Translating Grandia 1.1.1

[retrodadandmodernlad]

hey, quick update on playing through the grandia beta on real sega Saturn hardware. the last patch worked great and loaded into the battle at the top of mt typoon, I beat the boss and went through the lengthy cut scene/ speaking, then travelled all the way back down the mt to the map screen. when it went on to the map screen I could move the cursor round but when I selected the destination the game froze. I then reloaded up my previous save from before the boss and repeated the process just in case it was a one off and but it froze again in the exact same spot. I am unable to give you details for a closer save point than the one I gave you last time unfortunately because despite being abit away from the save point there is no other save points to access leading up to it. I can however upload a video if that will help show you what is happening and were about exactly. hope this helps and keep up the great work. thank you.

 

[TrekkiesUnite118]

hey, quick update on playing through the grandia beta on real sega Saturn hardware. the last patch worked great and loaded into the battle at the top of mt typoon, I beat the boss and went through the lengthy cut scene/ speaking, then travelled all the way back down the mt to the map screen. when it went on to the map screen I could move the cursor round but when I selected the destination the game froze. I then reloaded up my previous save from before the boss and repeated the process just in case it was a one off and but it froze again in the exact same spot. I am unable to give you details for a closer save point than the one I gave you last time unfortunately because despite being abit away from the save point there is no other save points to access leading up to it. I can however upload a video if that will help show you what is happening and were about exactly. hope this helps and keep up the great work. thank you.

So I have an idea of what's going on there, but I'll definitely need an actual save file to reproduce it and test it. Unfortunately using debug mode to change scenario flags to skip around doesn't change the map screen you get, so you're stuck with the map screen you were on for your original save. I'll see if I can find a save file close to that in either the save collection posted in this thread or if I can get one from Digital Museum.

It's most likely a bug in the ASM hack I made for loading the new map files added for the English version from the map screen.

 

[privateye]

Thank you @TrekkiesUnite118 for all of your hard work, I can't wait to play the finished product 😀

I noticed in the patch readme that you wrote this: "There's little information out there if there are other revisions of the game so be sure to check the checksums."

As you know, Grandia was released on its own and also as part of the Memorial Package. Thankfully the data tracks of both discs are identical across both releases, and this can be verified by comparing the hashes of the dumps catalogued by the redump project:

Disc 1:
redump.org • Grandia • グランディア • Disc 1
redump.org • Grandia • グランディア • Disc 1

Disc 2:
redump.org • Grandia • グランディア • Disc 2
redump.org • Grandia • グランディア • Disc 2
redump.org • Grandia • グランディア • Disc 2

If you ever decide to work on Grandia Digital Museum, it is important to note that it had two revisions:

redump.org • Grandia: Digital Museum • グランディア　～デジタル・ミュージアム～
redump.org • Grandia: Digital Museum • グランディア　～デジタル・ミュージアム～

 

[TrekkiesUnite118]

That file can be found in the Pseudo Saturn Kai archive. Mount or extract pskai_sdm_flasher.iso, and then look in the following path: SAVES/Madroms/UrawazaDataro.bin

For your convenience I have attached the save files. The archive contains two save files for Grandia and one for Grandia Digital Museum. According to @paul_met these saves "allow you to load in such place where is not provided by the game - not at checkpoint". This is understandable though, because as @cafe-alpha explained: "Saves from Urawaza Dataro cartridge may provide features not available in normal time (for game developers, beta testers, etc) : "urawaza" litterally means "hidden tricks" in Japanese."

If you wish to use these save files in Mednafen, here is a nice guide on how to convert the SSF saves:
Converting Sega Saturn (SSF) Saves to Mednafen Saturn

So I can't get any of these saves to work following the instructions to convert them over to Mednafen. Booting them into SSF isn't going to help much either as I need Mednafen's Debugger to see what's going wrong. I've taken a look at Digital Museum and apparently I need to unlock something before it will let me use the load saves feature. I'll see if I can figure out what needs to be done for that but since it's all in Japanese that's going to be a struggle.

