Hellsinker English patch RELEASED!

[Captain]

I set it to triphase and don't change it at all.

[O. Van Bruce]

when you play with triphase you assign one buttom to your speed control. You press it once and it make you go a 70%, you press it again and you go at 50% and you press it again and you go back to 100%. I'm not actually sure about the percentages, confirm it when you are playing. They are displayed besides you when you press the assigned buttom.

Anyway, I find Momentary it works better because it's simplier. Works the same way as triphase but you only have 2 speeds: 40% and 100%

[Cadrin]

Kinda off-topic, but not quite... I thought it might be worth mentioning here. The story of Hellsinker... well, the part about the Karma Compressor System. Named "GARLAND", anyway, and not the one about the Lost Property 771, or the GRAVEYARD... it reminds me of the novel "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin.

And I'm just going to throw the plot synopsis in here, ripped off straight from Wikipedia, because I'm a lazy bum:

Code: Select all

In the story, Omelas is a utopian city of happiness and delight, whose inhabitants are intelligent and cultured. Everything about Omelas is pleasing, except for the city's one atrocity: the good fortune of Omelas requires that a single unfortunate child be kept in perpetual filth, darkness and misery, and that all her citizens should be told of this upon coming of age.

The analogy of course goes like this: the people who lived before the Grand Collapse sought to make a perfect world, their own Omelas, so to speak; and they sacrificed four pure, innocent children to do so. Regardless, it's an interesting thought to entertain: to sacrifice just one person (to doom them to eternal misery) [the Four Children / the Quadruple Offspring?...] to grant eternal happiness to the rest of the world. What a basic, yet profound, moral dilemma.

So yeah, it might be worth the read if you liked the story of Hellsinker.

I doubt Hiranyon/Ranyon/Tonnor/@TonnyOriclayer has ever read that, mostly because of him being Japanese of origin and therefore having trouble learning languages that employ the Latin alphabet. But it's a pretty curious novel anyway, and somewhat related to the game in its theme.

...What is the guy doing nowadays, anyway? I am seriously considering taking up learning the moon runes, if only to see what the madman is up to. Besides making an RPG (?) and drawing mediocre lolis for use as a background for his Twitter account. He seems to tweet about stuff like crazy.

Guess I am a psychotic stalker after all. But it's all just Skyrim and Skullgirls, and Baldur's Gate, and cute little girls, anyway... and his own game project... which is very likely NOT a shmup...

Those are some great wallpapers. Especially if you use "Windows Inverted" for your mouse pointer.

Sadly, I'm not entirely sure what exactly you mean by "windows inverted". But yeah, I like those graphics that Ranyon made, too.

[AntiFritz]

Those are some great wallpapers. Especially if you use "Windows Inverted" for your mouse pointer.

Sadly, I'm not entirely sure what exactly you mean by "windows inverted". But yeah, I like those graphics that Ranyon made, too.

He means this.



It turns the mouse colour to inverted of whatever its hovering over.

[mauve]

thread resurrection magicks activate are there too many hellsinker threads if so mods may tell me to go stare at a wall

Working on an update, backported the .9b changes into .9 so it's basically the same thing. (randomly, thinking of binding escape key to pause since i apparently can do this with the .9b stuff i found, though i don't know how much people would appreciate changes like that...) Too much work to actually port translation things to .9b so that's what we're getting! Running it through tests lately but limited time for it.

Anybody remember any other typos/errors/etc? Did go through the manual but might have missed some stuff.

[AntiFritz]

Sounds good, I don't see any reason why binding esc to pause would be a bad thing.

[murquiel]

Kinda off-topic, but not quite... I thought it might be worth mentioning here. The story of Hellsinker... well, the part about the Karma Compressor System. Named "GARLAND", anyway, and not the one about the Lost Property 771, or the GRAVEYARD... it reminds me of the novel "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin.

The context implies a man-made Cosmic Horror, their own Eldritch Abomination.

[mauve]

https://groupees.com/doujin2

huh, what have we here.

