ROM Hack Hackers required for SRW Endless Frontier EXCEED translation and other games

[VF-kun]

Hello,

I'm making this thread for a translator who is interested in translating the following games

>SRW Endless Frontier EXCEED [DS JRPG sequel to Endless Frontier]
>Baldr Heart [PC Arcade mecha combat game and erogame]
>Nadesico: The Blank of Three Years [Sega Saturn route based visual novel]

He can handle the translation process, but he doesn't have any experience with hacking and modifying games to insert the new text.

We're looking for anyone who can handle hacking any one of the three games listed above. If you'd like to help out you can

post in this thread
PM me
e-mail me at [email protected]

Thank you for your assistance.

 

[FAST6191]

Always nice to see new translators, have you got any examples of existing work? Alas we have had too many that thought the likes of google translate was an acceptable strategy so now we have http://gbatemp.net/threads/densetsus-translation-toolbox.311523/ .

Equally you might want to say SRW stands for super robot wars (in Japan and sometimes outside it Super Robot Taisen) as not everybody would know that, not to mention those which might only have played the GBA games would want to know it is not a tactics game like those and closer perhaps to something like megaman battle network or paper mario style battles. For others reading it is a fairly long running mech anime based game series, though these days there are more original characters

Video of the original DS title which is in English.

 

[Pablitox]

Hello,

I'm making this thread for a translator who is interested in translating the following games

>SRW Endless Frontier EXCEED [DS JRPG sequel to Endless Frontier]
>Baldr Heart [PC Arcade mecha combat game and erogame]
>Nadesico: The Blank of Three Years [Sega Saturn route based visual novel]

He can handle the translation process, but he doesn't have any experience with hacking and modifying games to insert the new text.

We're looking for anyone who can handle hacking any one of the three games listed above. If you'd like to help out you can

post in this thread
PM me
e-mail me at [email protected]

Thank you for your assistance.

A translation for mugen no frontier EXCEED will be more than welcome, it'd be useful for the translator to share a bit of lines they have already translated (nothing to serious, maybe like the prologue or something). By the way, here's the old translation thread made by Noitora: https://gbatemp.net/threads/mugen-no-frontier-exceed-menu-translation.210746/

The latest patch is V3.0 with translation for items, menues, etc.

I don't really know much about insertion/extraction tbh, but I'll take a look with Tinke to locate script files. A more complete thread on romhacking.net or posting a help/wanted ad there might speed things up too, you may try looking into that.

Always nice to see new translators, have you got any examples of existing work? Alas we have had too many that thought the likes of google translate was an acceptable strategy so now we have http://gbatemp.net/threads/densetsus-translation-toolbox.311523/ .

Equally you might want to say SRW stands for super robot wars (in Japan and sometimes outside it Super Robot Taisen) as not everybody would know that, not to mention those which might only have played the GBA games would want to know it is not a tactics game like those and closer perhaps to something like megaman battle network or paper mario style battles. For others reading it is a fairly long running mech anime based game series, though these days there are more original characters

Video of the original DS title which is in English.

>that vid

Yup, it definitely deserves a translation.


Edit: a quick go through the files using tinke crystaltile I found the following:

Everything is stored in .bin files, so tools should be developed to extract everything worth of translation (bin file can store the graphics, script, palette files, etc)

Spoiler

the file rom.bin (which's kind of big) has NCER and NCGR files inside, so that one will be worth a look or two.

Spoiler

 

[VF-kun]

As proof of ability, the translator has gone through the intro to SRW Endless Frontier EXCEED.

Intro scroll: http://i.imgur.com/Dr9t31r.png

Translated text: http://pastebin.com/vmgK640D

Each line in the pastebin is connected to an image in the imgur link. Please feel free to compare them.

 

[ValkyrieXY]

Hello. I am neither a translator nor a hacker. I just post here to show my interest and my support to this project, and more precisely about "Super Robot Taisen OG Saga : Endless Frontier EXCEEED'' (or ''Mugen No Frontier EXCEED - Super Robot Taisen OG Saga'' if you prefer).
I made some ads about this via my Twitter :
https://twitter.com/ValkyrieXY/status/788118674519515136

P.S. : about the translation of EXCEED : Are you aware of the awesome docs stored here ? :
http://www.gamefaqs.com/ds/976070-super-robot-taisen-og-saga-mugen-no-frontier/faqs
They are all very useful for a translation. Especially this one (yes, this is the whole detailed story of this game) :
http://www.gamefaqs.com/ds/976070-super-robot-taisen-og-saga-mugen-no-frontier-exceed/faqs/61763

 

[rastsan]

the trial download for baldr heart is 1.7GB. Which for me - is a but large. Just from the game screenshots I can tell its going to be a lot of work.
I will post later after I get a chance to actually go through it. I find pc stuff is so mush easier for me.
I second posting on romhacking.net. You really should have posted 3 different posts for each game.

edit:
okay so easy to edit resource files for the exe stuff. I was hoping to for some form of documentation on the pac files. As the pac files make up most of what needs editing. maybe more later...

edit:
yeah... those pac files are the key. Good news is westside has a memory editor that comes with an image extractor (if I am reading it right). Bad news it may or may not work with this game and it costs money. other good news - this means someone somewhere documented how to hack giga studios pac files. Find that and find your answers...

otherwise a windows resource editor will get some stuff done.