This is why I really wanted people to use Emulators for now, as now I'm stuck in a position where there's a bug that needs fixed, but I can't do much to try and fix it at the moment as I have no means to recreate it, test solutions, and figure out what's wrong without playing through the game myself to get to the same point. Which that is going to take some time. So unless someone else has a save file close to there in Mednafen that they can give me, don't expect a fix for a while as it's going to take me some time to get through the game.

 

[Ardiloso]

So I can't get any of these saves to work following the instructions to convert them over to Mednafen. Booting them into SSF isn't going to help much either as I need Mednafen's Debugger to see what's going wrong. I've taken a look at Digital Museum and apparently I need to unlock something before it will let me use the load saves feature. I'll see if I can figure out what needs to be done for that but since it's all in Japanese that's going to be a struggle.

This is why I really wanted people to use Emulators for now, as now I'm stuck in a position where there's a bug that needs fixed, but I can't do much to try and fix it at the moment as I have no means to recreate it, test solutions, and figure out what's wrong without playing through the game myself to get to the same point. Which that is going to take some time. So unless someone else has a save file close to there in Mednafen that they can give me, don't expect a fix for a while as it's going to take me some time to get through the game.

Unfortunately, to get acces to the savegames, you have to find the 4 cartridges scattered through the dungeons. Rather time consuming. If I remember right, the first cartridge has all the savegames for the 1st disc and is located somewhere in the first dungeon, but you will spend like 3 hours to find it.

 

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Unfortunately, to get acces to the savegames, you have to find the 4 cartridges scattered through the dungeons. Rather time consuming. If I remember right, the first cartridge has all the savegames for the 1st disc and is located somewhere in the first dungeon, but you will spend like 3 hours to find it.

I might be able to use debug mode to give me the items if that's all it takes. Let me give that a try.

EDIT: No dice, I can give myself the cartridges but the game doesn't seem to care.

 

[cireza]

I registered in order to give Grandia a try in English. I have been awaiting for such a thing for many years, even had my PAL box ready to put the disc inside it.

I have been playing with patch 54 on real hardware (PAL Model 1, 60Hz Switch, Pseudo Saturn) and it worked fine. I only encountered one problem :
- on the first try, Marna Plains did not load. Screen stayed black and nothing happened

It worked on the second try though. I can't see obvious differences other than :
- I went to the map more quickly on the second try (did not talk to as many people)
- I did not put stuff in the stash
- I did not have dinner an extra time before seeing the curator
- I probably did not exit town from the same side

I am now at the entrance of the mines, near Java. I will continue play-testing and report anything that might be useful. Thanks a lot for the great work.

 

[cafe-alpha]

So I can't get any of these saves to work following the instructions to convert them over to Mednafen. Booting them into SSF isn't going to help much either as I need Mednafen's Debugger to see what's going wrong. I've taken a look at Digital Museum and apparently I need to unlock something before it will let me use the load saves feature. I'll see if I can figure out what needs to be done for that but since it's all in Japanese that's going to be a struggle.

This is why I really wanted people to use Emulators for now, as now I'm stuck in a position where there's a bug that needs fixed, but I can't do much to try and fix it at the moment as I have no means to recreate it, test solutions, and figure out what's wrong without playing through the game myself to get to the same point. Which that is going to take some time. So unless someone else has a save file close to there in Mednafen that they can give me, don't expect a fix for a while as it's going to take me some time to get through the game.

Theses saves can be loaded in Mednafen, or any other emulator, as long as Pseudo Saturn Kai Save Data Manager can be run from that emulator :
1. Download latest Pseudo Saturn Kai from here : PPCenter :: Pseudo Saturn Kai
2. Extract, then execute pskai_sdm_flasher.iso depuis emulator
3. Select "Save Data Import".
4. Browse to the file where to import saves from : "MADROMS" -> "URAWAZADATARO.BIN" -> "GRANDIA_001", or "GRANDIA_002"
5. Select where to import the save, for example Saturn internal memory, or cartridge if available.
6. Confirm save data import and wait until "Press Start to continue" is displayed at the bottom of the screen.
After import is done, save data is visible from the game as long as emulator is using same file on PC side for save data emulation.

