MagicEngine

acem77

I dont know where the best place is to post this but i think this would be very cool if its possible.
extract the hidden translated psp version of dracula x and convert it back to a working image that could be burned and
played on a real pc-engine or turbo duo.

as far as i can tell the psp ver is emulated and not a conversion. if this is true maybe the rest could be very possible.
this may be a long shot but some one with the right psp skills could extract the data then pass it over to some one
with pc-engine skills to reformat every thing to make it play able on the real hardware.

the other cool possibility would be to hack the psp pc-engine emulator to run other cd images on the psp.
dreaming of playing lords of thunder on a psp!!

Joel Schmidt · Regular Joined: 17 Dec 2004 Posts: 116

FluBBa · Member Joined: 12 Jun 2003 Posts: 58 Location: GBG, Sweden

The PSP version includes a remake of Dracula X using 3D characters and background, it also includes the original Symphony of the Night and the original Dracula X.
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What?

Squaresoft74 · Elder Joined: 19 Apr 2002 Posts: 366 Location: France

Joel Schmidt · Regular Joined: 17 Dec 2004 Posts: 116

denzilla · Regular Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 141

Having been playing the game for the last three days, I couldn't disagree with you more, Squaresoft74. While things have been changed here and there in the remake, its all very high quality and is well worth the $30 price tag by itself. Even though the game is rendered in polygons, its a work of art. The remixed music isn't bad either. I think you need to treat it as a different game not an exact copy of the original. As for the original Dracula X, I have noticed some small emulation bugs, which is disappointing but tolerable. It would be nice if Game companies would pay more respect to the original game if they plan to include it in a remake compilation. Afterall, the original is the reason behind the re-release to begin with. I can't comment on SOTN yet as I've yet to try it, but the new voice acting sounded pretty good from what I've heard playing videos on Youtube. My biggest problem with the game is I felt it should've been released on the PS2 not the PSP. Don't get me wrong it looks fabulous on the PSP, but I would much rather play it on a nice big screen.

duke4711 · Regular Joined: 19 Nov 2004 Posts: 84

I agree with you, Denzilla. I've been playing the game for a few days, myself, and while not a big fan of remakes of anything, I really like what they've done with it. Just being able to play it in English is great. I still haven't figured out how to unlock the original, but I have gotten SOTN. I've just been wondering why it's taken them 14 years to finally release Dracula X in America. If anyone has any insight on this, please feel free to share!

denzilla · Regular Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 141

A little tip for ya duke4711: When you do unlock the original game, go to the main options and change the screen to "full". By default, its boxed in on all sides making the screen small. Changing to full won't give you wide screen, but you will have a much bigger viewing area than before Smile

Why they took so long to release it here in the states is a mystery to me as well. It puzzled me why they didn't include it in Castlevania Chronicals for the PSX as they knew Dracula X was the game people really wanted, not a remake of the X68000 Castlevania. Believe it or not, Dracula X was slated to be released for the Sega 32X back in the day. Maybe it tickled them to see their game go for such high prices on ebay. I'm just happy its finally been released here so more people can enjoy the game.

joetdude · Member Joined: 02 Jan 2005 Posts: 20

denzilla · Regular Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 141

Unfortunately, full screen isn't an option when playing PSP games on a TV. I would rather just have a PS2 version. While I like my slim PSP, its just not something I expect to hold onto for years to come. Battery life isn't great even with the slim model and being that I've already charged it 4 times since Christmas day, I'll be needing a new battery by the end of the year probably. The UMD format concerns me as well. Its better protected in theory, but the plastic casing around the disc seems fragile and it would be a very bad thing should a gritty piece of dirt manage to find its way inside the UMD shell. The next PSP will probably do away with the disc based media an go either high capacity flash based media or be online purchase/download from the PS store only.

marioxb · Visitor Joined: 13 Sep 2008 Posts: 1

acem77 · Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 3:56 am Post subject:

bernielindell · Regular Joined: 04 Mar 2008 Posts: 149

A patch has been released that can be applied to a rip of the game, that patch the game using the PsP translation and voice-overs. Just do that, then burn it to disc. Works perfectly. Smile

Rockman · Regular Joined: 23 Jun 2004 Posts: 155

Random information:

A copy of the data track is on the PSP disk and is called DRACX_02.DAT. It looks like track 02 on the PCE disk but the first two sectors are zeroed out. The first sector can be copied from *ANY* PCE disk the second sector tells the PCE what to load where when starting the disk. You'd have to get that info from somewhere.

Another problem is the audio tracks. They are all in Sony's propietary at3 format. The only easy way to convert these to wave files is with a special homebrew app on the PSP. I don't actually have a PSP. The patch bernielindell mentioned has all the tracks that have been changed from the original. There may be some other way to get the original Japanese audio tracks but that's left an exercise for the class.

Other than the missing sectors and decoding the audio it look quite possible to re-create Dracula X on the PCE-Engine. I'll do some tests and report what I find.

Rockman · Regular Joined: 23 Jun 2004 Posts: 155

I was successfully able to remake Dracula X (PCE).

If you can't decode the at3 audio you can create one-second silent files for tracks 1, 3-21 using audacity and name them all track??.wav. Just make sure to export as 16-bit 44100hz audio (red book standard). Later we'll run Nightwolf's TocFixer to fix the lengths.

Copy DRACX_02.DAT from your psp game (details left to the audience as an exercise). Use a hex editor (I like HxD) and replace the first 2048 bytes (all zeros) with the first 2048 bytes from any working PCE iso (rip one yourself with TurboRip (also by Nightwolf). Or download Aetherbyte's insanity demo. This sector identifies this track as a PCE game.

Now, still in the hex editor, alter the first 128 bytes of the next sector as follows:

offset desc
00 IPLBLK block address of the startup code 0:0:2 (e.g. the third sector)
03 IPLBLN number of sectors to read 1
04 IPLSTA PCE address where to copy the startup program $3000
06 IPLJMP PCE address where to start executing $3000
08 IPLMPR2 inital value for MPR2 register $00
09 IPLMPR3 inital value for MPR2 register $01
10 IPLMPR4 inital value for MPR2 register $02
11 IPLMPR5 inital value for MPR2 register $03
12 IPLMPR6 inital value for MPR2 register $04
13 OPENMODE 8 bits of options $00
14-24 All zeros 0
25 (reserved) $01
26-31 All zeros 0
32-105 (2 strings, totaling 73 bytes) "PC Engine CD-ROM SYSTEM", 0, "Copyright HUDSON SOFT / NEC Home Electronics,Ltd.", 0
106-121 (16 bytes, space padded) Program name "
122-127 (6 spaces) " "

The rest of the sector is all zeros

This tells the PCE where to boot program is, how long it is, where to save, it, blah, blah, blah. You can find more technical details in the PCE-Doc. (I'm not sure who the author is but Dave Shadoff and David Michael are credited as contributors.)

Now save your altered iso and rename it track02.iso and make a copy named track22.iso

Run TocFixer and repair, it will fix the track sizes and create a cue sheet.

Load the cue with daemon tools and test in MagicEngine. It should recognize the disc as Dracula X. If it does then burn the disc and play it on the Duo!