(also available in spoken form)
OK, let's make this a press statement kind of thing. Please copy-paste this wherever people are asking for progress, release dates or whatever.
As things are now, PC-98 translation patches won't happen before the full version release of Double Dealing Character - and even after that, it will still take a couple of months.
At this point, I myself am the only reason these patches are stalled, so if you want to flame at me, please go ahead, you have every right to do so.
I am doing so for two reasons:
Firstly, I'm going to use the entirety of the time from now to the full release of th14 for improving thcrap and adding patch support for the remaining types of data (that is, spell cards, images, endings, music room, hardcoded strings, and the resolution dialog, in this order). There is now a sizable thcrap user base still expecting th14 content to be gradually patched and bugs to be removed. It would be bad to switch to what is basically a completely different patching project at this point.
Even if I finish with all of this before Summer Comiket, I'm going to spend the rest of the time on improving usability. Right now, it seems that the only thing holding back a more widespread adoption of thcrap is the shoddy configuration tool I had to rush during the last week before Reitaisai (because you can't expect people to edit plaintext JSON files, right?). Although this actually has nothing to do with the patch itself, it seemed to lead to a lot of "ew, that weird JavaScript patch" talk (even though there is no trace of JavaScript in any component of the client-side patch). I am very concerned, and often even insulted when hearing this, so this is a high priority for me, personally.
Secondly, there is a clash of mindsets here.
On the one hand, we have xJeePx, who just wants to get these patches out as soon as possible "because the fandom has waited long enough for them". Which is definitely true; the basic Touhou PC-98 patching tools and information have been openly available since at least 2010, but no one has been willing to make an effort to put all the stuff together and do this - until he came along.
On the other hand, we have me, who firmly believes that the "thcrap way" is the right way to do patching and who wants to apply this to the PC-98 games too.
Most importantly, I personally refuse to release translation patches that are not multilingual (accept it, the days of English-only patches are over) (also, duplication of effort) or patches that involve data file repacking (which, given the former, is almost a necessity). Multilingualism means that we need to add Unicode support, which also means that we need custom fonts, which also means that we should maybe implement proportional text rendering (I think xJeePx even asked for more text space at one point, so yeah).
And, of course, everything should still run on Real Hardware™.
While the Windows way of doing multilingual patch is fairly straightforward, the PC-98 way will be more of a challenge. A challenge I am personally really looking forward to. But yeah, that's what I see this as. A challenge, with possibly amazing results. Not something to be done quickly, that's what we have Windows game patching for.
According to xJeePx, we are currently merely missing:
- a) PNG to CDG/CD2 file conversion (trivial)
- b) Relocation of some hardcoded text (probably trivial for anyone else but me - keep in mind that this is DOS we're talking about)
Yet, according to me, we're just at the very beginning of proper patching.
So far, I've spent almost 4 months of work (with more than half of that lost to the pursuit of faulty concepts) fumbling around with PC-98 emulators, DOS and DOS kernels, culminating in the ability to patch DOS applications in memory. None of my work is specific to any Touhou game at this point.
For the majority of that time, xJeePx couldn't patch the images himself, as none of the widely available .PI file converters work with the Touhou games. So he was kind of dependent on my promise to eventually deal with this in a, in my opinion, proper way. And so, everything was fine and well and I went on with my work... until they figured out the .PI problem themselves.
Cue a personal existential crisis.
Well, now, since I'm not the arrogant, selfish idiot you think I am, I was willing to admit defeat, trash my work and to accept that I am wasting time here as no one gives a shit about my plans anyway. I would have contributed these few missing parts xJeePx was asking for, and we would have released the patches a few weeks later.
So I asked both xJeePx as well as a random selection of Touhou fans whether the patches should be released now or later. Surprisingly, the vast majority, including xJeePx himself, were largely in favor of my approach, although I did my best to give a balanced (scratch that, self-deprecating) point of view.
And thus, everything is waiting for me now, but my priorities at this point are different.
I should perhaps point out that, during the whole process, there has been next to no communication between xJeePx and me, save for the few instances where I deemed it necessary to send a message via Nazeo (who is now gone for a few months). I myself refuse to join Shrinemaiden (their hypocritical policies annoy me and I don't want to be ganged up on and eaten alive by their elite), and apparently, xJeePx refuses to join #thcrap, too. Weird, I just noticed that he was there during #newtouhou.
But even though he apparently agrees with the current course of action, xJeePx keeps announcing a release either "soon" or at an unspecified point this summer - although I am pretty open that I haven't worked on anything PC-98 after April 27. Maybe it seemed obvious that I would return to PC-98 shortly after Reitaisai ("yeah, let's just quickly patch them spell cards and images"), but well, turns out that this is not going to happen.
See, this is why I prefer to announce release date goals as "not until X". Much better than the usual "when it's fucking done, retard, now shut up", yet still non-binding, and no one is upset when the goal is not met. xJeePx, if you read this, you should do the same.
So, right now, it's "not until November" as far as I'm concerned.
The obvious solution to this mess would be, again, for me to admit defeat etc. and have xJeePx look for a different hacker to finish these patches in an "old-school" way. But well, this is xJeePx' decision and his alone.
I am not posting all of this because of drama or anything, we really are far from that. It's simply how things are at the moment. Since being a Touhou fan makes all of you entitled to a patch (and yes, I am dead serious here), you all have a right to know at least that. And well, if neither xJeePx nor Nazeo (who should usually handle relations for me) have given any specifics on the current situation, it's up to me now.
Although I admit that it was a mistake to give in to the hype and jump right into this project, I am still willing to go on and finish my work.
And you can rest assured that I won't be starting Seihou before all of this is done.
~ Nmlgc
Update (2013-06-19): Got an answer from JeeP. Summary:
- He will adapt the "not until X" scheme for announcing release dates
- He was just too busy during all that time for more communication
- He does support what I do, especially after the th14 trial
- He is working closely with a number of translators to get improved translations for everything in the meantime
- Everything will go on as planned.