tools for translation? | MSX Resource Center (Pagina 3/4)

Ascended (15187)

28-03-2003, 19:39

Sometimes exist even different versions of the original non-cracked game, so releasing a patch 100% working is a hard task really.

Well, the point is that - legally speaking - those patches should only work on the original disks, and not on cracks.

Van BiFi

Enlighted (4348)

28-03-2003, 20:00

Indeed... Only the problem is the patches are made on cracks because originals are/were not that easy to obtain and making a backup copy of original disks sometimes results in a non-working disk because of copy protections.

The fixes I made on the SD-Snatcher translation (and the new patch disk made for that) were based on a crack, but I managed to get a correct translation on copies of the original disks as well.

Van Bart

Paragon (1422)

30-03-2003, 01:51

How hard is it actually to get the texts from a game and alter them? Cannot be that hard, can it? I mean, some of you guys are MSX asm guru's, so i'd be rather disappointed if you couldn't get this kinda job done

Maybe it's possible to create some text substractions for popular gamez, put them into a public forum (like this one ) and let people translate. Then we would get a nice translated game collection Or am I thinking way too simple?

Van BiFi

Enlighted (4348)

30-03-2003, 12:19

Sometimes it's not JUST a matter of changing the texts. There's also the issue of routines that may need altering (or sometimes a rewrite) to display texts correctly. When (for example) the JIS ROM is used for fonts which would be nice squares on an MSX without JIS ROM the text display routine would need to be rewritten, or there is no alphabet in the font range, meaning letter shapes would need to be made first. And since there are cases graphics (including font shapes) are stored in a compressed way the whole thing needs to be decompressed, changed and recompressed. And there are cases input routines need to be changed or rewritten to complete such a translation.

Van anonymous

incognito ergo sum (116)

30-03-2003, 17:10

For the Final Fantasy translation I was working on, the main problem was not only text-size, but also the windowing system only allows 3 lines of text to be spoken by any person. This is enough for japanese text, but even when shortening the english texts you would still often need 6 lines or more.
Thus, the entire text display subsystem must be reprogrammed! This would not be a terribly difficult thing if it weren't for the fact that you have no idea of where these routines are located in memory and on disk!

Van Latok

msx guru (3938)

30-03-2003, 17:31

I remember I patched my original Xak Tower Of Gazzle with an OASIS translation patch.....Fortunately, it worked.....Still, it was quite a stupid move from me, I think.......Risk was high......

Van BiFi

Enlighted (4348)

30-03-2003, 17:53

I'd never suggest patching original disks anyway. Us non-japanese paid a too high price for the title to even risk such things.

Van anonymous

incognito ergo sum (116)

30-03-2003, 17:55

Oasis fans sometimes do crazy things, don't they

Van anonymous

incognito ergo sum (116)

01-04-2003, 10:32

GuyveR800:

I had the same problem when translating Randar 3. I had to reprogram some routines for correct text displaying. I found them by using the brmsx built-in debugger. You only have to stop the execution of the game (pressing F10) and trace step-by-step (keys F7 and F8, just as the Borland debugger). It's a piece of cake to find these routines in RAM.

Once you have located them on RAM you only have to look for the opcodes with a HEX editor for locating them on disk.

Van anonymous

incognito ergo sum (116)

01-04-2003, 17:22

Good idea... I will probably restart the Final Fantasy translation someday! It's really a nice game and the graphics and music are far better than the NES version. The only thing missing is smooth scrolling...