Will Yakuman DS finally be translated?

[SDA]

I've hold it as long as I could, but in the end I gave up. I want Yakuman DS to be translated into English language. You know, I like playing Mahjong and stuff like that - I'm pretty good at it as I play it all the time on Club House Games (the DS game). Now I'd like to try Yakuman as well.

The only stuff I could translate are the character names and a few other things. Sure, I may not understand nor read Japanese, but I know what these words mean:

1. マリオ means Mario
2. ルイージ means Luigi
3. ピーチ means Peach
4. ヨッシー means Yoshi
5. クッパ means Bowser
6. クリボー means Goomba
7. テレサ means Boo

...and so on.

 

[TheRaven81]

Someone was working on it a long while ago, but nothing substantial or useable ever came out of it.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/translation-of-a-nds-competitive-mahjong-title.321397/

which is a bummer, because it's one of my favorite board games to play. The biggest bummer is nothing by the name Mahjong in English was the actual 4-player game. It was all just Mahjong Solitaire (which I guess is commonly known by the name "Shanghai").

 

[SDA]

Someone was working on it a long while ago, but nothing substantial or useable ever came out of it.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/translation-of-a-nds-competitive-mahjong-title.321397/

which is a bummer, because it's one of my favorite board games to play. The biggest bummer is nothing by the name Mahjong in English was the actual 4-player game. It was all just Mahjong Solitaire (which I guess is commonly known by the name "Shanghai").

Well this game is not hard to translate, it's all about Mario and his friends. However, some knowledge on the original Yakuman game is recommended here to better understand the words used by this game (e.g. Chiitoitsu means "Seven Pairs").

 

[TheRaven81]

Well this game is not hard to translate, it's all about Mario and his friends. However, some knowledge on the original Yakuman game is recommended here to better understand the words used by this game (e.g. Chiitoitsu means "Seven Pairs").

The Yakuman games are based upon Riichi (Reach) Mahjong, sometimes just referred to as "Japanese Mahjong".
A lot of information can be had on the games' wiki ( https://riichi.wiki/Main_Page ), if one is unfamiliar with it.

 

[SDA]

Bumping this thread solely to say that after all this time, I still want this game to be translated to English.

And to be more specific, the original version released in 2005, not the Wi-Fi Taiō re-release from the following year. The only addition is the online multiplayer mode, and because the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection is long gone, there is no point in translating that version of the game.

 

[its_soupgirl]

Did some poking around and it seems to be a bit of an in-depth process since all the dialogue seems to be handled via sprites, making translation a more manual process instead of something like string editing. I edited one of the main menu's sprite sheets as a test, and there seems to be some quirks (unsure why the description is a little corrupted (edit: may be due to the original dialogue being two lines visually in a bitmap, but actually separated at runtime?)), but it does work:

I think that, if someone were to go through with something like this, the WiFi version would honestly be the ideal candidate, since if Wiimfi ever comes around to supporting it, this could be a neat way of playing online mahjong. I probably won't get very far (or accurate results) with just google translate, though. Making the text look accurate to the base game's fonts seems quite time consuming, but possible--if this were to be done, it would probably be best to do a very basic, poorly done text pass, then a visual pass after getting verification on translation accuracy. I'm unsure if I'd be able to tackle this, since I'm not one to work on large projects for long, but I could try and take a (poor) crack at it sometime.

 

[SDA]

Did some poking around and it seems to be a bit of an in-depth process since all the dialogue seems to be handled via sprites, making translation a more manual process instead of something like string editing. I edited one of the main menu's sprite sheets as a test, and there seems to be some quirks (unsure why the description is a little corrupted (edit: may be due to the original dialogue being two lines visually in a bitmap, but actually separated at runtime?)), but it does work:

As the very first attempt I've seen at hacking this game, it's impressive enough. although the translated graphics definitely need less black outline to be more readable.

I think that, if someone were to go through with something like this, the WiFi version would honestly be the ideal candidate, since if Wiimfi ever comes around to supporting it, this could be a neat way of playing online mahjong.

One of the main problems with this game, and all Japanese-only games with Wi-Fi support for extent, is that no one has gotten around at translating the in-game Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection menu. It could be possible by simply transplanting the texts and graphics from a DS game officially released in English and with Wi-Fi support (like Mario Kart DS), but the menu itself apparently can't be located yet in the game files.

The author of the English translation of Jet Impulse (a game by Nintendo that also has Wi-Fi support) stated that, in fact the latest version of the patch does not have the Wi-Fi menu translated because they couldn't find it.

Another problem is the DS Download Play: the console has a security protection system, so if the translated Download Play copy is to be sent from a DS to another, it won't run. In order to play a translated Download Play copy you'd need either an emulator that supports this feature, or a flashed DS/DS Lite unit.

 

[its_soupgirl]

the translated graphics definitely need less black outline to be more readable.

True, I'm just making everything ugly first since it's easier, though. Some esoteric symbol usage here since I came up with my own system to figure out what needs fixing later on ("!" for "this reads bad, or needs to be reformatted", "#" for "this is a reused graphic", and "???" for "possible unused"--but you don't see that one here ).

Another problem is the DS Download Play: the console has a security protection system, so if the translated Download Play copy is to be sent from a DS to another, it won't run. In order to play a translated Download Play copy you'd need either an emulator that supports this feature, or a flashed DS/DS Lite unit.

Not sure I completely understand? Unless this is a problem specific to YakumanDS, this shouldn't be an issue? The Puyo Puyo 20th Anniversary translation seems to do similar graphical edits, and is able to connect online to Wiimfi servers + send Download Play beacons (though untranslated)--flashcart DS on the left, unmodified stock DS on the right (you'd need a flashcart to play the patch on real hardware, anyways).

Granted, I haven't actually tested out an alteration like mine on real hardware yet, so I'll probably get around to it sometime now that you've mentioned it to see what's up (I'm sleepy.. ) .

 

[SDA]

Not sure I completely understand? Unless this is a problem specific to YakumanDS, this shouldn't be an issue? The Puyo Puyo 20th Anniversary translation seems to do similar graphical edits, and is able to connect online to Wiimfi servers + send Download Play beacons (though untranslated)--flashcart DS on the left, unmodified stock DS on the right (you'd need a flashcart to play the patch on real hardware, anyways).

This is a thing with all games that have DS Download Play.

One translation that specifically mentions this is the L - the ProLogue to Death Note translation by AGT Team, which says the following:

L Communicator Demo: In the "Extras" menu, it is possible to send a trial version of the L Communicator to another DS via Wireless Communication. This has been fully translated, but due to the DS' security protection, can only be played on compatible emulators or a flashed DS.​

DS Download Play clients, like the L Communicator demo mentioned above, are signed, so if they've been modified, the DS that you try to send the client copy to will refuse to run them unless it is a flashed DS (you can flash your DS/DS Lite using the tutorial provided).

Alternatively, if you don't want to flash your DS you can use a Passcard or PassMe device that you must insert into Slot-1 to run DS ROMs from Slot-2 flashcarts, but FlashMe is the better option regardless.