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

[Rothiseph]

Thanks, Rothiseph and droozilla for your comments. Oh, it would be incredibly cool to have a physical box and manual though legally I'm pretty sure I'm playing with fire as it is. Out of curiousity how many other fan-projects got such a treatment?

You're welcome dude, thanks a load for putting in the graft! To see it not only nearing completion, but so quickly.. wow.

I couldn't really say how many fanslations have been put to cart, as I'm pretty new to the scene. I have however picked up a couple of old NES and SNES ones in the past month, and they look stunning. Pretty much as good as new, if not more impressive than legit releases. In honesty I've not seen any DS ones, but I'd definitely be up for looking into translating the box art for the original and seeing what could be done with it, if you were keen to fire over any title image files or whatever could be used in art. I've no skill in gamehax and certainly no intent to pass onto anybody else for profit, purely think it'd be awesome to give such an amazing project a real life box to do full justice.

Examples of the recent pickups I've made: Final Fantasy III, and Secret of Mana 2. Both are extremely high quality, lovely additions to my collection!

[/quote]

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Just letting you know I'm playing through the RPG looking for horrible bugs and crashes.

First thing I did was fix the "1" character so that it was the same width as the other numbers. When it isn't, the stats screens and anything with numbers gets messed up because of alignment issues.

Next I picked up items and made sure that what the game said I picked up was actually what was in my inventory.

Next I went looking for single/double byte problems since I was suspicious about the weapons and armor working fine in the menus as single byte character strings. Okay, I'll buy something and equip it:

!? Oh, stupid single/double byte issues. As a figured, I had to change all of the weapons and armor names into double byte as well (in that 2nd screenshot, I noticed something messed up and tried equipping the "old sword" back again just to see it was just as messed up. If you use single byte characters, every other character will appear, so "Old Sword" becomes "_l_ _w_r_".

So I went and changed everything to double byte:

That's more like it! Now, I also went to talked to everyone I could to make sure the dialogue at least worked and that it fit in the dialog window:

At this point the game crashed. Oops, so I looked at the text source and not only did I see two spaces after the new line character (there should be one otherwise it hugs the left border), I mistyped "\e" at the end as just "\" (forgot the control code) and that crashed the game. Putting it back fixed it.

I've gone through battles as well and that all works though I'm fixing the alignment. They make up a lot of the game but they all share common files so it isn't too bad to fix those.

Edit> Before anyone asks, I'm not using screenshots from too far along in the game mostly because I don't want to spoil the whole thing for everyone.


Also, I looked at the Game Training Tool screens and think I know what I want them to say (as I mentioned before I believe), but for reference, here is the rough plan for those. I know SubnetPie is working on quite a few things and I don't know if he even had time to touch these. If he isn't and others with graphical skills want to make a mockup, that would help, too (I think I can put the resulting image in the game alright; I just don't have any mad art skills myself):

- Top Screen -
(Title)
Start! (It says "そくていスタート" but "Start" is fine since putting "Start Measurement" in there looks odd)

- Bottom Screen-

(Title) - How to Play

Move and jump around the stage as it scrolls. The longer you last, the harder it gets! Focus on your timing and go for the high score!

Left/Right : Move Left/Right
A : Jump

Caution!
When you fall down a hole or hit any of the objects on stage, you will lose a life. After 3 misses, it's Game Over!



Here is the mockup of the title (ripped from a flash slide show. I still think just "Start" is better than what is here but that was made a long time ago by the original team anyway)

And the "message" screen from Arino on the Game Training Tool:

(This message covers both screens)

- A message from Kacho Arino

To all the Players (of the Game Training Tool)!
(Left) Power up your skills!
(Right) Use this tool <strike>1 hour a day</strike> once a day!

This "Game Training Tool" was designed to assist with action games and the fundamental movement associated with them. This will help you quickly decide when you need to "move" and when you need to "wait"

I also plan on using this tool daily and apply what I learn to the challenges I face on the TV show.
If you keep practising with the tool, maybe you can become better than me! Keep at it!

Game Center CX Kacho
Shinya Arino


The illustration in the background: "GCCX", with "Kacho" (課長) written vertically, all encased in a mountain? container?

Arino's signature is in the bottom right but that can be left as is.

-------------
Okay, that is it for now.

Oh, I've tested some of this on my DSTwo and it has all worked so far but I haven't done the same extensive testing as on my PC just because I need it to rapidly debug issues.

