Kongming’s Archives’ Update Archive: 2006
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Archived Documents and Information. This page contains archived site wide updates for the year of 2006. Some information below may be out-of-date and some links may be broken. If searching for missing content, please use the regular site navigation or search for best results.
January 2006
Site-wide updates to Kongming’s Archives made through January 2006.
1/13/06 (James): 4th Weapons, Biographies, and Development Projects
Another month has passed with a primary focus on the development project, much like the last. This time, though, we’ve got some fun new additions to share with you. Noteworthy improvements have been made to officer information pages (e.g. Style Name Project, Hanzi Project, Biography Project) both in terms of information and presentation and new information is being added almost daily.
This update also features the introduction of ‘Public Development Projects’—guides or references that can be updated or maintained by viewers of this site (including you, if you are interested). More information on this down the road, but for new the important details will be shared in linked topics at Scholars of Shen Zhou. I should hope it goes without saying, but these projects are monitored, and anyone caught abusing this new community addition will loose rights to access this site.
New links have been added to the Links Page, most related to translation or conversion of Chinese Hanzi and Pinyin, along with a few informative web sites (some Chinese, some English) and some online versions of Three Kingdoms books in Chinese (e.g. Sanguo yanyi).
New Sanguo yanyi biographies for Xu Shu (Yuanzhi) (by J.C. Cawley), Min Gong and Huangfu Song (Yizhen) (by James), and Jiao Chu and Cheng Pu (Demou) (by Sam Wrest) have been added to the Biographies Page. There are more coming around the corner as well.
Dynasty Warriors 5 fans may be pleased to see the results of our first Public Development Project, the Dynasty Warriors 5 Fourth Weapons Guide. As the name suggests, it features comprehensive instructions on how to get all of the game’s 4th weapons, and was created as a joint effort between members of Scholars of Shen Zhou. If you are interested in participating in something like this, a new project has been started for Dynasty Warriors 5 Xtreme Legends 4th Weapons. All you need is a Kongming’s Archives user account and a little bit of free time.
Similarly, a Public Development Project is in place for compiling a collection of Romance of the Three Kingdoms X In-Game Officer Biographies, a new addition to Kongming’s Archives. Why? It would be nice to have as a reference when trying to remember who a certain officer was. If you have RTK X, and want to try the Development Project, this is a great place to start.
1/22/06 (James): Scholars of Shen Zhou Three Kingdoms Archive Search
Just a quick update to introduce an interesting addition to Kongming’s Archives, the Scholars of Shen Zhou Three Kingdoms Archive Searcher. Since we founded our forum, Scholars of Shen Zhou, in 2002, there have been numerous insightful and informative debates and discussions, lengthly shared research on a multitude of topics, and articles shared about the Three Kingdoms novel and the history behind it. Unfortunately, the forum never had a reliable, fast, or efficient search engine to use when searching for these old topics. This, combined with a desire to make the forum friendlier to new members wanting to restart old topics, was the driving motivation of this project.
Using this tool you can look up forum topics on numerous officers of the Three Kingdoms Era (in the same pre-defined categories found most anywhere else in the Novel & History Section), enter your own custom searches for the Scholars of Shen Zhou’s Three Kingdoms section, and finally, we’ve programmed in a number of pre-defined category searches (e.g. specific kingdoms, groups, battles, regions, literature) that you can view. Please read the section’s introduction for more information on how it works and what you can expect. Enjoy!
February 2006
Site-wide updates to Kongming’s Archives made through February 2006.
2/17/06 (James): Back online after over a week of downtime!
Welcome back, everyone. I’m sure plenty of you are wondering what happened. Much to our dismay, we unexpectedly lost our server, and while we were prepared for this to a degree, we weren’t ready to deal with the full scale of this surprise. Flash forward over a week, we have reconnected with a new paid host (yeah, back to paying the bill again) and much of the site’s functionality has been fully restored. There are a few notable exceptions, which are listed below and currently in a state of repair. Aside from those exceptions, if you see any problems, please report them for repair.
