Lost Colors Translation Project Discussion

[Eternal Dreamer]

Sorry for taking so long this time, I had to finish up my end of semester exams. However, now that I'm finished and am on vacation, I should be able to devote more time to this project now.

Anyway, I've now uploaded all of Day 23 onto the site. (Go check out the new scenes under Day 4 of the Black Knights Route Ending. Also, a new location has been put up, called "Mount Fuji Plant", which is in the newly added Mount Fuji locations on the Scene Directory Page.) The first scene there is especially good, as Rai finally learns Zero's true identity. (Almost brought a tear to my eye at the end, when Lelouch and Rai shook hands.) I had some trouble with the rest of this day, however, since I'm really unsure whether some of the scenes here are exclusively part of the BK End or not. (Especially the Tohdoh scene, since Rai doesn't seem to have regained his memories in it.) Still, I've left them as they are for now, and I'll eventually go back and change them if I find out differently.

Now, it's time for me to be getting to the long-awaited school festival, which is going to be a bit tricky, because of the complex choice system here. (That's going to be a bit of a headache.) For RaixKallen fans out there, though, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

On a final note, I'd like to mention that, after finishing the Battle Commander route, I'll be adding new Notepad versions of many of the scenes, provided by Altair2223, who has been kind enough to take up the job. Since there are so many of them, I thought I'd wait until I finish the Kallen ending before adding them.

[Hooves]

Such a long process this has been for you I'm surprised you still have the determination to keep going on. I commend you for that Eternal Dreamer

[Eternal Dreamer]

Originally Posted by Hooves

Such a long process this has been for you I'm surprised you still have the determination to keep going on. I commend you for that Eternal Dreamer

Well I want to see the translation of the game as a fan as well, so that helps. (Though I'd be lying if I said there weren't times when I was a bit lazy and took longer than I should have... )

[Twitching Cheese]

As a fellow fan of Code Geass I was incredibly disappointed this game was not in English. Very grateful for the work you've been doing on this so far and I'd like to help out. Though I only have an intermediate knowledge of Japanese, I am quite good at programming. I've currently been ripping apart the PS2 version of Lost Colors.

I've got to the scene files, each scene is composed of a bitmap that contains all the characters used in the text, a data file that sets the internal ID for each character as well as some information on them (display offset, time, and other flags), then finally a data file where the IDs from the previous file are used to write out the scene.

Thanks to the one where Milly says "Two kill two birds with one stone" in English I was able to pin down that scene (the only one with a large number of Latin characters in the bitmap) and confirm some of my guesses as well as start working on deciphering the data files.

Right now I'm putting together a program to read through each of the ~600 triplets of files to try and generate text documents for each scene. The hard part will be trying to figure out where they all go once I get that done. May or may not be able to repack translated versions in and have it work, worst case I could port it to a PC VN engine (Found all the art and sound assets from the game, would just have to work on the game flow).

If I manage to pull this off I'll be sure to send you the script files. Until then, good luck with the translation effort

[Twitching Cheese]

Right well that was a lot of wasted effort. Found the unicode values in the data files after transcribing about a quarter of that image. Anyway scene text files:

http://www.multiupload.com/50I9Z56T7F

They're encoded in Shift-JIS so you'll need something that can read that, Word can do it fine.

Unfortunately there isn't any of the game logic stored in these file sets, so it doesn't have who is speaking and the parts when choices come up can get a bit confusing. Working on figuring that bit out now. Also, need to organize them a bit better since the internal names for them don't give away much about when and where they take place.

[Altair2223]

Yay!!
i just finished my final exams,so now i will keep on the notepad work.

[Eternal Dreamer]

Almost two months since my last update...All I can say is sorry, and that I hope you'll all forgive me for taking so long. (I might have gotten it out last week, but my PSP broke down and I had to get a new one. I have no excuse for the rest of the delay, though.)

