Game News Starfire (1994) receives a fan translation

[Darth Roxor]

Tags: StarCraft Inc.; Starfire; Winston Douglas Wood

I have been informed that Starfire, an oldie sci-fi RPG with mechs designed in part by Winston Douglas Wood, the director of Phantasie and Star Command, has just received a fan-made English translation. For some reason, the game was only available in Japanese until now, but thanks to RPG Codex's very own community members zwanzig_zwoelf and MrRichard999, Starfire is now playable by gaijin worldwide. To quote from the relevant thread:

After about a year of work, the translation for Starfire is finally available.

This game has been on my radar for a while, and it was suspiciously absent in the Codex interviews with Winston Douglas Wood and Toshio Sato. After asking Winston Douglas Wood about it directly, turns out he had no idea it actually came out. After the Matt Chat interview, MrRichard999 and I teamed up to translate Starfire and Phantasie IV, making them playable to the rest of the world, as well as their creator.

(...)

The translation is compatible with both the 16-color version and the butt-ugly 256-color version. Please check the readme for instructions and gameplay-related tips -- trust me, you'll need them.​

The translation patch can be downloaded from here. Enjoy responsibly.

 

[Sinatar]

So what's a good PC-98 emulator?

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

So what's a good PC-98 emulator?

A friend of a friend of my uncle's coworker told me that Neko Project II is a good choice.

 

[lightbane]

Cool! Now, let's see how long until someone makes a longplay of it and posts it in Youtube, if only to promote the translation patch.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

So what's a good PC-98 emulator?

You'll want the most recent version of Neko Project II. Following that you'll want to find the game pre-installed in a hdi file, since installing it on your own has the potential to end badly, especially if you don't read the language. I dunno, some kind of internet archive might have it or something.

 

[Sinatar]

No dice getting this translation to work, I can boot the japanese game fine, but if I apply the translation patch it stops working. I don't know if the patch is bad or my disk image is bad, but I tried a few images and they all failed.

 

[mondblut]

No dice getting this translation to work, I can boot the japanese game fine, but if I apply the translation patch it stops working. I don't know if the patch is bad or my disk image is bad, but I tried a few images and they all failed.

I downloaded the hdi file (sized 10 479 616, checksums as per translation patch readme) from a huge ass PC-98 torrent at archive.org and patched it via the javascript rompatcher utility (https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/1365/). Worked fine.

Used neko project 21/w 0.86-r81 from https://simk98.github.io/np21w/download.html

 

[Sinatar]

Sounds like my rom is bad as the file size is different, I got it off archive as well, I'll try to find a different one.

 

[mondblut]

Sounds like my rom is bad as the file size is different, I got it off archive as well, I'll try to find a different one.

There are several versions in the archive, you need the last one:

Others are floppy disk images I reckon.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

No dice getting this translation to work, I can boot the japanese game fine, but if I apply the translation patch it stops working. I don't know if the patch is bad or my disk image is bad, but I tried a few images and they all failed.

There are two common options.

1. Patch the HDI file from the Neo Kobe pack with the IPS patch.
2. Replace the files manually within the HDI file using EditDisk or other disk editing sofware.

I strongly suggest playing the 16-color version, as the 256-color version is butt-ugly.

 

[Sinatar]

Ok found a ROM that worked, thanks for the Neo Kobe hint, that did the trick.

 

[Derringer]

The Neo Kobe guys did a good job archiving a bit of this kind of stuff, organizing the emulators.

 

[Grauken]

Lunar IPS is far easier for patching https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/240/

Game works flawlessly, nice work

 

[Sinatar]

Interesting game, haven't found any way to upgrade yet after like 10 missions. Each mission you're outfitted with a different weapon and shield, but you earn cash from every enemy you kill so I'm assuming you can spend it... somewhere?

 

[thesheeep]

I strongly suggest playing the 16-color version, as the 256-color version is butt-ugly.

I was thinking "Come on, how can that possibly be true".

Then I saw this:

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Interesting game, haven't found any way to upgrade yet after like 10 missions. Each mission you're outfitted with a different weapon and shield, but you earn cash from every enemy you kill so I'm assuming you can spend it... somewhere?

You can upgrade your Motor Shell, strengthen your body, and acquire new equipment, but only once you acquire your own ship. Until then, sit back and don't think about it too much.

 

[Angelo85]

I won't personally play this but

and respect to both ZZ and MrRichard for the effort they put into this. Nice job you two!

 

[Elwro]

RESPECT! Great job guys -- starting such a project is one thing, but finishing is quite a different one!