ROM Hack Delving into Iron Master: The Legendary Blacksmith

[Gryphon93]

The names for locations, towns and cities are in the database files. I've documented almost all of the files in the game with text in them, but you'll need to edit them by hand for now (if not de1ta0ne has created a tool for the various database files already). I haven't had time to put one together myself, but doing so shouldn't take too much time, since the process is pretty straight forward.

 

[Regin]

Thanks man.
If only i knew how to do things you do, I'd have a go at translating Rahxephon and evangelion on ps2

 

[Gryphon93]

I can try to get the documentation up somewhere as soon as I can, if you want to. As I said, it is not 100% complete and I don't know if everything makes sense. Sometimes I give a temporary name for something which I know exactly what it means, but it may not be as obvious for others. Anyways, I can try to upload it somewhere sometime soon. Maybe tomorrow, since I need to get some sleep right now.

 

[Regin]

Thanks a lot that would be a great help, Cheers

 

[Gryphon93]

I've uploaded the documentation to a directory in my Copy storage. I don't know if this is the most recent documentation of the formats, but they should get you going anyways. Most of the database files are very similar. They use the same basic format, but some extend it a bit for more specific information. As I mentioned earlier, the documents are not complete and some even contain question marks in places where I'm not 100% sure if the information is correct. You can ignore the question marks in most cases, since I'm pretty sure most of my guesses are good enough.

I'll try to look again if I can find any other document I've created with more details on some of the database formats. I've a feeling I had documented some of them more thoroughly, but maybe I never wrote that down...

Anyways, here is the link: https://copy.com/FHU9kJDEI8J3bQ0z

(EDIT: If someone has a problem with me sharing my documentation, please tell me and I'll remove the link)

 

[Ascarin]

um hello i don't like to do this but the last bit of info on this thread is 4 months old so i'm going to ask how the project is going? And god i hope this succeeds

 

[Gryphon93]

um hello i don't like to do this but the last bit of info on this thread is 4 months old so i'm going to ask how the project is going? And god i hope this succeeds

It's doing quite fine from my perspective. I haven't worked on it for quite some time because I've been busy with university. That doesn't mean that I've quit the project though.

I've begun working on an alternative way of presenting the text for those that want to translate the game. This applies to the dlgcmd-tool. I'm thinking of using Markdown as an alternative to JSON (which is the only format which my tool currently supports). There is still some work to be done before I'm finished with the update, but it will hopefully make it easier for whoever wants to translate the game in the end.

Just to be clear, I haven't decided when I will finish the update, but I hope to get it done soon enough.

 

[Skif]

Hello! I didn't wait for the translation of game with Japanese and started playing. Search of options I understood game a little, but got stuck unfortunately - one quest isn't carried out. Still I can hope for the game translation? There is a strong wish to continue to play it again and again!

 

[Regin]

Hello! I didn't wait for the translation of game with Japanese and started playing. Search of options I understood game a little, but got stuck unfortunately - one quest isn't carried out. Still I can hope for the game translation? There is a strong wish to continue to play it again and again!

I know how you feel skif.

I picked up translating the game a while back (thanks to Gryphon and De1taOnes excellent tools) but work just kept getting in the way till i eventually stopped. during these Xmas holidays i have started again (from square one unfortunately) and have translated up to the "guild quest tutorial" to the buffalo farm. many of the mercenary lines and various top screen text has been translated into compensable text but there's a lot more left.
If i had to guess i am about 10% or so done... didn't think it would take long when i started, although when comparing various translations from the original Japanese and rewriting to make sense and continually trial testing it all adds up.
(Although notepad++ has helped a lot with bookmarking translated lines as i go to keep track, easy comparing between machine translated and Japanese text and repeating text replace)

I'll post what i have now but it would only make sense till the "hire a mercenary form the guild" part, after that its just machine translation which is hit & wide miss.

