ROM Hack Game Center CX : Arino no Chosenjo 2 (New Start?)

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Quick update. I'll try to put up some pics and such when I have more of this fixed and not looking like a half-broken mess on-screen.

Okay, I'm still messing with everything but having the items and magic names (and later skill names) in double byte characters seemed to fix the earlier problem. The descriptions can still be half-width, though.

Unrelated, I tried out those in-game menu files from SubnetPie and they seemed to work fine. (Nothing crashed). There is just that one label for the "Instruction" page for games in the shop and all is well on that front. There are menus and shortcut icons you can get to while playing a mini-game but that can come later (you can activate the bottom screen and bring up a manual, for instance, though that isn't a standard menu; options come out of the side of the screen). Hmm, I need to ask you (SubnetPie) how you did that later when I have a moment; it might be useful for a few other parts of the game.


Back to the RPG, I also now notice I have to edit a few hundred opr_itm... opr_mgc... files since there is a different file with phrases related to using each item and casting each spell in different places at different points in the game. It shouldn't take long but it is pretty annoying to have to deal with so many tiny files all over the place.

That's about it. Everything is coming together nicely except for that odd bug of some items having the wrong description. I remember the Adventure games sometimes had a rare bug where the wrong speaker was displayed in the dialogue. There was no reason for it as it was a straight text substitution but it was something I had to fix while testing anyway :/

So yeah...anyway, it is amusing the RPG actually doesn't have so much text overall but it is scattered in a billion places which makes editing it all and lining it up incredibly tedious. The Adventure games had a mountain of text but at least the dialogue was kept somewhat together in blocks of similar files.

I see the 3rd RGC game is out on the 20th here. I can't finish the whole RGC2 game by then but hopefully I'll have more to show off by then. (I can just see Tiny Cartridge announcing it and then wanting to say something about this project as a side note)

 

[MarkDarkness]

Slightly OT, but since you mentioned the 3rd game Aaron, from what I've seen so far it's not looking as hot as the first two... for some reason indieszero was let go from the development of the title, and it shows (though Arino does seem still really friendly towards them from an episode I watched recently). If it's awesome for some reason, do tell us, because it's not looking the part.

 

[SubnetPie]

Updated game selection menu in the shop to include "Instructions":
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1833969/GCCX2/gs_shop_menu.NCGR

Also updated the "Times Played":
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1833969/GCCX2/gs_room_bar.NCGR

Started to play with game names but the English versions of the game names don't fit into the NCGR the way it is now very well. I'm researching how the length is coded into the NCER to see if I can adjust the lengths. This issue is seen in the last two screen shots.

Aaron, I've never worked on translation before but finished Retro Game Challenge, then discovered the TV show, and this project. I've been lurking for a while but thought I would try to help out. I'm learning and hacking at using CrystalTile2, Tinke, etc. to figure stuff out. Here is a short answer of what I have been doing to get the menus to work:

1. In CT2 load GCCX2 rom image.
2. Go into NDS file system in directory mode.
3. Find desired NCGR to edit under Tile view.
4. Find the palette through trial and error. I found under the palette tab that I can select the page and then since text usually uses 16 colors I can select a row by clicking on it and hunt for the correct 16 color palette.
5. Right click on the tile image and export as a .png.
6. Load the exported .png into Photoshop and index to ensure no color shift.
7. Edit image and save over exported .png.
8. In CT2 right click and import the edited .png over top.
9. Press enter to commit the changes to the file.
10. Test in DeSmuME.

This works for replacement but not for completely reworking the images sizes, palettes, and such. This is the issue I am experiencing with the game names. I will share if I figure out how to edit image sizes.

 

[Pix3l]

This looks cool!

Try to add the localized cartridge image for Koume, please

This is the "translated" version of Koume cartridge, I hope to do even more

 

[SubnetPie]

Updated "Completed" ribbon for in room game selection:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1833969/GCCX2/gs_room_clear.NCGR

Updated "Game Master Arino's Challenge" window from Retro Game Challenge artwork for in room game selection:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1833969/GCCX2/gs_room_try.NCGR

Updated "Haggleman" with localized artwork:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1833969/GCCX2/gs_shop_soft_haguru.NCGR

Updated "Toriotos DX" with localized artwork:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1833969/GCCX2/gs_shop_soft_toriotosdx.NCGR

Awesome artwork Pix3l. It looks great in game. I will add more cartridge art as it comes.

For some reason the shop stopped loading for me. Hold off on applying this last batch to be safe. I will update when I can confirm these updates are safe.

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

In that last image, where it says "Robot Ninja Haggle"... Maybe just put "Haggleman", since we all know what the game is and it's likely that most people in-game will call it Haggleman anyway.

