Translating Shooting Game Builder in English! [released!]

[DrBlowhole20]

We have a discord server! Come join us: https://discord.gg/sBg3Ws7

Hey there, sc00pj0hn here. (DrBlowhole20 is one of my old usernames but i should be better called sc00pjohn.) I have an amazing surprise for you all who perhaps remembers Shooting Game Builder. I'm unsure in which board should i post this type of thread, so i'll hand it to Shmup Chat.

For a decade, STGBuilder has been always a great tool for Japanese users to make their own SHMUP games along with its unique programming system. It has been known for being the engine used for several games like Revolgear II, Kirisame Blade 2, Graze Counter and the Infinos series. However, the problem is that a English translation has never been considered and among non-Japanese fans like us view this program as pretty obscure. Since now, after a month of work, i'm proud of having released the first version of the english patch. Please check out in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=62706

Old thread before release:

Spoiler

I realized that i actually had made a thread discussing about this since 4 years ago...but who cares.
Hey there, sc00pj0hn here. (DrBlowhole20 is one of my old usernames but i should be better called sc00pjohn.) I have an amazing surprise for you all who perhaps remembers Shooting Game Builder. I'm unsure in which board should i post this type of thread, so i'll hand it to Shmup Chat.

For a decade, STGBuilder has been always a great tool for Japanese users to make their own SHMUP games along with its unique programming system. It has been known for being the engine used for several games like Revolgear II, Kirisame Blade 2, Graze Counter and the Infinos series. However, the problem is that a English translation has never been considered and among non-Japanese fans like us view this program as pretty obscure. Since now, i've been revealing that i'm on the road to work on an unofficial English translation to this program.

The problem is that... i literally am a European and i lack knowledge of Japanese. The first revision i've made so far is to do a very rough translation using a online translator (i used Bing Translator) to change literally every string i find in the RCData (i used Resource Tuner 2, a resource hacking tool for .exes) and the result is a quite mess. Let me show you a quick screenshot of what the translation looks like right now:


Not all of the program has been translated due to some other strings being not in the RCData but hardcoded in the program. If you are willing to partecipate, i'll be needing you to be capable of reading (intermediate) Japanese and provide correct translation for it, just like the RPG Maker 2003 fantranslation times. For reference, there's the wiki in which some documentation is included for this program: https://www41.atwiki.jp/stgbuilder/, thought if you take a look at the Tutorials section, ONLY basic ones are done, while the Script documentation is well done.
We can make this fantranslation come true, join me!

EDIT: Few days ago me and longbyte1/ChoryonMega started working on a giant google sheet containing all of the 4600+ strings of the program. This will allow anyone who has the will to partecipate to give a hand to translate the remaining strings. Just send me a PM and i'll check in.

[qmish]

Good luck! I just 've read discussion of that on other place, where people mentioned that official translation is denied by author.

[DrBlowhole20]

Good luck! I just 've read discussion of that on other place, where people mentioned that official translation is denied by author.

I've actually spoke to the author on his twitter but he seems to state he has no idea of it either. Now that i found that out i am disappointed, that's why i've decided to start off my own translation!

[Shepardus]

For those who don't know, other games this has been used to make include Mecha Ritz, Cambria Sword, and Kaikan. Link to program's site: http://blog.livedoor.jp/stgbuilder/

Would love to see this take off, however I can't help with translation.

[DrBlowhole20]

For those who don't know, other games this has been used to make include Mecha Ritz, Cambria Sword, and Kaikan. Link to program's site: http://blog.livedoor.jp/stgbuilder/

Would love to see this take off, however I can't help with translation.

From now i've got in contact with few friends in Discord but they aren't directly available at times, meanwhile in Reddit i've been noticed by a japanese native who seems to want helping me despite not knowing too much about programming. I also happened that for the whole time i used the Bing translator, which is pretty inferior to translating to Japanese, so i'm currently trying to revision my rough translation, but that won't change too much, i'll prefer still waiting for any new ones who will help me.

Also, as i've finally been trying to test the edited strings, i've encountered that there's more strings that are actually hardcoded since some of the text i've translated seems to be from visual studio-like dialogboxes. And this is where i can't translate any further.... :/

That's it i guess.

[DrBlowhole20]

Despite no one else going to try helping me... i have some little good news.

While i was at the Fighter Maker HQ Discord server, i felt out asking on the people there about my translation project, and so one came to me to help me out. However, things are going different, and currently we've been able to find the remaining strings left that weren't on the RCData. I won't reveal who is been helping me work on the translation, but he's pointing me out to use a hex editor, and we're hoping to actually finish the translation in a few weeks or more. I was about to lose hope on it, but i am lucky that i've found someone, atleast.

But i am aware there is still a chance of getting things screwed up so we will hope we will do the best for the translation.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Did you try asking for help in development section? This could be harder to ignore by those who can do a thing there.

[DrBlowhole20]

Did you try asking for help in development section? This could be harder to ignore by those who can do a thing there.

