ROM Hack Rhythm Tengoku translation

Dirtie · May 18, 2007

Latest edit: Just to make things clear if anyone still cares, the project (as far as my involvement in it goes) is dead, but you can still view the wiki and the script I managed to dump below.

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Edit: Below stuff is out of date. Check my latest post for any updates.
View wiki version of script here
Plain script formatted for easy viewing here (You will probably have to set your browser to Japanese Shift-JIS encoding manually)

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I've identified (and can dump) what looks like the majority of the script for Rhythm Tengoku, in nice Shift-JIS format. You can view a preliminary dump (including control codes) here: http://dirtie.gbatemp.net/rtscript.rar
Note that since it uses Shift-JIS encoding, you'll have to open the text file in something that supports it, such as Word/IE/Firefox.

I have a few requests. Firstly, I would like to figure out what some of these unidentified control codes do, so if anyone knowledgeable in such matters can help out, that'd be excellent. Even if you aren't, you can still help if you recognize some text in the dump that contains one or more of these codes (eg. , , etc.), and know where that text is located in the game.
Also, I'm pretty confident that there will be enough existing room for a translation (ANSI characters are supported which only take one byte each instead of two bytes as JIS characters do), but even so it would be advantageous to know the location and format of the text pointers even if it's just to get a cleaner script dump - I have no knowledge of how to find this out myself

The second request is directed specifically at beautifulbeast: any chance I can use the web translation app you developed? This would make the translation task a whole lot easier, and I know Jump Ultimate Stars uses Shift-JIS also.

Thirdly, a translation project obviously needs translators. Anyone willing to help out in this respect is greatly appreciated. If beautifulbeast lets me use his (or her?

) system, small contributions will be welcome, otherwise a dedicated translator will be needed.

The more interest there is, the faster this will move along

Here's an image or two to keep people happy (I hope

):

Dirtie · May 18, 2007

Discovered that the 01(hex) control code changes the text style (seems to do so for the next line most of the time; a new line is defined by the byte 0Ah). The style depends on the byte that comes after it - it looks like this byte is just read as plain ASCII.

What I've discovered so far:
The numbers 0-8 (in ASCII) change the colour of the text.
The letter "l" changes the size of the text so it's big (large), likewise for "m" which is slightly smaller (I can only presume it stands for medium). "s" is also used, but doesn't make a difference to the part I'm testing on, so i presume that particular text is already small.
Capital "C" centers the line, though it looks like it modifies the current line instead of the next one. Likewise capital "L" and "R" seem to align the line left or right respectively.

Edit: Updated script dump to reflect these discoveries. Note that parts of the file probably aren't actual script at all, which is why I need to find those pointers.

Harsky · May 18, 2007

404 error on that script...

Dirtie · May 18, 2007

QUOTE(Harsky @ May 18 2007 said:
404 error on that script...

Sorry about that, fixed now.

Edit: I seem to have found some sort of pointer table, A33B74-A33B76 contains the address for the part of the script I'm testing at (05E03C) except it's reversed (little endian?). Theres a whole lot of other stuff there, but I noticed a couple of other addresses in there (05E000, 05E070) that match up (these all actually have 08 in front of them since it's referring to memory addresses).

4ppleseed · May 18, 2007

You don't know how happy it makes me to hear that you're gonna translate this game!

I have no programming/hack experience so can't help in that way but I'm a sound engineer by trade, so if you need any help with the audio side of things just ask.

Is it actually possible to replace some of the Japanese voice samples i.e. the bits where the guy shouts left and right with English version of the samples? If so, you can send me the original Japanese samples and I'll re-record English versions and downsample them to replace the originals.

Harsky · May 18, 2007

QUOTE(4ppleseed @ May 18 2007 said:
You don't know how happy it makes me to hear that you're gonna translate this game!Â

I have no programming/hack experience so can't help in that way but I'm a sound engineer by trade, so if you need any help with the audio side of things just ask.

