Belthasar 0.8.0 preview (Windows, Linux, Android)

The eighth preview of Belthasar, for Windows (x64), Linux (x64) and Android.

It contains none of the game. You need your own dump of Chrono Trigger (USA), made from your own cartridge.

How to play (Windows, Linux)

1. Unpack it somewhere you can write to (not Program Files) and open Belthasar (Linux) or Belthasar.exe (Windows).
2. Click Browse... (or drag your .sfc onto the window) and choose your dump. It is verified (SHA-1 de5822f4f2f7a55acb8926d4c0eaa63d5d989312).
3. Click Make the game data. The game's data is made from your dump on your computer, once (about 10-20 minutes; nothing is downloaded).
4. Click Play. From then on Belthasar starts straight into the game and reads only its own data -- the ROM is not needed to play.

F1 opens the options (widescreen, internal resolution, frames between, sync, and the mods below).

Coming from 0.7.0: nothing to make again: the game data (ct_assets.dat) and the Steam margins' ct_wide.dat have not changed, so copy ct_assets.dat, ct_wide.dat, ct_sram.srm (your save) and ct_settings.ini from your 0.7.0 folder into the new one and press Play. From 0.6.0 or 0.5.0 the same holds for ct_assets.dat; run the setup again only if you use the Steam margins (0.7.0 added the special scenes' art to ct_wide.dat).

Optional -- the Steam margins. If the Steam release of Chrono Trigger is installed on the same computer, the setup finds it and reads its widescreen margins into ct_wide.dat beside your game data; the option Steam margins (F1, Video) then draws the strip the Steam release draws past each room's edge. Without a Steam copy the option stays greyed out and nothing else changes. The data come from your own copy and never leave your computer.

Android

• Belthasar-v0.8.0-preview-android.apk: Android 5.0 or newer, arm64-v8a and x86_64. Like the desktop game it holds none of the game.
• It installs over 0.7.0 (same release key, certificate SHA-256 41eac9879ac1311fbed66478dbf0fbc838cef1deda00be764f8c137b12716c96) and keeps the files you already chose: the game data has not changed.
• New to it: make the data once with the Windows or Linux package, then copy ct_assets.dat from Belthasar's folder to the phone -- and, if you want them, ct_wide.dat (the Steam margins) and ct_sram.srm (your save) -- open the app and choose them.

Linux

• Built on Ubuntu 24.04: needs glibc 2.38 or newer.
• Install SDL2 and Python 3 (sudo apt install libsdl2-2.0-0 python3 on Debian/Ubuntu). The setup runs with your python3.
• Browse... uses zenity or kdialog when one is installed; dropping the .sfc on the window always works.

Changes since 0.7.0

• Running from a fight (L+R): the escape's counter now counts from the frame the controller is read, as the cartridge does -- Belthasar counted a frame late, so a run-away ended a frame after the cartridge's. The "Ran away!" box opens and closes on the cartridge's frames.
• Johnny after the race (2300 A.D.): after the jet-bike race against Johnny the scene that follows it never came -- a script's step at the room's start (op B1) was taken as a stop, so Johnny's lines never ran. Fixed: the story goes on past the race.
• Compared with the cartridge further on: the graded playthrough now goes from New Game past the Arris Dome's password and sealed door, the Day of Lavos in the Info Center, back to Doan for the Bike Key, Johnny's race and the road through Lab 32 (48 legs, up from 40).

See 0.7.0's notes for the Scene adjustments mod, the widescreen changes and the rest of the fixes since 0.6.0.

Checked for this release

• The whole test suite: 949 of 949 checks pass (the quick tier: 612 of 612). The graded playthrough from New Game (the same pad on the cartridge and on Belthasar, leg by leg): 40 of its 48 legs end the same as the cartridge, as pinned.
• The three packages were scanned against the ROM and the game data: clean.
• Each desktop package's own setup, run against a verified dump, made the game data (61/61 steps); ct_assets.dat is byte-identical from both packages and to 0.7.0's. On Windows, with a Steam copy installed, the setup also made ct_wide.dat; on Linux, with none, it said so and went on.
• The data-free game from each desktop package, with no ROM present, starts from its own folder into the title, the same picture on both systems.

Belthasar 0.7.0 preview (Windows, Linux, Android)

The seventh preview of Belthasar, for Windows (x64), Linux (x64) and Android.

