Looking for Some ISO/BIN Rebuilding Advice [PS1 Translation Audio Issues]

[irkella irkella]

Hey folks, I'm currently working on an English translation for Korean-only PS1 game MGG: Manic Game Girl, based on Mr. Nobody's Spanish translation.

Not having any issues with the actual text translations, but I'm having an issue where when rebuilding the ROM, some of the audio isn't being played correctly, namely voice lines and some other small audio tracks that work fine in the Spanish translation. I'm using psximager to both extract and rebuild, but I've noted that it doesn't fully support Red Book audio.

Does anyone have some advice or preferred tools that might help?

I don't believe it has anything to do with the hex editing I've been doing for the text lines, as I haven't altered anything but the lines themselves.

Edit: I'd reach out to Mr. Nobody, but he doesn't seem to have any listed way of communicating with him and hasn't been very active in multiple years.

 

[qw90700]

Yep, red book issue pretty much what makes psximager useless to me. You may use "replace file" instead of "rebuild" route which CDmage helps if the replaced file is not bigger in size than the original file, but overall this program can replace file just fine without size limit: https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/848/

However replaced files due to size difference may shift memory locations the game may using by being pre-programmed to look for stuff in specific range, then simply replacing files may not work. In that case rebuilding the rom is essential. You may use this: https://github.com/Lameguy64/mkpsxiso

However because of memory range way the game engine so stubborn some modding in some PS1 games are impossible. Just gotta make sure replaced file's codes are in original order for game engine may look for codes in particular order and file size doesn't change much.

What is impossible can be made possible with re-adjusting game's engine to befit whatever change you making with by either finding workarounds or creating bypasses. Relatively PS2 modding is waaaaay easier so you don't have to deal with such BS. All PS2 really cares is LBA, and afterwards stuff just has to be ok for the game engine and that's it. The real hell is still translation mods though lol.

 

[Clippy]

I'm just spitballing but wouldn't it be possible (and possibly easier) to edit the Spanish patch itself and apply the modified patch to a clean ISO instead of extracting and rebuilding?

 

[irkella irkella]

Yep, red book issue pretty much what makes psximager useless to me. You may use "replace file" instead of "rebuild" route...

Thanks for the insight, I'll try injecting the files rather than rebuilding. I've managed to keep the main file I'm working on the exact same size, so this may work well.

I'm just spitballing but wouldn't it be possible (and possibly easier) to edit the Spanish patch itself and apply the modified patch to a clean ISO instead of extracting and rebuilding?

I did think about doing this, but I've found rebuilding on the fly easier to test with as I'm translating, since I find it helpful to have the game running the scenes as a bit more context for the text, and to check for errors.

I also prefer to be able to see the full code around the text to know possible extra space I have to work with.

 

[qw90700]

Thanks for the insight, I'll try injecting the files rather than rebuilding. I've managed to keep the main file I'm working on the exact same size, so this may work well.

Good luck, soldier. <o

 

[irkella irkella]

Good luck, soldier. <o

Good suggestion! Injecting the file seems to have worked.

 

[Cloudstrife7894]

Will this have a VWF?

 

[irkella irkella]

Will this have a VWF?

I'm not 100% sure of the font specs unfortunately. Besides having much more knowledge of reading Spanish vs Korean/Hangul, I also picked the Spanish version so that I didn't have to make any font alterations.

I'm not fully sure what changes Mr. Nobody made to the font system, although the fact that it supports accented Latin script through modified characters in the code (ie. ”;" produces"í" and "&" produces "é") makes it clear that he likely made some tweaks in the very least.

As far as a VWF, I can test it for you if you had something in mind. I'm not really familiar with their use outside of Japanese, but I don't think Hangul requires it, so it's probably not supported.

 

[KittenLikeYou007]

Personally, I use 'CDMage 1.02.1 Beta' which I find to be the best free and simple tool for rebuilding PS1 game BIN/CUE files. For example, when a game has multiple BIN files, I just select the .CUE file, and it rebuilds it into a single .BIN while fixing any audio issues. It works well for me.

Here’s a tutorial using the same software that the guy uses, just like me, and the process is simple and fast

 

[irkella irkella]

Personally, I use 'CDMage 1.02.1 Beta' which I find to be the best free and simple tool for rebuilding PS1 game BIN/CUE files.

Thanks for the suggestion! This is actually rebuilding a bin/cue from raw files ripped from the image rather than just multiple bin files, so a bit more involved.