Messages

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Personal Projects / Re: Marvelous ~ mou hitotsu no takarajima

« on: December 18, 2012, 02:34:13 am »

SkinnyV, just for my own curiosity, I would be interested in knowing whether it runs on real hardware.

DSwizzy145, unfortunately no, it won't be continuing soon. In all likelihood, it won't continue. I've done what I can to the limits of my ability, and have "settled" with that. There might be a German or French version someday that will likely be more complete.

warren, glad you could play it

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Personal Projects / Re: Marvelous ~ mou hitotsu no takarajima

« on: December 14, 2012, 08:05:14 pm »

Hey all, haven't updated in what feels like forever, because, well, no updates
Talked to several people about getting a VWF, but it never worked out, and I've sort of lost interest/moved on.

I really wanted to polish this up and make it shiny and wonderful, and knew that a "beta" patch release would steal a lot of thunder from a potential proper release, but who knows if that will ever happen?

Here's my most recent play test build (June 2012). Merry Christmas :>

The zip file contains a folder called "marvplaytestbuild" with an IPS patch, an xdelta patch, a readme with some info, and the script (Japanese/English).

The first thing you'll notice when you start the game is a scrolling Japanese text wall. Oops. Then an untranslated title screen (oops) and then a Japanese team name select screen. If you hit L/R you can get to English letters. Then the game will start and it should be more or less English.

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Newcomer's Board / Re: New and Need Help: What Table Tools (and how) to Use On Windows 7 64-bit?

« on: July 11, 2012, 10:24:42 pm »

A super cool tip I recently learned:  if you hold shift and right click an empty area of a folder, "open command prompt here" should appear in the context menu. Saves a lot of hassle from running cmd.exe and then trying to navigate to your folder via cd, dir, and tab completion.

I find Crystal Tile 2 very convenient for looking at tiles, but everyone has personal preferences.

For long Japanese tables with thousands of entries, I actually use... Microsoft Excel. In col A I have a long list of integers. In col B I use =DEC2HEX to convert to hex. Col C is the character itself, and col D is a concatenation in the format of "hex = character"  I copy col D to a text file and save that as my table. One reason for using excel is that, for instance, if I accidentally skip a character, that means ALL the following offsets need to be shifted, which is trivial in Excel (just drag cells around).

I second Monkey Moore as being a useful tool. It's great for finding the hiragana in a game. Pretty sure it outputs tables in UTF-8, though a lot of other tools expect S-JIS, so be aware of that.

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Script Help and Language Discussion / Re: Translation process - how to present text to translators?

« on: July 10, 2012, 09:49:17 am »

I personally do script insertion and translation, and my preference is to keep as many of the control codes away from the script as possible. It really disrupts my flow if I have to constantly be thinking about [newline] or [end] bytes. Try to make a parser so the translator can use a simpler syntax which you transform into the mess that gets shoved into the ROM.

Some examples that might not be relevant to you: If there is a character limit per line, do that with a parser and save lots of headaches. For formatting new lines, maybe a simple [newline] is all it takes, but if your game has multiple ways for inserting linebreaks, let your translator use something simple like "Dear Sir,CRLFBlah blah" and you can switch CRLF to [newline1] or [newline2] or [scroll] or [nextpage] as appropriate. Even if end bytes are the same for all strings, why make your translator type that out? Use a parser to append end bytes.

In my script files, I keep all the original Japanese lines, and then below each string, I prefix my English line with a > and use a parser to deal with formatting, end bytes, and commenting out the translated Japanese text (while keeping the untranslated lines in). That was important to me for debugging.

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Script Help and Language Discussion / Re: Little help.

« on: July 07, 2012, 02:18:13 am »

To keep beating a dead horse, in the PSP game 絶体絶命都市３， one of the lines has the word 騎士 in it, and the voice actor actually says ナイト knight.

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ROM Hacking Discussion / Re: Jiro Akagawa's "The Sleep of Witches" Situation Report

« on: July 07, 2012, 02:10:44 am »

You are a hacking machine, mate! It's such a beautiful thing to see a VWF hack! Good luck with scrollback (and name screen?).　I look forward to seeing your progress.

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ROM Hacking Discussion / Re: Jiro Akagawa's "The Sleep of Witches" Situation Report

« on: June 28, 2012, 08:09:16 pm »

Man, I had forgotten about that hanged corpse until you mentioned it. Just a brief glance and it's easy to miss. This game is so creepy/scary!

