I made a post in the help-wanted section of romhacking.net, but I thought I should appeal here as well. If anyone can handle the hacking, I can handle all the Japanese. Princess Crown is a Saturn game that can and should have a proper translation done. Please do let me know if you are interested! Email me at samuel.innes at gmail, and let's do it!
Help me translate Princess Crown
- Thread starter SamIAm
- Start date
Hi welcome to the boards,
About Princess crown I agree it's a really beautiful game, finished it 100% with all characters many years ago.
About the hacking it been done to games like Shining force 3 and Dragon Force 2 so it's very possible. Actually, I managed to extract the files for castlevania (that was due to hack Vandal Hearts on the Saturn and add english text to the game).
I went very far with it and almost got it working but stopped (HDD crash then converted to a Mac). It's very doable and you can do it yourself as well.
Hope you get it working and have fun doing it.
All the best.
About Princess crown I agree it's a really beautiful game, finished it 100% with all characters many years ago.
About the hacking it been done to games like Shining force 3 and Dragon Force 2 so it's very possible. Actually, I managed to extract the files for castlevania (that was due to hack Vandal Hearts on the Saturn and add english text to the game).
I went very far with it and almost got it working but stopped (HDD crash then converted to a Mac). It's very doable and you can do it yourself as well.
Hope you get it working and have fun doing it.
All the best.
I know this isn't really the right place but I didn't know where else to post, I searched for any more suitable thread with "Princess Crown" as the topic. So anyway, some time ago the famous Princess Crown fan translation thread on romhacking.net was finally locked (and there's been no progress report or dispute about it in the 8 months that followed, as the moderator did say it could be potentially reopened for such). I really hope that this means other talented folks may now choose this gem of a game to tackle next without getting accused of doing or attempting anything in poor form or bad taste by any devout followers that still hope that 10+ year project will eventually see the light of day. Fingers crossed that we'll live to see/play it translated!
TrekkiesUnite118
Established Member
For the love of god the project is not dead. Just because you don't get a status report every 5 minutes doesn't mean a project is dead. The people working on it last I heard were having some personal real life issues going on that needed their attention more. They still intend to finish the project.
Devout believer mentioned above, personal real life issues were debunked by the project lead in that locked thread's post #403:
Every adult works, that's not a personal real life issue, it's life. Again, no dispute over the project thread getting locked 8 months later with the last update, if you can consider the above an update, being about two years ago and the update before that, 5 years ago where he said there was a minimum of 2 months of work left. SamIAm here who is the translator had posted about his ongoing translation a few times long before the thread lock too (two years ago being the last time he commented about progress, post #378, with newer posts being about other stuff he's done unrelated to Princess Crown). We've seen far more elaborate projects start and release (or just get abandoned) so many times since this began so yes, it's quite disappointing to see haters so against the idea of someone else taking up the mantle and actually releasing something to the community you hate and find unhealthy. I tried to be nice and not post against the developers, I just present the facts and you're coming hard and fast with accusations and insults and acting like there are daily posts hating on the developers of this, nobody is hating, this is all volunteer work, projects die all the time, it's fine, it just would be so nice if this game actually gets a release from any other group or individuals with the skillset that shouldn't feel threatened by people like you jumping on their backs for having the nerve to actually work on it. I just wish to see Princess Crown in a way most of the world can understand and play it. You reply as if the "updates" I mention just to be 100% honest and factual were yesterday. In truth, all we have to go on is 4 screenshots with English text from 2013. That's it.
Edit: um, yeah, seeing your reply to the other guy (and me too), you seem out of touch with reality. No, the last update wasn't less than a year ago, no it's not an update that its main thread got locked, it got locked for lack of updates in years and you were literally told the developer said he's not working on it via e-mail! 2019-2021 that you mention out of the blue has nothing to do with this, the project in discussion (supposedly) started in 2013 and it's 2024!
Edit: um, yeah, seeing your reply to the other guy (and me too), you seem out of touch with reality. No, the last update wasn't less than a year ago, no it's not an update that its main thread got locked, it got locked for lack of updates in years and you were literally told the developer said he's not working on it via e-mail! 2019-2021 that you mention out of the blue has nothing to do with this, the project in discussion (supposedly) started in 2013 and it's 2024!