 

[Mars_x]

Also, I looked at the Game Training Tool screens and think I know what I want them to say (as I mentioned before I believe), but for reference, here is the rough plan for those. I know SubnetPie is working on quite a few things and I don't know if he even had time to touch these. If he isn't and others with graphical skills want to make a mockup, that would help, too (I think I can put the resulting image in the game alright; I just don't have any mad art skills myself):

- Top Screen -
(Title)
Start! (It says "そくていスタート" but "Start" is fine since putting "Start Measurement" in there looks odd)

- Bottom Screen-

(Title) - How to Play

Move and jump around the stage as it scrolls. The longer you last, the harder it gets! Focus on your timing and go for the high score!

Left/Right : Move Left/Right
A : Jump

Caution!
When you fall down a hole or hit any of the objects on stage, you will lose a life. After 3 misses, it's Game Over!

...

Maybe like this?

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

Those two M's in "Go! Edge Jump Max" are bothering me... Something about them being different from each other just isn't sitting right with me...

Nice! I've only ever seen a turquoise American SNES cart. Seeing it in grey is kind of shocking, though.

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Okay, I'm still testing/fixing the RPG and I managed to get some more of it done.

Today I put the rest of the menus in English so that is nice, though I know in one particular instance I think I should probably change a word. "Explain" -> "Desc". (Description). In a pinch, it works, but "Desc" seems more natural, even if I do have to abbreviate it. Here, I'll make a screenshot

Next, I found I needed to adjust the line lengths since I was running over the border in some spots:

And there is one annoying thing I can't find. In the Japanese version, all enemies are suffixed with the counter "体" which is just a unit of measurement. I don't need it in the English version and wanted to get rid of it but I can't find it. Searching for a single character in the ROM yielded a gajillion hits and many are false positive (all but 1 I assume). I thought about nulling out the character in the font but the one in the font is an anti-aliased character and looks different which makes me think it is an image somewhere. I actually tried placing a black block in the message area where the character is located but that didn't work I think because the character is written over everything at the very end (during battle) I'll keep looking...

Edit> Oh, the resized battle phrases seem to work, anyway:

So yeah, that and realigning the dialogue with the characters in the game is keeping me busy but so far it is all working nicely.

Edit> This is an "Oops" moment but it was pretty funny so I had to share it:

From "The Department of Redundancy Department":

That happened because the Guadia is titled "Gaia Guadia" and the string that puts it into the game is "\u's Guadia \t{0}\n　　underwent a class change!"

For reference, here is what I *think* is left to do before I feel comfortable releasing a patch (all graphics, I think):

Higher Priority
----------------
* Game Training Tool Title screens and message from Arino.
* Change the buttons in the bottom screen that appear when you pause the in-game minigame. They can bring up the challenge list, the manual or the most recent magazine and pop out from the left of the screen. (Edit> This : http://aaronin.jp/shashin/arino2/smallmessage.png )
* The titles for the Adventure Games; The first one is in place but there are no tiles to make up the second one (currently I am using the same title as the first as a place holder)
* Also with the Adventure Games, the smaller title image (Arino : Ace Detective) that appears during the intro to both games. "Loading" screen, too.

Low-Medium Priority
(Read: Not the end of the world if it doesn't make it to the initial alpha/beta patch)
-----------------------
* Any remaining game cartridge images (game select screens)
* Titles/logos that are scattered throughout the magazines
* Any images in the game manuals that use Japanese, though just leaving some of them may be fine if they have no meaning and are just in the background.
* Any tiny background Japanese in the Adventure games (病院 -> Hospital, etc. though they are almost always extremely tiny portions of the image with the exception of maybe one of the apartment complexes)

Concerns
----------
* There are some random strings of Japanese buried in an overlay file. I suspect it has something to do with the RPG End Game scroll if you beat the game without the "quick end" cheat. (Any ending, good or bad, I think)
* I have changed thousands of text files by hand and there have been cases where I forgot a control code or mistyped something and it crashes the game. I found a few of them already but there may be something in some optional dialogue that could crash the game.
* Text strings in the game may be too long or spaced oddly in many spots. They can all be fixed fairly easily but there are thousands of files worth of text to check. People may still find oddities well after the initial patch is released.

 

[Mars_x]

Those two M's in "Go! Edge Jump Max" are bothering me... Something about them being different from each other just isn't sitting right with me...


