Magician Lord Romhack - Again changes from Hell

[Boomchild]

wow didnt realize awbacon was 2000% anti-french racist!

Hey, I’m french

(And believe me or not, frogs are a delicate meal)

 

[NeoSeeD]

There’s one last change I’m torn about: should I redo the translation properly? The original is so iconic that it feels like part of the game to me.

If a redone translation actually makes the game make sense, I'm all for it. Simon's Quest on the NES is also classic, but I'll take the retranslation on that any day.

 

[Boomchild]

I've worked a "little" more on it, while playtesting it I found frustrating that you can't get out of ladders.

Well now you can ! Just press B while on a ladder to drop it

I also found by accident (by not writing the correct address to the debugger ) that you can finish a level early by just setting a value in memory. I though it would be cool for those who don't have a memory card, so I've added a little "cheat" : by pressing Up + C + D anytime, you can skip right to the next level.

I've also lowered the HP of the swordswomen of the last level.

I'll make some more playtesting and will release the patch very soon

 

[LoneSage]

I've worked a "little" more on it, while playtesting it I found frustrating that you can't get out of ladders.

Well now you can ! Just press B while on a ladder to drop it

OK, now this is getting dangerous like Jurassic Park, playing with nature like that.

（just kidding）

 

[Ghaleon]

There is some special weird thing you have to do to get stuff like this to run on a NeoSD ,right ?

Sounds like an awesome project and thanks for taking this on!

 

[HornheaDD]

Simon's Quest on the NES is also classic, but I'll take the retranslation on that any day.

Do you mean the one where they added the map, and changed the day/night transitions? Because that one is indeed preferable and awesome.

 

[Neo Alec]

There is some special weird thing you have to do to get stuff like this to run on a NeoSD ,right ?

Not really. The NeoSD is nice because it basically runs anything. If you mean the conversion to a .neo file, it's quite easy once you get used to the file naming convention.

 

[Ghaleon]

Oh OK cool . Thanks much. Is there a guide to CO cering to .neo you recommend ? I've not done it before , and I've had this thing for so long I don't remember what to do .

I've also had bad experiences trying to talk to Terraonion about basic functionality of their own devices lol

 

[Neo Alec]

How to Make .neo Files Using city41's neosdconv Utility

I was just posting this for someone else, and thought it might be helpful to people, especially in the homebrew community. There are readme instructions already included with the utility of course, but it doesn't hurt to have another explanation. Thank you for @city41 for the useful utility...

neo-geo.com

The biggest pain is installing the program in Windows.

You don't need to do this though. Usually for most games someone else has already made a .neo file. I wouldn't bother with this unless there's a game you need that no one has done.

 

[Fygee]

I've worked a "little" more on it, while playtesting it I found frustrating that you can't get out of ladders.

Well now you can ! Just press B while on a ladder to drop it

I also found by accident (by not writing the correct address to the debugger ) that you can finish a level early by just setting a value in memory. I though it would be cool for those who don't have a memory card, so I've added a little "cheat" : by pressing Up + C + D anytime, you can skip right to the next level.

I've also lowered the HP of the swordswomen of the last level.

I'll make some more playtesting and will release the patch very soon

I'm really looking forward to this!

I also think it's a great idea to have patch variants so folks can play it with easier/harder difficulty (since the existing lvl 1 - 8 difficulty doesn't do much of that at all) and with better text translation. Reintroducing the cutscenes from the AES version would be neat too.

 

[Boomchild]

Guys, while translating the game in french, I came across a line in the program that I can't find anywhere in game :

My God is invincible. My God is limitless, and my life is always beside God.

Do you have any idea where it could come from ? In the ROM it's placed right before the line that Gal Agiese says when you win the fight.

 

[LoneSage]

Guys, while translating the game in french, I came across a line in the program that I can't find anywhere in game :

My God is invincible. My God is limitless, and my life is always beside God.

Do you have any idea where it could come from ? In the ROM it's placed right before the line that Gal Agiese says when you win the fight.

I had an epiphany two years ago about the first level: https://neo-geo.com/forums/index.ph...statue-in-level-1-is-first-level-boss.269678/

Wouldn't surprise me if it was supposed to be for the first level boss, considering:

-the statues in the first level are of the god
-the first level boss is the god
-the level's name is Dale of Evil Gods

But it's so vague it may as well be used for any level's boss.

edit: up until two years ago, I always thought the statues were just some random, Buddha-esque thing to put in the level for no reason other than it looked cool. That they had the statues tie in with the boss not only makes for good foreshadowing but adds a level of depth to the lore, whatever the lore might be.

 

[Taiso]

Looks great! I'll take two!

 

[lithy]

Looks great! I'll take two!

Sorry pal, minimum order is three.

Frogger

Hi all, Just a heads-up that I've started on a Frogger transcode for the Neo Geo. The transcode itself is about 18% complete at this point. Like my Xevious project (which I still need to update), and unlike a lot of other conversion projects for the Neo Geo, this one is a manual RE...

neo-geo.com

 

[Taiso]

Then I'll take three!

