Noon English Translation 1.0

NOON for Sega Saturn: English translation patch​

An unofficial English translation of NOON, a Japanese Sega Saturn versus action and puzzle game for one to four players, made by Microcabin in 1996–97.

This is a fan project. It is not affiliated with Microcabin, Sega or the game's authors. This repository hosts only the patch file. It contains no game files, so you need your own copy of the Japanese disc.

The English translation is 100% complete. The game was played through fully without issue, tested on real Sega Saturn hardware as well as in emulators.

Credits​

• Hacking: ryanm8
• Testing: Danthrax, Levine91
• Translation: ryanm8

What you need​

• Your own copy of the Japanese NOON disc, Revision A. Its Track 01 file must be named exactly Noon (Japan) (Rev A) (Track 01).bin, be 15,422,064 bytes, and have the SHA-256 acc0ae109df50fe4d0cc8da6d1857e8e175763d68576a5239240f554a436ec8a.
• xdelta 3. Version 3.1.0 is the one tested.
• The patch file noon_en_track01.xdelta (100,503 bytes, SHA-256 81f19b3600b9adb5cba3cc71e503f731de206ee021329e6d1fa3098827f0e5e9).

Applying the patch​

The patch always starts from the original Japanese Track 01. Apply it to your original file, not to a copy that has already been patched.

1. Create a new folder called English.
2. Run xdelta 3 from the folder that holds the patch and your Track 01 file:
   
   xdelta3 -d -s "Noon (Japan) (Rev A) (Track 01).bin" noon_en_track01.xdelta "English\Noon (Japan) (Rev A) (Track 01).bin"<br>
3. Copy the .cue file and Tracks 02–27 from your disc into English. Keep every file name as it is, because the .cue file names the tracks. The patch does not change them.
4. Open the .cue file in an emulator, or load it on your Saturn by your usual method.

If your Track 01 is not the exact file described above, xdelta refuses to apply the patch.

Checking the result​

The patched Track 01 should be 15,422,064 bytes with the SHA-256:

5f84e527a30cdae0bf6d107701c2485b8518307c8c7993e9c35e86b213cd41f9<br>
On Windows you can check it with:

certutil -hashfile "English\Noon (Japan) (Rev A) (Track 01).bin" SHA256<br>

What is translated​

All on-screen text is in English, including:

• Dialogue: both tutorials, the battle cries, the stories of all six characters, and their endings
• The title screen
• The options screen (level, controls, mono)
• The backup-RAM select screen and its messages
• The game menu, and the player-count, level and time-limit screens
• The pictures and menus that contain Japanese text

The voice audio is unchanged and remains in Japanese.

The debug menu​

NOON has a hidden debug menu, left in by the developers. It is part of the original Japanese disc, and this patch keeps it. Its labels were already in English on the original, except one: the ending selector's label, which this patch translates as "Ending:".

To open it, press these buttons in order on the main menu:

Left, Right, Right, Left, Up, Down, Up, Down, B, Start

• The presses must come as one quick run within 1.5 seconds.
• Pressing any other button in between resets the sequence.

Page 2 of the debug menu has the ending selector, which shows "Ending:" followed by a character's name. Use it to view any of the six endings. Other entries include ON/OFF switches such as Invincible, Collision and RainBall, numbered tests for characters and backgrounds, and page controls. These are developer tools, so the switches change how the game plays.

How the translation was made​

The translation was AI-assisted. Every line was then read by hand by me for quality and consistency and modified as needed.

Reporting problems​

For mistranslations, bugs or suggestions, please contact me or post a comment.