork for CT's 26th Anniversary!
« on: March 12, 2021, 10:15:19 pm »
This is neat stuff. The author of the tweet with all the character sheets replied to someone asking for the source here https://twitter.com/29kyu/status/1370351921647656969?s=20 It's apparently volume 170 of a magazine called The Playstation (ザ・プレイステーション).
That Flea pic is especially interesting to me. I believe The Super Famicom is the name of the magazine it came from. The dialogue boxes in the surrounding screenshots are from a later version of the game. I'd guess the magazine is from Nov. '94 at the earliest. Probably later.
That Flea pic is especially interesting to me. I believe The Super Famicom is the name of the magazine it came from. The dialogue boxes in the surrounding screenshots are from a later version of the game. I'd guess the magazine is from Nov. '94 at the earliest. Probably later.
26
Other Topics and the Prerelease / Re: Robo Racing an Empty Jetbike? (V.Net Dash Paper ROM Magazine Scans)
« on: March 11, 2021, 05:20:00 pm »Great as always. I'll get this in the encyclopedia. That's awesome about Slash and Flea. Between that and their appearance in Chrono Cross, plus the "outside arts" thing in the Japanese version of Chrono Trigger regarding Slash, I feel like they're really mysterious and interesting characters.I don't know what you're referring to here with the "outside arts" thing, but I'm intrigued. Is this a dialogue translation difference? I know there's a big script comparison document that I haven't really read through. I agree about them being mysterious and interesting.
Quote
Didn't spot any other differences than what you found. I wonder if the Ayla, Marle, and Lucca sketch was truly drawn by Toriyama, since it basically only appears here?
I've been wondering that for a while myself about V-Jump exclusive "official" art in general, like the March '95 cover art. It's definitely done in a style that's meant to look like Toriyama's, but that cover art in particular is way "cleaner" than the other official CT art that we know for sure was done by Toriyama. It doesn't have the ink and watercolor physical media grunge to it (although this Ayla, Marle, and Lucca art kinda does). I'm not looking at it right now, but I think the March cover illustration is credited to Banana Grove Studio, which I don't really know anything about. I kind of suspect that the demand for "Toriyama-style" art for V-Jump around that time was higher than the man himself could be reasonably asked to handle, and that there were multiple artists filling that role at times. I'm really just speculating though.
Quote
Edit: I should ask, too—would DeepL be interested, or be able to comment on the going rate for requisitioning fan translations? I'm literally ready to earmark money. There are a million things I'm not satisfied with on the Chrono front (the perpetual, prophesied lack of free time to ever do another ROM hack being chief among them), but Material Requiring Translation is something that can absolutely be done, even while I'm away. I was thinking of just earmarking my own money to start paying for it, commission-style.I'm not entirely sure if I'm misunderstanding a clever turn of phrase on your part, or if I've accidentally given the impression that "DeepL" is some friend of mine who translates things for me sometimes. DeepL is just a machine translator like Google Translate, but it does a much better job most of the time. https://www.deepl.com/en/translator I've been considering attempting some more "scanlation" style edits of some of the material requiring translation, but I'm always a little hesitant because 1. I rely heavily on machine translation, and 2. it's a lot of work just transcribing it all to be translated. I also don't know if anyone even enjoys translations in that format versus a plain text transcript. I do, but others might just find it inconvenient.
27
Other Topics and the Prerelease / Re: Robo Racing an Empty Jetbike? (V.Net Dash Paper ROM Magazine Scans)
« on: March 10, 2021, 02:44:48 am »
Got some more scans to dump. I found and scanned the "Atsusugiru souryoku tokushuu Appendix" that this image came from.
It's a little booklet, like a mini magazine, that came with the Feb. '95 issue of V-Jump. It's a little weird how they did it. The open edge of the front cover was bound into the spine of the main magazine with a perforated edge so you could tear it out (which I ended up doing so I could scan it).
