stormwyrm

Well, I added a soft keyboard for use with Android in the typing game, and it works well enough I think.

You're totally awesome, binaryfail! And so I managed to reimplement the entire quiz game very quickly: I just reused the timer widget from the typing game, which made this easy to do.

Now I need a bit of assistance here. I have reached Part 2.7.1, where Caprese meets Analyse, the Hierophant's assistant, and there are ＥＶＴ クイズ directives that ask a random multiple-choice questions of various sorts, and they must be coming from somewhere in the executable as they don't seem to be present in the script files in text.arc. The same widgets as used in the typing test are used here. The questions include the following: ハープががもっていた指輪の名前は？ A. コスモクラトールの指輪 B. ミトラ神の指輪 C. 呪いの指輪 What is the name of the Ring that Harp had? A. The Ring of the Cosmocrator B. The Ring of the God Mithras C. The Ring of Curses The correct answer is A. As a note those katakana spun me around for a bit when I first encountered them, until I remembered my Greek, it's actually κοσμοκράτωρ, meaning lord of the world, a term from pagan religions that later came to be used in Christian theology as a technical term for the devil (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:4), and by Gnostic sects as a term for the demiurge. Then again, Caprese is going around the world trying to collect the Four Great Icons (４つの大イコン), as whoever possesses them can become ruler of the world, essentially the Cosmocrator. Other questions: 異教徒たちが住むのほど方角？ A. 西 B. 南 C. 北 普通酒、火酒、蓮酒、一番強い酒は？ A. 普通酒 B. 火酒 C. 蓮酒 (refers to the drinking game with the bandits in Animato's arc) ずっと東にある国の名？ A. チャイナ B. ジパング C. キタイ (refers to a conversation that Caprese had earlier talking about a country far to the east named Kitai). 神の怒りに触れて炎に包まれた伝説の街？ A. カーミラの街 B. ソドムの街 C. ガミアの街 (Seems a general knowledge question, obviously B, which is the City of Sodom) Can anyone help obtain these questions and choices? Answers optional, I can probably figure out the correct answers somehow. Hmm, I found a partial list of questions and the correct answers here: http://kakurega18.x.fc2.com/game/18/kouryaku/arukana.htm I wonder if there are any more, and I also need the incorrect choices.

Just some advice on translating honorifics in Arcana... This time Caprese has gone to a large town where the concert of a famous singer named Silvia is going to take place. Being a traveller he has no idea what is going on, and asks a passing man about it: Man: なんだよ、知らないのかよ、今日はシルビアちゃんのコンサートだろ? Caprese: シルビア? Man: なんだいなんだい、お前、どこの田舎もんだよ? シルビアちゃん、知らないって?まさか山にこもってたわけじゃないよな? Caprese: じゃ、今日、そのシルビアのコンサートがあるんだ? Man: シルビアちゃん!だろ!!ったく... The man calls her 'Silvia-chan' and chides Caprese when he elides the -chan. If the setting was in a Japanese context I would be perfectly content to leave the -chan as is, but since Arcana is taking place in a fantasy world I feel this ought to be adapted, in the same way honorific expressions like ハープ様 might become "her/your Highness (Harp)" rather than just 'Harp-sama' and 法王様 could translate to something like 'his/your Holiness (the Hierophant)'. So the above conversation might become: Man: What, you didn't know? Today is the day of Miss Silvia's concert! Caprese: Silvia? Man: Hey, hey, what sort of country yokel are you? You really don't know Miss Silvia? Have you been living in the mountains like a hermit or something? Caprese: So there's a concert of that Silvia today? Man: That's Miss Silvia to you! Oh man... I wonder if there's a better way of translating the diminutive -chan than that.

So now I've finished coding the card game, which is I think much more complicated to test than the previous games had been. Some aspects have not yet been completely implemented, such as the opponent's flagged cards, but I think that can come later when I figure things out more. Anyone out there willing to test the game out as far as it has been done? Post your interest here. Please don't complain about bad or wrong translations though when I send you the link to the alpha release tarball, my Japanese skills are not good enough to do that part properly as I have said, and no one has volunteered to help. Only complain if the minigames behave strangely, report them here as well.