Is it actually possible to replace some of the Japanese voice samples i.e. the bits where the guy shouts left and right with English version of the samples? If so, you can send me the original Japanese samples and I'll rerecord English version and downsample them to replace the originals.

What would make it more awesome is if you can get the voice sample of Sgt Hartman from Full Metal Jacket. But I'm worried about how Dirtie would go about replacing the girls singing in the Japanese festival stage. Yes it could be translated but what can you replace "don don pan pan" with anyways?

Lookie401 · May 18, 2007

Wow. I never thought there would be a discussion about translating Rhythm Tengoku! I just LOVE the game. XD;

Anyway, I don't think it's a good idea to "dubbed" the lyrics in the Bon Odori, Bon Dance, Honey Sweet Angel of Love and WISH - Kimi wo Matenakute. Maybe for Bon Odori you can have the lyrics in romaji instead or hiragana (if possible).

I do agree for stages like the Marcher could use a dub. Anyway, this is just my suggestion and I can't wait to see any progress.

Dirtie · May 18, 2007

I don't intend to do any audio translation at all sorry, the game is great like it is in that respect

As for the lyrics part of the clapping girls song (the text), I was intending just to 'translate' that part to romaji (as mentioned) - a proper translation would probably look really messed up

Edit:

jpxdude · May 18, 2007

I love this game! I think audiowise, the game is great as it is, but some textual translation would be awesome, as I've never touched any other part of the game apart from the main section. Good luck!!

4ppleseed · May 18, 2007

I didn't mean the songs, which are great! They of course would stay in Japanese.

I was more thinking of the Japanese voice parts that give orders 'left' 'right' 'start marching' as there is no text/visual clue to what he is saying at the time and getting a voice actor here to dub them.

But if you were to present text on screen with the orders that would work too.

FAST6191 · May 18, 2007

Wow a GBA rom that uses shiftJIS, I have a few projects on the go (jump ultimate stars and a great little GBA game (dungeon crawler / summon night sort of game) that was nice enough to include an English script in the Japanese version and not make it to the west) so I can not really afford to offer much help (you seem to have this rom hacking lark down which is about all I would be good for anyhow).

Pointer maps on GBA normally go as follows, as the GBA is little endian you will need a byte flip to get it normally, either that or flip your number appropriately. Find the address of the start of a text chunk (make it the start of a section rather than a line). stick an 08 in front of it (08XXXXXX is the first 16 megs of the GBA rom space). I had a demo with Advance Wars 2 in my guide if you want pictures.
Failing that search for 08 and there will be a large chunk of them all equally spaced at at least 32 bit intervals.
You will tend to find them at the start or end of sections of text as well.

As for space/expansion tack on as much as you need and put 08XXXXXX where XXXXXX is the memory address you are pointing to in the pointer table. If you need more space add a 09 instead of a 08 then think as if you started a new 16 meg file (if you need more than 32 megs you are doing something wrong, I guess theoretically you could do something but I really do not want to even think about that (bankswitching for flash carts....... shudder)).

Oh and the demo you put up there seems to indicate you are going to want a variable width font (anyone who cares look at the spacing between the letters like i and l, Japanese characters are all approximately the same width so it does not affect them), these are a pain but my preferred way is to make the text a sprite (or calculate it as one and then move to whatever you need) and add some collision detection. ASM all the way for such a thing I am afraid.

Edit:
I have a feeling it you that linked me this Dirtie but: http://crackedrabbitgaming.com/guides/gba/rhythm-tengoku/ should help get you started.

4ppleseed · May 18, 2007

Righty, I've got us a translator. My housemate Sam has a Masters Degree in Japanese. I just showed him Rhythm Tengoku and he can pretty much translate everything from the intro, menus, tutorial and we played thru the first 4 levels with no problems.

