ROM Hack Game Center CX : Arino no Chosenjo 2 (New Start?)

Aaron Chmielowiec · Dec 18, 2013

Nice!

Okay, from my end, I'm going to do a bit more before bed but I got another 100 or so done so I'm down to the last 140 files covering both Adventure games. A lot of them have some conversation pieces that are more than a line or two or a monologue so some of them are pretty interesting but again, I think at this point anything I post would be a major spoiler. In some ways these are easier because the conversation flows better but on the other hand the raw length alone means it takes a bit more to get through than standard canned one-liners or repeated phrases related to what you can and can not do/use at certain points in the game.

Also, I took a few artistic liberties with some of the dialogue (not much) only because sometimes there were puns in Japanese that just didn't work in English. In those cases I just kept the dialogue close to the surrounding dialogue at hand. When you guys get to play it I'm open to alternative suggestions. Right now I just want this thing done (without rushing through just throwing any old text in there).

However, I can see ever more that I'm going to need to go back not only for the most-likely messed up positioning and length but for a bit of the content related to quotas and some other dialogue related to interaction with some characters. Because it is all in pieces, I realize after the fact what I did later better explains something I did earlier and that earlier bit probably should be tweaked a bit. It's a bit complicated but in short the pieces are all coming together.

Actually, with the way the game is laid out, I get the feeling the whole game was just a single title but they broke it up into two chapters afterwards just to show that some games of the era were released in Chapters. After some snooping I think in general the Adventure games are based on these old Famicom Disk games:

ポートピア連続殺人事件 -
ファミコン探偵倶楽部 -
さんまの名探偵 -

GHANMI · Dec 18, 2013

On an unrelated note, I wish someone would translate the first and the third Famicom detective games. And those other visual novels by Nintendo (one about time travel, another about Momotarou (Shin Onigashima and its SFC sequel) and another about Journey to the West but I never heard of that one beside the fact its cameo in a Kirby game was erased from US versions).
It's a mysterious world for me

You mentioned Portopia, Famicom Detective 1 and another VN by Namco I never heard of ?

Aside from the first one and (well, only the Famicom Detective sequel was translated

), it's kind of weird to play the parody before the original . Not that I would complain

Thanks a lot.

Aaron Chmielowiec · Dec 21, 2013

One quick update. I still had work this weekend with christmas events and all that jazz but I just checked now and I am down to 80 files left to finish both Adventure games. All of the 1~2kb files are done so none of the remaining ones are small but then again I also already did the largest files.

That's about all I have to say. I'll try to get a few more done tonight before bed and work from there.

Aaron Chmielowiec · Dec 26, 2013

Happy holidays everyone. I hope your Christmas went well (or at least tolerable depending on your situation)

I have been extremely busy with family and work related Christmasy stuff so I haven't had much time to work on the last files but I did get another dozen or so done and I hope to have time over the next day or do to work on it.

The older files will most likely need to be touched up for consistency as after going through all these files I realized a few of the mysteries could have better names. Also, there are some scenes where the speaker isn't clear except by visuals so I'll have to see that in the game to test that.

If everyone is truly impatient I can take a video of a messy alpha version that isn't finished yet to tide you over. I'll probably have to do it late at night after my kids are in bed...maybe I can run it on a real DS to show it off.

Thanks for your patience. I've totally ruined the adventure games for myself having seen every line of dialogue now but it is exciting to think this will be in English for others.

Mark McDonut · Dec 27, 2013

Aaron Chmielowiec said:
Happy holidays everyone. I hope your Christmas went well (or at least tolerable depending on your situation)

I have been extremely busy with family and work related Christmasy stuff so I haven't had much time to work on the last files but I did get another dozen or so done and I hope to have time over the next day or do to work on it.

The older files will most likely need to be touched up for consistency as after going through all these files I realized a few of the mysteries could have better names. Also, there are some scenes where the speaker isn't clear except by visuals so I'll have to see that in the game to test that.

If everyone is truly impatient I can take a video of a messy alpha version that isn't finished yet to tide you over. I'll probably have to do it late at night after my kids are in bed...maybe I can run it on a real DS to show it off.

Thanks for your patience. I've totally ruined the adventure games for myself having seen every line of dialogue now but it is exciting to think this will be in English for others.

I hope your Christmas went well too!

I'm so thankful of the amount of work you and the others helping are putting into this! The first game in this series was one of my favorites on ds and I'm excited to play this one too, thanks for taking the time and exhausting the effort.

