Kongming’s Archives: Home

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12/25/06 (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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12/15/06 (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!

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10/30/06 (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.

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