Localizing Syutokou_97 / SYUTOKO BATTLE 97 Drift King

[Malenko]

Been chipping away at this for a while mostly sorting out the documentation of the data and translating all the text. I don't know why I keep picking games that are so text heavy (something I didn't expect in the racing genre) but I am a HUGE fan of the Genki games, and you can tell they build off of this to make their later games like Tokyo Xtreme Racer and Import Tuner Challenge.

This project would have come to a dead stop if it weren't for Nanish1. He coded tools to split the compressed files, extract the data, recompress the data AND remerge the files AND update the tables. Huge thanks to him, and here are the tools he made:

GitHub - nanash1/dk_tools: Tools to translate Drift King '97

Files changed:
Pickup.BCH (font tiles)
Select.BIN (texture location table and in game text)
PIC.CHR (compressed tiles and textures)

Tools used:
Nanash1's custom LZ toolset GitHub - nanash1/dk_tools: Tools to translate Drift King '97
Derek's Byte Finder GitHub - DerekPascarella/ByteSearch: A utility to recursively scan a folder of files for a known byte string.
wxMEdit Hex editor wxMEdit - A Cross-platform Text/Hex Editor
Crystal Tile 2 Crystal Tile 2
Knight0fDragon's SPP Sega Saturn Patcher
Cafe-Alpha's Save Data Manager PPCenter :: Pseudo Saturn Kai
Sonicbot's save game included with Save manager
CRAM2PAL URL needed
Notepad++ Notepad++
ePSXe emulator Welcome to the official ePSXe website
Yaba San Shiro Saturn emulator uoYabause
Matt's Shuft-JIS table https://mattsmessyroom.com/uploads/sjis.tbl
Genki Rival Project Shutokō Battle Rival Database Wiki
Discord? Discord | Your Place to Talk and Hang Out

Thanks to Nanash1, Danthrax, TrekkiesUnite118, Knight0fDragon,derek(ateam), privateeye, Sonicbot, Cafe-Alpha, Shadowmask, and you!

Extra special thank you to Laquerware for translating the spoken dialog on the movies. Shadowmask is going to subtitle them with that info.


Added a quick translation quip on the title screen. I plan to "English-ify" the logo after I find it.

All of the save menus are done

WHile the tile work isnt done on this screen, the text below makes it 100% usable

About 2/3rds of the racing parts tiles have been translated, recompressed and injected into the game
most of the descriptions as well

Just not all of them, merp. SO.MUCH.TEXT.

After the Garage area is done, I'll move on the pre and post race dialog for the rivals. The garage is without a doubt the biggest pain in the ass part to do, so I want to get it over with. The Walrus will of course be in the game, I'm trying to make Pandamonium's running a joke a reality when I can.

I plan to release a public beta when the garage portion is complete.

 

[Malenko]

There are 6 "normal type" cars:
Initially available in "scenario mode":
Type-RS : Blue Mazda Miata MX-5 aka Eunos Roadster
Type-86 : Panda Sprinter Trueno aka Toyota Corolla Levin
Type-CV : Blueish Purple Honda Civic

These are unlocked by beating the rivals on the first 3 courses
Type-SX : Black Nissan 180SX with Keiichi Tsuchiya livery
Type-SV : Teal Nissan Silva with Masaaki Bandoh livery
Type-MR : Yellow Toyota MR2

Not sure how to unlock the following, but they are available from the start by playing in "practice mode"
Type-TO : Grey Mitsubishi GTO with SEALA livery
Type-ZX : Yellow Nissan 300ZX aka Fairlady Z
Type-7 : Red Mazda RX-7
Type-NS : Dark Yellow Honda/Acura NSX
Type-SP : Dark Red Toyota Supra with !mage livery and "motorsports entertainment" written in yellow on the hood
Type-GT : Dark Purple Nissan Skyline R32 GTR

There is also a Type-VW ,its a classic Volkswagon Beetle , it has the horsepower of the R32 but half of the weight.
Assuming you have to beat everything to unlock it. One is yellow, the other is pink and has a "Magic Kiss" logo on the side.

There is also a second texture for the Miata that's green with a racing stripe and a second texture for the Trueno that is red and black and a texture for the Civic thats dark grey. These are used for the Rival's cars not the players but are unlockable.

There are unlockable liveries for all the other cars as well.
SX = White with no logos
SV = Grey with no logos
MR = Dark blue with motorport logo

TO = Dark blue with SEALA logo
ZX = Black with no logos
7 = Light grey with no logos
NS = blood red with RSR logo on the front and BANDOH logo on the wing
SP = Flat black with no logos
GT = Flat white with no logos


I also will not be editing the car names in the data, there's a menu option to do it in game.

 

[luis]

What a great week first baroque gets updated and now this! I'm rooting for your work and can't wait to play it once it's finished

 

[Malenko]

Thanks to derek's byte searching tool: GitHub - DerekPascarella/ByteSearch: A utility to recursively scan a folder of files for a known byte string.