So now I'm trying to reimplement the card game: Basically the game gives each of the 22 cards of the Tarot major arcana four attributes (属性), whose base values are as follows: STR INT CHA ICN 00 - The Fool (Caprese) 3 2 2 2 01 - The Magician (Maestro) 2 4 1 3 02 - The High Priestess (Analyse) 0 8 0 4 03 - The Empress (Amoroso) 0 2 5 9 04 - The Emperor (Marcato) 6 1 0 5 05 - The Hierophant (Hymnus) 0 4 3 6 06 - The Lovers (Litania) 3 2 5 3 07 - The Chariot (Grandi) 6 0 1 2 08 - Strength (Vivace) 5 0 3 0 09 - The Hermit (Mori) 0 10 0 7 10 - Wheel of Fortune (Primo) 1 2 4 4 11 - Justice (Cittern) 3 2 2 3 12 - The Hanged Man (Tombo) 3 3 1 2 13 - Death (Grave) 4 3 0 1 14 - Temperance (Lucia) 2 0 5 9 15 - The Devil (Dominante) 1 4 2 4 16 - The Tower (Brilliante) 9 0 0 4 17 - The Star (Silvia) 0 0 7 9 18 - The Moon (Passepied) 0 0 9 2 19 - The Sun (Animato) 5 1 1 3 20 - Judgement (Risoluto) 1 5 1 6 21 - The World (Harp) 0 1 6 9 The first game that is played is in Part 2 Chapter 5 Section 2, and is against Tombo. Certain cards are flagged based on the character flags that Caprese has managed to hit up to that point. Flags 0 (his own), 10 (Primo) and 3 (Amoroso) are impossible to miss by that point. It is possible to flag cards 5, 8, and 19 depending on the events of the previous chapters. Such flagged cards generally seem to have a +1 bonus to all their attributes (although I seem to see that the flagged Strength card has attributes 6/0/4/1 instead of 6/1/4/1 for some reason). The thing is, it appears that certain of the opponent's cards are also flagged, and for the particular game in §2.5.2 it seems that Tombo has at least cards 3, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 17 thus flagged at least. I see in the original code that □ＥＶＴ　カード directives with values 0 (certainly Tombo), 1, 2, 3, and 4 are possible. There are portraits in the graphic assets intended for use with the card games that have two versions of Caprese (normal and crazy-looking), two versions of Tombo (normal and crazy-looking), Grave, an armoured guy who is probably Marcato, and Risoluto. I suppose the numeric argument to □ＥＶＴ　カード controls which of these portraits gets used as well as which cards are flagged. I'll probably have to figure these out by experiment. As with the typing game there is voiced commentary as well, and none of that appears in the scripts so it must be embedded in the code somewhere.

I've run across another puzzling bit of Japanese while trying to translate Arcana. This time Caprese's travels have taken him to a prosperous city-state ruled by a young noblewoman named Amoroso (she has the Empress Arcana). Orphaned at a young age she is bored, as she is surrounded by yes men who always agree to everything she says and there is no one around she can have a proper conversation with. She is intrigued by the audacious Caprese, who eventually gets her to sneak out of her palace and go out into the countryside and mingle with the common folk, and one option has her helping out a peasant family in the fields. After they sneak back into Amoroso's palace they have this puzzling bit of conversation: Amoroso: カプリス…大丈夫だった? Caprese: 俺はね。それより、大事なお姫様が一日行方不明ってほうが… Amoroso: それはね…じいやがごまかしてくれた Caprese: じいや? Amoroso: ああ、さすがに騙しきれないと思って、じいやには話したんだ。そうしたら… Caprese: ?? Amoroso: じいやもずっと前には畑仕事をしていたんだって。協力してくれたよ Caprese: そうか、それは助かった Here's a try at translating it: Amoroso: Caprese, are you all right? Caprese: I'm all right. more importantly, a princess has gone missing for a whole day... Amoroso: You know... "Jiiya" deceived me. Caprese: "Jiiya"? Amoroso: Yes, as you might expect I did not think myself so completely deceived, as I talked with "Jiiya". And then... Caprese: ?? Amoroso: "Jiiya" a long time ago also worked in the fields. I cooperated with him. Caprese: I see, that was helpful. Who or what is じいや？ It clearly refers to a person, but it's obviously not a personal name, as all personal names should be rendered in katakana as there are no Japanese people in the story. It sounds like it might be a term for an old servant or retainer or something, sort of like じいさん, but it's not in EDICT. I found this, but am not so sure if it's relevant.

Well, I haven't gotten far enough in the game to see other instances where the タイプ minigame appears, so I guess that'll have to wait. The next typing game doesn't appear until Part 3, Dark Chapter 14, and right now I'm still at Part 1, Chapter 4. Shouldn't be hard to modify the game to suit once I see future instances.