It contains none of the game. You need your own dump of Chrono Trigger (USA), made from your own cartridge.

How to play (Windows, Linux)

1. Unpack it somewhere you can write to (not Program Files) and open Belthasar (Linux) or Belthasar.exe (Windows).
2. Click Browse... (or drag your .sfc onto the window) and choose your dump. It is verified (SHA-1 de5822f4f2f7a55acb8926d4c0eaa63d5d989312).
3. Click Make the game data. The game's data is made from your dump on your computer, once (about 10-20 minutes; nothing is downloaded).
4. Click Play. From then on Belthasar starts straight into the game and reads only its own data -- the ROM is not needed to play.

F1 opens the options (widescreen, internal resolution, frames between, sync, and the mods below).

Coming from 0.6.0: the game data has not changed (ct_assets.dat is byte-identical to 0.6.0's and 0.5.0's), so you can copy ct_assets.dat, ct_sram.srm (your save) and ct_settings.ini from your 0.6.0 folder into the new one and skip the setup. If you use the Steam margins, run the setup once more instead (or copy a ct_wide.dat made by 0.7.0): its ct_wide.dat now also carries the Steam release's art for the special scenes below.

Optional -- the Steam margins. If the Steam release of Chrono Trigger is installed on the same computer, the setup finds it and reads its widescreen margins into ct_wide.dat beside your game data; the option Steam margins (F1, Video) then draws the strip the Steam release draws past each room's edge. Without a Steam copy the option stays greyed out and nothing else changes. The data come from your own copy and never leave your computer.

Android

• Belthasar-v0.7.0-preview-android.apk: Android 5.0 or newer, arm64-v8a and x86_64. Like the desktop game it holds none of the game.
• It installs over 0.6.0 (same release key, certificate SHA-256 41eac9879ac1311fbed66478dbf0fbc838cef1deda00be764f8c137b12716c96) and keeps the files you already chose: the game data has not changed.
• New to it: make the data once with the Windows or Linux package, then copy ct_assets.dat from Belthasar's folder to the phone -- and, if you want them, ct_wide.dat (the Steam margins) and ct_sram.srm (your save) -- open the app and choose them.

Linux

• Built on Ubuntu 24.04: needs glibc 2.38 or newer.
• Install SDL2 and Python 3 (sudo apt install libsdl2-2.0-0 python3 on Debian/Ubuntu). The setup runs with your python3.
• Browse... uses zenity or kdialog when one is installed; dropping the .sfc on the window always works.

Changes since 0.6.0

• New mod: Scene adjustments (F1, Video, with the widescreen on): art direction for the wide picture, scene by scene.
  • The Black Omen rising over the planet (after the Blackbird, and in the attract): one moon in the sky instead of three, the planet mirrored past the original 256 columns instead of repeated, a round horizon whose glow meets the middle of the picture. With the Steam margins, that scene's sides take the Steam release's own art, and the Epoch's cockpit on the way to Lavos gets its walls beside the dashboard.
  • Magus's castle: its sky is drawn 5 lines higher, so the band of grey over it stays off the screen.
  • 1999 A.D.'s world map is only a patch of the world: past it, the sides now show 600 A.D.'s geography in 1999's own tiles, with the coast and cells painted by hand where the two meet (ct_mapedits.dat, shipped beside the game).
• Widescreen, the special scenes: past their 256 columns, the credits, the dashboard and the planets are no longer repeated.
• Widescreen 21:9 with the Steam margins: past the Steam strip, rooms that do not start at the map's left edge showed other rooms of the same map (Crono's room showed the house's stairs). Now they show nothing there. 16:9 is not affected.
• Widescreen speed: the wide pictures of the special scenes are drawn on every core -- the Black Omen's scene at 21:9 took 13 ms a frame alone.
• Fill the bottom lines (F1, Video): the fights hold the picture a line lower too, so nothing jumps as a fight begins or ends, and the window rows follow the picture (no strip of the Telepod's swirl above the lowered box).
• The game, compared with the cartridge from the prison escape to the Guardian under Arris Dome: the field loads and the battle counters in the prison escape, the Dragon Tank, the gate to 2300 A.D., Lab 16, Arris Dome's shop and Shelter (the fog's drift after a menu, the followers' walk, a character facing an object), and the Guardian's fight (its Bits coming back, an item's target, the staging of a lethal hit). Every divergence that comparison found on that stretch is fixed.
• Options: a saved options file with the scene adjustments in it could crash the game at start. Fixed.

