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

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Well, if you are offering I think there is work I can find for you. Zach was going to work on the GFX in the Adventure game once I put those in a useful format for him but there are other things to do.

The release date screens all need to be done but I'm not sure on if they are a full screen image or if each number is a piece mapped to make the full screen. Can you work with image maps or are you more interested in just drawing up new graphics? There are also images in the magazines and manuals that could be done but I'm not sure if Zack is already working on it. I do need the menus done sometime but they can wait if nobody wants to mess with OAM data right now.

The menus in the RPG are all graphics but that will take a bunch of work to get those done so that can also come later.


Oh, unrelated but before I forget I have the extracted text from the Adventure games and it is awaiting translation. I could start it myself but I figured I should check to see of any Game Center CX fans can help. The game is packed with references to the series and characters so someone who can catch all the references might have an easier time with this.


EDIT> It seems the Magazines and Manuals need some more work so I'm doing that right now. I've also tried substituting strings in the Adventure game and had some success on my own. Some of the control codes are still a bit confusing but I have been able to work around them.

 

[KRiFFiD]

Hey Aaron great work on getting this project up and going again - I know translation takes a LOT of time and the help is an asset. If you would like, I could do some translation. I'm a HUGE fan of GCCX and know the references. My Japanese is intermediate and I have played the first game in complete Japanese so I have faith in my abilities (and the references). I just happened to Google for a translation patch for this game and ran across this board so I joined just to see if I could help because I LOVE the series!

**UPDATE**

I thought I'd throw some more info in: I'm not new to romhacking and I have experience with text editing/making table files but the pointer tables I have just rudimentary knowledge about - especially when dealing with the DS. Anywho, if you want me to translate some text just send me a file with the extracted text and I'll give it a go or PM me, I'm guessing Aaron is distributing the text to translate?

 

[Fishaman P]

Sorry I've been gone so long. I subscribed to this thread so I could pop in whenever anyone posted. I guess the site just decided to stop sending me notices.

Anyway, what KRiFFiD said. Played through the original 3 times. The only references I wouldn't get would be some of Guadia Quest's late game and most of Haggleman 3. Seriously, Haggleman 3 sucked.

tl;dr consider me KRiFFiD * 0.7. If there's a LOT of text to translate, just dump some on me, preferably by PM.

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Okay, I'll pass around some files throughout the day as I get time (I'm in and out today with work)

What I will need help on is debugging to get it to work on a real DS properly. It used to work fine but I think some of the graphical changes might have made it mess up in later revisions or something odd is happening when I rebuild my image.

I'm working on the magazines and manuals to finish it off. I don't mind but I know a few others find it less than interesting so I'll do the grunt work.

Fishaman> I'll send you some stuff a bit later

To everyone else, remember that even though pretty much all of the Arino dialogue is done, it still has to be inserted into the game. When I finish more of the dialogue and perhaps the manuals and magazines in-game I might make another video. The RPG and Adventure make up new territory now. Nobody has done this or read through it all so this might take a bit to get through.

 

[Fishaman P]

I have a DS flashcart, though I assume many people here have one too. I don't think I can debug with it, obviously.

Have you tried running the translation through DasShiny? I don't know about its accuracy at this point, but it's worth a shot.
Oh, and No$GBA just for completeness.

 

[KRiFFiD]

Okay, I'll pass around some files throughout the day as I get time (I'm in and out today with work)

What I will need help on is debugging to get it to work on a real DS properly. It used to work fine but I think some of the graphical changes might have made it mess up in later revisions or something odd is happening when I rebuild my image.

I'm working on the magazines and manuals to finish it off. I don't mind but I know a few others find it less than interesting so I'll do the grunt work.

Fishaman> I'll send you some stuff a bit later

To everyone else, remember that even though pretty much all of the Arino dialogue is done, it still has to be inserted into the game. When I finish more of the dialogue and perhaps the manuals and magazines in-game I might make another video. The RPG and Adventure make up new territory now. Nobody has done this or read through it all so this might take a bit to get through.

Aaron,

This just came as a revelation to me but I can't believe I just now realized who you were....THE AARON IN JAPAN. I knew you looked familiar in your avatar but I couldn't place the name. I used to play DDR religiously and watched your videos all the time until I injured my ACL back in grad school (5 years ago) so I never had surgery due to tuition expenses...anyways it's nice to talk to the man himself . FYI - I started visiting your webpage back in it's infancy even before DDR really caught on in America! I look forward to working with you on the translation and I'll help with the "grunt" work - I love translation; just wish that I could make it into a career someday.

 

[KRiFFiD]

I have a DS flashcart, though I assume many people here have one too. I don't think I can debug with it, obviously.

