This isn’t a real update. Just a note that cless.lfx.org is the second highest bandwidth
consumer on lfx.org and has been averaging 205 megabytes of transfer per day, and well,
azi’s not too thrilled by it.
I’ve pruned this news page (and will be doing it more often), and did some tweaks to the
message board to hopefully cut down on bandwidth.
Posted by Cless on 10/29/2002
Hey, it could happen…
Posted by Cless on 10/7/2002
update 10/7
The response seems to be pretty good for this demo. So much that I’ve had to open another Yahoo
briefcase account to create a mirror. If speeds are too unbearingly slow on the original mirror,
try the second.
It seems I forgot which day it was yesterday. I fixed the date for the update. 😛
—-
In a bit of spare time today, I took the liberty to upload a hacked bin/cue image of the Tales
of Phantasia PSX TGS ’98 demo. The original demo disc included extras, but I’ve hacked them out
of this “release” to keep filesizes small. This will put you straight into the demo of the game.
All RARs combined equal about 27 megabytes, and fits nicely into a single Yahoo! Briefcase just
fine.
Why the “release”? So people who’ve never played ToP PSX can get a sample of it. It’s also fun
for people who’ve played the final version and want to compare differences (there’s quite a few!),
as this demo could be considered to be like an alpha. Since the discs were handed out free, I
figured it would be okay to distribute it.
Things to know: This demo isn’t translated. This demo has bugs. I will also not upload a complete
demo image with all the extras. And I most definitely will NOT upload an image of the full game.
So don’t ask about those.
Get the RARs (you need WinRAR 2.9 or higher to extract them!) here:
Part 01 Part 02 Part 03 Part 04 Part 05 Part 06 Part 07
Mirror 2:
Part 01 Part 02 Part 03 Part 04 Part 05 Part 06 Part 07
Posted by Cless on 9/30/2002
Lina`chan appeared out of thin air today and requested a new ToP script dump. Her request
was granted. Perhaps she’s got a handle on translating it now…
Posted by Cless on 9/29/2002
Hi, not a lot of activity lately. Been busy with more real life stuff (I’m working again…
when I can…), and spending most of my free time after that playing video games (finally
beat FF9, and replaying FF7 again for the first time in about 4 years, it’s actually…
quite a nostalgic trip). Haven’t done much with my game hacking/translation hobby lately,
but I’ve still been working on FF6 Hardtype 2.0 from time to time (’tis fun rewriting most
every monster’s artifical intelligence).
Also, I’m not really in need of any more PSX2HD test results. I’ve pretty much come to a
conclusion with that program now. Thanks to those who participated!
Posted by Cless on 8/27/2002
Alright! The message boards are back up, thanks to Wallace. Unfortunately, the database
of the old board couldn’t be extracted (got errors halfway through the backup procedure).
This means you’ll all have to register again. The old board is still up if you have any
reason to look at it.
In Tales of Phantasia news, we’ve decided to change the game’s menu font. It no longer
uses Tales of Destiny’s. Rather, we are now using a slightly modified version of the font
Dejap used in the battle menus for their Bahamut Lagoon
translation. We think it’s nicer and will be better for whenever the variable-width font
gets implemented.
In what’s probably the biggest news in awhile towards ToP, I, with the help of
HairRaiser, have gotten the game’s opening
video subtitled (in romaji for now).
As nice as this may actually seem, there is in fact a slight problem. The video quality dips some after re-encoding it into PSX’s movie format. Here’s a little comparison:
Frame#290. This is probably worst-looking scene after re-encoding. Notice the macroblocking on the blacks (if you can. It’s hard to see on such a small image). The artifacts are more noticeable with the game in action.
Frame#720. Notice the differences in color. You might not actually notice this while watching the video, but it’s noticeable if you compare side-by-side. (I honestly like the sky’s color more in the re-encode, but Cless looks a bit too soft)
Frame#952. A bit discolored like the last one, but not as offensive. I don’t think a human eye could catch the difference while this is in motion (the scene with this guy is only a few frames long)
Lastly, I’m still taking reports for PSX2HD tests. The response I’ve received hasn’t been
as great as I’d hoped. I’m really close to drawing conclusions on the program, but not quite.
