A LIFE PLANET - M36
Mother Brain has been aliving
(C)1987 Pixel Co.

System - MSX1
English Translation V1.2
Released on November 17th, 2017

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Credits - 

Romhacking - Dustin Hubbard (Hubz)
Translation, Proofing, & Beta Testing - Wyrdwad
Beta Testing, Proofing, and Lots of Misc. Help - MP83

Special Thanks -

Manuel Pazos (Guillian) for the Password Generator that helped immensely with beta testing, as well as fixing the Password and Seal Item Bugs.

NYYRIKKI for changing the font to the one in the original ROM that oddly went unused

gdx for fixing some routines that should help the ROM be properly recognized in emulators.

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V1.2 Changes -

Minor grammar corrections and corrected credits to give gdx recognition for fixing the ROM recognition routine. 


V1.1 Changes -

Added a graphical font from the built in game one that was mostly unused. This should allow for all MSX machines to properly show the English Translation. Also fixed routines that allow the game to be more properly recognized in emulators. Also created a Japanese patch with the font and fixes for those that want to play it in Japanese.

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Instructions for Patching -

There are four patches included. The one named "M36 - A Life Planet - English With Bug Fixes and New Font V1.1" is the recommended version. It includes fixes present in "M36 - A Life Planet - English With Bug Fixes V1.0.ips" but also fixes routines that allow the game to be recognized properly in some emulators and adds in the font that was built into the game but left unused for the most part. This is valuable because we found that some MSX systems naturally didn't use the same system font (duh!) and so the original patch really didn't show up properly on some of these. Using a graphical font fixes these problems. Thanks to NYYRIKKI for these fixes!

To recap the V1.0 patch has a bug fix version and non bug fix version. The bug fixes are due to a couple of bugs present in the original game. That is the password system sometimes didn't give proper passwords. The second more major bug was when you spoke to the villager in Tauccia that gives you a Virus item it would usually break the Seal item completely, Which made the game impossible to finish! So Manuel was able to figure out and fix that. You can beat the game with the No Fixes version but I would definitely avoid that villager if you choose to do so.

The ROM we based this off of is called "M36 - A Life Planet (Japan).rom " which you can see if it matches by comparing it to the No-Intro Microsoft - MSX DAT file. Basically just patch that ROM with the IPS file included in this zip. How you acquire the ROM itself is UP TO YOU! Do not ask us where to acquire one, dump a personal copy of the cartridge yourself!

NOTE FOR USERS OF THE V1.0 PATCH - Due to the patch, the checksum of the ROM is changed and that can mess with what some emulators look for. Most MSX emulators apparently guess the ROM type when it's not in the built in database, and they unfortunately guess this one incorrectly a lot after being patched. For example, with BlueMSX in the Insert ROM cartridge into slot 1 dialog window, you highlight the ROM, and then pick the ROM type which is an ASCII 8 type ROM. Once that's done click Open and it should play. If you're playing on original hardware it correctly will launch the game so don't worry about that.

I highly recommend also checking out Wyrdwad's walk-through/translation for the game located here, it can be helpful -

https://www.msx.org/forum/msx-talk/software/a-life-m36-planet-full-walkthrough-translation

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IMPORTANT ADVICE & BUGS!

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This game has some unfortunate issues that are present even in the original Japanese version.

1. Some passwords given can crash the game we noticed. Really it's just best to avoid passwords if possible and use emulator save states instead.

2. As noted above in the Instructions for Patching - In Tauccia there is a jerk villager that will give you the Virus item if you have room or aren't already carrying one. For some reason this can break the "Seal" item which is necessary to access Godessa later. It's best just to avoid him or reload a save if you accidentally talk to him and trigger him. Viruses dropped by enemies do not trigger this however luckily.

3. The game sometimes doesn't trigger events in a way that makes sense, and it's easy to miss them. Just be sure to backtrack and try talking to people again or refer to Wyrdwad's walk-through for help to make sure you covered everything. It's very easy to miss events necessary to advance!

4. The credits randomly will bug out. Not sure why as you'll reload a save or trigger them again and they'll play just fine.