 

[ValkyrieXY]

Yeah I think separate threads for each game would be much better for everyone.
----
And yes you really should make some ads about this on romhacking.net. This website is a reference for hackers.
---
Finally (and that is a totally personal point of view) I suggest that you replace the "SRW" (Super Robot Wars) by "SRT" (Super Robot Taisen), since I always have seen this game referenced like this.

 

[VF-kun]

http://i.imgur.com/WxGmhLY.png

Progress on Endless Frontier EXCEED, the intro has been updated ingame with English text in place of the Japanese.

 

[VF-kun]

Slight update

All of the event text in Endless Frontier EXCEED has been translated.

As in, all the text not located in text boxes are now translated.

They display in a similar manner to the text in the prologue image in my previous post.

 

[Pablitox]

I have decided to separate the .sb files where the script should be present in case someone wants to take a look at them, as I don't really know how to proceed:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/7m89eae9wtgez1r/sb.rar

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

>SRW Endless Frontier EXCEED [DS JRPG sequel to Endless Frontier]

YES YES YES!!! FINALLY! ENGLISH TRANSLATION!

I support this 9000%

Video of the original DS title which is in English.

Lol that video.

So i have to ask was there a perectly legit reason for no english game release? Cause unless the sales of the first game was bad i don't see a good one. With the popularity of Project X Zone here, it just doesn't make sense. I had hoped maybe it could be a compilation game on 3ds sometime or even a download title with english translation either on Virtual console wii u or 3ds eshop. I just found no reason why not to release this gem. Instead i'm stuck using NDS flash carts or wii u VC injection.

 

[SS4]

Just stumbled upon this thread.
Regarding the SRT OG EXCEED patch, are you planning on a full translation coz best we had was this patch from a few years ago which has most stuff done beside the story iirc.

http://nicoblog.org/nds-roms/super-robot-taisen-og-saga-mugen-no-frontier-exceed/

 

[Pablitox]

As long as we get to decypher the .sb files, then yes, a complete translation.

 

[gunfort]

As long as we get to decypher the .sb files, then yes, a complete translation.

so the project was stuck at decyphering that file?

 

[Pablitox]

No more thanks to @Nagato , they gave us the starting step in decompressing the .sb files. Now we have to figure out everything else about the format (which shouldn't be that hard).

 

[gunfort]

No more thanks to @Nagato , they gave us the starting step in decompressing the .sb files. Now we have to figure out everything else about the format (which shouldn't be that hard).

glad to hear that. good luck with the project. this will bring back the hope that was lost in 2010

 

[rastsan]

found a reasonable unpacker for baldr heart search google for exchpac.zip. haven't figured how to put it back together but....

It does seem to be unpacking everything allright. system.pac has graphics in need of editing. From the looks of things pretty easy image work. the script.pac file seems to have files encoded in sjis with pointers everywhere...

the documentation on pac files is out there. look up zbspac things may have changed between games but at least you have something on that. Do not take this as a final format of the pac files for this game. Take it as more of a guide to help you see if things changed. so the script bin files relate to the png and other files which then relate to yet more files. leaving this a giant pointer tracking mess. I wish you much luck. as I have no interest in this ---- insert word for too much work....
can you find the stuff to edit yes. can you edit it sure... do you need to find something to track and make sure that you don't inadvertently change a pointer in the edited files most after editing and repacking - definetly. Good news is I have used many software that do this. what works for me may not work for you. the one website warned that the sound (ogg) files need to stay compressed and that there may be other files that also need to be compressed... so take that warning as a giant sign of being very careful. My advice have someone build a new unpacker that prints out a file directory listing what was and wasn't compressed for use in repacking.

notes
in the bmp.pac, visual.pac and thumbnail.pac I saw 2 images each that need to be edited. mapchips that need to be edited. 13 in system (t_visual_fiction.bmp, t_visual_giga.bmp, visual_fiction.bmp, visual_giga.bmp,
any spm file needs to be looked for text in need of edits and for pointers to said text (well for after too... but that is for the hackers/scrict inserter...)
the config.pac file has files that need editing (generally anything of 1k) at the risk of this being updated I have found what looks to be an exploit for up_grad_ing the game and an easy way to include full instead of trial... in this config file...
if I am seeing this right there may be either a file size check or pointers in the files in the config pac file either way needs to investigated...

yeah the more I look the config file hold a large amount text while the script.pac just seems to have more pointersthen text ...sigh

also every file in the dat.pac needs to looked at...
But otherwise not really a large amount of text... maybe the full version has more...
I haven't gone through the exe yet... but my instincts are telling me its too small to have too much...

 

[ValkyrieXY]

Very sorry to up this topic. I just wish to know : Is everything all right with the Endless Frontier EXCEED project ? I guess "No news = Good news" though.

 

[ValkyrieXY]

For the people interested in the Super Robot [Taisen/Wars] OGSaga [Endless Frontier/Mugen No Frontier] EXCEED (NDS) English-patch project :
Aside this thread, I recommend you to follow this thread :
https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-are-the-script-files-in-mugen-no-frontier-exceed-formatted.457795/