October 6, 2011

Choro Q3 translation released!

So, I finally got into ROM hacking and translating from Japanese to English. I had to learn a lot of stuff, just to make a patch that probably only a couple of people will ever try. But it was fun... and also very painful.



Before I began with the translation, I thought that the hardest things to do would be learning ASM, programming the mysterious VWF that everyone talked about, learning Japanese ("the Devil's language"), creating custom tools to edit the text, creating a table with a million kanjis, fixing all kind of bugs and crashes that pop up, etc. And while it's true that all of those tasks were hard (and I probably didn't do good enough any of them), nothing prepared me to the most painful task ever created: graphics editing.

This game had like a million TIM files, which no tool could open, correctly or at all, and I needed to edit most of them and fight with fonts, hex editors, color palettes, re-usable kanjis, silly transparency effects, etc. I wish TIMs would die in a fire...



Anyway, now that I have finished the first version of my translation, I can finally get some rest. I still don't know if I'm going to continue working on Kid Dracula next, or translate this game first:



My other favorite game: Final Fantasy 7! Eh... Choro Q 2, I mean. The game that got a 4.8 by the same people who gave Chrono Cross a 10! (I like how they recommend Need for Speed II instead. Oh, well, at least they reviewed it.)



...I should have changed that to "Choro Q will return as Choro Q 2", since Choro Q 4 was never made, anyway. :( (I wonder if English speakers know what that ° means...)

And on a very related note, a Japanese guy is making a TAS of Choro Q Ver. 1.02: Google Search. :D

Eh... Yes, get the English patch for Choro Q3 here: http://www.romhacking.net/translations/1652/
Posted by M. Z. at 02:13
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35 comments:

  1. Anonymous06 October, 2011 19:30

    Always wanted to play this game! COOL! Really nice! Thank you A LOT!

    BTW: your blog is .com.ar.... are you from Argentina?

    ReplyDelete
  2. M. Z.06 October, 2011 20:28

    Thank you for the comment. :)

    Yes, I am from Argentina.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous07 October, 2011 11:25

    Noooo posta! que grossos man sos un capo! No pense que habria gente tan grosa aca en Arg! Grosso!!!!

    PD: soy el del primer mensaje
    PD2: Ya parché la iso, voy a ver que onda en la play, mil gracias man!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous07 October, 2011 14:32

    Sorry, its me again :P your fellow countryman jaajja. Tried it on my PSX, works really good. Congratulations! Hope you continua with great works like this! Thanks a lot, Im off to play ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. M. Z.07 October, 2011 14:38

    Jaja, muchas gracias por tus comentarios.

    Estaba por responderte que probablemente no vaya a funcionar en una PSX real y justo apareció tu nuevo mensaje. :D

    Me alegro de que te funcione, espero que no se cuelgue más adelante. :P

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  6. Anonymous07 October, 2011 23:12

    Si se cuelga averiguo donde vivis y te golpeo, porque el juego esta bárbaro! Ya saque 50 de las 100 cosas para hacer en la ciudad :P Muy bueno!

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  7. Juan de Dió08 October, 2011 05:20

    definitivamente muchas gracias
    Me encanta esta serie de juegos
    saludos

    ReplyDelete
  8. Rockman08 October, 2011 05:41

    Could you put a list of Events? I've got about 5 left and the only Guide I can find seems to have some errors. I'm pretty sure most of them are the Time ones for the cones/ice/dirt courses.

    32-35,59,80,99 are the ones I'm missing.

    ReplyDelete
  9. M. Z.08 October, 2011 05:53

    @Anonymous: Jejeje. Espero que estés guardando seguido. :D

    @Juan de Dió: Muchas gracias por tu comentario. :)

    @Rockman: Uhm... I'll try to make a post with a list like that and some pictures... once I get a bit un-lazy. For now, these are the ones you're missing:

    32. Did Gymkhana in 30 secs.
    33. Did Dirt Trial in 40 secs.
    34. Did Night Gymkhana in 40 secs.
    35. Did Ice Trial in 40 secs.
    59. Grew crops in the garden.
    80. Drove through the tunnel at constant speed.
    99. Read bulletin board 17.

    Hope that helps.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Rockman08 October, 2011 06:30

    Thank you very much. I just tried to get the dirt and ice. This is what holes in walls are made of. I can't even see where I'm supposed to go without the map. I guess I'll just memorize it or something. For now I'll try to find BB17 and grow crops.
    Excellent game. Thanks for translating it.

    PS: A tip for anyone having trouble in the GP. Try equipping Wet tires. You rival likes to mimic your equipment and equipping inappropriate tires, like the Wet Tires, sometimes causes them to place third and lower their average points for the GP.

    ReplyDelete
  11. M. Z.08 October, 2011 06:37

    Yeah, those trials are easy once you memorize them. Night Gymkhana should be the hardest one...

    Hehe, I didn't know about that tip.

    Thanks for your comments. :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Rockman08 October, 2011 06:59

    I'm having trouble with 59. Do you have any suggestions?

    ReplyDelete
  13. M. Z.08 October, 2011 07:05

    I think you need to watch the garden outside the garage after each race. You need to do this 3 or 4 times, I believe. You'll notice that the plants there are growing after each race.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous08 October, 2011 11:10

    As rockman says, there are stages wich are impossible to win without wet tires (wet tires plus something better), like the sewers stage. Try wet tires+4 on the sewers and youll win like a charm ;)


    Still didnt freeze, saludos! :P

    ReplyDelete
  15. M. Z.08 October, 2011 14:46

    Sí, eso debería ser obvio. :P

    Lo que Rockman sugiere, es que en un Grand Prix, en un carrera que no sea en agua, usés las Wet tires. Tu rival copia lo que sea que vos usés y esto hace que le vaya mal, termine ~3ro. y pierda puntos para el GP.

