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Produced by Hot-B Co., Ltd., Star Odyssey was originally released in Japan under the title Blue Almanac, in 1991. Star Odyssey was the title chosen for the game's English localization, which was scheduled for release in the United States in the early 1990s. Though this version of the game was advertised in several print magazines of the day, its release was ultimately cancelled. In 2007, the only known English language prototype of Star Odyssey was acquired by Super Fighter Team. Upon verifying its completeness, the company approached current IP holder Starfish-SD in order to negotiate a license to produce and publish the game worldwide. An agreement was officially reached between the two companies in 2009, paving the way for this long awaited game to finally reach eager customers outside of Japan. The finished product is scheduled to be released in early 2011, for use with all NTSC and PAL based Genesis, Mega Drive and compatible video game systems.
What appears below is a detailed account of the development process undertaken by Super Fighter Team in order to prepare Star Odyssey for its official, worldwide release.
The quality of the original English translation was extremely poor, so the entire script was heavily edited and rewritten to improve its overall quality, as well as to add depth, excitement, humor, et cetera.
A critical bug existed in one routine, which would cause the game to go to a black screen and become unplayable. The affected routine was reprogrammed to eliminate the bug and ensure that the game always runs smoothly.
Initially, the heroes could only be named using uppercase letters. Now, both upper and lowercase letters can be used.
A programming oversight made it so that attempting to speak with a certain character toward the end of the game brought up an empty dialogue box. This was corrected; the previously affected character now communicates with the heroes.
The original Japanese language version of the game featured an impressive color change effect which was displayed during the introduction of the title graphic. This effect was adapted into the new version.
A flaw in the game's design caused one of the boss enemies to display incorrect graphics if it was defeated before it had a chance to attack the heroes. This flaw was fixed to ensure that the correct graphics are always displayed for this enemy, regardless of circumstance.
The animated cut scenes between chapters were not present in the English language prototype, so they were adapted into the new version of the game based directly on the data from the original Japanese language version.
The original game data included voice recordings of male and female screams, intended to be played when one of the heroes dies during combat. However, no code existed to link these voices to the combat routine, thus leaving them unused. Now, the game makes use of these screams every time one of the hero characters is killed.
Only two ways existed to revive a fallen hero: via a visit to the doctor (cheap but often requiring extensive travel) or through the use of Force magic (quick and easy but requiring a high level character with powerful Force abilities). To balance the difficulty, the function of the Excel item was modified: in addition to being able to heal one of the heroes, it now has the added ability to revive a dead one.
An option to heal the heroes of a condition known as Shock was offered at the doctor's office, but there is no function in the game code to cause this condition. Therefore, the Shock treatment was removed from the doctor's office menu, as it served no actual purpose.
What appears below is a detailed account of the development process undertaken by Super Fighter Team in order to prepare Star Odyssey for its official, worldwide release.
The quality of the original English translation was extremely poor, so the entire script was heavily edited and rewritten to improve its overall quality, as well as to add depth, excitement, humor, et cetera.
A critical bug existed in one routine, which would cause the game to go to a black screen and become unplayable. The affected routine was reprogrammed to eliminate the bug and ensure that the game always runs smoothly.
Initially, the heroes could only be named using uppercase letters. Now, both upper and lowercase letters can be used.
A programming oversight made it so that attempting to speak with a certain character toward the end of the game brought up an empty dialogue box. This was corrected; the previously affected character now communicates with the heroes.
The original Japanese language version of the game featured an impressive color change effect which was displayed during the introduction of the title graphic. This effect was adapted into the new version.
A flaw in the game's design caused one of the boss enemies to display incorrect graphics if it was defeated before it had a chance to attack the heroes. This flaw was fixed to ensure that the correct graphics are always displayed for this enemy, regardless of circumstance.
The animated cut scenes between chapters were not present in the English language prototype, so they were adapted into the new version of the game based directly on the data from the original Japanese language version.
The original game data included voice recordings of male and female screams, intended to be played when one of the heroes dies during combat. However, no code existed to link these voices to the combat routine, thus leaving them unused. Now, the game makes use of these screams every time one of the hero characters is killed.
Only two ways existed to revive a fallen hero: via a visit to the doctor (cheap but often requiring extensive travel) or through the use of Force magic (quick and easy but requiring a high level character with powerful Force abilities). To balance the difficulty, the function of the Excel item was modified: in addition to being able to heal one of the heroes, it now has the added ability to revive a dead one.
An option to heal the heroes of a condition known as Shock was offered at the doctor's office, but there is no function in the game code to cause this condition. Therefore, the Shock treatment was removed from the doctor's office menu, as it served no actual purpose.
http://www.starodysseygame.com/index.html
Έτυχε να παίξω το συγκεκριμένο παιχνίδι πριν αρκετά χρόνια (για τις ανάγκες του youtube καναλιού μου ~ τελικά δεν ανέβασα το βίντεο λόγω προβλημάτων με τον ήχο), ωστόσο δε με είχε εντυπωσιάσει καθόλου. Οι απαρχαιωμένοι μηχανισμοί του και η λιτή εμφάνιση είναι οι κυριότεροι παράγοντες που με απώθησαν. Θεωρώ ότι δεν ανταποκρίνεται στις δυνατότητες του Genesis και με δεδομένο ότι η ίδια εταιρεία μετέφρασε πιο αξιόλογα παιχνίδια, θα μπορούσε να γίνει μία καλύτερη επιλογή.
