[tortugarocosa]

I recently purchased a Retron 5 and have been enjoying playing Super Famicom games with English translation patches applied through an SD card. I bought a Super Famicom copy of  Chrono Trigger under the assumption that a popular game would surely have many available patches, but the only two I can find are on this site and work exclusively with US roms. I'm just wondering if anyone either knows of a patch that will work on a Super Famicom game, or of a way to fiddle with the existing patches in order to get them to work. Any help will be greatly appreciated. : )
October 12, 2014, 12:48:07 pm - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)If someone could at least tell me if I'm screwed or not, that would be great.

[VicVergil]

Nah.
The Woosley translation is stellar, the censorship is very minimal and unnoticeable and he managed to get the point across anyways with creative wording (death/alcohol/religious references).
JP version only differs by an extra ending card graphic for one ending (Chrono Trigger not used, Epoch used in 1999) and unused stuff that you wouldn't see outside of a text dump anyways.
In case you're interested in a retranslation, there exists one (that uses the US rom as a base rom to avoid reprogramming VWF in) but you'll have to look hard on google for it (and I mean prepatched roms) since the site that used to host it sadly took it down.
Or the official DS retranslation.

What do you have against the official US version in particular? It exists and it's done properly. Just get that one.

Alternatively, you could do something really weird and obtuse:
Get JP rom: call it rom 1
Get/create an US rom (optional: with the retranslation patch applied on): call it rom 2
(and pay attention to header, dunno what your Retron requires it to be, but during the patching process both rom1 and rom2 need to be the same regarding whether they have headers or not - there's an utility to do that on rhdn)
Open LunarIPS > Create Patch
rom 1 is Original ROM
rom 2 is Modified/Translated ROM
Create Patch
And you have your ips file.

[Isao Kronos]

yeah but he bought a retron 5 which is a pile of crap that steals code from emulators

[Jorpho]

JP version only differs by an extra ending card graphic for one ending (Chrono Trigger not used, Epoch used in 1999) and unused stuff that you wouldn't see outside of a text dump anyways.

I read once that the algorithms used to calculate stat increases upon leveling up are different, but considering that no one seems to have ever mentioned that again, perhaps that source was mistaken.

[tortugarocosa]

GHANMI - Thank you so much! That was ridiculously easy. Honestly, I'm completely fine with the original English translation, I just had no idea that you could easily create ips patches like that.

Isao Kronos - I'm inclined to agree. I bought mine right before news of it being full of stolen emulation software came to light. At the same time, it is kind of nice to have something lying around that I can play most of my physical cartridges on. Soooo I guess I enjoy the Retron 5 for what it is, but yeah... Hyperkin can suck a fat turd.

[Bregalad]

rom 1 is Original ROM
rom 2 is Modified/Translated ROM
Create Patch
And you have your ips file.

This is very dumb, as the ips patch will contain most of the ROM's data. Unless everything was kept at the exact same adress in ROM which I seriously doubt.

IPS was meant to record small change among 2 similar files, not to completely transform file 1 into file 2.

[VicVergil]

This is very dumb, as the ips patch will contain most of the ROM's data. Unless everything was kept at the exact same adress in ROM which I seriously doubt.

IPS was meant to record small change among 2 similar files, not to completely transform file 1 into file 2.

I did say it is a weird method.
(the JP and US CT roms share lots of things though at different placements, the xdelta format would be more suitable for data shifts like this)
However in this specific case, the OP needs an ips file that, when applied to a Japanese rom (his physical cartridge), gives him a translated English rom.
The solution I gave is valid for his personal use. (he owns the physical copy)
He doesn't need to worry about the patch containing chunks from the ROM, as long as he doesn't distribute his patch online (which he wouldn't, since it's ultimately a useless thing to do).

[Jorpho]

Come to think of it, you could probably create an IPS patch that changes Chrono Trigger JP into, say, Super Mario World, and then use the Chrono Trigger JP cart to play Super Mario World.  It pretty much makes it capable of playing any arbitrary ROM, doesn't it?