Issues that need to be resolved: 1) Scholars of Shen Zhou Archive Project is non-functional due to server limitations [edit: fixed and back online!]; 2) A few soundtracks in the Music Section are offline [edit: fixed, an hosted for the time being by us!] 3) Odds & Ends is completely messed up and has to be rebuilt [edit: fully repaired, but we need to re-create accounts: see next update].
Also, for people who have been participating in the Development Project, the last backup we had was from February 2nd, 2006. This was a relatively current backup, but a rather small amount of information was lost. If any of you have questions, please feel free to write me. This information will have to be re-submitted into the project.
It is also important to note the fact that I’ve been without email myself for a while now, and any email sent for the past while will not reach me. I’ve fully repaired all my email accounts, though, so you can reach me now. I’m going to be focusing my time on fixing up the broken parts of the site, though, so I won’t be able to answer many of them. I will, however, read all of them. If everything works out well, Kongming’s Archives should remain on this server for some time to come.
2/23/06 (James): Sanguo Yanyi Biographies, Odds & Ends' Return
Okay, the server migration should now be basically complete. It is possible there still may be problems or errors here or there, so please let me know if you happen to encounter any. First, the music that was offline is now online again, if only on a temporary basis. Second, Odds & Ends has been fully repaired, though accounts have to be re-created (more on this below). Finally, I would like to officially welcome SlickSlicer as a Sanguo yanyi biography author. He has authored biographies for Cai Yong, Pang Tong (Shiyuan), and King Mulu, and is considering a few others as you read this. Enjoy!
Now, for the details on Odds & Ends for those of you that are members of that section. As mentioned briefly above, we were unable to migrate the old Odds & Ends accounts from the old server to the new one. As a result of this, we’ve recoded and improved the whole section. From this point on, your Odds & Ends access will be handled using your Kongming’s Archives account (which could not be automatically set up as there has never been an obvious link between Odds & Ends and Kongming’s Archives accounts). If you had an Odds & Ends account, and want to access the new section, make sure you have a Kongming’s Archives user account, and fill out this form (with the details you can remember). We can handle the rest!
2/24/06 (James): Some fun new games coming just over the horizon...
Updated information on all the various games that are coming in the future (check releases at the bottom of the home page). They include Koei’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI, Samurai Warriors 2, Samurai Warriors: State of War, and Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires. Samurai Warriors 2, in particular, looks very good. Koei has also been releasing versions of Romance of the Three Kingdoms for handheld systems, but there is no sign of any of them being translated to English, which really is a horrible shame—I can’t think of any game I’d want more, and I know I’m not alone.
March 2006
Site-wide updates to Kongming’s Archives made through March 2006.
3/22/06 (James): Romance of the Three Kingdoms X Portraits Online!
Here’s another update, and I hope it finds all of you well. We have pretty much settled in with the new host, and most of the transition has been fully worked out (there are still a few broken things here and there, like some submission forms and the home page archives) and they too will be ironed out in the future. Lately much of the work has been mechanical, so I won’t bore you with those details. As soon as we push through it, however, some wonderful things will appear.
Not wanting to leave all of you empty handed, however, I have prepared a special treat. I have taken the full collection of officer portraits from Romance of the Three Kingdoms X and assembled them into an online alphabetical portraits section. Some of you may remember that we used to have sections like this on the site, but took them down years ago. I think it is time for them to make a comeback. Unlike the Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX Portraits Project, which features half-size portraits, you can click on any portrait in this project to view it at the full size found in the actual game. Thanks to a member named Asellas, we’ll probably add extra photographs in a little bit as well! Enjoy!
3/24/06 (James): Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX Portraits Online!
Greetings everyone! I just wanted to announce an update very much like that of a few days ago. Because people were so excited to see the Romance of the Three Kingdoms X Portraits Collection online, I have added the Created Female Portraits and the Other Portraits (including the likes of Bandit, Sun Shang Xiang, and Emperor Xian). The Created Male Portraits are not yet available because I do not have the full collection (but if you do, please feel free to contact me).
