Valkyrie no Densetsu English translation patch released

[cabbage]

Shawnji and I have been working on an English translation for Valkyrie no Densetsu for a while now. I'm happy to be able to release it today

Some gameplay footage:

Download the patch:

romhacking.net/translations/2637/
Valkyrie no Densetsu (English v1.0).zip

[blueraven]

  Wow!!! Legendary! Thanks Cabbage and Shawnji! 

I've just downloaded it and it will be the first game I play when I get the everdrive working!

 

Well done!

[SamIAm]

Nice work, guys.

[_Paul]

Awesome.

[shawnji]

I did my best to try to work within the space limitations, but I feel pretty satisfied with the results.  It's one of my favorite HuCard games, so I hope everyone can get as much enjoyment out of it as I have.   Thanks again cabbage for all your hard work on hacking this!

[EmperorIng]

Very cool! Was the translation use the English version in Namco Museum Vol. 5 as a reference?

[shawnji]

Very cool! Was the translation use the English version in Namco Museum Vol. 5 as a reference?

Nope.  I've actually never had the opportunity to check it out, although I did play the arcade version of the game a lot when I was in Japan.  I'd certainly be curious to see how the translation is handled in that version.

[NightWolve]

Great work guys, congrats! This actually looks like a pretty cool Action-RPG to check out judging by the video, I never knew about it.

[elmer]

NICE! 

Congratulations on the great job guys.

[LostFlunky]

Thanks guys! I have dying to play through this game and know what was going on.

[Dicer]

Awesome stuff

[seieienbu]

This is excellent.  Thanks for the hard work, Cabbage and Shawnji!

[dshadoff]

Wow, this is great news !

Congratulations, and great work !

-Dave

[johnnykonami]

Thanks for this guys!  I will definitely be checking it out later.

[Artemio]

Thanks a lot, Ready for this!


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CUdmtZUUkAETRgk.jpg

[Dicer]

What does the sign say at the first split, I know the hut guys says go left, but what does the actual sign itself say?

[shawnji]

What does the sign say at the first split, I know the hut guys says go left, but what does the actual sign itself say?

Yeah, there were some issues with modifying the sign graphics.  It's something like, "Hard Route | Shortcut" if I remember correctly.  There's another set of signs later on in the game that are basically the same.

[gheebee]

Of all the games I wanted to see in English... Played through the first level and can't wait until I have some time to play through the whole game a couple of times. Amazing, thanks a lot for this!

[ParanoiaDragon]

Sweet!  Thanks guys! I was curious, would the title screen be hard to hack?  Is it just a matter of finding someone to make an English version of it in PCE colors?

[cabbage]

Sorry about the untranslated signs and title screen. I tried to figure out how to change them, but got nowhere. Perhaps someone more skilled would like to take a crack at it?

[TurboXray]

Do you have a replacement title screen and how many signs are there?

[NecroPhile]

Very nice, cabby and shawn. 

[Dicer]

Sorry about the untranslated signs and title screen. I tried to figure out how to change them, but got nowhere. Perhaps someone more skilled would like to take a crack at it?

No need to be sorry, at least the merchants there to help...

Fun game, some hard jumping made it to the underground boss last night, will keep plugging away.

[shawnji]

Do you have a replacement title screen and how many signs are there?

There are only two signs in the game that I recall, and they both just equate to "hard route / easy route."  Usually you'll get more gold for going left.  Although, I think the second fork has a treasure chest with two hearts if you take the right path.  It's hard to remember at the moment. 

Oddly enough, the merchant actually says to go right in Japanese, but it didn't make any sense because the right path had nothing and the left had a treasure chest, so I changed it when I got a chance to look back over it.

As for the title screen; I had thought about trying my hand at a photoshopped mock-up of an English version, but decided it wasn't worth expending the effort on if we couldn't hack the title.  I still want to translate the instruction manual, though; so I'll probably go ahead and work on a logo if I can get ahold of some scans of the instructions.  I'd be happy to help get it in the game if someone knows how.

P.S.  I don't suppose any of you have scans of those instructions, do you?  I have a copy of the game, but no scanner...

[SuperPlay]

Great work :-) I was thinking of what game to play next and now I know.

[pixeljunkie]

badass! thanks!

[ginoscope]

Awesome job guys I'll be trying this out soon.