I was able to locate the title screen graphics without having to manually search all 1,015 files.

While the game title literally translates to Syutokoh Battle: Drift King 97 the US release was called Tokyo Highway Battle.
I kind of merged them and made this release "Tokyo Highway Battle : Drift King 97"
Its fine if you don't like it, all the tools are available for you to change it to whatever you want 😉


The neat thing about the title screen graphic is it also is the graphic VDP1 overlays for the videos

its slightly scaled down so you can't read the segaxtreme part but still less work for me.


I finally finished all the "garage" parts tiles, the descriptions still need done next, but I want to finish all the menu text first.

I will be rewording most of the descriptions , they typically translate into text strings that are just too long to fit in the space provided.
Side note, the Fuel Cut Bypass is THE most important part to get, it basically turns off the speed limit of 180/kmph


Editing the Japanese glyphs into 2 character English tiles does have funny results while this is still a work in progress.

May upload a beta SSP soon.

 

[Malenko]

Started the new tile work for the parts descriptions. This allows me to go from this:

To This:

This description is more in line with both the PSX localization and the actual Japanese translation. Only 69 (nice) descriptions left to get through.


Process goes:
1)find existing text strings
2)make a list of the next 20 or so glyphs
3)alter existing tiles into 2 English letters
4)hex in the new values where the text strings were
5)fix all the hex values I entered in wrong

Replacement tiles look like this:

Hex values look like this:

and my cheat sheet looks like this:

I also found some of the overlay tiles too:

 

[Malenko]

Finished all the engine mod descriptions, after I finish the intake ones I'll go back and redo all the menu dialog in "refined English"
I also uploaded the changed files to my google drive for the next time I screw up 😛

I am pretty happy with the results despite it being an incredible amount of work.

People better play this darn game when I'm done. I expect the shiro show to spend weeks singing my praises and Pandamonium to do a youtube video on it! /S

I found myself rewriting the descriptions to use up all the available font space when possible.

 

[Malenko]

V.006 is up.

All the in game menus are done.
The Garage is 100% translated in refined English including the tuning options, parts, settings, etc.

The only 2 items left are subtitling or dubbing the videos and the driver Dialog.

1 Driver is 100% complete in this build. Mr. Walrus himself, Craig Stadler.

The game is perfectly playable, but the driver dialog will look like a random mess of Japanese and English characters; that's the price you pay to edit tiles to double up the amount of room you have for English. Custom tile count is at 280 not including Garage Part name tiles.

 

[Malenko]

so the private beta build is out and Danthrax found a few things that need buttoned up, but Im still on pace for a final release tomorrow

 

[Malenko]

the "complete" version is up. Videos have closed captioning but theres an issue with the water mark. they'll get redone sometime in the future.

If youre using an emulator, just disable VPD1 🙂

 

[Malenko]

For those curious what Masa would say if he was still in the game, here ya go:

 

[Shadowmask]

I've been waiting to beat this until now. Let's go.

 

[Nemu]

Wow this is great! 😀

 

[Malenko]

FUN FACTS!
Project took just over 4 months and about 400 hours total.
Over 360 new custom text tiles were made.
Over 100 garage part tiles were made.
You can win the first 3 races without upgrading your car at all!

There is an update that will be uploaded soon-ish:
Version 1.02
removed old place holder text for the drift king course descriptions.
Added refined English for those races.
Corrected translation for abadnoning the Drift King Race
Big thanks to SaturnDave for letting me know about these!
Corrected translation for losing to Joe
Redrew a few tiles for clarity.
Added SX shout out (thanks to Trekkies!)


Version 1.01
Fixed typo in part purchase category, again. (went from CAT, ORY to CAT ,ORY *sigh*)
Fixed Craigs dialog if you lose to him.
Added second "lost to craig" dialog
adjusted subtitles / VDP1 overlay for Tsuchiya Keiichi videos

 

[Malenko]

Just uploaded the final version, that is unless there are any issues I missed.

 

[vbt]

Just uploaded the final version, that is unless there are any issues I missed.
View attachment 7797

thanks a lot @malenko . any interrest in Code R (it has story) or initial d

 

[DavidCoq]

@malenko could you create a version with AI-powered video dubbing?

 

[Malenko]

No, but feel free to make an update patch if you get them all done. I'm quite happy with the subtitles TBH.

 

[DonPachi]

I'm not sure if this translation is a joke or real.
I mean you hack a Craig Stadler picture and make him say "You got yours inside mine".
I don't mind meme translations as long as it's specified as such.
It makes me doubt the accuracy of any of the lines I read.

Maybe an alternative accurate patch can be made?

 

[Malenko]

Your reply is very disrespectful to the hard work and long hours I (and others) put into this patch.

I look forward to your translation release of this game.

 

[DonPachi]

Exactly my point! all that hard work to be stained by memes nobody will remember years on.