Here are the scans:
Front & Back Cover
Pages 2 & 3
Pages 4 & 5
Pages 6 & 7
Pages 8 & 9
Pages 10 & 11
Pages 12 & 13
Pages 14 & 15
Pages 16 & 17
Pages 18 & 19
I did them all up as two-page spreads and tried to make them presentable. The quality of the print and the paper wasn't great, and mine was a little stained along the top edge from exposure to something. They seem to count the cover as a page, which is why my page numbers start at 2.
I also attempted to isolate that artwork of Ayla, Marle, and Lucca since there seemed to be some interest in it a while back. Here's a transparent PNG, and here's a JPG on a white background.
Some observations:
Several old world maps in here. I believe these actually predate the full 1000AD map from Famimaga that I posted before. The 1000AD map at least appears to be "version 2" from my little comparison GIF. I'm assuming the other maps probably come from the same build.
The sealed pyramid on the 600AD map appears to be brown instead of blue. This was true in the tiny map Vehek mentioned upthread too. Maybe it was supposed to be buried in 600AD? Or maybe they just hadn't finalized the palette for that map yet. It's too hard to tell if the graphic is actually different or not.
Fiona's Villa and Fiona's Shrine both appear south of the desert, although the little key for the 600AD map on page 11 indicates (erroneously I assume) that Fiona's Villa is in the northeast corner of the continent instead. The change in the surrounding forest between 600AD and 1000AD seems really minimal compared to the final game.
For some reason Choras is called "Choriso" (チョリソー/Chyorisoo) in 600AD. It's still Choras (チョラス/Chyorasu) in 1000AD. Another error?
The unknown house in Medina is labeled as Melchior's hut. Melchior's hut isn't in the Prerelease/Sample ROM at all, is it? And I think that unknown house had a different interior and associated dialogue for an imp. Maybe it became Melchior's hut later? Or maybe the person doing the labeling just got confused because the map in the screenshot was outdated.
Ozzie, Slash, and Flea in the mayor's manor in Medina on page 10. There are more screenshots from this location on this page of the main Feb. 95 magazine. I did a quick hack-job translation with DeepL.
The dialogue in those screenshots is this from Text Block 07 3BB400-3BD43B in the Prerelease/Sample ROM:
The unknown village in 65,000,000BC gets a label on page 13! Buuuuut... it just says "tent".
Something else that occurred to me while putting these scans together is that I think the name of the Blackbird is a pun. There are a few sections in these scans that are labeled "KuroTori Check" (クロトリチェック). "KuroTori" is just short for Chrono Trigger (Kuro[no] Tori[gaa]). These sort of shortened portmanteau titles are pretty common in Japanese media, but I didn't get it at first so I spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to figure out what "kurotori" meant. While I was trying to figure it out it occurred to me that "kuro" in Japanese means black, and "tori" means bird. So I went and looked up the Japanese name for the Blackbird. It's 黒鳥号 or "kurotorigou". I guess the "gou" on the end makes it "the Black Swan" rather than just the black bird? Regardless, I doubt it's a coincidence that the game "KuroTori" features a vehicle called "kurotorigou". I think it's a sort of meta pun on the game's title.
One more thing I thought might be worth mentioning is that these V-Jump magazines did not come out in the month that's on the cover. The Feb. '95 issue for example came out Dec. 21st 1994. This date is in the back of the Jan. '95 issue telling the reader when the next issue will be out. I bring this up because that means despite being dated only a month before the game's release, all of the content in this issue is from at most about a month after the Prerelease/Sample ROM build.
It's a little booklet, like a mini magazine, that came with the Feb. '95 issue of V-Jump. It's a little weird how they did it. The open edge of the front cover was bound into the spine of the main magazine with a perforated edge so you could tear it out (which I ended up doing so I could scan it).
Here are the scans:
Front & Back Cover
Pages 2 & 3
Pages 4 & 5
Pages 6 & 7
Pages 8 & 9
Pages 10 & 11
Pages 12 & 13
Pages 14 & 15
Pages 16 & 17
Pages 18 & 19
I did them all up as two-page spreads and tried to make them presentable. The quality of the print and the paper wasn't great, and mine was a little stained along the top edge from exposure to something. They seem to count the cover as a page, which is why my page numbers start at 2.