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TrekkiesUnite118
Established Member
Juggling work and working on the project is dealing with personal real life issues. If I was the lead of the project I'd be pissed seeing people going around labeling the project dead just because they're not being spoonfed updates constantly. Stop acting entitled.
The unhealthy relationship this community has with this game is absolutely insane.
The unhealthy relationship this community has with this game is absolutely insane.
The post is from 2012. I could be wrong but I don’t believe they are currently seeking assistance.
Please stop being a Community Translation Gatekeeper. You don't speak for me and you certainly don't speak for SamIAm or CyberWarriorX.
I emailed both of them and only received a reply from CyberWarriorX. He stated that even though he isn't working on the project anymore, he has no desire to share any of the translation work he has already completed. That's fine if that's what he wants to do, but at least move aside to allow other translation groups that could translate the game the opportunity to work on it instead. Comments like yours block this from happening. This translation has been in development for a decade, the main thread is now locked, and there has been zero activity from either SamIAm or CyberWarriorX for 10 months. If they aren't going to work on it, then someone else should be given the opportunity.
TrekkiesUnite118
Established Member
I'm not being a gatekeeper, I'm simply saying don't go around claiming other people's projects are dead just because it's been less than a year since you've heard something. I never once said you weren't allowed to do your own translation. If you want to do your own translation go for it, no one is stopping you from getting a disc image and starting to poke around and reverse engineer it yourself. What I am saying though is don't go around claiming projects are dead just because you haven't heard something in under a year.
Primary example, we revealed the Sakura Wars 2 Project last January. We didn't really give constant updates because really there's not much to show with what's been worked on to justify a constant stream of updates. It's all script editing and trying to tackle bugs. So it was almost a year before we had an update video to put together, and even then some probably found it underwhelming. Not having an update in less than a year is nothing in the grand scheme of things and you thinking it means a project is dead just speaks to your own naivety in what all is involved in a project like this and how easy it can be to become stuck on a unique issue for an extended period of time with little to show for it. Throw in real life factors like work, family matters, etc. and you can start to why you don't get constant updates.
The 2019-2021 was a unique time in the homebrew and translation scene. Many people were at home during the pandemic with a ton of free time suddenly on their hands. So some projects accelerated and got done quickly. But now the pandemic is over, people have had to go back to their normal lives, so these projects have gone back to their pre-pandemic timelines.
hope you don't mind necroposting, but since this is not locked maybe i can add something constructive here:
- i have the original cyberwarriorx's github repo here, forked by me before it was closed, so github repartented to my account even if i've added nothing to it
- an English translated script is included here already
- in the past I've tried myself to turn this into a partial/usable game patch, but i guess it is still missing some parts
- i have this API that is able to poke into Retroarch memory at runtime, so in theory i could check for the text shown in the dialogs, and send other commands to show a custom textbox. This could turn into a easy/cheap way to get translated text into the game (obviously it will only work with this emulator, but still better than nothing i guess). Atm i am looking for the right memory addresses to poke for the text dialogs, if you can help post here or via PM.
- i have the original cyberwarriorx's github repo here, forked by me before it was closed, so github repartented to my account even if i've added nothing to it
- an English translated script is included here already
- in the past I've tried myself to turn this into a partial/usable game patch, but i guess it is still missing some parts
- i have this API that is able to poke into Retroarch memory at runtime, so in theory i could check for the text shown in the dialogs, and send other commands to show a custom textbox. This could turn into a easy/cheap way to get translated text into the game (obviously it will only work with this emulator, but still better than nothing i guess). Atm i am looking for the right memory addresses to poke for the text dialogs, if you can help post here or via PM.
UPDATE2 : i was able to replace some text using the original eventeditor by cyberwarriorx + inject a Latin alphabet into KANJI.BIN with crystaltile2 (font size is 12x12, 0x400 chars, original table):
I will update the github repo soon with the code changes i have made and some test patches:
github.com
I will update the github repo soon with the code changes i have made and some test patches:
GitHub - eadmaster/pcrown: Princess Crown Translation GPL Edition
Princess Crown Translation GPL Edition. Contribute to eadmaster/pcrown development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
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That looks nice.
