8/31/2004:
--Beta testing continues. A couple minor corrections have been made (formatting, and forgot "...OVER" on one message). Otherwise the message and wordvar addresses seem to all be correct. Some discussion has begun about the need, rather the lack thereof, to translate the Japanese manual for the MSX game. So, far this seems unnecessary. Scans of the UK manual, which is to my recollection accurate, can be found in the Kojima Games section of Junkerhq.net. (I would link to it, but I'm not sure of their policy at the time of this writing)
Although I am primarily using save states in emulation to keep my progress in the game I have alternatively been using cassette saves and they work fine (and are compatible with the original Japanese ROM as expected).
I expect that perhaps we will see finality to the project by the end of this week and a patch with readme.txt will be made available. It appears that the case may be that I will release 2 versions of the translation. One called LITERAL and the other called MODERN. The difference lies in 2 proper nouns spelled "INGRUM" and "BELLETA" in the original Japanese script. The LITERAL version will have these spelled as they originally were in the Japanese script (probably due to either a brand-name licensing issue or a pronunciation issue) and the MODERN version will have their correct spelling; "BERETTA" and "INGRAM". The end-user will be able to choose between them for their own preference. The user should have confidence, however, that their are no other differences between the patches.
The user should also note that although some condensation was required in order to fit the script into the allowed space, there is no loss of meaning, nuance, or format in the messages. The only thing I really did was use shorter synonyms for less significant vocabulary in the script and optimized the use of word variables wherever possible. (Dr. Pettrovich and his daughter's broken english didn't hurt either ;D) In fact, I payed special attention to keeping the major plot messages in the game verbatim.
8/29/2004:
--Beta testing has begun. The script is fully inserted and barring any typos in the address tables by myself it should be fully functional. Soon people who don't speak Japanese will be able to enjoy Metal Gear as it was intended (or at least as best we could provide the original intent). All the messages are restored and all I need to do is play through the game testing them all. I've sent Takamichi a beta for his enjoyment/testing if he likes and we continue to discuss certain matters of the translation. Barring an unforseen calamity we should have a fully functional translation available to the public at their own legal discretion. (I think at the very least you should own an actual copy of the UK version to be in the clear, though technically this is likely not the case for americans)
8/27/2004:
--As, I mentioned to Takamichi today, my rollercoaster ride of good vs. bad news continues... The extra font space I cleared is non-addressable for the purposes of the script for unknown reasons. This forces me to further look for script optimizations. Luckily, quite a bit can be saved just in the appropriate placement of line breaks and key prompts. I have a working script that fits now into the allotted space and hav already inserted it into the area required. Next step is to re-address every message and 'dictionary' (I call them wordvars, short for word variables btw) entry.
The hack project is now 10 days old. I expect, but cannot guarantee, to have a working beta by the end of this weekend. I look forward to playing Metal Gear again as I haven't in a few months. I think now that I'll do the testing myself since I have the ability to make immediate changes and tests. This would save the extra time of e-mail correspondence etc. But, I'll happily honor requests from those who're already involved or helped with the project. I think in this case if the game works fine on my end it will be fine for any emulation. After I get the project done for the ROM version, I'll look to see if I can find the Japanese disk conversion somewhere (if such a thing exists, I'm not sure). I have the english disk conversion, but as aforementioned the UK version has its messages mysteriously unrecoverable.
8/26/2004:
--Well its been a rough few days. Again, I had already determined that apparently ROM expansion for this game is impossible without re-assembling the entire game code. This, needless to say, would be diffucult and time consuming. Thusly, any script must ultimately be limited by the amount of space already alloted or can be made within the existing ROM structure. So, I've used a graphics hacking program and removed the Japanese characters from the font data to free up about 450 more bytes for script and dictionary data. This brings the nominal total space to about 7190 bytes (7214 if I can use another small blank spot I've found). Although this eliminates the possibility of making the translation as long as we would like this space IS enough to restore the missing messages from the UK version and maintain the meaning and nuance of the original Japanese script. It just means we have to try and express the same things with shorter more common words when possible.
