Dragon Quest 1 Mobile Port - More than just a port

[RyuKisargi 683]

Just how hard would it be to take this apart and put in a quickie translation?

[Erdrick The Hero 969]

I was actually going to work with King Zenith and maybe Tom Servo if we could get ahold of him (and he was willing to help) and insert the NES script. Then I found out there are supposedly credits for an english version at the end of the game... So I'm putting it off. If we end up not officially getting it though, it shouldn't be too hard though, as (I think) I found the script, uncompressed, in the iOS version of the game. I need to try opening the file with Shift-JIS encoding though, as currently I just get a ton of random accented latin characters, with obvious pointers thrown in the mix.

 

EDIT: Aaaaaand... With the 1.0.2 update they packaged everything but the music into a .dat file. I was afraid this would happen if I put stuff online...

Edited December 12, 2013 by Erdrick The Hero

[Cain 183]

If you can get the text in a text file, then you can use notepad++ to change the encoding to shift-jis so you can read it. If the dat file isn't compressed then it should be pretty easy to reverse engineer it.

[Erdrick The Hero 969]

You have any idea how? I tried opening it as zip, 7z, and rar and none of those helped, so it really would have to be reverse engineered.

 

I was going to try to allow english name input today, and that's when I found out the update screwed everything up. I can't figure out how to use my old version of the app, it just gets overwritten by the new version.

[Cain 183]

The dat file won't be a common format so it would need to be figured out, hence the need for reverse engineering. The file should contain the file names and the offsets to the start of the files. It may even include file length in case it needs to be padded with null bytes to keep either an even number of bytes, or divisible by a power of 2. You'll need to open the dat file in a hex editor to figure things out.

 

Keep in mind that the individuals files are probably compressed, so even if you can figure out the structure, you'd still need to decompress the files for them to be of any use. Since it's a Java app, it might use gzip compression, which I believe is the default for Java, but SE probably has their own as they have two proprietary libraries in the apk. I also noticed the MANIFEST.MF lists SHA-1 digests for the files in the apk, so if any of the files are altered the MANIFEST.MF file will need to be updated accordingly.

 

EDIT: So I opened up the dat file quick. I'm not sure what the first four bytes are yet, but the first two are probably the number of files and the second two I'm not sure. Following that are the file names. Once you're past the file names, it looks like a pointer table to the files and then the files themselves. string.bin for example looks like it's in uncompressed shift-jis but that's only from looking at it quick. It shouldn't be too hard to write a utility to extract the contents of the dat file into individual files. I only looked at it for a couple minutes though.

Edited December 12, 2013 by Cain

[Destructor526 42]

Strange, I only saw 2 options when I start the game up, not 3. The 2nd option however is the quicksave option so thanks for the help.

 

Already level 13, still didn't try for fighter ring, probably will just rush to fight golem since almost have enough money for that flame sword already.

[King Zenith 641]

EDIT: So I opened up the dat file quick. I'm not sure what the first four bytes are yet, but the first two are probably the number of files and the second two I'm not sure. Following that are the file names. Once you're past the file names, it looks like a pointer table to the files and then the files themselves. string.bin for example looks like it's in uncompressed shift-jis but that's only from looking at it quick. It shouldn't be too hard to write a utility to extract the contents of the dat file into individual files. I only looked at it for a couple minutes though.

 

That's awesome! Do you feel like setting up another project over at Cain's Domain?  I know we can get the translation done quick if you can manage to figure out how to extract and re-insert the stings.bin file (and modify the SHA-1 checksums if needed).

[Dwaine 1,168]

Guys. Two English names in the credits. They worked with Honeywood on Ni no Kuni. One of 'em's been Plus Alpha's editor. Pretty sure an English version is going to manifest.

[Erdrick The Hero 969]

I really want to translate this just to say we could... But Dwaine's right. We're definately getting this.

 

(Though if after the translation comes out the game doesn't automatically switch to english like FF ATB and FF Dimensions do, and/or the north american release is not free, I'd still want to translate this version so I don't have to purchase it seeing as I already have it.)

 

Also, KZ, we'd have to edit nameJA.bin too, I think it's the name input from the beginning of the game. That's what I was trying to insert today when the app decided that it would update and hide all the files.

Edited December 13, 2013 by Erdrick The Hero

[Cain 183]

Guys. Two English names in the credits. They worked with Honeywood on Ni no Kuni. One of 'em's been Plus Alpha's editor. Pretty sure an English version is going to manifest.

