- TECH SPEX - (get the ROM here) Step 1 - Finding the Font The first steps were taken when Disnesquick removed the font graphics from the ROM, which somehow found their way into my hands. (get font graphics) There are approximately 6,000 characters in the font, however, upon closer examination I discovered the font is actually just a standard Shift-JIS ordering of kanji. Instead of having to make a 6000-entry table by hand, I coded a program that would build one for me. (get font texfiles) Step 2 - Preliminary Decoding Darkforce, a good friend of mine, helped me find the location of the script in the ROM. I coded a text dumper to see what I could see, but there was very little legible japanese in the script. After much hacking and hex editing there, I narrowed the unknowns down to two main obstacles - a form of LZ compression, and various control codes. (get preliminary notes) I gave up when the compression algorithm got over my head. (get Demi's bullshit attempt) Over the next two months, I sat and waited until two men helped me on this. (get decompressor sourcecode) The first legible script was decoded on November 28th, at just over 600k. (get Shift-JIS decoder sourcecode) Step 3 - Control Codes Now that we could read the script, it was time to decipher the remaining garbage. This is slow work, because you have to run the game again and again, trying to notice what's different after changing a certain byte to a new text code. There are 40 codes to be isolated. (get control code sheet) When this sheet updates, my Shift-JIS decoder will update accordingly. Once all 40 were isolated, it was time for the Japanese translators to do their thing. Step 4 - Translating on 5-30-2 the script became ready to be translated into English. If you want to see what it looks like, get it here. It's a 300k txt file in Shift-JIS format. I know a lot of it still looks like computer jargon, but believe me, it's a lot better than how it looked when we started. Once I get a fully translated version back from whoever translates it, we'll reinsert it and finish up. Step 5 - ROM Adjustments & Script Reinserting I'll type it when i get there Step 6 - Beta Testing I'll type it when i get there