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Dreamcast skies of arcadia uncensored version for dreamcast europe and US

fafadou

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fafadou
Hi,

We are doing a dreamcast uncensored version of Skies of Arcadia, instead PAL version (from japanese_cake patch VGA release) with JAP skins that have be change like this one :
https://darius-saturn.com/forum/downloa ... &mode=view

We are going on well, but I would like to use this project for trying to import some models and skins from gamecube version like Vyse and Alfonso :

https://www.noelshack.com/2019-32-4-156 ... 042773.jpg

https://www.noelshack.com/2019-32-4-156 ... 417990.jpg


so I had a look on datas. There are stored identically but as we know the gamecube version is quite compress and for a file with textures like player.MLD (we can find Vyse textures here), I have this :
https://ibb.co/LgZ26pb

All files are compresses by the same way.
Do you have any idea how I could I unzip the files ?

May you can suggest me a gamecube forum where I could find some help please ? Of after you'll can easily imported the uncensored models to gamecube.
 

fafadou

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i give up for now to import gamecube model but proudly present the uncensored version :

@r3nz0 has made the very most of the work, I focus only on difficult files that needs hex patch.

Here the list :
(It's a french translation sorry for the poor langage)

Skies of Arcadia uncensored for Dreamcast :

This version includes elements from the Japanese Dreamcast version that were removed in the American and European versions of the game, as well as in the "Legend" version on Nintendo Game Cube. Note that it does not include the additions of the "Legend" version, unfortunately!

The version includes the original voices of the characters in Japanese, but for those who are attached to the English voices, it is also proposed with this dubbing. Personally I think that most of the screams of the attacks are better in Japanese, but this is only my opinion.
The game have subtitles in english, french, german and spanish, select by your bios langage option.

Here is the list of censored elements that have been restored in this version:

-Dyne and Willy (Gilder's parrot) characters now have a Cigar in every scene they appear in (except one for Dyne, but that's normal given the storyline), including in the introduction and game credits images.
-The victory pose where Gilder had his parrot that came to rest on the shoulder is now replaced by that of Gilder who takes out a Cigar. Note that this victory pose is triggered if you have a moderate amount of life.
-A new drunk NPC has been added on the sailors' island. He has translated dialogue lines.
-Belena's belly dancer skin is more stripped, taking the original artwork
-Vigoro's skin, when he heavily flirts with Aika, is also more naked, he doesn't have any armor anymore but a little tank top. He keeps this outfit when we face him afterwards.
-Blood has been added in the scene where Ramirez speaks to the heroes before the final fight.

Enjoy
:mrgreen:


R3nz0, Fafadou and japanese_cake for VGA patch

english speech : https://1fichier.com/?2bqubzwu38kpn057r281

japanese speech : https://1fichier.com/?j3f1imk8rdaozcn0x42e

I should talk to romhack to add this game on the website.
 

HermitTheHog

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In one of the three beta builds - hosted at Hidden Palace - there's translated, uncensored dialogue from the Japanese version.
The Western retail releases omitted alcohol (Loqua) references:
 

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HermitTheHog

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It's actually worse than originally assumed:

"Chris Lucich and Klayton Vorlick did a rough translation of the entire game from Japanese to English, and then completely deleted the Japanese from their records, choosing to write the subsequent and final drafts without referencing the original text."

"Vorlick completely rewrote the dialogue for Enrique, Vigoro, and Fina, while Lucich rewrote Gilder and Aika, and the two co-wrote for Vyse.
Speech patterns expected to be annoying to Western audiences, such as the repetitive nature of Fina saying "mina-san" (みなさん, "everybody"), were removed and many side characters and weapons were renamed after members of the localization and quality assurance team."
*Wikipedia

Expanded version of the previous post:

Some entries are missing, though...

So in essence, there's no definitive version of this game.
The best course of action - in which I'll help in any way I can - is to re-translate the whole thing, much like Final Fantasy III/VI and VII, OR use the uncensored (but most likely unfinished) dialogue from the prototypes.
"A drunk NPC was removed from Sailor's Island when the game was localized. However, his dialogue was translated and can be found in the game files."
OK, somebody managed to at least open the files containing dialogue. Those can be extracted with GD-ROM Explorer, but as-of-now I don't know which tool was used to actually access them...

After that, we'll have to find a way to inject Legends' content into the Dreamcast version (not just character models, fafadou).
That will certainly break quests, among other stuff, creating a whole new headache, to which you may say: "Why not use the Gamecube version?"

»First, the obvious reasons: music quality; VGA support; controller preference; Pinta's Quest -- overall the original experience retained;

»Secondly: for those playing on original hardware through GD-EMU, it's the most straight forward option.

