Public Patch FAQ

This file consists of some frequently asked questions as well as some other questions that I presume people will ask when playing the current patch (v0.30). Don't report anything that has already been mentioned in this file. Users should also refer to the readme.1st file before they apply the patch.

1. What is a patch?
   
   A patch is simply a sequence of changes to one or more original files. The RS3 patch, when applied to the original RS3 Japanese rom, will change the Japanese to English so that you can play the game in English.
   
   
2. Where can I find the original RS3 Japanese rom?
   
   This is not a rom site and you should not even ask. I won't link it here due to legal reasons. All I can say is that you can find it lying in many sites in the Internet. Try surfing around and you should not have too much problems finding it. However, you should have the original catridge to keep your rom in your computer legally.
   
   
3. How do I apply the patch to the rom?
   
   Go to Whirlpool and look at their FAQ. I heard that ZSNES can patch rom automatically if you just put the ips file and the rom file in the same directory, but I never try it. Ask around if you still can't get things to work, but READ before you ask.
   
   
4. Is this patch 100% complete?
   
   No, I would never say that. See the next question for known problems. And even if all those bugs are fixed, this game has so many different ways to play such that there is no way to test every scenario. That's also why I need so many beta testers to work on this. Moreover, I can't play the game from the beginning every time I correct a bug. There are times that new errors are introduced during correction. I have been very careful, but I don't guarantee that I won't make mistakes. Currently I think I can say that the progress is about 99%, but it will never go to 100%.
   
   
5. What are the known problems of this patch?
   
   The "miss" (mi-su), "stun"(su-ta-n) and "dark" (da--ku) that appear in the battle are still Japanese: you can ask why, but currently I have problems finding the fonts and the pointers for these letters. I have tried my best and can't proceed without help. Please bear with it, or just learn these characters. There are only 7 Katakana in these 8x8 fonts, and the only words are "miss", "stun" and "dark", which should be easy to figure out.
   
   The credits at the end are in Japanese: I have dumped the text and even translated a few of them. However, most of the names are in Kanji and many of them can have 2 to 10 different translations. Without knowing the exact pronounciation of these names, translation cannot be done. I simply don't want to select a random translation and put it down as if it is correct. It will be left as is until someone can be sure about how to Romanizing the names.
   
   "Spear/Epe up!" should be "Spear/Épée up!": The box will somehow become too long and wrap around to the left side if the correct spelling is used. It will be left as is until someone has time to do some ASM work on this.
   
   When entering the main character's name, letters are widely spaced: I have used some strange compression techniques to fit the text. Each tile actually consists of 2 letters. When one selects letters "Tim", it actually becomes " T i m" because the tile consists of a space and a letter. The only way to overcome this is to keep using the original name, or use the name editor program attached with the zip file. The name editor makes things better, but you still cannot enter any name at your will.
   
   Some words are wide apart; or some words and punctuations are wide apart; or the first letter of some names should be capitalized but it is in small letter: again, this is related to the compression scheme. Unless vast ASM is done or the whole thing is hacked from the beginning, this cannot be corrected.
   
   Some item names/tech names/etc. are misspelled or just some romanized Japanese. in order to fit some names into limiting space, names are truncated, (like "Fish Scale Armor" becomes "Fish Scale", abbreviated (like "Life element" becomes "Life elemnt" or kept as romanized (like "Fang Dragon Dance" remains as "Kibaryu dance"). Unless there are legitimate reasons, they will be left as is.
   
   Unsatisfactory Business Game hacking: I have changed every "aurum" to 'G' because I like 'G' better as a currency (note: Aurum is Latin, which is gold anyway). But in the Business Game, again, the pointers and special symbols still haven't been located. The problems may be fixed when the stuffs are found, but like the "mi-su", these are not easy to locate without ASM skill. Furthermore, in Japanese, big numbers are represented in "man", "oku" and "chou" just like thousand, million, billion in English, but instead it is "ten thousand", "hundred million" and "trillion". It is very hard to change how they are displayed without expert ASM skill. To compromise, I replace the Japanese Kanji "man", "oku" and "chou" with small "m", "o", "c". The 'm' means 10,000 (man in Japanese), and 'o' means 100,000,000 (oku inJapanese). And 'c' means 1,000,000,000,000. So 123M means 1,230,000, and 2o3456m means 234,560,000. Sorry, but please bear with it for now.
   
   
6. Should I use SNES9X or ZSNES to play this game?
   
   It's completely your choice. SNES9X appears to be more stable for this game, and display everything smoothly. But it requires a faster computer (a PII or above is recommended for the Window version.) I personally like ZSNES better since its user interface is better, and I have got used to the commands. It is also faster on my P166MMX computer. However, it can't display the Business Game correctly in 640x480x16bit (which I usually use because it enables transparency effect), so one has to change the video mode when he/she wants to play the Business Game. It also has some bad display when displaying the team names in the tournament. Also, if you don't have VESA2 display mode, SNES9X for Windows will make your life a bit easier.
   
   
7. The menu of the game does not appear correctly. The font looks blurred/missing a few columns/scrambled. However, normal game dialogues appear to be fine.
   
   RS3 uses special high resolution mode for menus. For ZSNES, you need to use 640x480x16B with VESA2 display mode with all other options (like interpolation) off to display the menu correctly. This is not a bug of the game or the patch. For SNES9X you will also need high resolution mode plus transparency enabled for correct display. The Business game uses a even more special display mode that ZSNES will fail. You will be able to see only the text on the left as the text on the right will go off the screen. Only SNES9X can display the Business Game menu correctly for the moment. However, since the Business game is known to be glitchy, don't test it for now until further fix is implemented.
   
   
8. The text basically looks fine, but I saw strange characters on comma, period, etc. It looks like a pair of eye-glasses.

   You MUST use a clean Japanese rom when you apply a patch. If you don't know what a clean rom means, do this: run your "original" rom (the rom you try to use my patch on) with zsnes. Wait until the introduction appears. If you see English, it is not clean. If my patch is applied to this rom, funny characters will appear because the two font tables overlap. The unclean rom are lying all over the web. Make sure you check the "original" rom that it isn't patched before with DF's patch or Kefka's patch.

9. In the tournament, the team names are screw up. It appears to be a graphic glitch.

   It's a bug in ZSNES, not the game or the patch. SNES9X displays everything smoothly.

10. How do I solve this puzzle/How do I defeat xxx/What's the use of item yyy in the game?
    
    Read my Walkthrough FAQ. If you don't like to read a long FAQ like that, you can always post the question on the message board so that other people or I may help.



11. Why is the text in the Business Game trimmed?
    
    The Business game uses a even more special display mode that ZSNES will fail to display it in 16-bit mode. You will be able to see only the text on the left as the text on the right will go off the screen. Use 640x480 8-bit video mode, or you can use SNES9X instead to avoid the problem..