If you haven’t yet tested the program, please go down into the last update and do so, if you
can!
Posted by Cless on 8/24/2002
Hey guys, I’m also in the process of updating my PlayStation hacking doc, but I need
your help.
What I need is for people to test the psx2hd utility and give me their results. It is
a very dodgy program that often refuses to work the way it should, and I’m guessing
because of system configuration. Unfortunately, there aren’t any much-needed alternative
tools that perform the same operation (I would love to see someone do it though.
Preferably for Windows)
To help, all you need are: a PlayStation game (on CD), a CD/DVD-ROM drive, a DOS or
Windows OS, and a bit of spare time. Simple enough, eh?
To get started, here’s a zip file containing all you need.
These files will extract to a /psx2hd directory on whichever drive you extract them
to.
Posted by Cless on 8/23/2002
Well, where to begin? There’s a lot to update about.
First off, I’ve placed the message board into offline mode for now, due to problems
(regulars should already know that…). Wallace Lee, are you still out there? Please
contact me, I seem to have lost your email address. I would like to ask you something.
I’ve got Tales of Phantasia PSX hacks booting on the console *properly* now. No more need
to use EXE loaders. The reason why it didn’t work properly before is that I found out
stripiso manages to corrupts the license info in the CD image, when you use the “s” command.
I now use a nice work-around with the lovely copy /b command. It works great.
The black bootup screen says “Translation by Phantasian Productions” instead of “Licensed
by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.”. Although the display is a bit weird in that there’s
a space after the “l” in Translation and about 7 spaces or so after the “P” in Productions.
All I’ve heard is that it’s to thwart hackers. Oh well.
Also found that the file order in the .cti files PSX2HD generates to be incorrect. I fixed
this problem with ToP, and now buildcd/stripiso generates nearly correct CD images. *nearly
correct* because there’s a certain sector that appears in the original cd image before the
first file, but in recompiled images using buildcd/stripiso, that sector appears after the
EXE file. Don’t know why it does that, but oh well. It’s not that big of a deal.
For people that use the PSX2HD/BUILDCD/STRIPISO method in hacking their own games, keep the
above stuff in mind. If you try making a PPF, the patch will probably be larger than the
ISO……….
I have a couple things to release today:
Final Fantasy III patch: Title screen replacement. Replaces the FF3US title
screen with the original Final Fantasy VI one. This
is what I used in my Hardtype hack. Created by Yazoo, NOT me.
Final Fantasy III patch: Monster attack data mover. Places the enemy attack
scripts (and pointers) at the end of the ROM, where
you’ll have PLENTY of space to design attack patterns
for your custom monsters. Expands the ROM by 4mbits.
In the very near future, a new page dedicated FF6 Hardtype 2.0 will be completed.
And now, just about a week ago, I stumbled upon one of the most elite things. It’s called
It Might Be NES (IMBNES). It is an 8-bit NES emulator made for PlayStation. It is amazing
because it runs games at a full 60FPS framerate (barring FF2j and FF3j, which slow down in
certain spots). It even supports SRAM saving to memory card. Sound emulation ranges from
decent to perfect (nowhere near earbleedingly bad on anything I’ve tested). You can get
IMBNES here.
IMBNES’ ISO file is compiled using the BUILDCD and STRIPISO combo. Believe it or not, it’s
because of this emulator that I realised how I was compiling ToP wrong…
And Super Dodgeball (NES) is fun.
Posted by Cless on 8/09/2002
Alright guys, I’m back (regretfully so…). Australia is good, and even better
if you can get your hands on the sacred milky goodness known as Wave.
And Vegemite ain’t so bad, if you use it properly. If you go to Australia (or any
other countries that use 50hz PAL), and you’re used to 60hz TV, be sure to bring
plenty of of the best headache pills you know of– 50hz TV hertz, especially
on bright stuff.