Checked for this release

• The quick test suite: 612 of 612 checks pass. The graded playthrough from New Game to the Guardian (the same pad on the cartridge and on Belthasar, leg by leg): 35 of its 40 legs end the same as the cartridge, as pinned.
• The three packages were scanned against the ROM and the game data: clean.
• Each desktop package's own setup, run against a verified dump, made the game data (61/61 steps); ct_assets.dat is byte-identical from both packages and to 0.6.0's. On Windows, with a Steam copy installed, the setup also made ct_wide.dat; on Linux, with none, it said so and went on.
• The data-free game from each desktop package, with no ROM present, starts from its own folder into the title, the same picture on both systems.

Belthasar 0.6.0 preview (Windows, Linux, Android)

The sixth preview of Belthasar, for Windows (x64), Linux (x64) and Android.

It contains none of the game. You need your own dump of Chrono Trigger (USA), made from your own cartridge.

How to play (Windows, Linux)

1. Unpack it somewhere you can write to (not Program Files) and open Belthasar (Linux) or Belthasar.exe (Windows).
2. Click Browse... (or drag your .sfc onto the window) and choose your dump. It is verified (SHA-1 de5822f4f2f7a55acb8926d4c0eaa63d5d989312).
3. Click Make the game data. The game's data is made from your dump on your computer, once (about 10-20 minutes; nothing is downloaded).
4. Click Play. From then on Belthasar starts straight into the game and reads only its own data -- the ROM is not needed to play.

F1 opens the options (widescreen, internal resolution, frames between, sync).

Optional -- the Steam margins. If the Steam release of Chrono Trigger is installed on the same computer, the setup finds it and reads its widescreen margins into ct_wide.dat beside your game data; the option Steam margins (F1, Video) then draws the strip the Steam release draws past each room's edge. Without a Steam copy the option stays greyed out and nothing else changes. The data come from your own copy and never leave your computer.

Android

• Belthasar-v0.6.0-preview-android.apk: Android 5.0 or newer, arm64-v8a and x86_64. Like the desktop game it holds none of the game.
• It installs over 0.5.0 (same release key, certificate SHA-256 41eac9879ac1311fbed66478dbf0fbc838cef1deda00be764f8c137b12716c96) and keeps the files you already chose: the game data has not changed since 0.5.0.
• New to it: make the data once with the Windows or Linux package, then copy ct_assets.dat from Belthasar's folder to the phone -- and, if you want them, ct_wide.dat (the Steam margins) and ct_sram.srm (your save) -- open the app and choose them.

Linux

• Built on Ubuntu 24.04: needs glibc 2.38 or newer.
• Install SDL2 and Python 3 (sudo apt install libsdl2-2.0-0 python3 on Debian/Ubuntu). The setup runs with your python3.
• Browse... uses zenity or kdialog when one is installed; dropping the .sfc on the window always works.

Changes since 0.5.0

• Android: no more freezes when a song loads. The title screen's pendulum and the start of every fight stood still for seconds on a phone. The sound processor's program runs as a coroutine, and Android's system library has none, so it ran as a second thread taking turns with the game -- two thread wake-ups for each of the ~10,000 steps of a song's upload. It now switches in place on arm64 and x86_64. Measured on a PC with the same code: the title song's frame went from 3.7 s to 23 ms, with the sound identical sample for sample.
• Everything lives in Belthasar's own folder. The made data, your save and your options are now kept beside the executable instead of %APPDATA%\BelthasarProject\Belthasar\ (Windows) or ~/.local/share/BelthasarProject/Belthasar/ (Linux), so the folder is the whole game: move it or back it up as one. Unpack it where you can write; a folder that cannot be written is refused with a message.
• Coming from 0.5.0: the first start copies your save, options and dump from the old folder -- and the made data too, which has not changed, so there is no setup to run again. The old folder is left as it was.
• Widescreen 21:9: the world map's left edge showed a slice of the map from somewhere else, and with the Steam margins a few rooms showed their sky again past the end of the Steam strip (the skywalk beside its tower). Both fixed; 16:9 and 16:10 were not affected.
• Fill the bottom lines (F1, Video): the dialogue window and a fight's HUD move down with the taller picture, and at a room's bottom edge the last line is no longer doubled.

