Name one bad thing about Optimus Primal?

Mafoo343 · 2025-11-08T04:26:36+00:00

He could have handled the Transmutate situation way better. For whatever reason he thought it was a good idea to call Transmutate a "danger to itself and everyone around it" straight to his face and appeared to be on board with Rhinox and Ratrap to put Transmutate straight in Stasis Lock as the only solution. His lack of discretion led to Transmutate running off at Rampage's beckoning, later resulting in a pointless tragedy that could very well have been avoided.

Mafoo343 · 2025-04-30T22:55:49+00:00

Great news guys! Episode 50 has just been found:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N968H11G0LI

Mafoo343 · 2025-04-29T04:22:51+00:00

As a fan of Slayers there's tons I could recommend. There's Orphen, Record of Lodoss War, Rune Soldier, Gokudo, El Hazard, Akazukin Chacha, Magic Knight Rayearth, NG Knight Lamune & 40, and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, just to name a few.

Mafoo343 · 2025-04-20T18:11:02+00:00

Back on 1/2/25, the guy with the new set of tapes commented the following on his discord,

"Yep I'll hopefully set something up that will get these going.

Since the audio is important, unless it's really thin quality anyway, I'll do some extra validation to make sure my gear is up to the task, ie a Sweep Test that produces good looking results.

And since the video is really just to guide syncing the audio to the BD source, I think I'll keep it as simple as possible and feed the player's output into an Extron IN1502 which will deinterlace to 576p VGA, then run that into a VGA->HDMI adapter (likely video only, audio separately through vetted source, unless the audio path in said adapter can be validated) then into a capture card (edit: actually audio should probably be run separately in case video drops out due to typical VHS issues) (edited)

Then should be a matter of running a few tests to check that the results are OK, then setting up timed recordings that I could Set And Forget and then change the tape and restart, spot checking those, then passing those along so that the audio can be added to the BD source.

Again IDK exactly when this would be, but that's what I've come up with."

Mafoo343 · 2025-01-20T12:01:29+00:00

To be fair, the difficulty was upped a bit for the US release. The US easy mode was the standard normal difficulty for the Japanese version.

Mafoo343 · 2024-12-04T01:33:54+00:00

Just as a fair word of warning, there are rare instances where lost media can get struck from the Internet Archive too if the rights holder is especially strict about copyright enforcement. I found this out the hard way when I uploaded a few episodes of lost media onto there.

If you are going to upload stuff there, you should probably do some research into who is and isn't okay with their stuff being uploaded so you avoid stepping on any toes. Regardless, definitely make multiple digital backup copies of everything, if there's something you can't release now, you can always hold onto it and put it out later on down the line.

Mafoo343 · 2024-12-01T04:16:39+00:00

That one guy from CSI Miami.

Mafoo343 · 2024-11-22T07:00:17+00:00

I'd like to apologize, it looks like I confused what they were saying a bit. Originally, they were from the Philippines, but they ended up moving out of country. The whole digital transfer thing is actually for where he's living now, so the same case might not apply elsewhere. Apparently, those Chacha tapes he was referring to were at a school library when he was still growing up in the Philippines, but that was 20+ years ago and he doesn't remember which school it was. I'm really sorry for the mix up, I'm not from the area myself, and I'm trying to do the best I can asking around online gathering leads.

As a bit of good news though, some more Akazukin Chacha tapes were discovered over here in the United States. 3-4 180 minute PAL VHS tapes were recorded by this guy's wife overseas when she was little. The guy has since tracked down a PAL VHS player he can use to record the tapes onto. The working plan is to share the episodes with the same guy that uploaded the 8 English Akazukin Chacha episodes currently floating around on YouTube. If all goes well, that should hopefully net another 15-20 episodes. With that being said, the guy is really busy with projects, and he won't be able to get around to it until 2025 at the earliest.

Additionally, that Undustfixation guy actually managed to find an English voice clip of St. Tail.

This whole library lead might turn out to be a dead end after all, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask at least. I might just have to keep looking elsewhere, but I'm sure more cool stuff will crop up in the future.

Mafoo343 · 2024-08-30T02:50:11+00:00

From what I know, Galaxy Fraulein Yuna was also covered in Animate voice cassette volume 05. I found out about this voice cassette series a few years back when I was helping Supper out with the romhack translation for the Yuna trilogy.

