Project RE-Quest - Modernizing old DW releases CURRENT: A DW2 Beta Appears!

[Erdrick The Hero 836]

I'm sure it'll end up being the last game you do, but I'd like to put the SFC version of III with the modern localization on my mom's new computer once I've finished building it. I probably won't finish that for a couple months (money), but something tells me that this (Re-Quest) is a year(s)-long project.

[Choppasmith 38]

On 11/23/2018 at 4:47 PM, Erdrick The Hero said:

omething tells me that this (Re-Quest) is a year(s)-long project.

Yep, I know the remakes are what people want most, but I’d love to be thorough by just going in release order. 

 

Anyway, one game down 6 to go...

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4237/

[AustNerevar 446]

Yep, I know the remakes are what people want most, but I’d love to be thorough by just going in release order. 
 
Anyway, one game down 6 to go...
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4237/

I WANT THEM ALL

No seriously, take your time. It has long been my dream to have the ability to play any of the different versions of the game with updated scripts. I've thought of learning how to make translation hacks just so I could port the DQ V DS script pver to PS2 and SNES.

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[Choppasmith 38]

3 hours ago, AustNerevar said:

I WANT THEM ALL

No seriously, take your time. It has long been my dream to have the ability to play any of the different versions of the game with updated scripts. I've thought of learning how to make translation hacks just so I could port the DQ V DS script pver to PS2 and SNES.

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Oh don’t get me wrong, I have the same dream. Giving ALL the games the “Re-Quest” treatment is definitely in the long term plan (you could say I came up with the term “Re-Quest” because I know fans have requested it a lot  ) . I don’t plan to stop at the Erdrick trilogy. I still need to ACTUALLY PLAY VI and VII. I’ve already done some looking into the GBC versions (didn’t plan to originally, but it looks possible now). It’s just pretty far off right now is all.

Edited November 27, 2018 by Choppasmith

[AustNerevar 446]

Oh don’t get me wrong, I have the same dream. Giving ALL the games the “Re-Quest” treatment is definitely in the long term plan (you could say I came up with the term “Re-Quest” because I know fans have requested it a lot  ) . I don’t plan to stop at the Erdrick trilogy. I still need to ACTUALLY PLAY VI and VII. I’ve already done some looking into the GBC versions (didn’t plan to originally, but it looks possible now). It’s just pretty far off right now is all.

That would be interesting. VII would require some creative changes in the early parts of the game as there is script that the 3DS version has that the PS1 doesn't and visa versa. It will be an awesome project once completed.

But Hell just having DQ I for the NES will be awesome to me.

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[Erdrick The Hero 836]

If you can figure out Dragon Warrior VII, you should be able to figure out Dragon Quest IV on PS1...

[Choppasmith 38]

Just want to say I'm starting work on Dragon Warrior 2. 

Credit to Chicken Knife for putting in my logo. The subtitle is a Photoshop Edit that I HOPE to put it in, but Chicken Knife is working on an uncensored/de-localization of the DW NES games, and with our projects being so similar, we're helping each other out where we can. We agreed that if we can put the subtitle in III and IV, we'll make sure II has it too. If not, we'll drop it because we'd hate to be inconsistent.

 

New items and spells went in perfectly for me with over 30 bytes leftover! Yeah, the mobile translation really removed redundancies that really saved on space. Stuff like Erdrick's Armour instead of Armor of Erdrick. And of course the biggest difference is Yggdrasil Leaf instead of Leaf of the World Tree. Interesting discovery is that it seems the NES exclusive "Dragon Potion" is in the mobile version, dummied out as "Rebirth Stone". At least I can't find any indication that people have found it in-game. It's not even on the Wiki! Only downside is, even with all the leftover space, I was about 40 bytes over the limit with the new monster names. But after some light trimming (mostly of the single-named enemy names longer than than 10 letters like silvapithacus), I got them all in, with no space leftover. I just trimmed things down like Killing Machine is now Kill Machine, Muddy Mannequin is now Mud Mannequin, Liquid Metal Slime is now L.M. Slime. Hope you guys aren't too disappointed by that.

 

The actual story dialog is one crazy monster though. It uses a crazy compression routine using a dictionary of pre-programmed terms. So instead of typing out R o g e  F a s t f i n g e r taking up 15 bytes, you just use two bytes, one for the dictionary (there are 4) and the second for which entry.

