 |
| Register | Login | |||||
 |
Main
| Memberlist
| Active users
| Calendar
| Chat
| Online users Ranks | FAQ | ACS | Stats | Color Chart | Search | Photo album |
|
| | ||
|
| Register | Login | |||||
|
Main
| Memberlist
| Active users
| Calendar
| Chat
| Online users Ranks | FAQ | ACS | Stats | Color Chart | Search | Photo album |
|
| | ||
| Acmlm's Board - I3 Archive - - Posts by bakuretsu |
| User | Post | ||
|
bakuretsu Newcomer               Since: 01-14-07 Last post: 6330 days Last view: 6322 days |
| ||
| I'm a writer* interested in rom hacking as storytelling and art. I've had ideas for rom hacks many times but have never had much interest in actually doing it (learning the software and putting in the time on the more tedious aspects of the process). I'm almost at the point, though, where I feel like I have to do it. I at least have to learn how.
*A lot of people call themselves writers. My definition: I've been paid for my writing, and I have over 200 pages of notes on current writing projects. Anyone who meets that criteria is in my opinion a writer. |
|||
|
bakuretsu Newcomer  Since: 01-14-07 Last post: 6330 days Last view: 6322 days |
| ||
| It seems to me that the first step in any major text edit hack is to gain a full understanding of the original script (dialogue, menus, any on-screen text). While one could simply play a game over and over until it is memorized, that's time-consuming and it would still be useful to have a copy of the script handy for later reference.
Some possibilities I have considered: 1. Use a program that extracts all the text from a rom. From what I've seen in the downloads section on this site, it appears that this is only possible with a very few games for which custom programs have been written. 2. Use a hex editor that allows one to extract all intelligible text from a file. I don't think such a feature exists in any hex editor, and I read here that most roms do not contain intelligible text. 3. Use a hex editor that performs relative searching and extracts all then-intelligible text from a file. Again, I don't think this is possible with existing programs. I imagine there's a complicated manual process for doing this. 4. Use an OCR program (such as Kleptomania) to copy-and-paste on-screen text as it appears. 5. Use an OCR program that automatically captures on-screen text as it appears and appends it to a text file. I don't think such a program exists, but it would be nice. It may be possible to write an Auto Hotkey script to do this. 6. Just transcribe the text by hand as it appears. This is exactly the tedium I hope to avoid. Does anyone have any links to programs, links to tutorials, keywords to search for, or general advice on this subject? |
|||
|
bakuretsu Newcomer Since: 01-14-07 Last post: 6330 days Last view: 6322 days |
| ||
| These are all good keywords: text dump, script dump, romjuice.
The process you describe is just so convoluted, I don't think it would be worth doing, except as a first step in actually replacing the text. I mean, if you're going to replace it all, I guess you might as well do this. If you're only replacing parts of it, though, or doing a remake, then it would make more sense to find a more efficient method. I don't think the most common method--or accepted method--is necessarily the best method. |
| Acmlm's Board - I3 Archive - - Posts by bakuretsu |
