Need Help In Translating Game!

[Playbahnosh]

Hella boyz and galz!

I need help in translating Hollywood Pictures from German to English.
If anybody interested in helping me, I'l be so glad!

Please...

[Xinithaous]

As in movies?

[Playbahnosh]

No...

This is a game. A cinema and movie manager game, but the problem is, the game is only released in German language, so inorder to upload it to abandonia, it needs to be translated first...

I've already made the review and the screenshots too, just game is still Grerman, and I need to fix that... :tomato:

So if anybody with a resonable German knowledge and some programming skillz, please report here... :ok:

[Xinithaous]

Well any basic translation can be done via www.google.com/translate_t which will give you a rough guideline LOL. My German is basic and limited! My programming skills are somewhat non-existant

[A. J. Raffles]

I'm half German, but I have no programming skills whatsoever, so I suppose I won't be much help to you either. Sorry.

[Sebatianos]

The knowlade of the language - here I am (couldn't translate it the other way around, I understand much more German then I can actually use).

But for programming skills... :blink:

10 PRINT"You got programming skills!"
20 GOTO 10 UNTIL X=1991 : NEXT
30 PRINT"It's the ninties, you just ran out of your programming skills."

READY.
RUN

[Playbahnosh]

Well, thanks for the replys and posts... :ok:

I just as well do it on my own...
If I finsh it, it will be avalible for download... Wish me luck! :D

Topic closed, thanks for the posts... :ok:

[The Fifth Horseman]

You'll most probably need a deassembler program of some sort.

[Chris]

Please keep us informed about your progress. I'm rather interested in this topic, as there are several good german games that were never translated.

I'm not into programming myself, but if you need help with some translations, just send me the texts. :ok:

[Data]

disambler and/plus hexeditor
depends a bit if the text is in the data files or in the executable

[Playbahnosh]

Most of the texts are on PCX images, I can translate them. bu it goes a bit slow...
About the rest... well... the rest is in the game exe... :angry:
I've translated some of the text in there too with HexWorkshop, but there are many words and sentences, that are LONGER in English than in German... :angry:
This is my BIG problem with this... If I make the text area larger to fit the English text in, A) the texts appear wierd or not at all B) the program refuses to run at all

HEEEEELP!!!! :help:

[Danny252]

you'd probably have to recode it all..

[Playbahnosh]

Originally posted by Danny252@Jun 9 2005, 07:42 PM
you'd probably have to recode it all..
DO WHAT? :omg:

Hey, I'm no programmer, I cannot even reverse engineer it properly...
I disassembled it but no string reference found(not that I'm surprised <_<)...
I even tried to get the strings out with WDASM and IDAG too, but no luck in putting it back in it's place with the English text... The whole thing just falls out of the indexes I think or I just damaged the location address places a bit when I shifted the wole thing over and over again when I made place for the English words... no idea!
I only work with HexWorkshop now... I cannot use WDASM for this one... <_<

If you can tell me how to recode a classic 1995 game, fell free to tell me :bleh:

[Danny252]

maybe this is why they only released it in german, noshie.

[Playbahnosh]

I'm no "noshie" okay, please... :D If any, call me Play! LOL

I don't think there is only German of this becouse of the coding.... :blink:
It CAN be translated becouse I've seen several classic fan-made translations, though I never did it myself...
I only work with windows based apps and games, I never touched a classic game's code before :huh:

Any help here please? :huh:

[Danny252]

well your best bet would be to get the source code (somehow..) and go from there. the code should be editable rather easily.

[Data]

well you either write "smaller" english.
or dissamble the file and figure out how the text is read from the executable. if they push the starting address of the text (and those are easy to find) you can effectively rewrite the whole language table by modifying those addresses so you can have longer strings.

[Playbahnosh]

Originally posted by Data@Jun 9 2005, 09:47 PM
well you either write "smaller" english.
or dissamble the file and figure out how the text is read from the executable. if they push the starting address of the text (and those are easy to find) you can effectively rewrite the whole language table by modifying those addresses so you can have longer strings.
:omg: Do what? Oh boy... :(

Look, I rewrite the texts as short as I can, but some words cannot be written shorter than it is! <_< ex: "idwoche" can only be translated as "this week" :(
and this is just one example, or get "kinocharts" is either "cinema charts" or "theather charts" or lastly "movie charts"... So you know what I'm talking about... <_<

About disassembling: I'm not THAT good in ASM :huh: ... I only started to write trainers and cracks, and I don't know a thing about these classic games coding...
Even if I figure out how the addresses are called for the texts, it would take ages only to rewrite all the indexes and offsets by hand... :crazy:
And I'm definetly unable to rewrite the whole language table, thats way high for me... :unsure:
To present my knowledge, I only written a trainer for the WinXP pinball, and a very basic windows game "Space Hulk SP", and a crack for some utterly basic programs as training(done after 6 tries from scratch)... :(

For the source code: none avalible... The designer company went broke right after publishing the game... :not_ok:

I desperatly need some help here... Need to figure out how to get the texts translated in there... I'll attach the game file here, have a look... :huh:

If anybody has some useful ideas, please let me know...