Finally, the real update: Remember the Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX Portraits Project? Well, we’ve had the full-resolution versions of the portraits all along, but it would have taken too much time to put them online—until now. I hope you enjoy the new Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX Portraits Collection, featuring all the in-game officer, miscellaneous, and created character portraits. And like the Three Kingdoms X portraits set above, this set features the higher resolution portraits found in the computer version of the game. If you see any name errors, please feel free to post them in this update’s thread at Scholars of Shen Zhou.
April 2006
Site-wide updates to Kongming’s Archives made through April 2006.
4/1/06 (James): Changsha Educated Press' Stunning Sanguo Articles!
As it seems nearly everyone who attended the forum figured out, along with many of site viewers, the breakthrough articles from Chansha Educated Press and Xiahou Mao’s new historical biography (SoSZ topic) were both fictions and part of our April Fool’s joke for 2006. It was perhaps our most peaceful April Fool’s joke so far—not a single physical threat received! As some of you guessed, the Xiahou Mao biography is an extended version of a biography Simulated RTK Site Administrator ‘Xiahou Mao’ frequently shares with plebes hoping to learn more about his hero, Xiahou Mao. We’ll share more details when we immortalize this event in our Site Archives. I hope everyone enjoyed it!
4/14/06 (James): Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI, and more...
Today we have a special treat for fans of Koei’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms game series: our all-new Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI Home Page! Page contents include Three Kingdoms XI Screenshots (with a small introduction to new gameplay mechanics, thanks Xiahou Mao), an small collection of popular Three Kingdoms XI Portraits and Stats assembled by forum member The Sun Also Rises (you may have seen this on Empire Divided before it went offline, hopefully temporarily), and a Three Kingdoms XI Scenario Appearances Guide showing the scenarios in which officers appear, along with their stats (not fully complete, but very detailed). There is also a plain text ‘FAQ’ version of this guide available. Finally, wonderful progress has been made toward completing the Portraits Project for this game—you may see the full portraits collection soon!
Presenting a Call to Arms! Lately, more and more, we have been working on projects which require translating Chinese officer names, and modern-day Japanese or Chinese documents (game home pages, information guides, etc.). If we were able to translate more of this information with better regularity, or better speed, we could feature some wonderful new and informative content at Kongming’s Archives. If you are experienced in this area, have some writing ability, and would like to help out and bring new content to our viewers, please send me an email and we’ll talk more!
There have also been big changes in the online Three Kingdoms community over the past few months, and I wanted to share some new information about them with you! First, I would like to mention Koei Warriors, by Insp. Chin. This site has turned into one of the finest sites on the internet for Dynasty and Samurai Warriors content, along with the Dynasty Warriors Character Guide by Stephanie. LordYuanShu.com, by Lord Yuan Shu, has grown into a wonderful site with original content for the DoaE series (not just the original) and other old-school Three Kingdoms games. Sanguo Online, by Emperor Chin, and Five Tigers, by Sain Cai, two old sites, have both returned and are once again growing with new content. Finally, the excellent Empire Divided Three Kingdoms site is offline, but it was not a planned outage. They lost their hosting, and are currently searching for a new provider—so they may not be gone for long after all! I don’t think I have ever seen so many wonderful Three Kingdoms internet sites online at the same time before.
4/17/06 (James): Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI Portraits!
I would like to announce, to everyone, that the Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI Portraits Project, which took place entirely at Scholars of Shen Zhou, has been completed in record time. We have also taken some time, prior to official announcement, to collect errors in the names, and at this point I’ll be surprised if there are more than a few left in the entire collection. What does this mean? Today, you get to see the complete Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI Officer Portraits Collection! Also following in the tradition of recent portrait pages, you can view the full-size in-game portraits as well (in this case, 256x256 px). We’ve also added a special bonus. When you click on an officer portrait, not only to you get to view the full-size version, you can also view their name (English/Chinese), game-listed lifespan, game stats (default stats), and game biography (Chinese/Japanese) all in a window specially created for this project. Also, check this update’s thread for updates relative to the created officer portraits. hope everyone enjoys this special treat!
