Tomato Adventure (GBA) translation/tools

[mgrid16]

This English translation looks very good. I am looking forward to playing this game after the translation gets released.

[[Unknown]]

Heya!  Got any updates?   I check this site religiously as I await the most Tomato-ey of adventures..   Also If you need any testers I would be happy too!   At my work i sometimes can not work so gba gets alot of love 

There's no release yet, but you can build the current in-progress version from here: https://github.com/unknownbrackets/tomatotrans/tree/demille
(you'll have to "build" it but it's pretty easy to.)

I've been a bit busier recently and so has the person working on graphics, but currently waiting on some updated graphics.

Was the prospect of the GBC version being translated ever discussed in any official (for this thread) capacity? I know myself and some others had offhandedly mentioned wanting to see that happen.

Gimmick Land (GBC) was mentioned earlier.  I haven't really looked at it at this point, although I suspect the reduced resolution would lead to a more limited and abbrevitation-ridden translation (thinking specifically of menus, Gimmick names, etc.) at best.  So I'm more interested in Tomato Adventure with the time I currently have.

-[Unknown]

[Paris]

Hello friends.

Out of curiosity today, I did a little googling to see if Tomato Adventure had ever gotten a fan translation and stumbled upon this thread. I played part of the original in Japanese a while back, as I've been learning the language for a bit, but just wanted to pop in and say two things.

1. I compiled and played the first bit of the game and, so far, everything is wonderful! The translation is great, and I can tell how passionate y'all are about this game!

2. If you need any help with the translation, particularly when it comes to localizing the graphics, please let me know. I am an indie dev myself and have quite a bit of experience with pixel art and pixel fonts. I would be happy to contribute whatever I can to the github repository. Just let me know if there's anything in particular that y'all could use some help with.

Anyway, that's all. Thanks for all your efforts!

[[Unknown]]

2. If you need any help with the translation, particularly when it comes to localizing the graphics, please let me know. I am an indie dev myself and have quite a bit of experience with pixel art and pixel fonts. I would be happy to contribute whatever I can to the github repository. Just let me know if there's anything in particular that y'all could use some help with.

There have been some recent updates to some of the images, I know one that was recently noticed was the sign on the Alcatraz hotel:
https://github.com/unknownbrackets/tomatotrans/blob/demille/images/map005F_bg1_eng.png

There's a few more like Oya Yubi that still need some thought too.

Also need to go through and catch bugs and editing, please feel free to report any issues you see on the repo:
https://github.com/unknownbrackets/tomatotrans/issues

There's still an issue with credits as well which I haven't gotten around to fixing properly...

-[Unknown]

[[Unknown]]

Just an update for those interested:

Got a little time, and fixed the credits issue.  It was encoded in a quasi Shift-JIS format and way more complicated than it needed to be.  Seemed like the person who worked on the credits display was trying to hack around a bug they didn't understand in the font drawing code.

Several shop name images are in now too, for example:
https://github.com/unknownbrackets/tomatotrans/blob/demille/images/shop_03_eng.png
https://github.com/unknownbrackets/tomatotrans/blob/demille/images/shop_09_eng.png (I think we preserved this pun pretty well, gonna be tricky in other languages...)

There's still a few more images and then QA/cleanup.

-[Unknown]

[mikeprado30]

That's really awesome, bro! Thanks a lot for your overwhelming efforts  Hopefully this release will be a blast!

[Twapsel]

Hi there,

I really would like to know what the current status is?

Can you already pinpoint to a release date?

[[Unknown]]

All the images are replaced and all known bugs (so far) except a small one where sometimes the last letter of names is highlighted incorrectly in menus are fixed.  Have had trouble consistently reproducing that last one.

Editing is still underway.  If you want to take a look, you can check the "demille" branch on GitHub.  I doubt there'll be any changes up through Toy Ruin, but there's some in-progress editing work after that still.

-[Unknown]

[Vortiene]

Wonderful work!

[[Unknown]]

Just an update for those interested.

Editing and some testing are still in progress.

A few improvements have been made otherwise:
* Place names on the map have been lengthened.
* Key items and some stat names have been made wider.
* Hanzo sign images are now replaced (missed that this was Japanese until some testing.)
* A certain enemy is hardcoded in the Japanese to have the initial name of a character in the party.  It now uses the name you enter (arguably a flaw even in the original game.)

There's one enemy attack found so far that includes a Japanese character, used sometimes by a regular enemy in the Balsamic Dome.  The artwork shows talismans over your character, and then 封 (which means "seal".)  The attack name shows the meaning, so it's essentially subtitled.  I'm planning to leave this attack image as-is, given the association with the talismans, etc.

A bug was also found in the name check (preventing you from giving two characters the exact same name), and has been fixed.  This was buggy in the original game too.  Back to no known bugs.

-[Unknown]

[ArkthePieKing]

Oh that's hype! Always exciting to see new progress in a project I'm looking forward to. Thank you for your continued hard work, and the updates are always exciting and appreciated!

[[Unknown]]

Editing through the ending has completed.  The edited text has all been verified in game.  There was also another image replacement, for the Choo-Choo Gimmick (when you fail.)

I'll probably aim to make a release patch at some point soon, planning to use bps.

