Translation v1.0 (SLPM 86023)
Contents
1) Introduction
2) How to apply the patch
3) Notes
3.0 - Attribute icons
3.1 - Translation choices
3.2 - Spoken lines with no text
4) Known bugs
5) FAQ
6) History
7) Special thanks
8) Credits & contacts
1) Introduction
The original project for this patch was born as an Italian translation back in Febrary 2007, when a friend of
mine proposed me to take a look at the Japanese Symphony of the Night for a brief translation. Turns out, it
wasn't really that brief and the whole thing took over 5 months to complete, but it was done in the end.
By the time the project was complete I started doing stuff about this game with throughhim413, who also
happens to be the translator who has worked with me on the Tales of Phantasia translation. This is actually
the first collaboration project we did, but it has been sitting on my desk for over 2 years... Until a few months
ago, when I asked Tom (the Innocent Sin translator) to help me edit the script.
When everything on the text side was done only the code issues where left. Unfortunately the tools I made
for this project are very rough, so I was forced into adapting the hell out of it to work fine with the English
translation. The good news is that everything related to the game's code was more or less easy to redo
thanks to Kingcom's assembler, not to mention all the notes I have floating on my disk.
And I guess this is really all for a project that took almost 2 years to complete, but in reality it has been
worked on for actually 3 weeks, more or less. :p
2) How to apply the patch
In order to fully understand this procedure you have to know a little about backup copies, otherwise go
Google (especially to find the necessary programs) and then come back here. That said, let's go for the
procedure:
- First of all, you need about 560 MB on your hard disk, or the dump procedure will fail and you will run out of
space;
- Create the game's ISO using one of the many disc rippers around the net (example: Alcohol 120%,
CDRWin, or ImgBurn – last one being free by the way). If you are using Alcohol 120%, be sure to use the
Playstation profile and uncheck any option regarding sub-channels;
- You should have a .bin or .img file somewhere in your disk, and it's time to patch it;
- Open PPF-o-Matic 3.0 (the patcher) and use the browse buttons to complete the 2 file fields, the first with
the ISO path, the second with the patch path;
- Click on "Patch it!" and wait until the process is complete (takes about 1-2 minutes on fast hard discs and
decently fast processors);
- Once it's done, close the patcher and open your favorite image burning program, select the cue+bin/img file
to burn and prepare a blank disc for the recording. If you are intentioned to run the game on an emulator, you
don't really need this step and I guess you know this better than I do;
- Play!
IMPORTANT NOTE: The patch can only be applied to the very first print of the game (not the one which
comes with the OST CD and the manga), with ID code SLPM 86023. Don't even try using PAL or NA disks.
3) Notes
Attribute icons
As you may have noticed, there are icons in the bestiary to indicate weaknesses, etc... to each monster in
the list. Some of these icons we used could be a bit difficult to guess (the 8x12 font didn't really allow us to
do much in this regard :P), so we decided to add here a little section to explain what each of them
corresponds to:
In order: slash, holy, fire, water, ice, physical, poison, curse, stone, thunder and darkness.
Translation choices
Since this is a retranslation meant to fix all the weird stuff you could see in the original (and in the official
"retranslation" included in Dracula X Chronicles) we decided to revert all the glossary to what it was
supposed to be. We only kept a very few wrong spellings because they're actually confirmed to be that way
on purpose. So Belmont is not Belmondo, Renard is not Learned, Olrox is not Orlock (tho this is a special
case where the Japanese spelling doesn't match). As for the dialogues, we went for a full 1800 styled
English, which explains why some dialogues don't flow like regular modern English. As for items, enemies,
and such we went for a full faithful translation aimed at getting all the references corrected, instead of making
up or changing stuff around like Konami did (come on, Crissaegrim?). We did have to change a few things to
make them sound less broken in English, but that's no news when you're trying to make your work look good.
