I plan on translating a Genesis RPG, but I have never hacked before, what is the easiest program to use to translate text off a Sega Genesis game?


Im ordering Beggar Prince and want to translate the chineese rom using the script off BP.

Well I read everything only thing i got out of it was editing the tiles from a foreing language to english alphabet. Said nothing about what program to use for the Sega Genesis

which program in the utilty section do you recommend for a novice/begginner?

Windows format plz. It would be nice to have one that can run the game live and I can edit on the fly because I can have the translated game in on my TV, and the chinese rom being translated on the PC.


-THANKS

While you're at it, ask for world peace, chocolate ice cream and the ressurection of Jesus (not necessarily in that order).

Look, you obviously don't understand what you're getting into. You also obviously haven't read those getting started documents or you'd have at least an idea about it. Your posts so far raised about a dozen of red flags telling me you won't be able to do this. If you're seriously going to try, read those documents.

For Genesis debuggers, I suggest Regen. Get the debugger build.

Spend more time with Azkadellia's links if you have to ask that question. -_-'

"So nothing can let me put food on the stove and cook it? I have to use pots and pans?"

Yes, you'll have to learn how to look at a ROM in a hex editor, figure out where the script is stored and construct a table. Once that's done, though, you can use a tool like romjuice or Cartographer to extract the game's script, and a tool like Atlas to reinsert your translation. Once the pots and pans are in place on the stove, then you can cook without worrying about them.

Unless you're extraordinarily lucky (or working on a fairly recent game), most games use their own unique encoding schemes for text. Ever worked on a Cryptoquote? Imagine a Cryptoquote message encoded using a 256-letter alphabet which represents all the possible characters that could be used to write the message (uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, punctuation, spaces, etc.). Now imagine it's stuck in the middle of a sea of garbage text that doesn't decode to anything. (Okay, this isn't strictly true. The "garbage" is the game's code and resources. But it's still a hindrance.)

It might seem impossible to solve, but here's the trick: you have the plaintext. So if you search for patterns that match the plaintext (using the game's font as a guide; you have found it in the ROM, right?), you can easily find the script in the ROM. This is what's called "Relative Searching", and it's a function built into hex editors such as WindHex.

Right, before you jump into the deep end and drive yourself away from romhacking forever, let me give you this advice: forget about Beggar Prince for now. Get your feet wet with something simple instead. Pick a game you'd like to vandalize and go wild with it. Use a graphics editor and change all the graphics. Work out the ins and outs of text hacking and see what you can do with the dialogue. It's important that you pick a game that's already in English for this; that way you can get a grasp of the fundamentals without banging your head against the pitfalls of translation. If you start feeling adventurous, you can move up to learning ASM hacking, and once you've mastered it, there's almost nothing you can't do. Start with wild stuff if you like. Tweak the gameplay. See how far you can break it in your favor armed with only a debugger. Work your way towards more constructive projects, such as proportional fonts. Once you've gotten a grasp of all the skills you'll need to not only translate Beggar Prince but one-up the guy who's already translated it, then go for it.

On a random topic, I'm pretty sure Beggar Prince is in Chinese. You can read Chinese, right?

Sounds great to me. The video outout quality of a stock Genesis is utterly embarrassing in retrospect. Way too fuzzy.