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.
Feel free to go ahead and make translations of these games, my goal isn't to hinder anyone's progress.
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.
If you like my work, please donate to me if you are able to. My projects will always be freely available.
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: 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 made a separate repo for this now!
Notes: See the repo.
Status: This would nice to get translated since I figured out the file formats.
Info: While I already have translated Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand, am currently working on Ys III - Wanderers from Ys, and then will work on Ys IV - Mask of the Sun, A New Theory(https://github.com/Kaisaan/newtheory), I still have one more Ys PS2 game to get translated. This version of the game has a "Dream World" thing and a separate "Eternal Story" mode for both games.
Progress: Nothing really.
Notes: The only different between the original and the "Tokubetsu Genteiban" releases of the game is a single byte change (in SYSTEM.CNF to change SLPS_252.06 to SLPS_252.05).
Status: I will work on the other games later.
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: 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 that can also be edited with NitroPaint2.
Status: eadmaster has made progress on inserting English text into the game using their ezrominject tool. There is also a translation overlay tool by Kolbie5874.
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: 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: An English dub has been completed! As for translating the text in the game, there has also been progress by other people in my server.
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.
Fun fact about these games is that they were apparently remade as Generation Xth: Code Hazard, Code Breaker, Code Realize, which then that trilogy got remade as Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy & Operation Babel: New Tokyo Legacy. The Class of Heroes series also uses a similar engine.
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 half-width 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: According to AZealousIndividual on GBATemp they had dropped a project a while ago due to not being able to figure out the graphics. If they (or anybody else) are interested in translating the game then I can help with the technical side of things.
Info: With the Medarots series becoming more popular in English I'm surprised again that nobody has tried to translate more of the games. As expected the NDS games seem to be pretty easy to hack for a translation.
Progress: I found the text and the graphics. There is a tool to help with the translation but seems to be partly unfinished.
Notes: The game's text are in .spt script files that can be easily edited with a text editor. The game's text is in Shift-JIS but also supports ASCII and the font files can be edited with NitroPaint2.
Status: Just like with Cross Treasures this game can be easily translated by someone without too much technical knowledge it seems.
Info: The game that IGN called "Nintendo's Dirty Pokemon" is actually a pretty cool game. My friend wanted to see this translated so I thought I would take a look at it.
Progress: I found the text and graphics. The
Notes: The game's text is Shift-JIS encoded with ASCII support. The text is located in .fevt files that seem to have .con files that share the same filename. The graphics are in .ntfp (palette in either palette16 or palette256 format) and .ntft (tileset) files that can be opened with NitroPaint2.
Status: Figuring out how the text formats doesn't seem too difficult as there are many different files to compare.
Info: This is a remake of a PC-98 game of the same name which also is not translated but the NDS version seems to be very easy to translate?
Progress: Found the text.
Notes: The game's text are stored in .txt files in the data\text\rtm\SXX folders. The test is Shift-JIS encoded but the font can be easily edited with NitroPaint2 to support ASCII letters.
Status: I'm not sure if the scripts are the same between versions but I assume people would rather have the PC-98 version translated over this one. Would still be nice to get this version translated too.
Info: Another NDS remake of a game that is not translated. I don't know much about PC-Engine hacking but I can at least try with the NDS version.
Progress: I found the text but the game uses custom file formats for the text and graphics.
Notes: The text is stored in .scs files in Shift-JIS encoding.
Status: More work will be needed to figure out the custom file formats. I assume people would prefer the original PC-Engine version translated. I might try looking into the PS2 or GCN versions of the games.
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 really like the DS and want to do a DS translation eventually as you can tell. I did find that SRW K had a translated playthrough so I figured I would look into it. The successor game SRW L has similar file formats.
Progress: I made a script to extract the individual files out of the main .bin files in the data folder.
Notes: A lot of the files have a "PLT" header (palette?), "SCR" (screen?), and ECD & IMG (image?). The problem is none of the files are named so I don't know which file goes with what. The game's script is in the arm9.bin file with Shift-JIS encoding.
Status: I'll try to extract the strings and graphics later.
Info: I have done lost of research on the many games rereleased on the DS and Elminage is one of them. Its sequel was also "remixed" for the DS.
Also check out the work in progress translation of the PS2 version by ScatterdBrain!
Progress: I found the text.
Notes: There are .csv spreadsheet files in the data/csv folder. The .bin files in the data/script folders have Shift-JIS text.
Status: I'm not sure how similar the script is between the other versions. I might be able to port over an English script if any of the other versions get translated first.
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: One of the retro game stores near me has a good few Japanese GBA games. Some of them already have official localizations or fan translations but a good amoutn of them don't. It would be cool for me to, uh, actually own a game that I would translate.
Progress: I haven't looked much into any of the games at all but I did make a spreadsheet. Since I always like making spreadsheets and documents LOL.
Notes: There's a lot of licensed anime games.
Status: If there's any in particular that anyone wants translated then maybe I'll try working on it.
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.