In any case, the long-awaited School Festival scene is finally done! I've added it to the BK ending page, so go check it out, there's a lot of content in this one. Besides that, there are a few new night scenes: Tamaki at Shinjuku Ghetto (being his usual grouchy self), Tohdoh in the hangar (an interesting but drawn-out talk on martial arts in Knightmare combat), C.C. in the lounge, and Zero in the command center (this one was my favourite).

The next update will include only the special "Dead End" you get if you Geass Suzaku at the end of the festival. (I want to get it out of the way before continuing to the SAZ.) This update will be delayed, however, since I'll be on a two-week vacation in England starting tomorrow. (Just me and my dad on a "bonding experience".) As such, I won't be reachable for the next little while, so if anyone has anything to contact me about, it has to be today or tomorrow morning. Once I get back, I'll try and translate this bit as quickly as I can.

Also, Twitching Cheese, I'd like to thank you for going to all this trouble to get script files from the game, at your own initiative no less. Me and Chaos are trying to look through what you've given right now, though it will probably be some time before we can properly match them all with their scenes. If you find out any other information or find a way to organize this, please tell me. I know I haven't said it before, but I really do appreciate what you've done with this. Thank you.

[Altair2223]

i didnt got that really well,so after the dead end,you will continue the bk battlefield commander kallen ending or what,sorry if it is too obvious but i talk spanish so i think i didnt understand what you were saying there =S

[Eternal Dreamer]

Originally Posted by Altair2223

i didnt got that really well,so after the dead end,you will continue the bk battlefield commander kallen ending or what,sorry if it is too obvious but i talk spanish so i think i didnt understand what you were saying there =S

What I mean is, I'll translate the dead end first, then go back to the end of the festival and continue the Battle commander path to get the Kallen ending.

[Altair2223]

ah thanks for explaining me that

[Marven]

Are you planning to translate the "Blue Moon" route as well? From what I gathered on the internet, I can say that the Blue Moon endings of Nunnally and Kallen are very interesting... Since, the yaoi routes are clearly out of the question (I dislike the genre as well), the straight (Blue Moon) routes should be alright, right?

[ChaosHelix]

I asked him a while ago about the Blue Moon route he said that he would translate it, which parts and when he does is unknown right now (he said he'd concentrate on the core routes first). I know he's working with the PSP version right now and so doesn't have the Blue Moon route readily available, but I and I'm sure a few others have offered to pass the text along to him. We'll cross that bridge once we get there, right now though I think he's more concerned about what to do with the Britannian route (you have to complete the Special Military Branch (Suzaku/Lloyd) before unlocking Cornelia and Euphemia) fingers crossed it's more a brother-in-arms ending instead of the dreaded yaoi.

Hope you don't mind that answer or me answering, I figure it's better then leaving you there for two weeks.

On another note I'd like to pass my thanks to Twitching Cheese as well. I've been working through the text files for a little while now and have found them very useful in identifying any missing scenes.

[Marven]

Originally Posted by ChaosHelix

I asked him a while ago about the Blue Moon route he said that he would translate it, which parts and when he does is unknown right now (he said he'd concentrate on the core routes first).

Hehe, I can wait for it.

I saw a slideshow of screenshots from the game. It seems that every girl in the game has a Blue Moon ending, well except for C.C.... I saw Villeta, Kaguya, Chiba, and one of the Knight of Rounds [not Anya, but she might have one as well?] to name a few.
-------

Originally Posted by ChaosHelix

We'll cross that bridge once we get there, right now though I think he's more concerned about what to do with the Britannian route (you have to complete the Special Military Branch (Suzaku/Lloyd) before unlocking Cornelia and Euphemia) fingers crossed it's more a brother-in-arms ending instead of the dreaded yaoi.

Yaoi? Bleh. Do not want... Good thing ED won't translate them! ^^,

Cornelia? I wonder what ending could that result in? >_>

[Altair2223]

so chaos, what can you tell us about that special proyect you have been working on?

