Zelda FDS Translation?

[Jaek_3]

Is there a Zelda FDS fan translation out there yet? I mean, Metroid has one

[P]

Nope, but the script is out there.

[aitsu124]

I'm also interested in this, along with Zelda 2. How would one put this in? Is Zelda 2's script out there?

[P]

Found them:

http://www.glitterberri.com/the-legend-of-zelda/retranslation-redux/ Zelda Translation

https://web.archive.org/web/20160610124435/http://www.lltvg.com/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda/ja-en Good translation guide for Zelda
The link was dead so I took the latest archive snapshot I could find.

http://legendsoflocalization.com/the-legend-of-zelda/ Manual comparison for Zelda (and other games)


http://www.glitterberri.com/adventure-of-link/retranslation/ Zelda II translation
Note that there is a mistake regarding the magic key as pointed out in the comments bellow.

How would one put this in?

You need to know how to do ROM hacking (or disk hacking in this case) which requires some knowledge how the games are composed so you can find the place to put in the data you want. I can make Famicom games from scratch but I'm no good at hacking existing games.
http://www.romhacking.net/start/ should be a good starting point.

[UglyJoe]

There are also specific tools for hacking LoZ.  (and also Zelda II).

[P]

I can see a string editor in there so that's good. The question is if it supports the FDS version.

[Great Hierophant]

It is doubtful that many tools support the FDS version of Zelda.  Remember that all the text is stored on one disk side in these games, giving you very limited room to work with, especially for Zelda II. 

[P]

Technically it could be expanded into two disks if more room is needed, but that would require to reprogram the game quite a bit, moving things and inserting disk changing points. Not mentioning that the game would require you to change disks when entering certain areas and become more tedious to play because of that.

[Great Hierophant]

Is the text in the Zelda games compressed?  If uncompressed you could insert compressed English text to save space and run a routine to decompress it when needed. 

In Castlevania II that game switches disks sides frequently, giving you more room to work with.

[UglyJoe]

Is the text in the Zelda games compressed?  If uncompressed you could insert compressed English text to save space and run a routine to decompress it when needed. 

The text in the NES versions are not compressed.  I'd be surprised if the FDS version had it, but I haven't looked.  I dunno if there would be room for a compression scheme without looking at the ROM first.  You would at least be able to use squishy tiles (fitting three or more characters into two characters) since you'll have leftover characters after dropping in an English font.

[toadhall]

I kind of wish Dracula II had a fan translation. I mean, Castlevania II got a retranslation, why couldn't it be reused for Dracula II?

[P]

Yeah I've been playing Dracula II for a while now, it has much cooler music using the FDS sound channel. The script by Bisqwit is quite a bit bigger than the Japanese script though.

In Castlevania II that game switches disks sides frequently, giving you more room to work with.

So if there are free space left on side B of Zelda I and II, maybe it could be used by adding more disk flipping. I think both games only use side B for save file data and maybe data for the last dungeon or so (I don't remember).

[Great Hierophant]

Yeah I've been playing Dracula II for a while now, it has much cooler music using the FDS sound channel. The script by Bisqwit is quite a bit bigger than the Japanese script though.

In Castlevania II that game switches disks sides frequently, giving you more room to work with.

So if there are free space left on side B of Zelda I and II, maybe it could be used by adding more disk flipping. I think both games only use side B for save file data and maybe data for the last dungeon or so (I don't remember).

I discuss disk swapping and loading of various games here : http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2015/08/swaps-and-loads-famicom-disk-system.html

My conclusion is that CV2 suffers too much from the issue.

[P]

Oh so the Zelda games play mostly on side B, not side A, I had forgotten that. Sounds like side A is only used for the attract screen and, in the case of Zelda II, the staff roll. Should be plenty of space on that disk side, shouldn't it?

I haven't come as far as to a disk swap in Dracula II, but I remember that it has annoying loading times at Mansion entrances, and that there are often enemies close to the screen border on the neighbouring screen that knocks you back and you have to go through the loading twice again.

[UglyJoe]

The FDS LoZ also uses the Japanese text display code, which crams all of the text into the upper-right of the screen (sort of like an implied speech bubble).  So not only would you have to figure out how to replace the Japanese with English, you'd also have to work in the US text display code (or else you will end up with a terrible translation due to screen-space restraints).