Bare Knuckle 3 English Patch Version 1.00 Initial Release: Feb. 15, 2009 by Twilight Translations -------------------------------------- 1. Introduction 2. Development 3. Notes 4. Patch History 5. Credits 6. Acknowledgements -------------------------------------- 1. Introduction -------------------------------------- Released on March 3, 1994, Bare Knuckle 3 (or Streets of Rage 3 as it came to be known outside Japan) is the third and final entry in the classic beat'em up Mega Drive series Bare Knuckle. When BK3 was translated and released as Streets of Rage 3, Sega -- for whatever reason -- significantly altered the content of the game. The most obvious change was the story, or lack thereof. The entire introduction sequence was removed along with other scenes in the game. In addition to this, the difficulty in SoR3 was ramped up to insane levels, making SoR3's hard mode comparable to BK3's Very Hard mode. However, the most perplexing change was the characters' palettes. Instead of wearing his usual white T-shirt and blue jeans, Axel was sporting jet black pants and a yellow shirt, reminiscent of Adam's attire. The other characters suffered similar "improvements." The full list of changes made is well-documented and can be easily found online, so I won't dwell on the negative any further. What we have instead is a game that is a deserving successor to the Bare Knuckle/Streets of Rage legacy. This is hands down one of the greatest beat'em ups released during the era. -------------------------------------- 2. Development -------------------------------------- I'll be honest. Streets of Rage 2 is probably my hands-down favorite game of all time. I can't tell you how many hours of my youth were spent playing that game. So my interest in BK3 probably stems from there. The exact date I began working on BK3 with the intention to translate it isn't very clear, but the oldest file and emails related to this date back to early May 2006. Yeah, this project's been going on for a long time. I remember vaguely how it began, though. A group of hackers by the name of g8z_et_al (AKA z80_gaiden AKA Guest) had posted on RHDN concerning a Mega Drive game. Once I expressed my interest in BK3, they sent me a build of their modded version of Gens and the location of the Japanese font. So, I spent a few days (or weeks; I'm not sure) studying the code to make sure that I was even capable of hacking a Mega Drive game. All of my experience up to this point had been on the NES and SNES and the MD was entirely different beast. In retrospect, I'm actually kind of surprised that I didn't give up on the game. Anyway, I wrote a custom dumper and extracted the script. Then I contacted Anton Berglin, who had written a translation of BK3's text for Streets of Rage Online. He worked on it for a few months and finally sent me the script back around late November 2006. That's where the long period of uncertainty began. I'd like to think I produce only quality translations. To me, that typically means using a Variable Width-Font (VWF) where necessary and ensuring the script looks and sounds good in English. Both of these were necessary for BK3, but the former would prove much more difficult to implement than the latter. You see, I had no ASM experience with the MD or any 68000-based system, nor was there a suitable 68k assembler available. No, if I wanted the game to have a VWF I would have to make the assembler myself. Enter SEKAS. SEKAS (short for Sixty Eight K ASsembler) is a modified version of byuu's excellent xkas with support added for the 68k processor (obviously). Creating SEKAS and testing it took easily a year of my life. I restarted the project twice that I know of, but I'm almost certain the current build is the result of a third reboot. The first versions were the results of my attempting to write an assembler from scratch, on my own. The final version was a result of working directly with xkas's source code. There are still a few bugs in SEKAS, which I discovered while working a demo of my own. Once these are fixed, I intend to release SEKAS. That puts us at late 2007 (work on SEKAS began in early December 2006) when work on BK3 could finally resume. Due to lack of time and debugging Live-A-Live (another patch that I am extremely proud of) for Aeon Genesis, I don't think I started working on the VWF for BK3 until about February 2008. Once work finally began, it only took a month or so to get the VWF up and running perfectly. That left only the script editing. A fellow by the name of Valkyrie_Ace (AKA Roy_Fokker) volunteered to edit the script in early March 2008. Unfortunately, real life got in the way and it took VA until early November to get the first draft of the script back to me. I hooked back up with Anton to look over the script and let him voice any of his concerns...and that's the last I heard from either of them. I'm not sure what happened. Alas. Hoping they would resurface to finish the script, I let the first draft sit on my harddrive until early January 2009 when I decided I would finish the editing myself. And that brings us to today. Beta testing is in progress as I type this. Sliver X has run through the game and has only found two typos. Christuserloser is running through the game with his flashcart to ensure there are no problems with the various platforms he has access to. I ran through the game earlier on my model 2 Genesis with no problems. In closing, I'd just like to say that I hope you all enjoy this patch. This project in some form or another has been a huge part of my life for the past 3 years, and I'm almost sad to see it come to an end. Fortunately my happiness overshadows my sadness. Grab a buddy and enjoy some old school beat'em up action on me. -------------------------------------- 3. Notes -------------------------------------- If you've followed along with this project, you'll know that I've contemplated releasing two patches: one using the original Bare Knuckle 3 names and another using the Streets of Rage 3 names (Skate instead of Sammy, Roo, not Victy, etc) and title screen. In the end I decided against this for two reason. First, importing the title screen is a significant amount of work that I don't want to do. Second, where do I draw the line on the names? Only player characters or do I change the enemy names too to be consistent with SoR1 and SoR2? I couldn't come up with an answer, so I've chosen to release only one patch. Besides, now when the pirates sell RARE L@@K copies of ENGLISH BARE KNUCKLE 3 on eBay, I'll know exactly how much money someone has made off of my work. -------------------------------------- 4. Patch History -------------------------------------- -Version 1.00 All the text in the game has been translated. This includes both dialogue in the story mode and the win/lose quotes in the Battle mode, and the Engrish in the battle mode has been fixed. The patch has been thoroughly tested and works on the hardware. If you find a platform it doesn't work on, let me know. Included files: *bk3_100.ips - The English translation. Overall, I'm extremely happy with the quality of the patch. This is probably the cleanest code I've ever hacked into a game. Everything about this patch was fun to do, and hopefully that shows. There are currently no known bugs. Please note, however, that the patch has only been tested on an American Sega Genesis Model 2. The code has been written in such a way that it should work on all models, though. -------------------------------------- 5. Credits -------------------------------------- Bare Knuckle 3 Translation Team: RedComet - Programmer (me) Anton Berglin - Translator Sheex - Translator Valkyrie_Ace - Editor Testing and QA Team: Sliver X Christuserloser -------------------------------------- 6. Acknowledgements -------------------------------------- In addition to the people listed in the Credits section, a few people deserve a special mention, without whom, this project would never have been completed: * g8z_et_al - You guys have helped me so much. Without you I probably wouldn't be the hacker I am today. I hope you know how much I appreciate it! * Suzaku - A partner in crime and more importantly a friend, who's helped out with on the spot translations and editing advice. * The fans - The encouragement from members of various online communities (Sega-16, Streets of Rage Remake, Streets of Rage Online, and more) has been overwhelmingly positive even in the project's darkest hours. The praise and doubt kept me going. Thanks guys. And lastly all the people whose names I've forgotten. Thank you very much.