Place for me to add projects that I haven't fully committed to for whatever reason.
Also a place for me to document findings in games I've been tinkering with.
If you are interested in helping me with any of these projects please contact me.
Feel free to join my Hacking Discord server where I plan on posting updates for all my projects.
Info: A really cool STG/dungeon crawler doujin game with a really cool presentation and soundtrack that I saw my friend Sugunii play. The game seems to have a story but is sadly untranslated so I decided to look into if I could find the text.
Progress: Completed! Check it out! The game has been fully translated thanks to Etokapa with some technical assistance by NightWolve.
Notes: Check out the Github for documentation on editing the game's graphics and text.
Status: While the current version is at 0.1, there has not been any reported issues with the game and the translation is fully playable in English now!
Info: Not sure if "relocalization" is the right term but I want to edit the existing localization of the game to use the modern terms used in later Ys localizations and releases. Having Dogi be renamed as Colin is funny though
Progress: Made a table file and found the text, I don't think dumping text is needed. I also made a spreadsheet to compare what needs to be changed
Notes: See notes file and localization changes spreadsheet
Status: I'll work on this eventually I think. I know that the English localization of the game also had many balance changes but I haven't found the stats in the game's files yet
Info: Same thing like the PC-Engine version of the games, I wanted to fix Atlus' localization of the game to match the newer terms used.
Progress: Some of the text has been edited.
Notes: The text for Ys I is in overlay/main_0001.bin and Ys II in overlay/main_0002.bin with the text using Shift-JIS encoding. All overlays are loaded at 0x205C000. Names of locations on the map are in different .inf files located in data\ys1\files\inf.
I have columns in the localization changes spreadsheet for this game too.
Status: I figured out how to load NDS projects into Ghidra, some strings don't seem to have pointers but that should be fine. I will start working on it more.
Info: Localized as Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge N1, this game is different from its GBA counterpart Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge being a cutdown version of it.
Progress: Made an unfinished table file (thanks to Sugunii for the help!), found where the text is located.
Notes: See notes file
Status: I don't have a full table file so I won't be able to dump all the text I think. I might just compare strings from the Japanese GBA version and then replace them with their English counterparts.
Info: While I already have been working on translating Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand as one of my main projects, I eventually want to translate the other Ys games that were remake on the PS2.
Progress: I only looked at the file structures and formats for all of the games' ISOs.
Notes: The only different between the normal and the "Tokubetsu Genteiban" releases of Ys I & II - Eternal Story is a single byte change (in SYSTEM.CNF to change SLPS_252.06 to SLPS_252.05).
Ys III - Wanderers from Ys has the exact same file structure as Ys V by having DATA.BIN, DATA0.BIN, and DATA1.BIN for all the game's data. The game also uses the same custom graphics formats. This should be the easiest to hack next.
Ys IV - Mask of the Sun, A New Theory has DAT.PAK and DAT.PKI to store all its gamedata. I found a script by Silvris that extracts them.
With their permission, I used their code to make my own extractor. I also made a PKM/PAK/PKI re-inserter but I'm struggling on rebuilding the files perfectly.
Since this game was primarily developed by Arc System Works, it turns out the game's filepacking format was reused in Guilty Gear 2: Overture and I was able to find a different script that extracts the game's DAT.PAK & DAT.PKI files by Jill.
While this script does not support re-insertion of DAT.PAK/DAT.PKI or extraction of the game's PKM files, I did find that Jill made some documentation on the PKM format. Though more research will be needed to see how A New Theory handles these file formats.
Status: I do have some folks willing to work with me for translating these games, but Lost Kefin is going to be the main project.
Info: While I'm not too familliar with the series, my friend wants this game translated so I looked into it.
Progress: Using previous attempts to see how the game works, I was able to get the script files extracted.
Notes: I used NitroPacker1 to unpack the files from the game's ROM. The font is data/font12jp.NFTR and is in Shift-JIS encoding with variable-width ASCII support. All text files are .rtz files in the scnrts folder and LZ10 compressed. I made a python script as an example for decompressing and recompressing these files using ndspy. The rest of the game's files are in .narc archives and use formats that can be opened with NitroPaint2.
Status: Folks in the Summon Night Community Discord Server have gathered together to work on the PS1 version of the game. Since the DS Port removes voice acting among other changes, the PS1 version is preferred. Also a lot of work has been done already by a few people in terms of both hacking and translating the game. So a port of the script to the DS release can maybe be done later.
Info: The full name of the game is GachiTora! Abarenbou Kyoushi in High School for the PSP. It's this over-the-top brawl where you play as a Yakuza high school teacher and beat people using words! My friend Etokapa really wanted to see this game get translated one day, so I decided to take a look to see how feasible a full translation of the game is.
