- GDI Format (Users of ODEs or Emulators)
Download Death Crimson 2 - Altar of Melanito (English - v1.0).dcp for use with Universal Dreamcast Patcher v1.3 or newer. - CDI Format (Users Burning to CD-R)
Download Death Crimson 2 - Altar of Melanito (English - v1.0).xdelta for use with Delta Patcher (or equivalent tools).
- Patching Instructions
- Credits
- Release Changelog
- Reporting Bugs and Typos
- What's Changed
- About the Game
- Controls
- Progress Saving System
- Bonus Content
- Cheat Function
- Voice Recording Feature
- Original Soundtrack
- A Note for CD-R Users
- A Note on Light Gun Compatibility
- GDI Format (Users of ODEs or Emulators)
The DCP patch file shipped with this release is designed for use with Universal Dreamcast Patcher v1.3 or newer. Note that Universal Dreamcast Patcher supports both TOSEC-style GDI and Redump-style CUE disc images as source input.- Click "Select GDI or CUE" to open the source disc image.
- Click "Select Patch" to open the DCP patch file.
- Click "Apply Patch" to generate the patched GDI, which will be saved in the folder from which the application is launched.
- Click "Quit" to exit the application.
- CDI Format (Users Burning to CD-R)
The XDelta patch file shipped with this release can be used with any number of Delta utilities, such as Delta Patcher. Ensure the source CDI has an MD5 checksum of 25CEDC7F5D331892685761F70780A99B.
- Click the settings icon (appears as a gear) and enable "Backup original file" and "Checksum validation".
- Click the "Original file" browse icon and select the unmodified CDI.
- Click the "XDelta patch" browse icon and select the XDelta patch.
- Click "Apply patch" to generate the patched CDI in the same folder containing the original CDI.
- Verify that the patched CDI has an MD5 checksum of 42DD05DB340B8A4BC5DD666FFEC6ADF7.
- Programming / Hacking
- Derek Pascarella (ateam)
- Translation
- Walnut
- Filler
- wiredcrackpot
- Graphics
- Derek Pascarella (ateam)
- Video
- Derek Pascarella (ateam)
- Editing
- Derek Pascarella (ateam)
- Special Thanks
- CDI Optimization Assistance
- Pitito
- Light Gun Testing
- ItsMuchMore
- Peter Bray
- Steve Wells
- Roger Braunstein (partlyhuman)
- megavolt85
- amerika
- Shadowmask
- Nachosonic
- Version 1.0 (2024-02-13)
- Initial release.
- A new ASCII font has been implemented.
- All textures/graphics have been translated into English, in addition to correction of misspelled English place names (e.g., street signs) in order to align with official Western release of "Death Crimson OX".
- All in-game dialogue/menu/message text has been translated into English.
- All in-game cutscene videos have been translated and subtitled in English, with special optimizations made for CDI version of the patch (see A Note for CD-R Users).
- New code for VMU icon supported has been added to the game (read more in this Dreamcast-Talk.com forum post and this Twitter post).
- A bug has been fixed that prevented a certain piece of dialogue text from being displayed.
- Title screen graphics have been improved and re-rendered.
- All unlockable "Mission Mode" stages are enabled by default.
- VMU save file metadata has been translated into English.
- Missing disc art PVR has been added for GDmenu users.
- A brand-new cheat function has been implemented (see Cheat Function section).
- The built-in web browser has been replaced with special bonus content (see Bonus Content section).
- Previously this portion of the game was inaccessible to those who've never configured ISP settings on their Dreamcast, but this requirement has been removed.
- SEGA Saturn Theme Song
Take a trip to renowned video game composer Kunitaka Watanabe's studio and watch him play the theme song from the first "Death Crimson" game on the SEGA Saturn. - SEGA Saturn Opening Video
Watch the opening video from the original SEGA Saturn game, fully subtitled in English. Note that this video can also be encountered under special circumstances in "Death Crimson 2" itself. - Ending Theme Music
Listen to the beautiful ending theme music from the game ("Maybe Someday"), composed by Masafumi Ogata and sung by Momo Michishita (aka MOMO), who also voiced the character of Yuri. - Fan Messages
Browse the archive of fan support messages from Ecole Software's now-offline official "Death Crimson 2" website, machine-translated into English. - Credit count will be reset to 255.
- Any countdown clock will be reset to 15 minutes.
Below is a high-level list of changes implemented for this English translation patch.
| Title | Death Crimson 2: Altar of Melanito (デスクリムゾン２ −メラニートの祭壇−) |
| Developer | Ecole |
| Publisher | Ecole |
| Release Date | 1999-11-25 |
| Supported Peripherals | VGA Box, Jump Pack, Controller, Light Gun, VMU, Microphone |
It’s important to note that "Death Crimson 2: Altar of Melanito" stands in stark contrast to "Death Crimson OX", which saw a Western release but completely stripped out the free-roaming story mode.
Players can use either the standard Dreamcast controller or light gun during the shooting sections of the game.
| Proceed dialogue / Confirm / Shoot | A button |
| Go back / Exit menu / Reload | B button |
| Auto-pilot dialogue progression | Hold L or R button |
| Pause | Start button |
| Swap character | Y button |
| Run | Hold X button with directional pad |
| Walk / Run | Directional pad / Analog stick |
It's suggested that players use a standard controller to navigate "Story Mode" while using a light gun only for shooting stages. Note that either the controller or the light gun can be inserted into ports 1 and 2, with both being available at any time during the game.