Nice! I've only ever seen a turquoise American SNES cart. Seeing it in grey is kind of shocking, though.

Sorry! My bad, I didn't notice that when I ripped the original sprite from that old SWF.

Let me know if this is better:

I also did this one:

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

That looks much better!

A couple of things I noticed:

• Where it says "Game Training Tool" in red, the Japanese actually says "Kugure! Girijan MAX" (the title of the game). I know this was how Aaron translated it, for the grammar to fit better, but I don't know if anyone would want to keep that part as the game 's name or not.
• I can't see a period after the red "wait." Note: when putting periods after quoted material, the period goes inside the quotation as well. At least I think it does.
• The English logo is slightly darker in color than the Japanese logo...
• I can't tell if "practising" is misspelled or if that's the European spelling... My spell checker says the S should be a C, but...
• Maybe space out the "Power up your skills" bit a pixel or two? It seems like the "up your skills" part has those three lines running together slightly, while the "Use this tool 1 hour a day once a day" on the other side doesn't have this run-over.
• There's one more block of red text in that first paragraph in the original than in the translation... I can't figure out what it says because I have exhausted all of my google translating resources.

I do like the handwritten stuff. It looks really good.

 

[Mars_x]

That looks much better!


A couple of things I noticed:

• Where it says "Game Training Tool" in red, the Japanese actually says "Kugure! Girijan MAX" (the title of the game). I know this was how Aaron translated it, for the grammar to fit better, but I don't know if anyone would want to keep that part as the game 's name or not.
• I can't see a period after the red "wait." Note: when putting periods after quoted material, the period goes inside the quotation as well. At least I think it does.
• The English logo is slightly darker in color than the Japanese logo...
• I can't tell if "practising" is misspelled or if that's the European spelling... My spell checker says the C should be an S, but...
• Maybe space out the "Power up your skills" bit a pixel or two? It seems like the "up your skills" part has those three lines running together slightly, while the "Use this tool 1 hour a day once a day" on the other side doesn't have this run-over.
• There's one more block of red text in that first paragraph in the original than in the translation... I can't figure out what it says because I have exhausted all of my google translating resources.

I do like the handwritten stuff. It looks really good.

I'll fix it ASAP.
Will update this post when done.

Ok, done:

• Im going to leave "Game Training Tool" at the moment, since it references a tool throughout the text and it was the translation I was given. If everyone reaches a consensus about this I can easily change it to "Go!EdgeJumpMAX" (Personally, I think it would look weird and there is no need to repeat the name).
• If I put it inside the quotation it looks like it's actually part of the word. I left it outside this time.
• Fixed
• Fixed
• Fixed (?) I was not sure what you meant, but let me know if it still looks bad.
• I noticed that too when coloring the text. I think it is "quickly decide". If anyone tells me what it is I can change it quickly. Will leave it like that atm.

Currently making this:

* Change the buttons in the bottom screen that appear when you pause the in-game minigame. They can bring up the challenge list, the manual or the most recent magazine and pop out from the left of the screen. (Edit> This : http://aaronin.jp/shashin/arino2/smallmessage.png )

These are a bit problematic.
First, I don't know what the shape in the button background is supposed to be (I would remove that entirely, but I don't know if it's important).
And second, it's pretty hard to cramp CHALLENGE LIST in such a small space.
I'll see what I can do.

Edit, this is what I could do:

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

I've been wondering this for a while...but why do the buttons for resume/bottom screen and off/on look inverted all the time in just about every screenshot? I thought the inverted colors were only for when the buttons were pressed.

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Oh, ignore those inverted buttons and their look; they were copied as is from the original game at first and SubnetPie already fixed those.

That exact screenshot is a bit old. I'm not at my PC so I'll have to take some more recent shots when I get home later today.

Thanks for the images. I hope I can get SubnetPie to see this so we can prevent duplication of work and get these images in the game. They look great. (I wonder if the Kacho kanji in the background could have been left as is but it doesn't matter. What you have is great!

It's going to take another couple days to get time to work through the RPG and try to get these images here in the game, but it's looking good. The Adventure game titles should be the last major thing left after that. I actually have mockups as does SubnetPie; it's just a matter of trying to shoehorn them into the game...I believe, anyway. Check back with me later on this.

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

I am so excited for all this progress in such a short amount of time! I cannot wait until the moment I get to load up that game and see it in English, in all its majesty!

But...uh...I won't tell if you won't.

Spoiler: *wink and a nudge*

You know what I'm talking about.

