The Warship at New Yokosuka Harbor | Video

When Ryo explores New Yokosuka harbor in Amihama, he has a view of a battleship sitting across the harbor, but he isn't able to get a very good look at it.

The inclusion of this ship in the game, which has the designation "975" on its side, is historically accurate and is based on an actual ship that was stationed in Yokosuka around the timeframe of the game:

Using a hack to allow Ryo to walk outside the normal bounds, we take a walk over to the ship and inspect it up close as demonstrated in this video.

Ship model extracted from the game files:

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Walking Through Walls | Part One: Collision Detection in Shenmue

Today's topic was selected by the Phantom River Stone blog patrons via our monthly poll. If you'd like to have a say in what subjects we cover next, consider supporting us on Patreon!

The topic we'll be looking at today is about collision detection in Shenmue. The aim is to allow Ryo to "walk through walls" and roam around the landscape freely, without being constrained by the boundaries normally in place in the game.

The discussion will be divided into three parts:

• Part One (this post): some technical background of the knowledge contributed by Shenmue community members on the way collision data is stored in the Shenmue games, and a proposed approach for applying this to the Shenmue I & II re-releases.
• In Part Two, we will provide an easy-to-use file you can run to allow Ryo walk through walls for any area in Shenmue I (on PC). No technical expertise required!
• Part Three will introduce a tool for Shenmue II.

Note: although today's overview is somewhat technical, do not worry if you aren't able to follow everything; in the following posts of this series we will be providing a tool that takes care of all the necessary changes on behalf of the player.

Hacking & the Shenmue Community

The Shenmue fan community has a strong hacking / modding scene that goes back many years, right to the day the original games were released on the Dreamcast. This activity continues with vigor today, new graphic & sound mods appearing already for the recently-released PC (Steam) version of Shenmue I & II.

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Aerial View of Yamanose | Mods & Hacks

Looking down over Yamanose on a rainy day.

(This picture was taken using a hack for the PC version of Shenmue I that lets Ryo walk through walls - and in the air. We will be covering this hack soon on the blog).

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Ryo vs the Bus | Mods & Hacks

Ryo peers through the front window of the bus to get a view of the detailed interior. Advertisements for a motorbike and cigarettes can be seen on the walls. Ryo, you'll make the bus run late!

(These pictures were created using a hack for the PC version of Shenmue I that lets Ryo walk onto the roadway. We will be covering this hack on the blog in the near future).

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Poll Result: Patrons' Choice Topic for October

Every month Phantom River Stone holds a poll among our patrons to choose a topic for the blog in the coming month. The results are in for October, and the most highly-voted topic (including accumulated votes from previous months) was...

"The altar at the Hazuki Residence." During the game, Ryo vows before this altar to find his father's killer. We'll look at how such altars are a part of day-to-day life for many Japanese households.

We'll be releasing it on the blog later this month.

If you're interested in reading it early, check us out on Patreon - the $2 tier will get you early access as soon as its ready, plus access to all early-access posts for the month. Or participate in voting for a monthly blog topic at one of the higher tiers.

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"Shenmue Shorts" Weekly News Round-up for Patrons

This month we're trying to spread the word about some of the cool rewards we've got for prospective supporters over on our Patreon page, and here's the first!

Each week we publish an easy-to-digest news summary we call "Shenmue Shorts", covering the events, Kickstarter updates, industry community news of interest to Shenmue fans over the past 7 days. It's available to all our patrons, at any tier.

Check out the latest Shenmue Shorts below, and consider joining us as a patron if you'd like to help support the blog & stay up-to-date with Shenmue news!

• View a sample Shenmue Shorts (public access)

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2-Year Anniversary & October Patreon Challenge

Phantom River Stone has recently passed its 2 year anniversary!

As a kind of commemoration, we've set ourselves a fun challenge of reaching 50 Patreon supporters by Oct 31. At the end all patrons will go into a draw for a special Shenmue item.

If you'd like to help us get there, visit our Patreon page. And of course, thank you to our existing patrons for your support and helping to keep the blog running.

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Shenmue at TGS 2018 | Event Visit Report

On Saturday, September 22nd, I joined the flood of eager game fans attending the first Public Day of the 2018 Tokyo Game Show. Information about the event in the days leading up to it indicated an exciting amount of Shenmue-related content, including a panel discussion, SEGA merchandise including a new official Shenmue T-shirt, and a hands-on play area at the SEGA booth for Shenmue I & II. Yu Suzuki himself had even made a surprise on-stage appearance during the Business Days.

Here is a report on everything Shenmue I encountered on my visit.

Getting to the Event

The day that dawned was gray and drab, with the smell of possible rain in the air. The event venue, as usual, was in Chiba prefecture at the sprawling Makuhari Messe convention center, so my alarm clock was set even earlier than Ryo's usual waking time for departing on the hour-and-a-half train journey.

Upon arrival at the convention center's train station, kitted out in my vintage Shenmue T-shirt I joined the flow of passengers heading in a single direction - no need to consult a map!

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