The problems i'm facing at the moment:

I am having a problem regarding my R4-SDHC card, is anyone able to save when playing even the original on the DS with a card like r4, r4i, ect?.
i thought it might be an issue with the edited game but i run tests through an emulator alot and its fine, I've patched with Arm7 to see if that works and i eventually tried an original japanese copy and nothing. it says in game that it's saving and when i reload... nothing, start a new game.
(when playing on the R4 when it will make a save file if none is present and all other games save correctly)

Market tutorial:
I noticed while running through the market tutorial you require Leather to make a Dirk(dagger) and you are forced to by iron instead. not sure if anyone else has this issue, maybe i messed with something.

Names, places, ect:
still having issues locating npc names, city names, ect. not an important issue since id rather focus on dialogue and story first.

 

[Gryphon93]

Nice work Regin! I might be able to use this for improving my tools!

By the way, the NPCs names, city names, etc. are located in the games database files, which can be found in the "db" directory. I have documented most of the database files there, but I haven't written a tool for them yet. They have similar formats, but not completely. Though writing a tool for editing them would be quite easy. I just haven't done it yet.

One of the things that have held me back from continuing working on the game is the lack of translation. It helps a lot when I know what I'm pressing in the game whilst reverse engineering the different formats. I haven't abandoned the project, but I know it has been "freezed" for quite some time. That is also because of real life matters, which, of course, are more important than working on a fun project.

I can say that one of my next steps in this project would probably be to simplify the format outputted by the dlgcmd tool. I would like to work with something similar to Markdown instead of JSON. That would probably make it easier for people to pick it up. JSON was intended for some kind of frontend anyways, but since I probably won't get around writing a frontend myself, I'm better of implementing a simpler format for editing directly.

Before I end I will say that I can't give any promises when the next update of any tools will come. I hope I will get around to it soon though.

 

[Marfam]

Nice work Regin! I might be able to use this for improving my tools!

By the way, the NPCs names, city names, etc. are located in the games database files, which can be found in the "db" directory. I have documented most of the database files there, but I haven't written a tool for them yet. They have similar formats, but not completely. Though writing a tool for editing them would be quite easy. I just haven't done it yet.

One of the things that have held me back from continuing working on the game is the lack of translation. It helps a lot when I know what I'm pressing in the game whilst reverse engineering the different formats. I haven't abandoned the project, but I know it has been "freezed" for quite some time. That is also because of real life matters, which, of course, are more important than working on a fun project.

I can say that one of my next steps in this project would probably be to simplify the format outputted by the dlgcmd tool. I would like to work with something similar to Markdown instead of JSON. That would probably make it easier for people to pick it up. JSON was intended for some kind of frontend anyways, but since I probably won't get around writing a frontend myself, I'm better of implementing a simpler format for editing directly.

Before I end I will say that I can't give any promises when the next update of any tools will come. I hope I will get around to it soon though.

Man I really appreciate the efforts of all people helping to translate this game, I'm not acquainted with japanese, so it would fit perfectly well a stable translation, Really appreciate,

 

[retrogamefan]

I am having a problem regarding my R4-SDHC card, is anyone able to save when playing even the original on the DS with a card like r4, r4i, ect?.
i thought it might be an issue with the edited game but i run tests through an emulator alot and its fine, I've patched with Arm7 to see if that works and i eventually tried an original japanese copy and nothing. it says in game that it's saving and when i reload... nothing, start a new game.
(when playing on the R4 when it will make a save file if none is present and all other games save correctly)

That is part of the AP kicking in on your cart, not being able to save/load save properly. Tested on my DSTT with my updates and the (J) rom works fine.
What is the website that is written on the front of your R4-SDHC?

 

[GrandMasterJ]

wait is this still alive...and if its not
is there any other game out there like this one

I still haven't been able to find one like this...hmmm guess I should try harder

 

[Gryphon93]

Well, for me personally, my project isn't dead. That is, the tools I've been developing and distributed versions of here are still under development. However, I'm not spending as much time on projects like this one anymore since I got myself a new job. I think I've stated this earlier in this thread, but I will say it again. I have mostly been reverse engineering the different formats in the game and not been working on the tools directly. It's a bit hard to do some of the reverse engineering when the game is in Japanese, since I don't always know where I should expect to see changes when I do one (in the game data).

