ROM Hack Coropata revival! Maybe.

[Kionea]

This...

Using the dark powers of necromancy, I REVIVE THIS THREAD! At least for a minute to ask a question that probably won`t be answered.
Does anyone know what killed this? Obviously a snag was hit but what was it? Not to get anyone's hopes up but I`m interested in bringing this back, though I have very little experience in rom hacking so I`ve no clue how that`ll go. I have a fluent (but technologically impaired) translator though so if I can get the hacking itself done he could have the text translated in a matter days/weeks depending on how much time he has to work on it.

Essentially I`m just looking for any info as to what exactly I`m getting into. If it was some major problem that was so hard to fix it killed the project then I have no chance in hell, but if it was just lack of interest/time then we could definitely get it done.

...is what I posted in the other thread. Figured I`d make this one as a new starting point. Still haven`t heard back from my friend on his interest in it but he`s a guarantied "yes." Anything he can translate he will. Though his determination may wax and wane.

Now, some things I`m looking into-

(I`m new at this. Please bear with me.)

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Making tables!

Text dumping for the translators ease of translating!

Removing the text!

Reinserting the text!

The location of the text!

Where is the text at!

Seriously, I can`t find it please help!

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I`m not exactly sure how to find text. Not that I`m completely incompetent, I could figure it out with time, I just figure this would go faster if I had some guidance from someone more experienced than I.

Spoiler

EDIT: Would checking the hex values of the translated text in the v1 patch that the original guys put together yield any results? I`m just kinda at a loss as to how I`m gonna recognize a specific line when I see it.

Also, unless anyone has some contact with the original team (they seem to have moved on to greener pastures than gbatemp) this will have to be started over from scratch obviously. If anyone does by some chance know a method of contacting any of them, other than PMing and hoping they come back to read it, it would be gladly appreciated.


Original thread for reference: https://gbatemp.net/threads/coropata-translation.199481/


Here`s hoping it gets done this time huh?

 

[plasturion]

This game seems easy to translate at technical side without recompile. Since is declared as an open translation, so I tried to translate to english on my way, but english is not my native, i don't know japanese. I do it for fun and for learn both languages. My fellows are google, microsoft translators and rikaichan.

Tables are not necessary because is shift-js encoded.
I extracted text of game into two text files - original and partialy team translated.
Files are easy to translate in any texteditor. There are few simple rules to remember, so no need special tools.

Now is translated 100% items and it's description, but that still need correct and have to be placed back to the rom. Some of them tested and works nice.
There's others things to do...
- translate stage names and objectives
- side dialouges

To be honest I would like to know if this team, or someone else make any progress in this project and plan to finish, then I could save energy and translate this to my native language.

 

[Kionea]

Wow, I never expected a reply to this. Me and my friend have since be working on it on and off. We found all the item text and figured out how to edit the cutscenes. Honestly the only thing we need to do is start translating as we figured out all the technical stuff, we've just been busy with the school year starting. It's also not something we're super committed to spending time on but we'll probably get it done sooner or later. We're both a little low on the motivation side for things but interest in it gets sparked every once in a while.

Some stuff you may or may not have figured out that could help on your native side: There's a 32 character limit for each cutscene text box if I remember right, and the text bubbles have a cool thing where they auto resize themselves to fit the text so no graphical editing is necessary. I can't remember if that character limit is hard or not. I wanna say it was soft and you can go over it, but some of the text after won't show, but the game might just crash if you pass it so stay under 32 to be safe.

When you replace text in the arm9 and in cutscenes, only do it in a hex editor, don't copy and paste, and remember your line feeds and start/end of texts and start of headings. (You can find all those on ascii-code.com if you don't know them.) That messed us up a bit in the beginning. Also keep a check on your character widths.

Lastly, there was a problem we ran into concerning the letter H not showing up in item or mission text and I can't for the life of me remember how we fixed it or what the problem was. If you run into it tell me and I'll try to figure it out again. I think it had to do with character width and us using the wrong H as far as the hex code was concerned but it's been so long I can't remember. My friend might so tell me if you get stuck on it.


EDIT: Forgot to mention, I dunno if you already have something you're using, but the program I was using to edit was Tinke and I was unpacking and repacking the rom as well as making patches with DSBuff.

