I've been looking at the patent documents for the PPU, and found a reference to a japanese patent (JP,55-096186,A). I downloaded scanned images of this patent from the Japanese Patent Office, but of course it is in Japanese and I cannot read it. The patent was issued in 1980, but I could swear that the drawings are of Tecmo Bowl. They are of a american football field which is one screen tall, but serveral screens wide. Anyway, if anyone knows how to read this and would be willing to translate about 8 pages of text please let me know.
I don't know much Japanese, though I am learning it (or atleast trying to do so). I've also got a good dictionary program, so perhaps I could be of some assistance.
Tecmo Bowl arcade version has two screens side-by-side, just like X-Men arcade version.
It's Punch-Out!! that has the DS setup.
In order to see this document, follow these directions.
1. go to
http://www.ipdl.jpo.go.jp/homepg_e.ipdl
2. click on Patent & Utility Model Gazette DB
3. Enter Kind Code: A
4. Enter Number: S55-096186
5. click on search, a link to document JP,55-096186,A(1980) will appear in a pane on the left. click it
6. You will be told that the document is not available in English, so Click on the button that says JAPANESE.
If anyone can make sense of it, please post the info on these boards. The pictures themselves are somewhat revealing, even with the japanese captions.
I can't read any of that - it's too damn blurry. Even if I zoom in, it's still impossible to tell what each character is.
[edit] for the record, I was referring to the patent text (in nice blocky image files), NOT the site.
Does anyone know what name of the japanese Castlevania "Akumajou densetsu" means?
akumajou densetsu == あくまじょう でんせつ == 悪魔城伝説
悪魔 (あくま) == demon
城 (じょう) == castle
伝説 (でんせつ) == legend
Thanks a lot! According to my japanese dictionary, "akuma" translates as evil or bad.
Does anyone why exactly the music of Castlevania3 sounds so much different from japanese version? Excluding the music, these games look almost identical.
- Sepi
Easy - the Famicom version used the Konami VRC6, which had 3 extra sound channels. The NES does not support expansion sound, so the music had to be rewritten using only the internal sound channels.
Yeah, but did they have to replace the pcm samples too? o_O
The PCM samples in the Japanese music probably didn't sound right once they rewrote the music to 2A03-only, so they were replaced.
The relative loudness of the VRC6 in comparison to the internal sound might have also made a difference (if VRC6 was significantly louder, then the Japanese PCM samples would have to be louder to compensate).