Illusion City – complete English translation
The 1991 MSX turboR exclusive Micro Cabin title Illusion City has been fully localised from Japanese to English, complete with bug fixes, improvements and a complete transformation to ROM. An immense job that resulted in a free-to-download patch debuting at the MSX2goto40 event. All good things come in time.
In the golden age of MSX existence, where new games were a thing of the day, Japanese software house Microcabin Corporation had their own horse in this race and delivered solid entertainment. Looking back, the company sure left an imprint on MSX game history with some top-notch games. When Micro Cabin released their single-player action RPG called XAK, they really hit it off and started a new revolution. Following the stories of Latok, and later Fray, the MSX game fanatics were treated with MSX galore including good game play, gorgeous graphics and awesome FM/PSG tunes. Finally, when the MSX turboR saw the light of day, Micro Cabin jumped on and released their magnum opus called “Illusion City“; a strategic RPG with a cyberpunk atmosphere set in a near-future Hong Kong.
Having already established a solid reputation, this title further secured Micro Cabin’s place among the industry giants. Spanning 8 disks, it represents the pinnacle of software development for the MSX turboR, despite its minor imperfections. Yes, it has some rough edges, but boy is this a masterpiece. The game is praised for its memorable music by Tadahiro Nitta, fluid graphical animations, for taking advantage of the MSX turboR hardware, and for its overall quality. Unfortunately Micro Cabin only focused on the Japanese market, and as such no localised versions were released. As previous fan translation attempts to Portuguese and English were incomplete and unpolished, this massive, text-driven, story remained inaccessible to Western gamers…
Until now.
From the works of the MSX Translations team, it is time to finally enjoy Illusion City to the max with a completely translated version. First announced back in December of 2023, Illusion City is now fully playable in English! The extensive Japanese to English translation was done by MRC users Randam and Max Iwamoto. Together with the translation of text, many improvements, bug fixes and even new features have been added as well. And to cap it off, the team converted the eight disks into a ROM version including load and save functions. So, no more wasting time with disk access! For the detailed change log on this terrific job done, see the MSX Translation’s Illusion City page.
And, perhaps the best part, as a patch for the original IC release, the translated version will be made available completely free of charge. You can express your gratitude by making a donation to the team. This patch will debut at the upcoming MSX2goto40 event in the Netherlands for visitors stopping by the MSXtranslations.com booth. The method to obtain a copy is still a surprise, but there’s no need to bring blank disks. After that, the patch is freely downloadable from the MSX-translations website.
Don’t miss this opportunity to experience a classic anew and go grab it.
relevant link: MSX Translation’s Illusion City page
Source: https://www.msx.org/news/translations/en/illusion-city-full-english-translation
