1. You probably noticed me saying in the last two news that a release is on its way, right? Well, I actually did get around that problem I accidently had caused (and it was a rather stupid mistake, I have to add, as I had only switched a few variables around with no apparent cause *argh*) and was just about to playtest it one final time before writing the readme and putting it up here when a friend of mine made me aware of one PCE game he found really cool and told me to check it out if I could find the time. Well, I thought 'what the heck, the playtest can surely wait *one* more day' and searched for this game and loaded it up. And guess what? This game actually was the US version of the game I had just finished translating! I was quite shocked and annoyed, to say the least. Even more so when I found out that the translation was actually really good and in my opinion had gotten around a few tight spots a bit better than I had myself. So, to make this short, I then decided not to release my translation but to rather make you aware of the available US version which is called "Chew Man Fu". In case anybody cares, this means the official death of Azelistic translation project "Be Ball" (PCE), all translations and all romhacking by Azel, Kanji Ident by DarkZero. But wait, there's more. Stay tuned for even more disaster.

2. I know it's cliche by now, but like hundreds of other romhackers before me I also managed to lose several important files due to a hard disk failure. And not just some miscellaneous files, but rather pretty much ALL WIP roms I had sitting on that particular hard disk. And sadly I didn't have many, make that ANY, backups of some particular roms. *sigh* This throws me back quite a back regarding 'Daibakusyo Jinsei Gekijyou' and 'Winning Shot', makes me start from scratch again regarding 'King Colossus' and 'Bounty Sword' (which isn't all that bad since I didn't get that much done yet anyway, but still) AND finally cost me the only copy of a 95% beta of a game whose translation I wanted to release in time for Christmas. Especially that last one sucks. But we're still not done yet. And no, I'm not asking for donations of any kind. ;)

3. I fell somewhat severely ill and had to spent the last few weeks almost entirely in bed. Which sucked as well but that's a) not the point and b) probably nobody cares anyway.

So, to conclude this part of the news, let me say that I really don't know for sure when the next release will be released. Rest assured that I'm still working on a few smaller translations which were not lost and only require a somewhat small amount of work to still be done. I also probably could do the remaining text in 'Winning Shot' in the course of a few afternoons, but 'Daibakusyo Jinsei Gekijyou' is out of question for now as the only backup I still have is the one in which I only had done the menu and intro texts. So, there *is* a chance of a release in the near future, but I can't really say if it'll be in two weeks or two months or even later. Too much bad stuff that could happen, you know? On the other hand, there actually ARE a few good news as well.

One of these is the fact that I'm currently primarily working on a certain joint effort project which upon completion will definitely make a few of you drop your jaws in awe as it's a helluva excellent game. But more on this in due time.

Second, I would like you all to have at look at this lovely picture over here:
...well? Did you recognize it? This is one original 'Tokimeki Memorial ~forever with you~' package which I bought off eBay some time ago. And what can I tell you? Well, this one sure is like a dream coming true for any true TokiMemo fan. Half of the manual is reserved entirely for pictures of and background information on the characters and about 15 pages contain nothing but sketches of the different characters, some of which are ultra kawaii. Also included in this package are two TokiMemo memory card stickers - one with just Shiori, one with the whole cast - and, get this, twelve special (and arguably quite rare) cards, each with a unique picture of one of the girls on the backside and with the most important things about that certain girl on the front. "Ooohwee" is all I can say 'bout *this*. And it's all mine, yay. But enough bragging already, heh. What I wanted to say is that due to this acquisition I'm now capable of trying to translate THIS CD VERSION (and I'm sure not just Spinner 8 and I would prefer a translated CD TokiMemo, right?) of TokiMemo and not just that old SFC cart one. Yay. Now does this sound cool? I'm probably gonna need some help with this one though as I've got absolutely NO experience when it comes to ISO hacking. Anyone who wants to offer some help here is most welcome to drop me a line. Hey, this also would be a good chance to finally use the ad service at The Whirlpool, wouldn't it? Anyway, keep checking back here for news on this project and of course also on all other projects. (Damn, I gotta update the project pages sometime soon. They're a mess, really. At least I finally added "Kunio's Dodgeball" to the "Finished Projects" page. And it only took me half a year. Heh.)
Sayounara.

PS: Oh yeah, you should probably note the fact that I changed my eMail address. For more information check the "Team" page. Thanks for your attention. Oh, and if you actually read everything so far, go get yourself a cookie, yah?