Checked for this release

• The quick test suite: 612 of 612 checks pass.
• Each desktop package's own setup, run against a verified dump, made the game data (61/61 steps); ct_assets.dat is byte-identical from both packages and to 0.5.0's. On Windows, with a Steam copy installed, the setup also made ct_wide.dat; on Linux, with none, it said so and went on.
• The data-free game from each desktop package, with no ROM present, starts from its own folder into the title.
• Opened as a 0.5.0 player's first start (the files in the old per-user folder), the Windows package copied the save, the options, the data and ct_wide.dat into its folder, left the old folder as it was, and started the game with no setup.
• The Android sound switch: a stress test built for arm64 Android (18,420 switches, deep recursion and floating-point values live across each one) gives the same results as the work done without switching; a deliberately broken switch fails it.
• The APK is signed with the release key (apksigner verify).
• The three packages were scanned for the game's bytes (tools/release/scan_rom_leaks.py --binaries) against the ROM and against the made ct_assets.dat: clean.

Built from commit 21b2564; see docs/RELEASE.md.

SHA-256:

• Belthasar-v0.6.0-preview-windows-x64.zip: 079ed0618448417c696479d4b38105cc93986b836efb7bf8dfc13b3a59640648
• Belthasar-v0.6.0-preview-linux-x64.tar.gz: 2bee6e2964b860a86da8f674d0c59630b7814cbd84f2b2beba4fc205afdbdfad
• Belthasar-v0.6.0-preview-android.apk: 1d9472163ff27da2ff73a6b6e544a50e21c031d2fe510e96df2965d7051f240d

This is a preview; macOS is not packaged yet.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Belthasar 0.5.0 preview (Windows, Linux, Android)

The fifth preview of Belthasar, for Windows (x64), Linux (x64) and, for the first time, Android.

It contains none of the game. You need your own dump of Chrono Trigger (USA), made from your own cartridge.

How to play (Windows, Linux)

1. Unpack anywhere and open Belthasar (Linux) or Belthasar.exe (Windows).
2. Click Browse... (or drag your .sfc onto the window) and choose your dump. It is verified (SHA-1 de5822f4f2f7a55acb8926d4c0eaa63d5d989312).
3. Click Make the game data. The game's data is made from your dump on your computer, once (about 15-30 minutes; nothing is downloaded).
4. Click Play. From then on Belthasar starts straight into the game and reads only its own data -- the ROM is not needed to play.

F1 opens the options (widescreen, internal resolution, frames between, sync).

Optional -- the Steam margins. If the Steam release of Chrono Trigger is installed on the same computer, the setup finds it and reads its widescreen margins into ct_wide.dat beside your game data; the option Steam margins (F1, Video) then draws the strip the Steam release draws past each room's edge. Without a Steam copy the option stays greyed out and nothing else changes. The data come from your own copy and never leave your computer.

Android (new)

• Belthasar-v0.5.0-preview-android.apk: Android 5.0 or newer, arm64-v8a and x86_64. Like the desktop game it holds none of the game.
• The phone does not make the game's data. Make it once with the Windows or Linux package, then copy ct_assets.dat from your data folder to the phone -- and, if you want them, ct_wide.dat (the Steam margins) and ct_sram.srm (your save) -- open the app and choose them.
• Signed with the project's release key (certificate SHA-256 41eac9879ac1311fbed66478dbf0fbc838cef1deda00be764f8c137b12716c96); later releases install over this one.

Linux

• Built on Ubuntu 24.04: needs glibc 2.38 or newer.
• Install SDL2 and Python 3 (sudo apt install libsdl2-2.0-0 python3 on Debian/Ubuntu). The setup runs with your python3.
• Browse... uses zenity or kdialog when one is installed; dropping the .sfc on the window always works.
• Your data folder (saves, options, the made data): ~/.local/share/BelthasarProject/Belthasar/.