Now wait just a gosh darn minute... we have a release now with "all story events and names translated"??? Holy cow, you work fast!!!UPDATE2 : i was able to replace some text using the original eventeditor by cyberwarriorx + inject a Latin alphabet into KANJI.BIN with crystaltile2 (font size is 12x12, 0x400 chars, original table):
View attachment 10166
I will update the github repo soon with the code changes i have made and some test patches:
GitHub - eadmaster/pcrown: Princess Crown Translation GPL Edition
Princess Crown Translation GPL Edition. Contribute to eadmaster/pcrown development by creating an account on GitHub.
Umm you shouldn’t necro this this, you should just make your own thread because you’ve done way too much work to not have your own dedicated place where people can appreciate what you’re doing.
It’s amazing that you’re picking this up, and I don’t think a lot of people are aware that you’ve even started working on it, because I know tons of people are waiting for this translation.
derek (ateam)
Pluto Supporter
The very awesome paul_met shared this on the Shiro! Discord:
I'm copying/pasting my tips I shared on Discord here for the sake of preservation. Note that the next step after this would be to find the instructions for maximum characters per line, and perhaps maximum characters per dialogue box (it depends on the game logic). That way, the text can fill the entirety of the boxes.
I'm not sure which revision of the game the patch targets, but in
In
I'm sure you know this, but just in case, in order to find the three asm instructions to patch (given by paul_met)...
...you take the base address of where the main executable (
If you load
If the patch indeed targets
For example, we find
We can then search for that byte array in the
I'm copying/pasting my tips I shared on Discord here for the sake of preservation. Note that the next step after this would be to find the instructions for maximum characters per line, and perhaps maximum characters per dialogue box (it depends on the game logic). That way, the text can fill the entirety of the boxes.
I'm not sure which revision of the game the patch targets, but in
Princess Crown (Japan) (1M) the first asm instruction to patch is at 0x6E9A8:
In
Princess Crown (Japan) (Rev A) (11M), it's at 0x6EA60:
I'm sure you know this, but just in case, in order to find the three asm instructions to patch (given by paul_met)...
Code:
060729A8 E204
06072994 E204
0607297C E204...you take the base address of where the main executable (
0.BIN) gets loaded into RAM (0x06004000) and just subtract. So 0x060729A8 - 0x06004000 = 0x6E9A8.If you load
0.BIN into Ghidra and select SuperH 2 Big Endian as the processor and the base address as 0x06004000, you can visualize this much more simply.If the patch indeed targets
Princess Crown (Japan) (Rev A) (11M), then you can find the three asm instructions to patch by just searching for the byte arrays found in the Princess Crown (Japan) (1M) version of 0.BIN.For example, we find
E2 07 in the Princess Crown (Japan) (1M) version of 0.BIN at 0x6E9A8, right? So, let's say we copy those two bytes and the 14 bytes that come before it for a total of 16 bytes:
We can then search for that byte array in the
Princess Crown (Japan) (Rev A) (11M) version of 0.BIN to find the same instructions:
Danthrax
Established Member
If you've already applied the patch, open up Track 1 in a hex editor and change the 07 to a 04 at these three locations:
0008F17C
0008F194
0008F1A8
That decreases the spacing between letters:
Also, the patched game works in Mednafen version 0.9.48 (maybe others?) without a GUI as well as Yaba Sanshiro, but not Bizhawk or SSF. But if you convert the patched ISO back to a BIN (and change the CUE file to reflect that change) Bizhawk will run it. (SSF still won't.)
0008F17C
0008F194
0008F1A8
That decreases the spacing between letters:
Also, the patched game works in Mednafen version 0.9.48 (maybe others?) without a GUI as well as Yaba Sanshiro, but not Bizhawk or SSF. But if you convert the patched ISO back to a BIN (and change the CUE file to reflect that change) Bizhawk will run it. (SSF still won't.)
Attachments
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What setup are you using to build this from source? src/CMakeLists.txt looks like it wants a specific MSVC build of Allegro, but this commit suggests you're using MinGW, so I'm not sure where to start.
CyberWarriorX
Established Member
I don't recall ever saying I had abandoned it. I also don't recall having any obligation to sharing Sam's or my work. How about you do your own work instead of stealing others?
Imagine stealing other people's work. Not cool guys.
