EVE burst error


In the early 2000s, when visual novels were barely known in the West, there was this one site I was importing my Japanese PC games from: HimeyaUSA. Back then, I was taking them for granted without thinking too much about satisfying my collectible needs, but among their product line, they actually carried English translated visual novels that they localized themselves. And there was this one title called “EVE burst error”.

The origin of “EVE burst error”, released under the brand name C’s ware on the PC98 platform, goes even back to 1995, the same time as when the highly influential apocalyptic mecha anime Neon Genesis Evangelion series was first aired in Japan, though the game itself takes its cues from the 80’s OVA Megazone 23. It eventually became a smash hit spawning a Sega Saturn port, PC adult and all ages ports, and a PS2 port (I don’t count the recent PSP version as part of it because they made some awkward modifications).

It’s been a while since I last played the game myself – my memory of the story was vague, but I still remembered the experience being great and it is one of those classics that got me into this genre – not to mention it was one of the earliest game by the acclaimed game creator, Hiroyuki Kanno, who unfortunately passed away just this past December.

And so when we, the Japanese staff of MangaGamer, were looking into alternative companies that maybe able to help us localize our games in the programming/scripting end, we happened to run into the owner of Himeya Soft! Sadly, his old company and site don’t serve the same functions as they used to, but when we asked if he minded if we sold his previous releases on our site, he said, “Sure, they’re yours.”

However, the catch was that they could only supply us with a single sample copy of the “EVE burst error” English version. Not only do we not have any original promotional artwork, but we don’t have the raw game data either, meaning we can neither make any revisions to the text or insert the H-scenes from the adult version. We had to think twice before carrying such a game, but we believed such a masterpiece must be made accessible to future generations of gaming fans.

I wound up playing through the game once again in order to check if it would run fine on newer editions of Windows (it does), and although the system and the contents were indeed old-fashioned, following the characters through the story was a blast all the way to the amazing ending.

Perhaps the only drawback is that the game predates the wide implementation of the skip feature, so you’re kind of stuck with manually clicking through text even if you may have already read it. Although turning off the voice does make the text run faster, with an all star cast such as Takehito Koyasu, Akio Ohtsuka, Yuji Ueda, Norio Wakamato, Atsuko Tanaka, Mika Kanai, etc. you might want to think again before doing so.

“EVE burst error” is now available as a DRM-Free download-to-own purchase on our All-Ages site for €9.95.

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30 Comments

  1. The lack of a skip feature is a shame, as is the inability to make improvements, but the concept sounds very intriguing. I’m going to pick this one up. Hopefully someone will make a guide for this, as apparently you need to switch protagonists in order to progress properly, and it isn’t always clear. With the lack of being able to skip, it could become tedious finding where you went wrong.

    • Actually, after testing out the controls, seems like at the very least clicking the middle mouse button skips dialogue all the way to the end. It skips even new dialogue, and it doesn’t stop until you can choose options, but it’s something at least.

  2. the lack of skip feature is a shame, I can’t say im to interested in this, but it’s rather cheap when put up to the what $55 Himeya originally wanted.

  3. Own a physical copy, but will buy this anyway in order to show support. Especially since I hope this game’s success might give incentive to find whoever owns thw rights to the rest of the EVE series and beg them for the license.
    On a side note, please don’t pursue a license of Adam the Double Factor. There’s a reason EVE: The Fatal Attraction was made to retcon it.

  4. Sorry guys, but you need to learn to man handle these negotiations better. You’re releasing a raw product that you can’t even professionally edit? And it lacks a skip feature? Are you serious?

    • This game is ANCIENT by VN standards, it isn’t surprising that it lacks skip.

      Besides, again, the game is OLD and it is not available for cheap. It is a good trade off.

    • Don’t buy the DRM-Free, discounted 10 euro game made 16 years ago that is in the form it was originally released to the English market if it doesn’t interest you then. Even if they had what they needed, it is unlikely that something like a skip feature would be added when the Japanese PC version didn’t have it (just wasn’t something they had at the time). Also this isn’t like they only had a translator go over it once and come out with a half finished product, this did get a proper release in English, and MangaGamer was able to get this release to sell now that it has been out of print for some time. I will grant you though that the script has more localization then what is needed, but short of going through from scratch that probably couldn’t be improved upon.Regardless it is truly one of the best titles from the 90’s, and still holds up fairly well today, so if you can get over the limitations of a title from the 90’s it is surely worth your time.

    • “Man handle” does not mean what you think it means. Also what BD wrote is not a strawman argument.

      Please learn the meaning of words before using them, ESPECIALLY if you are going to be complaining.