I've downloaded the script. Can we set up a page like on the Jump Ultimate Stars Translation Project: http://crisistunity.com/justp/orfile/view?orfile=1&page=1

And have all the text needed ready line by line for translation? And he'll jump in and start translating away. Plus if we have it set up on a website like the other project people can all jump in and lend a hand.

beautifulbeast · May 18, 2007

Hi everyone, I hope I'm not too late for the party.
Well, first things first, I'm a dude and I'm starting to get worried that people always take me for a female whenever I'm at a MMORPG or a forum.
Second, could I help with the project? well, I'm a little busy lately so setting up a new page is not an option. Still, if the dump is not very extensive (shouldn't be in a rhythm game) we could find a workaround.
I'm finding the hardest part in a project like this is finding some translation power, but it seems there's people willing to volunteer. Also, when a project is very small it's better done just by sharing text documents between the hacker and the translator (in singular here) as that saves time and complications.
Just give me a shout when you guys have the dump, tell me how many lines does it consist of and I'll tell you what I think would be the best solution for everyone.
And good luck. You'll need it.

Hadrian · May 18, 2007

Good luck with this, I hope it works out well, this game is brilliant! Up there with Starfi, Napoleon and Mother 3 with the GBA titles that Nintendo should have released outside of Japan (well OK Napoleon was released in French but...you know).

FAST6191 · May 18, 2007

@Hadrian http://www.romhacking.net/trans/684/

Sil3n7 · May 18, 2007

Not to hijack but could anyone tell me why I cant get past the first tut screen where you have to press A while it counts down "3 2 1".

Dirtie · May 19, 2007

QUOTE(Sil3n7 @ May 19 2007 said:
Not to hijack but could anyone tell me why I cant get past the first tut screen where you have to press A while it counts down "3 2 1".

You gotta press it on 0.
My advice is not to play this on VBA (if you are) unless you have no choice - the button response time is just slow enough to mess you up on a lot of things (it's damn near impossible on the don don pan pan song).

beautifulbeast: thanks anyway. Is there any chance you can let me know what apps you are using to dump/reinsert, and what table file you are using to dump - I just need to find a good format to make this dump look nice and make it easy to reinsert, all I'm looking for is some examples. Also, what text/hex editor are you intending to use for putting the English text back in the script? I know a hex editor that supported Shift-JIS (for the plain text part on the right) would be of infinite use to me

FAST6191 · May 19, 2007

Guess this is my cue to reappear, unfortunately I can not seem to find a decent ASCII - ShiftJIS convertor (I have a couple of command line files kicking around but I have no idea where I got them from) and to my knowledge there is no SJIS for any hex editor (I feel blessed normally if I can get a reasonable selection for unicode or extended ASCII, trying to define a "custom" 16bit character set is not much joy either).

Still http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~grosenth/jwpce.html is good for short strings.

Hadrian · May 19, 2007

QUOTE(FAST6191 @ May 18 2007 said:
@Hadrian http://www.romhacking.net/trans/684/

Thanks but already knew about that, I just think its a shame that Nintendo never bothered bringing it to english speaking shores as it was a fine little game.

Dirtie · May 19, 2007

Hmm, I seem to have discovered that UltraEdit supports shift-jis, but only when you set the option in the control panel for non-unicode programs to use Japanese.

There's a whole variety of reasons why I don't want to use UltraEdit though, such as being unable to undo for some reason, and not having the ability to copy/paste without increasing the file size (ie. I just want to overwrite).

Just also wanted to mention that the pointers are in several different areas, and from what I can determine, are actually part of "event code" rather than just being plain pointer lists (so there's graphics pointers and other stuff mixed up in there too). I think they should still have a consistent amount of space between each one though.

Edit: Winhex supported JIS characters all along! All I had to do was change the font

ROM Hack Rhythm Tengoku translation

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Literally as TIGHT as a gnats chuff.

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Literally as TIGHT as a gnats chuff.

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