Changes since 0.4.0

• One data file. The setup now puts the game's tables inside ct_assets.dat -- there is no separate ct_tables.dat any more, and that one file is all a phone needs.
• Coming from 0.4.0: its data is made for that version. 0.5.0 sees that and opens the setup screen, which makes the data again from the dump your data folder already keeps (Windows: about 15-30 minutes, once). Your save and options stay.
• The Android app.
• Much lower CPU use with frames between or a higher internal resolution on Windows (#6): the threads that draw those pictures spun while they waited, keeping every core busy; they now sleep. Measured on a 20-thread CPU with a 170 Hz screen: from 16-18 cores busy to 1-2, the same smoothness. The default options were not affected.
• Widescreen: the gulls in the Steam strip fly on at their own speed and flap, and a gull the strip draws is no longer cut off when the game hands its slot to the next gull.
• A data file the game refuses no longer reads freed memory while it prints why.
• The field collision's slope tables are made from your dump like the other tables, instead of being written in the source.
• The packages are built and published by a GitHub workflow, and scanned against the ROM before they are published (docs/RELEASE.md).

Checked for this release

• The quick test suite: 612 of 612 checks pass.
• Each desktop package's own setup, run against a verified dump, made the game data (61/61 steps); ct_assets.dat is byte-identical from both packages. On Windows, with a Steam copy installed, the setup also made ct_wide.dat; on Linux, with none, it said so and went on.
• The data-free game from the Windows package, with no ROM present, starts and runs from that ct_assets.dat alone. Its CPU use on a 20-thread CPU with a 170 Hz screen: 0.25 cores with the default options, 2.2 with frames between, 0.9 at internal resolution 4x (0.4.0: 0.3, 18.1 and 18.4).
• Opened on a 0.4.0 data folder, it shows the setup screen, which made the data again from the dump the folder keeps; the save and the options were left as they were.
• The APK is signed with the release key (apksigner verify).
• The three packages were scanned for the game's bytes (tools/release/scan_rom_leaks.py --binaries) against the ROM and against the made ct_assets.dat: clean. Every byte run a binary shares with the made data was also listed and looked at: the names of the tables' constants (identifiers in the source) and the 8 colours the engine's source already writes for a dimmed menu palette.

Built from commit d8a380a; see docs/RELEASE.md.

SHA-256:

• Belthasar-v0.5.0-preview-windows-x64.zip: c88cfd6dd7ffec19f9958a0eb1ab4b41832bcb6ed9ae3fd553f74704472f787a
• Belthasar-v0.5.0-preview-linux-x64.tar.gz: b096e539494a0b4e85e26cd11a8335fe4fc30de84aebd81a789c5b2974c94b9e
• Belthasar-v0.5.0-preview-android.apk: d86f61a57b32ebe968e1a8f96aa2861cf698edd5ceb9aaf3ae7f50ea1ad2b147

This is a preview; macOS is not packaged yet.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Belthasar 0.4.0 preview (Windows, Linux)

The fourth preview of Belthasar, for Windows (x64) and Linux (x64).

It contains none of the game. You need your own dump of Chrono Trigger (USA), made from your own cartridge.

How to play

1. Unpack anywhere and open Belthasar (Linux) or Belthasar.exe (Windows).
2. Click Browse... (or drag your .sfc onto the window) and choose your dump. It is verified (SHA-1 de5822f4f2f7a55acb8926d4c0eaa63d5d989312).
3. Click Make the game data. The game's data is made from your dump on your computer, once (about 15-30 minutes; nothing is downloaded).
4. Click Play. From then on Belthasar starts straight into the game and reads only its own data -- the ROM is not needed to play.

F1 opens the options (widescreen, internal resolution, frames between, sync).

Optional -- the Steam margins. If the Steam release of Chrono Trigger is installed on the same computer, the setup finds it and reads its widescreen margins into ct_wide.dat beside your game data; the option Steam margins (F1, Video) then draws the strip the Steam release draws past each room's edge. Without a Steam copy the option stays greyed out and nothing else changes. The data come from your own copy and never leave your computer.

Linux

• Built on Ubuntu 24.04: needs glibc 2.38 or newer.
• Install SDL2 and Python 3 (sudo apt install libsdl2-2.0-0 python3 on Debian/Ubuntu). The setup runs with your python3.
• Browse... uses zenity or kdialog when one is installed; dropping the .sfc on the window always works.
• Your data folder (saves, options, the made data): ~/.local/share/BelthasarProject/Belthasar/.
• The setup looks for a Steam copy in ~/.steam, ~/.local/share/Steam and the Flatpak's folder.

