Thanks for the reply. I will do what I can to get this done an out. I can sit beside someone and chat them through the game but to translate it and modify the ROM takes exponentially longer.
Thanks for the Tsukkomu and Boketemiru explanation. I figured it was based on the Tsuukomi comedy routine but couldn't quite figure how to work that into menu options for an adventure game. I'm also limited to about 8 characters so even though they are both variants on what would be "Ask" or "Inquire" they are different in the methods/wording used.
Even though it wouldn't be a correct translation par se, I've been wondering if "Inquire" and "Chat" would work in the context of the game. "Inquire" can be the 'serious' inquiry about something and "Chat" can just be some water-cooler talk or on-the-fly comment made about something.
I'm not totally against mucking up the vocab a little bit considering the space restrictions and the fact that is just how it was done in the earlier days anyway. With Infocom games, even though they were text-only (and there was a lot of it) the commands tended to be very simple and short, with short words and abbreviations/codes used in place of longer words for brevity and speed.
Back to this game, I think if I can match up the tiles, I can recreate some of the graphics from the first game in this one. For example, recreating the infamous title screenshot from the other translation group at the beginning of the year. If the menu options are there too that would make things a lot easier.
I'm still looking for the opening star-wars scroll text, though.
And finally, I'm happy to have such positive support with this. I am very busy with work and home but I have been working through the translation of the text and I do have a few holidays coming up.
If anyone wishes to help then I accept it, but I think first I need to sort through what I can do easily myself and what I will truly need help with (probably the graphics substitution)
EDIT> Hmm, I think that might work for the main interface, but I'm running into the 8 character limit on many of the nouns and have to improvise. Should I be able to use a smaller font for those menu options? Also, now that I think about it, I wonder if "Act dumb" in place of "Chat" would work better...
The next problem with the adventure game(s) is that even though all of the selectable options and nouns are viewable in the editor, I can't find the game script anywhere.
On the plus side I was able to make room for more text in the Challenges screen
On the negative side, however, I learned the hard way the font used in Guadia Quest has no English characters whatsoever. I'm not sure if it is as simple (it never is) as substituting it for a font that has Roman characters or what but I can't even input English characters into that mini game as it is now.