 

[MarkDarkness]

So close to a patch already! Aaron and the contributors sure did a kickass job here!

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

We're almost there, though of course it always feels like the last 5% takes forever, sort of like installing something on Windows.

Okay, I'll start by reporting what I have done with the RPG. At this point it is fully playable in English to the end of the 4 main challenges, anyway. There is still more to the game after that but I don't see anymore game crashing bugs as of yet, for what it is worth.

Secondly, I noticed the ending credits (Staff names) for the Adventure Game (Part 2) were all in Japanese so I rewrote it all in English. Easy but time consuming and I think I will need to check the alignment for this in-game. (Edit> Some of it works, some of it is waaaay off. Since this is hex edited into an overlay file I may need to play with it a bit)

And as an interesting twist, instead of reporting what I've already done, I will report everything I *think* I can find that isn't already done to bring this all to 100% in all aspects, no matter how trivial. Not all of these will have to be done right away but if we have an ultimate goal of 100% everything, it will need to be done eventually. Don't let the number of items discourage you. Many are underway and/or may only require simple changes when we do get around to it. Also, very few of them are even required to get your way through the game.

So yeah, I went through and scanned the files in the game as well as played through it all to see what was left to complete it all 100% (not just the higher priority items). As far as I can see so far in addition to what SubnetPie has been reporting to me:

* The in-room menu when you pause a game (SubnetPie has the graphics and is working on this)
* The Game Training Tool messages and screens (Again, SubnetPie has the graphics and is working on it)

* The game select screen for the 2nd Adventure game is in Japanese. Is this another special case like the Arino
Challenges "game"?
http://aaronin.jp/shashin/arino2/kacho2menu.png

* The in-game title screen for Triotos DX (In the shop) isn't done yet but when I looked at the image through Tinke, the actual title was just in greyscale. Is the color overlayed afterwards? It looks so. The title is in the compressed file tridx_title_bg.cncgr but it is monochrome. I have a mockup already from earlier in this thread, but it looks like just the base monochrome image needs to be substituted
http://aaronin.jp/shashin/arino2/triotosdx.png

* There are VS character portraits and taunts in Japanese in Triotos DX. It isn't completely necessary right now but since every letter is mapped on an image to form the text, it is very tedious and time consuming, though I could "cheat" and make blocks of 32x08 strings instead of 08x08 letters to speed things up. There are 7 characters + 1 secret character. The dialogue/taunts are very short but it is still tedious to work with text as graphics like this. Fortunately, the taunts are all basic ("I will defeat you!" "Oh no, I lost!" "Yay! I won!" type of thing) You aren't missing anything insightful by not having it right away.

* In both Adventure games, there is an action sequence at the end. There is a support bar for both.
http://aaronin.jp/shashin/arino2/advaction1.png

* None of the settings screen items are done (Settings from the main menu)
http://aaronin.jp/shashin/arino2/settings.png

* Dialogue "Name" window boxes (in-room when you speak with young Arino, your mother, etc.; it is the title of the speaker that is shown when someone is talking)

* Cartridge graphics. Some are done, some don't need it, but there are still a few:
http://aaronin.jp/shashin/arino2/cartpics.png

* Manual and magazine graphics
http://aaronin.jp/shashin/arino2/manstuff.png
http://aaronin.jp/shashin/arino2/magstuff.png

* Fixed Adventure game titles, both the main title and the ones in the intro sequences. Also, the loading image which is an even smaller version of the logo. The title for the 1st Adventure is already done and in place. I just need tiles for the "Part 2" for the second game, and then smaller versions of the title logo.

* Background art in the Adventure Games, though almost all of it is too small to really bother with except for the housing complex (one of them) and maybe the hospital. Most of it can be left as-is, though.
http://aaronin.jp/shashin/arino2/km_bg_scene25.cnscr.png
http://aaronin.jp/shashin/arino2/km_bg_scene34.cnscr.png

* This patch of strings in an overlay file. I'm certain it is related to the final story "scroll" at the end of the RPG when you beat it. Problem is these strings are out of order and I need to see this in action to find out the order. It doesn't look to be anything deep or thought provoking; more like "You are victorious and brought peace to the land".

