Question about Sierra “.eng” language files

[alterhund]

Hallo everybody,

it’s great, that there are still so many people, who love the old Sierra classics.

I’ve got a few specific Questions abaut technical issues in Sierra games.
It would make me very happy, if someone could help me.
Here’s the first one.
In many (most?) older Sierra games the language files (in game text) have the extension “eng”. Unfortunately there are plenty of incorrect (sometimes funny or simply stupid) translations, which came out during the localization process.
Does anybody know, what kind of software did they use to edit and to change the text in those files?
I’m afraid it was an internal program from Sierra, but may be there is another tool I could use for that purpose?
A simple text editor like Notepad or even a hex editor DO NOT suit!

Thanks in advance

Greetings from Germany

[Collector]

Hello and welcome to the forums! I don't have any experience with localized versions of these games. There are people that have dissected these games for translations. Most notable is Hendroz, who did an Italian translation of Gabriel Knight 2. He developed tools to do this, which can be found here. Someone that goes by "kelmer" did a Spanish translation patch of GK2, but I am not sure what tools that he used. It is this patch that laffer35 (Øystein) used to create his Gabriel Knight II English Subtitle Patch.

There are other tools that let you pull apart SCI games. There is the SCI Resource Viewer, SCI Studio (which seems to not be online at this time) and SCI Companion.

You might also check out the SCI board on agigames.com.

[alterhund]

Thanks a lot for your quick reply!

I didn’t mention which games I was thinking about, I’m sorry for that.
I already know the SCI tools – a great job from Hendroz. The problem is, they are only useful for (adventure) games with Sierra’s SCI engine. By the way, I’ve been trying to make a DOS-Version of KQ7 with German speech (the version 2.0b was only available in North America), but with no success at all.
The language files I mean you can find in the City Building Series from Impressions, from Caesar 2 to Emperor, and also for example in Lords of the Realm 2.
These games don’t use SCI.

[Collector]

KQ7 is, of course SCI, so Hendroz's SCI tools should work to be able to translate 2.00b. jafa of Squirt the Cat has developed a Windows XP/Vista installer for Lords 2. He has done some installers for German versions of Sierra games.

[alterhund]

Thank you once more.
Yes, you’re right, KQ7 is SCI32 v.2.1 and I worked with the toolset “SCI Studio 3” (by Brian Provinciano) and some others. After many failures and errors I gave up. Probably I’ll start another approach soon.
I’ve got no problems with installation of older Sierra games but thanks for the link, I didn’t know the site.
My problem that remains is just the fact: I’m not able to edit and to change the bl…
.eng files.

[Collector]

I am afraid that I can't be much help with the Impressions games, as I am not that familiar with the mechanics of those games as I am with the AGI and SCI games. As far as KQ7 goes, you might try to contact Hendroz for assistance with his TraduSCI program.

[alterhund]

I’ve tested the jafa’s Lords 2 installation today
and I am extremely impressed on his work.
He’s made the job disassembling and reassembling the main executable
with his own software!
( This is the man to solve the sound problem in AoD )
Hopefully he will continue his undertaking in the future, so we would be able
to play older win9x games even on Win7 x64 machines.

[Collector]

AoD? Aces of the Deep?

[alterhund]

Yes, “Command: Aces of the Deep” actually (SB Live incompatibility).
I have no big problems running the Win95-Version under XP SP3 with the –s option.
Does the game (sound) work with the SB X-Fi series?

[Collector]

I am aware of the SB issues with CAotD. Aces of the Deep runs fine in DOSBox, But Command has always been a pain. I have no idea about the X-Fi, as I am still using an old Audigy.

[alterhund]

@ CAotD
I’m a big fan and supporter of DOSBox too, but I used to play the Win95 version and e.g. the graphics are far better.

The second attempt
I’ve been experimenting with KQ7 in the last few days. Only SCIResDump (by Endroz) and the SCI viewer (which wasn’t much help in that case) can partially (!) handle the resource files of the German version (1.51). I won’t write about the details but it’s really a thousand pities. Except one screen (the saving options in v.2.00b) all resources are already localized, but I couldn’t “convince” the DOS interpreter to work with them (errors in map file, different version, unknown compression and so on), so it’s been quite frustrating. I don’t know about your skills but I think Endroz is the one, who could eventually help. He wrote (a few years ago): "[…] however you can contact me if you have any question about them and want some help." May be I’ll try to contact him. The email address (mac----@libero.it) is still current?

I’ve found one interesting thing out, I didn’t know. Both versions of KQ7 (2.00b and 1.51Ger) have msg files, which contain the whole speech and all dialogs as text!
So I suppose there must be a possibility (a switch, an option in config file etc.) to turn the text messages (subtitles) on. Do you know anything about that?

One more question: Do you know whether the rbt video files contain sound? (At least the intro soundtrack can be found among the resources files)
-------------------------------
In January 2007 Collector wrote:
"The next version of Windows after Vista will only be 64 bit."
(From: KQ7 v2 Patch Readme)
You are not a very good seer, are you?

