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Localization Projects => NEC PC Engine/Turbo Duo CD-ROM² Console => Emerald Dragon => Topic started by: NightWolve on Mar. 08, 2015, 11:33:15 PM

Title: The Official Emerald Dragon Translation Project
Post by: NightWolve on Mar. 08, 2015, 11:33:15 PM
Thread Mirror #1: pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=18358.0 (https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=18358.0)

Twitter Tweets: twitter.com/NightWolve75/status/555595460602527745 (http://"https://twitter.com/NightWolve75/status/555595460602527745")
https://twitter.com/NightWolve75/status/1089000068215177216

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! :P

9/6/2019: A first-look teaser of the Emerald Dragon [PC Engine CD] English localization project has been published!!!  8) Took YEARS to get here... http://youtu.be/5X8aE8jMqwg

(http://www.ysutopia.net/projects/ed/images/EmeraldDragonGolemBattle.gif) (https://www.ysutopia.net/projects/ed/images/emdra5.png)
(https://www.ysutopia.net/projects/ed/images/emdra6.png) (https://www.ysutopia.net/projects/ed/images/emdra7.png)
(https://www.ysutopia.net/projects/ed/images/emdra1.png)

http://twitter.com/NightWolve75/status/555595460602527745
http://twitter.com/NightWolve75/status/1089000068215177216
http://twitter.com/NightWolve75/status/1369785954194571264

Reviews:

pcengine-fx.com/reviews/duomazov/emerald-dragon.html (http://"https://www.pcengine-fx.com/reviews/duomazov/emerald-dragon.html")
honestgamers.com/3140/turbografx-cd/emerald-dragon/review.html (http://"https://www.honestgamers.com/3140/turbografx-cd/emerald-dragon/review.html")
Title: Emerald Dragon Project History Log
Post by: NightWolve on Mar. 08, 2015, 11:34:12 PM
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! :P

(/images/cache/Trans_Station_Emerald_Dragon01-xBCDA5165.png)

** 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!!! :P

(/images/cache/Emerald_Dragon_J_2015_02_28_21_01_55-x1E7A3526.png) (/images/cache/Emerald_Dragon_J_2015_02_28_21_02_34-x62BB1CC1.png)
(/images/cache/Emerald_Dragon_J_2015_02_28_21_02_58-x33F3B2DA.png) (/images/cache/Emerald_Dragon_J_2015_03_08_16_58_33-xF47A5329.png)

** 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!

(https://www.ysutopia.net/projects/ed/images/EDFontTest2.png) (https://www.ysutopia.net/projects/ed/images/EDFontTest1.png)

Using current 8x12 font tiles (harvested from the NEC PC-FX BIOS!):
(https://www.ysutopia.net/projects/ed/images/EDFont1_8x12-PCFXBIOS.bmp)

** 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] (http://feidian.sourceforge.net/) 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
(https://www.ysutopia.net/projects/ed/images/EDOrgMainFont_8x12.png)

feidian.php -r 8,8,21,1,0x498B1  "Emerald Dragon (J)-02.iso"  EDOrgDigitFont
(https://www.ysutopia.net/projects/ed/images/EDOrgDigitFont_8x8.png)

** 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 (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 (http://forums.magicengine.com/en/viewtopic.php?t=1557)