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I think there just simply aren't any good editors for the game. And since there's no good editor, there's no community. Which means without a community, no one wants to make an editor. This is kind of how it goes for a lot of games. You just have to hope that someone will take the time to make an editor and jumpstart a community with it.
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Feb 20, 2019 18:37
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There actually is a good editor for it. That's what's so weird
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Feb 20, 2019 20:01
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I recall recommending Super Mario Bros. 2: 2nd Run and (the unfinished and presumably abandoned) Strange Mario Bros. 2 in the Retro Gaming thread; I recall playing both of those to completion and neither struck me as Kaizo bullshit. There's also that "Christmas Edition" hack but it's just graphical changes.
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Feb 20, 2019 20:43
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WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW posted:Is there any reason there don't seem to be any good Super Mario Bros 2 (nes) romhacks? I looked on the rom hacking website and all over YouTube and there doesn't seem to be a single good one. Am I just not finding it? The Legend of Blob Bros. 2. It's an oldie but goodie.
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Feb 21, 2019 03:45
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So how's the PS1 hacking scene? I ask because seeing Alita: Battle Angel and re-reading the manga it's based on made me really want to play Gunnm: Martian Memory, but apparently it's not incredibly English-friendly, and fumbling through it with Google Translate on my phone sounds... unpleasant. A quick google tells me that there's been a couple efforts to at least do a translation script, but that they've all pretty much instantly stalled out, and one didn't even seem to make it past the first area. My impression is that PS1 hacking is basically Hell to do, which explains this, but if there are any shortcuts for the actual hacking part, I might be able to poo poo out a quick and dirty Google translation as an alpha that someone can build off for a "real" translation.
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Feb 21, 2019 03:55
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LORD OF BOOTY posted:So how's the PS1 hacking scene? I haven't seen the movie yet, but the manga is one of my favorite things, and I never did play this game. I'd be incredibly interested in this.
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Feb 22, 2019 09:51
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LORD OF BOOTY posted:So how's the PS1 hacking scene? It depends on your definition of "shortcut". Unfortunately, as someone who's dabbled in ROM hacking, each game is its own bespoke custom thing and even figuring out where the text is is tricky (see my quoted post in the OP for a trick on this, but it assumes the text isn't compressed or encrypted), and then you have to find a way to expand the space to work with for text boxes and the like because Japanese gets by with way less characters than English. Until someone comes along and builds a tool for messing with the game's text and other assets, you need to have some knowledge of programming, particularly assembly, and probably spend a long-rear end time with a hardcore emulator that lets you observe what's going on in RAM frame by frame in the hopes that it points you in the right direction.
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Feb 22, 2019 17:51
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Yeah, what univbee said is pretty much on the ball. Unless a game is documented really well, there's going to be some level of debugging work put in to even just figure out what parts do things. The disc based systems in particular ended up with games that had wildly varying contents, because of the sheer amount of disc space available to mess with, so data/code could be put into any number of files. There's still folks around who can work with the PS1 though, but generally disc projects usually take a lot longer compared to older systems. For example, setting aside the hell that is encryption/compression, size is also one of the main issues for non-cartridge games. It's much easier to search through a few megabytes of data for text, images and whatever else you need, instead of up to 700-ish (or even more for multi-disc and PS2 titles), even if you can reference the disc layout for help. And for translations, you'll also need willing translators who'd be up for handling whatever comes out of that amount of data. As an example, I have 2mb of dumped text sitting here from a game, and that isn't even main story dialogue. It also introduces a lot more data that could potentially have been ripped incorrectly from a disc, which can cause issues when trying to create patches, which is why projects like Redump exist to provide hashes for accuracy. And as one last thing on top of all that, the assembly language used is a completely different one from the more common consoles you see hacks for (NES, SNES, etc), so you'd also have to learn the quirks for that, and set up different processes for testing code, inserting it, etc. And as Playstation emulation isn't as accurate as other consoles in places, you'd also have to hope that any code edits made also work on the actual hardware. Seeing as it was PS1 hacking in particular for this case, I'm just gonna jump back to an