History and Features of the Chrono Trigger SNES Release
The History
Having anticipated a late 1994 release date, Square co. (also branded as Square Soft in North America) and Chrono Trigger's “Dream Team” – comprised of the famed Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Final Fantasy, Yuji Horii, creator of Dragon Quest, and Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball – decided to push back the game to the following year.1 Prior to this release, early alpha versions of the game were shown at the 1994 and 1995 Japanese magazine V-Jump festivals and subsequently, a beta version of Chrono Trigger was also released to magazine subscribers and video game reviewers.2 These early depictions of story and gameplay footage excited fans at the time, and now serve the purpose of providing significant commentary on the developmental history of Chrono Trigger – which has been analyzed in detail on the Chrono Compendium website.
Chrono Trigger began its legacy in Japan on March 11, 1995 on the Super Famicom and later the North American version of the console, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) on August 22 that same year. Although the two systems are identical in hardware specifications, discrepancies between the two releases are noticeable even at this early date – although the North American release isn't considered a re-release itself.[3][4] In this instance, unique changes between localizations play a part in differentiation.
Firstly, design distinctions between both systems affected outward appearances of the consoles, game cartridges, and controllers, in the end creating separate playing experiences and regionally locking the Super Famicom and the SNES to their locales. It is also noted that the North American version lacked art for the game's ending as well as hosted various translation discrepancies, along with various omissions enforced by Nintendo of America, including references to breastfeeding, consumption of alcohol, bisexuality and religion.5
Differences in character depiction are fascinating as well. Most notably, Frog (a prominent anthropomorphic character) is removed from his original Japanese characterization, which was serious and informal in tone – whereas the North American translation imbued Frog with Elizabethan English dialogue characteristic of a knight; and Robo, (a robotic companion) along with other androids found in the Chrono Trigger universe, all communicate in capital-casing.5
Most of these alterations are attributed to translator Ted Woolsey, who was asked to localize Chrono Trigger within a thirty day time period.6 Lacking the contemporary setup of a dedicated localization team, Woolsey had to rely upon marketing materials – and in some cases were incomplete.6 Memory constraints also hampered the process, in the end leading Woolsey to having to rethink an entire plot without actually changing any of the parameters that govern how the plot has implications on the rest of the game.7 “So, inevitably,” in his words, “some depth is lost in the translation from Japanese to English.7
"So, inevitably,
some depth is lost in the translation
from Japanese to English.”7
-Ted Woolsey Super Play Magazine interview (1994)
The Features
ACEN’s host, The WELL was (and still is) a pioneering Northern California-based social media environment, which hosted digerati from all over the World, including Silicon Valley, where I had once lived. Thus, at the time that Uncle Roger was created, I was immersed in 1980’s San Francisco Bay Area personal computer culture. With locations including a party in Woodside, a microelectronics lab, and an early corporate word-processing office, Uncle Roger, like the interface and the programs with which it was created, is set in this era of transitioning computer culture. Events are observed by a narrator, who in telling the story intertwines elements of magic realism with Silicon Valley culture and semiconductor industry lore.
Files 1 and 2 are interactive hypertexts in which the reader actively follows chains of links through the narrative––either one link or combinations of links using the Boolean operator “and” (“men in tan suits” and “dreams”, for instance)––and then returns to the beginning to follow another link or combination of links. Simulating the diffuse, unsettled quality of the narrator’s changing life, the third file is generative.
Files 1 and 2 are interactive hypertexts in which the reader actively follows chains of links through the narrative––either one link or combinations of links using the Boolean operator “and” (“men in tan suits” and “dreams”, for instance)––and then returns to the beginning to follow another link or combination of links. Simulating the diffuse, unsettled quality of the narrator’s changing life, the third file is generative.
The Three Files of Uncle Roger
What I type on the keyboard appears in green on the screen which is called the monitor. When the screen is full, the letters scroll up somewhere inside the machine.”
The following background information about each file of Uncle Roger is from the packaging of the original Apple II Applesoft BASIC version.
“A Party in Woodside”
During a long, mostly sleepless night after, a party is remembered fitfully, interspersed with dreams. Like a guest at a real party, you hear snatches of conversation and catch fleeting glimpses of both strangers and old friends. There are occurrences which you never observe. You meet people whom others may never meet. A fragmented, individual memory picture of the party emerges.
“The Blue Notebook”
In "The Blue Notebook," the story is continued by the narrator, Jenny. The narrative is framed by a formal birthday party for Tom Broadthrow at a hotel restaurant. Jenny’s fragmented memories — a car trip with David, a visit to Jeff’s company in San Jose, an encounter with Uncle Roger in the restaurant bathroom – weave in and out of the birthday party recollections. Some of the text is taken from Jenny’s blue notebook where, as she she explains: “The things I wrote in the blue notebook didn’t happen in exactly the way I wrote them.”
“Terminals”
In January the narrator, Jenny, left the Broadthrow family and started working for a market research firm in San Francisco. As Jenny sits at her desk, memories of a Christmas party in Woodside, a trip back East for the Holidays and other things that happened come and go in her mind.
More about “The Blue Notebook”
We walked through a door into a vast expanse of gray cement floors. There were no windows. Rows of benches were covered with black and silver equipment; piles of cables; boxes of small objects encrusted with wires; microscopes; tv screens; clear plastic boxes with holes in them; surgical gloves. In the back exposed pipes alternated with ten foot tall machines.”
In Silicon Valley, things do not happen simply and clearly. In File 2 of Uncle Roger, “The Blue Notebook”, five parallel yet intertwining narratives advance the story in sometimes conflicting ways––reflecting the increasing complexity of Jenny’s life.
The story is framed by a formal birthday party for a microelectronics company president. His party––in a Silicon Valley hotel dining room––is punctuated by the narrator’s unlikely encounter with the eccentric semiconductor market analyst Uncle Roger. And while Jenny sits at the banquet table, other narrative threads––a car trip with a former lover, a visit to a semiconductor house in San––come and go in her mind.
Parts of the story are taken from her notebook where reality is difficult to separate from fiction and dream: “The things I wrote in the blue notebook didn’t happen in exactly the way I wrote them.”
Technical Information
"'It’s an FX-7000G ,' said one of the men in tan suits. He pulled a thin calculator out of his pocket. The other two men leaned over the calculator while he pushed some buttons. Small grey graphs appeared on the tiny green screen.”
Uncle Roger was first told online on the ACEN conferencing system on The WELL, beginning in 1986. Beginning in 1987, it was published online as a working hypernarrative, programmed with UNIX shell scripts on ACEN Datanet. It was also self-published as computer software, programmed with BASIC for both Apple and IBM-compatible computers and distributed by the Art Com Catalog, (a video and small press distributor) as well as exhibited internationally in the traveling exhibition Art Com Software.
Over the years, I have worked to keep Uncle Roger available to a public audience. A web version was created in 1995 and is still available at http://www.well.com/user/jmalloy/uncleroger/uncle.html.
And in 2012, I recreated the BASIC version of Uncle Roger for the DOSBox emulator. Access is available at my site.