Gleylancer English Translation Patch History ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 061023 Initial release 070809 Second release (no changes, patch version is still 061023) Overview ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a translation patch for the Mega Drive game "Gleylancer". It is yet another "dual-language" patch, meaning that it supports both Japanese and English, depending on the country code of your machine (real or emulated). It uses a true variable-width font and remixed music. (For an explanation of why the latter was necessary, read the hacking notes later on in this file.) Applying the Patch ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hopefully included with this document is a patch file in the IPS format. You can use any program that supports this file format to apply this translation patch to your ROM file. Playing the Game ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once you've patched the ROM file, simply load it up in your favorite Genesis / Mega Drive emulator, console copier, or flash cartridge. The game will detect the country code of your machine (real or emulated) and then switch to English or Japanese mode accordingly. Q & A ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q: This patch doesn't work! What do I do? A: Make sure that your ROM file is not in an interleaved format. It's also possible that there is more than one version of the game, or that your copy is corrupt. Q: It doesn't work with my copier / flash cartridge! Why not? This was tested on a real Genesis so you shouldn't have any problems in that respect. The most likely reason is that something went wrong during the patching process. See the previous question and try it in an emulator to see if that works. Another possibility is that you are using a PAL Mega Drive; this game was designed for NTSC systems and I didn't make any changes in that respect. It should still run (probably at the wrong speed), but you never know... Q: Why is the text in Japanese?!? A: This is a dual-language translation patch; if it detects that it is running on a Japanese system, it will use the original game script. If you are using an emulator, make sure the country code is set to USA. Q: Why aren't the credits translated? A: There are two versions of the credits: one in English and one in Japanese, depending on which ending you got (this is how the original game works). The Japanese credits were not changed, out of respect for the authors of this fine game. List of Changes (not exhaustive) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Corrected a minor error in the original Japanese script Centered Japanese credits properly Variable-width font support added Modified the palettes to increase the number of colors for the font Remixed the opening music theme slightly Re-timed all the text Transliteration Notes ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- All the character names (with one exception) were transliterated the same way that they were written in the manual (in English). KEN*KYABUROKKU Ken Cabrock RU-SHIA Lucia Cabrock RU-SU Rues TE+IMU Teim * EDE+I Eddy OBERON Oberon TE+ITANIA Titania EARIERU Ariel KO-MORAN Cormoran ** KA-N*GARUVA Carn Galva *** * This was spelled "Tim" in the manual, but that just doesn't work as a female name, so I spelled it "Teim", which is also how this same name (for a female) is rendered in the English translation of Phantasy Star II, thus providing of a helpful precedent. ** This is probably intended to refer to the cormorant bird. However, "cormoran" is a legitimate alternative, so I decided to spell it that way because it better represents what was actually written. *** This is pretty obscure, even in English. It's the name of a place in Cornwall. There is a legend about a giant associated with it. A book was written about the subject in Japanese. You may also be interested in knowing that Oberon, Titania, and Ariel are all Shakespearean fairy names and that Titania is Oberon's wife. Hacking Notes ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Remixed music in the opening was a necessity because the story is divided into five distinct sections and the music is synchronized to each of them. While this is a great feature, it has the unfortunate consequence of forcing all the text in each scene to be printed within a certain period of time. It was impossible to fit the English translation into the allotted time periods, and even the original Japanese script seems a bit rushed in places. I changed the timings to make the English text readable and then remixed the music to provide a few more precious seconds of time with which to display the text. Even with the extra time, it took lots of tinkering to make sure everything was properly synchronized and could still be read comfortably. The intro still goes at a pretty fast pace in places, but hopefully most people will be able to read it. Unfortunately, there are limits to what I could do with the music; it could not be extended indefinitely. The "remix" should be indistinguishable from the original, unless you are very familiar with the tune or are systematically comparing them. It mostly involved repeating a few musical phrases here and there. Very little creativity was involved, although I did consider expanding the PSG tracks at one point. The whole remix process took an entire three-day weekend as I had to reverse engineer the music subsystem and write some special tools. Analyzing the music data also took up a lot of time. On the plus side, however, I was able to discover and fix an error in the original score. The mistake was evident based on the timing analysis and by comparing the notes with those played on another track. The mistiming wasn't too obvious in the original anyway, but it was fixed in my version. Be warned that none of the emulators I tested during development had perfect timing. The opening music would get out of synch by a second or two, as compared to a real Genesis / Mega Drive. Some similar sound issues were involved with the ending / credits, which are spaced in such a way that the last musical phrase occurs as the credits stop rolling. The music was not changed, in this case, but getting the translated "bad" ending synchronized was quite a hassle. This was only intended to be a little side project while working on Battle Mania Daiginjou, but perfecting it ended up being a fairly complicated task.