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ROM Hacking Discussion / Bushi Seiryuuden script dump etc

« on: June 28, 2012, 09:32:49 am »

Everyone probably knows Game Freak for making Pokemon, and since this community is sort of focused around obscure retro games, most of you probably also know that they made an RPG on the SNES called Bushi Seiryuuden - futari no yuusha. I haven't beaten it yet, but it's really fun and interesting. In particular, the combat system kept me engaged. There's a target number of turns for finishing each battle, and you get tasty candies if you can beat it, but it is very tricky to slip in under the limit. Although the combat has turns, it is very fluid, almost like an action RPG. If you want a better description, please read the HG101 article on bushi seiryuuden

As this thread title suggests, I dumped the script and made a table, but there are a ton of embedded pointers and/or control codes that I can't figure out. Since there is very little talk of this game from what the forum search tool could show me, I thought it would be worthwhile to at least post what I have for a couple reasons: maybe someone will help me figure out control codes, or maybe someone can use it to jump start a translation project of their own.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/42693/bushi%20script.txt <- VERY ugly script, uses 852 kanji (but 575 of them are elementary level!)
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/42693/bushi%20table.tbl <- table (missing MANY control codes)

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ROM Hacking Discussion / Re: Jiro Akagawa's "The Sleep of Witches" Situation Report

« on: June 28, 2012, 08:01:06 am »

It's impressive how much you've been able to progress on this in such a short span of time. I wonder how transferable the tools you made would be for other SNES novels like "gakkou de atta kowai hanashi" or others.

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ROM Hacking Discussion / Re: Jiro Akagawa's "The Sleep of Witches" Situation Report

« on: June 27, 2012, 03:27:45 am »

I'm amazed how much activity sprung up around this game in the past 3ish days. I wish I had put all my junk on that crystal wiki thing... or seen the thread sooner.

Several months ago I looked at this game and noticed the font and script were not compressed, so I made a table and dumped the script. It seems you've already gotten that far. The table is basically just SJIS, right?

Here's as far as I got with the game.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/42693/majotachi%20table.tbl <- 2888 entries (most control codes still undiscovered..) (maybe not all the kanji??)
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/42693/majotachi.txt <- 2.33MB SJIS raw jp script , VERY messy, many unknown control codes.

table i used for dumping -> https://dl.dropbox.com/u/42693/carttable.tbl
cartographer commands i used for dumping -> https://dl.dropbox.com/u/42693/majocmd.txt

For those curious, the game actually uses 1455 kanji.

Specific breakdown by grade level:

kanji     grade
77    1
156   2
181   3
164   4
150   5
129   6
512   8
63    9
23

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Personal Projects / Re: ROLL♥CHAN Evolution!

« on: June 19, 2012, 09:12:44 pm »

Very cool I'm a fan of hacks that replace male protagonists with cute girls. What game wouldn't be improved like that, I ask rhetorically.

Two of your screenshots are the same, though. I wonder if there is another shot?

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Personal Projects / Re: Marvelous ~ mou hitotsu no takarajima

« on: June 19, 2012, 08:33:55 am »

Admittedly I was just passing through some of the countries, but it still counts!

Most of my travels were leisurely and pleasant. I was in Chile for 6mos for work, and as that was finishing up, I was finishing up my first draft translation and patch, but left shortly after sending that out to a few playtesters to go to Disney World, but it's a long flight and I stopped in Panama along the way. Then I went to Mexico for a couple weeks (a vacation after Disney World.. vacations can be tiring, too!) Then I went home to the USA to visit family and friends, after which time I stopped in Toronto and Vancouver before landing in Japan, where I shall live as long as my tourist non-visa status allows or until I find employment elsewhere.

Simpler, diagram form:

Chile (start rom hacking) -> Panama -> USA -> Mexico -> USA -> Canada -> Japan (restart rom hacking)

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Personal Projects / Re: Marvelous ~ mou hitotsu no takarajima

« on: June 18, 2012, 06:36:55 am »

Hey everybody, sadly not a whole lot to report on the ROM hacking progress. I've been in like 6 different countries since my last post in this thread, but I should be settling down for a little while here in Japan. I'm mostly caught up on typos and notes people have been nice enough to send to me, and I made a new patch. I've basically forgotten everything I used to know about rom hacking, so let's cross our fingers and hope I did it right. I sent out my playtest packet to everyone who asked for it (I think. If I missed you, please let me know).

Thanks for your continued interest and support. It makes me glad I devote so many hours to this sort of a hobby.

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Personal Projects / Re: Marvelous ~ mou hitotsu no takarajima

« on: April 19, 2012, 11:28:35 pm »

Thank you everyone for your comments It means a lot to me that you guys are playing and liking this game!

ChronoMoogle, I've been in contact with svambo for a while now. I'm not sure who d4s is...

Grats to pelham123 for "not quite marvelous" and thanks for finding those errors. I'm working on script editing and working with people to get the graphics fixed...

I'm back home for the first time in a while, so the allure of first-world internet, food, video games, and other entertainment is sort of distracting me, but I'll snap out of it soon. There's talk of getting together a proper website with developer interviews and bonus materials. I really want to do this game justice.

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Personal Projects / Re: Marvelous ~ mou hitotsu no takarajima

« on: March 27, 2012, 02:51:08 pm »

I finished my pass of the game. I didn't find any untranslated strings nor game stopping bugs. I'm sure I didn't catch everything, though. Which is why I'd like to open up playtesting now! I'm sending patches to everyone who has contacted me in regards to playtesting. If anyone would like the patch, let me know in some way.

