Description:
The first RPG Maker not made by maker veterans ASCII, RPG Maker 2003 to most was RPG Maker 2000 with a few added features. When first announced the veteran RPG Maker users didn’t care a whole lot for its main features advertised by Enterbrain. The side-view battle system was already possible in RPG Maker 2000 using switches and variables; however it was time consuming to create and rarely used.  Even though the veteran RPG Maker user showed little interest the general RPG Maker users were excited about having a side-view battle system without having to spend hours creating one and not having to relearn how to use RPG Maker.  It was still unknown who would be translating RPG Maker 2003; rumors were floating around that Don Miguel was going to translate it and depending on the rumor release it under a different alias or send it to a close friend who would pass it along. Many RPG Maker users knew better then to believe those rumors but many thought they were true. It wasn’t until Don Miguel himself publicly stated he was not going to translate RPG Maker 2003 due to the legal fiasco he went through with RPG Maker 95 and RPG Maker 2000. With the release of RPG Maker 2003 no one had announced they were translating it and it didn’t look like there would be an English version. However the first known translation of RPG Maker 2003 surfaced translated by a group called Baka-Neko. They had released their translation shortly after the However once discovered many RPG Maker users downloaded it and news about their translation spread like wildfire. This wildfire effect however lead to the discontinued use of Baka-Neko’s translation by many RPG Maker users. Their translation contained spelling mistakes, translation mistakes and untranslated words making the program extremely difficult to use. The group had promised an update to address all these issues but they ended up discontinuing their translation instead. Shortly after a new translation surfaced translated by SoulFang and Alerith, their translation was vastly superior to Baka-Neko’s and became the default translation. With the release of version 1.04 a new translation appeared, this time translated by RPG Advocate. RPG Advocate had released his translation of version 1.04 while everyone was still waiting for SoulFang and Alerith to release theirs. Many users switched over and commented on the speed and quality of RPG Advocates translation. With the arrival of RPG Advocates translations users started arguing over which translation was superior, some sites even went as far as hosting only one of the translations and boycotting the other. However soon after SoulFang and Alerith released Version 1.04 they announced that they were going to stop translating RPG Maker 2003 which caused almost all the users of their version to switch over to RPG Advocates version. RPG Advocated remained the sol e translator translating up to version 1.08 which at the time was the last version. When version 1.09A was released RPG Advocate stated he would not translate it. A foreign translation group going by the name SomprasongK released Version 1.09A in English and while their intentions were good their translation wasn’t. Users of SomprasongK translation reported spelling mistakes as well as many instances of RPG Maker 2003 crashing.
Downloads:
RPG Maker 2003
Resources:
RPG Maker 2003 Resources
Tutorials:
RPG Maker 2003 Tutorials
Screenshots:
(Click on pictures below to see the full image.)

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Program Name: RPG Tsukuru 2003 (RPG Maker 2003) Nicknames: RPG2K3, RM2K3 Release Date: Japan: December 18th, 2002 Worldwide: Never Released Creator: Enterbrain Translators: Baka-Neko (1.00) SoulFang and Alerith (1.00-1.04) RPG Advocate (1.04-1.08) Current Version: 1.09A Current Translated Version: 1.08 System Requirements: OS: Windows 95/98/2000/ME/XP/Vista Processor: Pentium 200Mhz(Pentium II 450Mhz Recommended) Direct X: DirectX 8.1 or better Graphics: Resolution of 320x240 (800x600 recommended) 256 Bit Color Sound: Sound Blaster Compatible Memory: 32MB (64MB recommended) Hardrive: 50MB of free space(more recommended) Cdrom: 2x Speed or higher