May 2006
Site-wide updates to Kongming’s Archives made through May 2006.
5/15/06 (James): New Destiny of an Emperor I and II Content!
For a long time now, our Destiny of an Emperor section hasn’t been quite what I have always wanted it to be, but I’ve finally decided to spend some time to change that. Over the past few weeks, and on into the next month or so, many additions and changes will be made to the Destiny of an Emperor section—too many for me to document them here. Our advice is simple: if you are a fan of Destiny of an Emperor, keep your eyes on that section of the site, because you will be seeing a great deal fun new content. For this reason, along with new content coming for Destiny of an Emperor II as well, Destiny of an Emperor II has received its own home page!
5/27/06 (James): kongming.net migration warning and information...
As of 12:00 PM PST, May 27th, 2006, Kongming’s Archives will be in the process of migrating to a new host (yes, another new host). The domain name should transfer within the next few days. You will know this transfer has been completed because this update should appear on the Kongming’s Archives home page (the failure of updates to appear on the home page, due to a PHP error, being one of the many reasons why we have decided to transfer).
How will this affect you, our beloved viewers? If you created an account after the date listed above, it will, unfortunately, be deleted. I may be able to transfer this information shortly after the migration takes place, but this is not something I am certain of at this time. In fact, all database changes made from this moment up until the transfer completes may be lost. There is good news, however. This transfer should be handled in a much smoother fashion than the previous switch, in part due to the fact the new host will support all the old features Kongming’s Archives relied on back in the day along with the features it relies on now, and in part due to the fact that our new host should simply be an all around improvement. I’ll provide another update as soon as the transfer has completed.
August 2006
Site-wide updates to Kongming’s Archives made through August 2006.
8/28/06 (James): A bushel of new bios for your viewing pleasure!
Just an update to introduce a collection of new biographies. By Steven Trinkl, Xu Shao (Zijiang)’s Comprehensive Officer Biography. And by Sam Wrest, Sanguo Yanyi biographies for Bian Rang, Ding Yuan (Jianyang), Lü Bu’s adoptive father; Gao Shun, a highly under-appreciated officer of Lü Bu; Tian Kai; the Yellow Turban Rebels Gao Sheng and Pei Yuanshao; and the Yellow Scarves Leaders Zhang Liang and Zhang Bao. Enjoy!
We would also like to introduce a special biography. Adrian Loder has completed a translation of Cao Cao’s Sanguozhi biography, complete with Pei Songzhi’s notes! Even if you have read the other excellent Cao Cao Sanguozhi biography on this site (translated by Jack Yuan), you should read this too, just for the additional insight provided by Pei Songzhi.
All biographies can be accessed by kingdom, or by type, for your viewing pleasure.
October 2006
Site-wide updates to Kongming’s Archives made through October 2006.
10/7/06 (James): Sanguo Yanyi Biographies; DoaE III Walkthrough
Presenting four new Sanguo yanyi officer biographies authored by SlickSlicer, Zhuge Dan (Gongxiu), Lu Kang (Youjie), Sun Hao (Yuanzong), and last but certainly not least, Zhou Tai (Youping). All are wonderful characters with interesting stories (ranging from honorable to horrible) and I’m sure you will enjoy reading them!
Furthermore, forum member Taishi Ci 2.0 has authored a walkthrough for the Genesis ROM version of Destiny of an Emperor III (find the Japanese ROM file on our game downloads page). Several people have played through it with trial-and-error judgment while reviewing the guide, and I’ve heard only good things about the story. If you are up to the challenge, and are a die-hard Destiny of an Emperor fan, his Destiny of an Emperor III Walkthrough is a great place to begin.
10/13/06 (James): Romance of the Three Kingdoms for PC in English?
