Translation Zoids Saga DS: English Translation

[Melodatron]

Hey, y'all! Long time lurker, first time poster

I love the Zoids universe to no end, and would love to play this game in english (so I can properly understand it) but as far as I know, Zoids Saga DS: Legends of Arcadia is yet to be translated. (If I'm wrong, someone PLEASE show me where the patch is?)
Now I know a bit of Japanese, but not enough to fully enjoy the game, so I was wondering if there is a "Beginner's Guide to Making Translation Patches".
I've dumped it... now what?

 

[SleepingDragon]

Welcome to our little family. I'm sure you'll enjoy your time here.

There isn't a translation, as far as I know. But, there are several members here that are involved in most viable translation projects. In fact, I'm currently playing Soma Bringer and Jump Ultimate Stars, both with their patches. Here is a link to their Translation Site. Check it out.

http://deufeufeu.free.fr/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

 

[jordanlp]

If you could patch it with english could you rewrite it back to the original card?

 

[Normmatt]

The game uses SJIS and most files are LZ77 compressed (easy enough to handle). No you cannot rewrite it back to the original japanese card otherwise Nintendo because they can only be written to once after that they are read only.

 

[Melodatron]

Okay... VERY slow progress... Considering this is the first time I've even looked at ROM hacking

Anyone know any NDS specific guides? I've been going off mostly NES and SNES guides, and while they're helpful, most are relatively out-dated.
I've FINALLY conquered hex and now I have a basic understanding of how it works, and using Hex Workshop I managed to change "TSU-SHIN" to "U-SHIN"!

Was so very proud of myself...

Now, if anyone knows any top-notch documents that could help out with this LZ77 compression I would so very much appreciate it, and also, what's involved in changing string lengths?
I changed "Hajimekara" to "New " (two spaces included) but my issue is that "New Game" won't fit as it changes the length of the string and screws the ROM up... Also, am I cursed to translating in two-bytes or is it possible to get the game to accept single byte chracters?

 

[HernanZh]

Anyone know any NDS specific guides?FAST6191 has a sticky topic with documents. I've only skimmed through them, but it looks very good for beginners.
In any case, I recommend looking at the documents at http://www.romhacking.net. All the info you ever need

I've FINALLY conquered hex and now I have a basic understanding of how it works, and using Hex Workshop I managed to change "TSU-SHIN" to "U-SHIN"!

Was so very proud of myself...There isn't much about 'conquering' hex, as long as you understand why you're working in hexidecimal based numbers.

QUOTE(Melodatron @ May 23 2008, 02:03 PM)

Now, if anyone knows any top-notch documents that could help out with this LZ77 compression I would so very much appreciate it, and also, what's involved in changing string lengths?
I changed "Hajimekara" to "New " (two spaces included) but my issue is that "New Game" won't fit as it changes the length of the string and screws the ROM up... Also, am I cursed to translating in two-bytes or is it possible to get the game to accept single byte chracters?

For LZ77 compression: there are already great compressors and decompressors out there. So don't go studying about them, it's not necessary.

For changing string lengths: look up how pointers work. Again, I suggest looking for documents at romhacking.net.
Changing two bytes characters to single byte characters: technically it should possible. But you'll have to learn ASM in order to do that, that's not recomenndable since you just started. So, learn how pointers work.

Best of luck to you

 

[DarthNemesis]

For LZ77 compression: there are already great compressors and decompressors out there. So don't go studying about them, it's not necessary.

You wouldn't happen to have a link to any of those compressors, would you? I'm looking for source so I can add that functionality to one of my translation tools.

 

[HernanZh]

For LZ77 compression: there are already great compressors and decompressors out there. So don't go studying about them, it's not necessary.

You wouldn't happen to have a link to any of those compressors, would you? I'm looking for source so I can add that functionality to one of my translation tools.

The one I always use is GBAcrusher, but it doesn't come with a source.

 

[FAST6191]

Several decompression tools, mainly BIOS implementations and nothing more (which is good for most games mind you) http://www.romhacking.net/?category=&P...itle=&desc=

Also:
http://www.gbadev.org/tools.php?showinfo=56

 

[Normmatt]

you can use NLZ77 its open source, written in C#

 

[Dylan]

i love zoids. translation would be excellent.

 

[Melodatron]

Wow, a post from Fast, I feel honoured

Been going through your guides from the sticky topic and they're SO helpful, seriously. Of all the guides I've been looking through it's really nice to find something NDS/GBA specific.

A quick question, I'm having serious trouble with the kana... I've mass of hex-editors I'm trying out at the moment, and some are much better than others. Ie, I really like Hex Workshop and XVI32. The problem is that of; Hex Workshop, XVI32, Hexposure, Thingy32, Translhextion, and Hexecute RC7, Hexecute is the only one that I get get to display the kana properly. This wouldn't be such a problem if it didn't crash all the time and inexplicably mess up the file I'm trying to view and the search worked properly...

Can anyone help out?

 

[Normmatt]

try Windhex by Bongo, can be found on romhacking.net, Its my favorite hex editor for translation work, for general hex editing hex workshop rules.

 

[Melodatron]

Still not displaying kana...
Made a discovery, I tried using the table file I have in Hexecute and it didn't work, BUT when I accidentally OPENED the SJIS.tbl file, it displays the kana that's in the table file correctly! So it may be a problem with my table file, I'm truly not sure.
If someone sees something here as a big red flag, please point it out

(It doesn't display as kana in notepad, even when I change the font to MS Mincho, but I assumed that would be okay...)

(Also, the WindHex colours make my head hurt...

)

EDIT: On another note, is it possible to make a hex editor code in romanji as 2 byte because I'm going to get very sick of looking up the SJIE table everytime I want to enter some romanji

 

[Melodatron]

UPDATE!

So, it's been an interesting couple of days. Without trying to turn this thread into a journal of my life...

Gotten my head around pointers, and the game is using a damn complex system. Got most of it figured out, but not all. I've been able to begin translations on the Deck Commands, but only on their descriptions, still searching for their 'titles'.

Should be able to do most of the Database infos, skill/item/core/stat/skill descriptions, and descriptions in the stats windows.

The downer is that the compression has me stumped :S I've only tried 'Nintenlords LZ77' and although it's the only decompressor I've used so far, it's not helping the files make any more sense than when they were compressed

Again, if anyone has any info/programs that might help my out I'd appreciate it.
Thanks to everyone who's already contributed so far too.

Edit: Hmm... NARC files... Just been reading about them, would they contain the menu text, etc?

 

[Normmatt]

for the menu text i'd say check the arm9 binary which would contain a fair amount of the text.

 

[ivanthegreat]

this sounds interesting o.O

 

[Melodatron]

Hey thanks Normmatt! I didn't even think of checking there...

I was just going through the file tree and completely ignored stuff outside of the 'data' folder. What's the stuff in overlay generally used for?
Also, anyone able to help out with getting my hex editors to display kana? As I mentioned before, the only one I'm able to get kana in is 'Hexecute RC7' and that has a tendency to be a bt glitchy.

Glad to see I'm generating some interest Ivan

I'll upload patches on here when I have enough done for it to be worth it.

 

[Normmatt]

What exactly was wrong with Windhex (theres an option called "View text data as unicode" under Options.

 

[DarthNemesis]

you can use NLZ77 its open source, written in C#

Thanks, this was a big help. The game I'm editing uses a modified version of LZ77 but I was able to adapt your code to it and it works great.