I hope it helps (sorry, as usual I wrote this post in an hurry and without verifying context, so maybe I'm out of topic), but I hope it helped.
Good luck and I wish you happy hacking 🙂

 

[privateye]

So I can't get any of these saves to work following the instructions to convert them over to Mednafen. Booting them into SSF isn't going to help much either as I need Mednafen's Debugger to see what's going wrong. I've taken a look at Digital Museum and apparently I need to unlock something before it will let me use the load saves feature. I'll see if I can figure out what needs to be done for that but since it's all in Japanese that's going to be a struggle.

I've converted the save files for you using the method I linked. The process described by @cafe-alpha would have worked too, but in this case it was easier to use the SSF-to-mednafen method since the Mednafen Saturn core in Retroarch cannot load ISO files, hence it cannot load cafe-alpha's Save Data Manager as-is.

Note that these saves are tested and working in the Mednafen Saturn core for Retroarch, but should also work in Mednafen standalone.

 

[retrodadandmodernlad]

hi, I would like to say that the work you are doing trekkiesUnite 118 is fantastic. But I know your preferred method of play is currently by emulator, due to problem solving being easier. I only use real sega Saturn hardware and my intensions were to assist you in your beta testing of grandia. However, what I don't want to do is make things harder for you, because as I said my intension are to help out. If it would be best if I stop playing on real sega Saturn hardware for the moment please don't hesitate to say. I will play test the beta any time that it is ready to be played on real sega Saturn hardware, that you deem necessary. I am just very excited to finally be able to play grandia in English on my favourite console the sega Saturn. I have produced a small update trailer that will go live on my channel Friday and again I would like to thank you for all your hard work.

 

[TrekkiesUnite118]

I've converted the save files for you using the method I linked. The process described by @cafe-alpha would have worked too, but in this case it was easier to use the SSF-to-mednafen method since the Mednafen Saturn core in Retroarch cannot load ISO files, hence it cannot load cafe-alpha's Save Data Manager as-is.

Note that these saves are tested and working in the Mednafen Saturn core for Retroarch, but should also work in Mednafen standalone.

So I was able to get those to work, I found a save in Digital Museum that got me to where I need to be so I'm testing things now. I can recreate the bug, but I'm not entirely sure what's causing it yet.

 

[TrekkiesUnite118]

hi, I would like to say that the work you are doing trekkiesUnite 118 is fantastic. But I know your preferred method of play is currently by emulator, due to problem solving being easier. I only use real sega Saturn hardware and my intensions were to assist you in your beta testing of grandia. However, what I don't want to do is make things harder for you, because as I said my intension are to help out. If it would be best if I stop playing on real sega Saturn hardware for the moment please don't hesitate to say. I will play test the beta any time that it is ready to be played on real sega Saturn hardware, that you deem necessary. I am just very excited to finally be able to play grandia in English on my favourite console the sega Saturn. I have produced a small update trailer that will go live on my channel Friday and again I would like to thank you for all your hard work.

Don't take it the wrong way, I want you to test it. Especially since you seem to be the furthest into the game and the one regularly reporting stuff. It just means I have to get a bit more creative at getting a save file close to where you are to test any bugs you find.

I was just getting at the fact that it seems everyone who's testing this is using real hardware and almost no one is using an emulator. 1 or 2 people testing real hardware is enough to catch the things that would slip through an emulator. So since you're as far as you are in the game you're good, for anyone else though I'd really prefer emulators to make recreating bugs easier. There's just so many different variables that can come into play with real hardware that it can make it hard to determine what's a real bug and what's a side effect of how the person is playing it. All of the following can have a serious impact on how stable Grandia runs on real hardware:

• What condition is your Saturn's CD drive in? A CD drive that's on it's last leg isn't going to stand up to the workout Grandia is going to give it with it's constant loading and streaming data.
• What quality CD-R did you use? Cheap CD-Rs tend to cause bad reads to happen.
• Are you playing on a PAL Console? Grandia is reported to have issues running at 50Hz.
  