I figured out that was what the the type##.txt files in text.arc were for a bit later. The above mini-game is initiated by the directive EVT タイプ 06 06 in 01_04_02.txt (time limit 300 seconds as in type06.txt as expected), and the subsequent game instances that are played if you fail the first one are initiated by EVT タイプ 16 06 (increases time limit to 10 minutes) and EVT タイプ 26 06 (removes time limit). Evidently the first argument is the file to use, which also contains the time limit, but I suppose the second arg controls something else. type06.txt, type16.txt and type26.txt contain six pairs of プリモかわいい and ぷりもかわいい, the first being the Japanese text presented at the top and the second all-hiragana used to do romanisation as mentioned. But when the mini-game is played it sure as hell presents you with PURIMOKAWAII more than six times, more like 14 by my count. Also, Caprese makes commentary in the text box below the game screen with strings that don't seem to be present in any files inside text.arc. Anyhow, I've already managed to replicate the minigame in just about all its essential features and am on the fence as to whether I really ought to replicate it entirely as is or adapt it somewhat. For instance, I could make the game say the translation, so we'd have 'PRIMOISCUTE' instead, or REAPER instead of SINIGAMI... Thoughts?

And so I managed to do a partial sort of conversion of the second minigame, which is a typing minigame where you have to type the text below before the time expires. If you mistype, five seconds are deducted from the time: The original game has the text box below displaying comments like 'プリモのヤツ' or other similar comments, but I can't find them in the scripts. They must be embedded somewhere in the code. If anyone knows how to extract these sorts of strings from the Arcana executable, please let me know, so I can get them in too.. I'll add in an on-screen keyboard as an alternative to typing since this is all supposed to run on Android too...

Sounds something like a choice between a hell of loneliness and a hell of torment as I was saying. Without more context that's really all that can be said.

Well, if you were exiled to an island all by yourself, that would be 寂しい. Now, if you got exiled to an island filled with loathsome and foul-smelling worms and insects, イヤ might be more like it. You would be much too disgusted with the creatures you shared the island with to think of yourself as being lonesome or abandoned. Yes, both options are bad, but that's where the similarity ends. I still don't get why this difference is lost on you.

Well, 寂しい means sad or lonesome or desolate. イヤ is more like disagreeable or detestable or dislikeable. Their meanings are quite different actually, and I'm not sure what gives you the impression that the two words are similar in meaning.

I've been going over all the script files and I seem to notice that the mini-games appear to be started by the ＥＶＴ directive with arguments given the type of game to be played. 1. サイコロ -- this is the dice game with the boss (Part 1.2.1 only) 2. 酒 -- this is the drinking game with the brigands (Part 1.3.4 only) 3. タイプ -- typing mini-game (first is at Part 1.4.2) 4. カード -- Cards? (first is at Part 2.5.2) 5. クイズ -- Quiz? (first is at 2.7.1) 6. チンチロ -- ??? (first is at D3.9.9) Reverse engineering these games so far hasn't required me to delve into the compiled code which I can't really say I am capable of doing (I never got into Windows programming and most of my professional life coding has been Linux software), and I've merely been able to get by with interpreting the responses that the game gives. It's proving to be just as enjoyable to do this as it is to actually play the game. Well, I just managed to convert the second mini-game. Basically Caprese has gotten himself captured by a gang of brigands who have been given a village girl named Animato, and he has challenged them to a drinking game for her freedom. The brigands present him with ten cups of liquor, five of which are plain liquor (1 point), three of which are firewater (火酒, 3 points), and two are "lotus liquor" (蓮酒 hasuzake, 8 points). Caprese has to drink five of these cups without reaching nine points. He can ask his companion, the fairy Primo, to sample one cup to determine what sort of liquor it contains. She can do this for four rounds, at the fifth round she gets too drunk herself, and forcing her to check will cause her to collapse and that deducts from her flags. This is a somewhat simpler game than the dice game previously. Soon enough we'll see what the other four games are all about... Well, I've converted and translated 14 files out of 161 in the original game, so it's only at around 8% done by now and my translation quality of course leaves a lot to be desired. The converter I have works well enough for most of the files that don't include the EVT directive looks like, but I still have to check for new directives in the scripting language that pop up now and again. The typing minigame whose first is in Part 1.4.2 might be interesting. Basically you're supposed to type something as quickly as possible. We'll see how we can implement this...

Well, now that you mention it, what is this メンバー they talk about there? Is it a euphemism again...? >_> I find it strange though given the rest of the context. Also, with 'she-wolf' and 'lioness', I think it'd make one think they're talking about actual wolves and lions rather than kemonomimi wild girls.

Well, that seems to be the only romanisation of his name that I could find on the 'net (e.g. here). None of the character names have been given official romanisations within the game itself as far as I can tell. I've even been considering using Capriccio (like the musical form), since many of the names of other characters in the game seem to be derived from the names of musical instruments or musical terms (Vivace, Cittern, Harp, Hymnus, Animato, Passepied, Marcato, Amoroso, Animato, etc.)

