Time for a little update:
The basic hacking in order to insert the dialogue lines is figured out and done. Huge thanks to
@Gil_Unx for creating the header.bin patch script and helping me figuring out the process to create the smallest possible patch.
We were able to insert an early version of the whole script and create a xdelta patch of around 1,7MB. While the size will increase for sure after modifying other parts of the game it's reassuring to know that we will be able to distribute a small patch when everything is done.
However there are some things that are not preventing us from releasing the patch in the future but would nice to be implement nonetheless:
1. Replacing japanese textures in the ISO:
ZZT3 uses three picture formats: tpl, tm2 and png. While to last two don't pose any problem at all, we are currently not able to decompress the image from the tpl files, modifying them and recompress them afterwards. This results in us being unable to replace large parts of the menu.
We will provide a workaround by creating a texture replacement pack for usage with PPSSPP but unfortunaly this won't work on real hardware and is quite a messy way to do things.
Help wanted:
If you know how to deal with the tpl files (not to be confused with the tpl format the GC / Wii uses) please get in touch. Currently this is our biggest issue and any help would be appreciated.
2. Replacing the fixed-width font with a variable-width font
Currently we are using the game's default font and shifting it in order to make it readable. This works but the text would be a lot cleaner if the game is using a variable-width font.
Help wanted:
Please contact us if you are able to create some ASM code that deals with this issue.
I updated the first post with the text above.