[Mauron]

I read once that the algorithms used to calculate stat increases upon leveling up are different, but considering that no one seems to have ever mentioned that again, perhaps that source was mistaken.

I just checked, stat growth is identical between the US and JP versions.

[Seihen]

Come to think of it, you could probably create an IPS patch that changes Chrono Trigger JP into, say, Super Mario World, and then use the Chrono Trigger JP cart to play Super Mario World.  It pretty much makes it capable of playing any arbitrary ROM, doesn't it?

In a real-life scenario where only the rom chip was being swapped on a board which included mappers, sound and graphic chips, etc. it wouldn't work at all. But since people replacing an actual rom chip on their legit carts with re-flashed rom chips is pretty uncommon (except in cases of putting a Mr. Gimmik on Batman: Return of Joker and the like), I guess we can rule that out.
From an emulator standpoint, since it brings to the table the special chips as well as emulating the system itself.. yeah, I think this would work.

Kinda interesting to think about, even if it's only a weird way of using a physical cart as a key to emulation.

[VicVergil]

In a real-life scenario where only the rom chip was being swapped on a board which included mappers, sound and graphic chips, etc. it wouldn't work at all. But since people replacing an actual rom chip on their legit carts with re-flashed rom chips is pretty uncommon (except in cases of putting a Mr. Gimmik on Batman: Return of Joker and the like), I guess we can rule that out.

That's criminal  (and not even the proper Gimmick VRC6 version)
I shudder at the thought of already-rare Tengai Makyou Zero cartridges being mutilated when the translation eventually comes.

I don't get the point behind what OP is trying to do, though. Couldn't he just get something like a region lock switch device (and I'm sure these exist for SNES) and play his US copy (assuming in good faith he has it already)?

[Jorpho]

I just checked, stat growth is identical between the US and JP versions.

How did you check?

I don't get the point behind what OP is trying to do, though. Couldn't he just get something like a region lock switch device (and I'm sure these exist for SNES) and play his US copy (assuming in good faith he has it already)?

The Retron 5 has no problem with different regions.  Presumably the OP does not in fact have a US copy.

[tortugarocosa]

The Retron 5 has no problem with different regions.  Presumably the OP does not in fact have a US copy.

Bingo!

[Mauron]

How did you check?

I've got an editor for character data (which really needs to be properly released) that can handle the level up data for all three versions (US, JP, Pre-release), and notes on where the routine is. I compared the data and looked at the routine.

[Jorpho]

Huh.  Well, that sounds pretty definitive.  Too bad that page I read is lost to the ages.

[patuli]

I remember 10 or 11 years ago, someone found the Japanese ROM of chrono trigger inside the American release of chrono trigger for the playstation, and made a patch for it.
Hopefully someone stills have the patch after all these years.

Edit:
You know what? i digged in my old Hard drives and found some old files, two tales of phantasia music patch,
(the first singer is better than the one on the second music patch) and the patch i mentioned above.

I will paste the readme, since i can't upload this stuff here.

SSSSSSSSSSSSS GGGGGGGGGGGG SSSSSSSSSSSS TTTTTTTTTTTTT
SSS       SSS GGG      GGG SSS      SSS      TTT
SSS           GGG          SSS               TTT
SSSSSSSSSSSSS GGG    GGGGG SSSSSSSSSSSS      TTT
          SSS GGG      GGG          SSS      TTT
SSS       SSS GGG      GGG SSS      SSS      TTT
SSSSSSSSSSSSS GGGGGGGGGGGG SSSSSSSSSSSS      TTT
-----------------------------------------------------
S o m e   G o o d   S h i t   T r a n s l a t i o n s

                   Present....


Chrono Trigger
ROM.BIN english fix patch
Version 1.00
Some Good Shit Translations

,,,,,,,
|STAFF|
'''''''
Hacker: TheFreak (Wouldn't you BELIEVE!?)

