$$$$$ $ $ $$$$ $ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$$$$ $ $ $$ $$ $$$$$ $$ $$ $$$$$ $ $ $ $$$$$$$ $ $$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$ $$ $$$$$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$$ $$ $$ $$ $$$$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$$$$ $$ $$ $$ $$$ $$ $$ $ $$$ $$ $$ $ $$$$$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$$$$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$$ $$ $$$ $$ $$$$$$ $$ $$$$$$$ $$ $$$$$$$$ $$$$$$ $ $$ $$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ $ $ $$ $ $$ $ $$ $$ $ $$ $$$$$ $$$ $$$$ $$$$$ $$ $$$ $$$$$$ $$$ $$$$ $$$$$ $$ $$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $$ $ $ $$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $$ $$ $ $ $ $ $ $$$$ $$ $ $ $$ $$ $ $ $ $ $$$$ $$ $$ $ $ $ $ $ $$ $ $ $$ $$ $ $ $ $ $ $$$$ $$ $$$ $ $ $ $$$$$ $$ $$$ $ $$ $$ $$$ $ $ $$$$$ Family Pinball English to Japanese Translation v. 1.00 -------------------------- DEDICATION & INSPIRATION --------------------------- This translation is dedicated to the people who have released translations for games that I poked around in and wanted to do, but didn't, due to lack of skill, lack of time or lack of motivation. Thanks to them, I can play the games in English with much less frustration than would otherwise have been required. Sliver X - Valis Shi Tzu - Magical Doropie Pale Dim - American Dream saito - Dodge Danpei I've been rather obsessed with Canadian indie rock, as of late, particularly revolving around the supergroup Broken Social Scene. As I did the title screen of this game, as well as various other small parts, I listened to a big megamix of BSS, Metric, Stars, Feist and Emily Haines and the Soft Skeletons. Metric is my absolute favourite artist, at the moment, and the gateway that got me listening to the other artists mentioned, so I'll go with her lyrics. Choose the highest bidder / was my answer when they told me I was up for sale. / Schoolyard / Junior high style / Bullies have always tried / to buy the better girls. -Metric "Soft Rock Star" ------------------------------ 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 -------------------------------- Family Pinball is a four player game with four different modes. There is a traditional pinball machine with a Pacman theme, a battle mode (offering three different tables) in which your opponent and yourself try to knock the ball past each other's flippers at opposite ends of the table, a sports mode which is similar to battle mode except with soccer and hockey themes, and a pachinko mode. Rather than simply referring to the players as Player 1 - 4, each player also gets to select a representative from amongst six Namco characters, only one of which ever made it to an American release. Family Pinball is one of several games that Namco aimed at getting families to play games together. Other games in the series include Family Tennis, Family Jockey and Family Mahjong. -------------------------------- VERSION HISTORY ------------------------------- v. 1.00 - March 01, 2009 What's Complete - all in-game text translated - minor graphics hacks (title screen, newspaper graphics) What's Incomplete - nothing of which I am aware ------------------------------ DISTRIBUTION NOTES ------------------------------ This Family Pinball translation should be distributed in a file named fpine100.zip and should contain the following files: fpine100.ips - the translation patch fpine100.txt - this readme file fpin-man.txt - a manual for the game These files are released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial- -Share Alike 3.0 license. This means that you are free to copy, distribute and transmit these files in any manner you see fit, as long as you do so in a non- commercial manner and attribute the author. Additionally, you are permitted to modify this work as long as you release your modifications under the same Creative Commons license. For more information, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ Family Pinball is (C)opyright 1989 by Namco Ltd. & Artman Inc. ------------------------------- TECHNICAL NOTES ------------------------------- At one time, I was going through a video pinball phase where I played as many pinball games for console systems as I could find. It was at this time that I decided it would be fun to translate a pinball game, something that isn't done very often. (Or at all, to the best of my knowledge.) I happened across this game, with it's multiple modes, and found it highly enjoyable. Thus a project was born. There are no major liberties taken with the translation. Everything follows the spirit of the original text, if not the literal meaning. Due to space constraints, Tarosuke, Kagekiyo and Valkyrie's names were shortened to Taro, Kage and Valkyre respectively. Also, on the newspaper screen that follows the battle and sports modes, I removed a vertical line along the right edge, so as to avoid having to shorten Valkyrie's name even further. The primary font used in the title is a slightly modified version of Alba Super. The world Family is in the Wide Latin font. There are two uppercase fonts in the translation. One is the original and the other was inserted by me. The second font is identical to the first except that each letter is one pixel lower than in the original. To be honest, it has been more than three years since I inserted that font, so I'm not entirely sure as to what was my reasoning. I am assuming that I felt the font looked better when shifted down a pixel but perhaps there were certain parts of the game which were already in English and didn't look as good, so rather than screw up those parts, I simply inserted a second uppercase font, since there was plenty of room to do so. On a random note, there is a TILT DANGER graphic in the ROM that is unused as far as I can determine. Despite constantly pushing the bump buttons, I've never caused the game to go into tilt, so I assume this feature was never implemented. Also, upon successfully completing the pachinko game, you will receive a message with a code to use at the title screen. I have tried this several times but have been unable to get anything to occur. Special thanks to Sliver X for moving the pinball graphic in the title screen so that it now dots the I. Recommended Emulator: Family Pinball utilizes Mapper 4, thus it should run in any emulator that has advanced beyond the most primative stages. I prefer FCE Ultra, but you may have another preference. GoodNES calls this ROM 'Family Pinball (J).nes'. Your best bet for locating the ROM is to check a full GoodNES archive, though you should import the original cartridge from a shichiya (Japanese for pawn shop) for the sake of legality. ------------------------------------ STAFF ------------------------------------ Hacking ------- InVerse Sliver X Translation ----------- BRPXQZME Darth Nemesis Mew Seeker Ryusui ------------------------------------ TOOLS ------------------------------------ The following tools were used for this translation: WindHex: hex editing Translhextion: relative searching Tile Layer Pro: graphics hacking & font insertion GiMP: title screen design Nesticle: minor tweaks on title screen LunarIPS: patch creation Most of these tools, as well as ROM hacking tutorials, can be downloaded from ROM Hacking dot Net (http://www.romhacking.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 fpinball.gb and the patch was named fpine100.ips you would type: ips fpinball.nes fpine100.ips Make sure you have the ROM, the patch and IPS in the same directory. To patch with Lunar IPS, simply select the patch you wish to apply, the ROM you wish to apply it to and Lunar IPS will do the rest. ------------------------------ CONTACT INFORMATION ---------------------------- The official Family Pinball English translation home page is currently located at http://www.suicidaltranslations.com 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