did you try dos GWS, graphics work shop? it had all the old dos conversion stuff

Myloch wrote on 2023-03-22, 23:33:

*The japaneses love "Golden Shower", the chineses NOT 😁

They expected you to buy an "upgrade" pack as a separate purchase, if you wanted the nudie pics. It's teased in the ending. But I cannot help you there, as I've never seen the "upgrade" for sale in Taiwan.
I actually speculate it served a double purpose: By selling the censored version, they could get it into regular games shops = more "exposure" (heh, heh) = more sale$.

Anyway, I do have the CD version of this, err, "classic" 😮 ... and tried Paint Shop Pro 6.02 to open and save GCX images. Works fine, just try this sample image that I "doodled" real quick.

Just tell PSP to open a PCX file. Select the GCX you want to edit. Save it. Run the game. Et voilà. I mean, it worked for me OK. Your results may vary.

DeathAdderSF wrote on 2023-03-23, 07:56:

It's teased in the ending.

Where?
If you mean the final image with super deformed Reimi, I managed to partially translate the ultra-pixelated chinese traditional text:

我想...該跟你說聲恭喜吧!! (I think... it's time to say congratulations!!)
好悲XX (So sad XX)
where XX stands for 2 chinese symbols I cannot decipher 🙁

I managed to fix the problem, sorta. Thanx for the suggestions. Both worked even if the edited image is not 1:1 because original is 640x480 pixels/inch while the edited one is 300x300 if you use gws and 640x640 if you use psp.
I cannot see real difference ingame but it's weird nonetheless.

Myloch wrote on 2023-03-23, 14:36:

Where?
If you mean the final image with super deformed Reimi...

That's the image I was referring to, but my memory was a little rusty. It's actually in the bootleg release of the cracked floppy disk version of the game where a "teaser" appears for an "upgrade" to adult content. This particular version of the game is in English, but it hasn't actually been translated: Some hooligans just wrote a bunch of naughty nonsense in place of the original text. This is the version of the game that's been circulating the 'net for ages.

I wasn't able to find an authentic, retail version for sale in Taiwan until just last year: CD from one seller, manual from another. No box.

So! It makes me wonder if the game was ever available uncensored in Taiwan. *shrugs*

Anyway, I'm glad you were able to get things working.

I still have a collection of some pixel-art of that category in pcx or gif format. (not sure if it was originally PCX)
Must be 640x350 16color EGA pal and some 640x480 16color VGA pal.

dr.zeissler wrote on 2023-03-24, 08:36:

I still have a collection of some pixel-art of that category in pcx or gif format. (not sure if it was originally PCX)
Must be 640x350 16color EGA pal and some 640x480 16color VGA pal.

Variable Geo uses Zsoft PCX ver. 3.0 640x400 resolution, 4 planes each of 1-bit (16 colors), 640 x 480 dpi, RLE compressed.

Many programs of today totally ignore 16 colors mode, they can only save pcx in 256 colors or more. Another problem is the "4 planes of 1bit" thing: I tried some shareware releases of Paint Shop Pro and they do that correctly until v7 at least, Psp9 can downgrade and save pcx @16colors but the pcx format is slightly different (no multi planes?) and the game engine doesn't visualize it.

In Gimp you can brilliantly manage image resolution and "the print size" (horizontal and vertical dpi), other than that the pcx support is buggy as hell. It's probably because it's an old format no one care about.

@dr.zeissler You, too? 😂

Um, I'm not sure if it helps, but Windows 3.x Paintbrush was based on Zsoft PC Paintbrush (unlike MS Paint)..
Maybe it can open/save those special PCX files?

If not, then there's PC Paintbrush for Windows, for Windows 2.x and up.
Or the DOS versions of PC Paintbrush, of course.

The Windows versions do have a clipboard feature, so it's possible to share bitmaps between different programs.

Edit: There also was "Microsoft Paintbrush", an OEM version that shipped with Microsoft mice.

Edit: I vaguely remember that PC Paint 3 had supported for weird formats, such as GEM.
Maybe it can handle classic PCX, too.

Edit: Update. Checked. PC Paint 3.. It seems to write the sample in the same format as it had read it.

Edit: PC Paintbrush IV seems to behave the same.

Variable Geo uses Zsoft PCX ver. 3.0 640x400 resolution, 4 planes each of 1-bit (16 colors), 640 x 480 dpi, RLE compressed.

I will have a look what these are exactly.

EDIT:
Are the colors 1:1 as on the real machine ? don't know what pal those images had on PC88/98?
Are these already converted when using the EGA (hires) pal of just 64colors?
These images make use of excellent dithering methods so they are not painted and scanned,
they are 100% computer generated. They are sharp and crisp.

Doc

Jo22 wrote on 2023-03-24, 10:33:

Checked. PC Paint 3.. It seems to write the sample in the same format as it had read it.

Yeah, we're getting there... but still not 1:1 (yeah, I'm a perfectionist)

This is from an official .gcx file uploaded on checkfiletype.com:
PCX ver. 3.0 image data bounding box [0, 0] - [639, 399], 4 planes each of 1-bit 640 x 480 dpi, RLE compressed

This is from a Pc Paint 3 edit:
PCX ver. 3.0 image data bounding box [1, 1] - [640, 400], 4 planes each of 1-bit 640 x 480 dpi, RLE compressed

Again, it already works perfectly ingame but I wonder what this "bounding box" is. If I didn't know checkfiletype website, I would've never discovered this discrepancy.

Myloch wrote on 2023-03-24, 14:29:

Again, it already works perfectly ingame but I wonder what this "bounding box" is. If I didn't know checkfiletype website, I would've never discovered this discrepancy.

I understand, makes sense. It seems as if the the whole image is shifted by one pixel or byte each or something in both x,y.
Some hex editors have a comparison feature, maybe they can help finding out where the difference is, not sure. 🤷

Nice idea but Hex compare is not of much help because the size of source file vs pcx saved with pc paint 3 is much different.

dr.zeissler wrote on 2023-03-24, 11:17:

Are the colors 1:1 as on the real machine ? don't know what pal those images had on PC88/98?
Are these already converted when using the EGA (hires) pal of just 64colors?

I wasn't able to rip the pics from the original pc98 data files. I used screen captures made with Dosbox-x pc98 mode (png) and then converted them to the Dos version format (yeah I know it's a lame procedure but the final result is very good).

*edit*
Bingo: Deluxe Paint II v2.30 (DOS) did the trick. I obviously had to run the program in 640x480 16 colors VGA.