Metal & Lace

English translation patch for the eroge fighting game "Metal & Lace" on the FM Towns/FM Towns Marty.

Players assume the role of Rika, a young girl obsessed with developing high-tech remote-controlled robots, known as Silhouettes. When she and her mother stumble upon an online ad for an underground fighting tournament, her mother quickly decides that Rika and her Silhouette Mimi must compete (and win) in order to pay off the tremendous debts that her daughter's hobby has incurred.

What follows is a battle between Rika and six other girls, all of whom wield their own mechanical fighters. The player completes the game after successfully defeating all six opponents, resulting in a scene where Mimi's mother decides that her daughter must now move on to an even bigger tournament with even bigger prize winnings.

The latest version of this patch is 0.91.

Table of Contents

1. Patching Instructions
2. Release Changelog
3. What's Changed
4. To-Do
5. About the Game
6. How to Play
7. A Note on the FM Towns Marty

Patching Instructions

The XDelta patch file shipped with this release can be used with any number of Delta utilities, such as Delta Patcher. Ensure that the Redump version of the game is used as the source disc image, where Ningyou Tsukai (Japan).bin has an MD5 checksum of 899AA0A1D3AF956F2A59A4E8638558AE.

1. Click the settings icon (appears as a gear) and enable "Backup original file" and "Checksum validation".
2. Click the "Original file" browse icon and select the unmodified Ningyou Tsukai (Japan).bin file.
3. Click the "XDelta patch" browse icon and select the XDelta patch.
4. Click "Apply patch" to generate the patched .bin in the same folder containing original .bin.
5. Verify that the patched .bin has an MD5 checksum of 07587BE690E61DF2A05304FCD11C11AA (or 0742CBB7D3A9F4B562CEA4E70E5CF72E for the Marty version).

Release Changelog

• Version 0.91 (2023-11-23)
• Fixed two text alignment errors (reported by Brandon Cobb of Super Fighter Team).
• Version 0.9 - Marty Version (2023-04-17)
• Built custom patch using TOWNS OS V2.1 L40 to address color palette issues experienced on the FM Towns Marty.
• Version 0.9 (2023-02-27)
• Initial release.

What's Changed

• Title screen menu text has been translated into English.
• Introduction sequence between Rika and her mother has been translated into English.
• Fighter data sheets have been translated into English.
• Pre-battle dialogue text has been translated into English.
• Mid-battle dialogue text has been translated into English.
• Post-battle dialogue text has been translated into English.
• Credits have been translated into English.
• A missing piece of mid-battle dialogue text has been restored (i.e., bugfix for the original Japanese release).
• To address color palette issues on the FM Towns Marty, a custom build has been created to leverage TOWNS OS V2.1 L40 (patch labeled as "Marty Version").

To-Do

Due to the game's use of compression when storing its graphics, two items remain untranslated as of version 0.9 of this patch.

• Title Screen Logo
  
  
  
  
• Introduction Screen Text
  
  
  
  Silhouettes are remote-controlled robots originally developed to work in harsh conditions, such as outer space. However, these robots quickly became popular for other applications, including combat. The rise of this robot-on-robot form of martial arts resulted in numerous tournaments being held, including a world championship.

About the Game

Original Title	Ningyou Tsukai (人形使い)
Localized Title	Metal & Lace
Developer	Forest
Publisher	Forest
Rating	Adult
Release Date	October 1993
Compatibility	FM Towns FM Towns Marty
Cover Scans	Front / Spine / Back

How to Play

• ODE (Optical Drive Emulator)
  The English-patched version of this game is compatible with both the DocBrown and Wizard ODEs for the FM Towns Marty and the FM Towns, respectively. Note that only the patched .bin file should be copied to the SD card, as neither ODE supports parsing CUE sheets. Because "Metal & Lace" uses only one data track with no CDDA, both of these ODEs are compatible with the single .bin.
  
  In order to save game progress, an MS-DOS-formatted floppy disk must be present. For users of FDD emulators (e.g., GoTek, The Thing), see pre-made disk images below.
  
  ⯈ Blank Disk (MS-DOS Formatted).hfe
  ⯈ Metal & Lace - Completed Save.hfe
  
  
• Emulator
  The English-patched version of this game is compatible with the Tsugaru emulator, and likely Unz as well. In order to save game progress, an MS-DOS-formatted floppy disk must be present. The following pre-made disk images have been tested and confirmed working with Tsugaru.
  
  ⯈ Blank Disk (MS-DOS Formatted).d88
  ⯈ Metal & Lace - Completed Save.d88

A Note on the FM Towns Marty

When playing the retail Japanese version of "Ningyou Tsukai" on FM Towns Marty hardware, players will experience color palette corruption issues during the opening sequence after starting a new game. One such example is shown in this section.

The user PepAlacant on the nfggames.com forums discovered that booting the disc via a TOWNS OS V2.1 L40 floppy boot disk mitigated these palette problems. With that information, a custom version of this patch was developed to leverage this version of TOWNS OS, replacing the one baked into the original retail disc.

Those wishing to play this patch on the FM Towns Marty should use the version labeled "Marty Version".