Project Melancholia almost finished

People who attended Event Eleven or have read this announcement already know that Project Melancholia is a new translation of one of the most renowned MSX games to date: SD Snatcher. The people behind this project (Max Iwamoto, Rieks Warendorp Torringa, René Lourens and Dennis Bakker) are proud to inform us that, after months of hard work, all the texts of this game are finally translated. However, this does not imply that the translation is finished. Some texts must still be implemented in the game and some final proofreading must take place before the final product will hit the shelves.

The complete translation is expected to be released early 2012 and will cost € 12,50. People who pre-order the translation will receive a discount and will only have to pay € 10,-. Better yet, even when you decide to pre-order there is no need to pay upfront.

Relevant link: Project Melancholia (SD Snatcher retranslation)

By ro

Scribe (4963)

09-12-2011, 13:14

can't wait!

(for mrc2k12 either.... )

By Jorito

Mr. Ambassadors (1790)

09-12-2011, 16:17

mrc2k12 will be released in 2012. mrc2k11 will be released in 2011 tho

Anyways, great news on the melancholia update!

By Sky_hawk

Champion (267)

11-12-2011, 20:50

rieks, count me in for a pre-order

By Sama

Ambassador (2068)

11-12-2011, 23:19

Great, Jan! Please use the form on the website, it helps us keeping track of the preorders. Thanks!

By d-fader

Champion (293)

12-12-2011, 09:04

I was wondering, how many people have actually pre-ordered? Or is this classified?

By ro

Scribe (4963)

12-12-2011, 11:04

I have, so that's one already

By Sama

Ambassador (2068)

13-12-2011, 05:59

...And Snatcher base part 3 working! That leaves only Survival World and the two demos at the end of the game... Apart from finetuning and final proofreading, that is...

By RobertVroemisse

Paragon (1327)

13-12-2011, 11:00

It was about time...

By MicroTech

Champion (388)

13-12-2011, 15:23

Cool!
I'd also like to see MSX games released with Project Egg re-released for real MSX machines (not embedded in MSX-Player)... I think they would gain lot of success.

By Akiguchi

Hero (623)

19-09-2012, 19:26

Cannot wait for this to be released. It seems that the translation project is very close finish as it states in the progress page on their site: http://www.project-melancholia.org/progress.html

Any new news from the translators about the current situation? :)

By OeiOeiVogeltje

Paragon (1432)

20-09-2012, 20:48

the demo doesnt seem to work in any emulator...
NM
i should read better..

By OeiOeiVogeltje

Paragon (1432)

09-12-2012, 20:41

almost finished?????

By TheWhipMaster

Expert (120)

16-10-2013, 17:22

Please make me happy this Xmas

By max_iwamoto

Hero (643)

17-10-2013, 03:53

We will try

By WORP3

Paladin (864)

17-10-2013, 10:50

And those that already did pay the 10 euro during the pre-order ?

By max_iwamoto

Hero (643)

17-10-2013, 17:56

WORP3 wrote:

And those that already did pay the 10 euro during the pre-order ?

What do you mean?

By WORP3

Paladin (864)

17-10-2013, 21:20

For some reason I thought that I already payed 10 euro when registering way back in 2011, I could be mistaken as it is a long time ago and those bank logs are only going back 1.5 year.
Would you be willing to check if my registration did survive the sands of time ?

By max_iwamoto

Hero (643)

18-10-2013, 05:42

@ WORP3: As far as I know no money was collected from anybody at the moment of pre-order. I can ask Rieks to check your registration, but I will need the email address that you used when pre-order.

By Sama

Ambassador (2068)

18-10-2013, 08:40

Worp3: your registration still stands, but you didn't pay yet. Two or three exceptions aside (good friends of mine who wanted to show their enthusiasm), nobody paid yet; you didn't have to in order to preorder.

By Creepy

Champion (335)

18-10-2013, 09:20

I pre-ordered and didn't have to pay yet, but:

By WORP3

Paladin (864)

18-10-2013, 10:46

Ok, thanks for verifying it for me. As my order still stands, I will pay when you are ready to receive it

By max_iwamoto

Hero (643)

09-12-2013, 19:07

Now, almost 2 years after this topic was start, we finally have pre-release version ready. Hard to believe that we started this translation almost 3 years ago.

