$$$$$ $ $ $$$$ $ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$$$$ $ $ $$ $$ $$$$$ $$ $$ $$$$$ $ $ $ $$$$$$$ $ $$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$ $$ $$$$$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$$ $$ $$ $$ $$$$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$$$$ $$ $$ $$ $$$ $$ $$ $ $$$ $$ $$ $ $$$$$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$$$$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$ $$$ $$ $$$ $$ $$$$$$ $$ $$$$$$$ $$ $$$$$$$$ $$$$$$ $ $$ $$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ $ $ $$ $ $$ $ $$ $$ $ $$ $$$$$ $$$ $$$$ $$$$$ $$ $$$ $$$$$$ $$$ $$$$ $$$$$ $$ $$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $$ $ $ $$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $$ $$ $ $ $ $ $ $$$$ $$ $ $ $$ $$ $ $ $ $ $$$$ $$ $$ $ $ $ $ $ $$ $ $ $$ $$ $ $ $ $ $ $$$$ $$ $$$ $ $ $ $$$$$ $$ $$$ $ $$ $$ $$$ $ $ $$$$$ Kid Niki 3 English to Japanese Translation v. 1.00 -------------------------- DEDICATION & INSPIRATION --------------------------- This translation is dedicated to SnowBro. Not only did I use one of his tools to do the actual work (and would have used another if it worked in XP), I also used him personally. SnowBro is the kewlest Norwegian 6502 assembly hacker in the entire world! Lately, I've been listening to an Everclear compilation that I made myself, so that's what I'll credit with inspiring this particular translation. You know I want to be the way you want me to Big hearted and tall enough to cover you I would break in half if you said it loud Splinter out of myself just like mercury -Everclear "Nervous and Weird" ------------------------------ 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 -------------------------------- Kid Niki 3 is the second sequel to Kid Niki: Radical Ninja, which was released in America in 1987. It's quite an improvement over the first with Niki having added several new moves to his arsenal. In a highly original storyline, Kid Niki must rescue Princess Kurumi from his worst enemy, the evil Stone Wizard! What? That doesn't sound very original? True, but how often does the hero find out that his beloved has been kidnapped via a message written on a paper airplane? Pure genius, I tell you! -------------------------------- VERSION HISTORY ------------------------------- v. 1.00 - February 28, 2003 What's Complete - all text translated - minor graphics hacks (title screen, ending screen and 2 in game quotes) What's Incomplete - nothing that I am aware of ------------------------------ DISTRIBUTION NOTES ------------------------------ This Kid Niki 3 translation should be distributed in a file named kn3e100.zip and should contain the following files: kn3ev100.ips - the translation patch kn3ev100.txt - this readme file kn3-man.txt - a manual for the game kn3-fixed.ips - a patch that corrects the Mapper 19 hack. These files are (C)opyright 2003 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. Kaiketsu Yanchamaru 3 - Taiketsu! Zouringen is (C)opyright 1993 by Irem ------------------------------- TECHNICAL NOTES ------------------------------- There wasn't a whole lot of text in the game, just the introduction to the bonus stage and the ending, along with a couple of graphics, so everything is more or less accurate to it's original meaning. The poor English used when Niki yells WILL HELP YOU! is intentional, based on the opening scene of the original Kid Niki game. The full Japanese title of the game is Kaiketsu Yanchamaru 3 - Taiketsu! Zouringen which literally translates into Swift Hero Yanchamaru 3 - Showdown! Zouringen. I went with Kid Niki rather than Swift Hero Yanchamaru since the game is known in the U.S. as Kid Niki. I was going to add a subtitle of Stone Wizard Showdown but the title screen is a bit of a pain to hack, so I ended up leaving it off. Ok, now for the really technical part. There are 4 different Kaiketsu Yanchamaru 3 ROMs. The original (correct) dump, a bad dump, a Mapper 19 hack and another mapper hack labeled as a Nesticle hack that only slightly differs from the first Mapper 19 hack. So to which ROM do you need to apply the translation patch? Here's the kicker... none of the above. See, the original game uses a mapper that doesn't seem to be emulated properly by any emulator. I tried FCE Ultra, Nesten, NNNesterJ and anything else I could get my hands on and they all had the same problem, an intense hatred of epilepsy sufferers. The game flashes like a disco ball on crack. On the other hand, the Mapper 19 hack fixes the flashing problem, however, upon reaching the final boss, I discovered that the Mapper 19 hack had a problem that the original didn't, the boss graphic was glitched. Enter the all mighty SnowBro. In short, SnowBro ripped the ROM to pieces, figured out what was wrong with the Mapper 19 hack and fixed it. The kn3-fixed.ips file should be applied to the original ROM. This will create a proper Mapper 19 hack. You must then apply the kn3ev100.ips patch to that in order to have a fully translated game. SnowBro also went through hell helping me with the title screen hack. The graphics were uncompressed but the name and attribute tables were apparently put into place by someone smoking Japan's finest crack. I wouldn't understand what exactly he did to fix the problem but suffice to say, he worked hard and deserves more thanks than I can afford to give at the moment. I think he spent more time changing the palette used by about 24 tiles than I did inputing the English text. GoodNES calls the ROM Kaiketsu Yanchamaru 3 - Taiketsu! Zouringen (J). 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 - http://www.pigtails.net/ST SnowBro - http://www.stud.ntnu.no/~kenth/ Translating: Shih Tzu - http://www.flammie.net/vse/ Oogami - Spongeriffic! Huge thanks to SnowBro for all his ASM skills. Thanks to Shih Tzu for the translation of the ending via MO's board and Oogami for the bonus game translation via MSN. Also, thanks to a_nevels666 for the translation of the title screen. ------------------------------------ TOOLS ------------------------------------ The following tools were used for this translation: Hexecute: hex editing Tile Layer Pro: graphics hacking & font insertion IPS XP: patch creation Most of these tools, as well as ROM hacking tutorials, can be downloaded from The Repository (http://www.romhacking.com). ----------------------------- 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 kn3.nes and the patch was named kn3ev100.ips you would type: ips kn3.nes kn3ev100.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 Kid Niki 3 english translation 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