Samurai Shodown RPG

msmalik681

msmalik681

OpenBOR Developer
Staff member
Always wanted to try this rpg but it was never translated to english. There was a partial translation by someone called apocalypse but he never finished it. The French translation completed the whole story translation but not the in game battle text still sounds playable.

The sprites would be nice in a openbor game if only they had a walking animation.

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The battle sprites remind me of the Snes version. I'd be curious to see how they both stack up next to each other.
 
I just had a look and I'm sure the snes sprites looked better than they did :ROFLMAO: my memory of them is completely different from the reality, you're right the rpg is much better quality

PDIU3QD.png


look at the state of that
 
The set of enemies in this game are very nicely drawn but you need to rip all of them and it will take some time (if one day you wish to make an Openbor project ;) ).
This reminds me Onimusha Tactics on GBA that was very good too. I'd love to create one day a game that mixes beat em up and RPG :D .
 
@msmalik681

I have an English copy. I always wanted to play it as well. The transition is really rough since it is a secondary translation of the French version, but it's good enough to play and understand.

I don't post Roms, but if you search around a bit it is out there.
 
DCurrent said:
@msmalik681

I have an English copy. I always wanted to play it as well. The transition is really rough since it is a secondary translation of the French version, but it's good enough to play and understand.

I don't post Roms, but if you search around a bit it is out there.
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I have the same translation it was 50% completed it only covers scenario 1 for all characters not scenario 2. That is the apocalypse french to english translation. Hopefully someone will pick up where he left off ;)
 
I was pretty sure the one I have was by someone else and had both, but I don't recall and haven't played scenario two yet, so I'll take your word for it. It's too bad the Deuce guy that was originally working on a direct translation lost his mind. Oh well... Back to waiting game.

DC
 
I am not a rom hacker and I am not thinking of translating this game.

Now I have that out the way I am playing around with the unfinished translation of this game and I want to document some of the things I discover here. Here is a screen shot from the game:



The English text maybe stored in 4 byte encoding each tile is 16x16 and contains 2 letters per tile so here its Yo/u /re/al/ly/ and so on. all the text tiles are stored in 1 image file "chip000f.spr" this can be viewed exported and updated using a tool NGFX. Here is the image file I have highlighted some of the tiles from the above text.



I think the text is being referenced from the file "MSGD10B0.PRG" I am trying to figure out how to confirm what values reference what tiles. I don't think relative search will work as its 4 byte encoded most tutorials only cover 1 byte encoding.
 
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Did not expect to give another updater so soon but this game uses double byte to reference the text image file starting from hex value 212B (8491 in decimal) with each increment it moves forward 1 tile starting from top left and moving down at the end of each line. With this information you can relative search for any text you find on screen. I still don't know where to find the table pointers but this is a HUGE step forward. I used the NEORAINE emulator specially made for the Samurai Shodown RPP translation to confirm what files were being used in the override directory in this case it was "MSGD1080.PRG"

 
Time for a update! So I have managed to make a translation table that will show what text the the crazy hex values are actually representing now this table file was rushed there were over a thousand tiles to translate and I may have made mistakes so I will update in the future.

Here is the table file loaded into a compatible hex editor that supports double byte table files this is "Translhextion" remember to enable "Thingy View Active" via the checkbox.


Next I noticed that searching through the table file for valid string was faster then using a reference image and a calculator :cautious: (not fun trust me) it was still slow. So to speed things up I created my first C program to check against the table file is a string is valid if it is then return the full hex output needed to inject that string.

Here is my first C program. I have a new found hatred for using strings in C.


Now making complex strings is a breeze.


Finally I have figured out how the pointers work I will try to explain. So the first 2 bytes represent the offset to where the text will start then each 2 bytes from there onward are how many bytes from the initial offset you move forward before the next message starts normally between messages is the hex vale FF FF each pointer will end on the seconf FF. Still need to figure out the other codes if I can I feel I could rewrite this whole file byte for byte but they are inconsistent.

Here is the reference to the initial pointer.


For my tools I have made a github page GitHub - msmalik681/samurai_shodown_rpg_translation_tools: tools to help translate samurai shodown rpg on neo geo cd I felt frustrated when other people who started the translation talk about tools they made for the translation but they never shared them otherwise this game may not have gone so long without a translation.

Finally I mentioned I am documenting here what I learn about this game but if you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to post here. It will be nice to know I am not the only one interested in this game being translated (even though I am not officially translating it lol).
 
Hi, newbie here. It's really cool to see someone make some tools that could help in the translation of this game. I've been wanting to play this game for YEARS. I'm wondering if I can help with a translation, perhaps not perfect but enough to get some context that the game is playable.

I'm trying to understand how to use your tools. Do I open ssrpg_table.tbl in a hex editor like Translhextion, find the text that I want to change, change it, and then save? And that should show up in-game?
 
No you need to use my C tool to load the .tbl file and type the string then it will give you the hex value of the string that hex value needs to overwrite the hex values in the hex file your editing you cant directly type in the text but it would have been cool if you could.

Honestly i can not think what you can do to help unless you can translate Japanese or French.
 
Thanks for the clarification! I'll play around some more.

I wonder if it would be possible to use something like this AI translation service:
)

to help derive what the text should be, obviously using a bit of interpretation to clean up the meaning, and then use your tool to replace the files in the hex file.
 
Thing is some japanese does not translate well into english my idea was to locate all the text in the original japanese and dump it into text document then find a translation team (like one of them anime translation teams) to take on the actual translation then inject it back myself.
 
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This is all just... wow. Most of this is outside of my current skillset, but not outside of my capability to learn what's necessary. I'm familiar with the concepts and jargon put forth here, so if I could somehow help in any way with pushing this project forward, I'd absolutely do whatever I could to help.
 
Arius Scorpius said:
This is all just... wow. Most of this is outside of my current skillset, but not outside of my capability to learn what's necessary. I'm familiar with the concepts and jargon put forth here, so if I could somehow help in any way with pushing this project forward, I'd absolutely do whatever I could to help.
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@Arius Scorpius First remember this is not a project it's just me having some fun I don't want to get any hopes up. If you can download and test the tool I made and get it working that would be your first step. It was made for linux I have not tested on any other platforms.

The way I had this setup was I used a version of neoraine made to translate this game you can find it here: Raine : NeoRaine I also downloaded the game from here Shinsetsu Samurai Spirits - Bushidohretsuden (1997)(SNK)(Jp)[!] ISO for NeoGeo CD not sure if this is the exact one I used but it has the same file name. You will also need to get the partial English translated iso that can be found here The Gothsicles - Samurai Shodown RPG in English. You will also need the hex editor I mentioned Translhextion

You will also need a program to extract the isos there are lots online I think I used power iso. This should be enough to get you started good luck.
 
David Tyler said:
Well, according to this, a project has been restarted again, and a fully English translated version could be released in the not too distant future. But, don't get your hopes up.
Samurai Shodown RPG English Translation Coming

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Welcome to the forum @David Tyler. I fixed your post so the video would show up correctly. Interesting find. I'm not holding my breath, but if this does happen, count me first in line to play. Thanks for the heads up!

DC
 
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