Super Robot Taisen Alpha for Dreamcast can be translated (I'm working on it)

[Gyasuke]

If even I, that am a dumbass can go to this point, there are possibilities that someone with actual experience maybe can do something.

After the release of Tricolore Crise, the creator of the patch also release the tools, the very first thing that appears in my mind was SRW alpha, so there we go.

After that I downloaded Python (32 bits, my PC is veeery old and is falling apart, it doesn't even emulate PSP very well) and do the process.

What can I say? I reach the point of having the scrip before my eyes, but not having any experience of Japanese at all or even use of AI, I can't do nothing.

I hope that at least this can be seen as a proof that a translation is possible.

Tools: https://github.com/closedsockets/dreamcast-translation-kit

 

[ShinnAsukaYESTaylorSwiftNO]

I see you use Windows 7 in the year of our lord 2026....

 

[Gyasuke]

I see you use Windows 7 in the year of our lord 2026....

Yeah, it's very old, I don't even use it, only to move things from USB to USB.

 

[otogirisou]

You can make public spreadsheet so a lot of people can help translating them

 

[rhinestonehawk]

that's actually amazing?! i think i'll try translating an english game to portuguese!!

 

[Super2]

Thanks so much Gyasuke, this is brilliant.

I think a good next step for anyone who is interested in helping with the patch is:

1) Make sure that the game copy/dump of SRW Alpha you are using, is the exact same one that everyone can access

(This is to make sure that the patch will work for everyone, as different dumps can read differently)

Someone with more knowhow of how translations are handled here might know which copy/dump to use.

2) After using the Dreamcast tool on the game, put the resulting translation files in a Github page.

3) Before translating all of the script with AI (because its quite big) it would be ideal if someone who knows about coding (or who is willing to ask AI for help with coding) can see if they can increase the text space available for the English translation.

Until the text space is increased, its best not to translate all of the script, because we are limited in how long the lines in English can be.

 

[Gyasuke]

Thanks so much Gyasuke, this is brilliant.

I think a good next step for anyone who is interested in helping with the patch is:

1) Make sure that the game copy/dump of SRW Alpha you are using, is the exact same one that everyone can access

(This is to make sure that the patch will work for everyone, as different dumps can read differently)

Someone with more knowhow of how translations are handled here might know which copy/dump to use.

2) After using the Dreamcast tool on the game, put the resulting translation files in a Github page.

3) Before translating all of the script with AI (because its quite big) it would be ideal if someone who knows about coding (or who is willing to ask AI for help with coding) can see if they can increase the text space available for the English translation.

Until the text space is increased, its best not to translate all of the script, because we are limited in how long the lines in English can be.

1: Let's just say, is this, I don't want this falling in piracy, a Google search can help you: (Super Robot Taisen Alpha for Dreamcast v1.016 (2001)(Banpresto)(JP)[!][1M1])

2 and 3: Sadly, I don't have a ideal working environment, I don't think I can do any more, I could share the excel file with the translation but you need to have the game file open with the tool to validate the changes, and the tool create the translation file automatically after decompress (don't known a better word to say) and scanning the game files, so it's a little pointless to share something that everyone interested can obtain easily in the process.

Lastly, I can't found the prologue dialog, but the first scenario yes, in the photos, I going to try if adding something to the translation line works, I be clear, don't known Japanese and zero experience with AI, and the target language for the test will be Spanish, so just Google Translate and manual copy and paste, this is not an active project, it's only to see if it can be done, I repeat myself, I don't have the knowledge or time to do this, please keep your expectations checked, even I will jump of excitement if all of this interested to someone who can take this as a project.

 

[Super2]

That sounds great Gyasuke.
And please don't feel that I'm trying to make you do all the work, do not worry.

My suggestion, give the Japanese text (or the file itself) for the first scenario to Chat GPT, and ask it to give you a "localisation translation", while keeping it "strictly within the character limits of the original Japanese text". Tell it to be creative and abbreviate or summarise as needed, even character names.

ChatGPT does some amazing translations, so please do give it a try for this test, it will surprise you.

The reason is, the tool warns about it ("English can never be LONGER than the Japanese allocation. If a line simply cannot fit, shorten the translation — pointer rewriting is out of scope for this kit.")

 

[Gyasuke]

That sounds great Gyasuke.
And please don't feel that I'm trying to make you do all the work, do not worry.

My suggestion, give the Japanese text (or the file itself) for the first scenario to Chat GPT, and ask it to give you a "localisation translation", while keeping it "strictly within the character limits of the original Japanese text". Tell it to be creative and abbreviate or summarise as needed, even character names.

ChatGPT does some amazing translations, so please do give it a try for this test, it will surprise you.

The reason is, the tool warns about it ("English can never be LONGER than the Japanese allocation. If a line simply cannot fit, shorten the translation — pointer rewriting is out of scope for this kit.")

