Ninpen Manmaru English Patched? 2022-01-21

[darkfalzx]

The final stage is quite tricky! I can provide a Mednafen save state just before the ending, if that would help you out.

That would be fantastic if the save is before the load session that takes you to the ending (and I hope Retroarch mednafen core is compatible).
This game's saves are super basic BTW! 5 bytes per slot, with the first one being the stage number and 3rd being lives.

Also, it looks like the SSP patch here is really out of date. I did a bunch of work past that point... So here's hoping I can fix that ending and upload a much newer version.

 

[privateye]

I've attached a save state for use with the Beetle Saturn core in RetroArch. I presume that it should also work with standalone Mednafen, but I haven't tested that.
In the menu bar at the top of the RetroArch window: Command -> Save State Options -> State Index -> 0
Also, make sure you're cue file is named NINPEN MANMARU.cue
Once the game is loaded, hit F4 to load the state.

Load state on image patched with:

• Old SSP - Game will crash to a black screen at the ending
• New SSP - Ending cutscene will play in Japanese, followed by the credits FMV

 

[darkfalzx]

Hey guys!
Here's my latest patch-thing for the game.
All graphical elements have been translated, and even the game's ending works now.
At this point this "translation" can be called complete, unless I'll be able to do something about the hideous cutscene text routine.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to figure out how to create the SSP patch files, so here's cafe-alpha's original patcher instead.

 

[privateye]

Nice! I'm making an SSP now, I'll edit this post once it's up.

EDIT: SSP is attached. I filled out the metadata for the patch, the only thing it needs is a readme. An easy way to add one is to rename the file extension of the SSP to .zip, open it in 7-Zip (or your preferred file archiver) and drag-and-drop readme.txt.

Also, I corrected a minor typo in the cutscene that plays before stage 1. There isn't enough space to leave the sentence as-is so I shortened it a bit.

Lastly, the project page implies that @cafe-alpha made the original translation patch which isn't correct. The patch was first released in 2001 by Alex Kid (hacking) and Simon Fang (translation), and cafe-alpha re-released it in 2018 with a user-friendly patch utility.

 

[darkfalzx]

Thank you!
I am super-new to the inner workings of SX, so the project page is still all over the place. I'll definitely add the original translators' names to it in the days to come. I updated the project page to include your SSP and information about other people who worked on the project before me.

I am also looking into a way of displaying half-width fonts during cutscenes. The method that sounds the most accessible at my skill level, is to use the huge kanji bank to store letter combinations, and to create a custom tool for converting existing text into this format. Def a janky solution, but there is so little text in the game, it might be feasible.

 

[Danthrax]

Thank you!
I am super-new to the inner workings of SX, so the project page is still all over the place. I'll definitely add the original translators' names to it in the days to come.
I am also looking into a way of displaying half-width fonts during cutscenes. The method that sounds the most accessible at my skill level, is to use the huge kanji bank to store letter combinations, and to create a custom tool for converting existing text into this format. Def a janky solution, but there is so little text in the game, it might be feasible.

I'm really excited that you've uploaded an updated patch for this game — Ninpen Manmaru is the first English fan translation I played when I got into the Saturn a few years ago.

Knight0fDragon said on Discord that you're going to work with him to tweak a few things, so if I might make a suggestion ahead of that, please change the Japanese-style punctuation to English-style punctuation.

Like this:

should just be

that...

with the ellipsis (the three dots) not floating halfway up the tiles. And the period not being there at all, although elsewhere the period shouldn't be an open circle like it is in Japanese.

I also noticed a grammar error early in the cutscene before the first level:

That should read "its" not "it's"

Anyway, that's all I've got. Thanks for all your work on this patch, it's very cool. You did a great job with the English graphics on the save/load screens, the level name screens, etc.

 

[darkfalzx]

I only fully appreciated the jankiness of the original translation when I sat down to re-write the ending (had to fit in under 2 kilobytes). I will certainly do a pass on all cutscene text before I call this done.

 

[privateye]

When loading save data a message pops up saying "Overwrite Data?". That makes it seem like the act of loading a save will somehow overwrite it, so I suggest changing it to "Load Data?" if possible.

Aside from that, I agree with @Danthrax that you've done a great job will all of the graphics and good luck with the improvements you plan on making. It seems like I was a bit premature in labeling the patch as v1.0

 

[darkfalzx]

Fan-freaking-tastic!
This whole time I wasn't including majority of my work with my patch. What an idiot!
Here's another version - this time with all error screens included and the load/save prompts corrected.

And there, I was wondering why the SSP was so small... ugghh - such a moron!

 

[privateye]

No worries, here's the updated SSP. I fixed the grammar error that @Danthrax reported and bumped the version number (in the filename and the metadata) to 2022-01-20b. On your side, please update the files in the patch utility with the ones in updated-files.zip.

And there, I was wondering why the SSP was so small... ugghh - such a moron!

This one's 133% bigger, but still only 140KB 😎

 

[TraynoCo]

Amazing work on this guys, it's great to see such an old fan translation get a much needed tune up!

 

[Scott Smartass]

Awesome! Thanks to everyone involved. Love this game.

 

[gameofyou1]

This is the first I am attempting to use the Sega Saturn Patcher, so I might be doing something wrong.

- I am running the SSP V1.9.7872.1316
- I click on the "Select Saturn Game" button and choose the original disk in my CD Drive
- After a couple minutes of reading the CD, the information for it is displayed (Version: V1.001)
- I click the "+Game Patch" button
- I select the Ninpen SSP file (Version: 2011-01-20b)
- I click on the "Build Image" button, and select the Bin/Cue format.

I let it run for over an hour, and it just has blue circles that rotate in the center of the screen, and never completes.

I am using Windows 10 Home OS.

Any ideas on what I need to do?

 

[gameofyou1]

Ahhh. Never mind. I downloaded the SSP V1.95 from the contest, and now it works. I'll leave my original post, in case anyone else makes this mistake.