So I'm playing this game and ...

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Cy
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Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2007 1:47 am

So I'm playing this game and ...

Post by Cy »

Its a ps1 iso of Final Fantasy VII but its in Japanese.
I wanted to play it because I'm studying Japanese but its really hard to look up all those damn little kanji.
So I was wondering if anyone knew how to rip the text from the game. Like they did with Snatcher:

"The project started in 2002, yes, but it began with obtaining the game script from the discs." There are also a few other games I'd like to get the text out of, so if anyone could help me out I'd appreciate it. Then I'd just be able to copy the kanji into the dictionary and problem solved.
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Artemio
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Re: So I'm playing this game and ...

Post by Artemio »

I've never looked into Square games at the time, and I don't own that one in Japanese either. But the general idea regarding text dumping just requires a few abilities. First, you need to be able to copy the disc contents to a computer; then you need to have means of viewing the contents. Of course they will not be in any format ready for PC/mac consumption, but you can start by simply opening the files on a binary/hexadecimal editor and figure if the text is in there in plain text format. Since it is in Japanese, your computer must be either configured for it or you need to setup some software to handle it.

If that was not the case (not very probable, but it is worth to take a look.. several games are that way), you have to use more specialized search methods. One of them is looking for specific byte sequences. You'll need to know an exact phrase or word from the game, and then have it readily available in several Japanese byte formats. You then do hex or binary searches for the string on all the files, I wrote a tool for that effect and you can check it out and its source code at Junker HQ. IF that doesn't yield results either, you'll need to do relative searches.It takes some time, but my tool handles them as well. This works nice for Katakana and Hiragana strings mainly.

If that doesn't work either, then it is time to start debugging the game on an emulator.
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Cy
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Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2007 1:47 am

Re: So I'm playing this game and ...

Post by Cy »

Okay well I really have no idea what the hell I'm doing. As far as I know, I can't find any real script with microsoft notepad or with a hex editor. When i do the english I can find little patches of script or words here and there, but nothing complete. There's a search feature for ascii or hex, and when I search for a specific phrase like "follow me" it doesn't appear.

I tried using r3000 debugger on pSX buuuut ... I'm more lost there.

And I downloaded your DOS text finder deal, but when I run it, it flashes and disappears.

どうすればいいの?
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Artemio
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Re: So I'm playing this game and ...

Post by Artemio »

The DOS utility runs under DOS =P so you need to open a command lien and run it from there. You'll need a phrase that you know is in the Japanese game, if it is in English or in our alphabet, the better; if not katakana or hiragana will do. Then you do the search wit5h those values, keep handy the hex codes of the text in SJIS in case it is Japanese text though. Other wise just use relative search. You'll need to check for regular ASCII and double width values since in Japanese they use two bytes.
From the mathematical perspective, consciousness might be regarded as a second derivative of sensation.
-- Terrel Miedaner

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