Changes since 0.3.0

• The widescreen follows the Steam release. The original picture always stays centred on the game's camera; past a room's edge the sides show its backgrounds (skies, stars) -- never copies of the scene -- or, with the Steam margins, the Steam release's own scenery. Many fixes in the sides: objects and gulls that vanished at the edge, mirrored scenery in the special sequences, battle colour effects, the HUD's edge, black bands.
• Frames between (60+ fps) are smooth for slow pans and walks. The camera, every object and every scrolling layer move at their real pace between frames (the Blackbird's flight, the trial's pan, the run into Magus's hall), and nothing runs ahead of the game: a character stopping at a wall no longer goes past it.
• Fill the bottom lines (F1): an option to draw the 13 lines at the bottom of the field and fights that the original leaves black.
• The special sequences' opening sounds come at the cartridge's moment (the attract's second race no longer sounds its curtain twice).
• The documentation of the widescreen and its options: docs/WIDESCREEN.md.

Checked for this release

• The full test suite: 940 of 945 checks pass. The 5 that fail, fail the same way on the previous main on the machine that built this release (four battle comparisons that read one of its local states, and one of the 410 runs of a sound check); they are not changed by this release.
• Each package's own setup, run against a verified dump, made ct_assets.dat and ct_tables.dat (60/60 steps); ct_assets.dat is byte-identical to the developer's, and ct_tables.dat is the same from both packages. On Windows, with a Steam copy installed, the setup also made ct_wide.dat, identical to the developer's; on Linux, with none, it said so and went on.
• The data-free game from each package, with no ROM present, played the first 3000 frames of the attract with every 4th frame's picture identical to the development build's (Windows and Linux alike).
• Both packages were scanned for the game's bytes against the ROM and the extracted data (tools/release/scan_rom_leaks.py --binaries): clean.

Built from commit ea7173b; see docs/RELEASE.md.

SHA-256:

• Belthasar-v0.4.0-preview-windows-x64.zip: 96f18f56d1ef3f8925ddcf9c9c5ff65b89d7c619bf05e34bf0d83567640dd416
• Belthasar-v0.4.0-preview-linux-x64.tar.gz: 17e1e5b570a05725f158fb7e2a3bd407b1846645864473e032c064f109acb58b

This is a preview; macOS is not packaged yet.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Belthasar 0.3.0 preview (Windows, Linux)

The third preview of Belthasar, for Windows (x64) and Linux (x64).

It contains none of the game. You need your own dump of Chrono Trigger (USA), made from your own cartridge.

How to play

1. Unpack anywhere and open Belthasar (Linux) or Belthasar.exe (Windows).
2. Click Browse... (or drag your .sfc onto the window) and choose your dump. It is verified (SHA-1 de5822f4f2f7a55acb8926d4c0eaa63d5d989312).
3. Click Make the game data. The game's data is made from your dump on your computer, once (about 15-30 minutes; nothing is downloaded).
4. Click Play. From then on Belthasar starts straight into the game and reads only its own data -- the ROM is not needed to play.

F1 opens the options (widescreen, internal resolution, frames between, sync).

Linux

• Built on Ubuntu 24.04: needs glibc 2.38 or newer.
• Install SDL2 and Python 3 (sudo apt install libsdl2-2.0-0 python3 on Debian/Ubuntu). The setup runs with your python3.
• Browse... uses zenity or kdialog when one is installed; dropping the .sfc on the window always works.
• Your data folder (saves, options, the made data): ~/.local/share/BelthasarProject/Belthasar/.

Changes since 0.2.0

• The power-on is ported: a new game and the attract start at the console's reset, with the cartridge's sound from the first frame.
• Load and sound timing derived from the ROM: location and world loads, reboots and song uploads take the cartridge's frames; the title's pendulum ticks with its picture on every pass.
• The playthrough is checked against the cartridge through leg 32: the castle after Yakra, the return to 1000 A.D., the arrest, the trial and the rescue.
• Engine fixes found by the new test states: the effect clean-up colour, the decision box's hand, the X-Strike's record, and others.
• The test suite no longer depends on one machine: every state it reads is made from the ROM by a recipe or fetched from a public save by hash. All 953 checks run in a fresh clone and pass.
• The documentation brought up to date.

Checked for this release

• Each package's own setup, run against a verified dump, made ct_assets.dat and ct_tables.dat (59/59 steps); ct_assets.dat is byte-identical to the developer's.
• The data-free game from each package, with no ROM present, played the first 3000 frames of the attract with every 4th frame's picture identical to the development build's (Windows and Linux alike).
• Both packages were scanned for the game's bytes against the ROM and the extracted data (tools/release/scan_rom_leaks.py --binaries): clean.

