ROM Hack Metal Max 3 Translation Project

[MetalFan]

Metalmax 3 Ds Translation ASM Hacking needed

Hi all, We are working on the translation of Metal Max 3 NDS

Staff for now on this translation


Editor and tester------------------- MetalFan
Translator and Tester--------------- Terithian
Programmer and hacking--------------- DarthNemesis


We are having problems with the number of characters per line of text, we need to increase it. My knowledge in assembly

are almost none could someone please help us. I suspect that the restriction is in the file arm9.bin but I have no idea

where to start. You are very welcome to participate in this project

Thanks in advance

The limitations are as follows:
Only 11 characters allowed for item names, skillnames, monters names, town names.

Only 59 characters are allowed per box in the main dialogues.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

ASM Hacking needed!!!!!

Hi all, We are working on the translation of Metal Max 3 NDS

Staff for now on this translation

Programmer and hacking--------------- DarthNemesis

Project Lead, Translator and Tester--------------- Terithian
Editor and tester------------------- MetalFan


We are having problems with the number of characters per line of text, we need to increase it. My knowledge in assembly

are almost none could someone please help us. I suspect that the restriction is in the file arm9.bin but I have no idea

where to start. You are very welcome to participate in this project

Thanks in advance

The limitations are as follows:
Only 11 characters allowed for item names, skillnames, monters names, town names.

Only 59 characters are allowed per box in the main dialogues.

On the other hand

I continue working with the graphics editing but i have being problems to view the tiles correctly in the NCGR that has an NSCR Map file. I Use Tinke 0.91 and Crystaltile 2. Someone has expirience working with this kind of graphics files?????

Thanks in advance

 

[Terithian]

The 59 characters per box isn't too bad, at least, since I can make as many boxes as I want. It does force me to split up sentences occasionally, though, which makes it a little more awkward to read. I'm also doing my best with the name limits. Even if they don't get fixed, it should be fine.
The image insertion is definitely necessary, though.

 

[Terithian]

I've been experimenting with translating stuff in the ARM9 file, but there's an issue when it comes to reinsertion: unless the translation has exactly the same number of characters as the original, it messes up everything else in the file. As I translate the dialogue, I'm removing its dependency on the ARM by replacing the reference calls to names with just the actual name, but there are still some things that can't be changed, like calls to names the player chooses to be called, certain pieces of system and menu text, calls to things like the player's current amount of money, and so on. I can do my best to make do with this limitation, but some translations might end up unclear or shortened, like Drumcan (the name the player is called in the beginning) being shortened to Drmcn, or possibly just Drum, if that sounds better.

 

[Terithian]

Sorry for the multiple posts, but I finally edited the first post to make it more like an actual project page. I also added some screenshots I took of my English translations that I've done so far, so feel free to take a look.

 

[momin]

Wow! very interested in this project, never played it because of the language but the game look so unique... Hope you good luck, I will be there playing it the release day of the patch.

Also, if you need any help with graphics let me know.

 

[Terithian]

You'd have to ask MetalFan about that, but thanks for the support! Don't get your hopes up about a release anytime soon, though; although there's not much main story, there's still a ton of NPC dialogue, sidequests, and optional events that'll take a long time to translate.

 

[Terithian]

Aw damn, the names of drinks you can order in the bar are stored in the ARM file as well. There are some fantastic drink names in there, like the Dopamine Soda or the Steroid Sour, and I'll have to shorten them if that never gets fixed.

EDIT: Wow, I never realized how deep some of the dialogue trees are in the game. Just the first conversation with Joaquin's mother can go in numerous different directions and affects the dialogue with Joaquin immediately after, as well. You only get one shot at it, too. I'll have to do a lot of reloading saves to check all the dialogue in-game.

 

[Terithian]

Screenshots updated to show edited images and a couple of vehicles.

 

[Lilfut]

Glad to see this is still going strong without me, at least.

I think the biggest ASM hacking need will probably be the name input for Drumcan and the vehicles. The English keyboard sucks and is hard to access, and the character limit is way too short to do anything in English.

 

[Terithian]

I don't know if we can do anything about the character limit for name inputs, and 7 isn't too bad (older games have far worse, I still remember only having 4 characters for names in Breath of Fire), but I found a makeshift way to put in proper English characters. The ARM9 text file has a section in it that contains all the characters used in the name input screen. I can easily take the line containing all the Kanji you can choose on the name input screen, which I doubt anyone playing in English needs, and replace them with normal-width English upper and lower case letters. It works well enough, if a bit inconvenient, since you have to choose the Kanji submenu every time.

The only problem is the same as any ARM editing; it gets a little unstable and messes up certain calls in the dialogue, like to amounts of money and some names. For example, in one dialogue, when you don't have enough money for something, the person says "You only have [your current amount of money] G!" but instead of showing the amount, it showed something like "%_ら". Same when escorting Caleb in the factory: after each battle he is supposed to say something like "Only [amount left until 100] G left!", but that also gets messed up and says "%_ら" for some reason. The call to Daniel's name in Wara was also replaced by "匹" rather than "ダニエル" for some reason. I'm removing calls to names in the dialogue with the actual name as I translate to make things easier since they're only used to ensure consistency, though, so that one doesn't matter as much.

 

[Lakum]

Aw damn, the names of drinks you can order in the bar are stored in the ARM file as well. There are some fantastic drink names in there, like the Dopamine Soda or the Steroid Sour, and I'll have to shorten them if that never gets fixed.

EDIT: Wow, I never realized how deep some of the dialogue trees are in the game. Just the first conversation with Joaquin's mother can go in numerous different directions and affects the dialogue with Joaquin immediately after, as well. You only get one shot at it, too. I'll have to do a lot of reloading saves to check all the dialogue in-game.

Could you mention that ARM problem on the first page.

 

[momin]

Guys, some update?

And also, let me know if a little help with graphics would be well received.

 

[Terithian]

Work is still coming along slowly. I believe we're almost finished with the graphic editing, so we don't really need any help with that. I'm just about finished translating the first section of the game, up to the end of the escort job.

 

[Lakum]

Work is still coming along slowly. I believe we're almost finished with the graphic editing, so we don't really need any help with that. I'm just about finished translating the first section of the game, up to the end of the escort job.

Is some alpha patch possible now?

 

[Terithian]

Maybe I'll consider one, once I finish translating up to the end of the escort job, since that's definitively the end of the first part. The second part would be once you cross the mountain pass, the third would be once you cross the dam, and the fourth I suppose would be once you're past Elurus City. Each other part past part 1 is much, much larger, though. Also, there's still a lot of system stuff in Japanese.

 

[MetalFan]

Hi DarthNemesis, guys been a while since my last post here. This time I want to update a little about the project status.

Graphics Editing:
Almost it is finished only minor things missing on game and edit the graphics of the minigames.

About that , I have found problems to correctly display the graphics of the minigames, the graphics are .tex files but They appear to be encrypted or compressed???? Please DarthNemesis could you take a look to see what can be done ,I have tried all the editors I have and got nothing clear... I'll upload the minigames .tex files so you can check it ok. Thanks in advance brother and by the way your tool works wonders.

On Text Translation:
Terithian is doing a great job on that but unfortunately there is still much to be translated and translation is hard work. I can only tell you that I've tried the translations and everything looks great. But much remains.


On ASM hacking: We still need help with assembly language!!!!!!

We could not break yet the 11-character limitation that affects the item names, normal monsters names, wanted monsters
names, skill names and town names.

Also We need help to increase the size of arm9.bin to support more text.

All possible help is welcome...

I'll be in touch

 

[Terithian]

Small thing to add: increasing character limits is low priority, as I've been doing my best to work within the limitations, and there are fortunately no limits on number of pages in dialogue, just the number of characters per page, so I don't have to sacrifice writing quality there. We definitely need help with the ARM9 stuff, though, as the game references stuff out of there a lot and we can't change it without breaking a bunch of stuff in the game.

 

[Terithian]

Well, the first section of the game, up to the end of the events of the escort mission, is now complete. That's the smallest section, so it's not much, but it's a milestone. You can now technically play all the way to the credits in English, hehe, since that's where the first false ending is.

A side note: I noticed when translating Nukka's dialogue (the guy you get party members from), he has two different "welcome" lines: one that refers to you with a slang term for a boy, and one for a girl. I wonder if that means that the initial plan for the game was to let you pick your gender, like you can in MM2:Reloaded, but was scrapped?
Side note #2: I like the jokes about how the protagonist has amnesia if you choose yourself under the "Forget Comrade" option. Too bad it looks like you can't trigger them in-game, since you don't appear to be an option on that menu. I'll put them here for reference:

"I'm sorry, but you can't forget yourself. Eh...? You can if you lose your memories? I don't know anything about that!"
"Forgetting yourself is a rather tall order. Well, I'm sure there's some way to do that."​

 

[Terithian]

Hey, sorry for the relatively rapid double post, but I figured I might as well ask here. Anyone have any good ideas on how to translate the name of the enormous forest in the third area of the game, the 樹界? It literally means something like "tree world" or "world of trees", but that doesn't sound great in English, so I'm looking for something equally evocative that sounds better. I'm thinking maybe "Sea of Trees", but I'm open to less cliched suggestions.

 

[AlcaAdia]

Hey, sorry for the relatively rapid double post, but I figured I might as well ask here. Anyone have any good ideas on how to translate the name of the enormous forest in the third area of the game, the 樹界? It literally means something like "tree world" or "world of trees", but that doesn't sound great in English, so I'm looking for something equally evocative that sounds better. I'm thinking maybe "Sea of Trees", but I'm open to less cliched suggestions.

樹 as in 樹木 gives off a feeling of an older type of tree. This may be just as cliche, but maybe something akin to The Elderwood?