Official English version of RPG Maker 2003?!

Petition for Signatures
Official Topic

This suggestion was thrown into the table and so we have to ask, if we were to release RPG Maker 2003 in English would you buy it?
Vote and post your suggestions here~

Just a note, take the EULA into consideration. This means you guys shouldn't use patches/plug-ins/external programs if you want to use RPG Maker.

Well, what can I say? There's a possibilty that Degica/EB! will look into creating an official English version of RM2K3 if there's enough demand for it. What do you all think? Should we embrace this momentous occasion that would allow us to use 2K3 legally? Would you pay for such a thing? Let your voices be heard!

And sign the damn petition! <3

Also, please spread the word around to any and all sites you frequent where people use the program. The more people made aware, the better!

That's great an all, but who would actually buy and use it apart from a few fanatics?

Me for one.

Since I was the one who actually asked a Degica staff member about it and they were nice enough to throw it on the table. Seems they do care about the fans and their products.

We have Ace now, and anyone who doesn't like Ace or VX can use XP.
So whats the point?

So glad you asked~

It helps EB! and Degica to be inspired to make more of an effort to listen to the fans.
You no longer have to live in shame knowing you've got a pirated copy.
You will legally own it.
It also makes a neat collection item for nostalgia's sake.
You can legally sell a 2k3 game.
You will gain legal usage of the RTP that came with it so that if you want to use it in other RM engines, you can.
You'll be supporting the people who support your hobby - it's almost like you'll be supporting your hobby yourself.
You will no longer be one of the dregs of society who pulls down the rest of your hobby-kin.

Are those enough reasons? Or would you like more?


This really is a big deal, though. How many other companies would take a fan's suggestion and run with it when it comes to an older program? Wanna be part of RM history? Vote yes~

This really is a big deal, though. How many other companies would take a fan's suggestion and run with it when it comes to an older program? Wanna be part of RM history? Vote yes~

I'm all for it and I support them, I just don't think it'll sell very much

So glad you asked~

It helps EB! and Degica to be inspired to make more of an effort to listen to the fans.
You no longer have to live in shame knowing you've got a pirated copy.
You will legally own it.
It also makes a neat collection item for nostalgia's sake.
You can legally sell a 2k3 game.
You will gain legal usage of the RTP that came with it so that if you want to use it in other RM engines, you can.
You'll be supporting the people who support your hobby - it's almost like you'll be supporting your hobby yourself.
You will no longer be one of the dregs of society who pulls down the rest of your hobby-kin.

Are those enough reasons? Or would you like more?


This really is a big deal, though. How many other companies would take a fan's suggestion and run with it when it comes to an older program? Wanna be part of RM history? Vote yes~

I still don't get how it's such a bad thing if someone doesn't sign the petition.  I really do not believe that many are going to buy this (that's pretty generous of me considering I was originally going to say "i don't believe anyone is going to buy this" but I knew I'd hear the "I would" reply and two or three, maybe 4 people doesn't count) and most just want an excuse for having their usual translated version. 

I make it a point to only sign petitions with causes that I believe in but this I just can't support.  I enjoy my childhood usage of RPG Maker 2000 but 2003...not so much.

If someone can convince me otherwise, I will probably just forget about this but people are going to have to give me a reason other than "you'd be an asshole" or "extremely unpopular" to get me to care about that cause because I'm way past the age that I cared about petty little things like that.

Not being able to use patches would kind of suck, seeing how necessary some of those are to make RM2k3 enjoyable. It's also not a very productive restriction, since the only way it could financially benefit the company is if they planned to later release new features for RM2k3, which seems unlikely.

If they were to remove that restriction from the EULA, then I would buy it, but as it is I can live without legally owning RM2k3; I haven't used it for years.

If someone can convince me otherwise, I will probably just forget about this but people are going to have to give me a reason other than "you'd be an asshole" or "extremely unpopular" to get me to care about that cause because I'm way past the age that I cared about petty little things like that.

I respect that.

Quite frankly I don't care about whether or not 2K3 is translated into English (officially), if the petition didn't ask me to give my name and address I'd have no problem signing it, as I don't care and wouldn't mind signing just for the sake of the people who would like me to.

But I'm not bothered enough by this that I'd put my full name and address on a petition for it.

You don't have to sign the petition. You could just vote in the poll on the official site. As to other reasons that you might do this for? Well, here's some:
A collectors addition? There's talk about boxing~
Supporting the community?
Deepening the relationship between Degica and RM fans?
Legal acces to the RTP and REFMAP materials? (REFMAP only allows the use of the materials in Legal makers.)
Making your mark in RM history?
Showing EB that you do care about their products, that you do want them to continue making more, that they can listen to what you have to say!
Selling 2k3 games!
Marketable as a budget alternative to the new makers~

There's also been talk about fixing a few of the issues with it - agility and OS compatibility, for example.