[Artemio]

P.S.  I don't suppose any of you have scans of those instructions, do you?  I have a copy of the game, but no scanner...

I didn't, but I have a scanner and the game. I may have overdone it, since I scanned everything at 600 dpi and directly to png, it is a 400 MB file:
junkerhq.net/Valkyrie/
junkerhq.net/Valkyrie/Manual-ValkyrieNoDensetsu.zip

[ginoscope]

Just tried out the game very nice work on the translation.

Game is kind of hard I died quick or I am just getting tired.

[toktogul]

Holy moly! hahaha
I started this week working on my first translation project, and guess what game I chose! hahah
I am glad I didn`t continue further otherwise It would have felt such a waste of time.

thank you for translating this game, it deserves much love

[EmperorIng]

Oddly enough, the merchant actually says to go right in Japanese, but it didn't make any sense because the right path had nothing and the left had a treasure chest, so I changed it when I got a chance to look back over it.

I recall the PS1 version doing the same thing at one point, where a character (Sabine) tells you to go one way in the lava cave when the opposite leads to treasure. I wonder if it's a trick left in the game.

[shawnji]

P.S.  I don't suppose any of you have scans of those instructions, do you?  I have a copy of the game, but no scanner...

I didn't, but I have a scanner and the game. I may have overdone it, since I scanned everything at 600 dpi and directly to png, it is a 400 MB file: http://junkerhq.net/Valkyrie/

Awesome!  Thanks for doing that!  I'll have to take a look at it when I get back from Thanksgiving.

[TurboXray]

Well, if you end up doing a pixel replacement title screen - I'll put in the rom for you.

[Gredler]

Well, if you end up doing a pixel replacement title screen - I'll put in the rom for you.

As for the title screen; I had thought about trying my hand at a photoshopped mock-up of an English version, but decided it wasn't worth expending the effort on if we couldn't hack the title.  I still want to translate the instruction manual, though; so I'll probably go ahead and work on a logo if I can get ahold of some scans of the instructions.  I'd be happy to help get it in the game if someone knows how.

If artwork help is needed please let me know if I can help, love this game and want to help in any way I can. Thanks for all the hard work to translate and hack this, nice job!

[Keith Courage]

This is awesome! I've always wanted to play through this game but never really gave it the time of day due to the language barrier. I know the game could still be played not knowing the text, but when doing that, games just feel dull and boring to me. Especially if it's a RPG or action adventure style game. Now, I have a new game on my list to play. Great work!

[Bardoly]

Great work guys, and thank you!

[PukeSter]

Just finished the game today. Really great stuff! Definitely a well-crafted action-adventure game, especially the action part.

Thanks for your hard work Cabbage and Shawnji!

[roflmao]

Cabbage and Shawnji are winners. Thanks so much!

[M1Savage]

Thanks for this! Much appreciated.

[esteban]

NOTE: Awesome!

[Digi.k]

thank you so much Cabbage

[NightWolve]

Anybody get this patched ? Beyond having the ROM, it's a quest in it of itself to learn how to patch this thing (and I'm no beginner)... You must first find random SNES (as he says) ROM header strippers (first one I found/tried rejects a PCE ROM, second PCE one made in VB6 locked up) and then find random IPS patchers (first one I found crashes, needed WinXP compatibility settings to work)... :/

ProTip: If you patched it but have the common ROM with a header, it will crash at the intro... You must find a ROM header stripper as mentioned and repatch.

[Digi.k]

Anybody get this patched ?

does anyone need the patched file ?

[NightWolve]

Thanks, but between then and now, I decided to figure this out (which I did) and make a quick patch kit for others.

Instructions:

1) Download/find the "Valkyrie no Densetsu" PCE ROM (headerless size: 524,288 bytes, WITH header: 524,800 bytes).

2) Download my patch kit: https://www.ysutopia.net/downloads/ValkyriePCEROMPatchKit.zip

3) Copy/unzip all in the same folder and double click the batch "PatchValkyriePCEROM.bat" file. That's it.

4) It'll output a new file called "Valkyrie no Densetsu (T-Eng).pce" if successful. Should work in MagicEngine past the title screen without crashing.


Information/Findings:

** PCE ROM headers are the first 512 bytes of the file and mostly zeroes it appears. Removing if present can be done with my FileGet.exe app which is included in the patch kit above. Removal then is trivial, simply reading out the file past the 512th offset, deleting the first 512 bytes essentially.

