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

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Thanks for the support!

Okay, I'm writing from my phone so I'll keep it short until I can get to a PC but I manages to finish the second adventure game and confirmed it is fully playable in English right to the very end.

I had a strange problem I managed to also fix, too. In the game near the end you have to enter two words as passwords to continue with the game. Problem was the name entry screen is all in English so it was impossible to enter the Japanese characters. In the overlay file I found the passwords and fortunately they are both 4 characters in English so a simple swap and...pfew, it worked. I had some odd crashing for a bit but it seemed to fix itself after realigning some text. I think overrunning the screen does strange things.

So now I'm swapping the title graphics and I have had some success so hooray. There shouldn't be too much to do. I need to put in the shrunken title logo for the in-game title during the intros and make a "Part 2" graphic to compliment the Part 1 graphic but other than that, that's pretty much everything in the adventure games unless you want to go and replace the sign on the hospital with hospital or something.

I'm looking at the RPG now and I'm going to touch up the intro and work on putting in some of the story that kikuchiyo was working on. The non-monospaced font is a double edged sword as I can fit more on the screen but I lose some alignment ability. Meh, the content is more important right now anyway.

Also, I want to edit the challenges for the adventure now that I actually have the games done.

There is one mystery at the end I might need to rewrite in part but it is also ambiguous in the game so I'm not sure right now (underground passage and an underground facility used interchangeably...it won't totally confuse the player given the context but I think it could be clearer. The second adventure is a bit more odd story-wise than the first anyway.

 

[Mars_x]

I tried to use some different fonts to make the menus look more similar to the original. The vertical spacing is screwed up a bit, though, because it was a quick job. The first image uses FreeSans , the second uses FreeUniversal. Both were set to "no hinting" in GIMP.

This is it.

FreeSans

 

[DaVince]

Agreed, those look great. (If you line up all options to be the same amount of pixels above the dotted lines ; Phone is higher positioned on its line than Games for example.)

 

[usr_share]

Here is a PNG with different labels in FreeSans of appropriate size: no hinting, slight hinting; resized where required. Some labels also use Nimbus Sans L Condensed (which is related to FreeSans).

Here is how the three screens look with unhinted FreeSans.

Here are the three screens with slightly hinted FreeSans.
XCF sources and font files (don't worry, these are free fonts) are here.

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Excellent! Thanks for that. I'll see what I can do with that (been busy this past week/weekend but I hope to work on it more in the next day or so)

Okay, from my end I did have some success with the graphics in the Adventure game and I went so far as to try the Triotos title...well, it almost worked (palette issue, I believe)

Also, while I'm on the subject. Other than the 2 Adventure Games (done except for title logos in the intro) and the RPG (in progress) all I can see left other than the menus that really sticks out are the Triotos explanation windows and the Game Training Tool (for which I seem to remember a mock up being made; I can probably use that)

Here are the Triotos screens (menu). I think this is really the only place any real Japanese is even used (and they are all individual tiled characers to make up the sentences...ugh. I might plaster an image over top of what is there so in that case as long as it fits in the window it should be fine.

I'm not sure which font would be appropriate but if someone wants to make a mockup of these (5 in total) Here is what they mean (I'll put the explanation next to what is highlighted in each screen):

(I'm going to go more for the feel of the old Tetris and puzzle game explanations but feel free to spice up anything I put here to your heart's content, especially if it is too long or long-winded)

Endless - Take is slow and easy in this single player mode as you wipe out the triominos!
VS. RIVAL - Take on 10 CPU rivals! Beat them all to see the ending!
VS. 2P - Play Triotos with someone close to you.
DEMO A - Watch and learn about the basics.
DEMO B - See advanced and high scoring techniques.

Ah, here are the only two Japanese image screens in the Game Training Tool. I'll have to get back to you on that big one with Arino on it.

I guess that is it for now (it is getting late here). Ah! Before I forget, in the Adventure Game (the 2nd one) there is an ending credits scene. Would it be wrong to slip in the names of those that are helping with this translation project or should I just leave the names in the credits as-is?