• How good is your CD Burner?
  
• How fast did you burn the disc?

All of those can cause Grandia to be unstable on real hardware if you're using CDs. Grandia is a very inefficient game when it comes to how it loads things. In my debugging I have caught it loading the exact same file into the exact same spot in memory 2, even 3 times or more in a row. So taking that into consideration it's not hard to figure out why it's so picky when it comes to those things.

From what I've gathered from your testing though, you seem to be doing a good job avoiding those pitfalls, so I'm ok with it. It just leaves me having to get creative to find a save file. So please keep testing.

That all said, I've fixed the bug and have a new patch ready.

 

[cireza]

I advanced in the game, I am right before the "wedding" between Pakon and Feena and did not encountered any other bug. I have seen that the new world map for this region has no translation yet.

I am also playing on real hardware. For information I am perfectly aware of how to burn properly my games and my console has a top condition lens. This is why I had absolutely no problems so far, the videos played perfectly well without a single lag etc...

I have seen a few issues that you a probably already aware of :
- sync issue when text is spoken (it seems that some windows close too quickly)
- text not aligned correctly for "Your initiative !" and "Ambushed"
- one case were the game did not load when selecting "Marna Plains", I was not able to reproduce the problem

Otherwise every person I spoke to in town was okay, without any bug (I did not talk to everyone though).

Still far from Mt Typoon though. Will update as I progress.

 

[TrekkiesUnite118]

I have seen a few issues that you a probably already aware of :
- sync issue when text is spoken (it seems that some windows close too quickly)

Is this still happening on sequences that have been fixed? If you're on the latest patch the following scenes should have audio in sync:

1. Introduction with Baal, Mullen, and Leen
2. Introduction with Justin, Sue, and the Angry Shed guy
3. Introduction of Justin's Mom with Sue and Justin
4. Leen and Mullen giving Orders upon entering the Sult Ruins.

Any other scene is going to be a crapshoot with audio synchronization as I haven't touched them yet. If those 4 scenes however are still acting up please provide a video of it so I can see what's happening.

- one case were the game did not load when selecting "Marna Plains", I was not able to reproduce the problem

This one is interesting. If you can reproduce it consistently I'd like to see it. There's no real reason that file in particular should have trouble loading as it's not one of the additional PS1 files that I had to modify the game to load at the right points. So that file should load normally. If it was an issue in the ASM code I'd expect it to happen every time you try and load any area from the map screen.

 

[retrodadandmodernlad]

yes, i understand I just didn't want to be making your job any harder than it already is. Great work on the bug fix, was a lot quicker than I expected. I will apply the latest patch later on/ continue playing and let you know if I come across any issues. keep up the fantastic work and thank you.

 

[retrodadandmodernlad]

So the new patch has fixed the freeze on the map from the old patch and I am now at the volcano and all good so far. its great to see the classic English text on the Saturn and will make people from the UK laugh as the meaning of the word in uk is very different to America!!

ha ha




View attachment 4711

 

[themadhaxor]

Okay, gonna' have to jump on the bandwagon this weekend as I have some spare time - particularly for the hilarity of the above cut scene XD

FYI I will be using Ritek Media at 4X, so should have no bother...

 

[xoomdust]

Is anyone else getting bad slowdown in Parm?

 

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Is anyone else getting bad slowdown in Parm?

Is it any different than the Japanese version? If so can you provide comparison footage?

 

[Fakkor]

Hey TrekkiesUnite118. Thanks a LOT for all your efforts!
I really want to help out with the emulation betatest, but every image I've found on the net so far seems to have an issue with your patch (although it says patching was successful). Whenever it plays a video, it makes a horribly loud noise (on SSF, it won't even load the videos on Yabause)... so my guess is that it's an iso image issue.
Would it be a little too much against the rules to forward me into the right... direction?