This is from an extraction script

 

# Define the dictionaries.
#   B44B to B49A = Text compression word-length nybbles
#   B49B to B686 = Text compression words
# 
# Text control codes:
#   [F2] = <S>
#   [F3] = ?
#   [F4] = ?
#   [F5] = <AMOUNT>
#   [F6] = <SPELL>
#   [F7] = <ITEM>
#   [F8] = <NAME>
#   [F9] = <STRING>
# 
#   [FB] = <PROMPT>
#   [FC] = <END>
#   [FD] = ? <-- Related to menus?
#   [FE] = <NEWLINE>
#   [FF] = ?

dict_Main = {
  0x00 : "<END>",
  0x01 : ".<END>",
  0x02 : "?'[FD][FD]<END>",
  0x03 : ".'<END>",
  0x04 : "[FF]",
  0x05 : "y",
  0x06 : "c",
  0x07 : "o",
  0x08 : "d",
  0x09 : "e",
  0x0A : "f",
  0x0B : "g",
  0x0C : "h",
  0x0D : "i",
  0x0E : "j",
  0x0F : " ",
  0x10 : "l",
  0x11 : "m",
  0x12 : "n",
  0x13 : "<NEWLINE>",
  0x14 : ".'",
  0x15 : "'",
  0x16 : "r",
  0x17 : "s",
  0x18 : "t",
  0x19 : "u",
  0x1A : "a",
  0x1B : "w",
  0x1C : "[C0]",
  0x1D : "[C1]",
  0x1E : "[C2]",
  0x1F : "[C3]"
}

dict_C0 = {
  0x00 : "A",
  0x01 : "B",
  0x02 : "Ca",
  0x03 : "D",
  0x04 : "E",
  0x05 : "F",
  0x06 : "G",
  0x07 : "H",
  0x08 : "I",
  0x09 : "J",
  0x0A : "King",
  0x0B : "L",
  0x0C : "Moonbrooke",
  0x0D : "N",
  0x0E : "O",
  0x0F : "<ITEM>",
  0x10 : "The ",
  0x11 : "Rhone ",
  0x12 : "S",
  0x13 : ";",
  0x14 : "U",
  0x15 : "\"",
  0x16 : "Water Flying Cl",
  0x17 : "C",
  0x18 : "Y",
  0x19 : "Z",
  0x1A : "x",
  0x1B : "Village ",
  0x1C : "z",
  0x1D : "<STRING>",
  0x1E : "\"",
  0x1F : "K"
}

dict_C1 = {
  0x00 : "v",
  0x01 : "q",
  0x02 : "'<PROMPT><NEWLINE>",
  0x03 : "R",
  0x04 : ".",
  0x05 : "[FD][FD]",
  0x06 : "P",
  0x07 : "b",
  0x08 : "T",
  0x09 : "!",
  0x0A : "<SUN>",
  0x0B : "<STAR>",
  0x0C : "<MOON>",
  0x0D : "W",
  0x0E : "k",
  0x0F : "p",
  0x10 : "?",
  0x11 : ",",
  0x12 : "[F4]",
  0x13 : "....",
  0x14 : ":",
  0x15 : "'",
  0x16 : "-",
  0x17 : "'",
  0x18 : "<SPELL>",
  0x19 : "[F3]",
  0x1A : " ",
  0x1B : "<PROMPT>",
  0x1C : "M",
  0x1D : "<NAME>",
  0x1E : "<AMOUNT>",
  0x1F : "[FD]"
}

dict_C2 = {
  0x00 : "Thou hast",
  0x01 : "hest",
  0x02 : "Midenhall",
  0x03 : "hou ",
  0x04 : " of ",
  0x05 : " is ",
  0x06 : " thou has",
  0x07 : " and ",
  0x08 : "to th",
  0x09 : " thee",
  0x0A : "ast",
  0x0B : " do",
  0x0C : "hat ",
  0x0D : " shall ",
  0x0E : " was ",
  0x0F : "hou has",
  0x10 : "d the",
  0x11 : " has ",
  0x12 : "gon",
  0x13 : ".<PROMPT><NEWLINE>",
  0x14 : " have ",
  0x15 : "come to ",
  0x16 : "ing",
  0x17 : " hast",
  0x18 : "ost thou",
  0x19 : "this",
  0x1A : " of the ",
  0x1B : "Hargon",
  0x1C : "in the ",
  0x1D : "thing",
  0x1E : "he ",
  0x1F : " with"
}