An example command to do so would be:

Code Select Expand

FileGet "ValkyrieWITHHeader.pce" 0x200 0 "ValkyrieNoHeader.pce"New headerless file size of 524,288 bytes would now be proper for this particular game.

** LiteIPS.exe which is also included is a command line IPS patcher I found that worked for me here. Use that if you want for other games if you haven't already got a GUI version you know works.

** Cabbage has 2 other PCE fan translations projects, one I didn't know about, Street Fighter II: CE, which, although it's not critical having all the fighter messages in English, is certainly nice.

https://pce.cabbage.cx/translation.html

P.S. Cabbage, if you ever see my patch kit, you're welcome to use it to make it helpful for others. I can't imagine your patches have gotten much playtime by just sharing the IPS file which presents a patching quest/obstacle right from the start... My old RIGG ROM had the header so I encountered the crashing, and the first 2 apps I found for removing the header either crashed or rejected non-SNES ROMs... Then the first apps I found for IPS patching crashed or sucked... :/

Well, that's about it.

[MNKyDeth]

Thanks, but between then and now, I decided to figure this out (which I did) and make a quick patch kit for others.

Instructions:

1) Download/find the "Valkyrie no Densetsu" PCE ROM (headerless size: 524,288 bytes, WITH header: 524,800 bytes).

2) Download my patch kit: https://www.ysutopia.net/downloads/ValkyriePCEROMPatchKit.zip

3) Copy/unzip all in the same folder and double click the batch "PatchValkyriePCEROM.bat" file. That's it.

4) It'll output a new file called "Valkyrie no Densetsu (T-Eng).pce" if successful. Should work in MagicEngine past the title screen without crashing.


Information/Findings:

** PCE ROM headers are the first 512 bytes of the file and mostly zeroes it appears. Removing if present can be done with my FileGet.exe app which is included in the patch kit above. Removal then is trivial, simply reading out the file past the 512th offset, deleting the first 512 bytes essentially.

An example command to do so would be:

Code Select Expand

FileGet "ValkyrieWITHHeader.pce" 0x200 0 "ValkyrieNoHeader.pce"New headerless file size of 524,288 bytes would now be proper for this particular game.

** LiteIPS.exe which is also included is a command line IPS patcher I found that worked for me here. Use that if you want for other games if you haven't already got a GUI version you know works.

** Cabbage has 2 other PCE fan translations projects, one I didn't know about, Street Fighter II: CE, which, although it's not critical having all the fighter messages in English, is certainly nice.

https://pce.cabbage.cx/translation.html

P.S. Cabbage, if you ever see my patch kit, you're welcome to use it to make it helpful for others. I can't imagine your patches have gotten much playtime by just sharing the IPS file which presents a patching quest/obstacle right from the start... My old RIGG ROM had the header so I encountered the crashing, and the first 2 apps I found for removing the header either crashed or rejected non-SNES ROMs... Then the first apps I found for IPS patching crashed or sucked... :/

Well, that's about it.

Awesome stuff Nightwolve. I had the crashing issue when patching this game but never knew why. I always figured I would come back to research it more when I had time but looks like you have us all taken care of now. I probably would never have figured it out.

[NightWolve]

Cool, glad that helped someone! I told Bernie about this patch, but funny enough, he was already on the case, had already added it prepatched to his organized Turbo Everdrive PCE ROM collection. I guess he got lucky as the ROM he found first was headerless, while the one I have is from an old collection put together by Tenchi-no-ryu back in 2000-01 for our old RIGG ROM sharing group which is 512 bytes bigger given this header inclusion.

In other news, wow, an English translation doesn't do much good if you can't read it when playing a game with your Turbo Express powered by a Turbo Everdrive flashcart... I played the first level of Valkyrie on my Express after getting things working and I must say, it REALLY is hard to read text with the stock LCD screen... Makes that 3.5" LCD mod that much more tempting some time!

This game is classic Namco goodness who also brought the system Dragon Spirit and its sequel. A little tempting to get the MAME arcade ROM set though and see this as it was in its full form at the arcades BITD.

[NecroPhile]

Nice utility, NW.

I'm one of those guys that usually has to find a pre-patched rom/iso, as I'm too dumb to do it myself.