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

MarkDarkness> I actually saw it on shelves today but I won't be able to buy it until tomorrow (they wouldn't sell it to me a day early). The box art made it look like the games themselves might actually be all right (one looked like a dead ringer for Final Fantasy 4; another reminded me of the old game&watch series) but the art style and tone of the main game, especially the characters and layout looked a lot more cartoony and it lost the nostalgic feeling of playing games in that era; like it was just random goofy character art of them playing games instead of trying to recreate the period. I'll see when I pick it up.

Okay, it's past midnight, I'm tired. I'm going to just dump a bunch of random images to show how the substitution of a jillion files is going. This is in no particular order; actually probably reverse order:

Also, I noticed the game select screen is different only for one specific game (Arino's set of challenges; covers 4 different games). It probably just needs to be handled separately. The other menus are all in English (SubnetPie> The latest game shop menu file doesn't seem to have "Instructions" Did you link the right one? Am I Are Error?)

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

Ooh! Those screens look amazing! I cannot wait for the patch to get finished.

Also, I just noticed...would it be possible to cut the "Koume Version" art (both the girl, the medal, and the text) out of the Japanese Haggleman art and put it on the English version's art? I get distracted by the Japanese characters every time I look at a screenshot with the game cartridge on it.

 

[SubnetPie]

Fixed the Japanese characters showing in the upper left.

Here is a great article regarding the Koume Version and Haggle Man in general:
http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8980433

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

MarkDarkness and everyone> I picked up the 3rd Retro Game Challenge today. It's the special edition with the DVD and some other stuff. I'll write a bit more about it after I play it a bit, but not too much, because this 2nd game isn't finished quite yet.

Edit> I'm not going to go off too much on a tangent but although I think the quality of the mini-games is still just as good from the little I've seen, the rest of the game and the interface leave a lot to be desired. In addition to having a map of places you can go to play games (one per location, at least at the beginning), the challenges aren't given in the same way as the previous games. The challenges are included as part of the dialogue with others. Yes, you can check the conditions to pass the challenge after all is said and done but there is no "Challenge" screen announcing what you have to do.

Maybe I'll get used to it and/or it gets better but that in combination with the new art style which just seems a bit out of place, I'm not too sure on this one yet. It's titled "San-chome" which is literally akin to 3rd street but it references a couple of movies and books about "san-chome" which was a recreation/revisit to simpler times. Some people really find that nostalgic but for this game I think it shifted its focus to nostalgia for games in the scope of how they played out in Japan for some people instead of general "games through the ages". As such I don't think it captures the same universal nostalgia the first two did but hey, I'm a good sport so I'll keep going with this as I have time

/me goes back to do more of the RPG text.

 

[MarkDarkness]

MarkDarkness and everyone> I picked up the 3rd Retro Game Challenge today. It's the special edition with the DVD and some other stuff. I'll write a bit more about it after I play it a bit, but not too much, because this 2nd game isn't finished quite yet.

Edit> I'm not going to go off too much on a tangent but although I think the quality of the mini-games is still just as good from the little I've seen, the rest of the game and the interface leave a lot to be desired. In addition to having a map of places you can go to play games (one per location, at least at the beginning), the challenges aren't given in the same way as the previous games. The challenges are included as part of the dialogue with others. Yes, you can check the conditions to pass the challenge after all is said and done but there is no "Challenge" screen announcing what you have to do.

Maybe I'll get used to it and/or it gets better but that in combination with the new art style which just seems a bit out of place, I'm not too sure on this one yet. It's titled "San-chome" which is literally akin to 3rd street but it references a couple of movies and books about "san-chome" which was a recreation/revisit to simpler times. Some people really find that nostalgic but for this game I think it shifted its focus to nostalgia for games in the scope of how they played out in Japan for some people instead of general "games through the ages". As such I don't think it captures the same universal nostalgia the first two did but hey, I'm a good sport so I'll keep going with this as I have time

/me goes back to do more of the RPG text.

Great to read a review from the man himself!

But seriously, you confirmed pretty much all the fears that I had about this game after seeing its development vignettes in the show. It also seems that most of the ideas that came from Arino this time around were kind of... strange, I guess.

At least now we don't have to go crazy over the third game, since who knows how long until a 3DS translation is a feasible thing... though that's really milking a good point out of this situation.

 

[SubnetPie]

Here is a work in progress based on art from Pix3l.

I believe the letters in the upper left hand corner of the envelope translate to "Further". The text in the lower right is the "Game Master Arino's" text.

I feel if we could get a fire effect "Further" added then Arino's challenges would be complete.

 

[Pix3l]

Wow D: This looks cool!

 

[Celice]

Wish I could do something to help out, but man, everyone helping--you're all a bunch of awesome.