,,,,,,,
|ABOUT|
'''''''

Believe it or not, there's a file in your PSX copy of ChronoTrigger called
ROM.bin that, if you play under ZSNES, will play the Original ChronoTrigger
SNES game.  The problem with this file is that the ROM was never translated
in the PSX disc and, when run under any emulator, the text is garbled.
Enter this, possiblilty the heaviest patch at almost 4 megs (almost the
same size as CT itself).  This patch will not only fix the text, but
translate the ROM.bin file to the US Woolsey-translated ROM.
Considering the loophole surrounding .IPS files, and the
fact that the ROM is already in the PSX disc, this is probably
the closest you'll ever get to legally owning the ROM without owning
the actual SNES cart itself. 

As for the "Licensed by Nintendo" shtick at the beginning of the US ROM..
Well, it *IS* A Super NES ROM, right!?

....*cough*...heheh...

Um..anyway...Enjoy the patch!

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
|APPLYING THE PATCH|
''''''''''''''''''''

Use either IPS.EXE or SNESTOOL both available for download at
http://rpgd.emulationworld.com to apply the patch to the ROM. Make sure
the patch and the ROM are in the same directory along with your
patching utility and follow the steps to apply the patch. If you are
having any difficulties consult the readme for the patching utility.

,,,,,,,,,,,,
|DISCLAIMER|
''''''''''''

This patch is not be traded or sold for any goods or serviced. It is
strictly freeware! Square does not endorse or support this patch in any
way. This patch was created by Some Good Shit Translations. ph34r.

[Jorpho]

Enter this, possiblilty the heaviest patch at almost 4 megs (almost the
same size as CT itself).

This suggests that the patch probably just contains the entire contents of the US ROM, making it kind of pointless.  That's not really a "loophole".

I don't know why the text would be garbled instead of just being in Japanese.

[Bregalad]

My suggetion is that the guy who wrote this readme is a douche not very very smart, and doesn't know the different between Japanese and garbage.

He also doesn't know the difference between an IPS that contains the entiere rom and a legitimate IPS patch.

[VicVergil]

I'm amazed someone did actually upload something like this. How pointless...

I read somewhere that, regarding the Japanese PS1 CT release, TOSE just put a JP SNES ROM (with minor alterations to make the FMV work? it would be interesting to compare it to the REAL JP rom) and a SNES>PS1 emulator... since they could seeminly fit all of that in the PS1 RAM. Supposedly, swapping the ROM.bin file with another SNES ROM will make it run just fine (and something similar is present in the Twinbee PSP collection).

But for the US PS1 release, they decided for some reason to use the same JP SNES ROM with a custom format patch with the English data, hence the infamous US-exclusive loading times. Take it with a grain truck of salt though - I'd love to know whether this is real or just some urban legend.

[Vehek]

An urban legend, because:
a. It's not emulation. The PS1 wasn't powerful enough for that. It only loads a few things from that ROM, or so I hear.
b. Its load times were bad over in Japan too.

http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?48191-Chrono-Trigger-SNES-ROM-on-PlayStation-Version&p=704742&viewfull=1#post704742

There is no emulator behind this, the hardware never could do that at frame rates even remotely decently. The only data pulled from that ROM image is just dialog text, while everything else was taken directly from the ROM and embedded into overlays. The actual code is a mix of a PlayStation framework and SNES assembly statically recompiled to C->binary.

On load times...

#20 | Then00bAvenger | Posted 11/2/2008 11:04:24 AM
Obviously I'm not aware of this. I had no idea that this was the case.

You've never heard of it because he completely fabricated it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAxiU9G6HiQ

There's a clip of the PS1 JP version being compared to the SNES US version


#23 | Then00bAvenger | Posted 11/2/2008 11:12:04 AM
Also

http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1211054362?fr=rcmd_chie_detail

http://soudan1.biglobe.ne.jp/qa1656438.html

http://ameblo.jp/hontou/entry-10114278688.html ---< Zun-san's entry


Japanese people complaining about load time if that's not enough for you X_X