Yeah I don't think we'll need to worry about translating it ourselves. I don't really have time for the other game as it is right now anyway, so a second project isn't a good idea. If a couple years go by and we don't have it, then maybe we should consider doing it ourselves. There's other titles that we know we're not getting that could use some attention.

Edited December 13, 2013 by Cain

[Chris 23]

I noticed Hurtmore didn't work against the Dragonlord. It worked on the previous versions or have I gone crazy?

[Dwaine 1,168]

There's other titles that we know we're not getting that could use some attention.

 

This is true. While I'm waiting on a go-ahead for a project that's seem to have stalled, Tom's talked about fixing DQ I+II bugs and releasing a complete version. I'd love to localize that. It'd be quick 'n fun!

[Erdrick The Hero 969]

 

There's other titles that we know we're not getting that could use some attention.

 

This is true. While I'm waiting on a go-ahead for a project that's seem to have stalled, Tom's talked about fixing DQ I+II bugs and releasing a complete version. I'd love to localize that. It'd be quick 'n fun!

 

 Good idea as long as it would still work with the current patch's saves. (I haven't played it in a while, but I'm the furthest in that version that I've ever gotten in DQ2...)

Edited December 14, 2013 by Erdrick The Hero

[Dwaine 1,168]

Hm, I don't think it would. It would have to be done from scratch, as I believe ChrisRPG did all the hacking work himself.

[Erdrick The Hero 969]

Oh well, I guess that's what the savestate editor is for, right?

 

I'd be interested in helping out with a new patch for DQ 1&2. I don't know much about romhacking (I do know some, just haven't put any of it into practice before as I've never had a project to work on.), but it sounds like a good challenge. 

Edited December 14, 2013 by Erdrick The Hero

[RagnarofBurland 0]

The bit about DRM is a little disappointing but thanks for posting this--the game looks great.

[King Zenith 641]

I'm not sure about DRM.  If the APKs I have been using have had the DRM removed, then I guess that's one thing.  But if not, any DRM there might be has been unsuccessful at preventing me from playing.

[mnicolai 121]

I can attest to the DRM being there. If you put your phone in airplane mode, the game won't start. If you have a phone that tracks data by app, you can see that it makes a quick connection each time the app is started.

[King Zenith 641]

I put my phone in airplane mode just now and had no problem launching the game at all.  If I don't have a network connection, then I get an error icon in the DQ Portal news feed, and I don't get the latest DQ news from the portal, but the little button to launch DQ1 is still there and clicking it still launches DQ1.

 

I almost always have mobile data turned off on my phone unless I need it and I played this game on the bus on my way to and from work.  There was no WiFi and no data usage in those cases.

 

Could this be something that varies from device to device, or are you referring to the portal app news feed when you say "it won't start"? As far as the quick connection goes, that is definitely used to load the latest DQ news to the feed for me.  It could do a DRM check as well I suppose, but it's not very effective if it doesn't prevent you from playing the game.

[Cain 183]

The game probably checks in once per day or something. I've noticed that the Final Fantasy games do that.

[mnicolai 121]

The game probably checks in once per day or something. I've noticed that the Final Fantasy games do that.

 

Gotcha, that makes sense. Both times I tested, it was the first time in that day I played it. 

[KiTA 88]

Just as a follow up: 

 

 

 

 

Project Manager:  Brandon Cushenberry

Software Testing Manager:  Jerom Barnes  ( https://twitter.com/Jerozaemon  Hm. )

 

English Editing:  Morgan M Rushton

 

Localization company:  http://www.kajiyaproductions.com

 

Company was founded by Alex O. Smith, who translated FFT A2, FF12, FFTA, X2, 11, X...  Just, wow, a ton of stuff.

Edited December 17, 2013 by KiTA

[King Zenith 641]

 

The game probably checks in once per day or something. I've noticed that the Final Fantasy games do that.

 

Gotcha, that makes sense. Both times I tested, it was the first time in that day I played it. 

 

 

I've had the mobile data and Wi-Fi turned off on my phone for two days now and decided to test this.  With no connection and multiple days since my last connection, I was able to start the game and play it with no problem whatsoever.

 

Could there be multiple versions of the software around or could DRM be device-dependent somehow? I am not sure why it doesn't seem to be an issue for me, despite my best efforts to encounter it.

[mnicolai 121]

iOS or android? I'm on Android.

[mnicolai 121]

I just tried it again. I haven't had the app running since last week and when I start in airplane mode I get the error. When I turn it back on it starts right up.