Did that title make you excited? We are excited at the thought of it. Anyone who has played Koei’s game series Romance of the Three Kingdoms enjoys well-rounded strategy and a good challenge. And if you are one of them, and you follow the PC versions of the game we feature here, you know how much more detailed they are than Koei’s toned-down console offerings. It can’t be helped—television simply doesn’t provide the resolution that allows these games to truly bloom! But a computer screen allows the environment to come to life, improves your ability to manage kingdoms and officers, and enriches the whole experience.
Wouldn’t it be nice to play Romance of the Three Kingdoms on both your television, and on your computer? The market already exists in Asia—it is an established success—and here in the United States, where computer gaming is a recognized and strongly established medium, would the success be anything less? One of the most frequently requested items here at Kongming’s Archives is English Patches for PC versions of Koei’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms games. In fact, these requests account for 20% of all our email.
Why discuss this now? Steven Trinkl has created a petition for Koei to translate these wonderful PC games to English for us to enjoy as they were meant to be enjoyed—not through hacks (as much as we presently love them) that strive to fit English in small text areas originally intended for Japanese, Chinese, or Korean characters. Would you like to see these games on the local store shelf? If so, please voice your support, and join us in signing Steven Trinkl’s Petition for Koei to Release Romance of the Three Kingdoms for the PC in English!
10/29/06 (James): Ancient Chinese Coins and Destiny of an Emperor!
Sorry about the downtime here, and especially at Scholars of Shen Zhou. Our server there experienced a critical system failure which resulted in a loss of all data. The database was restored from a backup dated seven days past, which means we lost some work, and I get to write this update post again. Unfortunate, because it is so big! Though that’s good news for you!
Most of our work for the past week was focused on the Destiny of an Emperor section. If you are an old-school gamer, rejoice, and read on! For the original Destiny of an Emperor, we have written a guide on Mastering Your MTP. For Destiny of an Emperor II we present two patches to the Japanese version of the game. One allows you to play as Wei, and another to play as Wu. You can enjoy a new Destiny of an Emperor II Game Versions Guide which explains the differences, and allows you to download pre-patched ROMs of the different versions. Also, we created a Guide to ROMs and Emulation to help introduce you to the world of playing old-school games on your computer.
But no, there’s more! We have finally created a new Destiny of an Emperor III Home Page! At this point content is focused on the fan-made Sega MasterSystem version of the game. Though the game is only available in Japanese, you now have enough tools to understand the menus and enjoy it, even if you can’t read the language. Start with Taishi Ci 2.0’s wonderful strategy guide, and read our new English Playguide to learn battle and game menu navigation. As it borrows a great deal from old games like Final Fantasy VI and VII, it should be even easier for post people to pick up. You can also enjoy our Collection of Screenshots, and even learn how to Start With 9,999,999 Gold!
All this wonderful new Destiny of an Emperor content makes me want to mention another wonderful website which features as much info on the series as us. Lord Yuan Shu’s Realm features not only extellent Destiny of an Emperor content, but also excellent details on other old classics like Legends of Cao Cao and Kongming, various Koei games, Final Fantasy, and Suikoden. Combined with Koei Warriors, it is one of the best Three Kingdoms gaming sites on the ‘net!
What if you like historical content, or what if you are a fan of both? You haven’t been overlooked, and today we have a special treat to share. It is easy to get so caught up in the wonderful characters and deep storyline of the novel that you forget that there is an entire culture behind the Three Kingdoms, full of customs, clothing, weapons and armor, and other artifacts common to any society. We fill in one interesting gap today—coins! Enjoy the all-new addition to our Novel and History section, Ancient Chinese Coins from Han, Xin, Jin and Three Kingdoms Dynasties, featuring an extensive collection of historical coins unearthed from these intriguing periods of time. This section’s photographs and content are entirely the work of our benevolent friend Adrian Loder (you may know him in our forum as Liu YuanTe). Even if you aren’t a fan of coins, have a look—you will probably find it very interesting! And please do have a look at his website, full coins collection, and our full credits for the section.
December 2006
Site-wide updates to Kongming’s Archives made through December 2006.