やみは　きえない――――
きっと　あたらしいせかいを
　　　　　　　　　だいさんぶ
そして　あたらしいせかいには
　　　　　　　　　しゅうまく
きえたわけでは　ありません。
やみのちからの　しょうたいは
それはまた　べつの　きかいに
あたらしいものがたりが――――
つくることが　できるはず――――
せかいの　そうぞうしゅを　たおし
　　　　　　『やみをつくりしもの』
　　　　　　ガディアクエストサーガ
やみのちからの　きょういは　えいえんに
せかいを　コントロールし　いじしようとする
そうぞうしゅ――カミ――の　ちからでした。
おはなしすることに　いたしましょう――――
これにて　この　ものがたりは　おしまいです。
しかし　みずからのなかに　やみをもちながらも
やみにまけない　ひかりあふれる　せかいをきずく
けついをした　３にんのゆうしゃたちならば――――
そのくびきから　かいほうされた　いまでも――――

Pfew, I'm zonked out, but at the very least I can confirm the game is 100% playable through all of the main challenges in the game. As you can see above there are still things to do but it shouldn't get in the way of alpha version testing which I hope to start ASAP.

 

[richterw]

This is too good to be true.
I understand that the goal is to reach 100%, but I assure to you: If the patch was released now, he would be perfect in that state. Like a dream becoming reality.
If you put your name on the title screen, I do not even mind, because that would be more than deserved, if you get some credit immediately at the time the game is turned on.

 

[Mars_x]

- snip -

If you need more mockups I can work on those.
I just need the translation and the original graphics.

If you already have the Ace Detective and GameFan logos,
please post them so I work with those.

Nice to know the game is finally playable through the challenges! Awesome!

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

GAME CENTER CX

KACHO...ON!

All of the screenshots look amazing. It feels like just yesterday that I was frustratedly waiting for Xvirus to update on the progress.

 

[cubeboy]

GAME CENTER CX

KACHO...ON!

All of the screenshots look amazing. It feels like just yesterday that I was frustratedly waiting for Xvirus to update on the progress.

Kacho On indeed! Great work team, you guys are doing an amazing job localizing this, while keeping the GCCX charm.

 

[SubnetPie]

Excellent work Mars_x and Sora for proofing.

Here are the mockups in game:

I assume we are keeping the Game Center CX logo as is in the upper left of the starting message?

I believe the ending screen and the controls logo is all that is is needed to finish off the trainer.

If we could get some translation and mockups I'll get them into the game.

Update:

In game buttons are in.

 

[Mars_x]

Excellent work Mars_x and Sora for proofing.

I assume we are keeping the Game Center CS logo as is in the upper left of the starting message?

I believe the ending screen and the controls logo is all that is is needed to finish off the trainer.

If we could get some translation and mockups I'll get them into the game.

Thanks, I can work on these later today when I get home.
I would just need translation for the ending screen.

As for the logo, I can switch it for the Retro Game Challenge one (or RGC 2 if there is a final version of this one).

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Oh right, you get different "ranks" depending on how well you play the training tool. I'll fire up tinke on my lunch break and list them all up for you.

On the results screen, the top line reads "current record". Below your score it says "Game Center CX Rank"

EDIT> Here you go. Some companies use different titles for specific ranks but I'll leave that up to you if you want to change it. You don't need to put in "Class" if you don't want. If just "President" "Executive Manager", etc. looks fine, stick with that. It's a small nuance but I think either way is acceptable in this circumstance.

社長　級　　　　　→　　　President Class
専務　級　　　　　→　　　Executive Manager Class
常務　級　　　　　→　　　Executive Class
部長　級　　　　　→　　　Director Class
課長　級　　　　　→　　　Manager Class (Kacho Class)
課長代理　級　　→　　　Deputy Manager Class (Deputy Kacho Class)
係長　級　　　　　→　　　Assistant Manager Class
主任　級　　　　　→　　　Senior Class
平社員　級　　　　→　　Lowly Employee Class

EDIT> I'll have some more to post later today. Other than working on a FAQ for release (release notes), I'm plugging away at the Triotos DX VS mockery/phrases that appear next to the character portraits. I was going to take a stab at the Adventure game titles again but if SubnetPie is on to that I can look at that odd game select menu in Japanese bug with the second Adventure game and perhaps the Triotos DX title screen? It should be similar to the monochrome one with the colors overlayed at the end.

Alpha testing can start as soon as the Training Tool (ending) and Adventure Game(s) titles are in place and working. I have already contacted a few people about this about a private test, but I need to discuss with the others working on this before I commit to any kind of public release timeframe, especially since there are a few lingering things left to do.