An update with pictures!? Impossible! Yet here it is.
Here we’re just showing some of the recent refinements to the menu and shop screens.
In other news, I’m happy to report that everything is progressing nicely. I’m pretty much done. Since I really don’t have anything else to do with the text until it gets edited, I’m just working on playtesting. I’ve already completed a full playthrough of the game and made a lot of little tweaks and looked for bugs. Kingcom is doing a great job staying on top of all of those and I’d say we’ve corrected as much in the last few weeks as we have for many months prior. Yuli is working on editing the events with much fervor. I’m really pleased with her progress. Proofreading is also moving along… I think. Subtitles are likewise progressing. Everything looks like it should be wrapping up around the same time, so I’m just trying to make sure it all comes together right.
And now to drop a bomb on some of you… Lately there have been some questions of “Will the patch work on my flashcart?” The answer? Well, it might, but it might not. Unfortunately, because of the way that flashcarts work, not all of them will work with ToI right out of the gate. Here’s the deal: Flashcarts apply patches when they load the game. The problem is that some carts apply the patches according to the CRC of the rom header. Since the patch will change the rom header, some carts won’t recognize it and there’s nothing we can do about it. Sadly, only an update from the flashcart devs will solve the problem. So now you’re all panicking and wondering if your card is among those that don’t work. Here’s what we know so far:
- CycloDS will work.
- R4 will work.
- Acekard 2s works (tested with AkAIO 1.5)
- Some Supercards WILL NOT work.
- Emulation will work.
So if you’re among those whose carts will not support the patch, I really do apologize. I wish we could do something about it, but it’s totally out of our hands. If you are in that unfortunate situation, your only options are to get a different flashcart, play the game on emulation, or convince the maker of your flashcart to update their database to support our patch. There is literally nothing we can do about it.
Sorry to end on that note, but there you have it.
EDIT: Added information about Acekard. Thanks deets.
…so the game cant be patched manually and work on about every card afterwards?
i dont even know if n-cards and clones patch anything, but i havent seen mine doing any selfpatching at all
seriously, this couldve been said a few years ago, just to stop me from waiting @@
@Tid: No.
@eh: I have no idea what you’re trying to say. The patch will work on most flashcarts. So far all we’ve said is that it won’t work on Supercards. Are you complaining because you have a Supercard? I don’t get it.
eh: emulators exist you know >_>
But the only supercard you know that it won’t work for is the supercard DS correct? meaning that it could possibly work on different supercards?
YES, YES AND YES! OMG guys. Even if there a random card where it don’t work, there’s always several workarounds! Hex editing, patches, I don’t know …
im wondering, so far, all patches ive ever seen for DS games, patched the game before its put on the flashcard like with that tsukiyomi programm or some dos commandline thing…
if its a problem with some flashcards not applying the patch correctly, i wonder why the patch isnt like those others, applied to the game before its put on a pc and ok it is
ive got a ds linker, a clone of the ncard, no idea, but seeing how that thing wont even dldi patch on its own, i heavily doubt it will perform anything on a game
Many games are actively patched by the flashcart when they’re booted up. You just don’t see it happening. Our patch is passive like any other in that you apply the patch to the game itself before adding it to the flashcart. The problem is that this makes it incompatible with how the active patching works on cards like the Supercard. Depending on how your cart applies the active patch to make Tales of Innocence run, you may or may not have a problem. Until our patch is actually out and you try it, there’s no way of knowing.
well i guess you’re not going to put up like v0.0001 of your patch with just one line translated for the purpose of trying on what card it would work, right?
Even if we knew what cards it would work on and what cards it wouldn’t, there’s nothing we can do to make it work. Unless the card makers or the people who support the software update their databases to support the patch, it won’t work on those few cards.
but it would make it so that less people would eagerly wait and be disappointed later this year
We can’t release a test patch because things are still changing. Unless it included all of the modifications to the game code, it wouldn’t provide any information at all. You’ll just have to wait. Sorry.
You sure? I thought even the slightest modification to the rom would result in the CRC being different, so the card either would or wouldn’t recognise the game and patch it accordingly. And that would allow people to check.
In fact, I would have thought that applying one of the menu and item translation patches that exist already would be no different from your patch (ie it would also modify the CRC), so people could use those to test. Or have I got it all wrong?
The CRC of the rom doesn’t matter. It would take forever to compute a CRC of an 128/256MB rom every time you boot it.
The important part is the header, just the first 512 or so bytes. It contains pointers to the file system, the banner and the overlays, among other things that aren’t really interesting. As I added a couple of new files to the rom and also used my own NDS rom packer for better performance, some data will be moved around. The FAT will be bigger, and naturally, the whole data will be too.
And as the header basically changes every time (the final rom size is included there as well), the CRC won’t be final until the very day of the release.
Some other translations may or may not change the original header.
Does the beta testing will take several months like Archaic Sealed heat?
Coz they’re beta testing for almost 5 months.
We’ve done a lot of testing on our own, so we don’t expect the formal beta to take more than a month.
Well theres always the chance that it could run on a supercard. I remember when Xenophobia released an anti piracy hack for Spirit Tracks, it would not work on a Supercard unless you went on turned Supercard applied patches off.
Obviously I don’t know if there is any backround patching that this option does not include, which seems to be what you guys are implying. Either way Im sure that all supercard users will find alternatives for enjoying this patch.
Anyways much luck to you guys. It seems like this translation is shaping up to be better than what most game translation companies tend to put out, at least in terms of menu enhancements.
k, last question, if every compiling changes something with the crc, would it be possible to randomly compile like 10 patches at the very end to increase chances of at least one patch working for some card?
