ROM Hack Need someone to make a text editor for a game

[Excellentnuke]

Out of boredom I decided to see if there were any Prince of Tennis games on the NDS. I came across Tennis no Ouji-sama 2005: Crystal Drive, which was released in December 2004 in Japan. I wanted to play this game, but then I noticed that the translation patch request for this game here on GBATemp has never been answered. I would like to take up translating this game. However, I don't know much about ROM hacking and I know very little about programming, so I need someone to make a text editor for this game.

Don't worry, if you contribute, you'll definitely be included in the credits

Thanks in advance, and sorry if this isn't allowed.

 

[rastsan]

Okay first read the docs so you know a little more about hacking the games...
second your going to need to know the control codes in the game to pass on to the person to make the the text extractor / inserter (if they will make you one, and even then there are premade ones that are alot more work)

if you don't know what the control codes are well that is what the documentation and the search button is for
and even then you could translate this game without an inserter - just using a hex editor

(control codes - the stuff that says new line new screen change the text colour to blue and so on...)

but that mght not cover any graphics that need to be reworked, or menus that need to be redone, or the repointing for the text that you are inserting (if you even need to repoint)
if you don't understand any of this then you need to research more

I hope this doesn't sound to harsh
This is all coming from a guy who has no idea how to make a text inserter/ extractor just a little of the basics

get your self over to www.romhacking.net take a look at there prebuilt inserters and while your there look over the documentation for the gba (theres one that applies to the ds)

 

[Excellentnuke]

Do you happen to know where the text is usually stored or how to extract the .bin files? I can't find anything, even when I use CrystalTile.

 

[rastsan]

did you change the codepage in TBl to 932?
did you uase the Search - Find function?
did you find a premade text inserter/extractor?
oh and dsbuff/ dslazy,CT2 and something else can be used to extract the files from the rom
Well after taking a look this game uses l7zz compression in alot of the files
in CT2 tools - nds file system (in the window that pops up take a look around)
(usually overlay files have some form of text in them) the problem with overlay text though is you have to stay in the exact byte replacement so 5 letters would have to be replaced with five letters as overlays are loaded into memory and you can't mess with what is before and after what you want to translate)
otherwise you are going to have to completely decopmpress all the stuff and then search those files one by one to find possible text

example the very last file in tennis in the nds file system window No actual text in here just an example, I think...
data/wlink/wlink.narc
has these inside
file Number absolute relative size
position position
Filesage01.bin 0000 024D69C4 000001C4 8284
lobby_u03.bin 0001 024D8A20 00002220 5500
back01a.bin 0002 024D9F9C 0000379C 51740
frame_d01.bin 0003 024E69B8 000101B8 18716
frame_c01.bin 0004 024EB2D4 00014AD4 13980
lobby_bg01.bin 0005 024EE970 00018170 5468
lobby_bg02.bin 0006 024EFECC 000196CC 5884
lobby_waku01.bin 0007 024F15C8 0001ADC8 3388
lobby_waku02.bin 0008 024F2304 0001BB04 3420
lobby_moji_01.bin 0009 024F3060 0001C860 4284
lobby_moji_02.bin 0010 024F411C 0001D91C 3804
lobby_moji_03.bin 0011 024F4FF8 0001E7F8 4092
ran_bg01.bin 0012 024F5FF4 0001F7F4 6524
gm_b01.bin 0013 024F7970 00021170 6492
gm_b02.bin 0014 024F92CC 00022ACC 6332
gm_b03.bin 0015 024FAB88 00024388 8828
gm_b04a.bin 0016 024FCE04 00026604 8220
gm_b05.bin 0017 024FEE20 00028620 8092

now fortunately there is a .narc file utility out there, I just haven't used it (no need to)
but you might need it...
I digress... yikes

but a search for プレイ found in a screenshot can be found in overlay9_0004.bin

you'll find if you use an emulator that can record your play as an .avi will be very useful
just use the avi to make a screen shot - use the screenshot to type out some text that you then search for in CT2 and then use the dump from that to make a partial translation. but the other post I left for you...
If you could find the control codes that might be more useful. If you really want a text inserter/extractor as those are what will be needed to make it.

 

[rastsan]

oh and the title graphic at 23C89C3 us the gray division in palettes
and gba8bpp objH-1234
mess around with the properties pane or use tahaxan to find graphics