    Me alegro mucho de que todavía no se haya colgado. :D

    ReplyDelete
  16. Rockman08 October, 2011 16:07

    I have more than 90 events done and a lot of time spent going to town and lots of races won/raced. How many time do I need to visit the garden? I'm not seeing any sort of growth. Maybe it's linked to the odometer?

    ReplyDelete
  17. M. Z.08 October, 2011 21:08

    According to this guide:

    http://cqfan.genin.jp/q3iben.html#59

    , you have to do this event during the Hyper Grand Prix. That is: participate in a HGP race, visit the garden, participate in a HGP race, visit the garden, etc.

    I always go to the lottery after each race; I guess that's why I never had trouble with it... I never even stopped to watch the plants, but it still counted.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Rockman08 October, 2011 21:57

    Wow, you found a guide to the game. Are you some kind of wizard? Thanks a lot.

    PS: Anybody ever notice that Last Place is always a dump truck that has Fur Elise for its horn? It's like the game wants you to know you should feel bad for being in last place.

    ReplyDelete
  19. wushu09 October, 2011 15:33

    Hey man, quite a fine job you did in there.

    I'm from Argentina too, hope we could talk someday. It's weird to see people from around here involved in the scene.

    ReplyDelete
  20. pho-ku09 October, 2011 15:45

    Ahh, wow! Thank you for your hard work MZ, I love Choro-Q! I had no idea someone was translating this game. Combat Choro-Q is another favorite of mine. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do next.

    It's great that you learnt all that stuff to translate a game you really like. I've been thinking for the past few months that I really want to get good at Japanese so I can play Linda Cube Again. I'm really obsessed with it.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Rockman09 October, 2011 18:32

    Any chance you will work on Choro Q and Q2 if the systems are similar? Or any of the non-car ones?

    ReplyDelete
  22. M. Z.10 October, 2011 04:38

    @wushu: Thank you. I hope so, too. :)

    @pho-ku: Thank you very much for mentioning Linda Cube Again! I saw the Saturn version in a magazine almost 15 years ago, and thought it looked really interesting. I didn't even know there was a PSX version of it. :P I'll try to get it now. :)

    @Rockman: Sure. Q2 should be next, once I get in the mood for hacking again. It shouldn't take too long to translate, I imagine, since it doesn't have too much text and should share most of the code with Q3.

    Choro Q was released in Europe as Penny Racers, so maybe I can take most/all files from it and put them into Choro Q Ver. 1.02.

    I don't really like the non-car games... and "Wonderful!" is pretty bad too, so I probably won't be translating any of those...

    ReplyDelete
  23. Rockman10 October, 2011 05:13

    If they're bad, that's fine.

    PS: Spoiler: If you are having trouble getting all 100, except for your own need for completion, the unlockables you get from it are almost worthless. Unless I'm missing something.

    ReplyDelete
  24. M. Z.10 October, 2011 05:30

    Yeah, at that point they're really worthless...

    But you also get a secret number (in the events screen); I wonder what can it be used for...

    ReplyDelete
  25. Rockman10 October, 2011 07:22

    It's a secret.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Anonymous12 October, 2011 14:02

    Everithing is soooo misterious now... *mistery* *mistery*....


    Saludos, todavia anda de 10!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Rockman13 October, 2011 07:02

    My best guess is that it's a passcode for outtakes in some Ero Idol UMD.

    ReplyDelete
  28. atreyu18721 October, 2011 20:24

    This is so awesome thanks for all your hard work!!

    ReplyDelete
  29. een23 October, 2011 05:41

    let me know if you need some help on black bass fishing.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Anonymous05 December, 2011 23:47

    Thanks a lot man I just came here to say that I love Choro Q series and you made my day! Keep up the good work and if you can translate Choro Q 2 it will be very nice!

    ReplyDelete
  31. Anonymous31 December, 2011 09:52

    The same Anonymous as above: Finished the game and I love you! Oh yes translate Choro Q Wonderful too if you can! Just found on google!

    ReplyDelete
  32. Anonymous11 October, 2013 19:42

    One of my favorite games of the world translate, and i find 2 years late, Sorry, but BIGGGGGGG THANKKKSSS, I am a psx collector of ChoroQ 3, the killer of mario kart, i hope come back to ps4.

    Soryy, but how make choroq 3 translate english with the patch, i am noobs.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Anonymous29 July, 2014 16:37

    Hey man, just passed by to give you my most sincere thank you! This is a game from my childhood and I could never finish it because I don't speak japanese.
    Thanks a lot for your hard work, you made me a very happy person!

    ReplyDelete
  34. sebastian07 September, 2021 22:06

    Hola amigo, me entere que eras de Argentina? Te felicito por traducir el juego! No se como has hecho, pero hiciste un excelente trabajo. Mas gente debería hablar de esta saga, esta bastante infravalorada en mi opinión.
    Por lo que veo estuviste inactivo bastante tiempo. Tienes planeado hacer traducciones de mas juegos? Muero por una traducción del Choro Q Wonderful o del jet/tanks, no me acuerdo su nombre XD. Saludos amigo y gracias nuevamente ;)

    ReplyDelete
  35. Anonymous23 October, 2024 00:00

    Thanks and I have a swell give: How Much House Renovation home improvements

    ReplyDelete

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