During shooting gameplay, rapid fire is achievable by holding down the A button and allowing the "Energy" meter to fill up. Upon releasing the A button, the player will immediately engage in rapid fire shots. Note that this can only be done once the "Evolution" meter is sufficiently full. "Death Crimson 2: Altar of Melanito" provides players with five individudal slots to which game progress can be saved throughout "Story Mode". There also exists a sixth auto-save slot, which always holds a player's most recent progress. This sixth slot cannot be manually written to in any way.
Unique and brand-new for this patch is a collection of bonus content for players to enjoy. To access this material, select "BONUS CONTENT" from the title screen menu, which will launch a modified version of the Dream Passport web browser.
To return to the game from the bonus content section, press the L or R trigger buttons on the controller, then select "EXIT TO GAME".
To take advantage of this new feature, at any point during shooting gameplay or free-roaming gameplay, a player can simultaneously press the L and R trigger buttons once. The following real-time cheats will be applied.
"Death Crimson 2: Altar of Melanito" features unique support for the Dreamcast microphone. Players have the ability to record three, three-second voice clips to be played back during the game whenever the player sustains damage.
To access the voice recording feature, navigate to "OPTIONS" from the title screen menu. From there, select "Damage Voice Settings", then "Record voice clip". Note that one can also choose to use the built-in voice clips for either Kou, Yuri, or Pat.
Players are given the choice between recording voice data in either 8-bit or 16-bit PCM samples, the latter of the two consuming more space on the VMU.
Along with the game's release on November 25th, 1999, an original soundtrack was sold under the title "Death Crimson 2 - Yuri Rosenberg". The soundtrack features 15 individual tracks, all of which can be heard throughout the Dreamcast game itself.
To learn more about the soundtrack, including credits for songwriters, music arrangers, and vocalists, visit its entry on VGMdb.
To coincide with the release of this English translation patch, this soundtrack was procured from Japan (read more in this Twitter post) and is available for download in FLAC, MP3, OGG, and Redump formats.
A tremendous amount of additional modification and testing was done for this patch in order to provide those burning to disc (and not using an ODE or emulator) the smoothest possible gaming experience.
"Death Crimson 2: Altar of Melanito" is very read-heavy in terms of how it seeks and streams data from the disc. This becomes particularly aggressive during FMV playback, especially when dual FMV and audio streaming occurs (as is the case in several cutscenes).
Previous CDI releases of the game handled this horribly, with no optimizations in place in order to mitigate out-of-sync audio/video. For this English translation patch, great care has gone into encoding audio/video so that a moderately healthy GD-ROM drive will be able to read and stream this data without excessive synchronization issues.
However, players must bare in mind that despite said optimizations, experiencing this game via CD-R will still be suboptimal. Players will notice a moment or two where on-screen subtitles do not perfectly align with spoken dialogue. Please recognize that this is not a bug, but in fact a limitation of the Dreamcast's CD-ROM reading speed.
In the past, it's been reported that "Death Crimson 2: Altar of Melanito" suffers from compatibility problems when using a European Dreamcast with certain video cables and/or certain light guns. During the development of this patch, numerous people helped to test and verify certain claims, while dispelling others. That said, many console/cable/light gun combinations remain untested. It's worth noting that the LightConn is among the list of incompatible light guns, regardless of console region and cable type.
If players find a working or non-working hardware combination not present on the compatibility matrix below, it's asked that they submit them via email.
If possible, these compatibility issues will be debugged and fixed in a future version of this English translation patch. However, without physical development kit hardware, this task remains highly difficult.
| Console Region | Cable Type | Light Gun Region | Compatible |
|---|---|---|---|
| North America | VGA | North America | Yes |
| North America | VGA | Europe | ? |
| North America | VGA | Japan | Yes |
| North America | SCART (240p/480i) | North America | Yes (MadCatz works, InterAct doesn't) |
| North America | SCART (240p/480i) | Europe | ? |
| North America | SCART (240p/480i) | Japan | No |
| North America | Component (480i) | North America | Yes |
| North America | Component (480i) | Europe | ? |
| North America | Component (480i) | Japan | Yes |
| North America | Composite/S-Video | North America | Yes |
| North America | Composite/S-Video | Europe | ? |
| North America | Composite/S-Video | Japan | Yes |
| Europe | VGA | North America | ? |
| Europe | VGA | Europe | ? |
| Europe | VGA | Japan | ? |
| Europe | SCART (240p/480i) | North America | ? |
| Europe | SCART (240p/480i) | Europe | No |
| Europe | SCART (240p/480i) | Japan | Yes |
| Europe | Component (480i) | North America | ? |
| Europe | Component (480i) | Europe | ? |
| Europe | Component (480i) | Japan | ? |
| Europe | Composite/S-Video | North America | Yes |
| Europe | Composite/S-Video | Europe | Yes |
| Europe | Composite/S-Video | Japan | Yes |
| Japan | VGA | North America | ? |
| Japan | VGA | Europe | ? |
| Japan | VGA | Japan | Yes |
| Japan | SCART (240p/480i) | North America | ? |
| Japan | SCART (240p/480i) | Europe | ? |
| Japan | SCART (240p/480i) | Japan | ? |
| Japan | Component (480i) | North America | ? |
| Japan | Component (480i) | Europe | ? |
| Japan | Component (480i) | Japan | ? |
| Japan | Composite/S-Video | North America | ? |
| Japan | Composite/S-Video | Europe | ? |
| Japan | Composite/S-Video | Japan | Yes |