HON SHOUGI - NAITOU 9 DAN SHOUGI HIDEN
Translation by Psyklax
v1.0 (20170714)

CONTENTS
1. Intro
2. ROM Information
3. Gameplay
4. Final Thoughts

INTRO
This is a 100% English translation of Hon Shougi - Naitou
9 Dan Shougi Hiden for the Famicom (NES), which has been
renamed in this patch to Modern Shogi - Naito 9-Dan Shogi
Secret. All Japanese text in the game has been translated.

ROM INFORMATION
I have included two patches: the first (honshougi-
original.ips) keeps the playing pieces as they are in the
original, for those players who are familiar with shogi and
can identify the pieces. The second (honshougi-roman.ips)
replaces the kanji on the playing pieces with Roman letters
that accord to the English equivalents of the different
types, for those who aren't familiar with shogi and need
help identifying pieces.

GoodNES name:
Hon Shougi - Naitou 9 Dan Shougi Hiden (J) [!].nes
CRC32: 7445451E

GAMEPLAY
Hon Shougi was released on 10 August 1985 by SETA
Corporation. It allows you to play shogi - also known as
Japanese chess - against a computer opponent, although you
can't play against a human. Shogi shares many similarities
to international chess, but some key differences too. It is
played on a 9x9 board (rather than 8x8), with eight
different types of playing piece (rather than six). The
original Japanese names are known in English by names that
relate to their international chess counterparts.

You can find more information on the movements of each piece
by reading the FAQ at GameFAQs:
https://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/578247-hon-shogi-naitou-kudan-shogi-hiden/faqs/53797
If you are using the patch that changes the pieces to Roman
letters, they mean the following:
P - Pawn, K - King, G - Gold General, S - Silver General,
N - Knight, L - Lance, B - Bishop, R - Rook.

In international chess, Pawns can be promoted to Queens if
they reach the final row. In shogi, however, all pieces
except the King and Gold General can be promoted if they
reach the final three rows. This is optional, and it changes
the piece's movement to that of a Gold General, as well as
changing its colour to red (in regular shogi, the name also
changes, but the Roman letters used in this patch don't
change).

The other key difference between shogi and international
chess is the use of 'drops'. When you capture an opponent's
piece, you can drop it on any unoccupied square. You cannot
gain immediate promotion for the piece, but can do so on a
subsequent move.

One final note is that by pressing B, your player will say
"Matta". This has been left untranslated as the phrase
appears to be known in playing shogi internationally. It is
used to take back a move - but to convince the computer to
take both his and your move back, you must press at least 80
(eighty) times, so you can't do it accidentally.

On the main menu, there are some options to affect your
game. You can choose to play first or second, and also
create handicaps for either you or the computer. The first
removes the Rook, the second removes both the Rook and the
Bishop. Finall, you can invoke a time limit for your moves,
which can be enabled for any of the previously mentioned
modes.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Another fun little translation for me. There wasn't a
massive amount of hacking to do, just a few bits here and
there. I knew it would be pretty easy given the tiny amount
of text, but I think the result is pretty good.

In case you're interested, here's some notes regarding the
title. The original name doesn't have "Hon Shougi" - meaning
modern shogi - on the title screen at all, but it is printed
on the actual cartridge, so I included it on my translated
title screen. The "Naitou 9 Dan" part refers to Kunio Naito,
a well-known shogi grandmaster and singer, who has a level
of 9-Dan (as shogi uses a system similar to martial arts for
grading players). Perhaps the "Shogi Secret" in the title
suggests that he has some secrets to share, but I have no
idea.

I actually found a set of Chinese numerals in amongst the
game's graphics. It would be trivial to replace them with
Arabic numerals, but I just couldn't see them used anywhere
in the game, and I can't really see where they could be
used. So I left them as they are. If anyone plays this patch
and notices that the numerals do actually appear at some
point, please let me know!

This is my third board game that I've translated (after
Gomoku Narabe Renju and Mahjong, both on the Famicom), and I
like them because they're just so easy to do. Not much text
to translate, but it's still worth translating if anyone
wants to give the games a try. So I hope you enjoy doing
just that!

Tools I used for this translation:
FCEUX (best NES emulator for debugging and hacking)
HxD (general hex editing)
WindHex32 EX (checking text)
Tile Molester (graphics)
GIMP (designing the title screen)

Psyklax
http://s346165667.websitehome.co.uk/psyktrans/