Spoiler

 

[Fishaman P]

I guess that is it for now (it is getting late here). Ah! Before I forget, in the Adventure Game (the 2nd one) there is an ending credits scene. Would it be wrong to slip in the names of those that are helping with this translation project or should I just leave the names in the credits as-is?

Spoiler

Hmmm... that's an interesting idea. However, I think it would be more appropriate to keep the credits there untouched (well, translated, but you know what I meant) and to instead alter GCCX2's end credits, assuming that's not a huge pain in the ass.

 

[usr_share]

My attempt at fitting the translated text into that box. Slightly reworded the first two to make them fit.


The font, in Bitmap Font Writer format:

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

That looks excellent!

Okay, I'll give that a go. I've been messing with the images for other parts of the game, specifically the smaller logo in the adventure game intros and it is *extremely* tedious and filled with trial, error and lots of it just plain not working. Is there any expert here on Tinke or anyone that can use it with reasonable proficiency? I'm very slowly getting through it but my progress is extremely slow on this front. It might be faster for me to blast through the text of the RPG along with Kikuchiyo at this point.

However, I think adding the roman characters to the Triotos font "image" and adding a bunch of individual characters may actually work (though that too is extremely slow work). As long as they are the same size as the characters used, it shouldn't be *too* bad to do; just time consuming.

I'll give that a go today too and maybe at the end of the day I'll post images of what I managed to do and what just isn't working (or going very slow) to give you an idea of what is going on.

EDIT> Okay, it is almost 2AM here but I think I have Triotos' graphics figured out. I just need to put everything in place.

I changed the menu graphic to include the font posted earlier:

And when I played with the OAM table somewhat I had success. i purposely ran a line over to see what would happen, but the actual text should fit nicely in the window.

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Okay, last update before bed. I went back and lined up the text a bit more and put a few extra characters in as per the suggestion in the animated gif posted earlier (this is just the first part)

I guess the rest is just busy work. It works fine in-game as-is so there shouldn't be any big problem doing the rest. It's just going to take a day or so to get all the text in, most likely.

Maybe I'll *finally* tackle the game in-room (main) menus after this...

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Okay, I have some good news and some...could-be-better news

First, I managed to finish all the messages on the Triotos main menu screen

Could-be-better news : I discovered there are 22 message bubbles during the demo telling you what is going on, how you pull off certain moves, etc.

But, other good news! The menus in Guadia Quest Saga are set up in a similar matter with each individual character mapped to a place in each menu. It's slow as all hell, but I managed to get one of the menus done and working in English:

Could-be-better news : The menus in Arino's room, the Game shop, etc. are totally messed up. I have absolutely no idea what to do with them. There are multiple 16-color images in a single image file and the game palette-swaps to get each part of the source image tiled correctly on screen and in the proper color. I get errors trying to import fixed graphics and even when I do fudge the image to make it work the colors go totally corrupt and/or blank.

These menus are special cases and I'm honestly not sure how to tackle them at this point. The main menu uses a similar technique so in theory it should be doable but I just don't see what I have to do to get it to work... erm, help?

In any case, the menus for Guadia Quest and the message bubbles in Triotos are going to take some time so I have something to do in the meantime (not to mention the text of the RPG along with Kikuchiyo) but if *anyone* out there is good with Tinke and/or can lend a hand with the main menus used in-game please let me know.

Edit> I found the Haggleman mockup and tried to put it in the game. There are some dead zones I can't write anything in for some reason (still looking into that) but here is what it looks like in the game when I forced the logo to work around the square dead zones. I'll have to rework this but for the moment it is servicable.

