E.V.O.: The Theory of Evolution (PC-98) is out!

We’ve done it.

This is the official release announcement for 46 OkuMen’s English translation patch for Enix’s E.V.O.: The Theory of Evolution (46 Okunen Monogatari: The Shinkaron) on the PC-98 system. If you know what you’re doing, download the patch here and enjoy! Check out the project page for more information about the game as well as the links to the patch and the fully translated manual which has a bunch of cool and helpful information. There’s also more information about the history and process we went through in translating and romhacking the game itself, as well as references we found in the game.

E.V.O.: The Theory of Evolution Complete (incl. Translation Patch & Manual) v1.1.2 – zip – 18050 download(s) – 24 MB

If this is your first time playing a game on the PC-98 system, we recommend checking out our short emulation setup guide before playing.

14 comments

  1. Hey guys, I just wanted to say thank you so much for this. EVO Search for Eden is one of my favorite games. Read about this prequel on hardcore gaming a while back and hoped someone would translate it someday; Can’t wait to play now!

    Again, thank you so much! You guys rock!

  2. I used the patch, but it only translated disks A1, B2, B3, and the event text for B4.

    B1 has no patch, but this has not been a problem at all.

    B4, I managed to get a large chunk through the chapter, only to get stuck on a puzzle boss. I can’t solve a puzzle I can’t read, and I can’t read the Japanese that the entire fight is still in. I don’t know if I got a bad patch, or if I patched it wrong, or what.

    1. This is a problem with the earliest release versions of the patch. It has since been fixed so the best course of action is to redownload the patch and patch a fresh version of the game. Before doing so, you’ll want to get a copy of EditDisk (http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA013937/editdisk/index_e.html) to extract your save files (PC1.46 to PC6.46) from the User Disk, and then transfer these files over to the freshly patched copy of the User Disk. That way you won’t lose your progress.

  3. Thank you so, so much for this translation. E.V.O. has a very special place in my heart and I’ve been craving a translation of this one for years. It’s a pure joy to be able to play this, and I haven’t stopped grinning Thanks again folks, you’re great 🙂

  4. is there a way to make the .hdi from the five .fdi(s)?
    i managed to create a bootable .hdi but other than necessary IO.SYS; MSDOS.SYS; COMMAND.COM
    the .hdi still pretty much empty.

    1. The HDI version that our patch targets actually has a modified 46.EXE file in it, of which we weren’t the ones who did the modification. There’s only one version of that one floating around, so you won’t be able to build it from the contents of any of the disk versions alone without that modified 46.EXE.

      1. Thanks for the answer, its give me correct clue to what i must be doing.
        The available un-patched .hdi wont works with anex86 although its works with other emulators, and such the patched .hdi are having similar issues.

        So i try to copy all the files (except the mandatory Dos kernels files)
        from patched .hdi into bootable .hdi that i just made, and it works.
        Anex86 properly recognized the .hdi and able to play it.

  5. Can you guys release the translated HDI files then? the FDIs will not patch, the HDIs I have will not install, and I have no idea what I need to do. I just want to play the game translated.

    1. We’re working on wider support for any version of the disks out there, but we haven’t finished yet. For now, it’ll just be difficult to find and get things patched.

  6. Then how did the translated game manage to get spread so far with various streams if it’s hard to find? I don’t want to fish through a bunch of leads that go nowhere, there has to be a proper copy that the patch can work.

    1. There are, in fact, three different copies that our patch supports. One of the problems with patching PC98 games is that there is no standardization or anything of the sort, like what comes with a lot of other systems. The no-intro versions available for most console games, for instance. This leads to a number of the different disk versions for games having different formats and the like, which makes it harder to target just one version of a game. Like I said in the previous post, we are working on a better method that will end up supporting practically any version that exists (so people can use their own backups more easily), but that will take some time to get prepared.

      That being said, there are some projects out there that are attempting to standardize PC98 disks into proper formats for easier access and patching in the future such as the Neo Kobe pack. They’re doing a good job trying to collect and standardize disks so that certain things are more easily available, which also makes figuring out which versions to target more simple for us. It’s generally pretty easy to find, but we can’t exactly link you to anything due to reasons, etc.

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