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| translateing dreamcast games |
| Chris - Sep 17, 2002 |
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Chris | Sep 17, 2002 | ||
| I was wondering if it is possible to translate dreamcast games? I have some jap ones and it is a pain when you look at faqs and they are not finished. | ||||
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CyberWarriorX | Sep 17, 2002 | ||
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I know it's possible, though I wouldn't be able to tell you -how- it's done as I don't know. Cyber Warrior X | ||||
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EclecticGroove | Sep 22, 2002 | ||
Heh, that takes just a tad bit more skill than dumping/translating text!  But, if you are doing a real professional quality translation, that would be the best bet in situations where you run into that limitation. I'm sure there is a generic toolset for peopel that want to do stuff like this. Granted, I'm not sure if it would work on Dreamcast games or not, but it might. EG | ||||
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CyberWarriorX | Sep 22, 2002 | ||||||||||||
*cough*smartass*cough* What I meant was that for each system you take a slightly different approach to doing things(like locating font/text, pointers, asm mods, etc. etc.) and that I didn't know much about DC in that regard. Of course the basic theories are all the same.
A lot of that depends on what type of game you're dealing with, as well as the company who made it.
Size storage-wise isn't all that hard to overcome. Though making everything fit on-screen can sometimes be a little more difficult(especially with menu items).
Yes, but just a tad. Because if you know enough to dump the text properly, you should understand how the pointer system works, hence you should be able to get around size restrictions. Cyber Warrior X | ||||||||||||||
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EclecticGroove | Sep 22, 2002 | ||
I'm not a smartass.. I'm a wiseass! Get it right!  But, as I said.. it does take more know how to start changing the code. It's really not all that hard to get the text out if you know what you are lookign for, and if you have REALLY delved into it, it shouldn't be a huge leap to change more than just the basic text.. but if you are basically following a generic step by step sheet on how to dump the text from most games, well... anything more may be a bit too much... especially if you use some sort of automated text dump tool (I have seen a few of these... but I can't remember what it was for. Not that this should discourage anyone from trying of course! I mean, you may get into the guts of the game and find out almost all of the text is stored in one or two easy to work with files. But I haven't delved into the inner working of enough games to have a good feel for how many games are easy to work with vs how many will leave you pulling your hair out. And I haven't dealt with the inner workings of Dreamcast games at all. But in general, all programs (including games) operate on a fairly routine set of basics, as such if you have been delving into other games, Dreamcast games shouldn't be a huge stretch. EG | ||||
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CyberWarriorX | Sep 22, 2002 | ||||||||||||
Yes, but you don't always have to change code. The only time I would bother is if memory is tight and you have no other choice(though considering DC does have as much memory as it does, it shouldn't be as big of a problem as say, an older cartridge-based game).
That's why it's usually better to write your own tools. Then again, this is also why it's important for people who know more than just the basics to at least document what they know for others to learn from.
Hah. I'm not sure if i'll ever be at that point, but I will say this much: Almost every game is both. Some games will have a beautiful text system yet use some weird compression for something. Another might use some alright text system, but will implement variable width font. Oh, that reminds me. I did this the other week(for anyone who cares): http://www.emuxhaven.net/~transl....peg.jpg... For the curious, that's from Lunar: SSSC MPEG. First jap game i've seen so far with an automatically adjusting VWF scheme. A rather clever scheme might I add.
Agreed. I wonder if it's possible to directly read and write memory while a game is running using a coder's cable/bba. Something like an AR/Commlink setup. If so, I can easily see how one could hack a DC game. Cyber Warrior X | ||||||||||||||
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EclecticGroove | Sep 22, 2002 | ||
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Agreed. I wonder if it's possible to directly read and write memory while a game is running using a coder's cable/bba. Something like an AR/Commlink setup. If so, I can easily see how one could hack a DC game. Yes, it is.. I've seen it done before.... although I don't know the logistics of getting it to run on the Dreamcast. Essentially doing that is the same thing as using a Gameshark on the Dreamcast, only instead of it reading the codes off of the card, you are doing an interactive "load" from a PC terminal of some type. The problem I see with that is "what" you want to change, since in order to load data, the game would need to access the data. In other words, you would have to either wait until the game refreshes the data you want changed in order to update to "new" data, of force the game to refresh the data you want to change in order to see it. Things that are constantly accessed and refreshed would be no problem for the most part. The major hurtle I would see in terms of hardware is that you would need almost direct access to the Dreamcasts memory, since loading the codes to a card would acomplish nothing unless you could also tell the game to check for that code while running. I suppsoe you could modify the Dreamcast to include some sort of high bandwidth port that would provide access to some part of the memory bus. Then it's just a matter of connecting that to the PC and writing a program to work with it... ??? Is uppose for the hardcore types, that's not that much of an issue, but for your average person, that's a fairly tall order... but most certainly not out of the question. EG | ||||
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DBOY | Oct 8, 2002 | ||
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Translating dreamcast games is very much possible but lik everything else the games will have various pitfalls. I was working on Hanagumi Taisen Columns. Finished the text translating and script format but couldn't finish inserting it because the game didn't allocate enough memory for the new text. http://www.jumpstation.org/products/game/hanagumi/...  Don't Allocated string memory.*size=30357(7695)* PUSH START BUTTON If anyone can ever figure out how to allocate more memory for this game let me know and show me proof that you have and I'd send someone my scripts. | ||||
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racketboy | Nov 5, 2002 | ||
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Yeah I'm hoping the translating of DC games catches on. There's supposedly lots of good JP games out there that I was to try, but can't understand. There was somebody that translated the text from the Capcom vs SNK 2 fandisk | ||||
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Jinnosuke | Nov 20, 2002 | ||
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I can translate sakura taisen 3 on english and French, if you want help mail me jinnosuke@jvnett.com... JVnett... | ||||
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racketboy | Nov 20, 2002 | |||
Can you paraphrase the text, when needed, instead of giving a direct translation? | |||||
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Chris | Nov 29, 2002 | ||
| Well the two games I have that would like to get translated are Dream studio and Rent A Hero. Although Dream studio would be a huge project to take on considering the amount of text. Capcom vs. Snk2 would be nice but its been translated on other systems. So would super street fighter 2x but then again there are translation guides for the menus. But seriously though it would be nice to play Rent A Hero in english and if possible Dream Studio. | ||||
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ExCyber | Nov 29, 2002 | |||
When it comes to Japanese to English translations, paraphrasing is the rule rather than the exception. The languages don't work the same way, aren't used the same way, and have unique idioms. A direct literal translation is a rather destructive thing. | |||||
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DBOY | Dec 7, 2002 | ||
| It doesn't matter either way. There's just not the room to do it unless someone can figure out a way to allocate more ram. | ||||