I’ve been reinspired to work on Final Fantasy VI hacking again. I’m in the process of
creating an all new version of FF6 Hardtype which will sport some new ideas and more
in-depth monster hacking (work on attack patterns of some enemies instead of only making
them stronger). The completed release will be version 2.0. The FF6 hacking doc will be
seeing some resuming sometime soon as well. I’ll be working on these during periods when
we can’t do much of anything with ToP (it’s priority).
I’ve added an FF6 hacking board and a FF6HT board to the message forum index, so use them
if you have any reason to.
Posted by Cless on 5/9/2002
Today marks my leave for the land with Kangaroos, PAL TV, dunnies, locals with
unintelligible accents, and where it is the law to drive on the wrong side of
the road (okay, just kidding on the last two :p). At around 3pm PST, I begin my
adventure Down Under to spend a nice long and fun visit with a very special
friend of mine.
How long will I be gone? There are two possiblities. I’m scheduled to return on
June 4th. But if I decide to, I may stay as late as August 11th.
Posted by Cless on 4/13/2002
The Oekaki BBS has been upgraded.
It was originally a Japanese piece of software, so we had to do a bit of
translation work on it. It’s not COMPLETELY translated yet, but most of the
interface is, and should be usable. Plus the translations may be a bit rough,
as most of it was done through the help of everyone’s favorite Babelfish.
The old BBS is gone, but I’ve saved its state. We should soon have a gallery of
sorts containing the recent stuff that was posted to it, so don’t worry.
And some GOOD THINGS might be happening with the ToP PSX project soon… we’ll just
have to wait and see.
Posted by Cless on 4/4/2002
You can stop looking for the patch now. If you haven’t figured it out yet, the
last update was Just Another Lame April Fool’s Joke(tm). But we like that image,
and had fun making it. It’s also a kind of mock-up of what the final thing may
look like…
We need Variable Width Fonts badly…
Posted by Yetika on 1/4/2002
This is the Phantasian Productions ToP translation helper and butt kicker
motivational speaker updating. Since Cless can’t do it himself today for some
reason I’m doing it for him while he gets himself out of whatever hole he’s
dug himself into.
Anyway, as you can see, we have a new screenshot to show our l337 progress
on Tales of Phantasia PSX. We’re pretty much done with it now, so all you
people out there reading this have to do, is find where we’ve hidden the
patch >:D
Posted by Cless on 3/17/2002
No real news on the ToP PSX front this update around… sorry. But there are some
page changes-
New graphic font. This is a more pixel accurate representation. Also it’s more
variable width-like and I think it looks spiffy. Created for me by my Hime.
Dropped the fansub section. Sorry, but interest shifted elsewhere after the Aa!
Megamisama movie was quickly licensed and released in region 1. BTW, the DVD
looks just as gorgeous as the original region 2 DVD. It’s a great buy, it’s
got Japanese audio with english subs, and a mighty fine dub.
Added an Oekaki BBS. Doodle something,
post it, get feedback and comments. It’s been there for awhile but is finally being
plugged here. It needs more good fanart. >:D
Hmm… soon after she redesigns her website, I’ll be hosting my Hime’s
(Yetika Koneko‘s) website
on my webspace.
One last thing. In case any there aren’t any updates until then, I’ll be taking a 3 and a
half week trip to Australia to visit her on May 9th. I’ll be returning on June 4th…
Posted by Cless on 1/18/2002
Klarth’s map rebuilder is done! (well sort of…) Dialogue is editable now! As
you can see, Lilith ph33rs Fighter. We like swords too. And swordchucks, yo.
SPONSOR LINKS
Play-Asia.com
Play-Asia is an import store with with a large catalog that includes Tales games and merchandise,
as well as various other video game and anime-related goods.
Site designed, coded, and maintained by Cless.
All content (c) Phantasian Productions (unless noted) since 2001.
