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Magical School Lunar, Sega Saturn, My Life in Gaming, and Professor Abrasive

Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2017 2:12 pm
by AlexHiro4
Back in 2008, I purchased Magical School Lunar for $20 off of Ebay, and I got a hold of a Sega Saturn for around $50 (I believe) from Amazon and an Action Replay for $25. I always said I was going to play through it some day while reading an English walkthrough of the game, but out of pure laziness..I never did. I even posted about it on here as well. Anyway, 9 years later, I still want to play this game, on my Saturn (not a computer + emulator), and I don't want to have to be going back and forth between the TV screen and an English walkthrough.

As a retro gamer, I am a HUGE fan of the Youtube channel "My Life in Gaming". Recently, at the "Too many Games" convention, they did a Q & A panel. At the end of the Q & A, the did a preview of their next Youtube segment...which covers the Sega Saturn. The name "Professor Abrasive" was mentioned in the video, so I looked a little of his stuff up. Apparently, he's cracked the Saturn. There's a VCD port on the back that should be the pathway to using flash carts and other cool nick-knacks on the Saturn. What I've not been able to find, and what I'd like to ask you guys, is there a method yet of using this exploited port on the back for dumping in language patches while still using the actual disc? Also, an even broader question....IS there even an Enlgish language patch for this game at all? Granted, I'm not a super savvy Googler, but I've never been able to find any kind of English language patch for MSL, not have I run across an English translated ROM of the game for any emulators.

So yeah, please help. Any and all info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Re: Magical School Lunar, Sega Saturn, My Life in Gaming, and Professor Abrasive

Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2017 3:57 pm
by Maus
As far as I'm concerned, they only translated the one on GameGear.

Such a pity, as the one on Saturn looks simply fantastic :/

Re: Magical School Lunar, Sega Saturn, My Life in Gaming, and Professor Abrasive

Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2017 5:04 pm
by AlexHiro4
That's a real shame. I assume the only way to play the translated Game Gear game is via emulator? Or can you dump and English translation patch onto the cart while playing your original hardware?

Re: Magical School Lunar, Sega Saturn, My Life in Gaming, and Professor Abrasive

Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2017 1:55 pm
by Kizyr
Long back there were some efforts for a Saturn translation patch, but that was also stalled long back. If I recall, it was going to have to be done via emulation -- no way to use the actual Saturn itself for it.

...I haven't heard anything about those efforts being revived though. KF

Re: Magical School Lunar, Sega Saturn, My Life in Gaming, and Professor Abrasive

Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2017 3:52 pm
by AlexHiro4
Are you familiar with any of Professor Abrasive's work by chance? Truthfully, I've only become aware of him and his work within the last week, so I don't know a lot. However, from what I could tell it looks like there is a ton of possibility through the exploitation of the VCD port on the back. Although I just found out yesterday that the North American Saturn doesn't have this port, so I'll need to get a Japanese one if I plan to take advantage of these exploits.

I really hope someone finally completes a translation patch for MSL though. Even if I can only play it through emulation and not get to take advantage of the actual hard copy of the disc I own...I SHOULD in theory be able to play it on my Sega Saturn through that rear VCD port by using some semblance of a flash cart (if I understand Professor Abrasive's work correctly).

Re: Magical School Lunar, Sega Saturn, My Life in Gaming, and Professor Abrasive

Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2017 4:24 am
by Shinto-Cetra
Like others have said, there is no finished translation of MSL, I've looked as well, the Meduza team got the opening at least: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n23Ndz7pOBA

Re: Dr Abrasive: I've been following his project as well. Having played Saturn fan translations in the past (mainly Shining Force III, also the Utena dating sim) from what I've seen, you patch the translation on your computer, then put that patched image file, onto the Saturn Satiator (his device) when finished. Said device allows you to load files directly from the VCD port, bypassing the Disc Drive. He does have a Twitter,

https://twitter.com/prof_abrasive?lang=en

Perhaps you could ask him there if you really want to know if the Saturn can read the Japanese optical disk and Satiator apply the English patch simultaneously ? (I suspect this would have a severe drop in FPS, increase loading times etc if it works at all. But I'm also not involved in the project.) Only other option I can think of would be to read the English text like a script on a computer/printout as you play the game. I did this with Wachenroder, but said Saturn game is very linear. Obviously all this is dependent on an English translation happening.

Re: Magical School Lunar, Sega Saturn, My Life in Gaming, and Professor Abrasive

Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2019 1:07 am
by kazuya
AlexHiro4 wrote:Back in 2008, I purchased Magical School Lunar for $20 off of Ebay, and I got a hold of a Sega Saturn for around $50 (I believe) from Amazon and an Action Replay for $25. I always said I was going to play through it some day while reading an English walkthrough of the game, but out of pure laziness..I never did. I even posted about it on here as well. Anyway, 9 years later, I still want to play this game, on my Saturn (not a computer + emulator), and I don't want to have to be going back and forth between the TV screen and an English walkthrough.

As a retro gamer, I am a HUGE fan of the Youtube channel "My Life in Gaming". Recently, at the "Too many Games" convention, they did a Q & A panel. At the end of the Q & A, the did a preview of their next Youtube segment...which covers the Sega Saturn. The name "Professor Abrasive" was mentioned in the video, so I looked a little of his stuff up. Apparently, he's cracked the Saturn. There's a VCD port on the back that should be the pathway to using flash carts and other cool nick-knacks on the Saturn. What I've not been able to find, and what I'd like to ask you guys, is there a method yet of using this exploited port on the back for dumping in language patches while still using the actual disc? Also, an even broader question....IS there even an Enlgish language patch for this game at all? Granted, I'm not a super savvy Googler, but I've never been able to find any kind of English language patch for MSL, not have I run across an English translated ROM of the game for any emulators.

So yeah, please help. Any and all info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Are you talking about this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOyfZex7B3E

If you find out if it's possible I'm curious too! No offense but I'm on the fence about making the Game Gear version my first experience with Magic School...