Built from commit 1367157; see docs/RELEASE.md.

SHA-256:

• Belthasar-v0.3.0-preview-windows-x64.zip: d283d76bdc9e66faa815011ada2f20a30d4d08c44eecc37e508e11ac684db768
• Belthasar-v0.3.0-preview-linux-x64.tar.gz: cdd67ce5f52e33da05503abeb4ff67cfbc0467d45f397340810e842df346bb32

This is a preview; macOS is not packaged yet.

Belthasar 0.2.0 preview (Windows, Linux)

The second preview of Belthasar, for Windows (x64) and, for the first time, Linux (x64).

It contains none of the game. You need your own dump of Chrono Trigger (USA), made from your own cartridge.

How to play

1. Unpack anywhere and open Belthasar (Linux) or Belthasar.exe (Windows).
2. Click Browse... (or drag your .sfc onto the window) and choose your dump. It is verified (SHA-1 de5822f4f2f7a55acb8926d4c0eaa63d5d989312).
3. Click Make the game data. The game's data is made from your dump on your computer, once (about 15-30 minutes; nothing is downloaded).
4. Click Play. From then on Belthasar starts straight into the game and reads only its own data -- the ROM is not needed to play.

F1 opens the options (widescreen, internal resolution, frames between, sync).

Linux

• Built on Ubuntu 24.04: needs glibc 2.38 or newer.
• Install SDL2 and Python 3 (sudo apt install libsdl2-2.0-0 python3 on Debian/Ubuntu). The setup runs with your python3.
• Browse... uses zenity or kdialog when one is installed; dropping the .sfc on the window always works.
• Your data folder (saves, options, the made data): ~/.local/share/BelthasarProject/Belthasar/.
• Checked end to end on Linux: the package's setup made ct_assets.dat and ct_tables.dat from a verified dump (59/59 steps), and the data-free game ran from them to the title screen.

Changes since 0.1.0

• The Linux package (tools/release/package.py on Linux).
• The setup screen on Linux finds its oracle (setup/ct) and starts the setup correctly.
• The engine work since 0.1.0: the playthrough through Frog, the sanctum and Yakra; the Telepod and event-VM fixes; battle fixes.

What is inside

• Belthasar.exe / Belthasar -- the game, built data-free from the public tree
• setup/ -- what makes the game's data from your dump: the oracle (ct.exe / ct, built with no game data), the repository's tools, and on Windows a Python runtime
• README.txt, LICENSE, CREDITS.md

Both packages were scanned for the game's bytes against the ROM and the extracted data (tools/release/scan_rom_leaks.py --binaries): clean. Built from commit b838ae4; see docs/RELEASE.md.

SHA-256:

• Belthasar-v0.2.0-preview-windows-x64.zip: 09b6197b079d0e7bf3150cfdec0d23a6b592c6ba33c5bb94652f0d7e116a796d
• Belthasar-v0.2.0-preview-linux-x64.tar.gz: c1ce2b58cf28051ef0448b2684abd45cd5a76a377823bc9a5fbd01107a7bb1a3

This is a preview; macOS is not packaged yet.

Belthasar 0.1.0 preview (Windows)

The first preview of Belthasar for Windows (x64).

It contains none of the game. You need your own dump of Chrono Trigger (USA), made from your own cartridge.

How to play

1. Unzip anywhere and open Belthasar.exe.
2. Click Browse... (or drag your .sfc onto the window) and choose your dump. It is verified (SHA-1 de5822f4f2f7a55acb8926d4c0eaa63d5d989312).
3. Click Make the game data. The game's data is made from your dump on your computer, once (about 15-30 minutes; nothing is downloaded).
4. Click Play. From then on Belthasar starts straight into the game and reads only its own data -- the ROM is not needed to play.

F1 opens the options (widescreen, internal resolution, frames between, sync).

What is inside

• Belthasar.exe -- the game, built data-free from the public tree (tools/release/package.py)
• setup/ -- what makes the game's data from your dump: the oracle (ct.exe, built with no game data), the repository's tools, and a Python runtime
• README.txt, LICENSE, CREDITS.md

The package was scanned for the game's bytes against the ROM and the extracted data (tools/release/scan_rom_leaks.py --binaries): clean. Built from commit 6683d6d; see docs/RELEASE.md.

This is a preview: Linux and macOS packages are not built yet.