ROM Hack Translation Zoids Saga DS Story Translation Project (OUT NOW!)

[Amy_Symilton_Gamequeen]

Found the location of the character's database but I can't just replace them with text cause when I changed the Japanese characters into words, the in-game text name of the corresponding character turn blank. How can I change this part?

 

[Amy_Symilton_Gamequeen]

Never mind, I figured out which is which from the Kanji table. Also, tried to change the content of the character's database from Japanese into roman English but the game wouldn't read the small texts that I cramped through the readable text which is basically taking up two spaces of the space. The first image is the problem, the second is how the game perceives the text I inputted into it (Only the text that took the two spaces can be read by the DS), and the third one is the time I had to delete so much important text to make it fit in the box. I'm gonna have to stop this, for now, I'm just not cut it for this kind of stuff because it was so time-consuming for me while I still have a better activity to do than this (Especially once college starts, no more messing around with stuff that required concentration like this). I'm gonna have to leave it like this for a while until I had another time for this again.

 

[FAST6191]

I am not entirely sure where you are going with that.

Officially shiftJIS if on a PC should support 8 bit ASCII or at least some form of unicode. When it comes to DS games I have seen possibly hundreds of shiftJIS games but maybe 2 that supported ASCII and even those have a list of asterisks long enough to fill a book.
For minor tweaks it is not so bad as said hundreds of games almost always have the Roman alphabet in the 82?? range http://rikai.com/library/kanjitables/kanji_codes.sjis.shtml . The font is not always great and yeah you run into the second problem of limited space which is hard when you are using 16 bits a character.
Trying to type in it is annoying as well if you don't want to set up an IME on your computer for Japanese, best method for the man on the street was generally get something like JWPCE, njstar or a similar Japanese focused word processor. One of the options for input then getting you to write in Japanese ASCII mode and thus save out (or copy paste using something like the tool below) and get what you want. Been a while since I had to use one but usually on a bar at the top, three or four options usually corresponding to normal text/PC input, Kana, Kanji and J ASCII as some would dub it. There probably is a simple conversion like add 82?? to the value as well (in normal ASCII then add 20h to go from capitals to lower case https://www.asciitable.com/ ) but eh.

https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/504/ can be useful as well.

You can do what is known as an 8 bit conversion for text but it is a rather advanced thing (maybe not so bad in some of the NTFR font formats and similarly potent ones) but you probably will have to get your hands dirty with assembly and the text handling engine.

I am assuming those numbers above are pointers as well.

As I mentioned it above I should also note the one that variously supported ASCII (differed between lines in the text, though was also basically plain text with no pointers) and had a free evening and speak Japanese then we are still waiting on a translation for Zombie Daisuki https://gbatemp.net/threads/zombie-daisuki-english-patch.275381/ which looked like a nice little puzzle game.

 

[rwbonesy]

We don't translate SRW sadly. Gideon Zhi also hasn't finish translating both Alpha and SRW 4 yet so there's not much we can do about it

literally what the HELL does gideon zhi's project status have to do with this

 

[Amy_Symilton_Gamequeen]

literally what the HELL does gideon zhi's project status have to do with this

Tell that to the guy who ask for SRW translation which has nothing to do with this translation project we were doing. The guy is in the wrong thread. If the guy asks for SRW, should have asked for a thread that discusses SRW translation project instead of Zoids unless someone is already working on it. Then again...never mind what I said

 

[Dragons]

Thought I'd start a new thread since the title of the old one doesn't reflect the fact that progress is actually being made (And I seem to be the only one working on it at the moment). If someone were to google "Zoids Saga DS English translation" and were looking for anything new of substance, this thread will make it easier for them to find.

This project seeks to translate Zoids Saga DS: Legend of Arcadia for the Nintendo DS into English and develop a patch for the game.

So anyway, there are obviously two sides to this project: the translation and the hacking side.

Translation
The script is 100% complete. You can see the script here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1djyMo5SHQfwPf-p5g229hsk_eId-P-R4reVIi_bC5VI/edit?usp=sharing

Spoiler: Update History

26/05/2022: row ~2500, everything up to first boss fight with Blood

26/05/2022: row ~3000, everything up to the first time machine use

26/05/2022: Added a translation completion % bar for people to refer to (currently 8% complete). Added logic to count the number of bits of Japanese text (16 per character) and number of bits of English text (8 per character) so that I can monitor if my translations take up more memory than the original. Right now I am well within the space requirements. So there should be enough memory to fit the translations!

