"Xak III-The Eternal Recurrence" Translation Patch Xak III is a Super CDROM^2 Action Role Playing game released by MicroCabin and NEC Home Electronics, Ltd. on 9-30-1994 for the PC-Engine/TurboDuo CDROM system. NOW it's THE Final Version - Project Completed on 6/14/2004 100%! THE END!! Credits: NightWolve - Project Manager, Programmer, Hacker, Script Editor. (Plus, the guy missing the most hours of sleep here. :) It's ok, I'll catch up on my sleep when i'm dead.) Paul England - Script Translation (Japanese => English). Akimaru - The final translator that revised and double-checked Paul's work. Special Thanks to: Tenchi-no-Ryu - For the rendering of RIGG, software (PPF), the actual Xak III CD image and support, and excitement over the project. He helps run http://www.rpgfan.com now. Dave Shadoff - For interesting late night chats on PCE & various stuffs. :P And for great enthusiasm in translations for PCE. Dave also caught the "translation bug" & has done some HuCards translations - check http://www.interlog.com/~daves/ Allanon - For providing CG translation software (X-RIGG Member). David Michel - For exchanging info now & then, plus the best PCE emulator ME (www.magicengine.com). Also, for pointing out that the S-JIS charset was in use by the PCE system. --------------------------------------------------------------------- For further information and patch updates, visit the "Xak III-The Eternal Recurrence" home page at: http://home.earthlink.net/~nlivaditis/xakiii/index.html Mirror: http://rigg.servegame.com/translations/xakiii/index.html Also, check out RIGG, our PC-Engine preservation group: http://rigg.servegame.com/mb/ikonboard.cgi Game info reference: http://www.pcecp.com/index.php?mode=catalog&action=info&gameid=838 --------------------------------------------------------------------- The patch may not be distributed unless accompanied by this documentation. See the Legal section for details. --------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Project history 2. How to install 3. About the game 4. About the translation 5. Greetings 6. Legal / disclaimer 7. Before you contact us... 8. Contacting us --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Project history --------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, the patch took quite some time and difficutly to produce... January 15, 2002 resulted in the first full script dump; there were some extraction issues with a few strings due to control codes, but I figured those out later on. Around that time, Z0rn showed up to offer to translate it, but of course, with my luck he was gone after the mere translation of 60 strings. This project was my reason for building a translation management tool, which to this day, I still work on for additional features. Around Saturday, March 09, 2002, Dave Shadoff recommended I talk to Paul England who had been around the Turbo List asking about the possibility of PCE translations. He came on board the project, and was able to become familiar with my translation tool to begin working. Progress was fast in the beginning, but slowed down dramatically with Paul's schedule. June 04, 2002 was the last major update I got from Paul before the BETA release. On Friday, July 05, 2002, a month of no translation effort, I had completed all hacking work, and I had ordered the script manually as it appears when playing the game, to give Paul the correct sequence and thus context of the storyline. Returning the new translation tool, with the best possible script management, I left the ball in Paul's court for the rest. Wednesday, October 02, 2002, Paul's final work arrived at long last. I went to work editing, finalizing, etc. to produce the first beta patch around October 08, 2002... I decided to included 2 types of patches, one for the .ISO data track ripp, and the other for the proper full bin/cue ripp. All in all, the hacking work took me about 3-4 months in total. The translation, the tools, the script management took the most time and is still ongoing... Well, the beta release came after ~9 months of wait and hard work. And now the close-to-final release... It appears 12:44 PM 6/14/2004 is the date/time that I finally completed my script editing, play testing and began the release of the last patch into distribution. Akimaru's work finally was put to good use. So, I'm calling it quits from here on out, so it's the best it's gonna be... I hope everyone enjoys it. Lord knows I've spent an eternity on it... Wow, I can't believe it's been nearly 2.5 years... Well, here's to the PCE translation scene!!! --------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. How to install --------------------------------------------------------------------- -The following instructions apply to a Microsoft Windows OS. First task is to ripp a bin/cue image of the CDROM if you don't already have one. To do so, you can go here, http://home.earthlink.net/~nlivaditis/xakiii/index.html#8 (or http://rigg.servegame.com/translations/xakiii/index.html#8), or my general guide for making a ripp here, http://rigg.servegame.com/pce_duo_ripping.htm For convenience, typed instructions are below: a) Get/install latest ASPI drivers, if need be: http://download.adaptec.com/software_pc/aspi/aspi_v472a2.exe You can try my instructions if you have trouble: http://rigg.servegame.com/aspi_installation.htm b) Get/install CDRWIN at http://www.goldenhawk.com/download.htm Note, the demo version will allow you a slow 1x dump. c) Insert your original PCE CD of Xak III. d) Run CDRWIN and Click on the Extract button. e) Select the CD Reader with your loaded Xak III CD. f) Check RAW, Ignore for Error Recovery, Enable for Jitter Correction, Auto for Subcode analysis, data/audio speed 1X, read