otogirisou-sfc-tools

Resources and tools for generating a translation patch for 弟切草 Otogirisou for Super Famicom.

If you would like to use this project as a basis for your own translation patch for the game, I recommend reading these two writeups I made: generating the script in the game's expected format, and how to playtest the script.

How to use

The custom tools for this project are coded in Java and use batch files. You will need to install Java on your machine.

BUILD patched game.bat

• Generates an English patch for the game.

TEST SCRIPT with Atlas.bat

• Test if the script translation has any characters that are not in the table file. If yes, Atlas will fail to properly insert the script.
• Couldn't figure out a way to make the build script terminate if Atlas failed (doesn't emit non-zero exit code), so made this instead.

You have two options for dumping the original Japanese script:

• DUMP jp script.bat
  • Decompresses the original Japanese script into an Atlas script file.
• DUMP jp script - auto comment.bat
  • Similar, but formats the script to make it easier to edit for a translation.

Likewise, you have two options for dumping the game's graphics:

• DUMP graphics.bat
  • Decompresses and dumps all graphics except the font (see below).
• DUMP only necessary graphics.bat
  • Decompresses and dumps only the graphics that need to be translated for the patch.

DUMP jp font.bat

• Decompresses the original Japanese font into a binary file (created in font folder). You can view it in YY-CHR.NET with the graphics format 1bpp 16x16.

DUMP jp huffman codes.bat

• Dumps out the Japanese game's Huffman tree in two ways (created in tables folder):
  • All of the Huffman codes as binary strings with their character encodings.
  • The raw Huffman tree structure in a more human-readable format.

generate patch view unused knife graphic.bat

• Generate a modified version of the Japanese ROM that allows you to view an unused graphic of a knife in the game's data. Simply start a new game and read the text.

Folder contents

asm

• Asar text files containing assembly code, "include file's binary contents here" directives, etc. for patch.
• Also included: A DiztinGUIsh project file that includes a mostly complete disassembly of the game.
  • Not everything is filled in, but I tried to document everything that was either relevant to the patch or was interesting enough to look into.

font

• Image file for font, as well as a modified table file containing the dimensions for each character for the font.

gfx modification

• Instructions for creating your own graphics edits are included.
• Feel free to use this folder as a space for modifying tilesets and tilemaps for the graphics.

graphics:

• Binary files for translated graphics (tiles, tilemaps) to be reinserted.
• NOTE: Any changed graphics that are to be added must be first recompressed into the game's expected format.

images:

• Images for explaining the processes behind patch generation, and script editing and playtesting.

notes:

• Various notes about the game's internal mechanisms, like compression formats, and how I went about modifying things like automatic linebreaking or the font loading system.

patches

• Patches for the game will be generated in BPS format in this directory.
• Included is a sample BPS patch to get the ROM that you would get from running generate patch view unused knife graphic.bat.

rom

• Place a legally obtained, unmodified, and unheadered Japanese ROM image of Otogirisou into this directory.
• "Hard-patched" versions of the ROM will be generated here.
• The specification in the No-Intro database for the source ROM is:

CRC32:   8e4befd0
MD5:     ae1e9c92d0b7e6dba6c6007d99c9c3f4
SHA-1:   2c27b89a244abe941b6a9fceb1a674dbefd1f734
SHA-256: d85b6764a35f4dcee3ab5843df1c467ebdfe5f02236043a4e466e6975a3f70ca

script

• Contains Atlas text files for the main translated script, and for updating text for things such as:
  • name entry screen characters
  • text on the file select screen
  • special characters for other things:
    • punctuation with inherent WAITs or DELAYs
    • choice option letters
    • digits for menus
    • honorifics
• After running the batch file, this directory will also include a handful of files with more details about the script insertion process.

src

• Java source code files that are specific to this translation project. See the readme in there for more information.

tables

• Table files for:
  • the original Japanese game
  • the control codes used in the translation
  • the current patch version.

tools

• Already-existing programs that aid in the translation process. They are Asar, Atlas, Floating IPS, and superfamicheck. xkas is also included but not really required for this particular patch.