Hacking In-Game Text Reader On its way...

[Xeijin]

Finally, an update

We've just completed testing of the ingame text reader in the development build, and expect to start a new line of BETA's over the next few days with this feature included. Unfortunately due to inherent limitations with the in-game menu (due to the fact that it must run alongside games, so resources are tight) we were unable to implement a lot of requests - its quite basic, but it does work.

Currently you can only have one text file per game. You must take the text file and rename it according to the ROM filename - so "Mario.nds" would correspond to "Mario.txt" in the same directory. Unicode characters are not supported at this stage (so no Asian characters etc). A new item has been added to the ingame menu, "Text Reader". If you have a text file setup correctly then this option will be available, and selecting it will enter the ingame text viewer.

From inside the ingame text viewer, you use the directional pad to scroll vertically and horizontally one line/character at a time. The L and R shoulder buttons can be used to scroll one page at a time. Press B to return to the game. When you leave the ingame text viewer your position is saved, so you wont need to scroll to the same position next time. Because resources are limited, it was not feasible to implement a line breaking system, so the text file will be displayed as-is and you may need to scroll horizontally if everything can not fit onto the screen at once. This is probably not such a bad thing considering that many FAQs/guides have specific formatting which would not look good if the lines were broken.

We're planning on improving the system in the future, but feel that this should be well received in the meantime

Anyway, keep your eyes out for the upcoming BETA release...

Source (Team Cyclops Forums)

 

[Fat D]

about bloody time? That sounds as if you have a right to demand that. Look at the feature list - that is what you paid for. Be grateful that you get more than just compatibility fixes.

 

[Xeijin]

about bloody time? That sounds as if you have a right to demand that. Look at the feature list - that is what you paid for. Be grateful that you get more than just compatibility fixes.

Actually I bought the CycloDS upon the fact that the dev team said In-Game Text Reader would be implemented. On top of the fact that this feature has been delayed quite a bit.

Edit: On top of the fact that the CycloDS is one of the priciest carts, and yet lacks this feature which the SCDS1 has had for some time, not to mention the fact that the SCDS1 is cheaper than the Cyclo.

 

[Rock Raiyu]

Finally some progress. Makes things easier when I need some help.

 

[Freeben666]

I hope this useless feature don't slow the games...

 

[Fat D]

about bloody time? That sounds as if you have a right to demand that. Look at the feature list - that is what you paid for. Be grateful that you get more than just compatibility fixes.

Actually I bought the CycloDS upon the fact that the dev team said In-Game Text Reader would be implemented. On top of the fact that this feature has been delayed quite a bit.
do you see "In-Game Text Reader coming soon" in the feature list? I do not.QUOTE

Edit: On top of the fact that the CycloDS is one of the priciest carts, and yet lacks this feature which the SCDS1 has had for some time, not to mention the fact that the SCDS1 is cheaper than the Cyclo.

So why did you not buy a Supercard then? THEY advertise that feature.

 

[Xeijin]

do you see "In-Game Text Reader coming soon" in the feature list? I do not.

I didn't say it was on the feature list. As I said, I bought it because the Dev team said they were going to implement it. I paid good money for this cart, for the reason that the Dev Team are active and listen to their customers. I hardly think it unfair to expect a feature (which has been severely delayed as evidenced by Team Cyclops forums) that has been confirmed already multiple times by Cyclo staff. It is "as good as" being on the feature list.

If you regularly buy flashcards based solely on their feature list without researching the company producing them, the team behind it among other things then you would be making an un-informed decision.

QUOTE(Fat D @ Jul 10 2008, 12:39 AM) So why did you not buy a Supercard then? THEY advertise that feature.

Simply because the CycloDS Dev team speak English and seem on the whole much more professional than the supercard team. That's what it came down to, nothing else.

Don't get me wrong, I think the Cyclo team are excellent in comparison to the teams of other Flash Cards, I just think that they have taken their sweet time with this feature.

 

[NeSchn]

Nice, So now I don't have to kick people off the computer when I am stuck in Apollo Justice.

 

[martin88]

CycloDS only about $35 now. Not very pricey.

 

[Xeijin]

CycloDS only about $35 now. Not very pricey.

I'm obviously referring to the time when I bought it, not its recent appearance on DX.

 

[Pyrofyr]

Having it in the same folder seems kinda crap :[

 

[Xeijin]

Having it in the same folder seems kinda crap :[

Yeah I was hoping for some sort of seperate folder implementation, but at least its here

. If your worried about having to scroll through many files to get to your roms setting the file attributes as "Hidden" (Right Click > Properties > Hidden Checkbox in Windows) will hide them in the CycloDS Menu but still allow them to be used.

