Translating a Game into English.

Goten8905 · Post by **Goten8905** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 2:49 am

Is it hard to do that? The reason why I ask that is because I want to translate games as well, like Tales of the World and other good games.

Joe Camacho · Post by **Joe Camacho** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 2:55 am

Yes, yes it is... Unless you have the hacking and translating skills required for the job, It would be a good Idea to listing your abilities to see if someone could use your help.

Post by **grinvader** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 3:02 am

There are two sides to translating games.

Translating the game script itself, which can be a pain if you're not fluent in the original language, and usually requires several re-translations to be really good...
Hacking the game itself, to extract the script, decompress it if needed, hack in extra spaces for names, hack special graphics, (decompress them if needed), add in new font routines (VWF if you're leet enough), reinserting the translated script, compress it if needed... and some other things; all this using your own hand-made applications (most games must have their own unique apps... very rarely can one such app be used as is with another game).

Depending on what you're best at, hacking or translating, one is much harder than the other.
Translating games alone (meaning you both hack and translate) would require immense skills and a lot of free time.

Goten8905 · Post by **Goten8905** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 4:32 am

Oh wow.... Never mind then. I was thinking of Translating Tales of the World and Megaman Battle Network 4.5 Real Operation. But I guess I have to wait for either DeJap or another translating group to translate these great games.

Would it be easy to learn how to hack and all that stuff?

Post by **grinvader** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 5:03 am

It depends on your affinities with programming.
To hack GBA games, I suppose you have to learn RISC assembly (the main cpu of the GBA is a limited ARM7TDMI, iirc).
It's quite old and widely spread, so finding docs on the net should be easy.

DarkDragoon · Post by **DarkDragoon** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 12:58 pm

It also helps to read some tutorials, like this one if you are going to be the one to attempt the actual rom hacking for the translation.

Nightcrawler · Post by **Nightcrawler** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 1:41 pm

9 out of 10 noobs always bite off more than they can chew.

If you're going to follow tutorials and try to learn this stuff... PICK AN EASY WELL HACKED GAME!

So many people come back to me asking 'I read the tutorials, why can't I hack Dragon Quest III?'

Start simple with Super Mario Brothers or The legend of Zelda and work from there.

You can't expect to jump into whatever game you feel like translating as your first project(Well, on occasion SOME people have had success this way, but only if you get lucky and pick an easy game(technically speaking).

You should also know, you're not going to be able to do anything useful overnight. It takes time to learn all this stuff. To do some of the moer advanced difficult games, you will probably need a few years of experience.

With all that said, I do encourage you to try. Just don't expect miracles and know that you will have to start simple and put in some effort before you can jump into any game of your choice.

PKFAIRY · Post by **PKFAIRY** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 1:54 pm

I must also suggest Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal are all great candidates as well. Great for teaching basics, pointers, Dictionary compression, and VERY easy to work with. Uncompressed font too, which is a big + for newbies.

Post by **Nach** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 6:16 pm

Nightcrawler wrote: Start simple with Super Mario Brothers or The legend of Zelda and work from there.

SMB is real easy. A few years back I just sat down with the game and decided I wanted to change a few things. With just a simple hex editor and some ideas what to look for, I started making the changes I wanted. I gave up my project though when I wanted to expand the ROM

Then I sat down with Super Mario All-Stars, and searched for some data being the same and found it there too, not all of it was the same though. In SMAS they changed the level format a bit, although for the most part it remained the same.

Goten8905 · Post by **Goten8905** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 8:52 pm

WOW! You guys are nice people. I'll take the tip on doing something small and easy. So... to hack I would need a hacking utility... right? Where is an easy to use for a noob kind? Or is it restricted to post or talk about it here?

Sferics · Post by **Sferics** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 9:47 pm

Try looking for a hacking utility on http://www.zophar.net. You can experiment and see which on best suites you.

