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View topic - Tensai Bakabon - Translation Beta Testing

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  • Joined: 08 Apr 2022
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Tensai Bakabon - Translation Beta Testing
Post Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2022 9:17 pm


Greetings, this is my first time on here. December last year, a friend proposed the idea of translating Tensai Bakabon, given I recently picked up the z80 assembly language. This is my first time programming and making hacks with the architecture. After a couple months of work, the game is fully translated. The translation features (my first) Variable Width Font hack for all the text.

We're currently looking for beta testers to test out the translation out on real hardware, find crash scenarios, find typos, and find lines that don't make sense. Any undumped pointer entries will crash the translation. Additionally, lines are reused in a lot of places, so we want to make sure everything makes sense in context.

So if you're up to beta test the game by searching every nook and cranny in the game, please join our discord and we'll give you the beta tester role.

https://discord.gg/aZ2M6gRJg6
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  • Joined: 21 Dec 2018
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Post Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2022 5:55 am
I'd like to add - for those interested - that the game is quite short overall. You can easily finish it in an hour or two. Also, just to reiterate what needs testing in particular:

a) if there are any undumped lines - those will cause crashes;
b) if there are any typos, weird/awkward lines, any other script issues;
c) the password system - does it break anything at any part of the game? Are there any issues with it at any point?
d) items - do they break anything? Also - full inventory message etc. (that can also cause issues)
e) does the VWF look good on hardware? If you have any font suggestions etc. - those are welcome as well.
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  • Joined: 19 Oct 1999
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Post Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2022 8:00 am
I understand the VWF is to fit English into Japanese sized spaces, but it will be hard to read on a TV over RF and will look terrible on a Game Gear. Most games use minimum 2pm vertical bars and gaps to offset this. Smearing is horizontal on analogue video but much more extreme on GG in SMS mode.

Having said that - Golden Axe Warrior shipped with a VWF that’s even narrower.

https://www.smspower.org/Screenshots/GoldenAxeWarrior-SMS
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  • Joined: 12 Aug 2021
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Post Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2022 2:50 pm
Maxim wrote
I understand the VWF is to fit English into Japanese sized spaces, but it will be hard to read on a TV over RF and will look terrible on a Game Gear.

To be fair I think even a "full-width" font is awful to read on a stock Game Gear running in SMS mode (source: me trying to play Alex Kidd on my Game Gear via an Everdrive).
So I think this use case could be ignored for the purpose of translating a SMS game.

However I suppose testing on an actual RF system could be a good idea, if anyone regularly plays on one of those? (I am lucky enough to have an RGB adapter on my PAL SMS2, so I don't know how bad it can be)
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