dict_C3 = {
  0x00 : "reasure ",
  0x01 : "'Hast ",
  0x02 : "Erdrick",
  0x03 : "come",
  0x04 : "ere is ",
  0x05 : "Welcome ",
  0x06 : "rince",
  0x07 : " great",
  0x08 : "arr",
  0x09 : " for th",
  0x0A : "piece<S> of gold",
  0x0B : ".'<PROMPT><NEWLINE>",
  0x0C : "But ",
  0x0D : "here",
  0x0E : "can ",
  0x0F : "ove",
  0x10 : "hee",
  0x11 : "not",
  0x12 : "for",
  0x13 : "one",
  0x14 : " any",
  0x15 : " to ",
  0x16 : "descendant",
  0x17 : "Roge Fastfinger",
  0x18 : "all",
  0x19 : "thy",
  0x1A : "'W",
  0x1B : "thank thee",
  0x1C : " it",
  0x1D : " tha",
  0x1E : " thou ",
  0x1F : " the"

 

Thankfully, it's just II, that does this. IV is compressed in a different way, but I'm not working on IV initially. Focusing on just the trilogy.

[AustNerevar 446]

Alright, I gotta hack my LMS 2DS and put DQ1 on there now. Time to really play the original version! I've only ever finished the Android port.

[AustNerevar 446]

@Choppasmith, not sure if you're aware of this but I found this typo where the Heal spell should be.

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[Erdrick The Hero 836]

Ooh, the 5 spell! I love that one.

[AustNerevar 446]

Well I hate to keep raining on your parade but I found another small typo here in Galenholm (Should say Majesty instead of ajesty). If its alright, ill just start editing any small bugs like this into this post?

 

Also seems like a few of the spells have this numbers bug:

 

 

 

 

 

[Erdrick The Hero 836]

5 hours ago, AustNerevar said:

Well I hate to keep raining on your parade but I found another small typo here in Galenholm (Should say Majesty instead of ajesty). If its alright, ill just start editing any small bugs like this into this post?

 

Also seems like a few of the spells have this numbers bug:

 

 

 

 

 

Crisis averted.

Edited December 16, 2018 by Erdrick The Hero

[AustNerevar 446]

I think your post is bugged.

Whoops. Accidentally attached too many photos

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[Choppasmith 38]

On 12/16/2018 at 9:33 AM, AustNerevar said:

Well I hate to keep raining on your parade but I found another small typo here in Galenholm (Should say Majesty instead of ajesty). If its alright, ill just start editing any small bugs like this into this post?

 

Also seems like a few of the spells have this numbers bug:

 

 

 

 

 

No worries! My only regret is I released the early release beta here in hopes people would test it and find these before the wide public released. No big deal. The more ironed out and perfect I can make these patches, the better! So feel free to post anything and everything you might come across that might be off. I added pauses in the text based on the mobile version, but if you feel there’s more needed (too much text goes by before you have a chance to read it), let me know! I really appreciate it!

For the spell problem was something I never properly tested. There’s a byte that’s supposed to be for spell casting. I thought I could use the same byte for new spells, but apparently it doesn’t work that way. It just seems to reuse the MP Increase value. That’s an easy fix!

[AustNerevar 446]

No worries! My only regret is I released the early release beta here in hopes people would test it and find these before the wide public released. No big deal. The more ironed out and perfect I can make these patches, the better! So feel free to post anything and everything you might come across that might be off. I added pauses in the text based on the mobile version, but if you feel there’s more needed (too much text goes by before you have a chance to read it), let me know! I really appreciate it!
For the spell problem was something I never properly tested. There’s a byte that’s supposed to be for spell casting. I thought I could use the same byte for new spells, but apparently it doesn’t work that way. It just seems to reuse the MP Increase value. That’s an easy fix!

That bit with the "ajesty's" typo didn't seem to be a pause. When I talked to the NPC that was the first thing he said. Unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean by pause. I intend to play through the entire game now that I've finished the other games I was working on.

