Shinto-Cetra wrote:I'm on the team and am still around...I just don't post much cause I can't do anything either. I echo your sentiments, and don't blame you.
I'm glad you're still around, Cetra, and even gladder you agree with me. Hopefully someone someday will come around to help us out...
darkwraith007 wrote:[snipped for brevity]
Firstly, making disc game repros is still difficult. I have no doubt that progress is being made--I did hear tell that Sony actually released how to press official PS1 discs. But to my knowledge? You can't just "reproduce" a pressed PS2 disc to have it work with the complex Emotion Engine. The best you can do is buy a PS2 Memory Card with FreeMcBoot on it, and an external hard drive pre-loaded with PS2 games.
Secondly, it's not just that they can't be played on real hardware. PSG:1 uses the thunder-elemental icon for its non-elemental spells. It lacks character name labels if there's a portrait. Altiplano Plateau is called "Antiplano." The scrambled character graphics issue happens on PCSX2 sometimes. Spell names should be in cyan instead of yellow or whatever it is right now, I can't be assed to look. There are multiple typos within the text. PSG:2 has the issue where enemy name labels run out of the text box. The missing "item got" label after battle is an aesthetic issue, not just crash-related. Keinz's Skill has a fire icon and it's an anti-machine ability. Huey's Skill has an anti-biomonster icon and it's a non-elemental ability. There are numerous typos and formatting issues. These translations are
not finished. They're in a rough state and as a creator, it's beyond frustrating that something I worked on, PSG:1, is in this unfinished state.
Lastly, even though there may be piracy--I don't care if a few unsuspecting people spend money on repros (Which still aren't really a thing for PS2 unless you have a modded console.) that they, unknowingly, could've gotten for free. I would
much rather do that than deprive people who went out and took the time and money to install FreeMcBoot, (Or purchase a Memory Card with it.) and get an external hard drive, or get a flip-top PS2 and SwapMagic, bought a CRT, burned the disc to one or more CDs or DVDs, and possibly converted the game to DVD format...
...Just to play a remake of one of their favorite games from their childhood. Only to find that their beloved Alisa Landale turns into a gray-colored version of fucking Tyrone's ass when you win a battle. Or worse, with PSG:2--the game will fucking softlock if you win a battle! Sorry, folks, you don't get to play the long-anticipated remake of one of the games most important to you that you unwrapped on Christmas as a little kid. Nope, it just crashes if you win an item. Save often! It's fucked up to do that.
This is a passion for me and it's also a service. It's a product. Each and every single work I've ever done is a free product of love, and a service to people that I made out of the goodness of my heart. And if these people, who just want to experience stories from their formative years with improvements to the gameplay. it's my duty to deliver it to them. Anything less than perfection is unacceptable.
I may not know code or Japanese, but I've spent ages combing the internet for solutions, figuring out bitmasks, trying to find the right byte to set, scouring undumped ISOs, trying to do anything and everything I can to make sure my vision shines through. I put so many hours of work into PSG:1 and I hate seeing it left in this state.