Progress: I found the text of the game and have been able to edit it just fine! The game seems to support English letters just fine with variable-width-font support.
Notes: Most files that start with PSP in the file header are packed archive files. The psp.py script can be used to extract the files from these archives.
Files that start with ZAR seem to be a for text files. I have documented some findings but more research will be needed.
The text is all encoded in UTF-16-LE. Graphics seem to be all GIM Formatted Images.
Status: I need to updated psp.py to include support for repacking files. I also need to find out what GIMConv Settings are used so that the graphics of the game can be re-inserted correctly after editing.
Info: This is one of those games that I got interested in thanks to the translation playthrough by Autumchild. There is also another translation playthrough by SomeUselessTranslations. The Starfy wiki has a rough text dump of the game.
Progress: I found the text in the game but there is seemingly no support for English letters. The game also uses custom file formats that I would need to figure out.
Notes: Text is all in the game's overlays and encoding in Shift-JIS with no ASCII support. Files in the Bg_Standard folder are all LZSS compressed and can be edited with NitroPaint2. There are files in the Font folder that have the font graphics in an unknown format.
Status: I need to figure out the font file formats to see if I can add in English letters fine and then I will need to figure out the script format. If I can get this far then I'll ask for permission to use the translation work from the translated playthroughs.
Info: Wow another Ys translation attempt! This version has very interesting in-game artwork and also has titlescreen/boxart made by the legendary Yoshitaka Amano.
Progress: I didn't get far since it seems that the game's text is compressed.
Notes: Once decompressed into the RAM, the game uses Shift-JIS encoding.
Status: I need to figure out what kind of compression the game uses still.
Info: I'm still not done with this series. When looking into the different versions of this game, this specific version is seen as a good version (with other later ports like the Genesis version being based off of this). So it made me surprised to see that nobody had bothered to translate it.
Progress: I found the text.
Notes: Game uses Shift-JIS encoding.
Status: The game only supporting full-width text will cause issues with fitting an accurate translation, but if I can get a translation of the game then I'll try to insert it.
Info: Guess which games in these collections I wanted to get translated? That's right, Ys I & II! I only looked into this since the author of the current existing translation of Ys I had disappeared without releasing any of the files.
Progress: I made a table file that only includes the English letters.
Notes: See the original thread for bits and pieces of hacking notes.
Status: I want to be able to recreate the existing work instead of just using the original author's patch so that it can be used for the other games in the collection and its sequel.
Info: While there already is a translation for the game, the translation quality was criticized. I managed to find an old, full translated script of the game done by Translator Tom. I asked for permission to use the script as a personal project.
Progress: I was able to get most of the Japanese script dumped and inserted the first few lines of the game.
I got in contact with Specialagentape, the hacker and editor of the original project. They explained to me that most of the script that their translator Higsby worked on had to be trimmed down a lot due to the limited space that the Gameboy (Colour) screen has. This is completely understandable on their end.
I also got in contact with Tom for permission to use their old English translation. They wanted me to not release anything if I do use their script, but if I ever finished up anything, they would be willing to make a new translated script.
So ideally, I'd have to implement some methods to increase the number of possible letters on a screen, such as implementing a Variable Width Font (VWF) routine.
Notes: I used the ROMhacking tutorials by Bunkai to help with hacking the game. My files for this project were a complete mess.
Status: I might return to this one day and also try hacking the counterpart game Red Book or its sequel game White Book. Hopefully we see more Devil Children translations in general since there's still a good few games left untranslated.
Info: After I successfully made a full translation of the MSX version of the game I wanted to try translating the other versions since the MSX release is distinct from the others. Since I had already beat the PC-88 version I wanted to try translating that.
Progress: With the help of MKCA, we were able to make a full table file for all the characters used in the PC-88 BIOS files, including the Kanji tables.
The text for the game was found and I was able to edit it. The issue is that there is a lack of space available to add longer text or even use non-fullwidth characters. This would result in a pretty cut-down, simplified translation.
Notes: None.
Status: If I can get better at hacking Japanese PCs like the PC-88, or even the Sharp X1 and FM-7, I can translate the game. It's a shame that there isn't that many resources for hacking these systems.
Info: Popful Mail is one of the more underrated titles by Nihon Falcom. There are multiple versions released but the only one that was officially localized (though poorly translated) was the Sega CD version. The PCE-CD version of the game is also popular and recently Forrealsyall made a full translated playthough of the game. Which made me interested in trying to hack it to insert their translation. Big thanks to X-pert74 for bringing this to my attention!