Ok, thanks, I got confused between the CRC of the ROM and the header CRC.
Hey, thanks for all the hard work, been following this for a long time now. I’m really happy its nearly completed.
If it possible could you do a check to see if it is working on the M3iO flashcart. I do have a R4 and an Edge card laying about but I’d love for it to be on the same cart as the rest of my games. If you can’t test it then I understand as you may not have one to test on.
Good luck with everything that needs to be finished, can’t wait until its finished
Thank you
Man.. I hope this’ll work for my supercard or else… *gasp*
My supercard will finally… for the first time…fail me!!!
But, anyway good job on your work so far, hope it gets done soon.
@eh
What he meant is that most of the time, when he CHANGES ANYTHING, the header became different. So there’s no point in compiling after finished work, 10 times, since it’ll give the exact same header all the time.
Of course, he could compile 10 different non-finished patches, but that would be lame.
he could randomly add ” ” at the end of some text passage or Item description, where it doesnt make any difference for the eye
the header should change a little with that, right?
Yeah, that’s the problem, you can’t change the header at all.
I’ve been waiting a year for the game and i could wait some years more. But I hope it works in TTDS.
Awesome job.
If you REALLY REALLY wanted to play the patch, you could just buy an R4. (i’m pretty sure it’s the cheapest? could be wrong)
They cost like 10-15$.
I know if I had an incompatible flashcart, i’d have already bought a compatible one in anticipation for the patch.
r4 wins again! thanks for the heads up greatly anticapating this release =]
sorry for the double post.
But quick question if its stupid then sorry i dont usually spend time discussing the benefits and capabalities of different flashcards.
If your flashcard dont work couldnt you just change the firmware into one that does? because i know an r4 can turn into a m3 and vice versa?
Only ’cause some m3s are a clone of the R4. Few flashcarts have interchangeable firmware.
Will this game work on DSTT? Thanks
Oh noes. So, you have a formal beta (I’m guessing it’s closed) for the patch on top this existing testing/fixing phase of some sort?
Soooo, I guess I should expect the big day somewhere between june-july.
I’m wondering the same as :3
Stop asking if your flashcarts are going to work. Seriously. We can’t test them and even if we could, we can’t do anything if they don’t work. You’ll find out if they work when the patch comes out.
For reals.
Well, it was just a question, don’t be so agressive.
@eh: You are annoying.. and a total noob.
Yay for R4 =) So just out of curiosity (I can wait, I’m just wondering really), do you expect the patch to be complete March, April, or May? Or later?
Oh mai. I wonder if that’s the same Dark_aleX I think it is. ;D
@Yggy: I somehow doubt it.
Nice to know we’re not allowed to ask simple questions without being treated like dirt…
Treated like dirt? I gave you the best response that I’m able to. I don’t know the answer. You guys clearly know that I don’t know the answer and yet this questioning continues. It’s perfectly reasonable for me to ask for it to stop (even though I know it will never happen).
Well… I don’t know about everyone else since there’s so much bitching going on but I AM VERY EXCITE. >:3
Nice work, the screens look nice, can’t wait to get my hands on it.
Thanks for translating this, I love the Tales series and have been wanting to play this for ages. <3
@Ray
Just play DIRT2 if you want to play dirt.
Maybe we should just leave them alone for a few months and try and donate now and then. It’ll come eventually and if my cart doesn’t work with the patch I’ll just buy one that does.
@Knight: I couldn’t agree more.
Leave the guys be, the patch hasn’t even come out yet. If you card works or not, that is something you will find out when it is released. The developers can’t do anything about it if it doesn’t, as they have already clarified. Contact your card manufacturer to add support for it when it’s released, they’ll be able to do that once the patch comes out, just like they do with any other ROM. Can’t say if they’re willing to, though…
tl;dr You guys are retarded.
Thank you throughhim413 and team for all of your fantastic work. Please ignore the idiots that fail to read what you have posted numerous times and despite being spoonfed the exact same information in response to their rude, ignorant remarks continue to plague this comments page with stupidity. You’ve done a fantastic job and I am very much looking forward to the release.
Thank you very much.
Also to all those who say things like ‘I am willing to wait blah blah blah’. You don’t have a choice. Get over yourselves. You haven’t done anything except follow the project so you do not deserve any concessions.
Thank you for the support. I really do appreciate it.
I don’t feel it was the best response you could have given us, it was a bit undeserving, but whatever I can’t stay mad at someone who is doing all this work for us.
There was a question I asked on page 2 that I was hoping you could answer for all the people out there who would prefer owning the actual copy of the game to avoid piracy.
The question was: One question I have is if you’ll consider posting scripts for the translations on your site just in case someone doesn’t own any sort of hacking device, but does have access to the Japanese release.
Yes, I do realize there are several translation guides available already for Tales of Innocence, but I’m not asking for myself… I’ll be playing it on a flashcard, I just thought it was a good question in case there is anyone out there who would like to play your translation of the game legally, and without a flashcard/emulator.
I know a few people personally who won’t go near piracy.
No, I won’t be posting a script. Formatting all of the text in a usable form would take a lot of time and I just can’t justify it. The patch is really the ideal form of the translation and I’d rather be working on Tales of Destiny than investing countless hours just to post a script. I apologize to those who would prefer a script, but it just doesn’t make sense for me in terms of the time investment.
Understandable. Thank you for answering.
When the patch is released, how do you patch ToI?