Thus far, I have a WIP script which is near to the limit of space (a mere 180 bytes over the limit) and still quite good I think.All I need is to tweak the dictionary usage and it should fit snugly. I sent an even more cut-down one to Takamichi last night, but that was before I freed up the font space, so something as cut as what he got is unnecessary now. The biggest change will be that the item pickup messages will likely be just the name of the item rather than "ITEM IS TAKEN." or "ITEM ACQUIRED". I think this is OK since the context of the message is that you've just picked it up. This saves considerable space.
Also, In addition to freeing up some space in the font area, I went ahead and changed the Japanese style periods (which was a dot in the middle of the line rather than at the bottom) and apostrophes (which was a circle rather than a simple dash) to english style ones. These will now look more natural. (the last Z below is to let me know that thats the end of the test message I put in)
Furthermore, I keep forgetting to mention that the finished project (if successful) will be released in the form of a patch for the Japanese ROM and disk vesrion (if I can find one). I'll look at making a patch for the UK ROM and Disk version as well, but this will be a larger patch as there are some significant differences it seems. So what people will be able to do is patch their own ROM or disk version (if i can make it available) to get the translation. This way I don't have to worry about distributing ROMs or anything. The burden of legality will rest with the end-user and not myself.
8/22/2004:
--This update could be called 'blessings in disquise'. It turns out that the missing messages in the UK ROM (like the item pickup messages), although addressed in the message table and referenced in the game code itself, are somehow mysteriously disabled in the game code. This led me to, unhappily, begin considering what it would take to insert the english alphabet and the proper coding to reference it into the Japanese ROM. Fortunately, I decided to be obstinate and try putting in a message with the entire english alphabet into the (J) ROM and see if they put the entire thing in already. It turns out they did! I thought that perhaps for space reasons they might simply put only the english characters they needed for proper names (like Big Boss or Solid Snake), but Konami was thorough enough to do the entire thing. Thanks, Konami. As if this wasn't enough, I proceed to produce a template ROM with an emptied out script space for easy insertion of the script when I'm done compressing it and it turns out that the (J) ROM has about 800 extra bytes allocated for the script. Although the reasons for this are somewhat confusing, it's very fortunate as it takes some burden off of the efficiency of the 'dictionary' compression that's used in the ROM. The only question at this point as far as the fonts go is whether there are sufficient punctuation marks available. ! , and . are in there for sure, but I haven't seen ? yet. Anyway, I continue to look for the most efficient possible 'dictionary' entries. Hopefully, I will find enough.
8/20/2004:
--I've received a translated script from Takamichi Suzukawa (of Snatcher, Metal Gear 2, and many more translations fame) and have proceeded to do preliminary formatting on it so that it can be inserted into the UK ROM. I'm using the UK ROM becuase it already has the english alphabet font inserted and that saves me time.
--The current step is to examine the script for 92 of the largest, most common, words in the script for use in what Takamichi calls the 'dictionary'. The game uses certain hex values as variables to represent a full word or phrase that should be inserted at the point that the variable appears in the message script. This part is important becuase so far the full script is 12969 bytes long and must be inserted into a space in the ROM that is only roughly 6064 bytes long. Here lies the crux of this project. I have determined that ROM expansion is nearly impossible (much like NES ROMs) for this game due to the inherent limits of the table addressing system. If the 'dictionaries' can be used at maximum efficiency this project will likely see completion. I am hopeful and determined that this be the case.
--Next, IF the script can be crammed in I will distribute a beta version to a couple of people to test it (I will be testing it myself as well). There WILL be problems with non-transceiver messages as I do not have any save states or normal saves at these points to get the size parameters of the various on-screen message windows. This will be the first job. Also, there might be some address errors in the table I produce, so I'll need to get which message the problem is on and readdress it. All the normal transciever messages should work fine in the beta.