Anearth Fantasy Stories - Translation Development Blog

[NightWolve]

!!?!?!!?!?!!?!?!!!!!

You answered the call [again], bless you, my fellow PCE turbro (and SamIAmAndOhYesICan!!!!)!

You are the One we were waiting for! Hope and change has finally arrived! The dry spell, the neglect, etc. of talent dedicated to PC Engine CD fan translation projects is ending! We may see Xanadus, Anearth and Emerald Dragon in English in our lifetimes.

Congrats man, you have my full support and appreciation! I don't game as much as I used to, I live it through others, but this was one I really wanted to see happen when I got started over a decade ago but wasn't talented enough! I hope you can keep your motivation/drive for years to come!

[Vimtoman]

Lower caps for me for me..

[elmer]

We may see Xanadus, Anearth and Emerald Dragon in English in our lifetimes.

Well ... ED is up to you, but I definitely hope so! 

When you decide to get back to it, we can see if I can hack in a bi-width font into ED so that you can make the text look a bit nicer, if that's something that would interest you.

It looks like ED has enough memory between $5e3a-$5fff ... depending upon where you're loading your English font, and how much of that Dave used up for the 8x12 font hack.

Bleh the full lower-case looks like a 1991 DOS reject.

Hahaha! I hear what you're saying. There's not a lot that you can do with an 8x8 fixed-width font, and most of them look a bit old-fashioned.

The lower case version looks a lot better if I remove some of the serifs, and make it a VWF ...



But that kind of hack would introduce a lot of problems, even if it were possible.

A game really needs to be designed with that in mind, and this game wasn't.

So, back to reality.

VOTED FOR: Lower-case w/ DAT DROP SHADOW.

That looks like 2 votes for the Lower Case, 2 votes for the Small Caps, and Vimtoman has mixed his wording and could be going either way! 

Here's a better test, on a more substantial screen from the game.




Hmmm ... looking at that, I've got to say that the lower case may be nominally prettier (or not, depending upon taste), but it really just doesn't fit in well, and marks a huge departure from Falcom's original font.

It is especially-ugly in the "Status" title.


The Small Caps font, IMHO, looks like a nice improvement over the original without totally messing up the look of Falcom's game.

[esteban]

Small caps are screaming at me (in a *slightly* subdued tone)

Lower case is much civilized and sophisticated.

/two cents



I know I am in minority. So be it.

[TheOldMan]

I like the lower case font.

Did they really typo intelligence?

[Necromancer]

Did they really typo intelligence?

Well that's not very intelligent. 

[Michirin9801]

My vote remains for the lower case but honestly, I'm fine with whichever one, they both look pretty good!

[ParanoiaDragon]

I lean towards small caps.

[elmer]

Did they really typo intelligence?

Yep! I wonder if they fixed that in the Saturn version a couple of years later on.

Small caps are screaming at me (in a *slightly* subdued tone)

Lower case is much civilized and sophisticated.

Yeah, I suspect that you'll just have to put up with all of the noise! 


Seriously ... 8x8 fixed-width with lower case just looks too much like an 8-bit home computer font for my taste.

I find that my eyes are drawn to the gaps in the "i" and "l" too much.

I'd like the lower case if we could go full VWF, but otherwise, if it's got to be fixed-width, then the  small-caps has a certain amount of elegance (IMHO), and looks like deliberate-choice.

It also allows for the use of lower-case small-caps sometimes to help create that extra line of space when you need it.

As a developer ... one of my pet-peeves is sloppy UI work.

Now, this is pretty-much my definition of that ...




They couldn't be bothered to removed the old menus when making a choice and then backing-up a level.

That's horrible! 

Seriously, that's the kind of thing that gives me a poor impression of the game, that it then has to work overtime to dispel. 

[BigusSchmuck]

Seriously take my money if it'll help make this a reality.

[_joshuaTurbo]

I really love the look of the lower case (3rd option).  Man, this is so very impressive what you guys are able to do!!  So much TURBO Karma and OBEYLUV for you gents!! 