Progress: I found the game's text and managed to edit it. But the font is very large it would be ideal to support ASCII encoding.
Notes: Game uses Shift-JIS encoding.
Status: The game is currently getting an English fandub! As for translating the text in the game, I would need to rewrite the printing routine to allow for smaller letters and longer text. I will need more time to look more into this as I'm not very familiar with HuC6280 assembly.
Info: This is another game that my great friend Sugunii wants to see in English. This game also has a sequel, Wizardry XTH 2: Unlimited Students, also for the PS2.
Progress: I was able to find some of the text and was able to insert in English text.
Notes: Game uses Shift-JIS encoding with support for halfwidth ASCII letters.
Status: I would like to return to this eventually.
Info: The only Wild Arms game I've played is the first Wild Arms but I'm interested in playing the other games too, including its remake on the PS2. Thanks to Lime for letting me know that the game's script could use a better translation, or at least be edited to sound better. The original Japanese release also had voices for the characters in battles that were removed in the English localization so I want to try to restore those voices.
Progress: I found the game's text and the game still seems to have the voice files, I just need to find a way to make them play in-game.
Notes: Game uses Shift-JIS encoding(?) for its text. Many files are identical between USA and JAP releases.
Status: I would like to return to this eventually.
Info: I found about this game in this very useful thread of unfinished NDS translation projects that could be revived and saw this game.
I looked into it myself and found it to be very simple to insert a translation in.
Progress: The latest patch was released in 2025, February 14th but a lot of the story, dialogue, descriptions, images, and more are left untranslated
Notes: Unpacking the game's ROM shows that the script files are all literally just .txt text files. A lot of the graphics also use common filetypes that can be dealt with by NitroPaint2.
Status: It's not quite clear if there is anyone actively working on translating the rest of this game.
If there is anyone interested in translating the game then I can help with the technical side of things.
Info: The Twilight Syndrome games are one of the most highly requested games to be translated. While there seems to be work being done on the first two PS1 games and also Moonlight Syndrome.
There doesn't seem to be any work done on the DS title so I decided to look into the game myself to see if there's any documentation I can do to bring awareness.
Progress: I found the game's text but it seems that the font will need to be edited to include Shift-JIS support, or a different game's font can be used altogether.
The strings in the game don't seem to be ordered so there will need to be more work to properly dump everything in a sorted order.
Notes: All the game's text is located in the arm9.bin file with Shift-JIS encoding. The graphics and font files can be edited with NitroPaint2.
Status: This is one of the many games that I just want to document its hacking-viability so that maybe someone can come along and get this game translated.
Info: I have beat this game in full once thanks to the multiple guides on GameFAQs but I still want to have this game translated, especially since there are many other translated Evangelion games
Progress: Zoinkitty has posted a file inserter and character font before on the ROMhacking.net forums but the download links do not work any more.
The filetable posted by Zoinkitty is still available. Interestingly, a Korean translation of the game was released but by different people (and not OP).
Notes: None from me.
Status: I might return to this eventually, but hopefully an N64 hacking expert like Zoinkitty tackles this instead.
Info: I only know about this game because of the music track *Select Your Carranger! but still I want to try translating this game eventually.
Progress: I haven't found any of the text graphics or text itself
Notes: None
Status: I will need to learn more about 65c816 assembly to hack this game.
Info: I think by now you can tell that I really like Ys, so I wanted to see what I could get translation hacks going for.
Progress: I made a pretty basic table file based off of the PC-88 BIOS files and also found the text for the game.
Notes: None.
Status: Cancelled due to another group releasing a translation! Check it out! Note that this is not my work.
The wonderful folks that worked on this translation also plan on translating the rest of the Ys PC-88 trilogy so stay tuned for that!
Info: A game I don't really know much about but my friend wanted to get the sprites extracted as regular image files.
Progress: After unpacking the ROM with NitroPacker1 I was able to find the characters' graphics in data/2d/cast as file formats that were recognized by NitroPaint2 and was able to extract.
Notes: None
Status: Complete.
Info: Same thing with Witch's Wish my friend wanted to extract the graphics of the game because they love the cute artstyle.
Progress: I couldn't do much, the game has a lot of overlays and a single romfile.bin so I'd have to do some more manual work to extract the sprites.
Notes: None
Status: Even though I didn't get much done I still wanted to add it here so I can get into the habit of posting about future tinkering with other games.
Footnotes
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NitroPacker, a tool to extract the contents of a DS game's ROM file. ↩ ↩2
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NitroPaint, a tool to view, export, edit, and import various common graphics files for DS games. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5