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PixyJunket · May 8, 2014

Several years ago there was a site selling freshly localized MSX content. A lot of it. Through an emulator service or something (kind of like Project EGG in Japan). Lots of wonderful games from smaller Japanese developers like Compile and T&E soft. I remember being floored at the amount of stuff these guys had done work on. All these new English translations and it was, as far as I could tell, not widely known. And unfortunately, they seemed to disappear shortly after I heard about them (and before I was able to buy anything).

Does anybody know what I'm talking about?

Does anybody know what happened?

Thinking about Compile just now (..let's not discuss why I was thinking about them and just pretend that it had something to do with my recent PC-Engine revival), it made me a little sad knowing that such a large amount of their lesser known work had been translated and now, apparently lost. And not just Complile, but a crazy amount of translated Japanese 8-bit games from several developers.

PixyJunket · May 8, 2014

Morning bump, although I guess the answer was probably "no."

Khaz · May 8, 2014

I'm not sure what you mean. A website selling translated ROMs? or reproduction cartridges with the translations?

I'm not fluent in MSX, but generation-msx.nl seems to have a good collection of translation patches.

sixteen-bit · May 8, 2014

You could try the MSX thread.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=575017

some MSX heads are subscribed to that thread an may be able to help.

PixyJunket · May 8, 2014

Khaz said:
I'm not sure what you mean. A website selling translated ROMs? or reproduction cartridges with the translations?

It was a service that was selling officially licensed, professionally localized games, most of which weren't previously available in English.

Yes, they were essentially ROMs, but it was more akin to a Virtual Console or Project EGG service.

It was not for fan translations or patches.

sixteen-bit said:
You could try the MSX thread.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=575017

some MSX heads are subscribed to that thread an may be able to help.

Oh, thanks! I'll cross post there.

sörine · May 8, 2014

It was woomb.net. I never subscribed myself but they translated games from Compile, T & E Soft and Microcabin into english. Some games like Xak and Golvellius even had their manuals translated.

I think the parent company Bazix lost MSX rights or something. They were in partnership with D4 so I always sort of hoped we'd see them bring the games to PSN or VC but it never happened.

PixyJunket · May 8, 2014

sörine;111084103 said:
It was woomb.net. I never subscribed myself but they translated games from Compile, T & E Soft and Microcabin into english. Some games like Xak and Golvellius even had their manuals translated.

I think the parent company Bazix lost MSX rights or something. They were in partnership with D4 so I always sort of hoped we'd see them bring the games to PSN or VC but it never happened.

OMG THAT WAS IT.

There's something heart-shattering thinking that all of their work is possibly lost to time now.

Anyway, I'm going to play a little on Google now that I have the site name, THANK YOU.

sörine · May 8, 2014

PixyJunket said:
OMG THAT WAS IT.

There's something heart-shattering thinking that all of their work is possibly lost to time now.

Anyway, I'm going to play a little on Google now that I have the site name, THANK YOU.

Tell us what your research unveils. After the english Project Egg failed the main translator for woomb promised to put out ips patches for all his work, including unreleased projects like Xak II, but I don't know if it's happened yet. The same guy also fan translated SD Snatcher iirc.

PixyJunket · May 8, 2014

sörine;111085522 said:
Tell us what your research unveils. After the english Project Egg failed the main translator for woomb promised to put out ips patches for all his work, including unreleased projects like Xak II, but I don't know if it's happened yet. The same guy also fan translated SD Snatcher iirc.

Well I found something excited but your post on "English Project EGG failed" is worrying.

Anyway, it looks like all the woomb.net stuff is available on Project EGG.

MSX news post:
http://www.msx.org/news/msx-revival/en/project-egg-english-launched-4-games-free

English Project EGG:
http://www.amusement-center.com/en/index.shtml

^ That still seems active and ready to take some money for games and the stuff I was talking about is on the site.

I won't have PC access for a few days but I'll look into creating an account and trying it out when I can.

foobarry81 · May 8, 2014

Seems like you have found the answer in the meanwhile. It was woomb.net indeed.
As was stated above, after the dissolution of woomb.net, you can now play 11 localized MSX games through Project EGG. They will charge you a monthly fee of 525 yen (US$5/€3,7) for access to the site (which you can pay through Paypal only, I think) and then you pay extra to "unlock" 7 of those 11 games.

You could also contact one of those translators from back then directly, btw, and see what they can offer you.

They have some translation patches up for sale, such as the SD Snatcher one, see Project Melancholia.

Edit: might be more than 11 games by now. But it's not a huge list.

Tain · May 8, 2014

How did I not hear about either this or Project EGG until yesterday?

discoalucard · May 8, 2014

foobarry81 said:
Seems like you have found the answer in the meanwhile. It was woomb.net indeed.
As was stated above, after the dissolution of woomb.net, you can now play 11 localized MSX games through Project EGG. They will charge you a monthly fee of 525 yen (US$5/3,7) for access to the site (which you can pay through Paypal only, I think) and then you pay extra to "unlock" 7 of those 11 games.

Wow, has anyone tried this and gotten this to work? I've bought things (music) off Project EGG before and it was a huge pain in the ass. But I'd be willing to give it a shot agian.

I remember Woomb offering up a similar subscription model, which didn't sit well with me at all, which is why I never tried it. Then it went up and disappeared. I seem to remember Golvellius being one of the translated titles.

foobarry81 · May 8, 2014

discoalucard said:
I seem to remember Golvellius being one of the translated titles.

Well, Golvellius and Golvellius 2 are up on English Project EGG, as are Zanac, Zanac Ex, Aleste 1 and Aleste 2 among others. But as said, the list is not very long.

And no, haven't tried it myself.

sörine · May 9, 2014

PixyJunket said:
Well I found something excited but your post on "English Project EGG failed" is worrying.

Anyway, it looks like all the woomb.net stuff is available on Project EGG.

MSX news post:
http://www.msx.org/news/msx-revival/en/project-egg-english-launched-4-games-free

English Project EGG:
http://www.amusement-center.com/en/index.shtml

^ That still seems active and ready to take some money for games and the stuff I was talking about is on the site.

I won't have PC access for a few days but I'll look into creating an account and trying it out when I can.

Weird. I was under the impression that D4 shut down english Project Egg but it seems they've instead been slowly adding to it. There's even a couple Famicom and Neo Geo games now!

Browsing the site it seems only the english localized Compile games made it too, T&E and Microcabin are nowhere to be found.

Dragoon En Regalia · May 20, 2014

For those who have used the EGG launcher: are any of the games you can buy locked behind DRM or are they free for your use so long as you pay the fee? I wouldn't put it past Japanese publishers to be DRM-happy even with ancient games like Relics.

It's certainly a good thing that these games are being digitally preserved for our enjoyment.

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Does anybody know what happend to that site that was selling new English MSX games?

PixyJunket

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PixyJunket

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Khaz

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sixteen-bit

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PixyJunket

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sörine

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PixyJunket

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sörine

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PixyJunket

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foobarry81

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Tain

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discoalucard

i am a butthurt babby that can only drool in wonder at shiney objects

foobarry81

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sörine

Banned

Dragoon En Regalia

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