[Indignus IV]

You're not alone, Play. My programming skills are utterly nonexistant. I didn't understand a word anyone said. All you have is my prayers! :ok:

Its nice to know that u r not a quitter. Nice job! :ok:

[Playbahnosh]

THX Indi! I'm desperarate more than ever. The khm..."management" here rejected my works 2 times earlier, and I'm not gonna let them do it again! :Titan: ( :D )

So, the file is there, I said everything I could... I cannot do much right now, than wait for some advice :unsure:

:help:

EDIT: Come on people, I thought you can help me! Please! :help:

[Data]

well I think you are out of luck

they push the offsets directly on the stack.
I will include a screenshot of the code.

[Data]

and another one

As you can see they push the offset of string on the stack.
this means that if you can not fit the messages in the orignal size you will have to modify all
locations in you executable where this offset is used. The programm I use will show where each message is used though. but it's a lot of work. (you can click on the message and it shows where in the executable code it is called)

[The Fifth Horseman]

Let me say it again: you need a disassembler. This sort of program will de-code the executables into the programming code they were created from. Then the rest should be easier.

[Playbahnosh]

Originally posted by the_fifth_horseman
Let me say it again: you need a disassembler. This sort of program will de-code the executables into the programming code they were created from. Then the rest should be easier.

What you mean is not dissassembling the stuff, it's rather reverse engineering. It's like getting the source code out of the program with code reversion, but I don't know in wich language the program is written, so I cannot get a reversing program for that. IT can be any language form that thousand out there... :(

And, I already said I shredded the program to smitherines with WDASM, but I cannot do much with it without proper ASM knowledge... <_<
I only know how to get some addresses out for trainer creation and some minor cracking stuff, but I'm a real greenhorn in ASM...

Well Data, thanks for the tip and the pic... it looks like I'll have to fit the text in those areas somehow... <_<

If anybody has any more ideas regarding this, I'll be more than happy to hear them :ok:

[Bluntman]

Whooa I LOVED this game back in the days. Can someone hook me up with the full version? My programming skills are non existent, can't help you out with some translations. But the game was great!!

[taikara]

Would it be possible to form a team to work on this project, with Playbahnosh as the head of the project (as it's his idea)?

I see a few people who are good at translating, and a few people who are good at programming. If you guys could work together, you might be able to accomplish more...

Just a suggestion... and it sounds like it could be fun :ok:

[Data]

hehe Well if the game is worth it. ( I never heard about to be honest)

I could modify the executable to use new addresses if somebody would translate it.
But I make no promisses I will first have to make an estimate on how many locations I would have to modify.

Anymore volunteers ?

Well the program seems to be written in C/C++ and compiled with watcom. at least that is what my disambler tells me.

[Playbahnosh]

@blunt

Yeah, its a great game. If I come up with the English version, it will be avalible on Abandonia for free. Sorry but I cant share my half done work with you. It's worth waiting for, I promise! :D

@taikara

Sorry, but I'd like to do this by myself as much as possible. I have some bad memories of "projectwork". I had some great ideas earlier, and I recruited some "willing individuals" to help me. In the end, I got sent back to the end of the line, and they publicized my work as their own. My name was only mentioned in the "others" section... :(
This why I want to do this alone for a change. I never done anything like this before, and I want to finish it myself :D

@Data

Thanks for the help, but I have no idea how to do that... :unsure:
MY programming skills are far behind that, I can't rewrite the program file just like that. But there is only a little amount of text in the exe, and I managed to translate most of them, so I'll manage somehow.

Thanks anyway :D

[taikara]

:blink:

Forgive me if this sounds rude, it's really not meant that way...

But why ask for help if you don't actually want help? hehe :angel:

Anyway, I think it's fairly well documented here that it was your idea, but if you want to work alone, have fun learning how to work with program code teehee :ok:

[Playbahnosh]

Originally posted by taikara@Jun 16 2005, 08:23 AM
:blink:

Forgive me if this sounds rude, it's really not meant that way...

But why ask for help if you don't actually want help? hehe :angel:

Anyway, I think it's fairly well documented here that it was your idea, but if you want to work alone, have fun learning how to work with program code teehee :ok:
Yeah, it sounds rude <_<

And I came here to get some help to get me going, I didn't wanted start a project or a team. And thanks for your closing remark, I appriciate that <_<

If you don't like me, fine, but please don't diss my programming skills. If you don't want to help me why do you tease me about it?

[taikara]

Sorry :unsure:

It's just... if you want help, you're going to have to work with people. You might as well make it organized... and Data really knows his stuff better than pretty much anyone I've met, and he's very trustworthy.

Again, really sorry, I didn't mean anything by it, I was just teasing.

It really will be extremely difficult for anyone to explain what to do if you don't have much experience to build on :(

But I really meant the last remark, and not in a sarcastic way (that's why I used the thumbs up :( ). Just... have fun learning. It can be really frustrating, but personally, I find it fun working with stuff like that.

Well... good luck. :ok:

[Tom Henrik]

This topic is somewhat confusing, Play.


First you ask for help, then you say you don't want help and want to do it on your own.

Look, if you want to get this translation done, you will need to either team up with someone who can rewrite the codes for you (as you've already said you can't do this, and as it is obvious that this needs to be done), or you need to take your time and learn C/C++ programming so that you can do this completely on your own.

There really aren't any other options available.

[Playbahnosh]

Sorry for the confusion, but I had some difficult decisions to make. I asked Data to help me in the programming, and I can do the rest. It will take a long time, but I think I can pull this off.
Why I don't need a team. Sorry experiences, that's why, I told it in another post. I told you I came here to ask some advice on translating the exe, I didn't know it will be THIS complicated :unsure:
So, sorry for the confusion, I hope this will clear thing out... :unsure: