Looking for a Translation Teacher

[GrimalkinGawd]

I know it may sound a little silly, but I've decided I want to learn how to do my own ROM translations. Figuring out how to translate the words won't be hard, but learning how to use the programs might be a little tricky. If anyone out there is willing to teach me how to use the programs properly, I would love to learn. Or even just providing me with a list of the needed programs to do a translation would be nice.

Any help you could offer would be truly appreciated!

 

[Phoenix Goddess]

Well, if it's NDS or NES games you're looking to hack, take a look at these. There is no one program that for a translation. Each program has to be programmed specifically for that game. Even if it has the same file extension, it won't work unless it has the same pointer tables, which is extremely rare.

http://gbatemp.net/t73394-gbatemp-rom-hack...ion-project-wip
http://www.romhacking.net/start

It'd also help you if you took a look at previous translation project threads and at posts/topics made by romhackers.


Sure, it'll take a while to learn, but if you want to start your own projects as a romhacker, it's worth it, trust me

Just a heads up though, announcing translations have a very bad side effect, so as a beginner, be sure to do things in secret for a while, if not the entire time.

As a translator, please learn the necessary language the right way and not with an online translator. Those tend to be VERY bad, no matter how much you try to make some sense of it. Many people say, "All it takes is common sense." but common sense would be to learn the language >_>

 

[Depravo]

Figuring out how to translate the words won't be hard

Please don't say you intend to use an online translator such as Google or Babelfish.

 

[GrimalkinGawd]

Hah, no. I wouldn't use Babelfish or anything. I pride myself in knowing at least the basics of proper English. Spelling errors do happen, and nobody is perfect. But I'd probably use a proper site to teach myself what each symbol means, spell out the word with English letters, then use a proper translation dictionary to get the basic translation.

I'm hoping to start with SNES or GBA games for translations, considering those are the ones I play the most. And I did find a site (romhacking.net) that teaches me the basics, but having an experienced teacher would help a lot.

 

[Phoenix Goddess]

Hah, no. I wouldn't use Babelfish or anything. I pride myself in knowing at least the basics of proper English. Spelling errors do happen, and nobody is perfect. But I'd probably use a proper site to teach myself what each symbol means, spell out the word with English letters, then use a proper translation dictionary to get the basic translation.

I'm hoping to start with SNES or GBA games for translations, considering those are the ones I play the most. And I did find a site (romhacking.net) that teaches me the basics, but having an experienced teacher would help a lot.

I have no idea what you mean by that.

Well, you have to keep in mind that a lot of romhackers are usually quite busy, so you probably won't find a teacher, but someone who can give you a good headstart.

 

[GrimalkinGawd]

What I mean is that I wouldn't try to find some easy answer for translating. I would do what you suggested and take the time to learn the language, or at least find a credible guide to help me. I wouldn't rely on Babelfish or a website that supposed to help you translate things.

 

[Xarsah16]

If it's Japanese you wish to know, I recommend starting out with basic ひらがなHiragana and getting very familiar with that. If you can get the basic sounds down, then anything without those complicated "symbols" (漢字kanji) will be easy to read. You might not understand it, but at least if you can read it, you can type it into a Japanese dictionary. Older games, such as Pocket Monsters Green and Redポケットモンスター緑とポケットモンスター赤い, for example, are all in ひらがな.

If you are going to try to attempt to translate a game with any kanji in it, good luck. You really need to know the language in order to get far with that...