Print

[gilles9999]

WOW you are fast rez ihaven't paid attention you are doing things through A-D, awesome,

I'm doing "G"

REZX can you send me the file you have completed yet?

[Mega Man (?)]

Hey Gilles, does this look OK? Does it matter how long the characters stretch (per/line) in the text file? Also, have you included Rx's and my dat's CRC's into the main synopsis file?


*
37ebe604,eaf42e7a,262288,2c772034,5bba660b,f45ed882,44090a62,29685f24
Zombie Nation
Release Year: 1991 US, 1990 JP
Genre:    Shoot 'em up > Action
Developer: KAZe
Players: 1
*
The plot of Zombie Nation takes place in 1999, when a meteor known as "Darc Seed" crashes in the Nevada desert. Darc Seed then shoots magnetic rays and turns the people of the United States into zombies. Darc Seed also brings the Statue of Liberty to life to follow its commands. The magnetic rays also allows Darc Seed to control many deadly weapons, including the most powerful weapon of all - the legendary samurai sword Shura.

The head of the samurai, Namakubi hears of Shura falling into Darc Seed's clutches. He then heads to the United States to destroy Darc Seed, free the American people from the looming zombification, and reclaim the samurai sword Shura.

Hints:

This game is very simple.  In order to increase firepower, collect innocent people who are screaming for help.  The player can take unlimited hits until the music changes to show that death is near.  When that music starts, avoid getting hit, and eventually the music stops.  When that happens, the player's energy has been regenerated.

Controls:

The player controls the severed samurai head Namakubi (Japanese word denoting "sliced off heads"). The player can destroy structures and enemies by shooting rapid-fire eyeballs and vomit at them.[1] Enemies include zombie snipers, zeppelins, and lava monsters. The player can upgrade his/her firepower by rescuing zombie hostages that leap out of structures when destroyed.

The player starts every level with a full life bar of eight units (displayed as mini zombie heads on the bottom of the screen), and as the player gets hit, the life bar decreases. When it is down to one bar remaining, the music changes to a dramatic theme. The game ends when the player loses all eight units on his/her life bar or is crushed by the scrolling of the screen. However, the player can regenerate some of his/her life by defeating enemies and structures. In addition, the player gets six continues to beat the game.

Zombie Nation features two difficulty levels - easy and hard. It also allows the player, like in the Mega Man Series, to select any stage at will. Once a stage is selected the following stages will be played sequentially cycling from stage 4 back to 1. The objective is to clear all four stages and then destroy the final boss, Darc Seed.
*

EDIT: Also, Some of them say "publisher" and your latest example says "Developer". Which one are we using?

[ressurectionx]

QUOTE(gilles9999 @ Dec 16 2008, 03:10 PM)

WOW you are fast rez ihaven't paid attention you are doing things through A-D, awesome,

I'm doing "G"

REZX can you send me the file you have completed yet?

Yes Gilles.  I can send it to you but just use it for an example and then get rid of it. Mine has all of the garbage stripped out of it because I'm taking stuff from your file and putting it into my file.  I'm also doing a ton of editing (and still have a ton of editing to do) on the master file, so please, if you do any more work to any game within the letters 0-E, let me know so I can make the change to it.  Otherwise, I will just take anything you guys finish and put into the master file.  This is very important as well because I had quite a few CRCs in my collection that weren't in your file that I've already added as well so they work on my system.  

I had planned on getting a copy of the file to you to check out though.  It also has all of the FDS, Translations, Hacks and girl game synopsis too.  Look for it in your PM soon.

~Rx

PS... I'm glad you saw where I got to.  Saw your previous message and thought you were working on two letters I'd already finished.  

QUOTE(Mega Man (?) @ Dec 16 2008, 04:08 PM)

Hey Gilles, does this look OK? Does it matter how long the characters stretch (per/line) in the text file? Also, have you included Rx's and my dat's CRC's into the main synopsis file?
[/color]

He's just including the CRCs for the games that are included already in that file.  Unfortunately, I get to see first hand how many roms of mine people couldn't get in a goodset because about 1/3 of mine don't seem to be in that file.  I've been adding them by hand.  

I'm figuring that all, or at least a great majority of your CRCs should be covered already.  I'll get that synopsis file out to you to try too.

Later,
~Rx

[Mega Man (?)]

QUOTE(ressurectionx @ Dec 16 2008, 02:49 PM)

He's just including the CRCs for the games that are included already in that file.  Unfortunately, I get to see first hand how many roms of mine people couldn't get in a goodset because about 1/3 of mine don't seem to be in that file.  I've been adding them by hand.  

I'm figuring that all, or at least a great majority of your CRCs should be covered already.  I'll get that synopsis file out to you to try too.

I will add the crc's from your dat to the ones I do on the synopsis. I am doing z right now and maybe I'll do more
I will keep mine in a separate clean file so You (Rx) and or Gilles can go over it to make sure it's all good. Then you can just punch it into your master.

[ressurectionx]

Sounds good MM.  Let me know......   I'll try wrapping up Genesis roms today too so I can get a datfile out there for you.  