Have you tried running the translation through DasShiny? I don't know about its accuracy at this point, but it's worth a shot.
Oh, and No$GBA just for completeness.

Well I personally wouldn't try debugging anything without being right on my computer and running it with DeSMume - not to mention it has some fantastic tools included to mess around with the rom. I own an R4 clone (souped up with latest YSMenu so it'll run almost anything..including the Gyakuten Kenji 2 beta12 patch...which btw is a KICK@$$ translation/game!!) and a EZFlashV+ with 3-in-1 expansion. Did Aaron release a beta patch to the community yet? I would definitely try it out and the beta patch would help with translation because I'm having to take the XML docs and look at the game (running in emu) at the same time to get the situational aspect in perspective for a correct/accurate translation. Anyone that knows anything about the Japanese language knows how contentual and situational it is so it's sort of like shooting blindfolded if you don't know what's going on around the speaker and who he/she is addressing. I'm making some progress on the translation...it's just taken a bit of time to set up my translation environment. BTW I'm using SDL Studio for it so it's a lot more organized and not having to worry about screwing up the xml tags by filtering them. The script I'm translating is for Kachou wa Meitantei. I was curious when a beta patch would be released - by the looks of the videos that Aaron has posted I don't see why it wouldn't work on flash carts - but I'd definitely test it on my two if you want.

 

[snapman]

Can you work with image maps or are you more interested in just drawing up new graphics?

I haven't done image maps before; my strong point is editing images within the constraints of art style, dimensions, limited color palettes, and matching different styles of hand-edited anti-aliasing.

All I need is a palletized image format and a bit of text telling me what to change.

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

KRiFFiD> I can certainly arrange for you to get the files used in this translation if you are interested in testing. From what I did myself, when I was just messing with the text, everything seemed fine but it feels likes something went different when I started to put in alternate graphics. Some were from the original Retro Game Challenge and some were handmade but for whatever combination the game crashes on a real DS. It gets as far as the opening screen and menu but the second you click "Story" it freezes.

Also, be aware that zari-gani from the original translation team whom translated several of the TV episodes and is known for expertise with the series is also going to help with the Adventure though she is quite busy with other personal and professional work right now and can't go headlong into this right away. I'd like to put you two in touch.

snapman> gotcha. I can extract images with Tinke and export them that way in most cases. The issue from a technical side is that not all the images are straight copy/paste and that many images are made up of tiny 8x8 tiles that are mapped with a separate file into the final image. That step is problematic for me. There are others on this project that can get around these problems so it isn't the end of the world but I was just curious about your expertise.

Fishaman> I messaged you about this.

And...that is it from me. I'm still grinding through text translations and putting them into the game which is tedious but I am also enjoying it. There is a lot of grunt work involved in putting the already-translated text into the game with the tools and scripts but I think the biggest time consumer now is sorting through and translating the thousands of files of text associated with the RPG and Adventure Games.


Oh, and thanks for the note on DDR. I can't seem to escape that game being associated with me, but that's all right I still do play, actually, though I am always happy when someone that has followed me from way back recognizes me in this day and age.

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

I remember during the translation process of Nanashi no Game, there was a point in the game that always caused my R4 to freeze. However, on the hacker's flash card, the freeze didn't happen. Aaron, you should probably check that freezing-when-you-click-story in multiple flash cards.

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Interesting. Well I have no shortage of DS units and flashcarts at home so I can mix and match (R4, M3i Zero, ACE3DS, DSTwo) the DSTwo was the one crashing, by the way.

As for the rest of how things are going the new converter by Nagato is working well and I'm putting all of the originally translated text into the game as fast as I can. There are some oddities with full width punctuation vs. half width but what I hope to so is pass off what is done (when it is done) to anyone that wants to proofread and beta test. I'll let everyone know when I am looking for testers. I'd at least like to get all the Arino text in the game as well as the magazines and manuals and challenges (this last one already done I think) before I put out an ad, though.

I have a feeling the annoying menus and some of the graphics may come last. That's okay for the moment, though. There is still a mountain of text to do for the RPG and Adventure games, though from what I hear the Adventure game is rapidly getting done.

EDIT> Some of the manuals to take a look at (the 5 one-pagers in the game shop). I had to compromise on the translation a bit to fit it into the page but it still came out all right. (*note* These are still subject to change but I wanted to put something out there since it has been a while; the rest of what I have been doing is just moving text, which hardly looks interesting on video or in photo) I will have more freedom with some of the larger manuals, though I am getting help on that so I'm also working on putting all of the original team's translations in the game. Quite time consuming but my old EeePC is helping me nicely with all this text processing on the run. If it ran on Android I'd just use my Kindle Fire HD, but that's all right.

http://aaronin.jp/shashin/arino2/manual_cosgate.png
http://aaronin.jp/shashin/arino2/manual_haggle.png
http://aaronin.jp/shashin/arino2/manual_rallyex.png
http://aaronin.jp/shashin/arino2/manual_starprince.png
http://aaronin.jp/shashin/arino2/manual_triotosdx.png

 

[Pix3l]

Hi all, I am following with interest this translation project of GCCX2 and besides wanting to congratulate all those who are working on this, I would also offer my help in the creation of the graphics if could be needed :]

Anyway, good job and hope to see it completed soon!