Mars_x · Dec 27, 2013

Happy Holidays team and lurkers!
Now that you mention it, a new video would be a good idea to promote the translation even further, maybe a new update to the website with new screenshots and a blog post.
By the way, I thought you had already played the game to completion in Japanese... sucks that you got the adventure game ruined

kikuchiyo · Dec 28, 2013

Hi all,

Happy holidays! I've been both traveling and had some medical stuff (

- not great but I did catch up on a few episodes of the show!) but have been working on the file a bit. I'm doing more now and hope to have quite a bit more. Like Aaron, I'm definitely going to have to go back (either when I finish or as the proofreaders begin working) and work to get things more consistent. I'm definitely building the plane as I fly it, but it's rather fun.

Aaron Chmielowiec · Dec 28, 2013

Mars_x > Okay, I can probably sit down and take some screenshots and some loose footage when I get a chance (e.g. Not out and about and on my cell phone)

I got another dozen or so done yesterday so that leaves about 50-ish files to go. Some of the last files share some common parts so I can speed things up a tiny bit.

And yes, I played through the whole game in Japanese but as with anything, over analyzing every line of text and aspect of the game just took the fun out of it. It's still exciting because I want to see how the new version looks but as for the game content, it's just a solved problem. Though, adventure games in general aren't high on replayability.

Truner · Dec 30, 2013

I have one single request.

In Guadia Quest Saga, you get to fight the protagonists for the first game. Could you make it so that their names are only 4 characters long? That's the amount you could give a character in the first game, so it would keep "continuity" a little bit.

Aside from that, I love you for bringing us this game. ;_;
Retro Game Challenge is probably on my top10 best DS games list and finally being able to play the second game sounds like a heavenly dream.

Aaron Chmielowiec · Jan 2, 2014

Truner> Okay, though as I recall, the limit was 4 characters anyway

All right, I did manage to debug the 209 files I did just so they would convert and they are now in the game. This fills in a lot of the gaps in the conversation but after seeing some of it in action I will have to rewrite a bit of it I think in addition to positioning and length issues. I'll put up what I have so you can see it as is.

(Repeated note for the nth time : The dialogue is not in one long logical conversation; all files are bits and pieces of different conversations. I'm surprised it flows and makes any sense at all, actually)

Also, QUESTION! - I'm looking over some part related to Pachinko machines and balls and you do need a ball and access to a pachinko machine in the game. Should I just put a FAQ in some text file explaining what Pachinko is or leave that to the user to find out? I could change it to pinball but then not only do the images need to be changes, the story is affected as well since pinball machines don't shoot out balls as you win.

I haven't had nearly as much time as I would like to work on this during the holiday (nobody to look after the kids means I have to do it and that usually results in nothing I would like to do getting done). They are back in the nursery from next week though so I should be able to bang away at it again to finish it off

cubeboy · Jan 2, 2014

Aaron Chmielowiec said:
Also, QUESTION! - I'm looking over some part related to Pachinko machines and balls and you do need a ball and access to a pachinko machine in the game. Should I just put a FAQ in some text file explaining what Pachinko is or leave that to the user to find out? I could change it to pinball but then not only do the images need to be changes, the story is affected as well since pinball machines don't shoot out balls as you win.

I would imagine that anyone that would take the time to play this game to get to that point would know how pachinko works, but I think pachinko as a whole, isn't too well understood. My vote is to keep it in there as pachinko, and add it to the FAQ.

Mars_x · Jan 3, 2014

If you will release a Readme/FAQ along with the translation, then by all means, add a small note on the Pachinko thing.
There's a high chance that users that will play this already know what a Pachinko is.

HumbertHumbert · Jan 3, 2014

cubeboy said:
I would imagine that anyone that would take the time to play this game to get to that point would know how pachinko works, but I think pachinko as a whole, isn't too well understood. My vote is to keep it in there as pachinko, and add it to the FAQ.

I second this. I think (a) it's better to keep the game as it originally was and (b) it sounds like it's way too much work to localize that cultural reference and still make the game make sense.

The new pictures look great, by the way! It's great having these updates, I never have a chance to stop being excited about the game.

MarkDarkness · Jan 4, 2014

Cultural references should be kept intact... it's doubtful anybody not interested in japanese culture would play this game at all...

RadioShadow · Jan 4, 2014

Aaron Chmielowiec said:
Also, QUESTION! - I'm looking over some part related to Pachinko machines and balls and you do need a ball and access to a pachinko machine in the game. Should I just put a FAQ in some text file explaining what Pachinko is or leave that to the user to find out? I could change it to pinball but then not only do the images need to be changes, the story is affected as well since pinball machines don't shoot out balls as you win.

