Translation Patcher/Hacker info needed

[Sketcz]

Hi all

I need some info, as long as its within the rules.

Has there ever been a case of people language patching a CD based game?
I know groups like KanjiHack translate cartridge system roms, but there has been some excitment growing around a certain other Japanese odditity, an RPG on CD, for an older system, pre-psx.
Ive looked at the files, and concerning text, there seem to be symbol table files, and script text files, now I was talking to some people, and I said it should theoretically be possible to patch it.

The files are small, in theory wouldnt it be possible to change these few files, and have them available for download, then people Dload them, and burn a new cd, using these NEW files, along with their original disc? I dont feel it would boost piracy, since youd need the original disc. And the system in question has NO disc-protection.

I dunno, maybe its crazy, but alot of people seemed excited, and sadly I really dont know any translation patchers. The files Ive been told are encoded, so I dont know how tricky it will be. There is no FMV, or dialogue, only text that runs off those scripting tables. (or whatever the hell theyre called)

Is anyone allowed to link me up to a legit group who does this?
I anyone interested? Or does this sound like nonsense?
I have no idea, and have no experience in this area.
The title may interest some though.

Game:
Shadowrun: Tokyo 2095 - SEGA CD


I dunno wether this should have gone in retro or not, so if any admin want to, feel free to move this topic.

Thanks for looking

EDIT:
CM pointed out a big mistake, now corrected in my typing.

[Commander Marklar]

And the system in question has disc-protection.

No it doesn't

But yeah, it is easily done from a software point of view -- patching ISOs is easy. As it is a Japanese game, I'd reckon any text would probably be double-byte, rather than ASCII so you'd have to be careful there. The other thing would be text length might cause a problem but stuff like this is usually coded in such that it may not matter, except for some display issues perhaps (although, I could be wrong an it'd have offsets into the script table, meaing your lengths must be exact unless you patch the code too). Best thing is to try it and see

[Papercut]

Has there ever been a case of people language patching a CD based game?

There are a few, actually. The most famous would be the Winning Eleven patches for the PS2 that quite a few people have used.

I've seen translation efforts for other games on older systems too, including stuff like Cotton on the psone.

The files are small, in theory wouldnt it be possible to change these few files, and have them available for download, then people Dload them, and burn a new cd, using these NEW files, along with their original disc? I dont feel it would boost piracy, since youd need the original disc. And the system in question has disc-protection.

Its pretty simple to do. You either issue a patch for a known good disk image, or a set of replacement files. Of course what normally gets distributed instead is a complete, translated disk image.

A patch-set of some kind could be legal. Where original files are included, or only partially modified, then legally you would be in the wrong to distribute them. It would be legal to post a set of file diffs instead though.

Is anyone allowed to link me up to a legit group who does this?
I anyone interested? Or does this sound like nonsense?
I have no idea, and have no experience in this area.
The title may interest some though.

I don't see any problems with linking to translation groups as long as they aren't making copyright material available for download. Most are intelligent enough not to

There is a lot of confusion by the mods over exactly what is and isn't legal when it comes to grey area stuff like this though, so... best to be cautious.

[Sketcz]

yes, I thought replacement files would be best.

Small and easy to exchange, technically legal(?), and only a simple matter of reburning your original disc.

Ive already reburned all my USA sega cd games after patching them to run on PAL systems. Popfull mail in PAL is great. I did it for shadowrun, but the language barrier is as thick as they come.

[gozaimas]

http://donut.parodius.com/

will answer many questions