Eh, i've unfortunately did a thread on this board, and i don't think i would allow to make a thread on about modifying hexes on the Development... maybe can you ask the mods to move this thread to Development then to that it will try to gain some notice?

[Obiwanshinobi]

Isn't it, technically, a tool of development? Seems like a fair use of development subforum.
I imagine those on here, who show first to bash any new project announced, then suddenly appear to be not here when it's out, but have supposedly some useful knowledge & skill to spare, could be interested in more development tools being widely accessible. Then, I guess, are those who wouldn't seriously consider making a shmup if at least trying wasn't the only way to experience this Japanese hip thing. Who wouldn't LIKE to see them both crowds clash with each other?

[DrBlowhole20]

Isn't it, technically, a tool of development? Seems like a fair use of development subforum.
I imagine those on here, who show first to bash any new project announced, then suddenly appear to be not here when it's out, but have supposedly some useful knowledge & skill to spare, could be interested in more development tools being widely accessible. Then, I guess, are those who wouldn't seriously consider making a shmup if at least trying wasn't the only way to experience this Japanese hip thing. Who wouldn't LIKE to see them both crowds clash with each other?

Alright then, i can accept it. I'll await for some mod to move this to development section if they can.

[n0rtygames]

I'm currently learning Japanese so I might do this out of some morbid curiosity. Bugger the hex stuff though...

All I'd do is translate the hiragana and katakana (the easy part) and then go look up the Kanji.

FWIW - Japanese native students take like 9 years in school to learn 2000 Kanji for basic proficiency. https://jisho.org/#radical will help you with figuring out the Kanji - there are also some sites that accept hand written input (and have a toggle for ignoring stroke order) to help you figure out what a particular Kanji means.

That being said the language is actually highly logical. Sentence structure of yoda, it has. If you can figure out what the words mean, its not hard. Just... go learn Japanese. Been studying < 1 month and I've memorized Hiragana. It's a lot easier than you think to get started and just getting the basic grammar concepts under your belt will allow you to translate at a slow pace.

Don't trust google translate. You'll get sentences like "I went to the weather today, the dog sweat becomes me"

[DrBlowhole20]

I'm currently learning Japanese so I might do this out of some morbid curiosity. Bugger the hex stuff though...

All I'd do is translate the hiragana and katakana (the easy part) and then go look up the Kanji.

FWIW - Japanese native students take like 9 years in school to learn 2000 Kanji for basic proficiency. https://jisho.org/#radical will help you with figuring out the Kanji - there are also some sites that accept hand written input (and have a toggle for ignoring stroke order) to help you figure out what a particular Kanji means.

That being said the language is actually highly logical. Sentence structure of yoda, it has. If you can figure out what the words mean, its not hard. Just... go learn Japanese. Been studying < 1 month and I've memorized Hiragana. It's a lot easier than you think to get started and just getting the basic grammar concepts under your belt will allow you to translate at a slow pace.

Don't trust google translate. You'll get sentences like "I went to the weather today, the dog sweat becomes me"

I have someone who also has some knowledge of Japanese behind, and in the end we do some verifications of grammar. However, i'm truly lazy to learn Japanese and i told this to who i am working it aswell.

Also, in other news, i've edited the original post to state that translation is open via PM.

[DrBlowhole20]

Time for a progress report regarding our translation.

We've recruited few other translators from Discord and so far we've finished verifying half of all the 4600+ strings to translate of the program. All we can say in words is that we're still kicking off and we're not dead, so that means things are going alright and soon we're going to replace the original japanese strings with the translated ones. Even if very little support here, we hope we will bring STGBuilder into a truly translated experience at a later time. This is just the beginning.

[EmperorIng]

I've been watching from the sidelines and am glad to see you have found some people willing to help (I can't). I am sure there are more folks here interested but can't offer any technical assistance. I hope you guys can make some real progress!

[GSK]

What's the Discord?

[DrBlowhole20]

What's the Discord?

Discord is apparently a new program used for chatting and making calls, akin to Skype. It is actually a hybrid between Skype and TeamSpeak designed for videogaming and it is seen to be a sort of rival to Skype, where most of people left there in order to accomodate with Discord. Discord has a multi-channel support where you can build a "server" containing the types of arguments you want to talk about. We use Discord to hang out with ourselves.

Also, we've reported that we're almost done verifying all the RcData strings, as we're currently at 98% (and perhaps in a few hours we might finish today), however, things get really sticky as we've been left to translate more complicated stuff, and we've been finding out that not every feature seems documented in the japanese STGBuilder wiki at all, atleast it seems they're missing few new features released from the latest version of the software, but the good news is we might finish verifying today if we didn't hurry, then our programmer will begin working on tools to transfer the strings over to SB.exe.

We've been also planning to translate the wiki documentation, but i am thinking about doing a beginner tutorial once we've got hands on the newly translated EXE. Please stay tuned once more for another update!

