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Post by Sketcz-1000 on Jun 22, 2012 2:23:15 GMT -5
HG101 helps uncover further information on an unreleased gem - so awesome it deserves its own forum topic. And our Spotlight Article highlights a post from the blog about Aquario of the Clockwork, a long lost arcade game originally meant to be released in 1993. Its details have long been shrouded in mystery, but after our interview, Westone founder Ryuichi Nishizawa was able to find a disk containing the source code, and has been publicly asking if people would be interested in playing it. The logistics are still not in place - it's not clear whether the source code is complete, or how it will be emulated or sold - but it's a great start to hopefully see this bit of retro game history come to light. blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2012/06/aquario-of-clockwork-source-code-found.html |
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Post by Ryu the Grappler on Jun 22, 2012 22:57:04 GMT -5
I encourage everyone who wants this game to be released and has a Twitter account to post on the following page. togetter.com/li/322734 |
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Post by Allie on Jun 22, 2012 23:46:24 GMT -5
A release of this and Aurail together would be ideal, IMO.
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Post by Ryu the Grappler on Jun 26, 2012 0:37:57 GMT -5
Mr. Nishizawa is posting progress reports about the reconstruction of Aquario on Tweeter. He's currently trying to determine whether the source code is in a playable state and has unearthed a PC-98 emulator from the Aurail archives. twitter.com/#!/search/%23dev_aquario |
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Post by Ryu the Grappler on Jun 28, 2012 11:12:22 GMT -5
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Post by Discoalucard on Jun 28, 2012 21:13:06 GMT -5
 The Japanese says "Hajimemashite!" or "Nice to meet you!" Been translating the tweets with that #dev_aquario hashtag. The gist of it is there's some issues with the character generation ROM and he needs to reconstruct it using the source code files. (It's a bit technical so I'm somewhat iffy on the process.) It has been slightly troublesome because the tools are rather old and require using a PC98 emulator to work correctly. In working with this, he also had some issues with the graphic data and the color palette. Using some of the tools and stuff in the Aurail file (which was on the same disk) he was able to figure it out, enough to extract the sprites, but he still can't quite display things during gameplay just yet. |
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Post by Ryu the Grappler on Jun 28, 2012 21:25:20 GMT -5
The original logo spells the game's title as "Acuario" and Root (who wrote the original location test report) pointed out it was spelled that way in the actual title screen. Kinda makes me wonder why the soundtrack spelled it differently. The track listing also translates the title as "Clockwork Aquario" rather than "Aquario of the Clockwork". Attachments:
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Post by Allie on Jun 28, 2012 21:26:15 GMT -5
The consistency in art styles between games kind of makes me want to see a Crossover, heh.
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Post by Ryu the Grappler on Jun 28, 2012 21:38:20 GMT -5
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Post by Discoalucard on Jun 28, 2012 22:29:38 GMT -5
Yeah I only starting calling it Aquario of the Clockwork since that's how he spelled it (in English) in the interview.
As for the logo, I think the scan he had was a first draft of it...must've changed somewhere along the line.
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Post by Ryu the Grappler on Jun 30, 2012 10:46:06 GMT -5
Except for the fact that it was still spelled "ACUARIO" in the location test version according to Root, the one person on the internet who played the game in the 90s. Root's tweetI'm sorry if this is rude, but the game's title was spelled "ACUARIO" during the location test. |
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Post by Discoalucard on Jun 30, 2012 11:11:18 GMT -5
Yeah but the logo on the soundtrack indicates it changed, at some point.
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Post by Ryu the Grappler on Jul 3, 2012 10:11:01 GMT -5
Translating a tweet that Kurt left out. Attachments:
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Post by ReyVGM on Jul 3, 2012 10:20:14 GMT -5
I think he should really stop posting stuff until he's sure the game is going to be released. No one wants another Megaman Legends 3 situation.
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Post by Ryu the Grappler on Jul 3, 2012 10:36:24 GMT -5
Nishizawa is already negotiating with Sega's Yosuke Okunari (the guy behind the Sega Ages series and the recent Dreamcast rereleases). I wonder if there's a possibility for Sega to release a limited run of PCBs for arcade collectors.
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