I would also like to reiterate that I'm not responsible of any of the translations that various people have been working on. All credits go to them and their work. I don't feel like the tools are really ready to start a proper translation and I don't know if I'm the right man to handle the job (as a project leader that is). When I've done some more reverse engineering I'll most likely start rewriting the old tools to make them work better and be easier to use. I want to abandon the JSON-format; if not entierly then at least for the most part. I also want to remove the dependency of Ruby, since not everyone are comfortable with setting up the environment.

So, that's it for now from my perspective. I would love to see a proper translation of this game, since I started the project because I want to play the game myself. Hopefully I will be able to do so one day, in one way or another.

 

[GrandMasterJ]

yep can't wait for that day to come....heck I might just learn Japanese to play the game

 

[Dryon]

I'd like to thanks the people who made this translation, it's one the best unknown game I discovered. Even though my last play got softlock after some scroll was shown on the screen and no button to exit it (probably because english text in too long to fit in the scroll as it continues downward, the buttons might be offscreen).

EDIT 09.03.21: Alright, I will be working to make a proper (playable) translation without any japanese/korean knowledge. Starting from the first translation and work of Regin, I'll try to progress through the game at the same time, to get proper context of each text to translate. Also, I have little to no knowledge on coding, so if anyone is willing to create the tools missing to get the Town, NPC, Monsters, etc. database, based on what has already been done for Items database, it'll allow me to work on these too !
EDIT 2: ofc it takes time and I work on this from time to time but don't wait on anything

 

[Unbounnded]

Well, for me personally, my project isn't dead. That is, the tools I've been developing and distributed versions of here are still under development. However, I'm not spending as much time on projects like this one anymore since I got myself a new job. I think I've stated this earlier in this thread, but I will say it again. I have mostly been reverse engineering the different formats in the game and not been working on the tools directly. It's a bit hard to do some of the reverse engineering when the game is in Japanese, since I don't always know where I should expect to see changes when I do one (in the game data).

I would also like to reiterate that I'm not responsible of any of the translations that various people have been working on. All credits go to them and their work. I don't feel like the tools are really ready to start a proper translation and I don't know if I'm the right man to handle the job (as a project leader that is). When I've done some more reverse engineering I'll most likely start rewriting the old tools to make them work better and be easier to use. I want to abandon the JSON-format; if not entierly then at least for the most part. I also want to remove the dependency of Ruby, since not everyone are comfortable with setting up the environment.

So, that's it for now from my perspective. I would love to see a proper translation of this game, since I started the project because I want to play the game myself. Hopefully I will be able to do so one day, in one way or another.

Post automatically merged: Jun 14, 2023

Hello, I know that many years have passed but will you resume the translation project? I've been wanting to play it together with Shining Force Feather for many years...

 

[Unbounnded]

Well, for me personally, my project isn't dead. That is, the tools I've been developing and distributed versions of here are still under development. However, I'm not spending as much time on projects like this one anymore since I got myself a new job. I think I've stated this earlier in this thread, but I will say it again. I have mostly been reverse engineering the different formats in the game and not been working on the tools directly. It's a bit hard to do some of the reverse engineering when the game is in Japanese, since I don't always know where I should expect to see changes when I do one (in the game data).

I would also like to reiterate that I'm not responsible of any of the translations that various people have been working on. All credits go to them and their work. I don't feel like the tools are really ready to start a proper translation and I don't know if I'm the right man to handle the job (as a project leader that is). When I've done some more reverse engineering I'll most likely start rewriting the old tools to make them work better and be easier to use. I want to abandon the JSON-format; if not entierly then at least for the most part. I also want to remove the dependency of Ruby, since not everyone are comfortable with setting up the environment.

So, that's it for now from my perspective. I would love to see a proper translation of this game, since I started the project because I want to play the game myself. Hopefully I will be able to do so one day, in one way or another.

are you still here?

 

[HextarVigar]

are you still here?

It took me seconds to look at his page and note that he hasn't been here for five and a half years.

Please tell why you aren't this smart.

 

[Unbounnded]

It took me seconds to look at his page and note that he hasn't been here for five and a half years.

Please tell why you aren't this smart.

I'm new here