All planned issues has been fixed and we are ready for the final play-trough. First 2 disks has been tested already, so only disk 3 remains. If we do not find any new issues, the game will be ready for release before XMAS. Of course, there is more optional things that we would like to add to the patch, but this will delay release even longer. So we probably will release current version and then will add some other optional things later on.

By Jorito

Mr. Ambassadors (1790)

09-12-2013, 19:34

Releasing the current version sounds like a good idea, otherwise it'll start to be vaporware...

Good thing I took some days off for the x-mas holidays, I could replay SD Snatcher now

By Manuel

Ascended (19462)

09-12-2013, 21:20

What kind of optional stuff are you thinking about? This may influence my decision to start playing it with the first release or when the additions are ready.

By Akiguchi

Hero (623)

09-12-2013, 21:23

What kind of optional things there are to be added later? I mean, do I miss something nice if I start playing the pre-release version instead of waiting a little longer? Even if it's such a great game, I'm not sure if I have the time to play it two times over

By max_iwamoto

Hero (643)

09-12-2013, 22:05

@Manuel & Akiguchi: You will not miss any of important stuff. The optional things mostly related to creating a FLASH version that saves into FLASH RAM instead of Floppy when playing on FLASH cartridges. Especially for special SD Snatcher cartridge, because it contain only 2MB of space and will be very hard to create 10 saves for it. For new SCC+SD+512K this can be done easily, but require some time to write code/test/etc...

There is nothing will be added to the story related events.

This is few of the current features:

- Complete English translation of all in-game texts.
- Translation of all graphics that we saw fit into the scenario.
- 3 version available:
1) Translation for original game with 64KB RAM & SD Snatcher Sound cartridge.
2) Translation for original game with 64KB RAM & Snatcher Sound cartridge.
3) Translation for original game with 128KB RAM (mapped) & ANY SCC/SCC-I sound cartridge available on the market (tested with all Pazos's FLASH cartridges/OTHER SCC Cartridges/Playsoniq/etc...)
It is possible to detect up to 16 SCC cartridges and and choose one of them or downgrade and play without any SCC cartridge or just PSG or even silent mode.
- Automatic activation of Turbo mode for all know MSX computers (Turbo-R/Panasonic's MSX2+/Brazilian clones).

By Manuel

Ascended (19462)

09-12-2013, 23:06

Note that AFAIK (please check) the turbo on the Panasonic MSX2+ machines cause a higher pitched PSG sound (and perhaps also SCC). I guess you don't want to activate that automatically.

By anonymous

incognito ergo sum (116)

10-12-2013, 07:32

PSG goes up, but any other sound chip stays pitched correctly, though sometimes missings (part of) a note...
Doing this automatically will make the music go out of tune because, eventhough the pitch of the panasonic 2+ machines' psg goes up and does not distort, it does not go up a complete octave and therefore will conflict with the scc...
A good solution would be to just mute psg channel 2 and 3 when in pana2+ turbo mode. That way you still have drums but nothing false musically...

By NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6067)

10-12-2013, 07:37

Nice option would be also to support two regular SCC chips if SCC+ is not available... I think there was this kind of patch for SD-snatcher somewhere...

@Manuel. Yes at least in FS-A1WX the PSG goes one octave up when using turbo mode. Maybe also this can be fixed by software.

By max_iwamoto

Hero (643)

10-12-2013, 16:01

No problem, I will make it optional for Panasonic MSX2+, for the other systems it will auto. I think this is the best choice.

And is it possible to solve this issue by using extra PSG inside MegaFlashROM cartridge?

@ Meits: I can mute channels 2 and 3 and see how it will sound.

@ NYYRIKKI: It's a very interesting approach to use 2 SCC cartridges.

By sd_snatcher

Prophet (3659)

11-12-2013, 01:10

If I recall correctly, the user Dhampird did tests that proved that both the PSG and the CLK pin of the slot of the Panasonic MSX2+ machines will have their clock accelerated to 5.37MHz. The PSG is affected because its integrated inside the MSX-Engine and unfortunately there's no specific CLK line for it as the discrete PSG had.