After staring at the script for so long, it's hard to step out of it and judge it objectively. Also, after playing the game a couple times, it's hard to look at it with a fresh mind and see if the clues and riddles make sense. Right now, there is probably an equal amount of ambiguity to them as there was in the original Japanese, but if people comment that the hints are too obscure, adjustments can be made. I'm mostly expecting things like:

• awkward wording
• awkward animal noises
• awkward spacing/alignment
• unclear hints/clues

But everything is fair game for criticism and comments. Keep in mind, however, I already have the following on my to-do list:

• the "new game" menu isn't done.
• The intro text before the title screen isn't done
• the title screen isn't done.
• the item/teamwork icons looks weird
• the chapter names are in Japanese most of the time (except when loading a save file i think)

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Newcomer's Board / Re: Game Editor Pre-planning

« on: March 25, 2012, 07:09:54 pm »

I am smiling.

You're one of those Tom Slick brothers that think you can get by on good looks, a wink and a smile?

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ROM Hacking Discussion / Re: Someone is selling reproduction rom-hack carts

« on: March 24, 2012, 10:09:32 am »

In a perfect world, the $95 price point would scare off casual consumers, so hopefully someone who is in the market for repros is probably aware of the ROM hacking community and as such should be aware that these translation patches and hacks are provided free of charge on various websites (author's homepages, RHDN, etc). Those same savvy consumers would also be aware that a flash cart would provide significantly more utility. Therefore, only people who know this stuff is free, but just really want a plastic cartridge with an instruction manual will be buying the repros. I don't claim to understand the motivation, but I'm not going to knock it.

If the above scenario is accurate, then he is a jerk for selling the blood and sweat of others, but I see no real harm in it.

If, however, innocent people are being misled into believing the ONLY way to play these games is by spending $95 for a repro cart, he is an evil man taking advantage of uninformed consumers. I think the situation could be greatly improved if he would provide a disclaimer that the games he is selling can be obtained for free along with a link to a project page for each hack. Instead of making a $95 purchased based on a  sensationalist tagline ("Think your[sic] good at Super Metroid? Now is your chance to prove it."), one could read more in-depth information about what the hack does, see a list of bugs, screenshots, etc.

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Personal Projects / Re: Marvelous ~ mou hitotsu no takarajima

« on: March 22, 2012, 06:09:50 pm »

Except for a few compressed graphics (1 of which is relevant to gameplay but I could work around that if I have to) and an awkward, hard to use menu for one puzzle.... and the outstanding issues (name entry screen, chapter titles..) Chapter 1 is done!! Hurray!

My new goal for myself is to finish my playthrough by March 30 so I can send out a patch and other files to playtesters before I go on vacation for a couple weeks. Fingers crossed.

*edit 2012-3-23  Chapter 2 has been played through and edited accordingly! (one clue was a compressed image..)

*edit 2012-3-24  Chapter 3 has been played through and edited accordingly! (one clue was a compressed image..)

*edit 2012-3-26  Chapter 4 has been played through and edited accordingly! (no compressed graphics! haha!)

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Personal Projects / Re: Marvelous ~ mou hitotsu no takarajima

« on: March 22, 2012, 01:33:02 pm »

Semos almighty! LostTemplar, you've done it!!

I feel like such an idiot. I knew I would when this was resolved. Seeing the correct thing reminded me how to manipulate that dialog.

You push up and down on the blank spots and it fills in left/right and a number of times. Wow. That REALLY could have been better explained. Or explained at all. Wowww. Okay, now that can just be another silly bug that will go in the list of ASM hacks I'm not smart enough to do.

Thanks, LostTemplar.

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Personal Projects / Re: Marvelous ~ mou hitotsu no takarajima

« on: March 21, 2012, 07:35:04 pm »

Oh no, guys! Just as Gideon Zhi prophesied... I started my localization playthrough and.. the horror! The horror!

Item names are limited to 16 characters. That is a lot worse than the 22 per line for normal dialog. Especially since normal dialogue can scroll forever.

Short cutscene text is limited to two lines of 22 characters. Sort of limiting when I'd like to say "This is the girl's tent. Only one boy is allowed to come in at a time."

I can't change the chapter names.

Some riddles / clues are in the form of graphics instead of text. But I can't find them cuz they're compressed.

The biggest show stopper right now, a bug that prevents me from getting anywhere.. is a particular puzzle where you have to rotate this lever thing left and right the correct number of times (like a combination lock).

Code: [Select]

<$FE>リ手順と回数を入力せよ。
[nl3]   ／右1／  ／<$FE>ム[end1]


I tried it in my unedited ROM in Snes9x and BSNES. I redownloaded my ROM and tried again.... I played this game once all the way through without any bugs, so I don't understand how this can be happening... I will try to get other dumps and test them too...

If anyone wants to take a look at any of my problems, I will do whatever I can to help.

*edit btw everything works SUPER GREAT and playable up until that game ruining bug. If you want to play up to that part, I can give you a patch.
*edit: after more testing, I can conclude this is NOT a bug caused by my hack. This bug is in vanilla untouched clean ROMs. I have no idea how I got past this part last year or why I am so unfortunate now :/ most common md5sum is b9b77e5f378b871ece75caba82718a8e but this version doesn't work for me, either.. same bug as in screenshot.