earlier post to talk a bit about a few general things, since I can sorta provide some context with screenshots of PS1 stuff I have handy as a reference: Super Rad posted:In 2013 they finalized a patch for FM2 as well - unfortunately I have yet to play it so I can't comment on it other than to mention that sadly unlike their FM5 translation technical limitations prevented them from inserting 100% of the translated text - they were able to insert ~75% of the text and published a text file for the remaining 25%. Front Mission 2's patch only has that 75% of text in particular because it uses some real complicated compression for certain parts of the game (intermission text, internet text and skill descriptions in particular), which is one of the reasons it didn't end up as polished, as that was never taken care of. As I've played FM1 and 3, and as I wouldn't mind playing through 2 sometime, I decided to mess about with a few things to help address a few of the rough spots a bit. As working with de/recompression isn't one of my strong suits, I ended up taking a look into some other things instead. For one of the things I did do, I added some VWF (variable width font) support so things would end up being a bit easier to read. The game uses multiple different fonts at different sections as you can see in the screenshots below, a tiny one for smaller menu details, a standard one for dialogue, and one final larger font for characters who were named/standard menu text. I set up some code and tables for character width for the latter two, which was able to make things look a bit nicer, and free up some horizontal space for more characters in menus.   So to get back on the topic of PS1 woes and use those images as an example, you see the terrible programmer art icons I've thrown in? Those come to around 30kb roughly. Front Mission 2 is 416,226kb in total, and those icons aren't in one of the standard Playstation image formats for easy dumping by a tool. So I had to poke through a save state that was bigger than the original Front Mission game with a general graphics tool in order to find them in that, and then find where that tiny set of images was being pulled from on the disc itself. This was done multiple times for graphics stuff, since two of those fonts I mentioned earlier also had to be tracked down in the same way, and the other was the PS1 BIOS font, which means you can't edit it directly as it's embedded in the console itself... On top of that, there were a few sound issues that ended up in the released 75% patch, where FMVs would have no audio. This was because the disc was rebuilt incorrectly at some point, and this was used as a base for that patch. Without going into the fine details, because of how the disc is read certain files are expected to be at certain places, and "fun things" like this can happen if they aren't. So for the PS1 onward, discs would need to be ripped to a folder, and then rebuilt correctly afterwards in order to be patched, rather than working with a smaller rom file itself. There are a few programs that insert files of the exact same size, but generally it means that even rebuilding a disc to test things out can take a lot longer than just working on a rom. But yeah, all the bad things aside there's also good points as well (such as standard executables on each disc, common image formats, etc), so it isn't all terrible, it's just a lot more work, and can be a lot different from what folks are used to really (especially in terms of available debuggers). Still, I hope that this been at least a little informative on why the PS1 can be awkward, and thanks for reading through this wall of text 
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Feb 22, 2019 21:37
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Arc Impulse posted:wall of text
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Feb 23, 2019 00:03
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For those of you who want to see the pinnacle of level redesign as far as hacks can go, check out my Kaizo Mario Thread. I picked out some of the most original and creative (not to mention challenging) ones, so i'd recommend browsing through some of the videos even if you don't intend on playing any. Give the thread a bump for exposure as well!
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Feb 23, 2019 03:24
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Arc Impulse posted:Awesomeness Woah, that's really cool that you were able to modify the fonts and especially the icons in the equipment screens. I actually just played through the translation patch for FM2 last week and while I noticed that the FMVs were silent, I just assumed that was intentional 
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Feb 23, 2019 05:48
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Ballz posted:The Game of Life: now an NES RPG. this is a weird one, but surprisingly complex in a way that makes me wanna play more despite some weird design decisions like having your character locked at the top-center of the map this thread rules btw, my compy's broken so I've been seeking games to play on my old netbook or raspberry pi and having a place for all this saves me a ton of sifting through chaff on romhacking.net
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Feb 23, 2019 19:18
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LORD OF BOOTY posted:So how's the PS1 hacking scene? I played through it with a guide that covered the whole game back in 2002. Check GameFAQS, it should still be on there. The game is loving amazing, and James Cameron being a piece of poo poo is the only reason it never got localized.
