GOMOKU NARABE RENJU (NES)
Translation by Psyklax
v1.0 (20170614)

CONTENTS
1. Intro
2. Background
3. ROM Information
4. Game Rules
5. Final Thoughts

INTRO
This is a full 100% translation of Gomoku Narabe Renju.
Released on 27th August 1983, it was only the joint fourth
game ever released on Famicom, along with Mahjong on the same
day. It's based on the Japanese board game Gomoku Narabe,
meaning Five in a Row, and it's also known as Gobang in the
West. The Renju subtitle refers to the professional rules
that make the game more difficult for the black player (who
always goes first) thus making the chance of victory more
even for both players. Given the Wikipedia article uses the
Japanese name of both the game and the rule set, I didn't
translate the title into English, and simply transliterated
it.

BACKGROUND
The Famicom (later NES) only provides for one or two 16KB ROM
chips for non-graphic data (known as PRG-ROM) and one 8KB ROM
chip for graphic data (known as CHR- ROM). This limitation
was no great problem for the first year or so of the
Famicom's life, but it quickly dawned on game producers that
to take advantage of the substantial graphics and sound
capabilities that the system had to offer, they needed to
solve the ROM problem. The solution was memory management
chips (MMCs, also known as mappers) which swapped ROM memory
in and out of the Famicom's RAM. The system could still only
access the same amount at any one time, but with the ability
to switch chunks of the ROM made new types of games possible.
The first Famicom game (that I can find) that used an MMC
chip was City Connection, released in September 1985. It was
satisfied with one 16KB PRG-ROM, but doubled the CHR-ROM
available to 16KB, presumably because the colourful city
backgrounds were a key feature of the game that would be lost
without more graphical space. Interestingly, the US release,
which arrived three years later, doubled the size (2x16KB
PRG, 4x8KB CHR), partly to add a nice title screen among
other things.

By 1986, the vast majority of Famicom titles used mappers, as
the extra cost of including these chips along with larger
ROMs was offset by the potential of more advanced games. The
Famicom had already been released in the US by this point, so
the difference with early games is perhaps not as keenly
felt, since mappers were already starting to be used by the
time games were being released in the US. Some early Japanese
games which didn't use a mapper were localised overseas with
extended ROM via a mapper.

Early Famicom games, due to their limited size, generally
avoided using Japanese language, since it takes far more
graphics to make a full Japanese syllabary than an English
capital alphabet. Nevertheless, some early games did still
use Japanese, mostly ones that were quite Japanese to begin
with. Gomoku Narabe Renju and Mahjong are two obvious
examples, along with Hon Shougi - Naitou 9 Dan Shougi Hiden,
a shogi game (Japanese chess).

It was interesting for me to delve into one of the earliest
Famicom games to see what's going on inside. Presumably it's
less sophisticated than later NES and Famicom games, but a
good starting point.

ROM INFORMATION
GoodNES name: Gomoku Narabe Renju (J) [!].nes
CRC32: 28843BB1

GAME RULES
Gomoku Narabe is played on a Go board with Go pieces, but
that's where the similarities end. It's quite a simple
game: you have to get five pieces in a row to win. Black
always goes first, and players alternate between black and
white to ensure fairness.

 Opening Pattern
At the beginning of play, there is a specific opening
pattern: a black stone is placed on the centre point, then
a white stone is placed in the central 3x3 square, and
finally a black stone is placed in the central 5x5 square.
This process is automated in this game, but in real life
the players would obviously do it themselves. There are 26
possible combinations of stones: 13 'direct' (where the
white stone is next to the black stone), and 13 'indirect'
(where the white stone is diagonally adjacent to the black
stone). On the right of the screen is shown which type of
move was played (so 1IN is Indirect Opening number 1, and
1DI is Direct Opening number 1). Each opening move has a
'name' in Japanese, and each of these names were shown in
the original Japanese game. You can read more about all the
opening moves here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renju_opening_pattern

Incidentally, the Famicom game doesn't include all 26
opening patterns, only 19, presumably due to ROM space
constraints. Since the game does it automatically, it can
choose which one to use.

 Black Handicaps
The Renju rules used in this game add an extra element to
the original rules: black has limitations on how it can
win. For white it's simple: five or more stones in a row
equal a win. Black, on the other hand, has some handicaps.

Firstly, black cannot make a line of more than five: this
is an 'overlong' line. Second, black cannot place a stone
that builds two separate lines with three stones in each,
if they are unblocked (no white stones next to them).
Third, black cannot place a stone that builds two separate
lines with four stones in each, whether they are blocked or
not. In each case, white wins.

FINAL THOUGHTS
I hope you enjoy this little game from the early days of
the Famicom. It was a real education for me, as I had to
rewrite some of the assembly to do what I wanted, which
will help me greatly with future translations. I have to
say, though, that I'm still terrible at the game. Even on
the beginners level (LVL1 on the menu) I get hammered every
time. Maybe you guys will enjoy it, anyway. Have fun! :)

Psyklax
http://s346165667.websitehome.co.uk/psyktrans/