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Let me explain. Also, feel free to move this into another forum or change it as necessary, if you want, moderator or admin. I just want a list of work people have already done in PS1 ROMhacking to start with (ROMHacking resources) so I don't run out of time, feeling sad, like the last time I tried to do this. I chose this subforum because it seems like this is more about the end result (to me), a patch for a PS1 game, than the technology. The PS1 game in readable English, being the end result, is more important to me than what I will learn along the way (it's just MIPS Computer Systems and what Sony did with it; ultra-specific crap that I'm not sure I'll learn anything generally applicable from). This is a subforum about video games, and so I posted here. If it's wrong, I apologize. I want to bring the game, Mystic Ark: Maboroshi Gekijo, to English-speaking people in the form of a patch. People will just buy the game, as I did (see below), make an ISO or other format image, and apply the patch with the tool I'll write in Java. I understand and will comply with any legal requirements as a part of doing so. I own several legal copies of the game, and I can read it just find from my disc drive in my PC: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XOptvlT4W9av-SGGUUEgWSTAQ98b8kZv?usp=sharing . I also have a Region 1 PS1 but I'll buy another if it makes anyone here unhappy I don't have a Japanese Playstation 1. I started to do research a few years ago, but I kind of lost most of the documents I found because I realized it was taking up too much of my time (I'm a college student and it was my second or first year, I can't remember). Now that I have most of the foundation in my head for what I am studying, college work doesn't take much time and I can set aside time every week for this. I was looking for good places to start as far as people's understanding of how the PS1 boots up, is loaded into memory, but I can't make sense of everything involved without investing a lot of time into the document here: http://problemkaputt.de/psx-spx.htm I posted here http://www.dynamic-designs.us/d-dforum/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=656 so as you can see I want to make this happen. I think they will help me translate the game because they translated an earlier title in the series, Mystic Ark, for the Super Famicom, to English (which I also purchased), and the people who responded to the post seemed interested. So, Point (1): Does anyone have a solid, well-rounded list of resources to start with for PS1 ROMhacking (not just for English translation but just things in general), or things you can find that look really full of actual information (with as few inaccuracies as possible)? Quality is more important than quantity; I want accurate documents that help fill in the gaps for the hard, technical knowledge contained above. Something more high-level, so I know what the hell I am doing starting out. I'll figure it out, sure, but you can help me figure it out sooner by helping me out with this part of the request! Point (2): I know Slowbeef worked on Policenauts for the PS1 as part of his work, but I don't want to bother him for help with the actual work of translation or ROMHacking. I think the people in the forum linked above will help me translate the Japanese to English, seeing as they successfully translated the previous game in the series (and might I add, game-breaking bug free, something most of the other people who patched the game did NOT accomplish, which you know if you've played the different translations). I am going to do all of the technical work unless someone on those forums offers to help (or one of you feels like it is a good use of your time, I'm not opposed to any help, but I won't ask, so offer it to me if you feel that way and I'll bring you up to speed). What I am getting at is (ha ha), I don't have the money to upgrade my account right now for archived posts, or the time to search through them. I just gave money to Lowtax for his back problems. What I want to know is, did Slowbeef put together a(ny) thread(s) that ha(s/ve) a lot of PS1 ROMHacking resources in (it/them) (this is in addition to my question above)? If he does, I just need to line up some small contract work for myself from the people I've work for, and I can purchase an Archives Upgrade. Thanks to anyone who can help. Please, only post if you find something, or know good places to start. I see the PS1 has a MIPS processor. That's not useful. I see the guy above goes into painstaking, mind-numbing detail. I would like something higher-level to give my brain to work on right now, and use that as a reference. He did put together a fantastic PS1 emulator, with almost every feature you could want. I'm going to use no$psx, but I'll change my mind if there's something more suited to the work. Anything high-level that is accurate about PS1, and even how the different ways different PS1 games work (with the limitations of the PS1 I doubt they had standard anything), post it here. Accurate. If it's accurate, 20 pages, 100 pages, I'll read through it. Technical documents. Anything useful to my stated goal. I'm not going to try and monetize the outcome in any way, not even ads on the page the patch is hosted on. I know it's possible: "just start reading, you'll figure it out" might be one suggestion. I'm not a teenager anymore, I can't do that and get everything I need and want to get done done. Like I said, I want to deliver this while I am in college, before I get a real job. Books, too, that you know would help, as you (you reading, or people you know personally or professionally (I'm not looking for their info...just a book recommendation)) may have experience in this area, or other forums, maybe have this information already, and I just need to ask that forum. This is a fact-finding request post. Pile resources up here if you know of good ones. Even one good one. I want to get and find as many good resources as I can before I start working on this, and waste as little time as possible. The goal is the results of my research and ROMHacking posted here and, if it is possible (time / money(possibly, no idea) / Dynamic-Designs-community-willing), a working patch for an ISO or whatever disc image is necessary of this game, that will translate it from Japanese to English for all written dialog it is technically possible to do so for without breaking things in PS1 memory or something. I'll write assembly if that's what it takes. Maybe it will help someone else to do their own translations. I certainly haven't found a how-to for this kind of thing anywhere. I don't want money or attention for it, I don't care about that crap, I just want to play the game in English and I will see it through even if it's a terrible game. Since I've invested so much time into it, at this point, I might as well have something to show for it. I thoroughly enjoyed the Super Famicom Mystic Ark, and this one looks interesting as well, even though I can't read Japanese and don't really care to. I love their games though, and think that, regardless of your choice of console, they have some really great game designers over in Japan. There are quite a few things I don't like about their various forms of media, though, so I don't know how I feel about that subject, but that...that is a discussion for another time and place. Also I did a little bit for for Smite and his show, Arcade Pit, and maybe I want to contribute to this community (SA!!!) as well. I'm not sure how I feel about that yet though (after this project). This project comes first, however. Thank you for your time. handofstand fucked around with this message at 15:37 on Apr 12, 2018 |
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Apr 7, 2018 19:27
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No idea about any of the technical stuff, but I'm pretty sure slowbeef would be easier to contact on twitter or something than through SA
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Apr 12, 2018 09:58
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Thank you, I'll give it a shot! I see from his VODs he does ROMHacking streams now on Twitch, maybe I'll pop into one of those if I can't get his attention on Twitter. I really don't have but 3 hours or so each week to add to this thread, and so I apologize about not having anything yet. I'll try to work on it sometime this weekend.