Nightcrawler · Post by **Nightcrawler** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 10:51 pm

Nach:
Sure, SMB is easy. And some people can hack it with only a hex editor and nothing more. However, I've come across alot of people who couldn't. It's best to start at the beginning. If that's easy, move up from there. My whole point is too many people start way over their heads.

Some people grasp the concepts easier than others. I have come across people who took quite awhile to understand what a table was. For others, a turtorial on a table is insulting their intelligence. All depends on who you are.

Goten8905:

I'd start by going to http://www.romhacking.com. They have most all the utilities you will need and many more tutorials to get you started.

Simple hacking can be done in nothing more than a hex editor. You don't even need a hacking program.

Louis Cypher · Post by **Louis Cypher** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 11:46 pm

A hex editor -is- a hacking program

It's just about the most complex thing I use, next to the dumpers and inserters anyway, which now that I think about it is probably what you were referring to.

Nightcrawler · Post by **Nightcrawler** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 1:50 pm

Louis Cypher wrote:A hex editor -is- a hacking program It's just about the most complex thing I use, next to the dumpers and inserters anyway, which now that I think about it is probably what you were referring to.

Not really. A standard hex editor is nothing more than a file viewing/editing program. That's not really a hacking program in my opinion.

The ones YOU use are though.

They are specific to ROM hacking.

I guess the classification of a normal hex editor is open to debate.

Yes, I was referring to dumpers/inserters.

Kagerato · Post by **Kagerato** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 9:16 pm

To put it most simply...

A hex editor is used for rom-hacking related activity, but is not exclusive to rom-hacking.

Nightcrawler · Post by **Nightcrawler** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 9:22 pm

Ok, I can go with that compromise!

Goten8905 · Post by **Goten8905** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 12:53 am

You do know that once I start and have problems I'm gonna ask for help, right? Just making sure so I don't seem like a burden or something like that.

PKFAIRY · Post by **PKFAIRY** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 12:54 am

Thats what messageboards are for... if this was a BBS however... never mind LOL.

ThunderClaw · Post by **ThunderClaw** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 12:59 am

Goten8905 wrote:You do know that once I start and have problems I'm gonna ask for help, right? Just making sure so I don't seem like a burden or something like that.

We're accustomed to answering specific questions about ROM hacking--that's no big deal. "How do I hack ROMs" though, is far too large of a question to mess with on a medium like this.

Nightcrawler · Post by **Nightcrawler** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 6:33 am

Goten8905 wrote:You do know that once I start and have problems I'm gonna ask for help, right? Just making sure so I don't seem like a burden or something like that.

My rule of thumb is I will not help anyone who doesn't want to help themselves first. I expect you to read, read, and read some more. If after you've done your homework with the resources available to you and still have trouble, I will answer as many questions as you ask that I can. But if you start asking things are found in the tutorials, you'll most likely be ignored.

The point of this is romhacking is a very self learning oriented hobby. You're going to have to learn to teach yourself things for the most part. Other romhackers are always willing to clear things up or answer a few questions, but no one is going to be your teacher and/or hold your hand step by step.

Goten8905 · Post by **Goten8905** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 12:43 am

That sounds fair. Though it will take me forever just to translate a ROM. With school and all in the way.

Nightcrawler · Post by **Nightcrawler** » Mon Nov 01, 2004 2:53 pm

Yes, yes it will. My current projects have been going on for nearly 2 years now. So sad.

killgamesh · Post by **killgamesh** » Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:13 am

And don´t forget.
If you have a problem going straight (if you get struck in something)
There´s always a way around. Keep it up, and never surrender. Being "Constant" is the keyword. And study.

Pombar the Englishman · Sun Jan 02, 2005 4:52 pm

If it's not too personal, just how old are you by the way? I thought someone was gonna switch when you said you still had school to go through.

MorteTheSkull · Post by **MorteTheSkull** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 8:09 pm

haha, hey man, I know some pretty badass computer-related dudes who are Freshman.