First off: Huge Enormous Gigantic thanks to Laxidman for doing a (de/re)compressor for the stuff that was compressed in hourai. Without this, this hack wouldn't be nearly as cool as it is going to be now. Let me tell ya. So, please go visit his page in support at Laxidman's Translation Page. So what exactly was compressed in this game if it wasn't font or text you ask. Well, all other sprites pretty much for one. A lot of data tables we need to alter for another. And probably even more that I haen't discovered yet. This is a very good compression system for graphics. Not good for text. Hince it wasn't compressed because appearently they didn't want to make 2 systems. How about a screen of a compressed graphic that has been altered for our pleasure. Note that this probably isn't the final version. It might be though. Who knows. These pictures also shows my rearrangement and expansion of menu boxes. This however isn't finalized either. Before and after comparisons of what we thought we might have to use and how its coming along now.

The HP/GP was compressed as well as the big Kanji there that means ABSENT. Without a comrpession/decompression program. That would have had to stay in the english version and that wouldn't have been as nice. Thank you again Laxidman. You deserve it as this was one tough nut to crack, believe me.

I have also been learning SNES asm and am working on 2 hacks of my own. One is the ability to use 8 letter names instead of 5 letter. That should make a lot of you happy. The other is item name expansion. Believe me, these were not good hacks for a beginner to attempt and I'm having more than my fare share of problems. Therefore, I cannot guarentee that they'll work out in the end. But I'm going to show shots of them anyway as even if they don't. I'm pouring a lot of work into them none-the-less. The item hack is getting really far along. But its given me lots of surprises believe me. And they aren't going to be stopping. The name hack is barely started. So I have nothing to show of it. Here though for your pleasere is a before and after item buy screen. Pray that we get to keep this in the final version. It will not be the same with 8 letter item names. Trust me. One more thing before the pics. Laxidman has been my teacher and helped out on all this whenever I asked and however I asked. So he deserves just as much credit on these as I do. Believe me. He has been extremely helpful to me and I appreciate it so much.

You'll also notice with that screen not all text is in english yet. But its getting there. Some of this is not stored in sane ways. It takes a lot of time to deal with it when it isn't.

Finally, Wildbill has been hard at work editing this game. Here is an animated GIF of work in progress shots from him showing some now edited dialog.

As you can see its looking mighty nice. Wildbill is doing a superb job IMHO and even I can't wait to play the final product.

In other news. I neglected to mention Mystic Arc in the last update. As well as a few other projects. Anything I didn't mention is in translation or if the translation is finished, it is on hold while we finish Hourai. Mystic Arc is important because I need to announce that I have taken over the cheif hacking job on this project. This does mean 2 things. 1. Its not without support on the hacking end anymore (even though we have had offers, Wildbill felt I was the best choice in the end). 2. It will actually delay it even more because my plate was already full. For this I apologize, however no matter who did it, this game isn't getting done fast. It has hacking issues like you wouldn't believe. As bad as if it were compressed. But it will get done. It just takes time. Please don't e-mail complaining. We only have so much free time in a day. If anyone wishes it to be done faster, they are free to attempt it themselves but don't look at us to share resources because our project isn't dead. Sorry, I had to throw that in there. It isn't directed at most of you nice folks but a small group that know who they are. We appreciate all our fans, so don't worry. You guys are the greatest.

On the news front. I have finally found an emulator that works with Horai High School as long as the sound is completely disabled. This isn't really ideal when we get to release but at least it will allow me to get back to work on the game again. Especially since my copier plug went out and I haven't had a chance to get a replacement. Lennus II and Horai are the top two priority of the projects on the table. We'd like to get these out as soon as we can. Thats about all I have for now. Keep looking for news of progress hopefully very soon.