Lagrange Point

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Gideon Zhi
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Lagrange Point

Post by Gideon Zhi »

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Snaps of the intro, slightly trimmed for screenspace constraints. Especially that last one - if it's any longer, the game crashes.

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This is pretty much the first string in the first block. It's probably the first thing you see once the mysterious robots destroy your shuttle, and it was also used as test fodder.

More snaps forthcoming as the edit progresses.
WedNESday
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Post by WedNESday »

Sorry is this a game you're making? When I read the title i thought it said language point, and I scoured the screenshots looking for a 'All your base are belong to us'-esque mistake. :lol:
Gideon Zhi
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Post by Gideon Zhi »

Translation project.

LP's claim to fame is Konami's VRC7 mapper and heretofore intractable text. Most folks here, I think, are familiar with both the game and my translation group. I've got another thread further down the forum advertising translations for Madara and Esper Dream 2, both VRC6 games. (Although since AGTP got a redesign recently, the screenshot links are broken.)
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commodorejohn
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Post by commodorejohn »

Yes.

Yes.

YES.

I'm very excited for this project; I am totally sending my cart off to someone who has an EPROM burner when it's done. Major thanks to you and all the good AGTP folks for doing this =)
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Bregalad
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Post by Bregalad »

WedNESday wrote:Sorry is this a game you're making? When I read the title i thought it said language point, and I scoured the screenshots looking for a 'All your base are belong to us'-esque mistake. :lol:
Did you know that sound retarded, even to me ? Just to informate you, because Lagrange Point is a well-known japan only game any NES-developper should have tried at least once for it's very unique sound chip on the cartridge.
You should at least have heard about the NSF.
WedNESday
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Post by WedNESday »

Bregalad wrote:
WedNESday wrote:Sorry is this a game you're making? When I read the title i thought it said language point, and I scoured the screenshots looking for a 'All your base are belong to us'-esque mistake. :lol:
Did you know that sound retarded, even to me ? Just to informate you, because Lagrange Point is a well-known japan only game any NES-developper should have tried at least once for it's very unique sound chip on the cartridge.
You should at least have heard about the NSF.
:x

Why don't you kiss my butt, Bregalad? It was an honest question, it was an honest mistake, and what's more, if I had posted something like that (http://nesdev.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=2872), then everybody would be on at me right now. I've not heard of it before, and the doesn't make me a retard. No doubt everyone's gonna be on at me now for even this post...
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tokumaru
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Post by tokumaru »

WedNESday wrote:No doubt everyone's gonna be on at me now for even this post...
Actually, "kiss my butt" aside, I agree with you. No one has the obligation to know every NES game, specially one not released in their region, and in a language they don't understand.

I have heard of this game before, but only very recently. People here were talking about it's music, so I went to check it out. But if it weren't for that, I'd have no idea what "Lagrange Point" was.

When in doubt, I usually do a quick google search, though, and that usually clears things up.
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Dwedit
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Post by Dwedit »

Is the text really that intractable? The VRC7's big claim to fame is that it allows the 8k of CHR RAM to be randomly bankswitched in 1k segments. The only problem I see is that the Pattern Table viewer of an emulator may only show the top/bottom scanline's pattern tables, but FCEUXD can let you pick any scanline to view them on.
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Gideon Zhi
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Post by Gideon Zhi »

The Japanese script was compressed; each character was packed into six bits instead of eight, allowing for a maximum of 64 unique byte-values. Special controls included line break, section break, end-of-string, three dictionary print blocks (each of 64 entries) and a font switcher to print katakana instead of hiragana. This is what prevented most people from working on the game :/ Necrosaro managed to extract the script, and I've since had the compression broken; it's now loading raw values with DTE+dictionary compression for a ratio of 44% - much better than the bitpacker routine could have gotten me.
Mednafen
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Post by Mednafen »

If you want to save a little space in the ROM image. you can change the font graphics encoding to simple 1-bit packing instead of the bitplane RLE packing LP normally uses.

At least, I think you can. My memory isn't infallible!
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Bregalad
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Post by Bregalad »

@Wednesday : No, you're not supposed to know by heat all NES games ever released (and I really don't myself). However, you're supposed to use your brain a bit and do a quick GameFaqs search, wich usually told you if a game exists or not (even if sometimes it's spell differently, I never encountered a existant game that isn't on GameFaqs database).

Of course I've heard of Lagrange Point for nothing that it's music (and it's also one of the two knowns FC games to ever use CHR-RAM bankswitching (along with Romancia) and to use the VRC7 (along with Tiny Toons Adventures II) ).
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Dwedit
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Post by Dwedit »

What about games which use the CHR select to switch PRG ROM? Then you have to make the mapper ignore any VRAM bankswitching, since they will try to bankswitch that.
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Bregalad
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Post by Bregalad »

I have no cart to personally check, but I'd be surprised if, for example, SUROM would not use CHR A16 for PRG A18, but also use CHR A12 for the A12 of the VRAM as well (as currently stated in the wiki).
tepples
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Post by tepples »

Bregalad wrote:Of course I've heard of Lagrange Point for nothing that it's music (and it's also one of the two knowns FC games to ever use CHR-RAM bankswitching (along with Romancia)
Does Videomation (NES-CPROM) through a 72-60 adapter count? Or would you only count it if there were an HVC-CPROM?
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Bregalad
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Post by Bregalad »

If there is any game with a board such as "HVC-CPROM" it'd count (I don't know if there is one or not, tough). But it's a different thing, because CPROM is actually supposed to switch CHRRAM banks.

Romancia and Lagrance Point have just 8kb of CHRRAM, so normally it has no real reason to be bankswitched, but it is. That's pretty much what I meant. They switch smaller banks among the main 8kb.
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