Hey Gilles.... can you get me a textfile of both the Sega Genesis and the SNES with all of the rom CRCs like the one we're using for the NES now?

There's a lot of stuff that I can't do at work with my downtime with all the website blockers not letting me go on gaming sites, but I can put all of this stuff in Google docs and work on them at work.

[Mega Man (?)]

Oh boy, Genesis dats   looking forward to seeing those.
I can get you  dats of the whole Goodgen  and SNES sets if Gilles can't.

[ressurectionx]

Thanks bud,

Funny that so many of my roms aren't even recorded in TOSEC.  Like I said, some of these things date back to 1998 or so, so it doesn't really surprise me, but there are literally 100's of perfectly working roms I have that somehow never made it to TOSEC..... weird.

Yeah... I'm just adding them by hand.  Madmab "fixed" it in the newest beta, but I am able to go into the synopsis for any of my roms in the older beta and it will tell me "No Synopsis Found XXXXXXXX" with the CRC displayed.  The newest beta just says "No Synopsis Found"  

Looks cleaner, but I'm glad I still had the old version to do this with...

~Rx


EDIT:  

Okay guys... here it is.

DOWNLOAD

Just remember not to do any editing in that document.  By the time you send it to me it is already obsolete.  Anything you guys finish and want me to add send to me in a different file.

[justgoonies]

How about i start with letter Z and work my way up, that way i wont do something that has allready been done.

[Mega Man (?)]

Hey justgoonies, I already got (z)

Hey guys, while looking at the synopsis (on the box) I noticed that some of the windows aren't aligned right. Some windows are in the middle and some are pushed to the left, so you cant see that part of the text. Shouldn't it be the same for all of them? I mean, how could that change from one to the next?  If you are already aware of this, don't bother explaining it. I just thought you should know.

Also, when scrolling the synopsis, the sides are all wavy. Is that what madmab is talking about?

[ressurectionx]

Actually, it shows the CRC for a game that you do have, and I think that would look better removed.  If you've got the rom, it doesn't really matter which version you have, so we don't need to see it.

On the reverse, it would be nice to see the CRC if there is no synopsis for a rom.  Then I don't have to switch between two emus all the time.  

Otherwise, there is only one bug I can think of now and a request...

Bug - Every once and a while some words aren't wrapped early enough so the end of the word is cut off.  I believe you were using two different routines to determine when to cut off words and when to wordwrap.  Maybe they need to be fine tuned a bit?

Request - Could you put it in the code so if there is a character that can't be displayed, like a tab, it will be shown in red?   That would be great for editing purposes

Thanks,
~Rx


Hey Goonie,

I think MM? is working from Z back.  Could you start at S and meet him?  

Feel free only to do what you want man.  Great having any help we can get.

Thanks,
~Rx

[ressurectionx]

Cool... thanks man.

Alright guys.  I've got the letter S now too.  Don't work on 0-E or S now.  

[ressurectionx]

TO EVERYONE HELPING OR WHO WANTS TO HELP WITH THE SYNOPSIS:

Alright.... I'm just getting everything situated now so I can work on this away from home, and I need some information from everybody.  

First things first....  Here's what's already done:

1) US licensed (and EU games that weren't already released in US) from 0-E & S

2) All translated NES and FDS games.

3) All untranslated FDS games.

4) Update hacks.

5) Pr0n games.

NOTE:  When I say "done" it means that preliminary dats have been made.  I will probably add more information to a bunch of them and I have a lot of text fixes I need to make to make it look the best it can in the synopsis.  I will be doing all of this to these letters myself, and I just want to make it clear where we are so nobody does double work.

Still need to do:

1 ) US licensed from F to R and T to Z.

2) Unlicensed.

3) Prototypes.

4) Pirates (and Pirate fighting games).

5) Non-Working games (like I did with artwork and video, I'd like to get synopsis done on these too in case they work in the future.

I need to know from everyone what they are currently working on.  This would be good for everyone else to know too.  When we get some letters done, we'll post everything and regroup and figure out what we're tackling next.



I think I'll stop doing the US licensed for now and let you guys get it ready to go.  I have plenty of editing to do with what I've done already, and I have some things I want to get started on the Genesis work coming up.  

Don't be all crazy about editing or anything, but if there are re-occuring text errors that you get from a particular website when you copy information, try to be consciensious of them and take care of them while you go through the work.  FYI, tabs are the big offenders.  They make a nasty looking square in the synopsis and don't work like they should for spacing.  I will take care of the final editing and get all those nasty tabs and other bad characters out of there when we're through, and I'll count on people here to point out any errors that they see after it's complete.

If you're going to start getting synopsis for the project, the first site I would check is CONSOLE CLASSIX

They have very good reviews for the most part and also supply us with the button definitions and hints that you find in a lot of the synopsis.  

Second site I would try is Wikipedia.  They have very good information too, but lack the button definitions and hints for the most part.  Also, you may have to clean your text up a bit more using wikipedia rather than consoleclassix.

