ROM Hack GBA Translation Kid Paddle English translation

onfy · Nov 13, 2024

Kid Paddle for GBA
English fan translation

Kid Paddle is a series of comics (not released in English) and a cartoon (that was dubbed in English) about the amusingly strange adventures of Kid, a legendary(?) gamer. There was a GBA game based on it, released only in French and Dutch, about Kid entering a contest to win a console, playing a bunch of (rather difficult) minigames. Well, I've been working on translating this for a bit now, I thought it'd be nice for people to be able to play it in English. (Honestly, it's been a dream for a long time to translate a game, I first attempted to translate this game around 10 years ago.)

While working on the translation earlier this year I decided it would be a lot better to write a tool to insert the text into the game instead of using a hex editor and manually calculating the new pointers (hey I'm new to this) and so work on that started a few months ago with the immense help of Vaporeon. Just 1.5 days ago I finished enough of the tool that it can now modify the text in the rom, so I'm beginning work on polishing the translation. I expect it'll be done late December at the earliest, but maybe not until June 2025.

Credits
Hacking & Translation - Onfy (that's me)
Tools programming - Vaporeon & Onfy
Graphic editing - @Sterophonick

Minisite for the translation: https://onfy.neocities.org/translation/kpgba

(I'd also like to release the tools next year after they're better polished. Then people will be able to translate this and other Mistic Software GBA games into other languages, with the exceptions of Superman: Countdown to Apokolips and Backyard Hockey, which use a slightly different text format.)

onfy · Nov 18, 2024

An update. I'd say the translation's around 90% finished now, but the last 10% is going to be the hardest as they say (and it already wasn't easy). Still a lot of text that needs to be adjusted and a few more things that need to be added, and lots of testing.

Have a bunch of brand spanking new screenshots. They'll go on the minisite... once I get around to it.

Also, since it looks like I'm going to end up working on other games after this next year, I should try thinking up something to name the translation group I'm finding myself the leader of. Anyone got an idea? If I use your idea I'll thank you in the translation's readme.

Deleted member 702243 · Nov 19, 2024

you just unlocked some old memory in my brain

onfy · Nov 21, 2024

4d1xlaan said:
you just unlocked some old memory in my brain

Did you have the US DVD or something?

Deleted member 702243 · Nov 22, 2024

onfy said:
Did you have the US DVD or something?

I dont know much about this show, but I've seen some about it in the distant past

SylverReZ · Nov 22, 2024

I have never heard of this game up until now, or, I think I did whilst watching a GBA game showcase stream.

Great to see somebody translate a game so obscure that we never got to see what it would be like to play it.

onfy · Nov 22, 2024

SylverReZ said:
I have never heard of this game up until now, or, I think I did whilst watching a GBA game showcase stream.

A lot of people seem to know the game in particular from this video RebelTaxi did about GBA games. (1:17)

He mostly focuses on the unusual amount of gore and scatological humour, as well as somehow managing to misread mini-jeux as mini-sex. (As you can see from my screenshot of the translated menu, the correct translation is minigames.)

Hopefully my patch will help prevent foolish Americans from thinking jeux are sex in the future.

SylverReZ said:
Great to see somebody translate a game so obscure that we never got to see what it would be like to play it.

And there's additional games I'm looking at translating after this as well. Mostly in French but someone offered to help translate a game from German as well. I'm probably going to need to recruit additional help with some of them.

onfy · Dec 22, 2024

I'm still working on polishing the translation. Translating is both harder than I thought (big thank you to everyone else who puts in this effort) and I've had some setbacks in life. It won't be available this month but I'm hoping it'll be finished in a few months.

In case you missed it I posted a video of my patch progress last month.

onfy · Jan 12, 2025

I've been going over the text and I think it's close to how I want it to be now. Mostly what's left for that (aside from finding any more errors or awkward translations) is that I want to watch a few more episodes of the cartoon's English dub and try to work in their catchphrases (though even the French text doesn't do that, it's full of generic expressions like génial, super, cool, etc. instead of saying things like manga how they do in French... this was fixed in Blorks Invasion!)

So, I think I'd like to start beta testing the patch. PM me and I'll send you beta patches and include you in the readme. I'd just like you to look for the typical things when testing one of these:
(Game-breaking) bugs
Incompatibility when compared to the original game (the patch breaks the game on a particular emulator or flashcart)
Incorrect text
Text that sounds bad or awkward
Errors, typos, etc
Anything else you think is wrong.

Thank you to everyone who's been here for this. This has been exciting, interesting, very informative.

onfy · Jan 31, 2026

Hi. Sorry for going so long without any updates. Truth is, the translation hasn't really been worked on for the past year due to life circumstances. But work on it is slowly being resumed now. I feel bad for announcing it and leaving it hanging for so long, I think I'll only announce things closer to them being ready in the future.

onfy · Feb 19, 2026

I think the translation is now nearing completion, though I'd like it if someone could review the translation, in case there's any more mistakes I never caught... aside from that, testing. Thank you to everyone who's waited patiently! A delayed translation is eventually good etc...

On other topics, I think I successfully RE'd the DS (and Wii) games' data formats enough, however, in light of things I've learned about the creator of Kid Paddle I have a little less motivation... so, if you want those games translated, be sure to tell me, it'll help encourage me to continue, I think I only want to do it if people want it.

As an aside, are "help wanted" type posts allowed on Gbatemp? There's a few other games where I've struggled since they're a little more complicated than I'm currently capable of. I'd like to try drumming up interest in them (non-committal) to see if anyone is interested in lending a hand.

SDA · Feb 19, 2026

onfy said:
As an aside, are "help wanted" type posts allowed on Gbatemp? There's a few other games where I've struggled since they're a little more complicated than I'm currently capable of. I'd like to try drumming up interest in them (non-committal) to see if anyone is interested in lending a hand.

Yes, they are.

And I know it's not very on topic, but there is a French/Dutch only game I am actually trying to translate myself, Bob & Bobette for the Game Boy Color.

onfy · Feb 19, 2026

SDA said:
And I know it's not very on topic, but there is a French/Dutch only game I am actually trying to translate myself, Bob & Bobette for the Game Boy Color.

I found that game when I was looking at what games (language == fr || es || de && != en) ...I don't remember what my conclusion was when I decided not to look more closely, if I thought it wasn't interesting enough to me, or if the text location wasn't obvious or what, but I'm interested in collaborating if that's something you want. What progress have you made, what kind of help do you need? (One other GBC game I found was Taxi 2; there's already a translation of the Dreamcast version, but not GBC as far as I know.)

Though I don't speak much Dutch so I'd be working off the French translation, kind of opposite situation of Kid Paddle, where the game seems to have been written in French and then translated (seemingly not well) into Dutch. It's a similar situation to a DS game called Mega Mindy, which was written in Dutch and translated to French, except that game has a surprising twist:

There's an English translation hidden in the game's data, though I didn't find a way to activate it.

Honestly, there is also some element of selfishness in wanting to translate many different games,

one hope I have is that I could become known as a skilled translator and maybe get a job that way. Long shot but *gestures at the economy*... and hey, it's fun at least!!

SDA · Feb 20, 2026

onfy said:
but I'm interested in collaborating if that's something you want. What progress have you made, what kind of help do you need?

I just posted a thread in the Oldies/Retro section, you'll find more details there.

onfy · Apr 1, 2026

~~Surprise! Thought I'd release a patch early today. "Enjoy?"~~
Note: This was a defaced joke version of the patch I made on top of the real one on a spur of the moment. Sorry! I want to get the real out in a number of months this year, it's very close to completion now.

ROM Hack GBA Translation Kid Paddle English translation

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