Not being able to use patches would kind of suck, seeing how necessary some of those are to make RM2k3 enjoyable. It's also not a very productive restriction, since the only way it could financially benefit the company is if they planned to later release new features for RM2k3, which seems unlikely.

^This.

You don't have to sign the petition. You could just vote in the poll on the official site. As to other reasons that you might do this for? Well, here's some:
A collectors addition? There's talk about boxing~
Supporting the community?
Deepening the relationship between Degica and RM fans?
Legal acces to the RTP and REFMAP materials? (REFMAP only allows the use of the materials in Legal makers.)
Making your mark in RM history?
Showing EB that you do care about their products, that you do want them to continue making more, that they can listen to what you have to say!
Selling 2k3 games!
Marketable as a budget alternative to the new makers~

There's also been talk about fixing a few of the issues with it - agility and OS compatibility, for example.

I still just don't see the point.  I never cared for the rtp nor do I support selling of a 2k3 game.  I contribute enough to the community with graphics and a program that I developed and some scripts for ace.  I show eb and degica support by buying a 90 dollar. Program.  Some of your points are okay for maybe a casual user but for me i just dont want to give people more of an excuse to try to sell their crap game that had no effort put into it.  Maybe if lysander came back and finished a blurred line and lino g came.back and finished destinys call, i would give more support.pprogram.  I don't see

Not being able to use patches would kind of suck, seeing how necessary some of those are to make RM2k3 enjoyable. It's also not a very productive restriction, since the only way it could financially benefit the company is if they planned to later release new features for RM2k3, which seems unlikely.

^This.

As long as you didn't try to sell the game they wouldn't care. And they're still tossing up about patches that only affect the EXE as opposed to those that actually require hacking the program.

I have a reason not to vote:
We have Ace.

I loved 2k3, really, but as of today and the things that are possible to do with makers that can use ruby-scripts, it is just not worth buying an old maker which can't even do half of the things the makers we can use today can do.

And about commercial games:
I would never, NEVER pay more than five dollars for a maker-game, and i would only buy one if it is awesome, not just good, it has to be really awesome. Even if it was that i would think twice... no, three times about buying it.
The 2k3 is not suitable to make a Game that would be worth buying, and trust me, i know how much was possible with it, but as i said, it fails against ruby.

You're assuming people will make commercial games with it; that's not true. The best RPG Maker games I've ever played were made on 2k/2k3. The limitations prevented idiots from making throwaway "projects" and ensured a bar of quality (no matter how tiny) was set on all games.

This is off-topic but I also think commercial maker games are overpriced in general. Lots of apps and games of higher quality are available for a dollar or less; I don't care about spending money but in hindsight it's quite ridiculous how much is charged e.g for Aveyond.

Just as long as this "OS" compatibility that comes with a retail version of 2k3 include full support of Windows vista, 7 and up I'll support this.  Not too big of a fan of the flickering fullscreen.  Also it would be nice if they boosted the maximum of stats so that the modified 2k3 programs were not needed.  So far the offers on the table seem too minimal to me.  The only thing I miss about 2k3 was the 16x16 limitations because to me it was easier to sprite tilesets and characters and make them look good when you were limited to 16x16. 

This is the only way I will support this.  Also Skanker, despite what you may think, people WILL try to make commercial games with it.  It's just a matter of fact.  If the ability to do so is there, it will happen.  Also, I've made plenty of throwaway projects...the limitations of the program never prevented that lol.  I could probably find a whole directory of games that never made it on the internet somewhere by numerous users XD

This is the only way I will support this.  Also Skanker, despite what you may think, people WILL try to make commercial games with it.  It's just a matter of fact.

No, I really don't see it happening. If someone releases a commercial game within two years after this release I'll eat your toenails.

just like some of here say.
it already 2012 and vx ace is released means that no one will buy 2003 version.
and it use old pixel art than current HD art and the vx ace had everything than 2003 all of the feature is now cool.
look at this way, would someone will buy vx ace right now or they will still buy 2003.
even if it does sell they make it free since it now old. and no one able to use it, people will buy the newest version of rpg maker than old, since  it more powerful than the previous version.
even the petition does have too many sign but it enterbrain decision to make or not to make 2003 version.
how about petition the never released console version instead. since i'm very likely to sign that petition, since i have a 3ds system in my hand and i want rpg maker ds to released in the us.

This is the only way I will support this.  Also Skanker, despite what you may think, people WILL try to make commercial games with it.  It's just a matter of fact.

No, I really don't see it happening. If someone releases a commercial game within two years after this release I'll eat your toenails.

Releasing and trying to make one are two completely different things.  Either way, look at all the commercial games that people tried to make with rpg maker xp and the ones that were actually released.  As soon as people had the opportunity, it happened.  You can't factor the minority out of the picture.