Be sure to grab as much information as you can for each one and try to make it look like I did for the most part.  We don't really have to worry about cutting a bunch of stuff out with the scrolling code.  Even the long ones seem to look great.   It doesn't have to be perfect, but use mine as a guide so I can easily come back for cleanup and editing.

Please try to include the URL and the reviewer for each synopsis at the end too.  I'd like to have that information included so nobody gets pissed off down the road at us for ganking thier shit.  I think they'd be proud to see their work added to this project someday if we took the time to do that little thing.  I don't find it to be detracting from the synopsis at all myself.




Aside from editing, I will focus like I did in the beginning on the less mainstream and often overlooked stuff.  If you've noticed, everybody pretty much skimps at the end on these kinds things.  I want this to be solid and contain good information for all of the included games.  I figure I'll let you guys work out what is going to be the most popular stuff and I'll work around the fringes.  

I hope you guys use some of the more in depth synopsis I have put in that file I released yesterday as a model for how you make yours.  

Thanks to everyone who is helping in the project.








Madmab: Any chance that any of this information could be used down the road at some point with the game select menu system?  Anything I may have to do different when displaying information if we could?  I really like how on CoinOPS you can sort by title, genre, number of players, favorite status, etc..... I didn't know if that functionality could somehow be added to the XPORT emus if we had all the info for each game in the synopsis.  We've never had a consolidated document with all of this information for every game in the system like they did for MAME.  

Something to think about....

~Rx

[ressurectionx]

QUOTE(madmab @ Dec 17 2008, 09:20 AM)

Well sorta.  The gamebase code kinda does that right now.  But the big issue is that link back to the original file.  Gamebase relies on the filename matching the database so it knows which game to load.  It's nice but on GB64 the 11 character filenames they use really grate me.  

So....... since we're using a incomplete, but soon to be superior way of naming files, there is hope for this yet.  I will also be adding the genre to the games when I can find it in anticipation from something coming from this.

QUOTE

Sorry..  Because of the goofy way the XDK code is acting (see below) I had to pretty much pick a setting that cut off some, but not enough to make it completely dissappear.

Hopefully we can fix this at some point.  It's not just a little thing unfortunately.  It happens to quite a lot of lines in the synopsis and is pretty glaring when it occurs.  

QUOTE

Nope.  X_font does not support anyway of changing color within a text line.  It's kinda limited to one color per line.

Bummer...... Oh well.  I'm going to go through them by hand anyways.  I just won't be checking all of them when I'm done without the indication that I missed something.  I should get most of it though, I would think.

QUOTE

It's not his skin.  At least not the best I can tell.  The XDK code that calculates how many pixels a line of text will take returns inconsistent results.  So I just put in a hack to get around it.  It was doing this in two cases.

1) Whenever the user had to select ROM from within a zip file.
2) When certain skin configurations are loaded.

I'm not really sure what is changing to cause the calculations to be "off".  But I gave up on trying to figure it out for now.  

Yeah... it's weird.  Some configurations are fine with it, while other's botch it up.  I don't know if you've seen it, but while some configurations line up the box perfectly centered, other display it off the page a bit on the left side of the screen.  That makes the previously mentioned bug barely even noticable.  Hopefully this can get fixed by release date.

QUOTE

Here are the latest fixes/changes
-> Should center a little better, a little more consistently
-> Now displays the games CRC if not found in synopsis (whoopsie)
-> leading spaces removed from lines (hopefully no one is using them for lining stuff up).
-> I now got the scrolling the way I originally wanted it (thanks to X-port and NES6502).    Let me know what you think when you see it.
-> Screenshot viewer now works correctly.  (whoopsie again!)

I'll send you guys a working version later.  If I'm lucky it may have some preliminary browse documentation stuff.

Looking forward to seeing this in action.  To see the boxes centered better, to have that CRC info for a missing game is awesome, leading spaces removed is good, since we'll start those lines with astericks or something for bullet points, and I was fine with the scrolling before but always looking forward to improvements.  Thanks for fixing that screenshot thing too..... really no benefit to the end user, but it helps when testing the synopsis.  Maybe you've just fixed problems you would have had with the Manual previews?

I'm done for the most part for a few days.  Whenever you get it out is fine.  I've got plenty keeping me busy till then.

~Rx

[ressurectionx]

Hey everyone....

I did a bit of work last night on the synopsis..... not too much, but a sign of things to come.  I believe I've removed any text errors up through half of the letter B and I've also added a "Genre" line to all the entries in hopes that some day we can sort by category like in CoinOPS.  Even if we don't get that, it's still pretty cool info to have.

I would also like to have a button definition for every game, but except for console classix I'm not aware of another site that has them.  If I really want this someday I may have to play all of the games that we don't have from there again to map out the buttons.  No promises on that one, but it would be cool.....

Anybody else get anything done?  I'm pretty limited at what I can do on work days, but it's cool finally being able to do something for the project on down time.  

Later,
~Rx

[lawdawg0931]

Wow, haven't stayed up with this topic & look where it's come to. Great work to all involved. I would love to help if needed (in any way) since I cannot code. If "ressurectionx" wants to assign me (so we're not doubling up) certain letters to work through - I'd be happy to help.