5. The game WILL allow you to drop key items necessary to advance so BE CAREFUL. Reference Wyrdwad's walk-through to be sure is the best advice. This is likely due to the fact that you have such a short inventory list and if you kept every item needed you'd have room for nothing else. You'd think Pixel could have just expanded the inventory though!

6. The Lamp item can get pretty wonky sometimes, it's best to use it sparingly and only when needed as it can make some very odd things occur.

7. Dialog box and text issues should be mostly fixed but I wouldn't be surprised if some slipped through. Please shoot an e-mail to hardcorehubz at YAHOO dot com if you run across some and I'll try to fix them in a subsequent patch.

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About The Game -

The creators Pixel were obviously inspired by Metroid due to the title and villain, and it shows through in game play too. You start out as a loner in a space suit on a strange alien planet and will soon discover towns, caves, labs, and lots of tough enemies and bosses! The game is a side scroller in the action-adventure game vein such as Metroid and Zelda 2. There's an inventory system with items that are useful, and others not so much. Bosses you'll battle, armor upgrades, and weapon upgrades. The game honestly can be quite difficult and unforgiving at times but if you power through it with the help of Wyrdwad's walk-through I think you'll find a rewarding little gem of a game. 

Pixel also created two other games for the MSX which are referenced in a shout-out in this game. If you want to know more look into The Legend of Neo series. They are two separate games called Thunderbolt and Zeta 2000, and some of their enemies are re-used in M36!

ALSO WE WOULD LOVE TO BUY A COMPLETE COPY OF THIS GAME FROM YOU IF YOU HAVE IT! OR EVEN JUST SCANS! The game mentions a back story that you can read in the manual but does not describe it. So we would love to know what it is and update this readme with more information. Contact Wyrdwad at metalbat DOT com or Hubz at hardcorehubz at yahoo DOT com if you have one for sale or scans.

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Translation Backstory -

Back in early June of 2017, Wyrdwad posted his excellent walk-through/translation for this peculiar game to the MSX.org forums. It was a game he had taken a personal interest in due to the odd name. However, once he started playing it he realized it was a pretty good game especially taken for the time of it's release. He put a lot of really great work into translating it and even mentioned that he hoped someone would hack the ROM with his translation eventually.

MP83 mentioned this in "The MSX Channel" Discord chat and I (Hubz) happened to see it. It was a rare case of a translator looking for a romhacker and not the other way around. I hadn't hacked a translation in awhile and despite swearing them off before, I decided to try one again. My previous romhacking efforts were group efforts and I wanted to challenge myself and see if I could handle one on my own. Little did I know the oddball quirks (Like all games have!) I would encounter with this one. Eventually however in just a couple months it was finished! For the most part the dialog was luckily pretty straight-forward and had some forgiving ways that allowed me to fit a fair amount of text in without any major hacks that would have likely been above my abilities. That being said there were some details left out as you'll see if you read through Wyrdwad's walk-through. But I tried my best to capture his translation and he approves of what was done. That being said, I encourage anyone that wants to to feel free to improve upon this hack, and feel free to contact me and maybe I can help with issues you run across. The messy things I ran into where some odd pointers here and there, a lot of repeating text, and a whole section of the ROM with repeating text that seems unused for the most part. Lots of jumping around in this one!

MP83 was crucial to the project in his meticulous beta-testing and nicely nudging me to improve verbiage despite me getting tired of messing with it. It made it a much better product in the end so I'm glad he did so. Not only did he beta test the same areas in the game over and over again but he has also created maps, communicated between various parties on bugs, password generators, and basically helped manage the entire project. It would be nowhere near as good as it is without his contributions.

Anyway we all three worked very hard to bring this game to English speakers and we hope you enjoy it!

Also special thanks to Manuel Pazos for creating a Password Generator for us that was very helpful for testing as well as the Seal Bug Fix. Lars the 18th for helping with implementing a Super Jump to reach areas we normally couldn't for mapping purposes. NYYRIKKI for changing the font to the one in the original ROM that oddly went unused, and gdx for fixing some routines that should help the ROM be properly recognized in emulators.

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DISCLAIMER

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USE THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK! We aren't responsible for any damage it causes to files directly or indirectly.