[spenoza]

You know what, I think I actually prefer the look of just straight all caps. I just wish it was a different font. I think the heaviness of the letters hurts it. I think if the font were just a tiny bit thinner it would actually look fine and not need small caps. Think something more like a monospaced Ariel or Helvetica instead of what right now looks more like a monospaced Chicago.

[elmer]

Man, this is so very impressive what you guys are able to do!!  So much TURBO Karma and OBEYLUV for you gents!! 

If I haven't been clear ... those screens are just mockups in grafx2, they're not actually running in the game. 

Removing the katakana tiles and adding small-caps or lower-case tiles would break things right now, and I'm not ready to do that quite yet. 

I'm still investigating the messy menu system and identifying where the menu strings and fight/item strings are for the Battle program.

It's organized a bit differently from the Game program and doesn't seem to use "scripts" as such.

And this gets back to that "why do you need a programmer?" question.


Well ... it's because you're going to have one heck of a time finding out where stuff is in a complex game if you just look at the contents of the CD.


You really need to see the code running, and figure out how the different programs load their data off the CD in order to understand the overall structure of what's going on, and perhaps even why.

Then you can write quick-and-dirty tools to scan through the data on the CD data, and find out more stuff that you didn't know.

Which then leads you onto the figuring out what the next round of tests should be.

It's like peeling an onion, one layer at a time.


For instance ... there are 79 battles in the Anearth, with 39 different sets of background locations.

That could only be determined after figuring out how the the Battle program loads its data, and then writing some code to scan the CD at those locations and figure out where the last one was.

Same for the Game program. There are 44 different "level" loads, containing 276 script chunks (files).

Hudson actually ran out of space for their (rather bloated) scripts in the Game, and ended up loading them from 2 totally-different places, even though the scripts all refer to each other.

It's what I'd call a very old-school traditional arcade/console architecture, rather than the much cleaner and more elegant file-based computer-like architecture that Falcom used in the LoX games.

It's all a bit messy, and they've got hard-coded offsets everywhere to bank locations inside the levels, so I can't just move things around easily ... which means that there's going to be a limited amount of space to play with for the English translation.

SamIAm won't get the complete freedom for his translations that he had in the LoX games. I don't think that it'll be a serious problem, because I can change the encoding of Hudson's scripting language to get some memory back ... but it'll be a huge PITA.


Anyway, despite that, it looks like there's enough free space in the Game program to insert the data for a nice 12-high VFW English font.

The Battle program, OTOH, is using all of its memory, and so I need to figure out if there's some free space for the font in each of the 79 different sets of Battle data.


Which gets back to figuring out the loading, and where it gets its text strings from.


Which leads to more investigations, and then this ...

Code: [Select]

