ROM Hack Recommended Programs

[matthewn4444]

I want to try to translate some text from Etrian Odyssey 2 and I've been reading around. I know I'm a noob at this because I'm still a beginner.

Does anyone have any recommended programs (like hex editor) for translating text (something that reads shift_JIS)?

 

[valyr]

here try this

Winhex32

Njstar

just unpack the rar file
have included some japanese table files that work quite well 1 in s-jis and
1 in euc standards

to read japanese fonts on winhex press ctrl-d to switch between ascii and unicode modes
and load the required table file (you need to be in unicode mode)



EDIT: am uploading njstar japanese/english wordprocessor for you as well (have found it useful)

EDIT2: njstar is up now

 

[matthewn4444]

Thanks I'll try it out. I'm sorry again but how do I do a relative search. I look for the Japanese text and relative search, but it doesn't work (maybe because the tutorials on romhacking only work on nes/snes).

Edit: Thanks for helping me. I still can't get it to work (I meant I can type/see the Japanese text) it can't find anything after I search. Maybe I don't understand what a relative search is. Anyways if you know a good tutorial can you tell me one? (I read the one on Gbatemp already).

 

[Flam9]

Translating is much much harder than just using a program which works on every single game out there. No single program works on all roms.

 

[Deleted User]

python (the only one I'm using)

 

[matthewn4444]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Ok, I tried to change the text in the Skill's name but when I changed it and reloaded the game, I didn't see any text. (like it was all blank). Is there a specific code I am suppose to change to make it able to read/view the text in the game?


EDIT: Actually I didn't use a table (lol I'm still a beginner) and I also didn't change the text to English characters yet. I just repeated the same katakana character over and over again within the area of the text. It was only 1 modification and the game can't recognize the whole file (the skill name file). I'm wondering if it was there something I need to change or if it was a different file. By the way, I tried with EO 1 (US) and I could rewrite the text, but EO2 (Japanese) is different for me.

 

[Hypershell]

Font issues, perhaps? I'm not much of a translator, nor am I familiar with the game you're doing. But if there is no font for roman characters, you're not going to get anywhere.

Something I've noticed is that many games do not use standard character maps. MegaMan ZX, for example, is somewhat recognizable in either ASCII or Unicode, but carries numerous differences in capitalization and punctuation, in addition to specific values for the player name (one of these days I've got to map out the hex values so I can fix my translation hack). Imagine such differences being on a game before you attempt to translate, and it's easy to see how things can go haywire using a Unicode table to do the work.

 

[matthewn4444]

Thanks for the comment. I think you are right, I tested the file (just saving it without modifications) and there was the error. I think the problem is changing the font or to make the hex editor save as a shift_JIS file. I did try WINHEX and it didn't really work, even though I did crtl-d, I got to the same thing as described above. Could you guys help me change the hex editor that will save as shift_JIS? (if possible)

 

[FAST6191]

For the most part it is a hex editor and spreadsheet I use with a few choice applications/libraries for dealing with compression and viewing the output.

But for shift_JIS including the roman characters (and about every other encoding while we are at it) I suggest JWPCE:
http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~grosenth/jwpce.html

I also suggest you search for crystaltile2, it is a highly featured rom editor with extensive DS support. Originally it was in Chinese (simplified, not that it matters as it is highly technical for the most part) but people have got a fair translation going on (I do a line here and there every couple of days but until I get it 90% done or all the core sections done I tend not to post it unless requested). It has the option to view shiftJIS but it can be tripped up if the characters start at unaligned points (which is sometimes often if 8 bit formatting is used).

 

[matthewn4444]

Thanks guys, you help me so much.

I finally changed some text (Japanese text to other Japanese text), but haven't discovered some English text yet lol. So I'll go find some and I'll see what I can do with this game. Thanks again.

EDIT: O, and one more thing, for valyr, how do we do a hex search in WINHEX32? I tried going to hex search and I typed in the code and it gave something else..or nothing...so how does it work in WINHEX32?

 

[valyr]

dont know have never bothered with the search functions on winhex
i tend to go through the file till i find something that looks like text and change it and see what happens
its more reliable in long run but very slow

 

[matthewn4444]

HAHA another question!! Now that I can translate the text (or in the process), I looked around for a picture editor, I saw that there was GMbAAP, I didn't know how to install it. But if there is a better program that you guys use, can you guys name a few.

Thanks in advance.

Also, valyr, I probably going to use 2 hex editors, 1 that has search and winhex32. Thanks for your feedback.

 

[FAST6191]

That crystaltile2 app has tile editing and can even parse files in the file system to give you what you want.

None the less the DS uses GBA formats which means tiled2002 is my choice for basic stuff:
http://www.romhacking.net/utils/112/

There is also the rom hacking docs thread up the top of the forum.

 

[matthewn4444]

HAHA me again. I'm wondering if there is a program or codec that would allow me to view more kanji on computer for the table. WINHEX32 has a limited amount af kanji I choose from. If anyone has a program or codec or file please help me. Thanks.

 

[setya5785]

you can use crystaltile2 to view it's font resource (an NTFR file) like i did with tales of innocence, you can get char and hex code pair, an create your own tbl file

 

[skies]

here try this

Winhex32

Njstar

just unpack the rar file
have included some japanese table files that work quite well 1 in s-jis and
1 in euc standards

to read japanese fonts on winhex press ctrl-d to switch between ascii and unicode modes
and load the required table file (you need to be in unicode mode)



EDIT: am uploading njstar japanese/english wordprocessor for you as well (have found it useful)

EDIT2: njstar is up now

Hey, is it possible to get those files uploaded to a different site? I can't download from megaupload from outside the US.

 

[kazumi213]

Hi.

I'm using Hex Workshop. This program allows to change the character map used to convert from hex display to text display (ASCII, EBCDIC, Unicode...). The interesting part is that it allows to create custom maps for such conversion (hex to text).

I can create 8 bit conversion tables, but I want to create 16 bit conversion tables (like you'd get by editing the supplied Unicode character map). My problem is that Hex Workshop doesn't allow to edit or create new based on the Unicode character map (or I don't know how to do that).

Is there a way/other hex editor program which allows to customize hex to text maps in 16 bit mode?

By using this custom Unicode conversion table along with the proper font (let's say MSMincho) I would be able to display roman/jpn character in i.e .SAV files which use specific 16 bit character mappings.

Thanks in advance.