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Feb 28, 2019 03:53
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Oh hey my thread title is actually relevant: https://twitter.com/forestillusion/status/1108489892680470528?s=21 https://twitter.com/shortformernie/status/1108787598867210241?s=21 Also looking at the replies, some people are very Mad Online at the prospect of 20-year-old source code for an emulator no one plays on being made widely available.
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Mar 22, 2019 13:38
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Ballz posted:Oh hey my thread title is actually relevant: not sure which is more -worthy: Forest of Illusion getting yelled at for re-leaking the source code of a 20-year-old emulator of 30-year-old hardware, or the bit that consists of Frank Cifaldi revealing that, unbeknownst to our intrepid hero, he also had a copy of the source lying around & could've saved FoI "a few years" of searching for it
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Mar 22, 2019 15:59
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i like the guy who's indignant about the code being shared against the author's wishes but then publicly shares the author's linkedin and facebook
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Mar 22, 2019 16:12
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https://scarletstudy.gq/2019/03/30/3ds-only-full-game-release-android-slightly-delayed/ Full English patch for Dai Gyakuten Saiban (The Great Ace Attorney) is out. They're working on the sequel too.
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Mar 30, 2019 11:19
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lets hang out posted:https://scarletstudy.gq/2019/03/30/3ds-only-full-game-release-android-slightly-delayed/ Nice, I'm almost done AA6, hopefully by the time I'm done that and AA1&2 and GAA it'll be done. So, I've been wondering, what are the "best" (bug fixes and translations) versions of the first 6 final fantasy games? I know Namingway, GBA Script and Ted Woosley Uncensored exist for 4-6, what else is there?
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Apr 2, 2019 20:00
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WilliamAnderson posted:Nice, I'm almost done AA6, hopefully by the time I'm done that and AA1&2 and GAA it'll be done. No real point in deviating from the GBA scripts, at least. All English translation patches for those games lie when they say they’re more faithful or whatever.
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Apr 2, 2019 22:32
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Simple hack but want to say I appreciate Sega Master System Ys FM sound in English rom- the music is excellent. FM finally attainable via the Mega SG. https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/572/
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Apr 2, 2019 22:45
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Ballz posted:
So, Tomato's not going to make a romhack for the game, unfortunately. But there IS an alternative: Tomato released his modular program, The Wander Bar. All those streams where he had a little window showing an English translation, or even multiple? He released the program that pulls from the game files and puts up windows in general, and all the modules for specific games, including the FF6 T-Edition one.  In his own words: "The problem is that it’s all in Japanese, and the hacks are so complicated that Final Fantasy VI hacking experts have had difficulty translating it for years. But as we’ve seen, the Wanderbar can display alternate script text just fine as ordinary HTML, which means it’d be a lot easier to simply translate all the text and have the Wanderbar display it instead of the game itself. I started early work on a test version – I basically looked at which Japanese lines got changed, and whenever a line didn’t get changed, I have it display the equivalent line from the Super NES translation. In the end, there are still 1000 or 2000 lines of text that need to be translated, but I don’t have the time for it, unfortunately. But they’re just sitting there in the HTML, ready for someone to translate. I’ve already translated all of the new enemy names, item names, spell names, and all that." So, if anyone feels like translating a few thousand lines of Japanese, FF6 T-Edition can be played in English right now. (Also, that whole Wander Bar page is cool, and I think if people went all-in on it it could be a new standard for gimmick game hacks or whatever.)
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Apr 3, 2019 01:17
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I recently discovered Pokemon Crystal Clear and I've been enjoying that; are there any Emerald romhacks along the same lines or level of quality?