retry 60, & SubCode threshold 300. g) In "Image Filename," click the browse button(the one with "..."), choose a working directory location & save the image name to XakIII.bin h) Click START. i) After the ripp process is complete, make sure the XakIII.bin file size is 567,664,608 bytes. j) Now, with your XakIII.bin file ready, copy the contents of the patch (Xak3(US)-B.cab) to the same directory. k) Simply double click "PATCH.BAT" to begin the patching process... If it fails, use PATCHBAK.BAT. Once that's finished, you're ready to go.. You can, a) reburn to a CD-R & play the game on a real DUO/PC-Engine, or, b) you can use daemon tools (http://www.daemon-tools.cc/) to mount the bin/cue as a virtual CD & play with emulators such as YAME (http://rigg.servegame.com/software/yame038e.rar) or ME (www.magicengine.com). Also, included in the patch contents are binaries for Linux & MacOS-X. Run those binaries on the command line & follow what's in patch.bat to figure out how to apply the patch(should be a no-brainer) if patching on those platforms.. I can't test them, but i've included them to reach out to more gamer's platforms :).. While CDRWIN doesn't exist for these platforms, there may be other CDRW programs that are compatible with the bin/cue standard. Good luck! --------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. About the game --------------------------------------------------------------------- Xak III is a fine Action RPG for its time and is probably one of the more better RPGs ever released for the PC-Engine/DUO. It's quite similar in style to Ancient Ys I&II, so Ys fans will find it very enjoyable. The story begins with Ratok, a descendant of the Duel bloodline, receiving a distress message from Farland Castle... For the longest time, the world has been split into three, Fairy, Demon, and Human, mainly for the purpose of having the demons sealed away... Yet somehow, the demons have found a way to enter the Human World to launch an invasion, beginning with Farland Kingdom. One kingdom after another falls to their terrible reign of terror. Ratok is informed of the situation by a dying man's last breath, and thus begins his journey to stop the demons from their dreams of conquest... Journey with Ratok, as he quests with his legendary Xak Sword to repel the demon invasion, makes plenty of interesting and humorous allies/friends along the way, discovers his true identity and that of his father's (whose gone missing for quite some time)... The storyline is intricate and a little bit above average from most RPGs of that time period I would say... Graphics are top notch, with plenty of cinemas, and even fairly gory/bloody details... The music is pretty well composed as well... Anyhow, don't waste time reading this, patch'n'play!!! --------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. About the translation --------------------------------------------------------------------- The translation has gone thru 3 persons: Paul England, the original translator; Akimaru, the 2nd translator/reviewer; and finally, yours truly. I simply made the final call on grammar, casing, rewording, etc. where necessary... It's been a long drawn out process that's dragged on and on, but finally, I'm officially ending the project. Thanks to all that helped and I hope that everyone who enjoys this game will leave more feedback to let us know who you are... --------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Greetings --------------------------------------------------------------------- Greetings, and thanks to: * God Bless Ronald Reagan you pinko-commie shitheads! * Tenchi-no-Ryu * Allanon * Akimaru...that krazy Finish guy :) * The emulation community in general for giving me the motivation to do this... * All those who left snippets of info across that world wide binary stream we call the internet :) * Anyone I forgot. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Legal / disclaimer --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Xak III English Translation patch is UNOFFICIAL, UNAUTHORIZED, & isn't supported in any way by MicroCabin nor NEC. :) (no shit!) The Patch is freeware and may be redistributed freely as long as it is not modified, not applied to or distributed with any CDROM image, and this documentation is included and not modified either. No money, goods, or services may be charged or solicited for the Patch, in original or applied form. Anyone using the patch does so at their own risk. Neither NightWolve, nor any of the other individuals mentioned in this documentation will be held liable for any loss or damage arising from its use. But, don't worry, unless you're an idiot, there's no way you can cause damage from its use. :P --------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Before you contact us... --------------------------------------------------------------------- For Xak III Tidbits & other information, check out: http://home.earthlink.net/~nlivaditis/xakiii/index.html#13 Regarding bug reports: If you notice a bug in the English version of the game (that wasn't already in the Japanese version), I'd like to hear about it. Make a state file using YAME or ME to email me along with a reasonable description of the problem. Also, if you wanna translate Xak III into another language just email me if interested. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Contacting us --------------------------------------------------------------------- NightWolve: nlivadit@yahoo.com My Homebase: http://rigg.servegame.com/mb/ikonboard.cgi Paul England: texas@hpo.net Paul's Place: http://www.classicgaming.com/japangaming/ Akimaru's: http://rigg.servegame.com/aki/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------