The Official Emerald Dragon Translation Project

[NightWolve]

Thread Mirror #1: http://www.ysutopia.net/forums/index.php?topic=431.0
Twitter Tweets: https://twitter.com/NightWolve1975/status/555595460602527745

Intro [1/13/2015]: I had been in talks with my old friend David Shadoff about taking over one of his excess stalled projects and this was one of them. Mulled it over and decided I'll try to push this over the finish line, but no guarantees... As such, I was given all project materials, including ~60% of SamIAm's translated results from 2007. I've also been discussing it with Sam on how to proceed and think I can meet his needs, though time will tell. If successful, this'll mark 11 years since my last full PC Engine CD RPG project (Ys IV) got off the ground in 2004 (the dub in 2012 was just a little blip)! I had decided I wanted to stick mainly with more modern x86 Falcom PC Games after Ys IV, but with Emerald Dragon, I am retro again, baby!





Reviews:

http://www.thebrothersduomazov.com/2010/12/emerald-dragon.html
http://www.honestgamers.com/3140/turbografx-cd/emerald-dragon/review.html
http://www.pcengine.co.uk/HTML_Games/Emerald_Dragon.htm
http://hupack.blogspot.com/2011/08/emerald-dragon-journey-part-1.html

[NightWolve]

ED Project History Log

** 2/28/2015 - Translation Station adapting to Emerald Dragon's specifics

An inside look at my custom translation software built on AccessVBA with an Emerald Dragon message box emulator coded properly. The march of progress continues on stomping the competition with every step!



** 2/14/2015 - The Great Leap Forward: First LZSS Recompressed Text Block Inserted!

The project crosses one of the greatest technical hurdles and thus it now becomes clear that it can and will be finished!!! Recompression of the first testing text block with David's superior LZSS functions back from 2004 (coded for Ys IV) were made to work here and successfully at that! BEHOLD! Project Status: Resurrected with confidence!!!





** 1/31/2015 - Test Insertion

Identified a compressed block/stream, sought town message, set control bytes to 0xFF to allow literal text insertion for a quick font/writing test, and voila!



Using current font tiles (harvested from the PC-FX BIOS!):


** 1/13/2015 - Font Inspection Situation

Poked around the ED ROM track with a new tile viewer (YY-CHR.NET) to see what kind of font hacking is needed, found it uses a fixed-width 8x12 1BPP font, and most importantly it is uncompressed, just like Ys IV, meaning I can handle it. Otherwise, I would need David or Bonknut's help for an advanced VW (preferably) font hack job. Had to refamiliarize myself with an old tool [feidian] by D-BOY I used for Ys IV (I am rusty), but once I did and with the precise offset, I extracted the font in a viewable format. I can now insert the same font I used for Ys IV or a more medieval looking one.

feidian.php -r 8,12,16,8,0x499D5  "Emerald Dragon (J)-02.iso"  EDOrgMainFont


feidian.php -r 8,8,21,1,0x498B1  "Emerald Dragon (J)-02.iso"  EDOrgDigitFont


** Oct 13, 2014 - Talks began with David Shadoff about taking over the project

David uploaded all project materials to me, an ISO/WAV/CUE image file set of ED (ripped with *my* TurboRip I might add O:)), including 60% of SamIAm's translated results, and gave me a briefing on where the project was at to the best of his memory, etc.

** Apr 05, 2006 - Original Project Origins. YES, that far back!

The project began in 2006, 9 years ago, with SamIAm himself looking for a programmer to extract/prepare the ED script. David Shadoff saw the thread and decided to work on the game!
http://forums.magicengine.com/en/viewtopic.php?t=1543

David made the project official after extracting the script. 60% of it was translated judging by SamIAm's last update in the thread on Jan 22, 2007, but that's where things stalled from then on.
http://forums.magicengine.com/en/viewtopic.php?t=1557

[BigusSchmuck]

Awesome news!

[Necromancer]

f*ckING SWEET!!!!   

[SamIAm]

My promise in this is that if the hacking can advance to a point nearing completion - that is, if they get the script to insert and display - I'll finish the script myself.

[Dicer]

I am...EXCITED.

I've wanted this in English forever, managed to play it in Japanese upon release oh so long ago, that was a trip.

[Lochlan]

THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!!!! + mad props to SAMIAM for being such a prolific translator in recent times.

I'm glad to see an accomplished ROM hacker such as yourself working on this project, I'm sure whatever state you leave it in will represent some non-zero progress even in the worst case.  I'm hoping for the best, though, I've been wanting to play this one for a long time!

[_joshuaTurbo]

This could just be the coolest translation yet!  My body is ready.

[Sarumaru]

This is awesome. I say once finished, press em all pro-like then offer em for like 35 bucks a pop or something reasonable. Not like anyone owns these copyrights anymore anyway.   Just a thought cuz if you don't do it, someone else might and that makes for some bitter fruitzzz~

[esteban]

EMERALD DRAGON!!!!!!!!!!'nnnn nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am happy.

My promise in this is that if the hacking can advance to a point nearing completion - that is, if they get the script to insert and display - I'll finish the script myself.

Some of us will remember this! We will tenderly, but firmly, hold you to your word.

[Bonknuts]

If want me to do the font routine (and single byte ascii read routine, and possible DTE or dictionary compression, etc), then it's gotta be for the extended SCD card (more ram). Else, it's too much of a pain to handle otherwise (time and frustration). That would be my requirement, to be on board.

 You want a VWF routine? That always complicates the script side of things (formatting), but if all I would handle is the font and string read routine, then no problem here.

 IIRC, from talking with Dave years back, is that the script is compressed into LZss blocks. Nothing fancy. He must has figured out the pointer system, if he dumped the script. If the extended SCD card is used, recompressed on the LZss side could be just simple runs of literal bytes (super easy to write a util for), and have the English friendly compression on the new string side (simply dictionary compression: 2 byte, 3byte, and 4byte entries. Static dictionary for the whole game, nothing variable. Or if I'm really lazy , then just a token system to a large script in extended ram), that would sit on top of it (transparent to the game).

 Anyway, those are my thoughts on this. All the source code is yours to do with as you want, once it's finished (you'll have ownership/license/whatever). There's a catch though; time. It'll be slow going and/or delays, because SamIam and I already have two projects we're looking into. If this project has serious commitment and team, and SamIam wants to put priority on this, then I'm fine with that. But I don't have enough free time to productively stretch over several projects, so multiple stuff would be put on hold if I did take this on.

 I don't know how much free time MooZ has, but he's experienced in making new font print routines and new string read routines. Besides Esperknight and MooZ, I don't know of anyone else that has experience with this on the PCE/CD (asm hacking).

 

[Lochlan]

Not like anyone owns these copyrights anymore anyway.

I'm sure that's not true.

[Necromancer]

I'm sure that's not true.

It's not.  They even still make games for the Vita, but that doesn't mean they'd care.

[Sarumaru]

I'm sure that's not true.

It's not.  They even still make games for the Vita, but that doesn't mean they'd care.

Who does? Alfa System?

[Necromancer]

Who does? Alfa System?

I was thinking Media Works, but it doesn't matter.  Even if a company goes under, the IP is almost always sold to someone or the rights will revert to the person that actually created it.