Releasing an official version of 2003 in English would be foolish financially and...well just foolish, especially if they will not allow hacks/mods for the official release. Also we have Cherry creating a script system at the moment which will allow people to create  scripts in C/C++, similar to XP/VXA with Ruby. If Enterbrain can somehow beat that, then I would be interested in an english release.

Releasing an official version of 2003 in English would be foolish financially and...well just foolish, especially if they will not allow hacks/mods for the official release. Also we have Cherry creating a script system at the moment which will allow people to create  scripts in C/C++, similar to XP/VXA with Ruby. If Enterbrain can somehow beat that, then I would be interested in an english release.

I feel those demands are actually kind of ridiculous to expect. Maybe increasing stats to allow the engine to match that of some of these plugins but I don't think it would be foolish if they expected people to not modify the program. 

I don't know of too many programs outside of open source software that allow for the public to create modifications.  In fact, I can't think of one off the top of my head.  A lot of the reason that most dont allow this in the first place is because they don't want people to go the next step and remove any sort of security they may use for entering serial keys etc.  Allowing people to modify the program puts them in a tough spot because then they rely on people to follow the honor system.  Of course, piracy wont be prevented and not everyone will be honest but as long as they say "no modifying the program," they have a safety net.

Now I have done some thinking and have come up with a short list of things that I would want if anyone wanted me to support this title.

• Increase stats to amounts matching or exceeding some of the popular modified versions
• better support for windows vista/7 to remove flickering during fullscreen mode
• text boxes to have proper fitting text to allow for a better visual of what you are typing into the
  text box (playtesting to see if the text will fit is extremely lame)
• Sample games that are of higher quality than Don Miguel's original RPG Maker 2000 sample game (dear lord I nearly wanted to facepalm before I knew what a facepalm was)
• the cost of 2k3 must not exceed 15 dollars due to age and limitations

This is really all that I expect.  I would actually buy it then.  I just simply wont buy it if the price is over 15 bucks simply because I wouldn't use the software much, if at all.  If my list's expectations were met, I would buy it and use it here and there maybe but otherwise no.  As such, I wont sign anything until I hear that those conditions are met. 

Let's look at it like this; Going out and asking people to sign a petition saying that they will buy a program even if they personally will not buy the program just to be a "good sport" to the community is fairly harmful to the company.  Say 20,000 people sign that and only 10,000 people actually buy it because the other 10,000 people already have what they wanted and only signed it to be a "good sport."  This could be a loss of profits for the company based on their expected sales figures. 

I personally wouldn't buy it to use the RTP or anything like that, especially since if I wanted licensed rpg maker 2003 compatible resources, I could find higher quality resources on the internet for free by people who provided their resources for free to anyone who wants to use them.

I'll keep checking the thread, though.  If I start to see things that I like being added to the list of things that would be worked on for an official english release, I may sign my name on there because I really would buy it then and I suggest each of you do the same as long as you are really going to buy it.

Releasing an official version of 2003 in English would be foolish financially and...well just foolish, especially if they will not allow hacks/mods for the official release. Also we have Cherry creating a script system at the moment which will allow people to create  scripts in C/C++, similar to XP/VXA with Ruby. If Enterbrain can somehow beat that, then I would be interested in an english release.

I feel those demands are actually kind of ridiculous to expect. Maybe increasing stats to allow the engine to match that of some of these plugins but I don't think it would be foolish if they expected people to not modify the program. 

Not a demand as such, since I know EB will not go to that extent to make the engine more efficient. It was more of my reasoning as to why releasing an official version of 2003 would be financially stupid.

Releasing an official version of 2003 in English would be foolish financially and...well just foolish, especially if they will not allow hacks/mods for the official release. Also we have Cherry creating a script system at the moment which will allow people to create  scripts in C/C++, similar to XP/VXA with Ruby. If Enterbrain can somehow beat that, then I would be interested in an english release.

I feel those demands are actually kind of ridiculous to expect. Maybe increasing stats to allow the engine to match that of some of these plugins but I don't think it would be foolish if they expected people to not modify the program. 

Not a demand as such, since I know EB will not got to that extent to make the engine more efficient. It was more of my reasoning as to why releasing an official version of 2003 would be financially stupid.

Releasing 2003 would be financially stupid regardless.  Looking at the petition, only 68 of 1000 signatures are on there...looking for only 1000 signatures seems like a waste of a petition and only 68 signatures says to me that you could probably double or triple that, MAYBE quadruple it to get the amount of people who would actually buy the software if they knew about it and you could probably call it a waste of time and money depending on who they have working on it, how many are working on it and how they plan to release the software.  A couple thousand dollars isn't enough profit for a company to bother with this.

True dat.

not happening sorry

enterbrain personally told me