[phalanX]

Hi there!

After my "Hokuto No Ken/Last Battle" translation project - which I haven't completely finished (sorry!) - I wanted to take a look at "Hokuto No Ken/Black Belt" for the Sega Master System. It seemed like an easy hack since there already was a french translation around. Well, not quite. Both the original and the french lacked the complete western alphabet. And it took me a week to understand the workings of the SMS Assembly. But it was easiER than my last project. Now, some pictures:



Still have to take care of a few things. And I'll need some help with the japanese texts that appear after the battle. I'll let you know.

[irvgotti452]

I admire your skills bro. I hope you complete your mission with this game! 

[ChaddyBones]

Big fan of the anime. Looking forward to seeing this finished! Nice work so far.

[nesrocks]

My dream is to see these graphics on the Black Belt game, but this is the next best thing

[phalanX]

Been working on this project some more these past days. Noticed that the easiest found ROM around checks as a BAD DUMP on MEKA. It turns out this ROM is labeled JAPAN, but in reality it's a CHINESE bad dump.

I was curious about what made this a bad dump. Well, sure enough, during the last boss fight, the sprites are all weird. I was able to find the regular JAPAN dump, but don't know if everybody will be able to. I hope so.



Still need to translate the chapter names and after-fight text. I also want to change the position of some things.
December 21, 2017, 07:58:22 am - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)Well, now it's that time when I need your help, guys. Can PLEASE someone translate the japanese that appear after the bosses?

[Hiei-]

Chapter 1 : It was a doll looking like Yuria.
            The real Yuria need to be saved!/I have to save the real Yuria!

Chapter 2 : The battle has just/only started.
            More terrifying ennemies are waiting!

Chapter 3 : The devil dissapeared.
            Now, it's/Next is the challenge against Cassandra's legend.

Chapter 4 : During the battle, Toki learns the Fist of Gentleness to Kenshirou.

Chapter 5 : The end of the battle is drawing near.
            Now is the confrontation against the old ennemy, Raou.

Chapter 6.1 : I have not the slightest regret in my life!

I have some doubts about the Chapter 6.2 because of the lack of context. I guess it appear after you beat the game?

Of course, like each time, feel free to fix my engrish

(And if someone spot some translations errors, feel free to fix them too).

[KingMike]

That Chapter 4 text doesn't make sense. Could "toki ha" possibly be like "this time"?

[Midna]

Chapter 6.2's text, to my understanding, is something like "Ken embraces his love, who doesn't know when he will once again return to the wasteland."

[RealGaea]

That Chapter 4 text doesn't make sense. Could "toki ha" possibly be like "this time"?

No, it references Kenshiro's older training brother Toki.
He's like... An albino Kung-fu Jesus.

[Midna]

Went ahead and gave my take on the rest:

Chapter 1 - It was a doll of Yuria. You must save the real Yuria.
Chapter 2 - The battle has only just begun. Even more terrifying foes await.
Chapter 3 - The demon has been destroyed. Next you must challenge the legend of Cassandra.
Chapter 4 - In the midst of battle, Toki taught Ken the Fist of Gentleness.
Chapter 5 - The struggle's end approaches. At last comes the showdown with Ken's arch-nemesis, Raoh.
Chapter 6.1 - "I have not a single regret in my life."

[Pleiades7]

Been working on this project some more these past days. Noticed that the easiest found ROM around checks as a BAD DUMP on MEKA. It turns out this ROM is labeled JAPAN, but in reality it's a CHINESE bad dump.

I was curious about what made this a bad dump. Well, sure enough, during the last boss fight, the sprites are all weird. I was able to find the regular JAPAN dump, but don't know if everybody will be able to. I hope so.



Still need to translate the chapter names and after-fight text. I also want to change the position of some things.
December 21, 2017, 07:58:22 am - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)Well, now it's that time when I need your help, guys. Can PLEASE someone translate the japanese that appear after the bosses?

Hi there!

