Introduction to game translations, emulation and RPGd

I don't write well, so I'm going to put down certain key terms and concepts, and you'll have to make the links between them.

GAME:
games played on consoles, this includes contraptions that you'd normally hook up to a TV like a Nintendo and also portable gaming systems such as a Gameboy. No computer games.

TRANSLATIONS:
a large number of videogames originate from Japan. Usually, they are ported over for play on American or European shores. During this time, the text in these game is translated from Japanese to English. However, not all games are ported to English-speaking shores - many remain in Japan due to reasons we won't go into.

However, what people have done on the web is to fan-translate these games (think fan-subbed anime) into a playable English form. How?

EMULATION:
emulation basically involves being able to play videogames on your computer. This involves someone building a contraption that takes the data from a game cartrdige and dumps onto the computer. The electronic form of this game data is referred to as a ROM and the program that plays these ROMs on the computer is called an emulator.

For example:
- The Legend of Zelda (Nintendo cartrdige) >>> The Legend of Zelda (ROM file on computer)
- Nintendo Entertainment System (console) >>> Nintendo emulator (program on computer)

TRANSLATIONS II:
a translation effort involves two parties. A romhacker, and a translator. The romhacker takes the ROM and looks at the way the textual data has been stored. He hacks it and makes it into a form more easily recognized by the translator who will then translate the text from Japanese to English. Then the romhacker will take the English text and put it back into the ROM in place of the Japanese text. If he does his job right, then the ROM will still be playable but now in English.

HOW TO PLAY:
the conventional way to play a fan-translated game is as follows:

ROM + patch = translated ROM
translated ROM + emulator = play!

You first need a ROM file, i.e. the game itself, and there are webpages called 'ROM sites' that feature these. We do not link to them, but a short run on Google should unearth some. Note however, that it is considered illegal to own ROMs of games you don't physically own. Of course, the older the game, the 'less illegal' it is - so to speak.

Then you need to find a translation patch. Not all games will have patches, and not all patches are complete. To find patches, you can look under our games section to see if we provide any information on the desired game. Failing that, you can go to a patch-archives site like the donut, Dorando, or Google for translation groups + game.

To apply the patch, which is usually in the IPS format, you need a program like IPSwin (click to download). These are called IPSpatchers. We host a more comprehensive list of them here (under IPS tools) , including tools for making your own IPS patches.

To find an emulator, you can visit an emulation news site like Zophar's Domain or again, Google 'em.

INTERESTED IN THE PROCESS?
if you're interested in the process of romhacking, our Utilties and Romhacking Documents section should get you started. For a more comprehensive listing, go to Romhacking.org. If you know Japanese well and would like to help translate the text from a game, ask around various messageboards, like our board or at translation groups' boards.

RPGD:
our role in all this is a simple guide. We offer information on a staff-picked selection of games under translation, romhacking documents, and romhacking utilities.

APPENDIX:
some extra things you should know about, if you're new to emulation and all that. Pretty optional, really.

Some common console names are abbreviated as follows:

Something you may find or have already found odd is the number system of certain famous RPG games, namely the Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior series. Here's a quick breakdown of what's what in case you're not a RPG-nut:

The blanks mean that the game was not released in English. Of course, some of them, like FF5 have been released in English when they re-released it for the Playstation. But here, we're basically saying, "originally..." or back when I first looked into this translations stuff.