Samurai Shodown RPG in English (NOT an announcement!)

[indecks]

Sorry for the title, I just didn't want to unintentionally mislead anyone into thinking there was a project going on this or that I was announcing anything.

But here's the deal, the NeoGeo CD original is apparently the "definitive" version of the game. It's been translated into French, as well as Spanish. There have been multiple projects started to translate it to English, most notably by MoriaMug/Deuce, though he abandoned it and claims it was lost in an HDD crash, never to be revived/recovered/released. All that's left are some scenarios that he uploaded to Youtube.

The other was by a guy named Apocalypse that had some beta testers (I applied, and was not chosen) and he released a partial translation of one of the scenarios, it works but is completely unfinished. He abandoned it as well, and he claims that he got a lot of opposition from the NeoGeo community and that is absolutely not true. In fact the reaction to his thread on it was overwhelmingly positive. People have even offered to take up the mantle and continue the work (and give him credit, naturally) and so far it seems he's just ignored those offers for help for one reason or another.

One of the people that was helping him also offered to continue, and has not gotten any response.

Even I tried to start a project to maybe take the Spanish version (I can read spanish fairly well but wouldn't say I'm fluent in reading it) and translate that to English, even using Google Translate at worst case. I looked into it, and realized I am INCREDIBLY out of my depth when it comes to ROM hacking or Translation hacking.

I figured maybe there was a way to dump the script for the whole game, google translate it, maybe clean it up a bit, and then inject it back into the Spanish patch, but I guess that's not possible.

Anyway, sorry for the ramble - but seeing as how the Saturn is getting a lot more attention now with Grandia, Lunar, Sakura Wars, Policenauts and their translations, does anyone think it might be possible for someone to translate SSRPG at least for the Saturn?

I could be talking out of my ass here, but since there isnt really a need for Translating games on the NeoGeo/NeoGeoCD, there arent many people that work on them, or make tools for translating NeoCD games. But it seems there is an active community that is translating Saturn games. Would it then be possible to use some of the tools used on the previously mentioned translations to do the same thing for Samurai Shodown RPG on the Saturn? And then in turn, use that translation for the NeoCD version? Even if the Saturn version is not the 'definitive' version, it would at least be *something.*

Thoughts?

[Ziggy]

Maybe try and contact the person or teams responsible for the Spanish and French translations and ask them if they would help insert an English script. Since they already did the ROM hacking part, maybe it wouldn't be too difficult if someone else gave them the English script?

[indecks]

Maybe try and contact the person or teams responsible for the Spanish and French translations and ask them if they would help insert an English script. Since they already did the ROM hacking part, maybe it wouldn't be too difficult if someone else gave them the English script?

Yeah, I did a while back. One of the beta testers for the French version linked me to the Romhacking.net forum and the tools used by the original translator (Le Noble Bahamut,) but I couldn't make heads or tails of them.

The guy that was doing the Spanish -> English one is Apocalypse, and the guy gave up. Last I heard he just isn't responding to anyone (that I know of) anymore.

I mean, I get the difficulty of hacking English/Spanish characters into a spot where Japanese characters are originally. Spacing, formatting, blocking, sure. But my argument is this: If the 'hacking' for the Japanese characters to be replaced by Western (A-Z, 1-0 !?, etc) characters is already complete, why can't we just replace (for example) "El Samurai Bravo!" with "The Brave Samurai!" and so on?

I seriously wish I could understand how to do this. I know it's a LOT of work. But people have been waiting for a long time for this and it seems that SSRPG is the one that keeps getting teased in front of fans, and then taken away, every time.

[MrPopo]

I mean, I get the difficulty of hacking English/Spanish characters into a spot where Japanese characters are originally. Spacing, formatting, blocking, sure. But my argument is this: If the 'hacking' for the Japanese characters to be replaced by Western (A-Z, 1-0 !?, etc) characters is already complete, why can't we just replace (for example) "El Samurai Bravo!" with "The Brave Samurai!" and so on?

Short answer is it depends on how the text handling code was written. Does the code expect fixed string lengths or is it dynamic based on a null terminator? How is word wrap managed? If you haven't built things from the ground up to be localized then you will likely have a whole bunch of stuff that needs to be hacked around.

[indecks]

I mean, I get the difficulty of hacking English/Spanish characters into a spot where Japanese characters are originally. Spacing, formatting, blocking, sure. But my argument is this: If the 'hacking' for the Japanese characters to be replaced by Western (A-Z, 1-0 !?, etc) characters is already complete, why can't we just replace (for example) "El Samurai Bravo!" with "The Brave Samurai!" and so on?

Short answer is it depends on how the text handling code was written. Does the code expect fixed string lengths or is it dynamic based on a null terminator? How is word wrap managed? If you haven't built things from the ground up to be localized then you will likely have a whole bunch of stuff that needs to be hacked around.

See what I mean? I have no idea what you are talking about lol. I really wanted to try and do it but its beyond my technical knowledge.

I posted a similar thread like this at Romhacking.net and have gotten zero response.

[nightrnr]

I am not helpful at all.

I feel like Samurai Shodown RPG is a cursed game as far as translation goes. As you said, it's been started and abandoned many times, despite being on 3 different systems.

I'd still like to see it happen one day (any or all 3 versions), but I gave up on it years ago. It will take a very capable and passionate team that doesn't succumb to squabbles to see it done and overcome this curse.

If I ever do play it, I've accepted that it will likely be with a translation guide.

[indecks]

I am not helpful at all.

I feel like Samurai Shodown RPG is a cursed game as far as translation goes. As you said, it's been started and abandoned many times, despite being on 3 different systems.

I'd still like to see it happen one day (any or all 3 versions), but I gave up on it years ago. It will take a very capable and passionate team that doesn't succumb to squabbles to see it done and overcome this curse.

If I ever do play it, I've accepted that it will likely be with a translation guide.

You're not the first to say it's cursed. I agree. Someone mentioned trying to play it with Retroarch's translation option. I might try that, but I really wanted to play it on original hardware.

[MrPopo]

I mean, I get the difficulty of hacking English/Spanish characters into a spot where Japanese characters are originally. Spacing, formatting, blocking, sure. But my argument is this: If the 'hacking' for the Japanese characters to be replaced by Western (A-Z, 1-0 !?, etc) characters is already complete, why can't we just replace (for example) "El Samurai Bravo!" with "The Brave Samurai!" and so on?

Short answer is it depends on how the text handling code was written. Does the code expect fixed string lengths or is it dynamic based on a null terminator? How is word wrap managed? If you haven't built things from the ground up to be localized then you will likely have a whole bunch of stuff that needs to be hacked around.

See what I mean? I have no idea what you are talking about lol. I really wanted to try and do it but its beyond my technical knowledge.

I posted a similar thread like this at Romhacking.net and have gotten zero response.

http://mother3.fobby.net/blog/

If you're ever curious, check out the blog that was written by Tomato when he participated in the Mother 3 translation. He also isn't a programmer by trade so he provides a bit more of a layman's explanation of all the crap him and Jeffman went through.

[indecks]

Thanks Popo, I'll check it out.

I just wish there was a tool of some sort to inject whatever text needed. Id be happy to wade through the entire script and inject it.

[MrPopo]

I just wish there was a tool of some sort to inject whatever text needed. Id be happy to wade through the entire script and inject it.

To use an analogy, you're saying that you wish you could put a large hole in an arbitrary wall of your house. And maybe you can; might turn out that wall is not load bearing. But if it is there's a whole lot of things you need to figure out to make it work.