I also attempted to isolate that artwork of Ayla, Marle, and Lucca since there seemed to be some interest in it a while back. Here's a transparent PNG, and here's a JPG on a white background.
Some observations:
Several old world maps in here. I believe these actually predate the full 1000AD map from Famimaga that I posted before. The 1000AD map at least appears to be "version 2" from my little comparison GIF. I'm assuming the other maps probably come from the same build.
The sealed pyramid on the 600AD map appears to be brown instead of blue. This was true in the tiny map Vehek mentioned upthread too. Maybe it was supposed to be buried in 600AD? Or maybe they just hadn't finalized the palette for that map yet. It's too hard to tell if the graphic is actually different or not.
Fiona's Villa and Fiona's Shrine both appear south of the desert, although the little key for the 600AD map on page 11 indicates (erroneously I assume) that Fiona's Villa is in the northeast corner of the continent instead. The change in the surrounding forest between 600AD and 1000AD seems really minimal compared to the final game.
For some reason Choras is called "Choriso" (チョリソー/Chyorisoo) in 600AD. It's still Choras (チョラス/Chyorasu) in 1000AD. Another error?
The unknown house in Medina is labeled as Melchior's hut. Melchior's hut isn't in the Prerelease/Sample ROM at all, is it? And I think that unknown house had a different interior and associated dialogue for an imp. Maybe it became Melchior's hut later? Or maybe the person doing the labeling just got confused because the map in the screenshot was outdated.
Ozzie, Slash, and Flea in the mayor's manor in Medina on page 10. There are more screenshots from this location on this page of the main Feb. 95 magazine. I did a quick hack-job translation with DeepL.
The dialogue in those screenshots is this from Text Block 07 3BB400-3BD43B in the Prerelease/Sample ROM:
Quote
Bronze StatueSo I guess Wiener and Ketchappa weren't early names for Slash and Flea. They're the names of Slash and Flea's descendents who once lived in Medina with Ozzie XIII.
[Green Imp]
この広場のまんなかにあるのが
魔王様のどうぞうだよ。[END]
[Green Imp]
The thing in the middle of this square is
a bronze statue of the demon king.
Ozzie VIII
ワシがこのメディーナ村の村長、
ビネガー13世じゃ！
ワシの先祖は、あのいだいなる魔王様の
一の部下として人間どもと戦ったのだぞ。
ああ、魔王様…… なぜ400年前に
人間達をほろぼして下さらなかったのじゃ？[END]
In the Prerelease, he was known as Ozzie XIII instead of Ozzie VIII.
Slash and Flea, Weiner and Ketchappa
[Weiner (Slash)]
オレは、ワイナー。
魔族がその力を取り戻す日にそなえて
剣の修行にいそしんでいるのだ。[END]
[Ketchappa (Flea)]
私は、ケチャッパ。
日夜、魔王様をあがめて、魔族がこの地を
手に入れる日を願い続けているのよ。[END]
[Weiner (Slash)]
I am Weiner.
To prepare for the day when the demons regain power,
I'm working hard on my swordsmanship.
[Ketchappa (Flea)]
I am Ketchappa. Night and day the demons worship the
demon king, continuing to pray for the day when the
our kind will gain control of the world.
The unknown village in 65,000,000BC gets a label on page 13! Buuuuut... it just says "tent".
Something else that occurred to me while putting these scans together is that I think the name of the Blackbird is a pun. There are a few sections in these scans that are labeled "KuroTori Check" (クロトリチェック). "KuroTori" is just short for Chrono Trigger (Kuro[no] Tori[gaa]). These sort of shortened portmanteau titles are pretty common in Japanese media, but I didn't get it at first so I spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to figure out what "kurotori" meant. While I was trying to figure it out it occurred to me that "kuro" in Japanese means black, and "tori" means bird. So I went and looked up the Japanese name for the Blackbird. It's 黒鳥号 or "kurotorigou". I guess the "gou" on the end makes it "the Black Swan" rather than just the black bird? Regardless, I doubt it's a coincidence that the game "KuroTori" features a vehicle called "kurotorigou". I think it's a sort of meta pun on the game's title.