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Battle 0x1529 ( 1) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1561 ( 2) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1599 ( 3) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x15D1 ( 4) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1609 ( 5) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1641 ( 6) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1679 ( 7) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x16B1 ( 8) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x16E9 ( 9) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1721 (10) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1759 (11) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1791 (12) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x17C9 (13) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1801 (14) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1839 (15) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1871 (16) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x18A9 (17) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x18E1 (18) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70  used
Battle 0x1919 (19) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70  used
Battle 0x1951 (20) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1989 (21) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x19C1 (22) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x19F9 (23) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1A31 (24) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70  used
Battle 0x1A69 (25) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70  used
Battle 0x1AA1 (26) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1AD9 (27) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1B11 (28) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70  used
Battle 0x1B49 (29) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70  used
Battle 0x1B81 (30) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70  used
Battle 0x1BB9 (31) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1BF1 (32) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1C29 (33) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1C61 (34) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1C99 (35) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1CD1 (36) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70  used
Battle 0x1D09 (37) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1D41 (38) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1D79 (39) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1DB1 (40) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1DE9 (41) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1E21 (42) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70  used
Battle 0x1E59 (43) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70  used
Battle 0x1E91 (44) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70  used
Battle 0x1EC9 (45) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1F01 (46) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1F39 (47) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1F71 (48) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1FA9 (49) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x1FE1 (50) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x2019 (51) : text crc $5f4da114 : $D17A,$C010,$D201,$D2CC,$D37B,$D77B,$D991,$D2F9,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DD29 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x2051 (52) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x2089 (53) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70  used
Battle 0x20C1 (54) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70  used
Battle 0x20F9 (55) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70  used
Battle 0x2131 (56) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70  used
Battle 0x2169 (57) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x21A1 (58) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70  used
Battle 0x21D9 (59) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x2211 (60) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x2249 (61) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x2281 (62) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x22B9 (63) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x22F1 (64) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70  used
Battle 0x2329 (65) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x2361 (66) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x2399 (67) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70  used
Battle 0x23D1 (68) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70  used
Battle 0x2409 (69) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x2441 (70) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70  used
Battle 0x2479 (71) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70  used
Battle 0x24B1 (72) : text crc $af624041 : $D18F,$C010,$D216,$D2E1,$D390,$D790,$D9A6,$D30E,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DD3E : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x24E9 (73) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x2521 (74) : text crc $1c12a205 : $D22B,$C010,$D2B2,$D37D,$D42C,$D82C,$DA42,$D3AA,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DDDA : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70  used
Battle 0x2559 (75) : text crc $48754f0e : $D24E,$C010,$D2D5,$D3A0,$D44F,$D84F,$DA65,$D3CD,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DDFD : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F  used : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x2591 (76) : text crc $27f26288 : $D2CB,$C010,$D352,$D41D,$D4CC,$D8CC,$DAE2,$D44A,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DE7A : Bank $74 free from $D437 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x25C9 (77) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $E000 : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty
Battle 0x2601 (78) : text crc $04bf5678 : $CFB8,$C010,$D03F,$D10A,$D1B9,$D5B9,$D7CF,$D137,$0000 : Bank $73 free from $DB67 : Bank $74 free from $DFFE : Bank $6F empty : Bank $70 empty


[elmer]

So what does that huge block of garbage tell us? 

Well it's actually good news! 


Battle 0x14F1 ( 0) text crc $04bf5678 : Bank $73 free from $DB67

Battle 0x2019 (51) text crc $5f4da114 : Bank $73 free from $DD29
Battle 0x24B1 (72) text crc $af624041 : Bank $73 free from $DD3E
Battle 0x2521 (74) text crc $1c12a205 : Bank $73 free from $DDDA
Battle 0x2559 (75) text crc $48754f0e : Bank $73 free from $DDFD
Battle 0x2591 (76) text crc $27f26288 : Bank $73 free from $DE7A


Each set of Battle data may have its own set of text strings, but they're actually identical in most of the battles (they have the same CRC32 values).

There are only 5 battles that contain different string data, and when I run those particular battles in Anearth's Debug Mode, it's easy to see that those are the battles with "special" opponents who actually speak to you before the battle and move the story forward.

I imagine (but don't yet know for sure), that those "unique" string tables contain all of the same strings as the other levels, but with some added extras for the story.

That should make SamIAm's translation job a little easier!


It also shows that while there is no single location in the data that I can use to put a English VWF font ... there is a location that I can use for 77 out of the 79 battles, and an alternate location that I can use for the 2 remaining "troublesome" battles.

That makes my job a little easier!

[elmer]

I imagine (but don't yet know for sure), that those "unique" string tables contain all of the same strings as the other levels, but with some added extras for the story.

OK, that's confirmed now! 

Every battle contains exactly the same set of strings, it's just that those 5 battles with "special" opponents contain an extra 14 strings each for that opponent's custom responses.

All of the dictionaries (contiguous blocks of null-terminated strings that are accessed by skipping through the block) for the Battle overlay have now been identified and dumped.

There are some unused strings that can be removed to make a bit more space for the English translation ... so I'm fairly hopeful that we won't hit any major problems (in the Battle overlay) from limited space.