ROM Hack translation

[DecadeKhumar]

Hi guys i wanna play the ds game cross of venus but it in japanese so could anyone tell me how to translate this rom from scratch? im a newbie and i wanna learn, ​

 

[FAST6191]

Do you know Japanese or are you otherwise slightly versed in programming?

Translating a whole game is usually a project of several months and is a bit outside the scope of a forum post. There is some documentation http://gbatemp.net/threads/gbatemp-rom-hacking-documentation-project-rewritten-for-2012.73394/ and you might also like http://www.romhacking.net/start/

I took at look at the original and the cross of venus special (apparently we can see "enhanced remakes" of a game released on the same console now). The special seems to have a whole bunch of ahx and adx files, these are a type of audio format but a known one.
What is not those is the usual DS binary stuff (only one overlay though for special and none for the original), mods (usually a type of video), a few called font (which appeared to have some basic fonts in) one .epb and the rest were .pack.
The sensible money has .pack as being an archive format and grabbing a bunch of them would have that appear to indicate the same thing. Most seemed to have a script file at the start, sometimes possibly as the only file, and then a bunch of file names. The data showed all the telltale signs of LZ compression but nothing I recognised.
Anyway it seems to be name, a section 0F hex long containing various things and then another name.

Anyway at first glance this does not look like an especially easy game to translate. Maybe if you have something to handle the pack files but other than that not so much.

 

[DecadeKhumar]

i got a buddy who is fluent in the language, in terms of programing i guess im an amature, i really wanted to play the game but doesnt seem fair just asking some else to struggle to translate so i thought i would do my own. Wow not an easy game to translate? yikes lol that explains why there hasnt been any translation projects on this game, thanks for the tip, any suggestions to handle the pack files? and how to use the ds lazy? i unpacked it and went to text and the files are txrc?

 

[Phoenix Goddess]

It might be best for you to take a look at the links FAST6191 provided. It answers your questions and possibly most questions you'll have in the future about romhacking games

Hands-on experience is good, but it doesn't help much if you don't understand what you're looking at.

 

[DecadeKhumar]

yeah to tell the truth i was reading the link on gbatemp b4 i started this thread and sill reading , the one on romhacking doesnt answer much, thanks for ur opinion

 

[Phoenix Goddess]

yeah to tell the truth i was reading the link on gbatemp b4 i started this thread and sill reading , the one on romhacking doesnt answer much, thanks for ur opinion

What doesn't the guide on romhacking.net answer? It's usually the starting place for DS romhackers, including myself. Not sure about romhackers for other systems.

 

[Densetsu]

http://gbatemp.net/threads/densetsus-translation-toolbox.311523/

 

[jjjewel]

This game has nasty text compression, so it won't be that easy to translate especially if you just started learning rom hacking.

http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=12638.0

And as far as I remember, the game has some part that might be very difficult to hack. (I can't remember well but it's like a Japanese alphabet puzzle or something that unless you know advanced programming, you can't change it.)

 

[Normmatt]

text decompression is easy. Its just a simple little LZ variant.

But like jjjewel said there's other problems that make this hard for someone without any advanced experience.

 

[DecadeKhumar]

hmmm based on ur replies its seems its too hard for a newbie? so wht game do u guys suggest i start with in order to get the hang of it? translation i mean

 

[FAST6191]

Assuming you are not translating it into English are you going for Roman characters or Jawi? The latter would probably be somewhat harder as most games are not built for scripts derived from Arabic.

If you wanted to learn hacking I always used to point people at New Super Mario Brothers -- most of the menus and in game stuff are done in such a way that you will get the hang of most things in text hacking (pointers, encoding, compression) all without any great weirdness. That is more about learning hacking than getting something useful translated. There have been a few games that use considerably more simple setups (sticking with Japanese you have things like Zombie Daisuki* and I think one of the populus games had basic text even).

Hopefully someone else will have a better example of a simple game. If you are especially set on a big RPG type game (nobody suggests such games as a first project, especially if you are completely new to all this) then I think some of the final fantasy games are quite good and maybe even have some tools for them. http://www.romhacking.net/?page=uti...&level=&perpage=20&title=&desc=&utilsearch=Go would be a good place to start for such tools. Do note though that using tools will probably not teach you much about hacking itself.

*the English translation project stalled so you would actually have a translation of a game not otherwise out in English.

 

[DecadeKhumar]

thanks for the link and opinion, no im trying to translate to english, no point in translating to jawi its not my language, yes rpg, then how BOUT VISUAL NOVELS or dating sims? since they have more texts, and i think u are right, using tools wont help me much since alot of games do not have their own tool...im only interested in text hacking for now, so wht are the tools im gonna need to begin?

by tools i mean ndslazy etc

 

[GHANMI]

DS games using txt files to store text:
Professor Layton
Dementium the Ward
Dragon Ball Origins
Cross Treasures

Tools
Crystaltile2
Tinke

 

[DecadeKhumar]

thanks for the tools, speaking of which, i tried to unpack the love plus nds, wht are txrc files?

 

[Dann Woolf]

I'm not trying to be mean here, but maybe you should work on your spelling and grammar before you consider starting to translate a game.

 

[DecadeKhumar]

no prob my major is english, i type fast and never bothered to correct them

and in an unrelated note i also major in malay

wht are txrc files? i found them aftr i unpacked loveplus,

oh and any tools besides tinke ds but with same function? apparently i need to install NET framework 3, but my pc still as other update to install coz i jst repaired it the other day but still kinda buggy

 

[spotanjo3]

DecadeKhumar,

No Double Posting. Please use the edit button on the lower-left next to Report of your post to change it or add to it, don't double post.

I'm not trying to be mean here, but maybe you should work on your spelling and grammar before you consider starting to translate a game.

Come on!!! What's wrong with you ?

DecadeKhumar,

Whatever you do, don’t say that you can’t speak English because this will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. By believing that you can’t speak English you close your mind to trying, and never give yourself the opportunity to improve. The only way to improve your English is to practice it, no matter how bad you may or may not be at it.

Part of being human is making mistakes and sooner or later you’re going to have to accept the fact that you’re not perfect and that you will always make mistakes. (Credit goes to Google research)

No big deal!

 

[DecadeKhumar]

thanks, yeah we are all human and we all make mistakes, live and learn but just one question, who said i cant speak english?

 

[spotanjo3]

(Chuckling)

Well, I mean speak or write in English whenever you can. By the way, I can't speak English because I am deaf myself but I can write in English and not so bad in Portuguese (Portugal, not Brazil, mind you).

 

[DecadeKhumar]

oh, sorry.....i understand, yeah mostly speak and write english rather than my mother tongue because, you know most games are english, im also an amateur novel writer