You could do what the Puyo Puyo 7 fan translation did use the romija word and have in brackets the English translation. Honestly, for the situation when the characters talk, it just made it look stupid (and too please the weeaboos) when just saying "green herb tea" would have made more sense.

But in this case, that would make more sense, since a English translation is rather difficult. You could use the brackets to explain the word when it first appears. So for example:

"Find the Pachinko (Japanese Arcade Gambling Machine) in the computer room!"

Or, have the person / text description go into slightly more detail. So for example:

"Find the Pachinko, a Japanese Arcade Gambling Machine, in the computer room!"

The only other option is to replace the word with something that would still make sense. Like "Japanese Slot Machine". You could even use this new word, and briefly mention what they are called in Japanese:

"Find the Japanese Slot Machine, official known as "Pachinko", in the computer room!"

Good luck with the translation.

Celice · Jan 5, 2014

I find the clarification to be a little unnecessary. Not only is it adding text that isn't in the game, but it also supposes the audience won't know what a Pachinko machine is. "Japanese Arcade Gambling Machine" is almost just as ambiguous to someone who doesn't know what a Pachinko machine would be.

While 'Pachinko' is as referentially-clear as you can get. I guess "Plinko" might be applicable as well, but that's more towards a US audience. Bean machine is a generic reference to such a game as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bean_machine

The issue is that you're divesting and robbing the cultural significance by not using Pachinko :/

MarkDarkness · Jan 5, 2014

And how difficult is it to look "pachinko" up on the Wikipedia in case the person cares enough, anyway... anything and everything is connected in some way nowadays, including the very game system the person is playing the game with and the cellphone in his pocket.

questionsleep · Jan 5, 2014

Aaron Chmielowiec said:
Also, QUESTION! - I'm looking over some part related to Pachinko machines and balls and you do need a ball and access to a pachinko machine in the game. Should I just put a FAQ in some text file explaining what Pachinko is or leave that to the user to find out? I could change it to pinball but then not only do the images need to be changes, the story is affected as well since pinball machines don't shoot out balls as you win.

Saw TinyCartridge post about this.

If a person happens to learn about Game Center CX 2, a Japan-only DS game which released 5 years ago, based on a Japan-only TV show that started 10 years ago,
They're going to know what pachinko is.

Also I would never interact otherwise so here is my opportunity to
Thank you so much for working on this! The couple people that will actually get use out of your free translation will love it and treasure it forever. Way cool work you're doing. Been keeping up with it since before the beginning.

Sora de Eclaune · Jan 5, 2014

Um, those latest screenshots... Even with the space between the speaker's name and the dialogue, it's still kind of a hassle to tell both apart... Could you please at least add a colon or the Japanese quotation marks in? Just something to get between the speaker's name and the dialogue to help tell them apart easier.

questionsleep said:
Saw TinyCartridge post about this.

If a person happens to learn about Game Center CX 2, a Japan-only DS game which released 5 years ago, based on a Japan-only TV show that started 10 years ago,
They're going to know what pachinko is.

Also I would never interact otherwise so here is my opportunity to
Thank you so much for working on this! The couple people that will actually get use out of your free translation will love it and treasure it forever. Way cool work you're doing. Been keeping up with it since before the beginning.

In addition to this, English-speaking people have probably seen the Price is Right, and they have a game similar to Pachinko on that (IIRC they do say it's similar to Pachinko).

Celice · Jan 5, 2014

Sora de Eclaune said:
Um, those latest screenshots... Even with the space between the speaker's name and the dialogue, it's still kind of a hassle to tell both apart... Could you please at least add a colon or the Japanese quotation marks in? Just something to get between the speaker's name and the dialogue to help tell them apart easier.

In addition to this, English-speaking people have probably seen the Price is Right, and they have a game similar to Pachinko on that (IIRC they do say it's similar to Pachinko).

I think they call it Plinko too

ROM Hack Game Center CX : Arino no Chosenjo 2 (New Start?)

Wielder of the 4 sacred cheeses

Well-Known Member

Wielder of the 4 sacred cheeses

Wielder of the 4 sacred cheeses

GBATemp's Resident Ghostbuster

♥♪!?

大阪に生まれた男

Wielder of the 4 sacred cheeses

Well-Known Member

Wielder of the 4 sacred cheeses

Active Member

♥♪!?

Member

Nocturnal

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Nocturnal

Member

All our splendor...

Well-Known Member

Similar threads

Popular threads in this forum