Most likely not, because that would rely on 2 likely to be false assumptions:
1- that the text is in the same character set (or that you're also transferring the font and any different control character implementation, which would fall into point 2)
2- that every string begins at the same address (and each is of equal or lower length), since hardcoded pointers were the norm at the time (and still aren't gone)
(and 3- that the only differences between the two games are the two above ones, else the patch will include the other things and you'd need to put effort in removing them, hopefully ips is a well documented format)
You can mostly solve 2 by doing manual work (extracting manually the actual text, putting it somewhere else in the target game expanding it if needed, manually repointing every string to the new locations) but that still leaves harder manual work to solve problem 1 (the latin and japanese "alphabets" have significant functional differences, that may be problematic like the possible special handling for dakuten characters)
Never heard of it until now, but reading the manual it's just a (rewritable) rom chip substitute - in page 2 it says to disconnect the OE pin of the original rom, so it becomes completely unreadable, and the chip provides a full replacement, not a "patch"The reason I ask the question is, because Voultar created a way to easily patch Japanese carts.
Is there a way to extract the text from NTSC SNES rom and convert it into a .ips file then patch it to a NTSC-J Super Famicom rom?
Edit: It's probably not as simple as I think it is. :/
Never heard of it until now, but reading the manual it's just a (rewritable) rom chip substitute - in page 2 it says to disconnect the OE pin of the original rom, so it becomes completely unreadable, and the chip provides a full replacement, not a "patch"
It's just a novelty way of making custom game cards, but not inherently better than the more estabilished ways (fully removing and replacing the original rom, or replacing the entire PCB)
Yes, if you really wanted to you could dump both the American and the Japanese version, create a patch to convert between the two, apply it to the Japanese version, flash the result on one of those chips, then install it in your Japanese card... but the result would be exactly the same as just copying the American one directly (and since you would be installing it on a Japanese game card, the region lock would remain of that region too)
Like game modding in general, "not really but unless you piss off certain known haters of the practice, you usually get away with it, hell some even appreciate it", to the point multiple reputable websites including this one and romhacking.net will generally accept translation patches - and the specific issue for translations (that can be called that way with a straight face) is that no matter how hard you try to avoid bundling things copyrighted by others (as a patch would do), your* more or less creative effort is a derivative work of the original textAre fan translations legal or not?
With all the above generic caveats applying, once you give/sell your American original, you also lose the right to use your legal* backupsI own Earthbound, Mega Man X3, and X2. I'd like to get rid of those games, because they are expensive and I worry about something happening to them.
The japanese carts are quite common, but they are not translated. I thought I could dump, patch and flash the Japanese cart and have a perfectly legal cartridge.
wait, i think you are confused.
although maybe i'm wrong, and i'm confused
if this cool chip you install on the superfamicom/japanese snes carts basically makes them rewriteable, why does it matter about translations/patching/extracting text?
if you can flash whatever game you want to the chip, just flash the game you want.
or were you asking for a translation that does not exist yet?
BUT, if your console can't play (because of region lock) that original japanese cart you used to attach the chip to, then you will have to bypass that. and i guess the normal methods would work.
the above stuff might be wrong, it's my thoughts and would be happy to be corrected.
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just keep in mind with this flash chip you buy, you will need to flash it to write a game each time you want to change the game. it means you will have to have a device to do that, the guy on his website seems to be selling different types of flashers for $50 to $100.
personally i'd rather get an actual flash cart, and put your games on an sd card
While it would probably yield you the right answer there are also many competent hackers here (in case you missed it GBAtemp housed the main general purpose English speaking ROM hacking sections for the GBA, DS, Wii, Wii U and 3ds while they were all current, and arguably continues the house them or at least top tier collections of info on them to this day), and Ryccardo already gave the proper answer that OP would have got there. We could go a bit further but different text encoding and different text locations are the first things you will run into and that will send the time taken up into the days of leisure time.You are better off ask that question to romhacking.net. They are an experts and they will give you 500% right answer.
So you only want to patch the japanese rom to use a fan/'free' translation, and not touch the official english language rom because you want to sell the real english version.If you acquire a NTSC Earthbound rom and flash it to a japanese cart thats basically piracy right? Because you don't own a copy of NTSC Earthbound. You could however own a cheaper copy of Mother 2 that so happens to be flashed/modded/hacked with a fan translation which I think would be technically more legal and cheaper.
this is never going to go to court, no laywers, nothing.which I think would be technically more legal and cheaper.
While it would probably yield you the right answer there are also many competent hackers here (in case you missed it GBAtemp housed the main general purpose English speaking ROM hacking sections for the GBA, DS, Wii, Wii U and 3ds while they were all current, and arguably continues the house them or at least top tier collections of info on them to this day), and Ryccardo already gave the proper answer that OP would have got there. We could go a bit further but different text encoding and different text locations are the first things you will run into and that will send the time taken up into the days of leisure time.
The purpose of his method is to preserve the original. So technically your not destroying a cart by lifting a couple of legs from the chip. His chip could still be removed and the original legs be reattached if someone wanted to do so.
I own Earthbound, Mega Man X3, and X2. I'd like to get rid of those games, because they are expensive and I worry about something happening to them.
The japanese carts are quite common, but they are not translated. I thought I could dump, patch and flash the Japanese cart and have a perfectly legal cartridge. Are fan translations legal or not?