Welcome back to the site. If you visit the site regularily you’ll have noticed that it was completely unreachable for about a week. This was caused by a complete data loss on the romhacking.net server were this page is also hosted. You can read a bit about what happened at this news site. To summarize it briefly, the webhosting company hosting that server and thousands of others was attacked by hackers. We’re back in action again now at least after Nightcrawler, RHDN’s site admin took care of the most imporant underlying technical issues. Some things still aren’t working, such as E-mails being sent from the server, so I disabled comments on this site for now to be on the safe side. I’ll let you know when comments are enabled again.

The last backup of RHDN and this site was from early April, so every post and comment since then has been lost and they can’t be recovered. I salvaged the FAQ post at least from google’s cache and turned it into a page, which you can access through the navigation bar.

This incident was only related to the website, rest assured that it didn’t affect any hacking work. We all have our files stored locally. I hope you didn’t thought we were all hit by meteors. Although at our current luck level it might not be so unlikely…

Update: Comments are enabled again for this post and from now on. I decided against opening them up again for all the old posts, they are old news anyway.

Posted by KaioShin at 2:46pm
7 Comments »

Woah, has it been three months already since the last post? Time sure flies by. We meant to write something for quite some time now, but you know how it is… there’s stuff to do, games to play and translations to finish. Despite our silence work has been steady and progress has been amazing on many fronts. I’d hope at some point you people would trust us on that instead of declaring us dead.

So what’s up?

Script translation and preliminary editing of SRW J is complete! Hackingwise the game has been very advanced for a long time already. We have a new editor on the team who is giving the whole script a second edit to make it shine as much as possible. His name is Deets and this second edit is also already well under way. I realize many of you would be happier with a raw beta release now and a polished translation later, but we decided against it. We’d like to present you with a truly professional translation that’ll make us proud and all of you happy. Please have some patience and bear with us, the end result will be worth it.

Tales of Innocence is also going excellently. The story event portion of the script has been completely translated leaving only the skits left to go. I’m damn excited myself to see this finished soon. For more information and screenshots, see Absolute Zero’s site.

In other, even greater news, I have the honour to announce three new projects to the public. Yes ladies and gentlemen, three! They have been worked on in the background quite some time already (one of them for half a year), but we feel the time is finally right to make them official. If you follow the comments and the board at romhacking.net you might have already known about some of them.

Oriental Blue
This GBA RPG is a spin-off of the famous Tengai Makyou series. Tom will be translating it and Kingcom is taking care of the hacking. It has actually quite far progressed already, with the translation progress reaching past the 50% mark.

Super Robot Wars F
After Tyria finished translating SRW J it was time for a new project of course! He’s currently translating the PSX version of SRWF. The hacking is still in early stages, but there has been great progress already. Compared to SRW J the script isn’t even that big, so maybe this one won’t take Tyria too long.

Super Robot Wars D
Another SRW? Yes, we’re totally serious. This one won’t be translated by Tyria however since he is obviously already busy. Another translator who’d like to stay anonymous at this point, is handling this script. It’s the predecessor to SRW J, so it’s not as spectacularily looking, but most people agree it has the superior storyline among the two games.

That’s all for now, rest assured there has been steady progress on all of our projects. If I didn’t mention one specifically, assume that no news is good news. Not all of our translations are as insanely fast as Tom or Tyria. We’ll bring up these projects again when they reach major milestones.

Posted by KaioShin at 9:17pm
37 Comments »

The Romhacking Aerie wishes every loyal fan and casual visitor a Merry Christmas!

Unfortunately we can’t offer you any surprise releases, but at least we have some news for you.

The Devil Children project got a huge progress boost - The preliminary formatting has been officially finished as of yesterday! I’ve played through the whole game and formatted the text along the way. We now have a very clear picture of what work is left to be done and we’ll get right to it. Beta testing for this project will start soon!

In other news, Super Robot Wars J is now translated up to Mission 45 (of 52). We’re very close indeed. Don’t forget there is still lot’s of editing to be done before it’s ready for beta though.

Last but not least, be sure to check out Absolute Zero’s blog today for a surprise on the Tales of Innocence project.

We’d like to thank everyone who commented on our site so far for the continued support. Our work wouldn’t be possible without you guys! Stay with us and you won’t be disappointed.

Now, go celebrate Christmas with your family and enjoy the holidays.

Until next year,
KaioShin

Posted by KaioShin at 1:46pm
48 Comments »

Tom has been on steroids recently and completely finished the script translation of Devil Children: Ice Book! This is a major milestone for the project and one that’s sure to point the way for more good news. Next up for this project will be finishing the hacking and formatting the text (sadly no auto formatter for this one). I already started on the later part a little bit, but there are also still tons of hacking issues to sort out too.

