Translating Pokemon Red [JP]

[Noodle]

Hey guys

I wanted to learn how to translate psp games so I thought it would be a good idea to learn by hacking pokemon red.
I'm new to this whole stuff so if I say something stupid please correct me.

I already got all the japanese characters (both hiragana and kana), so far I only found 1 kanji that is used for money.
What's the next step?
Do I have to find the romanji character to start the translation? Cuz I couldn't find any.

[KingMike]

I think the currency in the JP Pokemon games was simply yen (aka "en" in Japanese, because ye isn't a (proper?) kana).

[Ryusui]

Dude, Pokemon Red doesn't need an English retranslation. And if you're translating it into another language, one that it's not officially available in, you'd be better off basing it on the English version (or one of the Euro versions, I guess).

Ever notice how Pokemon names max out at five letters while the Western versions give you ten? There's no easy way around that. There simply isn't room on screen, nor in memory, to fit ten-letter names in the original Japanese version. You would have to reprogram the game extensively to achieve that, just like Nintendo did back in 1998.

Look. If you gotta have an English version with the original Red and Green Version's Pokemon art, focus on that instead. Making the Western Red and Blue look like the Japanese Red and Green is a much easier task than reprogramming the original Japanese ROM to support a proper English translation.

And if it's not about that - if you've just gotta test your translation mettle even though you can't actually read a lick of Japanese - then what the hell are you doing working on an RPG of any stripe? Find something simple and text-light to start on. An RPG is NOT a beginner's project.

[Noodle]

First thanks for the reply!

I didn't know that Pokemon Red was that difficult to start. I can speak and read japanese so that's not the problem for me. I just wanted to learn/practice how to make tables and translate stuffs.
Well I guess I better choose a different game them.
Thanks for the advice man!

[Lilinda]

Yeah, the GB/GBC Pokémon games are notoriously hard to hack. Let this be a warning for anyone else reading the topic and having the same idea...

[DSwizzy145]

How about trying to translate Crayon Shin-Chan Gameboy titles to start off with first they're platformers with very lite text

[Noodle]

Thanks I´ll do that! I was working on DBZ Hyper Dimension, I'll try Shin-chan when I get done with DBZ

[Zoinkity]

Did no one else catch this?

I wanted to learn how to translate psp games so I thought it would be a good idea to learn by hacking pokemon red.

To be fair, even the N64 Stadium titles were weird.  Technically, the first second japanese game / first american game used a translation layer that floated over the original system o.0  Really picky about allocation sizes as well, though none of that 'every byte counts' packing GB titles had.

[Garoth Moulinoski]

Did no one else catch this?

I did. I thought it was kinda weird and ironic. I stayed quiet, but I guess if no one else is going to say, then I will. Hacking a PSP game is not like hacking a GB game. I don't know much about it myself, but I can at least say that PSP games (and DS, PS1, PS2, etc games, i.e. pre-DS cart-based games) contain directories, with their data in various files in the directories. If you pop a PS1 cd into your computer drive, you'll see that there are a bunch of files. PSP would be similar.

A GB rom has all the data contained in its rom. No real directory (or none at all).

Someone more knowledgeable than I may be able to explain much better than me. But that's the idea.

[DSwizzy145]

Thanks I´ll do that! I was working on DBZ Hyper Dimension, I'll try Shin-chan when I get done with DBZ

No problem but i was actually perferring instead was the Shin Chan 1 or 2 on Super Nintendo/Famicom if you don't mind. Thanks!

[Noodle]

Hacking a PSP game is not like hacking a GB game

I don't wanna sound arrogant but I know the file architecture of an iso and a rom are different . But like I said the only thing I know about translating is Japanese. I'm still learning how to find the fonts and making tables. So before I start messing w/ complicated stuffs  I thought that starting messing w/ rom would be better.

Do you think it's better to start w/ a ps1 game ? since My final objective is translating psp games.

Thanks for all the replies anyway 

[Garoth Moulinoski]

Well, if the end result is that you want to hack a PSP game, maybe starting with a PS1 game is more appropriate, but I really couldn't tell you. IIRC, the PS1 isn't as well documented as, say, the NES. But like I said, I'm not too knowledgeable with it myself. See if you can find Gemini, s/he's done a few PS1 translations/hacks. Dunno who else could help you. Maybe post in the Newbie forum (don't worry, it just means you're willing to learn and I've seen people be helpful in that thread)?