EDIT: Apparently, we've done very sooner than expected. We managed to finish all the RCData strings. I'm thanking to all to those who have partecipated in translating the strings. Now we've arrived to the next phase of our translation project: Our programmer has to take some days to port all the translated strings in the program, so stay tuned until we are done!

[KAI]

I think he's asking you about the channel, not the app.

[DrBlowhole20]

I think he's asking you about the channel, not the app.

I apologize for misunderstanding... but however, we don't have a Discord server that specializes a worldwide STGBuilder community, but since i've been literally been asked for it, i've began making one, just leaving this here too while it's brand new: https://discord.gg/sBg3Ws7

Come support us in our discord server!

[ED-057]

deja-vu http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=18405

I'm curious if someone found a hex editor that shows Shift-JIS (I'm sure there is one but I never looked before)

[DrBlowhole20]

deja-vu http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=18405

I'm curious if someone found a hex editor that shows Shift-JIS (I'm sure there is one but I never looked before)

We've already found one and that is wxMEdit, which is the hex editor we're using for the translation, but i'm glad you linked one of the old discussion posts about this same software. The best news is that you're here after ten years and we've been working on this since now, even if the original author did not consent an official English translation.

We've been estimating to release around the end of June, which is a possible prediction for a release date of the translated program, however, we have to first test the translated program before we decide to publish it, translations need to have some adjustments before completion.

[DrBlowhole20]

I want to apologize for the delay, but apparently longbyte1 is infact busy with other projects, and couldn't be able to quickly help me get the .data and RCdata strings done in the program. Even if we're still far to the end of June, i do have a feeling of impatience and so far i could only be able to replace RCData strings, but not .data strings due to some requiring relocation.
While longbyte1 cannot work on our project right now, i'm hiring someone who is able to change the strings within an hex editor (and extend and relocate the strings with less characters). If anyone's interested, come over to my Discord server found above the posts and send me a DM.

[DrBlowhole20]

Change of update, i've started working on most of the RCData changing process since last night, and i'm already planning to bring out a public incomplete build of the translation as a fully functional preview once all of the RCData strings have been changed. However, as currently i cannot translate .data strings aswell, 12,50% of the program's remaining strings in the beta release will be not translated right now, this includes table GUIs present in the Delphi forms and other GUI elements that aren't editable in RCData. It'll take a few days for me to finish the RCData translation, so stay tuned for more updates as this is being worked on!

[EmperorIng]

Looking forward to seeing your progress! You're going at a breakneck pace, compared to the last 8 years!

[DrBlowhole20]

I've finished translating the RCData strings tonight, however, from what i've seen, there's a plenty of .data strings that mixes in with the translation and it would be still confusing for a non-Japanese to read. We are renouncing on releasing a early access build of the translation, sorry for your disappointment. I have realized it could be totally weird to release an incomplete English patch, but we're a little close to finish the translation, we've just got to change the .data strings...

[DrBlowhole20]

Well, you know what, since my wait to get the .data strings is getting tedious at this point, i have decided to give in the incomplete translation beta of the program. From now on, a new thread will be made in SHMUP Development which will be the home for any future releases of the English patch: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=62645

Come get the early english patch there!

[DrBlowhole20]

https://twitter.com/StgBuilder/status/1 ... 9180555265

Uh oh. This is actually happening. SB is working on a new version of STGBuilder, and from the looks of it, it might be getting a GUI overhaul and a possible official English translation!!! Does that mean the end of the fanmade english patch?

(Also, we're sorry for triple posting...)

[Shepardus]

Interesting! Even if there will be an official English translation, I think your efforts were still valuable since it made clear that there was desire for this translation.

[DrBlowhole20]

Interesting! Even if there will be an official English translation, I think your efforts were still valuable since it made clear that there was desire for this translation.

Apparently,

He needs a translator to make this come true, and i have big evidence of sending my own string translations to him. I'll be proud of my accomplishment if SB approves my string translation sheet.

[schleichfahrt]

Interesting! Even if there will be an official English translation, I think your efforts were still valuable since it made clear that there was desire for this translation.

If there had not been this rather serious attempt they would have gone another decade without an English version, indeed

[DrBlowhole20]

Not only English seems to be confirmed, but it seems SB is officially considering about including multi-language support in the program.

However, he has said that the new version will take months to finish, so we have our time to talk more about the English fanmade patch while we wait for the official localization:

Progress for the patch has been going nice and we've have reached to 85% of full completion. The thing is, the autopatcher made by our programmer is going to be used to relocate the strings, however, this is where things get complicated. Here's the program using the current state of the autopatcher in action:


Notably, the Project Dashboard's green tabs aren't translated properly, and there's some complicated debugging to do according to my friend. We're getting close to finish the english patch but it's gonna probably take up to a week (or more if the debugging is getting very complicated) to finish, and during this process, i had to look up around several Discord servers for any asisstance and so i met a new friend who will be going to try help us finish this.