There already has been major hacking progress recently. Kingcom rewrote the game to use 1 Byte text instead of 2 Byte SJIS, which fixed our lingering naming storage issues. It destroyed just about everything else, but hey, it’s all a matter of time. Furthermore the naming screen has also been hacked. That’s a major step since it should be one of the most difficult to hack menus in the game. Other menu fixes are too numerous to list, but we’re getting there.

It’s coming along nicely!

Another matter I’d like to address is that we get asked a ton about what’s the progress on Project XYZ. We write updates on this site for a reason, to keep you informed. When we don’t mention a project than there is propably nothing exciting to report about. Most are in translation, and translating takes a lot of time. We can only hack one game at a time, so sometimes we make a ton of progress on one game and not a single bit of progress on other projects. This is completely normal and doesn’t mean we abandoned any of the other projects. It also doesn’t affect how long it takes for the other projects to be released, since the part that holds them up is usually the translation and not the hacking. When there is something to report you’ll read about it here. So please, reduce the redundant “Nice news but how is the other one?” comments.

Last but not least there is apparently a bit of confusion about which persons are working on which project. Otherwise no one would ask Tom how the translation of Xenosaga is going … To redeem that we created a project overview page. There you’ll find the people that are associated with each project and where the project stands.

Project Overview Page

That’s it for today and I hope you’re as excited about DC as I am! Progress form my side will be a bit slow for a couple of days, but you can blame that on Fallout 3. Absolutely the best game released this whole year so far. Shit! It’s that good >_< I need days with 30 hours each please…

Posted by KaioShin at 9:03pm
47 Comments »

It’s been a while, isn’t it? We didn’t die, quite on the contrary, we have a ton of progress to report on several projects’ fronts. We just didn’t feel like writing much. Fortunately you aren’t e-mail bombing us when we don’t post something for three days unlike the poor Mother 3 guys. *ahem* On to the news!

Image editor post:

I’d like to thank everyone who volunteered to help. A lot of people sent in the first batch of trial images, that really surprised us. The second one was a bit harder and only two people replied with an edited one. I guess we were pretty demanding after all. In the end we decided to give the post to death_seraph. Welcome to the team! I’ll try to have screenshots with his work in action soon.

Super Robot Wars Judgement:

Unfortunately, the editor we had presented to you in the last update left shortly afterwards due to time constraints. Not all is lost though, since we got a competent replacement just a few days ago. The new editor is YuushaFan, a friend of our translator Tyria. The very good news is that he seems to be as insanely fast as Tyria. I’m positive we’ll see lots of exciting progress on the editing soon.
The translation is progressing smoothly as well. Last I heard everything to mission 20 or so is already translated. Kingcom hopes to crack the last few remaining hacking issues soon as well.

Devil Children:

Translation is about a good 70% done. Story dialogue is already completed, what’s left is misc stuff like devil descriptions. Tom promised to have the translation finished soon! I have been working on the hacking again too, fixing a ton of minor menu problems. Kingcom helped out too, so we’re looking at good progress here. The game is a convulted mess though (only programming wise of course), so there is still lot’s to do.

Tales of Innocence:

Hacking should be mostly complete and the translation is progressing smoothly. You can find more detailled progress reports on Absolute Zero’s blog.

Xenosaga & Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei:

No news is good news. Translations are progressing smoothly.

Magical Vacation:

One of the two translators vanished. I don’t know what’s up with him, but I haven’t heard from him or seen him online in 2 months or so now. Anororn is making slow but steady progress though. The translation might progress somewhat slower, but it IS progressing. If someone else would like to fill the blank and help out with the translation contact me.

I’m also still looking for a translator for the Shin Megami Tensei GBA remake! If anyone is interested, you know where to find me. The game is awesome, it really needs to be translated!

Posted by KaioShin at 12:14pm
30 Comments »

KaioShin here, long time no see.

I was enjoying my extended period of laziness when Kingcom finally threatened to take away my loli porn collection, so I was forced back into action. I’ve resumed work on Devil Children since the translator will be finally ready to start translating the script soon.

The main reason I’m writing this news post is to bring to your attention that we’re really in dire need of an image editor or two to help us with our projects. We’re both not artsy types of people. Just thinking about Photoshop gives me a headache and I’m not sure if Kingcom has ever even used it at all.
We’d like someone to join our group as a permanent image editor for helping with our various projects. The work would involve creating small graphics, usually with text, for us to integrate into the translations. The size can go from a small 16×16 sign to a whole title screen. If you’re good with text graphics and you’d like to help, PLEASE contact us.

What we could offer someone as a member of the group:

• Access to early WIP and BETA builds of our projects
• Our projects get done faster
• A warm fuzzy feeling for helping out
• Do I dare say it… fame?

If you’d be good for the job you propably know what the work involves. We aren’t slave drivers (unless Kingcom gets a mean streak again) and are really quite nice guys to work with. Just get in touch with us and you’ll see.