When you realease the others I'll try to biggest those as well, but not before finishing DQ1.

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[Choppasmith 38]

Just now, AustNerevar said:

That bit with the "ajesty's" typo didn't seem to be a pause. When I talked to the NPC that was the first thing he said. Unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean by pause. I intend to play through the entire game now that I've finished the other games I was working on.

When you realease the others I'll try to biggest those as well, but not before finishing DQ1.

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You know when the text stops and you have to press a button to continue? That’s what I’m talking about. I’m just saying if there’s any text you feel goes by too fast and could use a break like that let me know. I’ve already added a couple to the King’s dialog fog a future update.

[AustNerevar 446]

You know when the text stops and you have to press a button to continue? That’s what I’m talking about. I’m just saying if there’s any text you feel goes by too fast and could use a break like that let me know. I’ve already added a couple to the King’s dialog fog a future update.

Gotcha. I'll make some notes if I need to.

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[Choppasmith 38]

Okay, I've submitted a 1.2 patch to RHDN  but I've attached the latest patch here. NOTE: Future update patches will be in XDelta format because of the extensive expansion work done. This was recommended to me to avoid possible copyright infringement AND provide better compatibility with other hacks. You'll need something like
Delta Patcher to apply it.

Thanks again. The text error in Galenholm was a dumb pointer mistake. I seem to have a bad habit of remembering hex values wrong. Said pointer was set as A5 47 instead of A5 F7 (all throughout working on this I would remember hex values as something that sounded similar 4 instead of F, 8 instead of A, etc). Hopefully that's the last of it!

DW1 RE-Quest V1-2.7z

Edited December 19, 2018 by Choppasmith

[Sackchief 131]

Project is looking cool so far.  Any updates?

[Choppasmith 38]

Man, I don't why I keep getting reply notifications sent to my Spam folder...

 

Finishing up on a 1.3 update. A little bit of being sick here and spending the little free time on Smash/DQXI there among other things sort of took me out of it. I've been getting a lot of great input on stuff that needed fixing that I completely missed. Or some stuff that I kinda mulled over but never did anything about (the two identical guards in Galenholm and the Merchant in Rimuldar who don't have lines in the remake). Hoping to get that out by the end of the week.

Also been starting work on DW2's script revising.

[CWCprime 3]

Hello, Choppasmith!

This is my first post here. This project is so amazing it convinced me to join and post to thank you for your amazing efforts.

I just recently got into the Dragon Quest series, and have been plugging away at the original Dragon Warrior on NES. This version of the original game will be great to have alongside the official versions.

I really appreciate your stance on tackling the games in chronological order, instead of just immediately jumping into the fan favorites first. I think it's more productive to do it the way you are now. Otherwise, one might lose interest and never get around to doing the less favorite games in the series. Doing them in chronological order is fair for everyone, I think.

I will be following this project closely. Thanks again for your amazing work!

[Erdrick The Hero 836]

I'm considering making some custom NES carts to practice soldering/working on boards. I might do a Dragon Warrior > Dragon Quest (Re-Quest) conversion. (I'd only use a donor board if the cartridge was damaged and I already had to repair it.) If I can't find a DW1 board that needs repair (or another game using the same mapper), I'll get some aftermarket boards. There's a website that sells brand new boards for homebrew, I think they support a few different mapper types, and have slots where you can drop in EEPROM chips. They're made for stuff like this and homebrew.

[Choppasmith 38]

On 2/3/2019 at 9:33 PM, CWCprime said:

Hello, Choppasmith!

This is my first post here. This project is so amazing it convinced me to join and post to thank you for your amazing efforts.

I just recently got into the Dragon Quest series, and have been plugging away at the original Dragon Warrior on NES. This version of the original game will be great to have alongside the official versions.

I really appreciate your stance on tackling the games in chronological order, instead of just immediately jumping into the fan favorites first. I think it's more productive to do it the way you are now. Otherwise, one might lose interest and never get around to doing the less favorite games in the series. Doing them in chronological order is fair for everyone, I think.

I will be following this project closely. Thanks again for your amazing work!