»And finally: Dreamcast employs 'Order-Independent Transparency', something neither the Gamecube; Xbox; X360 or PS3 are capable of -- that's how ahead of its time this system was...

In many games, certain elements such as the edge of a character's hair or foliage often contain a sort of halo surrounding them, when viewed at certain angles. Dreamcast never had that issue, being capable of working with up to 256 layers of transparency.
Eternal Darkness, for example, made use of only 16 layers of transparency.

If you want an immediate example of transparency problems, check out 'Disaster: Day of Crysis', on the Wii: As soon as you get control of the dude, look at his hair while having the big cloud of volcanic gas juxtaposed behind it.

An HD Remaster will come out before a project like this concludes, but those usually end-up becoming subpar, so might as well get ahead...
Just look at Shenmue I & II -- music and sound-effects are still broken, and will remain that way, 'cause they had to work with DSF.
Only Demul and Foobar2000 can handle it properly, and even then I've stumbled on a few tracks that don't sustain notes correctly, and that's after decades of optimizations, on both programs.
Games from that era are very specifically tailored. That's why you can't force it (or rather, shouldn't) to run at 60fps, as it messes with intricate timings (NPCs disappear).
 
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fafadou

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fafadou
This is great! Any chance it works with the sd adapter?
Put simply the iso on your sd card reader :)

In one of the three beta builds - hosted at Hidden Palace - there's translated, uncensored dialogue from the Japanese version.
The Western retail releases omitted alcohol (Loqua) references:
Yes the files was already translated

So in essence, there's no definitive version of this game.
The best course of action - in which I'll help in any way I can - is to re-translate the whole thing, much like Final Fantasy III/VI and VII, OR use the uncensored (but most likely unfinished) dialogue from the prototypes.
"A drunk NPC was removed from Sailor's Island when the game was localized. However, his dialogue was translated and can be found in the game files."
OK, somebody managed to at least open the files containing dialogue. Those can be extracted with GD-ROM Explorer, but as-of-now I don't know which tool was used to actually access them...

After that, we'll have to find a way to inject Legends' content into the Dreamcast version (not just character models, fafadou).
That will certainly break quests, among other stuff, creating a whole new headache, to which you may say: "Why not use the Gamecube version?"

»First, the obvious reasons: music quality; VGA support; controller preference; Pinta's Quest -- overall the original experience retained;
I choose to keep the dreamcast because I love it in first ^^, in second that's you very well mentioned. The third, it's the gamecube version is very poorly downsample, it's in french but please use google translate to have a look :

As you it will better to keep the dreamcast version and adds updates.

i stop for now because unpack the gamecube datas... on dreamcast the datas are not zip. I found some tools to have a look on gamecube datas but some files are still unreadable for me... I'm really happy to inject the gamecube adds as not only models but quests. If you are still interested I can share what I found like tools and experience.
 

Gromber

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thanks for this version, i will test japanese undub version asap when have time on gdemu :)
 
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HermitTheHog

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Put simply the iso on your sd card reader :)


Yes the files was already translated


I choose to keep the dreamcast because I love it in first ^^, in second that's you very well mentioned. The third, it's the gamecube version is very poorly downsample, it's in french but please use google translate to have a look :

As you it will better to keep the dreamcast version and adds updates.

i stop for now because unpack the gamecube datas... on dreamcast the datas are not zip. I found some tools to have a look on gamecube datas but some files are still unreadable for me... I'm really happy to inject the gamecube adds as not only models but quests. If you are still interested I can share what I found like tools and experience.
Yeah, of course. Post them here. In case I discover something important, I'll let you know.

A while go, regarding Shenmue, someone managed to replace the standard Ryo with the high polygon version from the Passport disc, but it causes texture corruption on NPCs; objects and the environment...
This example doesn't necessarily mean that the same will happen once the Gamecube models are injected, since those are still low in polygon count, whereas the Passport models are pushing the Dreamcast beyond its limits (even though those limits haven't been fully explored).
 
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fafadou

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fafadou
Yes it was the great @Esppiral who did it for Shenmue.

For me it's compatible but I can't extract data from gamecube version, in the gamecube tool to have a preview of texture, it's write they have use puyo tool, but I still not be able to extract them...
Else if you have a no zip gamecube file, you have to reverse it as little endian.
 

Yuvi

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What files were brought over from the Japanese version that contains the uncensored parts? (ill just run a diff otherwise) As I'm simply just gonna replicate this patch for NTSC, due to the PAL 50HZ limitation.
 

Gromber

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already include japanese-cake patch with 60hz and vga support in pal version.
 

SpakThaMetal

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Could this be applied to the ''YZB beta'' CDI version of skies of arcadia that uses the on the fly compression ?
 

fafadou

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The data looks the same, I know @yzb uses jap 1ST_READ.BIN and files.
what's the on the file compression please ?
 

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