Bare Knuckle 3 was the third entry in Sega's star beat'em up series Bare Knuckle, which we know here in the States as Streets of Rage. While Bare Knuckle 3 was released Stateside (as Streets of Rage 3), Sega of America thought it was a good idea to remove large portions of the story. What they didn't remove, they rewrote or altered in some other fashion leaving you with a plot that has more holes in it than fine swiss cheese. Perhaps the only thing that Streets of Rage 3 has over its Japanese counterpart is being insanely more difficult. If you like it rough, that is.

The goal of this project is two fold. First, to rectify Sega's shortcomings and create a quality translation of Bare Knuckle 3 that is faithful to the source material and doesn't remove any of the plot. Second, for me to gain experience with the Sega Genesis.

Hacking-wise, this is my first foray into the world of Sega and it has proven much more difficult than I originally thought. As those of you who have followed along since the project's inception know, I initially planned to only do a simple 16x16 to 8x16 font hack. I eventually scrapped that idea in favor of a VWF, which required tools that did not exist. Days quickly turned into weeks, weeks into months and finally now more than a year later, the necessary tools exist.

As this project was originally started some two years ago, my skill has improved quite a bit since then. The notes I compiled at the project's beginning have proven to be marred with that disgusting ailment known only as newbiness. Line breaks and other forms of formatting are hardcoded and I simply didn't fully understand that when this project began. However, work has begun in earnest and as of this writing (February 2008), progress is being made.

The script has been translated (for the most part) by Anton Berglin, but I'm not sure how much additional work on the script will be required. With a little luck every thing should come together in the near future. Be sure to check the main page or the blog for future updates.

NOTE: The below screenshots are in no way an indication of the final patch. I'm aware the script is in need of some editing and polishing and that will be taken care. These screenshots are here only to demonstrate progress of the hacking.