    • You should take better note of the wording used in the post.

      They *could* only get their hand on the final version. Which most likely means that the original source code and/or assets are lost and this was the best they could provide us short of reimplementing the game from the scratch. If the source code was lost, there was no way to modify or add anything to the game.

      IMO, this is similar to the situation with one of the earlier MG games (can’t remember which one from the top of my head) that isn’t uncensored because the game company lost the original uncensored CGs.

  5. I suppose this is good news, since this was pretty nice game in terms of story, but wait a minute.

    I know that the original PC-98 version actually had h-scenes and so did a much, much later (2003) PC remake, but it seems that the 1990s PC port didn’t have any of those anyway.

    Even the Getchu.com listings seem to indicate as much, so the suggestion here that there were h-scenes that could be “re-inserted” into this version sounds…inaccurate to me.

  6. Will also sidegrade to the digital copy, because the lack of a skip feature is nothing compared to the original CD edition which doesn’t seem to work without the disc in the drive (so annoying!).

    Hoping for Desire, Love Potion (should share some chars/setting with Eve) and Divi-Dead too!

  7. For f***s sake people. The game is completely linear, it only has one ending, why the hell do you complain about the skip feature?!

    IMHO, it’s one of the best visual novels I have ever played, and while the localization was a bit too much (after the tenth Bill Clinton joke it starts to get old) and translation was inconsistent due to multiple translators with no proofing (it becomes obvious when Amagi’s nickname Amachi is transliterated in some scenes and translated as Amazing in others), I still think that this is a must buy game. And it’s DRM-free…

    Oh, well, let me abuse my credit card some more.

    • Wasn’t aware there was only one ending – I was expecting numerous dead ends, to be honest 😀

      • No dead ends luckily. The game can be confusing as it is as you can get easily stuck without knowing what to do next because you failed to inspect a tiny hotspot somewhere 10 screens away. Expect lots of backtracking.
        Oh, and let’s not forget a nightmarish hacking puzzle midway through the game that is almost impossible to pass without a walkthrough. Luckily I still have a walkthrough specifically for that puzzle somewhere on my computer:-)

  8. So it’s EVE. Good game, though I’ve never finished it. Maybe now it’s a chance. ^_^

  9. I just want to point something out

    in the game’s page description it says “Recommended for Mature audience: Features violence, crude humor, and sexual content.”

    but it’s in the all-ages page?

  10. I’m glad, It was one of the first VN i played and i was sad that i couldn’t find ti anymore…

    Thumb up MG!

  11. I think this was my 1st English VN or maybe it was Divi-Dead. I was so into EVE back then that I bought the JP PS1 ver. of EVE: The Fatal Attraction. This post made me go dig it up from one of my boxes. 🙂

  12. Nintendo Maniac 64

    Check out the system requirements on the product page – requires a 75MHz Pentium and 133MHz is recommended.

    Crysis ain’t got nothin on Eve!

  13. Quite a nice decision there. Now if only you could do the same with Ever17 (and fix all the silly problems the original release had) (and not the silly remake), I’d love you guys forever. 😀

  14. Eve Burst Error is a true masterpiece. A lot better than KnS. It’s too bad they didn’t use the translation with the original pc-98 graphics.

  15. The amount of hard drive space needed is not listed under the release. Approximately how much does one need for this game?

  16. The game is about 1.8 GB in size.

  17. MG’s rereleasing VNs who previosly released in past by extinguished companies??????Then I want uncensored rereleases of Tea Society Of A Witch,Hourglass Of Summer,Exodus Guilty and all other VNs who had censored by Hirameki u.u

    • Hourglass of Summer was never censored. The game was originally released for the PlayStation 2 in 2002; the 18+ PC version was released a year later. The same is true for Exodus Guilty; the original game was released for the first PlayStation in 1998 and a different artist drew the H-CG for the 2002 PC release. Neither title had sexual content in its original release; this content was added (sometimes shoehorned) into subsequent PC re-releases. We’ve seen the same thing happen with To Heart 2 and Little Busters.

      Granted, Hirameki did censor many of their licenses (Amusement Park, Witches’ Tea Party / Tea Society of a Witch, Day of Love, Ishika & Honori, and Animamundi ~Dark Alchemist~) to try and reduce their respective age ratings and make their games more “accessible”. Your point stands, but you might want to be more careful in picking your examples next time.

  18. If you release EVE new, then pleeeeaaase also EVE TFA (not ADAM TDF, it’s disappointing!). Or just let me know what tools you use for the localization 😀 ‘caus i played ADAM and was so disappointed -.-* then found EVE TFA… but its only japanese…

    Good luck

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