[NightWolve]

In this more rare case, you can't blame yourself! Even I couldn't get this thing patched at first as a techy hacker myself, hah!

Cabbage could've at least provided the exact IPS tool that he patched with along with his batch file! At least provide that! ;) Instead, you're left with those tasks, finding an IPS patcher that works, and finding a ROM-header remover if it has one... 99% of fan translators at least provide their own batch file with the same patcher tool they used!

I'm just teasing him a little cause it's the first time I've seen it where only the patch [IPS] file is passed along, and the instructions consist of "Google around for IPS patchers and google around for 'remove snes rom header' if it crashes..." He did all that work with his team to translate it to English, but stopped short right at the end with at least zipping the IPS file with his batch file and his working IPS patcher that were right next to each other.

For the time I spent googling around, finding IPS patchers that crashed and/or needed a Win9X core, or finding ROM-header removers that crashed, I almost wasn't gonna bother if 15-20 minutes were already lost trying to figure out what works, and what doesn't, having to then research PCE ROM header removal, etc... :/ If I was anybody else, I would've given up.

[cabbage]

Oh, NightWolve. Patching is really not very complicated.

Step 1. Remove the header (if present).
The tool I use to do this is WindHex, because I also use it for other stuff. Load the ROM, go to Edit->Remove SNES Header. File->Save. (Done.)

Step 2. Apply the IPS patch.
Use any IPS patcher out there. Lunar IPS is one, and it has a cute icon and windows GUI for folks who hate commandlines. Use whichever IPS patcher suits you, it doesn't matter.

Step 3. There are no more steps.

Seriously though, I've been meaning to write ReadMe files for the patches on my site. Thanks for reminding me ;) I'll take care of that when I have a bit more time.

Rant: I could just provide two patches--one for headered ROMs, and one for headerless ROMs. I'd rather not. It is annoying to me that these SMC-headered dumps are still so prevalent and I wish they would stop being distributed. The headers are not part of the actual raw dumps. It is some useless shit tacked on by whatever antiquated piracy hardware was used to dump them. :\
If you like fan-translations, it's worth knowing what these headers are and how to remove them... and also worth knowing how to find/use patching programs.

[NightWolve]

Patching is really not very complicated.

1) Not when the first patchers you're finding are crashing/unusable... 2) And then after you do find a patcher that doesn't crash, and it says that it worked, the game crashes upon playing it after the title screen cause nobody said anything about ROM header issues and the ROM used to work fine in Japanese... I thought I explained the problems here...

Step 2. Apply the IPS patch.
Use any IPS patcher out there. Lunar IPS is one, and it has a cute icon and windows GUI for folks who hate commandlines. Use whichever IPS patcher suits you, it doesn't matter.

Except that Lunar IPS was the first one I found...and it'd crash after selecting the IPS file, keeping me from even getting to select a ROM file. Sometimes just upon startup it crashes... A workaround was to run it on Windows 98 via emulation with MS Virtual PC. The second one I found was buggy too, and an old patcher I had was DOS 8.3 filename restricted, so no good either...



I never had a patcher crash on me, its job is supposed to be pretty simple, like this, (1) select target file, (2) select patch file, (3) press patch/apply, the end. The recipient in principle should get a copy of the same patcher that YOU the creator used in a ZIP file, but if it was Lunar IPS, I still would've had the same crash problem anyway so no matter.

Rant: I could just provide two patches--one for headered ROMs, and one for headerless ROMs. I'd rather not. It is annoying to me that these SMC-headered dumps are still so prevalent and I wish they would stop being distributed. The headers are not part of the actual raw dumps. It is some useless shit tacked on by whatever antiquated piracy hardware was used to dump them. :\

Well, all you had to do here at least is tell the person to watch out for ROMs not 524,288 bytes in size, to check the size. If you look at my batch file, I use the correct 524,288 file size to determine/restrict action. Other patch algorithms support a CRC check on the target file, and patching won't continue unless you have the correct file...

That's really poor behavior on the IPS system to let the user continue patching a file that isn't the same size as the original that was used to create it... At least a file size check should be default and a CRC check optional as it is with PPF.

Anyway, it's FYI, just letting you know the "user experience" in trying to get this patched by just dropping an IPS file leaves much to be desired given good/bad versions of the ROM, and buggy IPS patchers that come up in searches... Far less people are gonna get to use your patch without some basics in a ReadMe.