$$$$$ $ $ $$$$ $ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$$$$ $ $ $$ $$ $$$$$ $$ $$ $$$$$ $ $ $ $$$$$$$ $ $$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$ $$ $$$$$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$$ $$ $$ $$ $$$$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$$$$ $$ $$ $$ $$$ $$ $$ $ $$$ $$ $$ $ $$$$$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$$$$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$$ $$ $$$ $$ $$$$$$ $$ $$$$$$$ $$ $$$$$$$$ $$$$$$ $ $$ $$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ $ $ $$ $ $$ $ $$ $$ $ $$ $$$$$ $$$ $$$$ $$$$$ $$ $$$ $$$$$$ $$$ $$$$ $$$$$ $$ $$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $$ $ $ $$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $$ $$ $ $ $ $ $ $$$$ $$ $ $ $$ $$ $ $ $ $ $$$$ $$ $$ $ $ $ $ $ $$ $ $ $$ $$ $ $ $ $ $ $$$$ $$ $$$ $ $ $ $$$$$ $$ $$$ $ $$ $$ $$$ $ $ $$$$$ Shi Kin Jou (Forbidden City) English to Japanese Translation v. 1.00 -------------------------- DEDICATION & INSPIRATION --------------------------- This translation is dedicated to Bongo' even though he kept "forgetting" to actually attempt to decompress the font. I figure he's done enough other things for "the scene" to warrent it anywayz, so there you go. Now if he'd just get up off his lazy ass and learn a worthwhile programming language, he might be able to do something useful. I'd say that I was listening to Tori Amos' covers album Strange Little Girls as I was hacking this game but since that album hasn't come out at the time of this release, that would be admitting to pirating it, which is wrong. So we'll just pretend like I was listening to the 3 track demo that was sent to radio stations, even though the Depeche Mode cover I'm quoting isn't actually on said demo. All I ever wanted / All I ever needed is here, in my arms / Words are very unnecessary / they can only do harm. - Tori Amos "Enjoy The Silence" ------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------------ I. Dedication & Inspiration II. Table of Contents III. Introduction IV. Version History V. Distribution Notes VI. Technical Notes VII. Staff VIII. Tools IX. Patching Instructions (** READ THIS BEFORE ASKING QUESTIONS!! **) X. Contact Information XI. Closing --------------------------------- INTRODUCTION -------------------------------- Shi Kin Jou is an interesting puzzle game where you can play as a Hopping Chinese Vampire, a Cavalier Knight or a Shadowy Ninja in an attempt to escape from the Forbidden City. You do this by matching tiles so that you can open a route to the door and escape to the next level. There are amusing cut scenes interspersed every so often to ease your frustration. This is just a menu patch, as there is no in-game text, but it was far from an easy hack do to the compressed font. See the Technical Notes section for details. -------------------------------- VERSION HISTORY ------------------------------- v. 1.00 - September 03, 2001 What's Complete - all text translated What's Incomplete - Nothing that I'm aware of... ----------------------------- DISTRIBUTION NOTES ------------------------------ This Shi Kin Jou translation should be distributed in a file named skjv100.zip and should contain the following files: skjv100.ips - the translation patch shikinjou.txt - this readme file skj-man.txt - a manual for the game All three files are (C)opyright 2001 by Suicidal Translations. All rights reserved. You may distribute this translation in any manner you desire as long as the original archive remains intact with no modifications and the archive is distributed free of charge. Shi Kin Jou is (C)opyright 1991 by TOEI Animation. ------------------------------- TECHNICAL NOTES ------------------------------- The translation is pretty much 100% accurate to the original meaning. The only minor exception is that there wasn't room for Chinese Hopping Vampire so I just stuck with the shorter & simpler Vampire. The font in this game is oddly compressed. It shows up clearly in Nesticle but there's no VRAM so I couldn't hack it that way. When you look at it in a tile editor, the font is hopelessly scrambled in NES mode and in 1Bpp mode there are duplicates of each tile. I also tried viewing the font in 2Bpp on someone's suggestion but it was still scrambled. What I eventually figured out was that by moving the alignment around in Tile Layer, I could isolate individual characters and then edit the character as long as the new tile didn't use anymore color 1 "dots" than the original tile did. Also, for some odd reason, the font would become corrupt if I inserted any tiles that had exactly 5 "dots" on both the right and left sides. More or less on either side and it was fine but 5 on each caused a problem. Well, as you can see, I eventually got all of the tiles I needed inserted. This was possibly the most frustrating hack I've ever done but I'm proud to say that I managed to do it on my own and you can see the results for yourself. Recommended Emulator: Shi Kin Jou works just fine in Nesticle which is my emulator of choice due to the fact that I'm on an extremely slow computer. It will presumably work fine in just about any emulator. ------------------------------------ STAFF ------------------------------------ Hacking - InVerse - http://www.pigtails.net/ST Translating - Tomato - http://www.starmen.net/tomato ------------------------------------ TOOLS ------------------------------------ The following tools were used during this translation: Hexposure: hex editing Tile Layer Pro: font hacking Nesticle: beta testing Patch Maker: IPS patch creation Most of these tools, as well as ROM hacking tutorials can be downloaded from RHDO (http://www.romhacking.org) or Zophar's Domain (http://www.zophar.net). ----------------------------- PATCHING INSTRUCTIONS --------------------------- Patching a ROM is extremely simple. You need three things. A ROM, the patch and a patching program. To patch with ips.exe, you simply type: ips So if your ROM was named shikinjou.nes and the patch was named skjv100.ips you would type: ips shikinjou.nes skjv100.ips Make sure you have the ROM, the patch and IPS in the same directory. To patch with SNES Tool, simply select USE IPS, choose the patch and then select the ROM to which you wish to apply the patch. It's self explanatory. If you can't figure it out, the game is probably too hard for you anywayz. To patch with IPSWin, you simply select the ROM you want to patch, the patch you wish to apply and then click Patch. Once again, if you can't figure it out, the game is probably too hard for you. ------------------------------ CONTACT INFORMATION ---------------------------- The official Shi Kin Jou home page is currently located at http://www.pigtails.net/ST E-Mail addresses concerning the project can be located on the official page. Do NOT, under ANY circumstances, ask for ROMs. You will not only be denied, you will have your request for illegal files forwarded to your ISP. ------------------------------------ CLOSING ---------------------------------- So there you have it. Have fun and remember, it's just a game. -InVerse