Translation Help Needed

[Hoagie]

Hello all!

I just stumbled across this board while looking around for some info on translation work. I read that a few folks are working (or worked on) some translation projects in the past so hopefully someone can help me out here!

I recently dusted off my Saturn, found a mod-chip dealer and have fixed it so I can read CD-RWs -- my Saturn is begging to be used now!

The first project I am planning on working on is "Lunar: Magic School". I found all the text and have started to tinker with it a little, but I can't test any of my tinkerings on the Saturn since I haven't been able to rebuild the disk (and have it play).

The disk (Lunar: MS) has 30 CD audio tracks that I had to rip using Windows Media Player and then transfer to WAV format (I only got 26 of them actually, the other four didn't show up so I'll deal with those later). Then I put all the other files into CDRWin and created an ISO file for the data track.

After constructing the cue file I burned a disk and tried it out. The Saturn just plain didn't like it.

Since folks have been doing tranlation work, I figure I just missed a step or failed to click the right box during one of the process and (somehow) corrupted the data.

My current process looks something like this:

1) Copy all data files from game to hard drive (simple drag and drop)

2) Rip CD Audio tracks with Windows Media Player, convert to WAV, rename to match original CD scheme (BGM##)

3) Make changes to text

4) Load CDRWin and "Build ISO Image" under tools with all data files (no CD Audio) into the box.

5) Write cue sheet by hand (got it from one of many Saturn tutorials out there)

6) Burn it

I have a feeling my troubles are coming up in one of two places. Step (4) or step (6).

I figure that I am not checking the right boxes during these steps in order to get a valid image the Saturn can read. I've tried a few combinations but no luck yet.

Could anyone who have rebuilt a Saturn disk from files on a hard drive please help me out? I would very much appreciate it!

Many thanks for any help!

Hoag

 

[ExCyber]

It sounds like you're not including the bootstrap area. Without getting into the gory details (not awake enough to remember it all at the moment), you have to extract the first 32KB (actually Saturn uses less than this I think, but doing it all shouldn't hurt) from the original ISO image and insert it into the first 32KB of your reconstructed image.

 

[Hoagie]

Thanks! I might have to take advantage of that in the future, but at least for now I learned about "CDMage" -- which does exactly what I was trying to do (modify a file in-line) before I started to look into reconstructing the CD from the HD.

Already found a few problems with string lengths and valid characters, but I haven't looked into those enough yet. Worry about those when I have to.

Back to the original topic at hand -- is the bootstrap the same for all games, or does each game (potentially) have a different bootstrap (e.g., the region info is stored there)? I'm just wondering if I could create a generic bootstrap to use in the future.

Thanks!

Hoag

 

[ExCyber]

Thanks! I might have to take advantage of that in the future, but at least for now I learned about "CDMage" -- which does exactly what I was trying to do (modify a file in-line) before I started to look into reconstructing the CD from the HD.

Yeah, that should work just fine I think...

Back to the original topic at hand -- is the bootstrap the same for all games, or does each game (potentially) have a different bootstrap (e.g., the region info is stored there)? I'm just wondering if I could create a generic bootstrap to use in the future.

The region stuff is stored in that area. I'm pretty sure games can have specific bootstrap code, but most seem to use a standard loader that just loads the first file on the disc...

 

[RadSil]

Just in case you need to rebuild the image in the future:

When I was working on translations and hacking, I used a setup that involved ISOBuster, mkisofs, ipins, and iso2raw... the basic idea is to grab the first 32k of the CD image with a hex editor, save it to a file (ip.bin), use ISOBuster to get the directory order and arrange that into a textfile used to rebuild the directory with mkisofs. After that I inserted the 32k ip.bin with ipins. I used iso2raw after that to make a mode1/2352 raw image to which I appended the extracted audio tracks (after cutting out the 2 second pregaps on them of course) with "copy /B" to put them together in a big bin file. Getting the track start/pregap times for that particular file is another story though.

If this sounds beneficial to anyone I could write a more detailed doc on how to do this.

 

[SkankinMonkey]

How about instructions on how to properly rebuild a 2 datatrack games TOC and instructions on how to find a translator

 

[Hoagie]

I'd be happy to see any instructions that might help me in the future! I'm sure I'll run into the need for that at some point.

Translator wise -- you can do a search on Google to find a couple. A good key word is "Anime". Several folks out there who help out with that sort of stuff and have sites. The local university isn't a bad place to look if the game is cool enough.

Hoag

 

[SkankinMonkey]

I've been working on looking for a translator for Snatcher for quite a bit now, noone really likes the Saturn, everyones either a rabid Sony fanboy or SNES elitist.

 

[CyberWarriorX]

A -better- way of testing modifications is to use a commlink/action replay combination. It's faster, it's easier, it saves on cdr's, and it does less damage to the laser on your saturn.

I just finished a brief document based on the method. You can get it here:

http://www.litespeedcomputers.com/sx/transnext/files/sathack3.txt

<quote>I've been working on looking for a translator for Snatcher for quite a bit now, noone really likes the Saturn, everyones either a rabid Sony fanboy or SNES elitist. </quote>

hahaha, so very true.

Cyber Warrior X

 

[FLEABttn]

RadSil - l33t h4x0r

CyberWarriorX - 1337 h4x0r

Wait...there can't be two h4x0rz. That goes against the laws of everything!!

 

[RadSil]

Well, you see, he's a "1337" h4x0r, and I'm a "l33t" h4x0r. Two different things, entirely.

To CWX: So, what the ####'s up? We need to keep in touch a bit better... email me. I don't want Cotton 2 English to die here on me...

Also, I kind of wish I hadn't popularized that whole CD-RW mod thing... it will probably result in the early death of many Saturns, and lots of people have emailed me thinking it's a replacement for a modboard (that is, removes the copy protection). As a matter of fact if anyone who is responsible for the Miscellaneous page reads this, could you take that little tutorial off the page?

 

[CyberWarriorX]

heh

Yeah we do... Why don't you come on irc more often? Fine, i'll email you. I was originally waiting on Tyranid to do his magic, but he doesn't seem to be able to figure out the compression either.

I have another idea which would involve purchasing an Action Replay Pro(not one of those ones with the expansion memory), doing some memory dumps, and taking a look at an asm dump myself. Not sure whether i'll have any success though. We'll see.

Heh, I actually killed a saturn doing that mod(well, not exactly killed, but it barely works now). At the time when you wrote about it, it made sense. Now i'm not so sure it's a good method anymore.

Cyber Warrior X

 

[Gear]

The cdrw mod is fine when the laser unit is already failing, barely works, and all other methods to extend its life have failed. In fact, this modification applies to every laser unit (PCCDROM or console) with this problem.

In other cases, you have more chances to kill the unit or the lens than having a cool mod for cdrws. Better buy more cdrs, cheapasses

 

[DBOY]

Yeah, once I turned up my lens assembly on one unit, it started skipping on audio tracks and died about a month later. You're better off buying more discs if that's the direction you want to go. $12 at comp usa will get you 50 discs to mess with. not bad, it's like 20 cents to test a disc. I'd much rather do that than call my grandma for two minutes.