I knew that something like this gonna happen, don't known if it's because my very old and bad PC or what but give me error when I tried to validate the translation, at first though it was because the Spanish characters (¿¡ñ) so I erased them, same error, translate to English but the same, this is the most I can do with my PC, don't have experience at all to point the problem.

There is a utf-8 error, but I don't change anything en Excel, the file is exactly like the tool created it.

 

[Super2]

Wow, you're fast!

Hm, I don't know enough about the tool to give a comment,

But perhaps this is something the author of the tool can help with? (https://github.com/closedsockets/dreamcast-translation-kit)

By opening an Issue - and then explaining the problem, he might be able to give you an answer

 

[Gabrinius]

I don't know the game. But it is amazing that a tool like that exists. Hope it can advance and make possible that anyone can do, at least, menu translations for the games.

 

[Gyasuke]

Wow, you're fast!

Hm, I don't know enough about the tool to give a comment,

But perhaps this is something the author of the tool can help with? (https://github.com/closedsockets/dreamcast-translation-kit)

By opening an Issue - and then explaining the problem, he might be able to give you an answer

I just change 4 lines of dialogue to try, not much.

The thing is that I don't have the working environment or knowledge to try, so I don't going to open a issue, like I say before, it's not something that someone with my resources is able to do, all of this was to show that at least you can see the script, maybe someone that have all that I not can do something, my goal was to bring it to light so maybe that someone can see it.

 

[Super2]

No worries Gyasuke, and thanks for giving it a shot.

Could I open an Issue myself, and ask about the problem?

If no, that's ok.

 

[Gyasuke]

No worries Gyasuke, and thanks for giving it a shot.

Could I open an Issue myself, and ask about the problem?

If no, that's ok.

Hahahaha, check this out.

That's the only line I edited, maybe before I put to many letters and that gives me the errors, but it's difficult translate Japanese-Spanish, to many words, I give up, translating English to Spanish gives you like 30% more words that the original text, English is not my native language, so it's not ideal to me do something in that line, but with this we can see that is totally possible now, I attach the bps file that the tool create, keep in mind that that line it's the only changed.

Post automatically merged: Sunday at 12:55 AM

No worries Gyasuke, and thanks for giving it a shot.

Could I open an Issue myself, and ask about the problem?

If no, that's ok.

Post automatically merged: Sunday at 1:48 AM

What happened with my video?

Well, I just add it directly instead I suppose.

Too heavy to upload, full YouTube link down there.

Post automatically merged: Sunday at 1:53 AM

That was weird, the video changed to the featured video of the forum for a time, I play it to see.

 

[closedsockets]

Hey all, I made this tool but it works best with an AI assisted workflow. If you download any of the AI apps, it will tell you exactly how to use it (it will even translate the CSV for you if you want). I use opencode, but it's kinda advance. Codex or Claude will work fine.

I was trying to translate Tricolore Crise to english, but wanted a simple way to edit the text. What I found was I could get any LLM to pull it into a spreadsheet. The validation error above is because the line you changed is too long to fit wherever you replaced it.

It's kind of a simple script, and its funny to mess around, because it lets anyone edit dialogue.

 

[Gyasuke]

Yes, somehow I was able to figure it out, and was able to insert some text, in the video up there can be seen , thank you for made public this tool, even a normal guy like me can translate a game, like I say, I don't think I can translate a SRW completely, it's more like to bring it to light to someone with more experience could be interested, maybe I continue with the main story scrip for now.

Again, thanks a lot.

 

[Tsukishima]

That's wonderful news, let's push forward with a universe with all SRW games playable in our future for ourselves and the sake of a new generation to be obsessed with mecha with.

 

[Gyasuke]

IMPORTANT UPDATE

After some though, I decided to tackle this head first to the wall, I decided that gonna give it a try, but a series of points that are important.

1: My PC is in very bad state, I only use it to edit the file of the translation and build the patch, all the other things like AI are being done in my cellphone, for now in free chat gpt and a lot of other apps found in playstore.

2: I don't have a way to purchase things online, so can't pay for a better AI, it's not that I don't want to, the only thing that I have is a bitcoin wallet that is from the government (I'm from El Salvador, bitcoin is legal currency here like the USD) and don't think that I can pay from there.

More translation related.

3: After some time, I decided that I only will translate the main story, this will be the opposite of a menu only patch, will be a story only patch, don't known where are the menus and interfaces, and realistically speaking, almost hardcore fan knows how to move and attack and the order of the menu, if in the future found where are, of course I will translate them, but for now it will be story focused.

4: Battle dialogues will be translated after the main story, so for now, I don't gonna touch them.