Spoken lines with no text
There are some part of the game where familiars take the lead and start talking, but they don't have any text
captions to indicate what they're saying. Most of the time, they aren't really telling you anything important, but
there are a couple instances when they do and they help you a lot in progressing (unless you already know
what you're doing):
1) The two fairies and breakable walls: the music stops and they tell you there's something wrong about a
wall. It means there's a breakable wall, ceiling, or floor very near to you;
2) The flying demons and the button: this triggers when you're in the path to the catacomb (and the reversed
version of it) and you're near an unreachable button. They will basically say "What if I press this button ...?" o
"This button hasn't been pressed yet.";
3) Fairies in the dark: the last event triggers in the dark room in the catacomb area. The regular fairy will say
"Remember that are are creatures who can live just fine in the darkness", while the half-fairy will say "In
cases like this, transform into you-know-what!".
4) Known bugs
KillaB mentioned a problem with Shaft's battle and his second dialogue. You can see his portrait zooming in
and out like crazy, but that seems to happen only when there are too many polygons on screen. I couldn't
reproduce this bug myself on real hardware, so I'm assuming it's something totally random caused by
graphics allocation.
If you happen to find bugs on real hardware of any kind (as long as they're related to the translation), be sure
to contact us describing exactly what's wrong and how you got to trigger the bug.
5) FAQ
Q: My ISO with ID code SLPM 86023 doesn't seem to be compatible with the patch. Is there anything I can
do?
A: If the ISO you have was dumped from the second print of the game (the one with OST and manga)
there's an xdelta patch in the project page which can turn your ISO into the one compatible with the
translation. The transformation package also includes instruction for applying the patch, in case you were
wondering how to apply it. Once it's all patched you can go back to the regular procedure and have your
english Dracula X. To see if your ISO is the correct one, compress the main executable (file SLPM_860.23 in
the root folder) and check its CRC value. If it's 640E976A then you have the correct version.
Q: The program I'm using to apply the patch says my ISO's size doesn't match the one expected. Can I still
apply the patch?
A: Yes, it's completely fine. Some dump files seem to create ISO in a different way, so they might have more
or less dummy sectors, but it's nothing you should be concerned about. Those aren't even used by the game
nor the burning programs, and thus can be ignored.
Q: I don't own the game. Do you have any link to download it?
A: No, and go buy it.
Q: I'd like to redistrubuite the patch on eMule or whatever P2P. Can I do that?
A: We appreciate that, but it's better not. While it's fine to save bandwidth and have at least one mirror, it's
really unnecessary in this case. Our site has no bandwidth problems and so do all our mirrors, not to mention
the fact that the new link would become obsolete whenever we'd release a new and improved build of the
patch.
Q: Can I release a pre-patched version of the game on emule or any other P2P?
A: No, and please don't do it. It is highly illegal to release hacked versions of games, probably even more
than releasing the unpatched games themselves.
Q: Can I sell the translated game on eBay?
A: Of course, not. As for the previous entry, please contact us if you see any copy of the translated game
floating on eBay. Even with the anti-eBay/piracy logo, some bastards just can't resist from making easy
money on completely free stuff.
Q: Are the old saves compatible with the translated game?
A: Yes, completely.
Q: Can you help me to translate Dracula X into my own language?
A: Sorry, but no. I'm not interested, especially if you intend to start from throughhim's script.
6) History
-Version 1.0 (06/09/2009): first public build.
7) Special thanks
-DarknessSavior, I.S.T, and KillaB for the quick beta testing;
-Shito (aka Gualtiero Cannarsi) for helping me understand the most obscure names for weapons and
monsters.
-Konami for creating this excellent game, even if they should have probably asked IGA not to write the code
because it looks like coming from a monkey's butt.
8) Contacts
- Gemini: Hacker and programmer;
- throughhim413: translator;
- Tom: editor and support translator.
Project blog news: http://gemini.aerdan.com/
Project page: http://gemini.aerdan.org/forums/index.php?board=13.0