[AntiFritz]

https://groupees.com/doujin2

huh, what have we here.

They licensed hellsinker?

My only thought is just "lol"

[mauve]

They licensed hellsinker?

My only thought is just "lol"

That's our fan translation, officially sanctioned by Tonnor. We're handling the 'licensing' ourselves.

Yes, this is real.

Also it's slightly updated from the old translation. A few typos fixed, the 9b changes backported in.

[MathU]

Is this a newer patch than v1.1?

That footage of Hellsinker in your promotional video wasn't very flattering.

[mauve]

Yes, this is slightly newer.

No updated standalone... well, yet, I don't know. We've been really stretched for time lately.

was any of the footage flattering really

[MathU]

Can I get a link to your new patch mauve? I'm not seeing it anywhere on that site. Thanks for putting in the effort to bump this up to the latest official Hellsinker version, I was never expecting you to.

Oh wait, backported in... Well, close enough if the replays stay synched.

[AntiFritz]

Can I get a link to your new patch mauve? I'm not seeing it anywhere on that site. Thanks for putting in the effort to bump this up to the latest official Hellsinker version, I was never expecting you to.

Oh wait, backported in... Well, close enough if the replays stay synched.

What I think he meant in the post above yours is that the patch won't be released soon, and the only way to get the updated version is via the groupees deal.

[mauve]

Can I get a link to your new patch mauve? I'm not seeing it anywhere on that site. Thanks for putting in the effort to bump this up to the latest official Hellsinker version, I was never expecting you to.

Oh wait, backported in... Well, close enough if the replays stay synched.

What I think he meant in the post above yours is that the patch won't be released soon, and the only way to get the updated version is via the groupees deal.

yeah i'm pretty sure we'll update... eventually... right now we're all pretty worn out.

[Zeether]

Jumped on the Groupees bundle as soon as I saw it was on there since I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to get the game legit like this after it happens.

[shmuppyLove]

Buy now think later

[shaowebb]

Bought. Man this game is different though. I keep trying to find a spread shot but it seems holding shot in this one just gives me a targeting area effect thingy. Definitely a unique rhythm to this shmup, but it feels pretty tight. Just got to adjust to its setup. I can already tell I'm gonna be tap shooting and melee-ing this one a lot.

[Zaarock]

I recommend reading the manual that comes with the game if anyone is having trouble, the translation is great and it covers things better than the strategy guide on here. Can't think of any other shmup where a manual is as important for understanding how to play (probably a bad thing, but hey experimental game)

[Jeneki]

(happy dance) Awesome!

I haven't picked up Armed Seven yet either. Gonna have some fun tonight.

[mauve]

Haven't heard of anyone having issue with the final translation build, which is a relief to me. I hadn't done MAJOR changes, a comple image touchups/changes and backporting 9b's arrow key fix, but I still worry when I push things without time to do a full-test.

Tonnor seems super happy about it all, too.

[BPzeBanshee]

Most important area of testing would probably be input replays. Testing replays in your translated 9b backport and then running them again in the official Jap 9b to see whether they desync. I wish I had time to do this myself but I don't, and I'm not actually that great with Hellsinker.

[mauve]

yeah that's like first thing since it's the least effort, those are fine.

also games aren't usually constructed such that meddling with the controller-level input stuff affects game-level input. you quarantine those parts away from each other specifically because of things like replays.

[gs68]

Bought. Man this game is different though. I keep trying to find a spread shot but it seems holding shot in this one just gives me a targeting area effect thingy. Definitely a unique rhythm to this shmup, but it feels pretty tight. Just got to adjust to its setup. I can already tell I'm gonna be tap shooting and melee-ing this one a lot.

If you complete segments 1-4 on one credit, you can unlock Kagura, which includes a shot type with a variable spread.

Easiest way to clear segments 1-4 is to use Minogame, since his/her level 2 subweapon (red and black lock-on lasers) is highly spammable. You'll have shit score that way but that's besides the point.