 

[plasturion]

Thanks a lot for an answer. .

Thanks for advice, I noticed before that editing text in side dialouge is quite nice becouse of auto expand text bubbles. Well, I'm using only Tinke right now. I wonder one thing - is the script file (ScriptXXX.dat) have to be lower size than original? I wonder if it have impact in later joining togheter. Maybe I'll edit that script later. I'm working on items and mission objectives now.

 

[Kionea]

You mean do the script files have to be any specific size? Not that I've found. I've completely removed text and added a crap load and it always works fine. I just can't edit it outside of a hex editor or it messes up the encoding and the game won't boot.

On a slightly related note that I just remembered, removing an entire text box of dialog in a script file won't have any adverse effects. The game just skips the box and keeps going with the cutscene. And you don't have to replace deleted text with 00's in the script files. You can just completely remove it. That probably has very limited uses, but it's interesting to note. Means you could theoretically remove all dialogue in the game and have cutscenes be nothing but animation.

 

[plasturion]

Sounds nice, so what next. I guess you guys want to make it finish. So I can leave it to you now and start to make a patch in my language.

 

[Kionea]

Definitely. You might get yours done before us though. We're gonna try to work on it more once winter break comes.

 

[plasturion]

I hope so, so good luck! I've updated 90% of items with built-in hexeditor in Tinke manually, that was something .
I see how much CrystalTile2 has better hexeditor, because of working Find... function, and good copy-paste.
But when I want correct anything, I have to write all description again.
Translating that way takes a lot of time and It's easy to mistake.

I'm thinking about make some useful tools for easier edit, or make some simple program that send textfile to the game. It would be really helpful. But I'm not sure that i want.. . It takes time too.
Just for now I have something like that...

 

[Kionea]

Nice. You're doing better with the arm9 text than we were. Took quite a while to get that down. If you make any tools I'd love to check em out. No pressure though.

 

[plasturion]

Thanks.
Sure thing. If I make some tools I'll let you know, but I like crystalTile2 so much. :]
I made a new font. It's nicer and thiner, so sometimes you can put few letters more into single line.

What do you think about this?

 

[Kionea]

It looks great. About how many extra characters can it allow?

 

[plasturion]

...ok this game is sick, project canceled.

 

[matt!]

Can I ask what you encountered to cancel the project?

 

[plasturion]

Moral rules. Humour of this game is kinda devious and I don't like. That's all.

 

[matt!]

OK, I understand. I'd be happy to resume your work if that's OK? If you could share files that would be great, otherwise I will start from scratch.

Looking forward to your reply!

 

[plasturion]

I've got only modified bin files translated to my native but i doubt that will be helpful, for some reason I can't share, sorry.

 

[matt!]

I've got only modified bin files translated to my native but i doubt that will be helpful, for some reason I can't share, sorry.

That's fine I figured out where the strings are and I've begun work. Test patch was successful, so will be looking for a translator this week.

 

[Kionea]

That's fine I figured out where the strings are and I've begun work. Test patch was successful, so will be looking for a translator this week.

Yo, it's been like 4 years since I started this thread. I kinda can't believe that. As you probably guessed we dropped the project. Not enough motivation and editing the arm9 was a pain in the ass. Also I know what plasturion meant with the humor. I don't mind it but it gets very sexual. Anyway, I was wondering if you ever made any progress? I'm not super interested in re-reviving the project, but I found out lukplus announced some sort of Coropata revival last year and though of this thread. Reminded me of times long gone so I thought I'd check in.

 

[matt!]

4 years!?! I set things up but then never started in earnest looking for a translator. Then we had our first baby, and then another baby a few years later, so I've had my hands full.

I'd still like to see this translated, less about the story and more so I can just enjoy playing the game to the end.

 

[Kionea]

Same h

4 years!?! I set things up but then never started in earnest looking for a translator. Then we had our first baby, and then another baby a few years later, so I've had my hands full.

I'd still like to see this translated, less about the story and more so I can just enjoy playing the game to the end.

Same here. It gets pretty difficult and and I can't help but feel it's because I don't know what items do.