Edit> Here are the 22 messagse in the Triotos Demos, for reference. I need to find a way to put them in English, preferable in a space of 21 characters in 2 (3?) lines

３つのブロックがつながった　トリオミノを
じゅうじボタンの　さゆうで　うごかそう！

Ａボタンでトリオミノが　みぎにかいてん
Ｂボタンでトリオミノが　ひだりにかいてん

くうちゅうに　のこった　ブロックは
ズレて　じめんに　おちていくぞ！

おなじマークの　ブロックを　タテかヨコに
３コいじょう　ならべると……

４コまとめけし　５コまとめけしだと
いろいろな　かたちで　けせれぞ！

６コいじょうの　ブロックを
いちどに　まとめて　けすと……

てんめつする　マルチマークブロックが
みぎうえの　ＮＥＸＴに　あらわれる！

マルチマークブロックは　どのマークの
ブロックとしても　つかえるぞ！

６コいじょう　まとめて　ブロックをけすと
ゆうりに　ゲームを　すすめられるぞ！

もしも　たくさんの　ブロックが
つみあがってしまったら……

そんなときは　おなじマークの　ブロックを
ヨコ１れつに　そろえてみよう！

これが　ラインスパークだ！
おなじマークの　ブロックが　ぜんぶきえる！



たくさんの　ブロックを　いちどに　けせる
じょうきゅうテクニックを　しょうかいだ！
まとめて　けすことを　いしきして

トリオミノを　はいちしていこう！
２れつどうじに　２つのばしょで
ラインスパークを　おこすと……

りょうほうの　マークのブロックが
ぜんぶきえる　ダブルラインスパークだ！

どうじに　ブロックを　９コいじょう
まとめて　けしてみよう！

マルチマークブロックシャワーが　はっせい！
マルチマークブロックが　ふってくるぞ！

さらに　ちがうブロックの　ペアのあいだに
マルチマークブロックを　おくと……

りょうほうの　マークのブロックが　すべて
きえる　ツーマークラインスパークだ！

ラインスパークは　いろいろな　カタチで
おこすことが　できるぞ！

いろいろな　つみかた　けしかたに
ちょうせん　してみよう！

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Update Part 2 (See my previous post for the lion's share of updates)

I made a real quick video showing some of what has been done recently and what I never really showed off before. It will be a couple hours before the video is processed but whenever it is done it will be playable here: (you might have to watch it on youtube directly)

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Quick question for you all. At what point do you think I should pass around an alpha version of this English patch?

Most of the main game is done so the last big or noticable things are:

* The RPG menus
* The RPG text
* The Triotos Messages in the Demo
* Various graphics in-game like "Cleared" and the menus <= These will be a nightmare to do

The challenges for the RPG don't actually require too much text or interaction with anyone to complete them. There is some grinding and finding villages and all but only the last one has you go to some specific place and battle some specific character. The text for the RPG will probably take a little while yet but there is a lot in the rest of the game (the entire game, not just the RPG) that can already be tested. I wouldn't want it getting around to everyone under the false impression it is any kind of final version, of course. At the same time, I know some of you must be getting impatient. I know I've only been on this project a half year or so but maybe that seems like an eternity for some...

EDIT> I thought of some English for the Triotos demo messages. Now I just have to fit them in... I also finished a few other of the menus in the RPG (buy/sell, Items, actions involving selecting players or using items). I do need to do the battle ones, though. That's a pretty major menu in an RPG anyway.

 

[Mars_x]

I am DYING to test the game. But I understand translation time, I have waited years for translations (even partial ones).
Objectively speaking the first patch released should have translated text enough to at least finish the main challenges.
For example, the 'Cleared' text and other in-game text images (not menus) and Triotos demo aren't needed to complete a playthrough.
So, yes. The RPG Menu is kind of needed (as well as other in-game menus) but at least not the entire RPG text.
I wouldn't mind waiting more time to get a polished first version of the patch.

 

[DaVince]

When it's finished.

I mean, I'm a proponent of progressive, in-between releases, but you've gotten the majority of the work done already. Might as well finish it entirely before releasing (as long as something along the way doesn't unnecessarily delay progress for an unreasonable amount of time, of course).

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Okay, duly noted. However, there is a vast plethora of text and once I'm in a state where all of the main game challenges are complete I don't mind having other start to look at it since there is just too much content for me to review on my own all the while trying to finish up the rest of the game.