One more thing I thought might be worth mentioning is that these V-Jump magazines did not come out in the month that's on the cover. The Feb. '95 issue for example came out Dec. 21st 1994. This date is in the back of the Jan. '95 issue telling the reader when the next issue will be out. I bring this up because that means despite being dated only a month before the game's release, all of the content in this issue is from at most about a month after the Prerelease/Sample ROM build.
28
Other Topics and the Prerelease / Re: Robo Racing an Empty Jetbike? (V.Net Dash Paper ROM Magazine Scans)
« on: February 19, 2021, 05:01:54 pm »Should we assume, then, that what's depicted in those screenshots was another build, earlier than the Prerelease?It's definitely a slightly earlier build, yeah. I think it's the same build as (or one very close to) the one shown in the Brut Press video. It seems to feature some of the same elements like the gradient-less windows and battling a Goon on Zenan bridge.
Quote
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Zombor in the Prerelease doesn't have the sword-arms. We always thought the Zombor with sword-arms was a mock-up character (I think he's on the prism cards), but if they got all of these other screenshots live from their review build, it would mean this Zombor actually was in the game at some point.It may still be just a mockup. The V.Net Dash scans (page 2) and the Famimaga scans (page 11) feature the exact same Zombor screenshot. Zenan bridge in that screenshot is also narrower than it is in the Goon battle screenshots. My guess would be that the Zombor shot was part of a press release packet of stills. It's either a mockup, or it came from an even earlier build.
Edit: According to DeepL the text to the right of the Nu says something like "You seem like the type of person who would stand up to the protagonists' attacks without a second thought..." (I think "You" here probably refers to the Nu, and DeepL is just getting confused due to a lack of an explicit pronoun) and the pinkish text below says something like "He's a strange guy, and you can't tell from his expression what he's thinking. As his name suggests, he may appear out of nowhere." I'm not sure how his name suggests that. Nu = New maybe?
29
Other Topics and the Prerelease / Re: Robo Racing an Empty Jetbike? (V.Net Dash Paper ROM Magazine Scans)
« on: February 16, 2021, 07:10:10 am »
Oof! You're right! I probably need to play through the game again before I throw out any more wild speculation. Like I said, I can't remember where I've seen what anymore, and apparently that includes stuff from the final game. 
30
Other Topics and the Prerelease / Re: Robo Racing an Empty Jetbike? (V.Net Dash Paper ROM Magazine Scans)
« on: February 16, 2021, 12:44:15 am »That reminds me, in the V-Jump March issue, there's a tiny inset of the 600 A.D. map.That's a nice find! I probably never would have noticed that since it's just this tiny little shot.
https://www.chronocompendium.com/images/wiki/2/21/Frank_deWindt_II_V-Jump_March_1995_07.jpg
The exact extent of the desert area is different, and the house is further down.
I won't lie, the Prerelease / Sample ROM is probably my favorite. I wonder why they downgraded in the release version? It seems like they removed a few of the standalone trees and made some of the roads have "gaps" of just plain grass.Yeah, they kinda went wild removing the standalone trees. I don't really get it either. The only thing I can think of is that they might have thought it was too cluttered or something, but I had never even noticed the difference until I made those comparison gifs so it's not like I personally think the extra trees looked messy or anything.
Here are the scans of the full Famimaga article:
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
There's some interesting stuff in there. On page 3 there's a shot of King Guardia, Queen Leene, and a soldier in what I believe to be an early version of the cathedral boss room. It's a tiny room compared to the final version, but I think it's the only room that uses the open version of those windows. I don't think that shot is new, although I'm having trouble keeping track of what I've seen where at this point. There's another one in the top left corner of page 8 though that shows the same scene with some dialogue.
Quote
そんな、あわてて出ていかなくとも、どうぞ、ゆっくりしていってくださいなギャギャギャギャー！！Which translates to something like:
Quote
Oh, no need to rush out, please, take your time! Gya gya gya gyaaaaa!!I'm wondering if maybe Yakra was originally posing as the king instead of the chancellor.