Extracting Text from US SNES Games

[Diva_of_Despair]

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. :/

 

[Ryccardo]

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)

 

[Diva_of_Despair]

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)

Yeah, a lot more to it than I thought (for me anyway).

The reason I ask the question is, because Voultar created a way to easily patch Japanese carts. It would be nice to get rid of some of my more expensive games on the SNES and buy the Japanese version and patch it myself.

 

[Ryccardo]

The reason I ask the question is, because Voultar created a way to easily patch Japanese carts.

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)

 

[spotanjo3]

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. :/

You are better off ask that question to romhacking.net. They are an experts and they will give you 500% right answer.

 

[Diva_of_Despair]

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)

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?

 

[cearp]

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?
the creator says people use it to have their english translated games on nice hardware (nice metal contacts/pins, a good quality cart shell etc).
but there is nothing from stopping you flashing a totally different game on whatever cart. it doesn't have to 'match up'.

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.

--

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

 

[Ryccardo]

Are fan translations legal or not?

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 text

* of course it's not yours if you're using someone else's translation as in the original hypothesis of the "Japanese to American" patch - interestingly, similiar kinds of patches, like ones to convert between some game 1.0 and some game 1.1, are generally tolerated too

And of course, as long as it's for your personal use (and then a little more), they wouldn't really care anyway - I don't know US law specifically, but in many developed countries piracy (as in obtaining an unlicensed copy of something for non-profit personal use, without being involved in sharing them) isn't even a penal crime!

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.

With all the above generic caveats applying, once you give/sell your American original, you also lose the right to use your legal* backups

* you did create your own roms even if they're impossible to tell apart from the one you can find online from illegal sources, riiiight?

If you wanted to (probably) be 100% clean, you would have to buy the Japanese version, dump it yourself, translate it yourself, and then optionally make your custom card (whether you leave the original Japanese rom inserted but disconnected, or you put it in a drawer, doesn't matter as long as you're not letting others have it)

 

[Diva_of_Despair]

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.

--

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

In the video he dumps a Megaman and Bass (NTSC-J), then patches it with a translation. He puts the newly patched rom onto the chip. I personally thought this is the more legal way to do things and your not destroying anything.

Say for instance you had Earthbound ($150-$200 game) and you would rather sell that game and buy the Japanese version, because your tired of wondering if something is going to happen to it (stops working, stolen, lost). You could get a cheap Mother 2 cartridge. Dump the rom, patch the game with an english fan translated patch and then flash it to his chip.

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.

 

[FAST6191]

You are better off ask that question to romhacking.net. They are an experts and they will give you 500% right answer.

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.

 

[cearp]

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.

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.
Ok, that is going to severely restrict yourself.

You could also just dump your roms, and have them all on one single flash card.
Sell the original carts if you want.

If you cannot live with:
a) having a 'real' flashcart
b) dumping your own carts, keeping the roms and selling the carts
c) simply downloading the roms aka piracy
then in all honesty I think you need to lighten up
I'm not advocating piracy, I'm not telling you to. I'm just trying to explain/show that you are making things very difficult for yourself.
I have a 3rd party flash cart for gameboy, and also some official nintendo ones (gb memory) that i reflash and it's great. very cool to use the original hardware.

It's moral issue that doesn't sit well with your religion?
Or something else? I'm curious and not trying to offend.

which I think would be technically more legal and cheaper.

this is never going to go to court, no laywers, nothing.
there's no reason to even consider what is 'more' legal.

But of course, there's always the slim chance of the police searching your house with a warrant:
Maybe they thought the soldering iron you bought (to solder this chip you want) was used being used to manufacture explosives or something.
As they break down the door, they just so happen to see a Japanese nintendo game in your snes, but the text on the tv is in English...
They look into it further, then ask you what's going on, are you a hacker? is this a fraudulent game?
They take you in for questioning.
It's good cop bad cop.
Good cop asks you what games you like.
Bad cop slams the desk and demands to know how you obtained this special cart.
Being scared, you sing like a canary. You explain you bought a japanese game from ebay, the english version was too expensive. You dumped the japanese game, and found a free fan translation. Even though the game had a western release, a team still translated it anyway. Then how you patched the rom you dumped with the free translation you found online. You then explain how you bought a chip some guy made, to redirect the data from the original rom to a custom one you can program. Then you flashed the patched rom to the chip and that's how you have it. You tell them it's all legal, you didn't break a law.

It seems to go well, and they put you back in the cell for a few hours whilst they do some paperwork, and you get released on bail.
A while later new evidence comes in, the free fan translation was actually fake, the team just dumped an early leaked version of the final english rom and so all the ips patch does is simply convert the japanese version to the official english rom.
Next thing is you're doing 25 to life and sharing a cell with a guy called bubba.

 

[spotanjo3]

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.

That's good to know.

 

[Diva_of_Despair]

I thought there was some validity in doing things this way, but i guess not.

 

[Captain_N]

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?

Wouldn't it be easier to just flash earthbound to a flash board like the one infinateneslives has. I have made star ocean english (12MB rom), rockman and forte, tales of phantasia and secret of mana 3 using his boards. I know you cant use flash boards to do megaman x2/3.

Whats the point of getting rid of the expensive carts to persevere them? Only thing i can say is you want the cash for them. They better have the box,manuals and inserts and be in mint condition to be worth over $100.