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Apr 12, 2018 15:32
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Honestly, you'll probably get more people biting if you pop over into the Retro Games megathread and ask there. This seems like a really loving cool project and I'd hate for it to get buried. e: for people who don't know, this game is the second sequel to 7th Saga on the SNES. I think its predecessor has a patch already, but I'm not a hundred percent, and if it does it's probably pretty ancient.
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Apr 13, 2018 02:53
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LORD OF BOOTY posted:Honestly, you'll probably get more people biting if you pop over into the Retro Games megathread and ask there. This seems like a really loving cool project and I'd hate for it to get buried. Yeah, the SNES Mystic Ark already has a translation patch. I love 7th Saga and Mystic Ark so I'm actually pretty hyped about this project. Didn't know anyone even remembered this series.
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Apr 13, 2018 03:49
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Not sure if this helps but ffhacktics has a lot of resources related to editing ps1 iso files (specifically Final Fantasy Tactics). I'm guessing they should work with other games as well. Their forum is not very active these days but you could try your luck and see if someone there has any experience editing other ps1 games.
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Apr 13, 2018 04:24
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I think the first major focus should be figuring out how/where text is currently stored and rendered in the game, and how you're going to patch it. So this includes both the encoded Japanese text, and the sprites/fonts used to render it, along with figuring out how the function that does that font lookup and rendering works. You may not have any existing English font table, so you may need to replace the Japanese font image(s) with an English one. You could do that as a very first step (simple modification of the font image, and simple modification of a known/discovered string) to see how hard it's going to be. Eventually you're probably going to have to be pretty familiar with how the script and text rendering happens, because you're not going to be able to translate everything to the same length strings (and hopefully, there's no checksumming going on either). I'd suggest getting familiar with a PSX emulator that has a built-in or add-on debugger, so you can interrupt/trace execution, examine/modify memory, and so on. Look through other existing PSX ROMhacking tools as well. It might even be helpful to look at just the patches for a variety of other PSX fan translation patches and see what they've done (some may be pretty extensive, so I'd say concern yourself only with rendered script text at the start - not audio, cutscenes, gameplay changes, or whatever). Once you know how/where all the existing Japanese text is stored and how to modify it, you're probably also going to want to produce a readable coherent "script" copy of it as well, so you can work on just the translation itself outside of a hex editor.
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Apr 13, 2018 19:08
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Listen, I didn't face ten long tours against the goddamn 'bots to come back home and lift baby weights.
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paging RadicalR
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Apr 13, 2018 23:50
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I have worked on a few patches for PSX games (as well as some PSP games which are relatively similar). The best forum for this kind of work is probably still RHDN. GBAtemp is an option as well but discussion tends to be focused on newer games & consoles. The general process is as Dem Bones describes. The number one priority is to get used to your emulator/debugger (I haven't used no$psx but no$gba was excellent on a previous project). Setting traces for execution and memory access, browsing memory, and following the graphics rendering process are very important. Start out by trying to find some text in the main executable that displays early on and set a trace when that memory is read. I'll be honest, the burnout/brickwall rate for first-time fan translators is alarmingly high, and it is hard to be taken seriously until you have a completed work under your belt. Resources for romhacking are way, way spottier than you may be used to. Everyone goes about things their own way, but using a debugger to find pertinent code and slightly modify it, splicing in a jump to subroutine where necessary, is probably going to be much more efficient than rewriting the game's code from the booting process up. It is important to come to terms with the fact that you will not comprehend or survey the entirety of the programming - you only need to touch a few specific parts. You might only be changing a few thousand bits to implement a full variable-width font, and most of that is the table. One source for PSX-specific documentation is http://hitmen.c02.at/html/psx_docs.html.
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Apr 14, 2018 01:04
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There's a couple of people in the Super Robot Wars thread who worked on the fantranslation of Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden. You could try tossing a post in there.
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Apr 14, 2018 01:19
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Okay, first step I see, going off of suggestions here, is to find memory address of first instance of a font table in game. I will post here with memory address when found and then try to extract a bitmap or bitmaps somehow.
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Apr 15, 2018 18:25
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jPSXdec seems pretty good for asset extraction, as well.
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Apr 15, 2018 18:41
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It's last 4 weeks of classes so I probably won't have time to work on this until the end of May.  I understand more or less what I am doing but there just isn't enough time left with final projects in my classes, so please check back after May 21st.
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Apr 24, 2018 01:16
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