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A shot in the dark
Sep. 14th, 2024 01:48 pmSo, I'm not really expecting people here to be able to answer this (I miss cohost), but...
While working on deciphering GRASE (aka _____, aka platine dispositif C87 stg, aka the voynich manuscript of games), I came across the existence of DxLib, a free open source game development library for Japanese indie (doujin) creators. It turns out Platine Dispositif, and many other doujin game developers, (including ZUN!), use(d) DxLib, and its encrypted file archives in their games.
I'm currently working on a tool to create and apply patches to DxLib archive files, so that I can distribute preview versions of the GRASE decipherment, to help gather and engage people in helping to figure out the rest of the text's lexicon/structure.
However, while working on this, I've become bothered by the fact that DxLib's built-in archive file format looks exactly the same as the archive files I encountered in Bunny Must Die, which predates DxLib's addition of archive file support. I'd like to support these pre-DxLib archives as well, and I'd also like some idea of how widespread they might be in doujin soft games of '07 and earlier.
While I'm close to conversational in Japanese, I do not have gaming or development terminology in my lexicon so this is super hard for me to research.
Is there a discussion board somewhere that Japanese doujinsoft devs hang out and talk about game libraries on? Like the tigsource forums used to be for English speaking internet? Can anyone help?
While working on deciphering GRASE (aka _____, aka platine dispositif C87 stg, aka the voynich manuscript of games), I came across the existence of DxLib, a free open source game development library for Japanese indie (doujin) creators. It turns out Platine Dispositif, and many other doujin game developers, (including ZUN!), use(d) DxLib, and its encrypted file archives in their games.
I'm currently working on a tool to create and apply patches to DxLib archive files, so that I can distribute preview versions of the GRASE decipherment, to help gather and engage people in helping to figure out the rest of the text's lexicon/structure.
However, while working on this, I've become bothered by the fact that DxLib's built-in archive file format looks exactly the same as the archive files I encountered in Bunny Must Die, which predates DxLib's addition of archive file support. I'd like to support these pre-DxLib archives as well, and I'd also like some idea of how widespread they might be in doujin soft games of '07 and earlier.
While I'm close to conversational in Japanese, I do not have gaming or development terminology in my lexicon so this is super hard for me to research.
Is there a discussion board somewhere that Japanese doujinsoft devs hang out and talk about game libraries on? Like the tigsource forums used to be for English speaking internet? Can anyone help?