[Collector]

Did my 1.51 to 2.00b patch work with the German version? I would have guessed that it would not, as it does a CRC check, first. I know if it did the end result would be the US 2.00b version.

I don't know if Hendroz still uses that email. You can go to http://www.gabrielknight4campaign.com/forum/ and look up Hendroz for a more current one.

The way SCI patches work is that if the game finds them, they will override what is packed in the resource files. The GK subtitle patch (even though it started out as a Spanish translation and modified for English subtitles) works on the US version of the game by having the patch files in the base folder of the game. If you can extract the German language resources and drop them in the 2.00b installed folder, it might work. You might also play with the "language=" option in the CFG file.

I don't know about the RBT files, but I would have guessed that they have the audio, too, but if you found it in the resources, it looks like not.

Re: the KQ7 v2 Patch Readme, that is what they were saying at the time. The actualization of Windows 7 is far different than what the engineers were saying at the time. It was supposed to drop all of the legacy baggage that has been weighing down Windows, breaking backwards compatibility. Instead, it is going to be more like what the engineers had intended for Vista before the marketeers and bean counters forced the (too) early release of it. You could consider Windows 7 as Vista SE. Anyway, I am in the process of redoing my patches and installers and am updating the Readmes.

[alterhund]

Thanks for your replay

@ Your patch 1.51 to 2.00b
As an act of desperation I tried your patch, but as you’ve guessed the CRC check was the end of patching.
---
Well, here are some details (Warning: It can be boring):
KQ7 contains following resources: RESOURCE.000, RESOURCE.AUD, RESOURCE.SFX, ALTRES.000 (alternative resources) and respectively the maps (RESOURCE.MAP, ALTRES.MAP).
a) The SCI Viewer (v.1) shows quite correctly all files in 2.00bUS but it doesn’t show audio and sync files in 1.51GER.
b) Endroz’s SCI dumper can extract the audio files neither from 2.00b nor 1.51Ger (He hadn’t tested his software with KQ7). It means, apart from audio files, I can extract almost all other files. Unfortunately, the audio files are essential for the localization. KQ7 does not really use text files (except for Credits at the end of the game). The game menus and messages are all compressed bitmaps.
c) It’s possible to view and extract the audio files (2.00b and 1.51Ger) with Game Audio Player v1.32, bat only as ordinary wav files.
d) ALTRES.000 (1.51Ger) contains all localized files except audio, the RESOURCE.000 archive is probably the same in both versions.
e) SCI Companion and SCI Studio 3 can do …nothing (with KQ7).
And here are some of my attempts:
(All files I used in my experiments were extracted with the /h-option of course, i.e. patch file header was added)
1. I replaced all 6 resource archives and map files in 2.00b (Theoretically, it should be something like a German DOS version)
Error 42: This game has not been version-stamped
2. I put a single extracted picture file in the 2.00b directory (1200.p56 – background picture)
Game was running and then: Error: compression type not supported
Apparently the DOS interpreter doesn’t accept the file format created by SCI dumper.
3. A single view file dropped in the 2.00b directory (920.v56 – “Name Your Game” screen)
Result: KQ7 didn’t crash, but the screen was mixed-up.
4. Another view file (930.v56 – “Continue Old Game” button)
Game crashed: DOS4/GW Error (probably because of a different size)
5. A single view file (984.v56 – the small “Exit” button in zoomed view)
Game was running, by entering the close view: Error 63: memory moved
….and so on…
6. What about 1849 audio files even if I could extract them?
CONCLUSION: I think it does not make sense. It’s a waste of time unless we have the original SCI32 software.
---
You’ve probably overlooked a quite important question for me. As I’ve already written, all spoken words and dialogs in KQ7 are stored as text in msg files in the ALTRES.000 archive (English text in 2.00b). Do you know how to turn the (already prepared) subtitles on?
---
@ KQ7 v2 Patch Readme
I’m really sorry Collector. You’re right. I knew all that but I was just kidding (trying). I’m not going to do it anymore.
---
I’ve attached a little bit funny an audio file that I found.

[Collector]

You’ve probably overlooked a quite important question for me. As I’ve already written, all spoken words and dialogs in KQ7 are stored as text in msg files in the ALTRES.000 archive (English text in 2.00b). Do you know how to turn the (already prepared) subtitles on?

Some of the SCI interpreters (not all) will display a list of arguments that can be used in the RESOURCE.CFG if you launch the exe with the -? switch. There is no text option in KQ7. Sierra often packed other resources developed, but not used in the games' resource files. The option to turn text on or off was usually in the game's settings interface, not in the RESOURCE.CFG. These settings are stored in the save games. There are no more game settings than in the RESOURCE.CFG. and the save games. Such an option would have to be hacked into the game's GUI. It might be possible edit a save game if the ability is in the game, but I would not know how to go about it.

[alterhund]

Certainly, it’s not very exciting information, but I’ve found a way to enable the subtitles in KQ7. You simply need to disable audio output by placing the following line in config file: “audioSize = 0K “. It works with German text files too. There is no more speech of course.

Is it usual, that the game starts with delay (few seconds), when you use the MT-32 driver under DOSBox?