I just came across this NES-lovemix WiiWare title, called Pole's Big Adventure:



It's not the same kind of greatness that is Game Center CX, but it also is a late 80s-era mashup of jokes and gameplay tropes from the NES era. Anyone who's a fan of this stuff should definitely give it a try

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Okay, here is what happening on my end now (half past midnight).

I gave Subnetpie access to the file repository so he can more quickly mess with/update the graphics.

Also, I now have all of Kikuchiyo's text in the RPG (though some of it needs some work; I fixed some of it but there are a few ambiguous lines in there that I don't think I can guess without context). This will all have to be tested anyway, though. I'll just make sure it all converts properly again through the conversion tool before bed...for sanity's sake.

And I have about half of the "Heaven..." files for the RPG done which should cover most of the overworld and town dialogue but I'm not positive on that yet.

So, I think after a bit more graphical work in the main game room/shop (and things like the Cleared screen and game release screens...and that Game Training Tool intro screen) and finishing off the RPG, that should complete the whole game...or at least the first pass through everything in English. I know there are many parts that still have text running over the window border or are otherwise too long, etc. but at least that should be a much quicker process than the initial translation of everything.

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

Hmm...maybe play the whole RPG through with your rough translation until you find the ambiguous lines. That might take quite a while, however...

I'm always up for helping with translations, though. I may not know much Japanese (あなたは、リーダーは、敗者である。わたしは笑ったにヒナワの死。....Is that right? I'm not sure? I googled a few of the words to get the characters I didn't know and I hope I remembered the grammar right. I'm not sure what it's supposed to say anymore), but I know English pretty well.

 

[Fishaman P]

Hmm...maybe play the whole RPG through with your rough translation until you find the ambiguous lines. That might take quite a while, however...

Isn't that exactly what the testers are for?

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Well, much like the Adventure games, the dialogue is out of order in the files and I'm not sure of the context in many cases. Some of it fits together quite easily but I'm not sure who the speaker or subject is in some cases.

Okay, I'm almost finished with all the "Heaven..." files and Kikuchiyo is still plowing through the dungeon files I believe. There are a bunch of other files prefixed with "earth" that I *think* are also used in the game convering up to the end of the 4 challenges...It isn't too long, however.

I was saying earlier to myself I wonder where I went wrong in life once I realized I translated a whole page that read like it was from a talking duck and then realized there actually is a talking duck.

...anyway, once I have a few more of these files working in the game I'll take some more screenshots but based on what I have done earlier you probably wouldn't be too surprised how it looks. The one thing I do need to do sometime is the mess of Guadia skills. I think I have them figured out but there are a lot of them.


MarkDarkness> I played through the 3rd Arino game some more, too. Yeah...I wish they kept the interface from the first 2 games, actually. I can see where they were trying to go, having you talk to your friends from school and around town to "find out the secrets" about the latest game or having to take your broken console to the electronics store to get it fixed or find some weird game in some amusement corner of a mall, etc. but for me it distracts me from the games, and the fact you don't have access to all of the games in any one place (in the main game) is a bit annoying. The games are all right, though I think they were starting to draw upon more and more obscure games for their inspiration. The first one is a mix of Mario Bros. (the original) and Lode Runner (sloppy controls included), but then you get some weird hybrids like Speedball 2 + horizontal Arkanoid (Break out). For what it is worth the games are fun, but I just wish they were "packaged" better in the game. I guess other than the interface the one thing I do not like though is the Mii look (and movement) to all the characters. It just seems out of place in-game, and I was never a fan of the Mii look/feel anyway.

Celice> Have you ever heard of TV Game Exam? (ぼくらのテレビゲーム検定 - http://tvgame-kentei.namco-ch.net/ )

It's a collection of mini-games as well. The interface felt a bit sluggish but it is the same sort of idea. I was actually interested in translating that since there isn't anywhere near the sheer amount of text this GCCX2 game has. I've never honestly took a look at the innards of the ROM image, though.

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

Celice> Have you ever heard of TV Game Exam? (ぼくらのテレビゲーム検定 - http://tvgame-kentei.namco-ch.net/ )

It's a collection of mini-games as well. The interface felt a bit sluggish but it is the same sort of idea. I was actually interested in translating that since there isn't anywhere near the sheer amount of text this GCCX2 game has. I've never honestly took a look at the innards of the ROM image, though.

Is that Retro Game Challenge with actual legit games that were actually released? Oh man oh man, it looks so good.

 

[cubeboy]

Celice> Have you ever heard of TV Game Exam? (ぼくらのテレビゲーム検定 - http://tvgame-kentei.namco-ch.net/ )

It's a collection of mini-games as well. The interface felt a bit sluggish but it is the same sort of idea. I was actually interested in translating that since there isn't anywhere near the sheer amount of text this GCCX2 game has. I've never honestly took a look at the innards of the ROM image, though.

This looks like fun, do you know how playable this is if you don't know how to read any Japanese?