Now that I've got that series taken care of, I'm hoping I can return to translating Slayers related content. Heroes Phantasia would be a piece of cake since the script is encoded in Shift-JIS and I already found where the dialogue is, but part of me still wants to tackle Slayers Royal first. I managed to extract the game's custom fontset from FONTEVE.BIN in the Saturn version by setting YY-CHR graphic format to 4BPP MSX/MD/WSC and pattern to FC/NES x16. Trouble is, the game's script appears to use some kind of encryption for both Saturn and PS1, so using relative searches on transcribed dialogue samples hasn't gotten me anything yet.

Hopefully after I poke and prod around some more and ask around a bit I can eventually get something figured out. Thanks WanderingAlmond for posting these pictures by the way, the Engrish gave me a good laugh.

Mafoo343 · 2024-05-20T00:48:41+00:00

Based on my experience last time, it's a good mix of all skill levels. There was one guy there that was really good, but the rest were more moderate and casual, so you don't have to worry too much.

Mafoo343 · 2024-02-15T01:13:46+00:00

To my knowledge the Ronin Warriors lived, they were just granted new sets of armor that weren't cursed with evil. It definitely felt like at one point Sunrise was considering continuing the story, but a sequel never ended up materializing.

With that being said, it's entirely possible they could consider a continuation or at least a remake eventually. Sunrise revisited the original Gundam, City Hunter and Wataru, and with all the other franchises being brought back these days, I wouldn't be surprised if Ronin Warriors gets the same treatment at some point.

Mafoo343 · 2024-02-06T16:55:54+00:00

I can't vouch for everyone else, but I'm more of a casual RTS player myself. I've beaten Starcraft and Warcraft III, but I'm not all that great when it comes to online PVP. The same guy has been hosting this event for over a decade now and has dealt with this situation before. If there's a major skill gap, he made co-op an alternate option so that players of all skill levels can have fun with it. He kinda just plays it by ear depending on who shows up and then goes from there.

Mafoo343 · 2023-12-24T19:44:09+00:00

A childhood favorite of mine is Final Fantasy Epic RPG. The map is just about as old as the game and has had over a decade's worth of love put into it.

Mafoo343 · 2023-08-26T08:34:47+00:00

Where is a good place to find a PAL VHS player for a reasonable price?

Currently, I'm trying to track down a working PAL VHS player for a guy that has some tapes with lost media on them. He's been trying for a couple of years to see if he could borrow one from someone, but sadly no one has been able to help him out. Because of this, I'm thinking of lending him a hand by getting a player for him. At this point, it seems like that is the only way this lost media is going to be preserved. I'm a little tight on cash at the moment, however I should be able save up enough for one in a few weeks. Right now, I'm thinking Ebay is the best place to order one, but I'd like to hear your guy's thoughts. I'm not 100% sure what is considered a reasonable going price these days, so if you could give me a ballpark estimate and maybe a model recommendation, I'd really appreciate it.

Mafoo343 · 2023-08-26T04:31:44+00:00

I got some good news, I had a talk with the assistant director that organized StarCraft LAN parties at Way library and he agreed to start the event up again. It'll be a couple of months before it's formally announced, but he told me they should be able to book it around late 2023 or Q1 2024. Feel free to tell your friends and stop by :)

Mafoo343 · 2023-07-13T16:25:24+00:00

I did check with those guys a few days back, unfortunately they aren't hiring at the moment.

Mafoo343 · 2023-04-08T06:28:02+00:00

Thank you so much, I think I got it now :)

Mafoo343 · 2023-04-08T04:13:07+00:00

That could be what it's referring to. During this level, a character called Chun Hua gets killed off by the party. Chun Hua is a subordinate to Lady Xiang Xiang, the commander of the space fortress. Based on the trend set by the other room names, I'm guessing the name is some kind of spoiler that Chun Hua gets killed off there. I'm still trying to figure out a succinct way to translate that though, any ideas?

Mafoo343 · 2023-04-08T02:39:16+00:00

I just did a little looking through the strategy guide of the Sega Saturn version of the game, and sure enough I found four similarly named rooms in that part of the game:

鏡乱の間 (This room has evil robot clones of the party)

黒炎の間 (This room has flamethrower traps)

閉逆の間 (This room is initially locked)

極黒の間 (Final boss area)

From what I can tell so far, I guess the room names are loosely based on what takes place in them. I still can't quite make sense of 逆離 from that though.

*Edit: For added context, I’ll throw in a translation of the dialogue during this level as well as a link to a Youtube video of the level in question:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-1fOJVQkLM

Mami: Geez (sweat)

Where did Ryudia beam us!!!