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Hello to you.

Graphics...I wish there were just more graphics work to do that were simple substitutions (When I am done with my current batch of text translation I can afford to see exactly what graphical work remains, though). The big things that are most obvious in the game that need to be done require some complex mapping/OAM like the menus and all of Guadia Quest Saga's Menus (which are all graphics). Much of the in-game graphics actually do not need to be changed and I need more help on the technical front... *However* I have been rapidly putting text into the game from the original translation team and I will probably want playtesters soon.

On that front, I have been moving a bunch of text (That is a large part of what I have been doing recently; very time consuming) to put the original translation into the game. So far I have quite a few hundred files in there.

549 to be exact (with new stuff getting done constatly). This number doesn't mean too much on its own, but each file has a range from one to several lines of text and represents a "scene" in the game. It all adds up fast. The numbers are misleading though because the RPG has over 1000 on its own, though many of those files don't actually have anything in them to be translated, and the Adventure games are a similar story. The in-room and Arino text is actually more dense on that front so just in terms of raw text translated it is quite a bit.

From the original translation I now have all of the conversation between you and young Arino and the dialogue at the Waku Waku Boy Game shop done, and I'm working on the disembodied head-Arino text and phone/discussion text (you'll know when you play the game). I'm still waiting on translations for the remaining Magazines/Manuals and the RPG and Adventure games so that is all right. I left a bit of graphical work with one of the original graphics guys from the original team as well, so I still have work waiting on that front.

Oh, and to put some of you at ease I have been making regular backups in various places local and remote.

Erm, I guess that is about it. Once I have the rest of the original text actually in the game and perhaps the manuals/magazines I'll have more to say. I'm plowing through this thing but it will take some time yet.

 

[Mars_x]

...I have been rapidly putting text into the game from the original translation team and I will probably want playtesters soon.

DSi + Acekard2i

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Well, don't get too hyped up just yet. It will still take a little while to get the rest of this text in the game, and even if I put out the game at that point for testing none of the menus (almost none) and games like the Adventure(s) and RPG won't have much done on them. Still, there is so much text elsewhere in the game there is plenty to test when it is ready.

 

[Fishaman P]

DSi + Acekard2i

Same deal here. Also have an R4i SDHC and 2 DS emulators in case anything goes wrong.

 

[DarknessSavior]

I also volunteer if you need testers. I've got a CycloDS.

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Okay, I'll jot this down

(Heh, the credits on the release of this will be huge at the end at this rate. That's all good, though)

Hrm, status update I suppose. I'm putting the rest of the remaining translated text into the game (still) but all I have left is the last half of the floating Arino head text and the telephone and chat with young Arino text (the text if you choose "Chat", not the regular game text; that is already done)

The shop text is all done now.

One thing I noticed while picking the rom apart piece for piece is that the numbering and file order and contents if them seem to imply the second Adventure game (second half) had its own set of challenges originally but in the end it was scrapped (too much Adventure game goodness as thought by the designers?) Also, there are preset phrases if you try to leave your room with the game system power on, etc. There are 6 sets of phrases but only 3 are used.

Other than that the project is still chugging along. Once I'm done with this I might help out DarknessSavior with the remaining in game magazines to speed that along. After that I'll need to see how the translation of the Adventure and RPG games is going.

Then I will have to tackle the graphics like the menus and that isn't going to be pretty.

Once I have all of my text in the game and perhaps the manuals and magazines I'll start passing around a test version but *warning* it crashes on my DSTwo even though it works on Desmume. Also, I haven't checked the text in-game yet so sone lines may be too long or not display properly, etc. Also, even though nobody has done so, please don't try and rush me for this. I'm going as fast as I can given my home and work schedule but accidents happen and I do get busy from time to time. The others are helping greatly and I also want to let them do their parts at their pace.

 

[Nagato]

Deleted.

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

At the main menu when you select "story"

I thought it might be related to the Story sub menu so I switched it back to the original Japanese menu but it still crashed there. It might be the main menu files.

EDIT> Heh, so it works on a CycloDS...
EDIT> Oops, maybe not.

/me hopes it is something simple and stupid to fix.

/me gets back to hundreds of lbs files, though the good news is much of the translated text from the original team is now done (in .lbs form). Just the Telephone and Chat text remain on that front