Recommended program to open PSP files with?

[PrincessLisette]

Hello,

I've been using UMDGen to extract the contents of a PSP visual novel to get me used to unpacking the internal files of a game and understanding how they are put together, what files contain the text, graphics etc. my long-term goal is to be able to translate unlocalised visual novels.

I've been trying to look online but I'm getting a lot of conflicting sources on what software is recommended to open the files within the games and i don't want to risk downloading malware or lots of software if possible.

has anyone got any recommendations for programs that allow me to open the following file types? (preferably freeware or trials that don't expire and can open multiple types).

• .apc
• .pmf
• .bin
• .prx
• .sfo

I don't want to name the game as I'm considering trying to translate it evantually, but also cause from what i can tell looking at other games these filetypes are common.

i'm not sure this is suited for the PSP beginners' thread as that thread only focuses on playing custom content and hacking consoles, not fan translations.

thank you

 

[r1vver]

WindHex32

 

[master801]

.pmf - PSP video files - https://github.com/TeamPBCN/pmftools
.sfo - Info file for the game (don't need to touch this) - https://www.psx-place.com/threads/param-sfo-editor-by-aldostools.320/

.bin is a generic file. You'd have to look at it in a hex editor and see what it is for yourself.

If it's EBOOT.BIN, then that'd be the game's executable (most of the time). A hex editor can be used to edit and view it, but it's useless imo. If you really want to dive into the disassembly, Ghidra and ghidra-allegrex is the best way to go imo. Unless you want to opt for the other options.

.prx are just library files for the EBOOT.BIN. Can't really do anything with them besides disassembly.

I recommend using Hexinator as a hex editor. It supports Shift-JIS (for Japanese text characters) and a bunch of other text encodings. It has a free trial for the scripting part of it, but the trial isn't needed to use the program (doesn't lock up like other programs).

I also recommend Hex Workshop, but it is not free software.

Most of the time you'll be having to figure out what a file is and what it is used for or what it does. If it's a completely unknown file and you can't find anything about it, your job is to figure it out.

Good resources: ZenHAX, your favorite search engine.

 

[GothicIII]

There is no magic software which can achieve what you like. Every game is compiled from a source code and uses libraries to pack/encrypt content. Especially visual novels are known for obfuscating files so they can't be manipulated.
Sometimes it is a properitary format were you have to reverse engineneer the executable, find the code snippet for decryption/unpacking from debugger so you get a human readable file or at least a glimpse of how the filestructure works within a hex editor.

.prx is usually a plugin. It is a special .ELF (executable and linkable file). You need the source code and recompile it to manipulate its behavior
.bin is a binary file. This can be anything. A packed format, some assembler code, whatever comes to mind.
.sfo is a meta file for your application with basic information for region/gamecode etc. Maybe there is more information on the PSP SDK. I open it usually with a hex editor.
.pmf is a media (video container) file. Maybe there is a codec for it to transcode it to other formats like mp4.

 

[PrincessLisette]

thanks for all your comments. i've managed to download and use some of the software outlined above (and work out what some of the files are without the need to open them, like graphics, the OP and the music).

I'm able to open the files in windhex32 but all I'm getting is binary code with lots of numbers, ellipsis and letters. I'm really not sure how to break it down any further to find the text files. I'm guessing this is the heavy encryption at work and this is what i need to decompile to find the text files?

apologies if all these questions are really noob level, i'm finding this very confusing. are there any recommended video resources that show the process for decompiling the binary code in files like these with recommended software? i learn best through video tutorials.

once i've got the text files, i can look into putting them in a spreadsheet and try my hand at translating some of it.

also for some reason i can't get allegrex to work or install properly. i'm not sure what i'm doing wrong there, so i tried looking into alternatives like Textractor but that dosen't seem to like PPSSPP for some reason, plus i don't think it can extract text files, rather just translate on screen.

 

[r1vver]

this is where things get interesting
In different games, all this is organized (hidden) in different ways

Check second post here for example:
romhacking.net - How do I translate a Japanese PSP Game? : Question
In general, theoretically, on this site/forums you can find some information/utilities, such as Monkey Moore and Crystal Tile 2 or Tile Molester. Not necessarily these utilities will immediately work as expected or give any result. All games are different.

Here is some basics information about bits, tables, pointers and other rom hacking stuff:
gametechwiki.com - ROM hacking resources

Here you can see how the process takes place on the example of Bakemonogatari PSP game. Python heavy:
github.com - Illidanz / BakeTranslation
Used tools: github.com - Illidanz / hacktools
This is AGT Team, they have a discord server as I remember

 

[PrincessLisette]

this is where things get interesting
In different games, all this is organized (hidden) in different ways

Check second post here for example:
romhacking.net - How do I translate a Japanese PSP Game? : Question
In general, theoretically, on this site/forums you can find some information/utilities, such as Monkey Moore and Crystal Tile 2 or Tile Molester. Not necessarily these utilities will immediately work as expected or give any result. All games are different.

Here is some basics information about bits, tables, pointers and other rom hacking stuff:
gametechwiki.com - ROM hacking resources

Here you can see how the process takes place on the example of Bakemonogatari PSP game. Python heavy:
github.com - Illidanz / BakeTranslation
Used tools: github.com - Illidanz / hacktools
This is AGT Team, they have a discord server as I remember

oooh thanks for this, i'll check these links out!

 

[ChiefReginod]

Look into "packed" or "container" file formats. These are different from compressed archives in that they're basically concatenated files that are otherwise unchanged. They typically have a header listing the number of files, file names, sizes, etc, but note that every container format is different.

If you see any huge files named "DATA.BIN" or "BIG.DAT" or something similar, it's probably a packed/container file.

QuickBMS is a tool that lets you work with various container formats by using custom scripts. There are tons of user-made scripts if you scroll down on the linked page, but you'll probably need to study the file yourself and make a custom patch. It's not very beginner-friendly, but it is very useful if you can wrap your head around it.