On that note, I had another small success with the RPG but it came at a heavy cost (over an hour of frustration and fiddling with Tinke). I'll share what I did and *how* just in case others are also having problems with it.

The success :

The cost :

Importing the gqs_obj_window_money.NCGR file into tinke initially gives this:

(This is after I messed with the font in place which was おかね written in reverse, so ね　か　お in the three spots next to the "M")

That's fine and all and I can export to PNG, edit in my favorite (or least favorite) paint program and import it back in. Wonderful. However, everything was corrupt and I couldn't figure out why? Even importing what I just exported made Tinke crap out.

Then I played with the width, which Tinke does not get correct, from a width of 256 to 176 and...

Changing that and importing it into the game worked. Note that the width needed does change with each image, so it's sort of like a guessing game.

So it looks like I have to play with the import/export image width before messing with the tiles :/ This is slow and painful but at least there aren't as many files as the Adventure games had of raw text. I think I just got lucky with the main menu and it's width.

Damn, that was so frustrating. Who knows, maybe this will lead to how to get those menus in-room.

So yeah, anyone with Tinke experience is *really* appreciated.

EDIT> Another small success:

Edit> I've changed "Equip" to "Items" in the main menu. It makes more sense that way.

In any case the menus are falling into place and I found where the item data is stored so I'm doing that, too.

Kikuchiyo can still continue with the RPG dialogue at his own pace. I've got quote a bit on my plate as it is, and I haven't even touched those Triotos demo messages yet.

 

[HBidoo]

Wow, this is moving pretty fast!
You, Sir, are awesome!

Good luck with the RPG part!

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Here is some more success I had at around 2AM before I fell asleep on my keyboard: (note the change from EQUIP to ITEMS in the main menu)

The menus can be changed as it is a matter of pixel editing at this point but I wanted something there that was usable in any case. The items and item descriptions are in separate files so I need to sit down and go through all of them (there are a surprising number of items in the game) I am stuck with descriptions since I can't write more than the space that is given but hopefully I can fit something usable in for everything.

This is going to take a bit of time to get through it all but at least I can immediately see the results.

Wow, this is moving pretty fast!
You, Sir, are awesome!

Good luck with the RPG part!

Thank you very much. The RPG menus and items should move along fairly quickly. It is the rest of the game dialogue that needs some work. That reminds me, I need to put in the fixed battle messages...

And Ha! I see someone actually downvoted that last video update I posted. I guess some people are just "I WANT THE MOON! ON MY DESK! BY TOMORROW MORNING! ALL OF IT!"

 

[Fishaman P]

Hmmm... I must admit, the M in "ITEMS" looks very strange compared to the M in "MAGIC".
Of course, this can always be touched up later.

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Okay, I'll fix that up in the next update

Right now, just *finally* figuring out the menus alone is a huge Eureka! moment.

Come to think of it I could elongate those options so things like Guadia don't look so squished.

If anyone wants to make a mockup it should be easy to put it in now.

EDIT> How's this look? (Though now that I see the dialogue falling into place, it seems that GUADIA should be NPC or something. It's a 4th character that can be in your party (Guadia Meister) that can have their own Guadia I believe)

 

[Mars_x]

EDIT> How's this look? (Though now that I see the dialogue falling into place, it seems that GUADIA should be NPC or something. It's a 4th character that can be in your party (Guadia Meister) that can have their own Guadia I believe)

What does it show when you select it?
Maybe change it to "TEAM"?

Edit:

Here's a comparison with the first game. Might be helpful.

I would stick to naming the menu 'Menu' instead of Command, or
maybe 'Actions'.

And of course, change the M of Ducats to D (or Dc, or a symbol).

About Guadia/Pact, I would have to know what new changes were
made with the first game on that particular section of the menu
to know what name would apply better, but for the record I like
the sound of 'Team' as I said above.

Also, I think the font of the first translation looks better (a bit more bold).