I was once part of the development team in the states that would translate and market the SMS games. Glad to see their is still love for our games!! Alas, my contributions behind the scenes was more in the realm of artistic direction and not so much coding. I have always wanted to go back and revise some of these games and give them the much deserved love that project deadlines and corporate demands wouldn't allow. So was please to see the fans are doing that! haha

That said, if an old fart like myself is allowed to chime in...would love to help out, if I could. Black Belt was one of the projects I had the fortune of working on...and then later when I was working when outsourced to the division that oversaw "Last Battle" the logical conclusion was that I would help out there since the translation team essentially saw that game as the "Black Belt" remake, etc.

Ignore me otherwise if this is your own personal thing.  But this was always art to me, and would love very much as I enter my twilight years to have closure with this.

If my contributions matter, then please reach out to me here. Looking forward to the dialogue!

Have a few fun suggestions, if they are welcome...

[nesrocks]

That sounds awesome, Pleiades7! I hope phalanX is in the idea of a joint effort, it could be very interesting! I don't recall something similar happenening with other hacks, where someone involved on the original games helped on a modern hack.

May I ask, what was your role on Black Belt? (by the way, I think Black Belt is better as a game, so congratulations on that!) I'd love to know what other games you worked on.

[phalanX]

Hi, Pleiades7! Well, how crazy is that!
So nice having you around. Have tons of questions! And I'm also looking forward to hearing your inputs.

Indeed, Black Belt it's a way better game. Going through the Black Belt code, could see that it has mostly different programming from the original Hokuto No Ken. It's an improved code, with things like loading in memory a complete set of western letters on every screen - something the original lacked, loading just what was going to be used in that screen. Not even mentioning the in-game improvements.

[Digitsie]

Congrats!

[phalanX]

It's released! Tried to fix a couple other things like the logo and music but for version 1.0 this is what I got. If I succeed in doing so I'll update it.

Also, been waiting for Pleiades7 to get in touch. Maybe some other fixes will come out of that, who knows?

[cccmar]

Cool! Now it's just Hokuto no Ken for Genesis? Would be cool to see you do some other SMS games too - not that too many of them require translation at this point. Still, I gave the patch a go, seemed like good work thus far.

[phalanX]

Wow, the patch seems to be getting around! More than 200 downloads a week later. Hope everybody's having a good time with it now that is possible to play following the story.

The plan was that after I uploaded it, I would go back to the Last Battle project for the Genesis. After all, this is finished, right? Well, yes. But I kinda wanted to change that japanese logo. Tried to figure that out, but in the end, it was all being printed in a similar fashion than the Genesis game. I just can't do this kind of programming. Also, I can't ask somebody to create a tool to do that. pianohombre already helped me with this for the other game and I haven't even finished that project. So, I kinda gave it up.

I love the Black Belt music tracks. I really think that game sounds better. Tried again to figure this part out, but still no luck. Actually, this I think I MAY be able to pull it off sometime. Would you like to have BB tracks in there?

Finally, been thinking about the Black Belt gameplay improvements. They made that game GREAT! Might look for those as well. What do you think about that?

[nesrocks]

At this point it just might be easier to put the hokuto no ken graphics into black belt? Which is my dream hack for this game.

[Pleiades7]

Wow, the patch seems to be getting around! More than 200 downloads a week later. Hope everybody's having a good time with it now that is possible to play following the story.

The plan was that after I uploaded it, I would go back to the Last Battle project for the Genesis. After all, this is finished, right? Well, yes. But I kinda wanted to change that japanese logo. Tried to figure that out, but in the end, it was all being printed in a similar fashion than the Genesis game. I just can't do this kind of programming. Also, I can't ask somebody to create a tool to do that. pianohombre already helped me with this for the other game and I haven't even finished that project. So, I kinda gave it up.

I love the Black Belt music tracks. I really think that game sounds better. Tried again to figure this part out, but still no luck. Actually, this I think I MAY be able to pull it off sometime. Would you like to have BB tracks in there?

Finally, been thinking about the Black Belt gameplay improvements. They made that game GREAT! Might look for those as well. What do you think about that?

Sorry for taking so long to get back! Would love to further look into finding tools and ways to improve this and other SMS games. Like some of what is suggested here, like new character sprites for Black Belt from the Japanese counterpart. A way to mix the best of both. Both games are have something the other does not. Not sure how difficult this would be. Cheers!