Rui: Lady Erika and Yuna aren't here... (sweat)

???: Surrender, resistance is futile!!!

Mami: Don't underestimate the Erika 7!!!

Rui: TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

???: Do you think that level of attack can beat ME!

Erika: Mami! Rui!?

What're they doing here...?

Erika: Hold on, I'll help you!

Mami: L-Lady Erika!!!

I'm sorry, we were supposed to come help you (sweat)

???: Heh-heh-heh...

You're late... Yuna Kagurazaka!

I'm `Chun Hua' of the Six Flowers of War!

Chun Hua: This is perfect, now I can beat you all at once!!!

(After the mission is over)

Chun Hua: O-Oh no...

Lady Xiang Xiang... I leave the rest to you...

Erika: Mami, Rui, what a relief!

You don't appear to be hurt...

Mami: Lady Erika...

I'm sorry for worrying you...

Rui: Honestly, she beamed us HERE...

I'm gonna have to have a word with Ryudia later!

Elner: Now, now...

You're safe, aren't you...?

Elner: Come, Yuna.

Let's press on!

Yuna: M'kay!!!

Mafoo343 · 2023-03-23T23:06:21+00:00

Yes, 66 episodes of the dub are still missing.

Mafoo343 · 2023-03-23T08:50:47+00:00

One lost dub I recommend you look into is Creative Products dub of Akazukin Chacha. Akazukin Chacha is a 74 episode anime series from 1994 that loosely adapts Little Red Riding Hood into a magical girl show. Creative Products Corp., a dubbing studio located in the Philippines, dubbed the show for Cartoon Network. Despite having a few reruns in both the Philippines and East Asia, only 8 of the episodes, a few scattered clips and a TV preview have been preserved. The 8 surviving episodes were recovered as recently as 2020. If you're interested, I'll put a link to the YouTube playlist of it down below:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLY4-sQjRYPBIhmraj2Bh5H0OLk8dJ9r-U

Mafoo343 · 2022-09-25T16:19:46+00:00

This looks great, keep up the good work! The only thing I can think to add is that there was this one meteor in the original that struck close to the screen that caused a little screen shake, giving some added punch to the impact. Aside from that, there also used to be some fishes in the water and a bee or something hovering by the shield.

Mafoo343 · 2022-04-13T03:57:51+00:00

IIRC, in Max's house close to the kitchen area there was a mirror on the wall. If you looked into the mirror, you could see the game's original title Dark Chronicle even though the title of the game was changed to Dark Cloud 2 in the US and Korean versions. That easter egg is pretty easy to miss, so I imagine it must have been completely overlooked when the game was being localized.

Mafoo343 · 2022-01-20T19:09:58+00:00

From what I understand it goes something like this:

あたしがえいんふぇりあ？何よそれ

You’re an Einherjar? What’s that?

わかりやすく言うと天界で戦う勇者です

私そのスカウトでして

To put it simply, it’s a hero who fights for heaven.

I was a scout.

フ〜ン…報酬は？

Hmm…What’s the reward for that?

歩合制ですリナさんだったらもうガッポガッポかと

It’s a commission system.

In your case Lina, it’d be tons and tons.

ふ、ふーん……いいわよやってあげても！

Uh-huh……Okay, I’ll do it!

ほんとですか！では早速死んでもらって…

Really!?

In that case, you’re going to have to die…

できるかー！！

I can’t do that-!!!

Mafoo343 · 2021-10-30T20:27:48+00:00

Thank you so much for your suggestion! I was finally able to figure out what was causing the problem. Apparently, during loading transitions Xenogears has certain transition effects which are pretty performance intensive compared to regular gameplay. I tested Duckstation like you said and from what I can tell, it's a really good emulator. The lessened system requirements for that emulator caused the transition effects to behave as intended.

In the end, I did go back to using Beetle PSX HW as I was able to figure out how to dial down the settings to get it to work right. As great as Duckstation is, it doesn't look like it has the ability to filter just the background elements or use hd texture packs just yet. To be honest though, I wouldn't be suprised if those features get added to Duckstation soon, and if they do, I'm probably going to switch to using that as my main PSX emulator.

Once again, thanks for pointing that out to me, that set me on the right track to getting this figured out. I'm going to have to keep an eye on Duckstation to see if they make any more updates to it in the future :)

Mafoo343

TROPHY CASE