27/05/2022: row ~4100, completed everything up to first boss fight with Opis

29/05/2022: row ~5400, 13% complete!

30/05/2022: row ~6200, 15% complete! Completed the first Zoids Genesis arc

31/05/2022: row ~6400, 15.8% complete. Felt sick today so only gave it a half hour

5/06/2022: Starting to get over my sickness, but have a big test to study for! I'll continue translating on the 10th/11th of June

10/06/2022: row ~7500, 18.5% complete. We're back in business!

11/06/2022: row 8000, 20.4% complete. Up to the Raven boss battle in the chaotic century arc

13/06/2022: row 8600, 21.6% complete

14/06/2022: Row 9400, 23.7% complete. Second battle with Raven finished!

14/06/2022: Row 10500, 26.4% complete. Chaotic Century arc is finished!

15/06/2022: Row 11600, 29% complete. Fuzors arc begins

16/06/2022: Row 12400, 31.1% complete.

17/06/2022: Row 13300, 33.9% complete. Boss fight with Savage Hammer finished!

18/06/2022: Row 14300, 36.3% complete. Fuzors arc is finished!

19/06/2022: Row 15800, 40.1% complete. New Century arc begins!

20/06/2022: Row 16500, 41.8% complete. First tournament complete

21/06/2022: I have to study for and sit my end of semester exams, so I will be back to translate more in about a week See you then

28/06/2022: Row 17100, 43.1% complete. Second tournament complete

29/06/2022: Row 17600, 44.3% complete. Taking a break from translation to begin developing my hacking methods

15/07/2022: Row 18000, 45.3% complete.

16/07/2022: Row 19150, 48.3% complete. New Century arc is finished! What a slog that was..

17/07/2022: Row 21000, 50.7% complete. Guardian Force arc is S tier I love it, what a joy to translate!

18/07/2022: Row 23900, 60.2% complete. Finished the whole damn arc in a day.. exhausted

19/07/2022: Row 25500, 64.3% complete. Started and finished Genesis' second arc in one day! this arc is relatively short.

20/07/2022: Row 27850, 70.2% complete. I've officially finished the main story! Onto the postgame story

21/07/2022: Row 34859, 87.9% complete. The story is completely finished! Just a few things to go back and fix/complete/check

21/07/2022: Row 35000, 100% complete. Deleted a bunch of duplicate lines.

Battle menu translations:~95%
Deck command translations: 100%
Deck command descriptions: 100%
Items: 100%
Item descriptions: 100%
Menus:95%
laboratory text: ~95%
General Arm9.bin text: ~70%
Townspeople text: 100%
Spoken phrases during battle: 0% (may or may not bother with these)

Hacking
Translated event Files inserted into game: 100%
Pixel art translated: 100% (As far as I can tell)
md & mq files inserted: 100% (testing and debugging these will take a lot of time!)

I am currently testing, and testing a LOT

Download
Version 1.0.2 of the patch is out now! Download it here! https://www.romhacking.net/translations/6633/

Support Me
If you'd like to give me your support, you can do so at https://ko-fi.com/traceytrace It would help me stay motivated for when uni work picks up

can NOT play your game download folder i get messgae foler is either empty, corrupt, can NOT downalod to play game nothing zip file

 

[Traceytrace]

can NOT play your game download folder i get messgae foler is either empty, corrupt, can NOT downalod to play game nothing zip file

I don't understand what you are saying, but it works fine, has to be something on your end

 

[Dragons]

I don't understand what you are saying, but it works fine, has to be something on your end

It was right folder I was downloading I patched rom says xdelta. I put rom in end nothing

I don't understand what you are saying, but it works fine, has to be something on your end

I used different computer extract file I patched it rom not showing up on ds I left it as xdelta after I patched it didn’t show up , I put . Rom after xdelta didn’t show up, I delete xdelta and replaced it with .rom nothing showed up.,

I know how to use emulators and roms probably something stupid on my end not showing on ds to play.
Edit I have been downloading trying get another emulator Atari st working play Star Wars arcade I kept thinking rom is in my head I should have been putting nds.
I’m unable to delete this message sorry for inconvenience for stupidity on my end

 

[JTmodelkits]

It was right folder I was downloading I patched rom says xdelta. I put rom in end nothing

I used different computer extract file I patched it rom not showing up on ds I left it as xdelta after I patched it didn’t show up , I put . Rom after xdelta didn’t show up, I delete xdelta and replaced it with .rom nothing showed up.,

I know how to use emulators and roms probably something stupid on my end not showing on ds to play.
Edit I have been downloading trying get another emulator Atari st working play Star Wars arcade I kept thinking rom is in my head I should have been putting nds.
I’m unable to delete this message sorry for inconvenience for stupidity on my end

I'm getting the same error. I tried patching but it keeps saying the data is corrupt?