12/14/06 (James): Biographies, Coins, Destiny of an Emperor
We’ve got a special treat today that should appeal to pretty much everyone on some level or another. Not only is this among the biggest updates we’ve ever made, it is only the first of a two or three-part announcement that will be shared over the upcoming month or so (means if you were expecting something specific that wasn’t announced it will probably be included in the near future). While you enjoy all the new content check back from time to time. We think you’ll love what we have in store.
First, we have a veritable plethora of new biographies from several authors to introduce (including some new names). A number of featured characters enjoy unusual or interesting backgrounds. New Sanguo Yanyi Biographies include: By Dong Zhuo, Kong Rong (Wenju), Liu Feng, Xun Chan, Yan Baihu, Yan Yan, and Zhang Song (Yongnian); by Sam Wrest, Yang Hu (Shuzi) and Yu Quan; and by SlickSlicer, Pang Tong (Shiyuan) (updated).
A collection of new Comprehensive Officer Biographies have also been put together. Each holds true to our relatively new standard of historic accuracy with clearly marked novel and mythology-based tidbits on the side. You’ll also see some big names on the list. Again in alphabetical order, by Dong Zhuo, Zhang Jun; by Sam Wrest, He Qi (Gongmiao); by SlickSlicer, Ma Chao (Mengqi), Pang Tong (Shiyuan), and Yuan Shu (Gonglu); and by Steven Trinkl, Sun Lang (Zaoan). In addition, Jiang Zhi wrote a new biography for Lady Sun (Sun Shangxiang) which is completely devoted to factual accuracy. I have left the older Lady Sun (Sun Shangxiang) biography online because it contains some unique details, but I have edited it to remove the factual errors.
Did you enjoy viewing and reading about Adrian’s Ancient Chinese Coins in the last update? You may have missed out on a very interesting addition which was originally mentioned in the replies for that update. Adrian has been kind enough to write a detailed guide on Buying Your Own Ancient Chinese Coins over the internet and through auction sites! A must if you wish to collect them.
Normally you wouldn’t have much use for a Japanese to English playguide for Destiny of an Emperor II thanks to Magic Destiny’s wonderful translation of the game, but what if you want to enjoy the excellent Wei and Wu patched versions? Unfortunately they haven’t been translated into English. But you are in luck. Not only has Samuel been kind enough to write walkthroughs for both versions, but he has also compiled a Japanese to English Translation Table of the various items, armor, weapons, tactics and menu commands that appear in the game! If you are a fan of Destiny of an Emperor and you haven’t tried these modified versions of Destiny of an Emperor II, give ’em a shot!
And some more fun new news on Destiny of an Emperor. Did you know that there was a Gameboy version as well? Maybe not. Like most of the others it was never released in English. About a month ago we devoted some time to reviving this old classic for everyone to enjoy today with three sections: a Destiny of an Emperor (Gameboy) Screenshots Collection, a Destiny of an Emperor (Gameboy) Japanese to English Playguide, and a Destiny of an Emperor (Gameboy) Quick-Start Guide (an act which would not have been possible without Niahak’s assistance). Rather than simply present a list of translations, all the important screens and game scenes have been demonstrated and explained visually, making it easier for you to hit the ground running. The quick-start guide also assists this process by taking you from the game’s start up until Guan Yu and Zhang Fei join your party. A collection of screenshots and maps help to guide you along your way. Niahak has also been working on a much more detailed walkthrough to take you further.
Several other things were planned for this update but you can probably see why they will be announced a short while later (and some of the work also remains to be done). We will be announcing some very interesting stuff which you might accidentally stumble across while browsing the site!
12/24/06 (James): Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!
Merry Christmas everyone! Happy Holidays! It is our hope that all of you are having a wonderful special day together with your family and loved ones—we certainly will be. When everything settles down we will have some new goodies to share, but for now, please enjoy, once again, Lady Wu’s Wuist Christmas Carols!
Oh, and if you haven’t downloaded all the music from our music downloads page, you will be pleased to learn that for today and tomorrow only the download-per-day limit has been raised from five to 20 songs. Check back again down the road for a newly featured soundtrack!
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