nikfrank/girsah-adumah

pokemon red verion hebrew translation

this project serves as a translator shim for https://github.com/pret/pokered the disassembly project

it assumes that ../pokered/ is available in a next door directory

when you run node write.js, it will run child-processes which

• split & check out a build branch in ../pokered/
• use sed to replace user facing strings in the .asm files
• call make to generate a build output .gbc file
• copy the build output to the build directory (in this project)
• commit the translated .asm files to the build branch
• check out the master branch ../pokered/, returning to original state

you can then copy the .gbc file to ../pokered/pokered.gbc and vba will use your existing save states in the newly translated copy!

getting started

(( notes on installing pokered, gbc software ))

running the front end

in one shell

cd front

npm i

npm start

to run the (create react app) front end

in another shell

cd server

npm i

node .

to run the (express) server app

the front end will be available at localhost:3000

from there you can write translations and save them to your local copy

contributing

after translating text through the front end, translations will be saved in the ./translation/transfers.json file

feel free to fork this repo, push your translations, and make a PR to contribute to the overall translation effort

similarly, improvements to the front end / translation shimmer / whatever are welcome as PRs

build output

builds are timestamped for uniquification purposes, and share the timestamp value (in epoch millis) with the build branch generated in the ../pokered/ project

build output is .gitignored

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quirks

put the @ on the same side of the text

eg

TIME@

translates to

@ ז מ ן

the @s are markers for the text rendering engine, not parts of language

they need to end up in the same "place on the screen"

which is to say, usually on the right side (after English text, before Hebrew)

if you put it on the wrong side, the engine will render nothing!

---

currently the translation writer only supports replacing text with the exact same number of lines, rendered in the same fashion (scrolling, wait for user input to scroll, ...)

this could be programmed to allow more flexibility in translations, but for now is a creative constraint.

---

the GHOST text for Cubone's mother in the poketower is not possible to translate except by hand

this is an edge case and I will take reasonable PRs to work around it.

the code which does this is in ./engine/battle/core.asm at line 6839 for anyone interested

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be careful translating menus which rely on text positioning!

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if you're not happy with the front end and want to translate by hand, the translations in Hebrew are stored backwards as left to right strings - as they are rendered left to right in the game and are therefore correct

you may be used to text rendering RTL for Hebrew, then switching for parentheses or numbers confusing you and your immigrant friends

this game doesn't have any support for RTL, so it will render everything LTR

the front end exists largely as a workaround for this

when you open the JSON file, your text editor will likely render the Hebrew RTL, and therefore it will read backwards. such is life.

futureproofing

the idea of using a shim is that the core project will evolve and improve, and people may wish to render translated copies of future versions

also, there's no reason it wouldn't be possible to translate romhack alternate versions using this shim - if there are any added texts, use node read.js to read strings out of the assembly source to become available in the front end.

or to fork this project and use a similar technique to translate other games

previous attempts recognition

https://github.com/Nog-Frog/pokered-girl/ has many translated strings but has not kept up with the core project from when it was forked... it also has translated images (and a girl as the main character), all of which I intend to make available in this project (imagine node write.js --girl to build in nekava)

https://github.com/LIJI32/pokeadom has the typewriter effect for RTL text, which I would like to merge into this project as well.

to avoid the effect running LTR on RTL text, the ./hebrew-support.patch applied during build shortcircuits the function which plays the effect so all text appears simultaneously

my forebearers have shown wisdom and grace in leaving me space to prove myself.