The YM2413, OTOH, has it's own CLK line and so it's pitch is unaffected by the turbo.

The behavior for the CLK pin in the slots of the Panasonic MSX2+ machines is correct, since that pin is meant to be CPUCLK. Otherwise it wouldn't be possible for external cartridges to synchronize with the CPU.

But this also means that sound cartridges that saved costs by omitting a built-in crystal will be affected. This is described in the Dos and dont's when designing MSX hardware article of the MSX Wiki.

The known affected sound cartridges will be:

- MSX-Music: All external cartridges, except Padial's SAN3
- MSX-Audio: Panasonic FS-CA1, Philips NMS-1150, Toshiba HX-MU900
- Konami SCC and SCC+
- Manuel Pazos' MegaFlash ROM (all models)
- Sharksym's SD+SCC interface

Known unaffected sound cartridges with a built-in crystal:
- All OPL4 cartridges (MoonSound, ShockWave, Dal-so-ri, etc)
- MSXpro OPL3 cartridge
- Padial SAN3 (PSG+SCC+MSXMusic sound cartridge)

Ways to fix/workaround the problem:

- The only workaround I know is to use a Padial's SAN3 cartridge. Other existing hardware workarounds always have the show stopper that the PSG sound will not be fixed.

Note: The problem can't be fixed by software, because it would only work for a specific machine and let all other Z80 turbo machines uncovered

By meits

Scribe (6542)

11-12-2013, 07:47

For the curious ones: This OST of Ashguine 2 was recorded from a Panasonic FS-A1WX in turbo mode where the internal MSX Music is played left and the MSX Audio with a custom built in crystal is played right.
The attack of several notes is not played which can easily be heard in the emptier parts of the tracks.

By sd_snatcher

Prophet (3659)

11-12-2013, 10:13

@Meits

In this case, the missing notes happens because (1) FM chips are slow thus require a delay between writes and (2) the replayer probably does direct I/O, hard coded to generate delays only for a 3.57mhz Z80.

This effect is even more severe/noticeable on MSX Turbo-R given the higher speed. If the MSX-Music BIOS was used instead of direct I/O, z80 CPUs up to 7.14MHz and the Turbo-R's R800 would have been supported natively, without trouble.

By Guillian

Prophet (3517)

11-12-2013, 11:52

sd_snatcher wrote:

I'm sorry but I don't agree. I trust in official documentation rather than other sources. MSX Technical Data Book and MSX Data Pack (that define the MSX hardware and software standard) say that the CLOCK signal at the slot must be 3.579MHz.
That's why on an MSX turbo R it is not 7.16MHz.

Quote:

But this also means that sound cartridges that saved costs by omitting a built-in crystal will be affected.

I would say "cartridges that expect an MSX computer following the standard".

By sd_snatcher

Prophet (3659)

12-12-2013, 01:11

@Guillian

I understand you point of view, and it's quite valid from the premises you're considering. But of course this approach has it's toll on both performance and the cost of developing a machine like the Turbo-R, since it required a expensive custom chipset to synchronize everything.

IMHO, newer sound cartridges have no reason to omit a crystal for the sound frequency generation. Including such crystal allows for much more flexibility, and accommodates the homebrew turbo kits pretty well.

Please keep in mind that I don't want to hijack the thread over this discussion, and also I don't want to pick any fight. You have your point of view and I respect that. I don't want to offend anyone, and I hope we can still be friends while having different points of view.

By Guillian

Prophet (3517)

12-12-2013, 09:24

No problem. We are just talking, not fighting
From my point of view, it would be better to add a clock generator to the homebrew turbo kits than adding it to all new cartridges.
For me, seems more logic to "fix" one computer (in order to follow the standard) than 100 cartridges to get them working on that computer.
Also, I don't think it is fair that most users has to pay that extra that they don't probably need, just because a few ones need it for they "non standard" computers.
Anyway, I'll consider to add it as extra if I design a new PCB.

Back to the topic: I am really looking forward to play the new translation at Xmas!

By WORP3

Paladin (864)

12-12-2013, 20:04

Even on my Orbit project, the clk will be 3,579545MHz like described in the MSX technical handbook. Increasing this clk will have it's drawback on all kind of audio devices.

By Moniz

Champion (400)