Tag Archives: rom

ROM Hack Round Up: Sega Genesis Fan Translated Shooters

Shooters have been a staple of home consoles and arcades since the beginning of gaming. The Genesis has its share of good shooters, and there are a few especially excellent ones that didn’t come out in North America. While shooters usually aren’t heavy on dialogue or plot, these two deserved a translation as they have more plot than the standard shooter. They also really show off some of the graphical capabilities of the Sega Genesis. Check them out!

Battle Mania Daiginjou

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Battle Mania Daiginjou is the sequel to Battle Mania – released in North America as Trouble Shooter. Both games are run-and-gun shooters that have heavier story elements than most shooter games. Trouble Shooter was a great game but Battle Mania Daiginjou benefits from continuing the oringal’s plot and balancing out the speed and difficulty compared to the first. The game has both horizontal and vertical shooter levels and really pushes the limits of what the Sega Genesis can do with graphics and music. The soundtrack is one of the heaviest chugging rock soudntracks on the Genesis.  Its impressive how they coaxed metal guitar sounds out of simple FM synthesis.

Gley Lancer

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Although this later game out o Wii virtual console in English, you can enjoy the original Sega Genesis ROM and the excellent Manga style cutscenes and story. The game is pretty standard side-scrolling shooter like Gradius but with the ability to shoot in all directions and with its own power-ups and unique environments. It may be a standard style of side-scrolling shooter, but it is a quality game. The music is decent and keeps you engaged in the action.

The backgrounds are gorgeous too. The story deals with the Earth repelling an attack from an unknown alien race. When a high-ranking general is captured, his 16-year old daughter hijacks the prototype “Gley Lancer” starship to rescue him. Both games have nuanced innovations for their genres and are great to play on an emulator.

Rom Hack Round Up: Sega Genesis Fan Translated English RPGs Part 1

While the SNES seems to get the most attention for its RPGs, the Sega Genesis has a ton of great roleplaying classics too. Many of the best ones, however, never made it to North America during the console’s original run. Here’s a few awesome ones you can try out on the Genesis that are definitely worth your time.

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Today, we’ll look at three high quality RPGs for the Sega Genesis. These games have been translated to english and their Roms are easy to find. You can even get two of these on an actual Sega cartridge!

Continue reading Rom Hack Round Up: Sega Genesis Fan Translated English RPGs Part 1

Tutorial: How To Patch Japanese Roms for Fan-Made English Translations

We’ve had tons of articles reviewing some amazing romhacks here on videogamedj.com and yet we’ve only scratched the surface of some of the awesome modifications to your classic favorite games that are out there. The tutorial below can help you not only create the altered playable version of any of the games we’ve reviewed from the original ROM, but it can also open up a huge world of fan-translated Japanese games that you can now play in English.

As any gamer knows, classic console gaming was far bigger in Japan than it ever was in North America. This fact and the lag between getting games translated and new consoles taking over the market lead to a number of incredibly polished, classic gaming masterpieces never getting translated and/or never being released to the North America market.

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This is especially true of the SNES/Genesis era when roleplaying games in particular started to become epic works of art with beautiful soundtracks. It’s an interesting period to revisit. You can see the origins many game ideas that are now common – branching plots, real-time RPG battles and character development that impacts the ending – they all got their start in some of these lost gems.

While some of these games have been translated and released officially on other platforms, some have not. Some of the official translations are inferior versions of the originals that don’t quite play the same. Thanks to fan translations that patch the original rom with english text, you can enjoy these games in their original format without learning Japanese first.

While some of the patched English ROMs are available for direct download, many are not. The patches and Japanese ROMs are easier to get, so its up to you to do the patching. Here’s a quick run through on how to do it.

Continue reading Tutorial: How To Patch Japanese Roms for Fan-Made English Translations

10-year Project of Translating NES Classic Lagrange Point Completed

Aeon Genesis has completed their 10-year ROM translation project of Konami’s 8-bit NES sci-fi 1991 RPG Masterpiece Lagrange Point.

Lagrange Point is one of the most advanced NES games ever to come out. On a technical level, it uses Konami’s VRC7 sound chip to create FM synthesis on the original NES. The soundtrack has a character all its own and the FM Synths really lend themselves to the game’s space theme.

Read on to get everything you need to emulate it!

Continue reading 10-year Project of Translating NES Classic Lagrange Point Completed