 

[zouzzz]

How to Make .neo Files Using city41's neosdconv Utility

I was just posting this for someone else, and thought it might be helpful to people, especially in the homebrew community. There are readme instructions already included with the utility of course, but it doesn't hurt to have another explanation. Thank you for @city41 for the useful utility...

neo-geo.com

The biggest pain is installing the program in Windows.

You don't need to do this though. Usually for most games someone else has already made a .neo file. I wouldn't bother with this unless there's a game you need that no one has done.

Hi,
NeoBuilder Homebrew Gui make easy the .neo creation.

[NeoSD] NeoBuilder Homebrew GUI

Salut, NeoBuilder Homebrew GUI est un GUI de l'application permettant de convertir les homebrews Neo Geo en rom utilisable sur NeoSD (Pro ou simple) AES ou MVS

www.x-community.eu

 

[Neo Alec]

Hi,
NeoBuilder Homebrew Gui make easy the .neo creation.

[NeoSD] NeoBuilder Homebrew GUI

Salut, NeoBuilder Homebrew GUI est un GUI de l'application permettant de convertir les homebrews Neo Geo en rom utilisable sur NeoSD (Pro ou simple) AES ou MVS

www.x-community.eu

Fantastic, zouzzz! I didn't know about it. This will be a great replacement for city41's web-based tool. Thank you!

 

[Burning Fight!!]

Guys, while translating the game in french, I came across a line in the program that I can't find anywhere in game :



Do you have any idea where it could come from ? In the ROM it's placed right before the line that Gal Agiese says when you win the fight.

Amazing how these games have plain text strings and other hidden stuff no one bothered to look for since their first dumps. This reminds me of that weird "The battle for kei office" audio sample sitting unused on Riding Hero's cartridge. Great find!

Can you find the Japanese counterpart for that dialogue text?

 

[Boomchild]

Amazing how these games have plain text strings and other hidden stuff no one bothered to look for since their first dumps. This reminds me of that weird "The battle for kei office" audio sample sitting unused on Riding Hero's cartridge. Great find!

Can you find the Japanese counterpart for that dialogue text?

I've tried but this is very difficult for me. As I said in the opening post, this is my first try at romhacking. When you swap the bytes of the P1 ROM, all the english text can be found easily as they are in ASCII, and they can be addressed easily as all the latin characters use only one tile. The japanese characters, however, use 4 tiles each, and aren't addressed directly. It will take some time to understand the logic, and I've sadly got other things to do.

 

[NeoCverA]

I've tried but this is very difficult for me. As I said in the opening post, this is my first try at romhacking. When you swap the bytes of the P1 ROM, all the english text can be found easily as they are in ASCII, and they can be addressed easily as all the latin characters use only one tile. The japanese characters, however, use 4 tiles each, and aren't addressed directly. It will take some time to understand the logic, and I've sadly got other things to do.

Yeah man, fuck all that noise. Let’s see what you got.

 

[lithy]

Bump

 

[Boomchild]

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the wait — I’m finally happy with how this turned out, and I’d love to get a few volunteers to test it before I make the patch public.

I’ve done several full playthroughs myself (on MAME and on a modded ACA version for Switch) without hitting any issues, but you never know — better safe than sorry.

Here’s what’s new in this final build:

Score display removed. Let’s be real, nobody plays Magician Lord for the score (especially not with an easy mod). Plus, it frees up some space to enjoy those gorgeous graphics.

Gal Agiese cutscene timer removal. You can now actually hear the entire track during his speech before boss fights. In the original game it cuts off after 6–7 seconds, which is a crime. Just press any button when you’re ready to jump into the fight.

Full English retranslation based on the Japanese script. This replaces the Japanese language, so Gal Agiese will speaks in Japanese. But don’t worry, Engrish fans, just hit D on the title screen to switch back to the glorious original translation .

Here are some screenshots :











Please let me know if you want to test the patch, I'll send you a link via PM - I'd be especially happy if one can test it on real hardware with a linker

 

[lithy]

I'd be interested, I could test it out on a Backbit cart tonight. I can't PM you though since you don't have enough posts.

 

[HornheaDD]

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the wait — I’m finally happy with how this turned out, and I’d love to get a few volunteers to test it before I make the patch public.

I’ve done several full playthroughs myself (on MAME and on a modded ACA version for Switch) without hitting any issues, but you never know — better safe than sorry.

Here’s what’s new in this final build:

Score display removed. Let’s be real, nobody plays Magician Lord for the score (especially not with an easy mod). Plus, it frees up some space to enjoy those gorgeous graphics.

Gal Agiese cutscene timer removal. You can now actually hear the entire track during his speech before boss fights. In the original game it cuts off after 6–7 seconds, which is a crime. Just press any button when you’re ready to jump into the fight.

Full English retranslation based on the Japanese script. This replaces the Japanese language, so Gal Agiese will speaks in Japanese. But don’t worry, Engrish fans, just hit D on the title screen to switch back to the glorious original translation .

Here are some screenshots :











Please let me know if you want to test the patch, I'll send you a link via PM - I'd be especially happy if one can test it on real hardware with a linker

Ill take one! Ive also got a backbit I can toss it on to

 

[NEOGOKU_DRAGON]

Hello, my friend! Will there be a Neo Geo CD version? @Boomchild