So I'm having a bit more trouble with Arcana again. The main character Caprese is having a conversation with a man who had been his former master, referred to only as 団長 (which I translate as 'Boss' or 'Chief'), who seems to be a sort of trader, businessman, and perhaps even a P.T. Barnum-like circus showman or circus owner judging from their conversation. They are talking about a lion girl that 団長 has recently captured: 団長: あ、あのケモノ女か。あれでも人間だぞ。サバンナでライオンと暮らしてたんだ。 狼女なんてのはそこらの見せ物でザラにみるが、ライオン女なんていないからな それもホンモノだ。しかも、夜は夜で楽しめる カプリス: お前、また、メンバーを好きにするのか?" 団長: メンバー?あれは見せ物だぞ?奴隷でさえないんだ Boss: Oh, that beast girl. She's human though. I found her living with a lion in the savannah. Wolf girls are quite a common spectacle, but not lion girls. She's the real thing. Also, the night can enjoy at night. Caprese: Are you still allowing people to do whatever they want to the members? Boss: Members? You mean those part of the show? They are slaves, but no. I'm not so sure what is meant by the sentence I highlighted in red. It sounds like some sort of euphemism for sexual slavery or prostitution or something like that, as if he plans to be the pimp for Vivace the lion girl in the evenings but I'm not quite sure. Any hints?

Well, the project is progressing, although most likely my translations are the sort of novice hackwork you'd expect from a guy who passed JLPT3 some years ago, but there you go. Also managed to convert the first of what I believe judging from the art assets to be the first of several mini games. I believe there's even a strategic card game somewhere in here, and we'll see how that works when I get that far. Here's a screenshot of the mini-game. Essentially you roll 3d6, your opponent declares whether his roll will be higher than yours. If he's right he wins, if he's wrong you win. I noticed that the code for this was rather convoluted the way it might have been written in an old BASIC dialect (sans the line numbers), but it seems to be a language of roughly the same level of power. I imagine many other old game engines are like that.

Some further advice on translation of Arcana. The main character Caprese is accompanied by a fairy named Primo who hangs around with him as part of a magical contract, and she insists that she call him by her name, rather than referring to her by the second-person pronoun お前, which he of course refuses to stop doing. This has already occurred several times in the first few parts I've managed to try translating. For example: Caprese: だからぁ、なんで俺がお前にあわせなきゃいけないわけ? Primo: お前じゃないっ!プリモ!ほら、言ってみて。プ・リ・モ A literal translation might be: Caprese: So tell me, why is it that you (お前) need to stick with me? Primo: I'm not 'you' (お前)! It's Primo! Go on, try to say it. P-R-I-M-O. Obviously English 'you' doesn't have the same sort of contempt that Japanese お前 does, which is part of what seems to be riling Primo. They have a similar exchange several more times, and Caprese has actually called her by her name only once as she requested since they met, as he seems intent on teasing her that way (as is reflected by his Tarot trump of zero, the Fool). Hopefully they'll eventually tire of it. I've been thinking of replacing お前 by a word like 'runt' or 'shrimp': Caprese: So tell me, why is it that a runt like you needs to stick with me? Primo: I'm not 'runt'! It's Primo! Go on, try to say it. P-R-I-M-O. though I don't know how well this goes over. Any other suggestions on how better to translate this sort of situation?

Well, in my case I didn't stop using arc_conv, and what I did was write a script that unscrambled the colour channel orderings in the game sprites. I don't know if it was arc_conv that did that, or if Arcana simply used a weird encoding of alpha for its sprites, as 32-bit BMP with alpha is not unambiguously defined, as some further research uncovered. It worked to extract all of the other non-sprite graphical assets from the game properly though, so go figure. I imagine that Yoxall is seeing something similar but less severe in the sprites they've extracted.

Have a look at this: http://forums.fuwanovel.net/topic/11282-bluish-character-sprites/ In summary, alpha channel transparency requires a 32-bit BMP, which is not standard, and there is no software I know of that is capable of correctly handling all the various ways that have been used to encode alpha channel information in BMPs. It seems that your image software probably doesn't interpret what the game interprets as alpha channel data in the same way. Some .BMPs use ARGB, others use RGBA, and so on, and judging from the Wikipedia article on the file format there might be even more ways to do it. To get around this in my project I had to write my own conversion program.

Arcana is a rather old game from 2000 by Ciel, and seems relatively obscure, although it has some very beautiful (if brutally censored) artwork from Tony Taka. I plan to do a complete conversion of the entire game from its own internal engine to Ren'py, and am making reasonable progress as far as that goes. I'm also trying to translate the game to English obviously, and while I do know some Japanese I don't know anywhere near enough to do this sort of thing properly. The project is thus in need of translators, translation checkers, and editors. I should be cut out for most of the programming work required, but I hear the game supposedly has some card battles too, and we'll see if that needs to be reverse engineered from the code too. Would also be nice if someone could undo the damage the censors did to Tony's work, but I think that can wait. Anyone interested in participating, please post your interest here or PM me. Thanks!