Famicom Disk System Zelda ENG Translation (Finished)

[jordiway73]

Current Build: http://www.romhacking.net/translations/2958/

patch with rom ver 1.1

Thanks
March 11, 2017, 12:03:54 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)


just wanted to share some pics still trying to figure out how to edit the in-game text

[jordiway73]

I would like to thank FlashPV for editing the title screen and the letter

[rainponcho]

Notes:

Spoiler

Zelda no Densetsu - The Hyrule Fantasy (Japan) (v1.1).fds

Found a text ptr table @ rom 1331e - 13342.

1331e = 23 b7 ==> b723 ==> 13342 rom  [text = take wooden sword]


String looks like this:
1e 17 2b 56 1d 0a 0c 30 4f
==>
42 3b 4f 3a ..

1e + 24 = 42
17 + 24 = 3b
2b + 24 = 4f
56 & 3f = 16 + 24 = 3a

FF = newline


If you want to reposition the text left some more, here's a sample asm edit.

move text left 8 tiles:
rom 13f5c = f0 ==> e8
rom 13f20 = b0 ==> a8
rom 13f92 = b0 ==> a8


After that, you're on your own.

[close]

[jordiway73]

Thank you rainponcho, this is very helpful indeed

The current build (3-21-17), fixed the header and the game menu screens

[KingMike]

A fact that's easier to see on the cartridge version (which used the NES font): the Japanese version has two zeros on the name screen and no 'O'.

[jordiway73]

I would like thank rainponcho for all of his help, most of this would not be possible without his help.

This is the new weapons menu after he showed me how too add an extra letter to the word TRIFORCE. Things are moving along quite well. I'm not sure if there is enough empty space to do a complete accurate translation but we shall see.

[jordiway73]

Sadly a 100% accurate translation is not possible, there just isn't enough space to work with so a lot of text had to be shortened, with that being said

The Overworld text is finished I went through it a few times and didn't see any mistakes but I am hoping I can get a few testers to help verify this,
the link has been updated with the current build, thanks!

[Asaki]

Sadly a 100% accurate translation is not possible, there just isn't enough space to work with so a lot of text had to be shortened...

Are you retranslating it, or using one of the two official English translations?

[jordiway73]

I'm almost finished, I just have to play through both worlds one more time. When I am finished I will probably never play this game again lol



April 17, 2017, 06:10:41 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
After playing through the whole game two times I have found no errors, I made a few small changes to the font of (the Letter Y and the number 4).

   

I will submit this in the next few days its going to take some time to write the read me file. I have a lot of info I want to document incase anybody wants too modify it in the future, thanks.

[rainponcho]

Awesome.

I'll wait for your translation to clear before posting the standalone secret chime door patch change - sometimes I get ahead of myself with others' works and goofed the other person before.

[Spinner 8]

This... won't be in the submitted patch, will it

[jordiway73]

Here is a side by side comparison 1st quest ending of the FDS version and the NES version and the one I translated.



As stated earlier in this thread there is no extra space in this rom, therefore I had to make due with what I had to work with, is it great NO, but I don't think its all that bad either!
(notice how Link and Zelda disappear in the FDS version after they hold up the two pieces of triforce)

2ND quest ending, the only thing added was (END OF "ZELDA 1") and I changed the letter Y because it looked funny

 


If you can improve it please feel free to do so!!!!!!!!!!

[rainponcho]

Yes.

jordiway73 copy-pasted the original official nes "Engrish" script where possible. Due to space limitations (fds ram overlays), much was cut and shortened.

Given the revised aim and style (later decided after text limits), sure.


If someone writes a review about this translation, specifically blame me (rainponcho) for doing a weak, quarter-baked applesauce job of trying to expand the text space for jordiway73. I have no defense, explanation or excuse. And I feel queasy comfortable, knowing there are alternative better scripts out there.

If someone wants to obliterate what I did, readme should have a technical diary on what went wrong. And could be done better.

[azoreseuropa]

Here is a side by side comparison 1st quest ending of the FDS version and the NES version and the one I translated.



As stated earlier in this thread there is no extra space in this rom, therefore I had to make due with what I had to work with, is it great NO, but I don't think its all that bad either!

2ND quest ending, the only thing added was (END OF "ZELDA 1") and I changed the letter Y because it looked funny

 


If you can improve it please feel free to do so!!!!!!!!!!

Your version is so much better than Nintendo version and more accurately. Congratulations. Can't wait for the patch 100% available. Huge fan of Zelda games!

[tc]

Personally... if I had to choose between FDS with the official text, or NES with an extremist script overhaul to the degree someone stepped into a time machine and shot down the board meeting at Nintendo of America about translating the game, I'd choose the latter.

[KingMike]

Tomato found out that after 30 years, they fixed the spelling of "PENINSULA" on the NES Mini.

(and they managed to botch the copyright text on the ending screen of FDS Zelda, on the Famicom Mini. ",1986 NINTENDO". Can only guess they intended to update the copyright date and something went wrong.)

[rainponcho]

Pondering over ram overlays some more. I think at boot time Side A loads the sound engine for both overworld / underworld. Which could mean that it holds sfx for both areas, and possibly even main music themes.

We know that dungeons (underworld) containts lots of sfx not used by overworld. So maybe it's possible to replace those "unused" wavetable data with expanded dialogue text. And when dungeon PRG gets loaded, load another file with the cut dungeon sounds. Longer load times but it gets the job done.

Dungeons have less text than overworld so not as much needs to be cut out I suppose.

This is all just fantasy thinking and not fully thought out (haven't done hard research). Throwing it out there in case someone throws it along further.

[Pennywise]

Do you think there's enough room to add all the code etc for Huffman compression? Given how limited space is, even if you added more space, compression still might be your best bet.

[rainponcho]

iirc, original overworld constraints had like ~20 free space bytes - which was used to fix the Triforce letters.

00-3F = normal letter
40-7F = letter + mark
80-BF = letter + ws
C0-FE = letter + end string
FF = newline

You could save maybe a few bytes by optimizing some unused code out but it was not good.

Thought about taking a cheap dte way out but adding in new code would eat up enough overhead space to make me stop before bothering trying.

I didn't work on actual script replacement but I don't remember seeing much there to begin with. Especially with the re-translation scripts.


Huffman.. I sorta remember what it is but storing the tree + table could crash the party right now.

Small lightbulb moment.

Let me walk that back a bit - script uses only uppercase letters (26) + misc (ws, period, comma, exclamation, newline, eos). 5 bits per char, or say 6-7 for emergency extended modes.

Overworld, underworld will have different encoding tables - by file design.

Text printing has like ~5-6 frame delay between letters.

Let's say overall 5/8 = 62.5%. So ex. 256 ~=> 409 = +153 gain - 40-50 tree data = +100~


Honestly I don't know anymore - maybe there is some glimmer. But this isn't something I'd want to pick up for awhile (lots of months). Learning time, curve, time spent, chance of fail. Seems like a longer-term project - tools, further hack research, debugging. My own frustrating schedules. Not some fast and easy project to scarf down. :|

Who knows - maybe both techniques will have to be used.

(I guess this is why I try to stay out of translation hacking - dedicated honcho or sous-chef level)


edit: Thanks for pulling out the idea though. Interesting brainstorm.

[Pennywise]

No problem. Huffman has been used a few times in commercial games, Uninvited and Battletoads I think, and also in Redcomet's DBZ NES fan translations. His source code is hosted in the documents section if you're curious.

But man did I luck in the current FDS game I'm translating. The last $1000 bytes or so of the RAM overlay was unused by the game. Woo!