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Apr 3, 2019 01:39
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Recently picked up a GBA flashcart, and while I guess it's not technically a ROMHack, playing the Super Mario Advance 4 Rom that Nintendo used in the Wii U release is awesome on the original hardware. They include all the E-Reader bonus levels! Not sure if there's a way to get the extra items in the main campaign though. I've heard pokemon hacks are good so I'll probably seek some of those out to toss on here, but I don't find myself playing even the mainline Pokemon games all the way through anymore and that seems like a lot of time to sink into something. Any other GBA/GB/GBC hacks I should check out? I'm playing Mother 3 on my 3DS but if there's a way to pull the save data from that and stick it on my cart I'd happily continue it on my GBA instead. Also, not sure if there's a thread for it or not, but is there any homebrew I should check out? I have Powder (the GBA roguelike), a nanoloop demo of some sort, and I bought a rom of lsdj that i haven't really had time to dig into but I love playing with weird little apps people make for this stuff. There were a ton of really cool things people made on the DS.
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Apr 3, 2019 06:18
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Stan Taylor posted:Recently picked up a GBA flashcart, and while I guess it's not technically a ROMHack, playing the Super Mario Advance 4 Rom that Nintendo used in the Wii U release is awesome on the original hardware. They include all the E-Reader bonus levels! Not sure if there's a way to get the extra items in the main campaign though. I've heard pokemon hacks are good so I'll probably seek some of those out to toss on here, but I don't find myself playing even the mainline Pokemon games all the way through anymore and that seems like a lot of time to sink into something. Any other GBA/GB/GBC hacks I should check out? I'm playing Mother 3 on my 3DS but if there's a way to pull the save data from that and stick it on my cart I'd happily continue it on my GBA instead. somehow skipped over the sentence where you mentioned it.
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Apr 3, 2019 06:24
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Stan Taylor posted:Any other GBA/GB/GBC hacks I should check out?
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Apr 3, 2019 07:01
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Stan Taylor posted:I'm playing Mother 3 on my 3DS but if there's a way to pull the save data from that and stick it on my cart I'd happily continue it on my GBA instead. This depends on the save format of the 3DS and target GBA flashcart but last I checked there were saved game file converters on the web. Sometimes you can just rename the file extension and don’t have to convert. I have been playing the PSP fan translation of Steins;Gate for what seems like days now and it’s very good. I like how these Japanese games kind of draw you in with stupid cutesy poo poo and are basically 1/3 expository storylines. For example Higurashi makes you sit through several hours of what seems like boring nonsense before it turns dark - which is only really the beginning of the story.
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Apr 3, 2019 07:29
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univbee posted:No real point in deviating from the GBA scripts, at least. All English translation patches for those games lie when they say they’re more faithful or whatever. Yeah, but do the GBA scripts exist for 4 and 6 if I want to play the SNES versions on my classic?
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Apr 3, 2019 18:36
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WilliamAnderson posted:Yeah, but do the GBA scripts exist for 4 and 6 if I want to play the SNES versions on my classic? For FF6 I found this one which said it's "based heavily" on the GBA script https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2247/
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Apr 3, 2019 18:57
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For April Fools the ff4 randomizer devs changed around a ton of palettes, soundfonts, menus, and spell names to make the game look as much like an 8-bit Final Fantasy as they could and used it for their weekly race. The effect is actually surprisingly legitimate seeming, like there was a weird ff4 port to the MSX that just got unearthed http://www.twitch.tv/randomania/v/404841401?sr=a&t=410s
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Apr 4, 2019 00:46
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It's gonna be available as a regular flag too, sometime after the current tournament is done (which wraps up on Friday). Couple things that need to be fixed (black chocobo song is... ear-piercing in 8-bit mode).
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Apr 4, 2019 01:14
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neongrey posted:It's gonna be available as a regular flag too, sometime after the current tournament is done (which wraps up on Friday). Couple things that need to be fixed (black chocobo song is... ear-piercing in 8-bit mode). That's good to hear, I've played through 4 in so many forms that I'm sick of it but I kind of want to give it one last shake in the 8 bit remix
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Apr 4, 2019 01:24
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pretty soft girl posted:That's good to hear, I've played through 4 in so many forms that I'm sick of it but I kind of want to give it one last shake in the 8 bit remix Trip report: the competition streams didnt do that justice, they did an insanely good job of making ff4 look and sound like ff1 Also, when you pass up a fully end game geared Cecil to keep Edward? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BreP8EwEbNo
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Apr 7, 2019 00:20
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Pablo Nergigante posted:For FF6 I found this one which said it's "based heavily" on the GBA script I think I'll toss it on my "play after I play TWUE" list, since like, I do want to know what it was like when people had it as FFIII, then maybe I'd play with that relocalizattion after.