[Marven]

Originally Posted by Altair2223

so chaos, what can you tell us about that special proyect you have been working on?

I am interested in it as well. Please do enlighten us, Chaos...

[ChaosHelix]

Hmmm decisions, decisions.

Well I'll tell you that it's a new way to use ED's translations. It's a detailed guide built to display when, where and how to reach each scene. So everything from what scenes are linked together to how to reach every ending are shown. The idea behind it was to have a system that displays the inner-workings of the game and then at the click of button have any translation pop up in a document.

I won't lie it's an ambitious project with enough potential holes to sink a frickin' battleship, but between me, ED and anyone who wants to get involved we'll get it done and be left with a system so easy to use that the game might as be in english.

[Marven]

Originally Posted by ChaosHelix

Hmmm decisions, decisions.

Well I'll tell you that it's a new way to use ED's translations. It's a detailed guide built to display when, where and how to reach each scene. So everything from what scenes are linked together to how to reach every ending are shown. The idea behind it was to have a system that displays the inner-workings of the game and then at the click of button have any translation pop up in a document.

I won't lie it's an ambitious project with enough potential holes to sink a frickin' battleship, but between me, ED and anyone who wants to get involved we'll get it done and be left with a system so easy to use that the game might as be in english.

Hmmm... I see. So basically, it's a [user friendly] diagram route "tree?" Which actions get you where. What's needed to do this/that. How to get this ending. And the like... Only in a more simple and convenient manner. What I like most is the "at the click of the button" part. ^_^

It's definitely intriguing, reminds me of all those dating sims I played. I made a diagram of every game I wanted to finish/unlock the CGs. The single-heroine sims were usually easy to graph out. The multi-heroine ones were just chaotic.

Now, I'm starting to wonder how people make English patches... I just started studying about computer engineering and the like. So I'm just curious.

[Altair2223]

hhhmmmm definetly looking forward to the finished proyect,you will make anyone who visits the page an easy way to get the ending they are searching for,i can help,but not a lot, since i am a complete novice on any kind of page adjustments and all that stuff,at least i am helping a little bit with the notepad versions,but if you need help on something i can handle,i will be at your service chaos

[ChaosHelix]

Originally Posted by Marven

Hmmm... I see. So basically, it's a [user friendly] diagram route "tree?" Which actions get you where. What's needed to do this/that. How to get this ending. And the like... Only in a more simple and convenient manner. What I like most is the "at the click of the button" part. ^_^

It's definitely intriguing, reminds me of all those dating sims I played. I made a diagram of every game I wanted to finish/unlock the CGs. The single-heroine sims were usually easy to graph out. The multi-heroine ones were just chaotic.

Now, I'm starting to wonder how people make English patches... I just started studying about computer engineering and the like. So I'm just curious.

Yeah that's basically it and it's funny you mentioned Dating Sims because I was playing one when I came up with this. :P

As for the English patch I asked ED to get in touch with Twitching Cheese (who had displayed some knowledge of computing by pulling those text files) asking whether he could and indeed if he would help out with a patch, we'll just have to wait for a reply.

Originally Posted by Altair2223

hhhmmmm definetly looking forward to the finished proyect,you will make anyone who visits the page an easy way to get the ending they are searching for,i can help,but not a lot, since i am a complete novice on any kind of page adjustments and all that stuff,at least i am helping a little bit with the notepad versions,but if you need help on something i can handle,i will be at your service chaos

Thanks for the offer. I'm sure I can find something for you to do, even if it's just inputting your route and ending. On a related note I'm curious what endings did everyone reading this thread get?

I'll get the ball rolling shall I:

First Geass playthrough- Lelouch (I was going for Nunnally, though it's weird I finished all her scenes but not all his :S)

Another Geass run- C.C.

And finally the BK BC route- Kallen

[Altair2223]

well, i have only get the geass route-lelouch ending,and i am going for the BK BC kallen ending as well, after i dont know,maybe wait until britannian army route euphemia ending has been translated to see how it is.