If anyone wants to try the latest from GitHub, any pre-release feedback/bugs would be appreciated:
https://github.com/unknownbrackets/tomatotrans/tree/demille

-[Unknown]
July 27, 2021, 08:11:08 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
It has now been released:
http://www.romhacking.net/translations/6181/

I suppose I could've waited another 6 months for the game's 20 year anniversary, but I decided not to be so cruel.

-[Unknown]

[EvilJagaGenius]

Cool stuff!  I've only played a little so far but I'm liking it a lot, and I can feel the same off-the-wall humor from Mario & Luigi.  Thank you!

[Dzumeister]

The work you all have done over the years is incredible! Thank you all for your efforts! I can't wait to test this on hardware. 

[akualung]

Congratulations for the release to the whole team! This was one of the last "big" gba translations, looked forward by many people!

[[Unknown]]

I've received one bug report so far, which is fixed on GitHub.  It's only a minor issue, so I'll hold on making a another release for any other reports.

Some broken graphics display if you:
* Open the menu.
* Access either the Save or Gimica submenus.
* Back out to the menu screen (but don't exit the menu entirely.)
* Access the Equipment submenu.

As a workaround, you can simply exit the menu entirely and reopen.  But the graphics don't cover any text, and appear where there should just be blank space.

-[Unknown]

[NunofYerbizness]

I wonder, are there any plans on translating the GBC proto (Gimmick Land) next?

[[Unknown]]

As an update, post release I've been made aware a couple small typos (the worst was "rememer".)

Additionally, there was some feedback that the text speed is on the slow side, and some of the people who worked on the graphics and testing pre-release agreed.  I've implemented a change to double the text speed (no change to the audio), and plan to include this in an upcoming release.

If you'd like to see it already before the release, it's on GitHub.  I also uploaded a test patch here:
https://github.com/unknownbrackets/tomatotrans/issues/16#issuecomment-890576711

I wonder, are there any plans on translating the GBC proto (Gimmick Land) next?

I'm not planning on it, for the following reasons:

1. While there are many people who have been waiting for a Tomato Adventure translation to experience, the number of people who want to actually experience Gimmick Land all the way through (not just as a trifling curiosity) is much lower.  Pivotally, I'm not even interested myself in playing it to the end (if it has one...)

2. The game leak was apparently unintentional and potentially unethical.  While I won't judge anyone else, it doesn't seem like something I want to devote my time to supporting.  Just following my own moral code.

3. It seems like resolution restrictions would make fitting English in some areas a lot more painful (66% as wide.)  Limitations can make programming fun when there are neat ways to work within them, but physical pixel limitations are more demotivating.

4. I have other things to do - I usually spend my free time contributing to PPSSPP, and we just hit > 1000 open issues because I haven't been giving it enough attention.

The translation source code and text is all on GitHub and open source licensed, so you're free to devote your time to Gimmick Land if that's your passion.

-[Unknown]

[Pennywise]

While it's claimed that Gimmick Land was finished, that doesn't actually appear to be the case. It seems that when the decision was made to go to GBA, they left a few things unfinished in the GBC version.

The battle backgrounds in the GBC version are just plain white while the GBA has more detailed backgrounds. Plus it seems that most characters aren't animated in battles. That alone makes me wonder what else the devs didn't quite finish before moving onto doing a GBA version.

I had seriously considered working on a translation, but it does appear that the GBC prototype is unfinished and in need of additional work to truly be complete. Plus why would someone bother working on an unfinished game when they could be doing other stuff? To my knowledge the prototype doesn't really have any content that's not present in the GBA release. In my opinion it would probably be a waste of one's time to work on a translation of the prototype.

[kilicool64]

While it's claimed that Gimmick Land was finished, that doesn't actually appear to be the case. It seems that when the decision was made to go to GBA, they left a few things unfinished in the GBC version.

The battle backgrounds in the GBC version are just plain white while the GBA has more detailed backgrounds. Plus it seems that most characters aren't animated in battles. That alone makes me wonder what else the devs didn't quite finish before moving onto doing a GBA version.

I had seriously considered working on a translation, but it does appear that the GBC prototype is unfinished and in need of additional work to truly be complete. Plus why would someone bother working on an unfinished game when they could be doing other stuff? To my knowledge the prototype doesn't really have any content that's not present in the GBA release. In my opinion it would probably be a waste of one's time to work on a translation of the prototype.

That seems unlikely to me. Keep in mind that Gimmick Land was leaked as part of the GB and GBC ROMs that were submitted to Nintendo's Lotcheck division. Their job was to review ROMs their publishers deemed ready for release. If a ROM of Gimmick Land was submitted to them, it should have been intended for release in exactly that state. In fact, I believe it was one of the ROMs that passed Lotcheck's review.

It's possible that the graphical shortcomings of the original version were either necessitated by hardware or space limitations. Either that, or the budget or time Nintendo gave AlphaDream for the development of Gimmick Land simply wasn't sufficient for more graphical complexity.

Personally, I'd still be very interested in seeing what the game was originally like, but I wouldn't expect any huge differences outside of the graphics and sound. You can kinda tell that Tomato Adventure wasn't originally intended to be a GBA game. And yeah, the harsher technical limitations could make a fan translation tough, even now that most of the script is already translated. Still, if a proper English patch is ever released, I'd play it.