Feasibility of translating Final Fantasy by using NES version text dump

Ambassador (5684)

21-02-2017, 04:43

Inspired by TheKid's brilliant move in realizing an English translation of Passengers on the Wind using the English DOS version, I figured that Final Fantasy already practically has a full translation, which just hasn't been implemented yet.
So here is the complete text dump of the English version.

Seeing as I have played the NES version through, and that the MSX version is practically a 1:1 port of that one, scenario-wise, I think I can use my (very limited) knowledge of Japanese to reasonably associate the correct locations of the English translations of at least most (if not all) portions of text.

I would appreciate some reasonable assessment considering how easy/hard it would be to replace the Japanese texts using for instance a HEX editor or some other way to edit the in-game texts.
Ofcourse, I might need some help after said assessment, but we could look at that when we get there. :)

By syn

Prophet (2135)

21-02-2017, 13:49

from #msxdev irc chat

Quote:

<~GuyveR800> can someone tell him that the MSX Final Fantasy script is already translated, and is different from the NES one, and that the problem is that the text display routine has to be rewritten, because there is no way to fit the english text on 2 lines

[13:43:02] <~GuyveR800> 2 lines of text per NPC you talk to
[13:43:15] <~GuyveR800> that is how it's programmed
[13:43:48] <~GuyveR800> tell him GuyveR800 has this on his todo list and he can unban me if he wants help :p
[13:44:37] <%syn> WHO translated it?
[13:44:40] <~GuyveR800> takamichi

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

21-02-2017, 16:51

Well, that's disappointing. Thank you for asking for me and for conveying this information.
I'm still willing to help if a serious effort to edit the translation into the game will be done. I do wonder what's different between both versions, as they look very much the same on the surface (text-wise that is, ofcourse).

By Louthrax

Prophet (2497)

21-02-2017, 19:30

Rhaaa, it would be so good to have this translation one day!

By syn

Prophet (2135)

21-02-2017, 19:52

i'll try ask guyver to move it higher up his priority list

Personally I like the games music, at least from what i have heard on youtube

By Randam

Paragon (1431)

21-02-2017, 20:51

JohnHassink: a very long time ago, easily over 10 years ago, I worked on a translation project for final fantasy which has stalled: different translation from the Takamichi one. There are indeed extra / other texts in final fantasy that aren't in the nes version.

IIRC they created the room for the translation for the official NES translation by using DTE for every character so they'd have more room for translated script. Even though that'll give you more options with your texts, I can imagine there are still enough texts that are truncated. Especially with items and menu options that is an issue.

I prefer the MSX version, but that choppy scroll...

By hamlet

Scribe (4106)

21-02-2017, 22:31

Ahhh! I love those translation projects.
It makes me play all those fantastic games, I´d played 30 years ago and this time I can follow them wonderful stories behind them.
Thank you for your efforts and please continue your brillant works.

By DJANGO

Champion (271)

30-03-2017, 17:51

It will be very difficult to translate this game because there are no Latin characters, only L, E, H, P.
For the introduction, this must be an image and not a text.
I made the table to use with "WindHex for Windows". If you want it, ask me.
or DOWLOAD there
The menu (F1 in the game) is in 16EB0, the STATUS in 172B0.
If someone is able to insert new fonts, then the game will be translatable

By Nekura_Hoka

Rookie (32)

06-06-2020, 17:12

Did anyone complete this? Takamichi, you still have a copy of the translation?

By sunn

Expert (105)

17-06-2022, 12:19

"Also, being a port, the MSX version straight up uses the same text encoding. The dialogue region from the NES version is an exact match of this port. The pointers are a 100% match as well. It would only be a matter of porting the NES version's script over, changing the font, and adding a dictionary."

https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=33167.0