 

Hey thanks man. It makes me happy I can do this for people. Believe me, I'd LOVE to jump ahead and do the SNES remakes. I think you're right in that if I did do that, the other games wouldn't get done. I'm still a novice to rom hacking so I like to stay with what I know and what I'm used to, learning as I go, than jumping systems and having to learn new procedures, tools, etc. And I know people aren't exactly foaming at the mouth to play Dragon Warrior 2 of all games, but I don't want to leave gaps for possible newcomers who insist on playing the originals.

On 2/4/2019 at 2:20 AM, Erdrick The Hero said:

I'm considering making some custom NES carts to practice soldering/working on boards. I might do a Dragon Warrior > Dragon Quest (Re-Quest) conversion. (I'd only use a donor board if the cartridge was damaged and I already had to repair it.) If I can't find a DW1 board that needs repair (or another game using the same mapper), I'll get some aftermarket boards. There's a website that sells brand new boards for homebrew, I think they support a few different mapper types, and have slots where you can drop in EEPROM chips. They're made for stuff like this and homebrew.

 

Sounds great! I honestly don't know much about that stuff, just keep in mind with the rom expansion needed to accompany the script this definitely won't work on the original cartridge.

 

Anyway, progress update. The script is pretty much finished and updated DW2's strange dictionary system mentioned a few posts back.

 

The intro is definitely a conundrum for me. It's not just the text (DW2 had the third person narration, the monsters speaking) that's completely different, but the "choreography" of the sprites. I'm thinking of dumping the third person narration just for the intro and use the modern style *: labeling (there's no parenthesis in the game like DW1 so I'm going to use the asterisk for the various emotes in the game like sob or sigh). I hope to really capture and compare both versions side by side and see if it's possible to match them up.

 

Oh and if you haven't checked, version DW1 1.3c featuring a ton of fixes based off reports and feedback is out. I think there's one little typo and another little title screen tweak by Chicken Knife for a future update otherwise it's pretty final.

Edited February 7 by Choppasmith

[Sackchief 131]

On 2/4/2019 at 5:20 AM, Erdrick The Hero said:

I'm considering making some custom NES carts to practice soldering/working on boards. I might do a Dragon Warrior > Dragon Quest (Re-Quest) conversion. (I'd only use a donor board if the cartridge was damaged and I already had to repair it.) If I can't find a DW1 board that needs repair (or another game using the same mapper), I'll get some aftermarket boards. There's a website that sells brand new boards for homebrew, I think they support a few different mapper types, and have slots where you can drop in EEPROM chips. They're made for stuff like this and homebrew.

That's actually a cool idea.  We could make a custom label for Dragon Quest Re Quest NES cart too.

[redneckpride4ever 311]

11 hours ago, Sackchief said:

That's actually a cool idea.  We could make a custom label for Dragon Quest Re Quest NES cart too.

Oooo...a custom box too!

 

Need to start playing with paint.net again.

13 hours ago, Choppasmith said:

 

Hey thanks man. It makes me happy I can do this for people. Believe me, I'd LOVE to jump ahead and do the SNES remakes. I think you're right in that if I did do that, the other games wouldn't get done. I'm still a novice to rom hacking so I like to stay with what I know and what I'm used to, learning as I go, than jumping systems and having to learn new procedures, tools, etc. And I know people aren't exactly foaming at the mouth to play Dragon Warrior 2 of all games, but I don't want to leave gaps for possible newcomers who insist on playing the originals.

 

Sounds great! I honestly don't know much about that stuff, just keep in mind with the rom expansion needed to accompany the script this definitely won't work on the original cartridge.

 

Anyway, progress update. The script is pretty much finished and updated DW2's strange dictionary system mentioned a few posts back.

 

The intro is definitely a conundrum for me. It's not just the text (DW2 had the third person narration, the monsters speaking) that's completely different, but the "choreography" of the sprites. I'm thinking of dumping the third person narration just for the intro and use the modern style *: labeling (there's no parenthesis in the game like DW1 so I'm going to use the asterisk for the various emotes in the game like sob or sigh). I hope to really capture and compare both versions side by side and see if it's possible to match them up.

 

Oh and if you haven't checked, version DW1 1.3c featuring a ton of fixes based off reports and feedback is out. I think there's one little typo and another little title screen tweak by Chicken Knife for a future update otherwise it's pretty final.

I don't see why you can't improvise a bit on the intro. You can modernize it without a full on script port. Kind of like the puffpuff girl in your DW1 hack (haven't played it, read your readme though).