 

[mishona]

Using an evasion-boosting ability while another is in effect causes a garbled text message to pop up, presumably intended to tell you that you're going to override the old effect with the new one. But it's garbled, and unintelligible. Can be duplicated by equipping a smokescreen and an optical camouflage and using them in back-to-back turns. Broke a 18 year silence to post this message.

 

[Traceytrace]

Using an evasion-boosting ability while another is in effect causes a garbled text message to pop up, presumably intended to tell you that you're going to override the old effect with the new one. But it's garbled, and unintelligible. Can be duplicated by equipping a smokescreen and an optical camouflage and using them in back-to-back turns. Broke a 18 year silence to post this message.

Cheers, this is placeholder text. Can you post a screenshot of the message? I'll fix it when I get a chance

 

[mishona]

This is the message that comes up.

 

[Traceytrace]

View attachment 327155 This is the message that comes up.

perfect, I'll change it when I get some free time. There are a few more like this in the game that I also can't properly translate until I find them. The reason I can't is because the top and bottom line are in different places in memory with nothing to suggest they are two parts of the same sentence, so I have no idea what the full sentence is until I see it in-game. Cheers for finding this one

 

[Kaisaan]

Congrats on the release! I am curious about the game itself, though. Is this game supposed to be a retelling of the first Zoids Saga game, or is this a retelling of all three Zoids Saga games? I ask because Wikipedia says it's the latter, but the Zoids Wiki is saying the former.

 

[FAST6191]

Retelling of the first, with a few extra mechanics (both DS exclusive and seen in said later games). Few bonus bits of content with zoids, pilots and scenarios from other games and franchises (including what was then the current/not around on the GBA Zoids Genesis).
Story wise it is very much the first. If you want to play the second in English then that appeared on the GBA (I presume you knew already but for others playing along at home, albeit it is not a great representation of the franchise or original Japanese game on the translation front), third is yet to be tackled that I am aware of outside of the scenarios in this.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ds/925568-zoids-saga-ds-legend-of-arcadia/faqs has some more you can piece together, albeit one of them incorrectly calls this a combo of the lot.

 

[Traceytrace]

Third is yet to be tackled that I am aware of outside of the scenarios in this.

There is an English translation patch for Zoids Saga III (Fuzors). I haven't played it myself, but from what I have seen, it looks like the translations where done in Google Translate by someone and then edited to the best of their ability.

It's not the prettiest (JP->Eng at anything above basic sentences is an almost impossible task for machine translation due to omission of context) but hey, it's there for those who want it.

 

[Greyhound123]

First of all, thanks for your efforts on this translation. That said, there is a minor text error where the word "the" is written twice. The dialogue is at the beginning of the game when they start their attempt to escape the castle. See picture for reference.

 

[Traceytrace]

First of all, thanks for your efforts on this translation. That said, there is a minor text error where the word "the" is written twice. The dialogue is at the beginning of the game when they start their attempt to escape the castle. See picture for reference.

Good job finding that! It's a 20 second fix, I'll post a patch in a bit

edit: submitted the patch, cheers for that

 

[Chinzo]

sorry idk how to delete this post. i found the ans to my own qns alr.

 

[Traceytrace]

Hi i been trying to use cheats on twilight menu with the patched version on my 3ds but am unable to do it. The cheats only work for the unpatched Japanese version. Anyone know how to go aboout it?

I've been fine using cheats such as infinite money with the patched version, I can't speak for other cheats though. Seems weird that it'd only work with the unpatched version since I've only essentially "moved around" bytes of text and not anything gameplay related.

You may be out of luck, but if you lmk me the cheats you are using I can try them myself and see if they work for me?

You might also like to try posting in r/zoids on reddit since there will be plenty of people that have played the game in there and maybe some that have used some cheats and might be able to help