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Apr 7, 2019 23:29
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How much do the restoration patches for the GBA version of FF6 help? Mainly the color and music ones. I've been itchy to replay it but I can't decide if I'd rather play it portable or just play the SNES version on my Raspberry Pi.
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Apr 8, 2019 03:42
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RichterIX posted:How much do the restoration patches for the GBA version of FF6 help? Mainly the color and music ones. I've been itchy to replay it but I can't decide if I'd rather play it portable or just play the SNES version on my Raspberry Pi. You definitely want the color patch, as the game was intentionally made brighter than it "should" be to combat non-backlit GBAs, at the expense of making the game too bright on proper screens. The color patch makes the game look correct on normal screens. I don't think the music gets improved that much, personally, but ymmv. The GBA translation is a lot better, though.
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Apr 8, 2019 03:55
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There's also a patch to put the GBA script in the SNES version of the game, if that's more your bag. edit: haha they mentioned it right up there, which is probably why you mentioned it, I'm a dumb 
John Lee fucked around with this message at 16:27 on Apr 8, 2019 |
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Apr 8, 2019 16:25
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Dumb question as someone who never finished FF6 and is thinking about playing through it again- is the GBA translation legitimately better and what makes it better? I know it's a hotly contested debate among certain breeds of nerd as to whether Ted Woolsey is the anti-christ or merely deserves to be jailed for the rest of his life, so I'm always a little skeptical of anything billing itself as "THIS IS WHAT WE WOULD HAVE GOTTEN IF NINTENDO OF AMERICA DIDNT STEP IN". J2E's billing of their ff4 translation as the true direct translation while throwing in references to William Shatner kind of soured me on fan translations for games that have already been translated Based on how much better the ff4 GBA translation is than the original snes one I'm guessing it's quite good, I just sort of remember the official ff6 snes translation being serviceable enough
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Apr 8, 2019 18:09
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The main thing is the original SNES English translation was done under a lot of time pressure and with minimal explanatory stuff from the team to the translator. Additionally, there wasn't much time to modify the game to provide more space for the english text, so many things that otherwise would be fine have to be truncated, sometimes confusingly. The GBA translation had plenty of time for translation, more assistance was available to the translation staff, and they had basically no limit on space to put the text in. It's less a situation of "the SNES translator was bad" and more "the GBA translation staff had all the proper resources to finish". It's not that different in spirit, but it feels less like a rushed draft.
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Apr 8, 2019 18:22
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Woolsey's SNES translation of FF6 to FF3 has some charm, but also has some pretty extreme (like stuff is completely wrong) translation errors, due to him having somewhat limited Japanese ability, and only having a month with few resources to do the game's translation. There's also a noticeable decline in the late game when it's clear Woolsey was running out of time. Clyde a.k.a. Tomato did a complete playthrough of the SNES version with a program he wrote which simulcast other text versions (so in total there's SNES Woolsey, Japanese original, RPGOne fan "translation", GBA translation and Google Translate if you want to look at more specifics.  https://legendsoflocalization.com/final-fantasy-vi/
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Apr 8, 2019 18:28
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univbee posted:Woolsey's SNES translation of FF6 to FF3 has some charm, but also has some pretty extreme (like stuff is completely wrong) translation errors, due to him having somewhat limited Japanese ability, and only having a month with few resources to do the game's translation. There's also a noticeable decline in the late game when it's clear Woolsey was running out of time. Very cool, thanks for the responses! That might explain why the translation always seemed fine to me, I only ever made it to the beginning of world of ruin before getting bored and doing something else
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Apr 8, 2019 18:33
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