PS1/2 How would I go about translating a PS2 game?

[MotokoChill]

I'd appreciate it if someone could point me in the direction of which kind of coding I will need to learn and which programs I will need to use for something like this. Anything worth mentioning would be helpful.

The games I would eventually translate(with help first) would be Neon Genesis Evangelion: Battle Orchestra and Top wo Nerae! Gunbuster

 

[Rydian]

Pretty much the same things you'd use for other platforms? Decompressors, hex editors, text tools with multiple encoding options, etc.

PS2 games are normal DVD images so there's no special tools needed to change the files around inside them.

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

I haven't seen any translation patches for PS2. It must be harder to pull off than for older systems?

In fact most of the PS2 patches that I know of only concern patching from NTSC to PAL or vice versa. I was looking for PS2 trainers to use on my PS2 hard drive this morning and I was only able to find one for a game I didn't even have (so utterly useless to me.)

Of course now that I know I could patch PAL PS2 games and play them I am somewhat interested in importing some... I know Europe was treated to a couple of interesting games that the US didn't get.

Translations would be a whole different level of coolness if you ask me, I wish the OP much luck and can only suggest that he look into creating PPF patches and how that whole process works.

PPF patches would be the easiest to distribute and also there would be no legal issues involved since your only distributing what you created and it is up to the end user to apply those changes.

I would post a link to where I found the PPF patches and the Trainer for those PS2 but linking that game copy type web site to the whole world would probably break some rules.

 

[xist]

I haven't seen any translation patches for PS2. It must be harder to pull off than for older systems?

Woah, woah, woah there! You're overlooking one of the most used and well known - the FFXII International Zodiac Job System translation patch.

The PS2 has so many great worldwide releases that most of the Japanese only games never amassed the following needed to whack out a translation.

Quick edit - Although this translation is in fact better (in execution) because of the way it works for much of the script.

 

[Rydian]

I was originally going to post "Besides, what JP-only games did more than three people care about?", but didn't want to sound offensive. I mean the PS2 was in the era of "Go ahead and port it all".

 

[FAST6191]

PS2 games are normal DVD images so there's no special tools needed to change the files around inside them.

Though most are ISO 9660 (not sure what restrictions but usual iso tools will work) there are a few games that use raw/DMA reads (whether as crude AP or for some actual benefit I will leave for a different discussion) and fall outside the standard CDFS filesystem- poke around some of the sound ripping tools/guides and they might tell you to look for header values and other giveaways.

Back on topic as it were there are a few tools and the emulators are not always playable but actually useful for ROM hacking (playing in real time is less useful than being able to have things run and look at it happen). A handful of tools for audio and a few for some archive and graphics formats were made and some of the stuff from the PS1 also applies here. Other than that as the others said it is the same process as any other system, if you are especially used to a simpler system you might have to read up on some of the workarounds involved when systems have a lot more memory (sector addressing and such like) and the CPUs are probably a bit nicer for many things than the older systems (better maths, better floating point, less restrictive, more instructions.....) but that is nothing major and often covered in more conventional programming tutorials as it is useful to know about.

 

[MotokoChill]

Psionic, there's an english patch of Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix, so I know it's not impossible to do.


I'm familiar with PPF patching psp games to change the character models. But I imagine that takes a lot more knowledge.
The main thing I'm looking at is how to put my own english text into the game in place of the japanese font, and possibly add some for the lines that aren't in text. Would a model viewer like Texmod show me the ingame text? Or is that just for character models? Please mention any tools(in a private message if you want?) that are a necessity for this kind of stuff, because I'm going to need them.

I have NGE battle orchestra now, and I've opened and saved all of the files that make up the disc into a folder. I'm ready to start on this game, I just need some help.