 

[Rock Raiyu]

I don't really see the problem with it being in the same folder as long as the feature works..

 

[Fat D]

Fat D, I don't think you have a right to judge Xeijin, if you participated actively in the forum, you'd realize that they pretty much promised that the feature would come out, asking for specifics, in several of my PMs I even got pretty clear messages that they were working hard on it.
I do participate in the forums as you might have noticed, and they I know they did post it in the forums. In the forums, not in any sale/advertising document. Call me conservative, but one of my principles is that what you buy and what you have to expect is the package as advertised, nothing more, nothing less. Everything else is a nice extra, everything missing is a reason to complain, or, if you already know of existing complaints before buying, a reason to avoid purchase. I discuss and request new or better features myself sometimes, but I do not demand them as part of the package I bought, as I bought a device that has the following features:
QUOTE* Completely plug & play - no FlashMe, PassMe or PC software required
* 100% compatibility, supports clean ROM's - works on any OS
* RealTime Save function, allowing you to save and restore the state of gameplay at any time
* Wii connectivity in games is supported
* Full NDS download play support
* Action Replay compatible cheat code engine, comes bundled with over 300 cheat codes for over 300 games!
* Uses MicroSD card, both FAT16 and FAT32 supported
* Supports the MicroSDHC specification, allowing for high capacity memory cards
* Save type is automatically detected, no need for a save type database
* Save directly to MicroSD rather than onboard flash
* User friendly, easily skinnable interface. Both touch screen and button operation supported
* Multi-lingual user interface
* "Enhanced Mode" which provides powerful, unique features during game play. Enhanced features are activated through an in-game menu. Enhanced mode features include:
o RealTime Save which allows you to save and restore the state of gameplay at any time
o Adjust LCD brightness during game play (NDSLite only)
o SlowMotion mode which can be used to slow down game play to make fast paced action sequences easier to master
o Return to CycloDS Evolution Menu (aka soft reset)
o More features to come!
* Excellent homebrew compatibility thanks to the DLDI auto-patcher
* 2 megabytes of onboard flash memory which contains the CycloDS Evolution OS and will be utilised in the future to add exciting new features. A recovery mode is also included.
* Autoboot mode which when activated will directly boot into the last ROM or homebrew application executed
* Moonshell included to provide media playing functionality
* PassMe function (boot from slot 2)
* Supports rumble and memory expansions, without any special user interaction required

and what was documentedly available for the device at the time of purchase (REviews are a valid source, PREviews are not). The feature request forum contains no official sales document, but merely development discussion and, as the name suggests, requests.

 

[Unchi-san]

he bought the cyclods on the notion that in-game text reader will be implemented in a future update. i'm sure the OP looked at forums and saw that in-game text reader was being worked on. You consider forums to not be official sales documents and to a certain extent that is true. However to a certain extent it is true because alot of people purchase cyclods and pay the premium because they see how active the forum is and how awesome TC is. They DON'T buy the cyclods based SOLELY on its features list.

Consumers purchase the cyclods because of its awesome support and constant feature additions.

 

[Fat D]

Consumers purchase the cyclods because of its awesome support and constant feature additions.

which does not render it a contractual obligation. But this argument leads nowhere, so I take the personal viewpoint joker. I believe you can enjoy the extra features, but must not demand them, you say they are expectable.

 

[Unchi-san]

Consumers purchase the cyclods because of its awesome support and constant feature additions.

which does not render it a contractual obligation. But this argument leads nowhere, so I take the personal viewpoint joker. I believe you can enjoy the extra features, but must not demand them, you say they are expectable.

if the cyclods creators (team cyclops) says that they will implement in-game text reader in the future... how is that NOT a contractual obligation?

 

[RupeeClock]

I don't really see the problem with it being in the same folder as long as the feature works..

No, I can see why people would want a separate folder.
The root of the microSD would get very cluttered if people added a lot of text files for each game, and that can cause problems.

I'd quite like it if you could put text into x:\Cyclo\text actually, with the same Mario.txt to Mario.nds thing.
But then the problem is if you have two Mario.nds files somewhere on your cyclo.

 

[Rock Raiyu]

I don't really see the problem with it being in the same folder as long as the feature works..

No, I can see why people would want a separate folder.
The root of the microSD would get very cluttered if people added a lot of text files for each game, and that can cause problems.

I'd quite like it if you could put text into x:\Cyclo\text actually, with the same Mario.txt to Mario.nds thing.
But then the problem is if you have two Mario.nds files somewhere on your cyclo.

But isn't that why we have folders? To organize? Thats why I have a folder called games, homebrew, music, and videos so it'd be easier to find everything. So can't people just make a folder for the game?

 

[DeMoN]

They seem to be blaming hardware limitations, then how do other cards have this feature?