5: The fist demo patch will be available when at least one hour of gameplay can be played, at that time I will create a page or something to share the patch, and a dedicated post here, right now I translated:

Strategy Screen(Missions where you see your mechas): Prologue completed, Chapter 1 (10%)

VN Screen (Visual novel type gameplay were you only see the character and texbox): Chapter 1 (40%)

Dialogue lines inserted: 160 in total for now.

Everything save the translation is done by me, so I read every line before insert it ingame, so I say it have total human editing, more that one time I changed some things or have to rewrite a sentence to make it smaller but keeping it's meaning.

 

[Super2]

You awesome superhero, thank you so much for putting all this love and sharing your project with us.

I would be happy to donate so that you can use the AI you want.

Would you consider opening a Ko-fi account/ or Patreon so that I can donate?

 

[Gabrinius]

I wish you the best luck in your project.

it will certainly be a great experience and may this thread be a place with lots of good tips for those who will be willing to try the software and make their translations in the future.

and, who knows, other people make forks of the software for other consoles too. hope i'm alive to see my bakusou dekotora games being at least understandle.

 

[Gyasuke]

You awesome superhero, thank you so much for putting all this love and sharing your project with us.

I would be happy to donate so that you can use the AI you want.

Would you consider opening a Ko-fi account/ or Patreon so that I can donate?

I really appreciate your offer, but right now I feel that if I receive money it will be less something done with passion and more like a job.

And honestly I have a Ko-fi but it's from when I translated the manga Crossbone Gundam Ghost to Spanish, only the first volume but at least is something.

https://ko-fi.com/Post/Tabla-de-contenido-P5P51GPMWX

Was more like a place to share the manga that I translated and it's totally free, the only thing that have a price is the compilation of the volume in a single file with a symbolic price of one dollar.

With that I not asking anything, even if someone donate, I can't use the money from Paypal outside of online digital products in specifics stores that only need the PayPal itself, the only way that the money reach my hands is through the Bitcoin wallet xD, because there are some ATMs where you can get the equivalent in USD of the Bitcoin you have.

And it's a lot of trouble to buy something online for me, and lets stop about the money talk here.

I think that the best help you can give me will be spending the voice about the project, so more people that wanted really bad to play Alpha get to know that there is some dumbass tackling the task without any preparation hahaha, well, how I say, I going to try to do my best, don't know how far I going to go in the project, but if for something I can't continue, in that momen I will share all the translations made to that point so it don't get lost.

 

[Super2]

I read that ChatGPT Plus can be bought using Paypal, via the Apple Store / Google Play Store.

Would you be interested?

I'm also reading that ChatGPT Plus allows you to upload an excel file to it, and it will translate it entirely - no need to paste the lines into the excel, and probably really quick.
(But do ask it to stay within the character/letter limits )

 

[Gyasuke]

I read that ChatGPT Plus can be bought using Paypal, via the Apple Store / Google Play Store.

Would you be interested?

I'm also reading that ChatGPT Plus allows you to upload an excel file to it, and it will translate it entirely - no need to paste the lines into the excel, and probably really quick.
(But do ask it to stay within the character/letter limits )

Not for now, the files that I currently have translated are enough for days of manual copy and paste from text file to the script file, for now I'm good like this, the real problem is the PC, is old, windows 7 32 bits, need to save constantly to not lost the progress if it freezes, happened one time already, but nothing was lost thankfully.

 

[Super2]

Ok, thanks for letting me know.

But just to tell you that, right now, you can upload the excel file to ChatGPT free, and it will translate the lines to English right there in the excel (as far as I know)

No need for copying and pasting the lines from the text file (as far as I know)

It would save you a lot of time if it works.

But you need to ask it to stay within the text limits, and probably ask it to do one chapter at a time - followed by testing the excel on the tool to see if it fails like before or succeeds in patching the game.

If it works, re-upload the excel to the AI and ask it to translate another section, and so on.

 

[Gyasuke]

Ok, thanks for letting me know.

But just to tell you that, right now, you can upload the excel file to ChatGPT free, and it will translate the lines to English right there in the excel (as far as I know)

No need for copying and pasting the lines from the text file (as far as I know)

It would save you a lot of time if it works.

But you need to ask it to stay within the text limits, and probably ask it to do one chapter at a time - followed by testing the excel on the tool to see if it fails like before or succeeds in patching the game.

If it works, re-upload the excel to the AI and ask it to translate another section, and so on.

The only one I translated copying the text to the chat of an AI was the prologue, I tried upload the full file to Claude but it tell me that has many lines and it's not realistic to work there, after that I copied manually the text of some chapters in separated txt files per chapter, upload these to Claude and with some rules, it do a good work, even if I need to wait hours and only translate a chapter every time, I translated like 4 chapters already (in the txt files, need to copy manually to check the quality and if it can be read easy).

In script I have more than 300 lines already, chapter 1 VN part complete, before and after strategy part, but the strategy part in chapter 1 is huge, more than 600 lines, mostly because there are A LOT of tutorial dialogues.