If you’re interested drop us a comment and a means to reach you and we’ll contact you with instant messaging or IRC details.

On another more project related note, we also uploaded a new video about SRWJ to Youtube. As you might recall from the initial project announcement it was planned that no other than Gideon Zhi would be the script editor for the project later on. But since he has been really busy for months now and he even started to outsource his own SRW projects to other editors it was clear that we’d need to find someone else if the game were to be released sometime in this millennium. We now found a promising volunteer who will try his hand at the editing of the 3MB monster script. As a sample of his work he already edited the introduction of the game. The new video on youtube shows that ingame. Enjoy!

Last but not least, there have been volunteers for the translations of Magical Vacation and Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei! The scripts have been sent out, let’s hope for the best and good news on those projects front’s soon.

Posted by KaioShin at 6:29pm
15 Comments »

I’m proud to announce the latest and most recent project, Tales of Innocence! It’s a collaboration with throughhim413 from Absolute Zero, who also translated Tales of Phantasia for PSX last year. Even though the project is still a young one, a lot has already been accomplished. But see for yourself on the screens at the bottom!

Additionally, KaioShin decided to take care of finishing xdaniel’s Kururin Paradise translation, so he is working on something, too, now. The game has a fair amount of graphics that need editing, and if anyone would like to help with them, we would be very grateful.

But now it’s time for the screens!

Posted by Kingcom at 2:20am
28 Comments »

Quite a bit has happened since the last update! Starting with the best, Tyria finished translating Super Robot War J’s battle text! Just a bit less than 1mb, which is over 1300 pages of text. Taking that into account, the translation progress is now at about 35%. Additionally, I made a few other hacks, so now it’s even more playable. You can play up to mission 10 without encountering any Japanese text!

And the innocent looking graphic up there took two hours of work. Animations can really screw with you. Well, at least there aren’t that many animated text segments, and I now know how to edit the sprite data easily.

There’s also lots of progress on Xenosaga 1&2. Since the translator is a bit busy right now the script translation is only progressing slowly, but that doesn’t hinder the programming aspects, does it? The VWF works now (quite a beast, but very easy), as well as dumping and inserting all types of text back into the game. There were other additional tweaks as well.

KaioShin also updated the About Page to reflect the recent developments on the site.
By the way - we’re still looking for translators for Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei (SNES), Shin Megami Tensei (GBA) and Magical Vacation (GBA). Please spread the word and point people you know who might be interested in translating in our direction.

Posted by Kingcom at 10:54am
31 Comments »

Some of you may already know me, but I’m Kingcom, the one who joined during Dragon Quest Monsters. I’ve done most of the work of our current projects, and I’m proud to announce some major progresses today!

First and foremost, Xenosaga 1&2. We now got a competent and motivated translator for it who already started his work! We’re grateful for the help, especially since it’s such a beast to translate. On the left is a first sample screen, although still without a VWF.

The game still needs a lot of programming, both assembly and for my programs, but I’m happy to work on it, seeing as it’s a fantastic remake of two fantastic games. I will try to do the best I can for this game!

Of course, that wasn’t all for today. Next is Super Robot Wars J.
First, the translation is coming along steadily. It’s now at about 24%. And then, the hacking. I did a lot of the ugly work last weekend, and the last real gameplay relevant major hack, the naming screen, is now completed! A lot of other stuff as well, but nothing to write home about. There’s a screen for this one as well.

By the way, I also welcome dds in our group!

Posted by Kingcom at 10:36pm
30 Comments »

dds from the Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei translation project joined our ranks at the Aerie!

His project fits perfectly into our translations line-up and his work is absolutely top-notch. When he read about the founding of our group he immediately asked to join and we gladly accepted. Of course we adopted his project and together we’ll make sure to see it to a completion that can easily hold up to professional standards.

The game is a SNES remake of the first two Megami Tensei games, originally released for the NES. The script of part one is already roughly translated, but could use a proof-read from a Japanese expert. The script for MT2 is still in need of translation. If you want to help out - head over to the Help Wanted page and grab a sample. The remaining text is about 600kb.

On the hacking side, as I mentioned before, the work dds already did is most impressive. Two vwfs and several menu hacks are already implemented.

We proudly welcome dds into our little group!

Here is what he has to say about the join:

“I’m honored that KaioShin and Kingcom have allowed me to join them in the Romhacking Aerie. The only project I have is Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei, but after seeing their desire to translate more Megami Tensei games, it seemed like a good idea to bring them all together. I will do my best to provide a top-quality translation, and to be as much help as I can.”

The future for the Aerie is definitely looking bright. Look forward to news from dds about the Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei translation.

Btw: We also added a script sample for Xenosaga 1+2 (NDS) to the Help Wanted Page. If you’re a Japanese to English translator and you’d like to see this game in English, contact us!

Posted by KaioShin at 7:36pm
5 Comments »