THE OFFICIAL ENGLISH 2K3 VERSION IS OUT!

author=kaine87
No the 256 color limit it's very bad :(

I cannot imagine a scenario where you need more than 256 colours for a pixel art game. A full, nice looking tileset can be made with like 30 colours tops.

Mmmh every time i change a single pixel when i import the image, dang dang error! Oh yes open photoshop or another graphic tool to convert the image.

@pizza the problem is not the number of colors used for sprites, but having to use other tools to convert the image

somebody wake me up

author=Cherry
It actually happened!:D

Degica has now, by order of KADOKAWA GAMES/Enterbrain and in cooperation with me, finally released an official English version of RPG Maker 2003 on Steam.

At this point I would like to give a big thanks to Archeia who put a lot of sweat and blood into this translation as well.

Link on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/362870/
Price: $19.99, currently $16.99

It should also be available on rpgmakerweb directly.

This finally officially allows creating commercial games with RPG Maker 2003 (after a registration). Fortunately, the license also doesn't have any clause preventing modifications, e.g. through the use of patches. However, the reverse engineering itself is still prohibited.

There is also an official English RTP. Although it has the same content as the existing inofficial one, it has different filenames; but no worries, you can have both RTPs installed alongside each other.

This version is 1.10, which has been a bit tweaked and tuned by us:
* The fullscreen work properly, also on newer devices.
* The event editor was changed a lot:
** Its look and labels have been aligned with RMVXA - with colors and partly more information in the list than previously.
** It has a horizontal scrollbar, can copy events as text and loads large events faster.
** It's possible to copy event all commands between battle events and map/common events (although it will show a warning, because they still can't be modified while being in the "wrong" place).
* The help file now also works on Windows Vista/7/8.
* Maps can't get lost that easily anymore when a PC Cleaner is used.
* Multiple instances can be opened at the same time, and you can create direct shortcuts to projects in Windows Explorer.
* Battles go faster.
* You have 1000 pictures, 100 labels and 9999 switches/variables/etc.
* Picture commands also work while a message is displayed.
* The fonts are now directly integrated into the engine and don't need to be installed by the player.

A full changelog is available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sXlXZIXdjxVq5gh_lPFuFLMbMRzZe4BKPpRI13ZD2Qc/edit?usp=sharing

Unfortunately the source code was lost over time. Therefore, it was a bit difficult to implement the real "killer features". Also, I originally planned to include all the bugfixes from DynRPG as well, and I wanted to integrate the CommonThisEventPatch, but there was not enough time. There will be updates, though.

Best wishes,
Cherry

PS: Screenshot of the event editor:

A few questions.

Has anyone imported their games from the other version (making sure nothing is lost)?

Is it compatible with DynRPG?

8 (as I have unfortunately noticed) is not 8.1. Does it work with help on 8.1?

Also, a few goals, since you're actively updating:

Battle Events

• 2k3 does not have Change HP - All Enemies or Change MP - All Enemies
• Conditions Trigger should have Switch ON as a dropbox that can also select OFF, Variable should have options besides Above
• Maybe add options to the Condition Trigger in general (Monster is targeted, would be a great one, since it could start events when you actually attack)
• Ditto for the other battle event conditions branches (At the very least, if Hero is the target, since otherwise you have to resort to awkward targeting codes. But probably also if hero is inflicted by X status, and the same for monsters)
• Add something nice to the final space in Battle Events (after End Combat), maybe Restart Battle for time effects or something

Skills/Items

• There are a ton of space gaps where stuff could be added. Possibly allow a switch checkbox, since currently Switch skills does not display when I make a Skill Subtype (which nearly all my characters have, to hide stuff like Limit Breaks and special commands). Ditto for the items, whatever seems good.
• Make the attributes more customizable. For instance, in VX Ace, you you could have monsters damage you
• With bugmenot's permission, see about working in some of the RPS+ features as buttons (nonreflectable, piercing, name, etc).
• I think if you don't check Only Usable on Dead Characters, items don't trigger on that character. Meaning I can't make an item that targets monsters living or dead. That said, some items might miss if they targeted enemies that were dead. Ummmm, something like
• Make medicines have a radio button Cure/Inflict because you know sometimes I want a haste potion (without making a skill scroll).
• More Options for weapons
• More options for accessories (it's good that they have the ones they do for armor, but the accessories should be expanded to included enounter, exp, and other changes. Accesories is seriously underwhelming. Final Fantasy 12 is a good place to start, they had a ton of good accessories.)

Also, of course, build in the ThisEvent to Common Events. I can't think of when this would not be useful.

There may be more, I just can't think of them.

Has anyone imported their games from the other version (making sure nothing is lost)?
I did. Worked fine. Helped that the game didn't use the RTP (since the renamed RTP will mean that any RTP files won't be found by the engine, you have to readd them) but otherwise it worked fine.

author=kaine87
Mmmh every time i change a single pixel when i import the image, dang dang error! Oh yes open photoshop or another graphic tool to convert the image.

@pizza the problem is not the number of colors used for sprites, but having to use other tools to convert the image

Just use iDraw for editing. It was practically made for the series and the free download can be found in the Utilities section of the site.

I had just finished working on my Befuddle puzzle for the day, so I closed Ace VX and there was a Steam pop up announcement, these are usually filled with crap games I don't want.

This one, however, was not.

It was RPG Maker 2003.

I had to read it again and again a few times for some furious seconds while my mind raced with the impossible information it was receiving!

This is so awesome! :)
Words are not enough :D

Thanks to everyone involved! ;)

You know what would be really cool? Some sort of small game creation event to accommodate this.
I'm in the mood for a small vanilla RTP project. :P

author=PepsiOtaku
I imported EJ, but I couldn't do a whole lot since it relies so heavily on patches and plugins. It loaded though! The new rendering engine is very nice!

So do patches and plug-ins have zero functionality in this new version? Or is there some way to get them to work, regardless of the current "official" support?