[Straielst]

https://groupees.com/doujin2

huh, what have we here.

That just made my day.
It'll be nice to finally be able to purchase it after so many years.

I recommend reading the manual that comes with the game if anyone is having trouble, the translation is great and it covers things better than the strategy guide on here. Can't think of any other shmup where a manual is as important for understanding how to play (probably a bad thing, but hey experimental game)

I actually liked that about the game. It was a shmup that actually attempted to break away from the overused conventions of the genre; it was heavily flawed in its approach though, no doubt, but that which had resulted in those flaws beget a large number of merits as well.
I remember before the English patch was released, lurking a thread on this forum that was the 'secrets of Hellsinker' or something similar to that. It was a unique experience to say the least.

The manual is also of some importance for the plot, if you're interested in it at least. Which I was.

If you complete segments 1-4 on one credit, you can unlock Kagura, which includes a shot type with a variable spread.

From what I remember, you unlock a Kagura variant, not all are unlocked at one instant.
Though I could be remembering incorrectly, it has been a while.

[gs68]

I think I did unlock all four of them. The manual says that Kagura is unlocked alongside Segment Location, but nothing mentions specific equipment types being unlocked.

Speaking of which folks, please DO read the manual, it explains a lot about the game's workings. If you bought the game from Groupees or otherwise have the English patch, the manual is also in English so no excuses.

[mauve]

So I've been hearing about problems with running the game in Windows 8. It happened even in the Japanese version of 1.0.0.9, appears to be some sort of bizarre compatibility issue, and seems to have been resolved in Windows 8.1.

Workaround someone suggested to me that apparently works for them but makes zero sense to me:
- http://sanagimaru.nobody.jp/notice.html Hit up the old official site, download the direct3d9 build there, copy it to the game dir and run it. Game should start up in Japanese. (note: it WILL eventually crash because it is lacking some Japanese files.)
- Exit and run the English version. I am told this works and makes up for compatibility problems. Really.

I don't have a Win8 machine so I'm trying to figure out a good way to resolve it because I barely even know what the problem is (I suspect it's not loading a necessary DLL, which gets included properly when the game is run beforehand?).

(if you're looking for the newer official site, it's here)

[MathU]

Any plans to get the standalone patch up yet mauve?

[gs68]

I'm not sure if this is a problem with my OS (Win7), hardware (Radeon 6570M), or the game itself, but if I'm running the game fullscreen and Windows switches focus to something else, the game becomes unplayable because if I try to switch focus back to the game, all I get is a non-fullscreened window with nothing but grey in the window. The rest of the game is just fine (sound and game internals are still operational), but I'm forced to exit at this point.

This wouldn't be a problem since I'm smart enough not to switch focus away to another program while the game is running, but a few programs I use have auto-updaters that steal focus away from whatever other program I'm in to slap a "update available" popup in my face, and this is a big problem when playing Hellsinker. Some programs are kind enough to allow disabling of auto-updates, but some others (e.g. SugarSync) have no way to turn it off.

[nasty_wolverine]

I'm not sure if this is a problem with my OS (Win7), hardware (Radeon 6570M), or the game itself, but if I'm running the game fullscreen and Windows switches focus to something else, the game becomes unplayable because if I try to switch focus back to the game, all I get is a non-fullscreened window with nothing but grey in the window. The rest of the game is just fine (sound and game internals are still operational), but I'm forced to exit at this point.

This wouldn't be a problem since I'm smart enough not to switch focus away to another program while the game is running, but a few programs I use have auto-updaters that steal focus away from whatever other program I'm in to slap a "update available" popup in my face, and this is a big problem when playing Hellsinker. Some programs are kind enough to allow disabling of auto-updates, but some others (e.g. SugarSync) have no way to turn it off.

Does the same on my system if its in fullscreen and you switch out of focus. I think its the old texture getting invalidated on changing mode/focus (old D3D device lost horror). I dont think HS does texture unload/reload before mode/focus switching. Maybe someone who has looked into the binary can say for sure.