The Neverhood

nomecopies · Post by **nomecopies** » Wed Jun 05, 2013 11:32 pm

Hi!

Now that the creators of the amazing AG The Neverhood are planning to make a new game (back it!) I thought that many people would want to try their previous adventure, but unfortunately it was only in english, and I'd like to help to spanish people to play this great game, so I pretend to make a full spanish localisation. But I have no idea (at all) about programming, I just know that somehow I have to extract the images and videos from the BLB files and (the complicate part) put it together again.

I know that some of you tried to port the game to ScummVM, so maybe you can help me... I managed to extract the cutscenes with RAD video tools but I need the texts and, of course, a way to make a patch or whatsoever.

Thanks for reading!

maximus · Post by **maximus** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 4:14 pm

https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/pull/330

I'm pretty sure there will be an announcement when it's ready for a wider audience, but if you grab a daily build, the engine should be enabled and you can play the neverhood

nomecopies · Post by **nomecopies** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 7:46 pm

Er... thanks for the response, but I'm not asking how to play The Neverhood on ScummVM!

I want to translate the game and I need help to make it cause I've no programming skills at all.

greencis · Post by **greencis** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 7:58 am

nomecopies, what tools do you need? BLB extractor? BLB packer? Image or video converter? You can convert video from Smacker to any format and vice versa using RAD Video Tools.

Nitrus · Post by **Nitrus** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 12:49 pm

This shouldn't be too difficult (aside from the translating work ofc), seeing as the Neverhood has a pretty big following and a myriad of tools available out there. For example, this is documentation for the file structure:

http://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php?title=BLB

Which means: Smacker Videos, Music, Sounds, Images, Palettes...

If BLB is similar or identical to BLORB, a quick google search led me to tools like Necrotech's FMV extractor (mostly for the Smacker or SMK videos), cBlorb or perlBlorb for packing etc...

If the resource structure above is complete, and you find somebody who is sufficiently interested in making a extractor/packer for you, that's a clean way to do it. It might not even be necessary if you manage to find all of the tools you'd need.

I haven't looked at ScummVM's code for handling The Neverhood, but I imagine everything in there would already be panned out for you.

Cheers.

maximus · Post by **maximus** » Sat Jun 08, 2013 12:58 pm

nomecopies wrote:Er... thanks for the response, but I'm not asking how to play The Neverhood on ScummVM!

I want to translate the game and I need help to make it cause I've no programming skills at all.

Sorry, I totally misread the question

TRoss · Post by **TRoss** » Tue Jul 02, 2013 11:27 am

nomecopies wrote:Er... thanks for the response, but I'm not asking how to play The Neverhood on ScummVM!

I want to translate the game and I need help to make it cause I've no programming skills at all.

That's quite a task – good luck!
Btw, how do you plan on translating the audio (e.g. Willie Trombone's tapes) since, if memory serves me right, there are no subtitles in the Neverhood?

nomecopies · Post by **nomecopies** » Thu Jul 04, 2013 11:55 am

Yes, I'm going to translate the audio too. I've already recorded some test audio and I've transcripted and translated all the audio from the game (not much really, it's mainly Willie's tapes) but I'm waiting till I'm sure I can rebuild the game files before recording the final audio.

scoriae · Post by **scoriae** » Thu Jul 11, 2013 12:16 pm

As a realism check here, I would like to point out that audio dubs of a game have potential to go horribly wrong and undermine all of your work. There is a reason that voice actors exist, and there is also a reason that fan games with poor voice acting are often ignored before the game itself even gets a fair chance.

Hell, even great games with bad voices can cause issues. the whispered world for example is a beautiful game, but I really just can't stand that sad clown's voice. Vampyre's Story introduced a bat that might as well have been Cedric's (kq5) idiot cousin.

Maybe I am wrong and you have extension voice recording experience, or maybe you have access to people who do. In which case, more power to you. But if you have never voice acted in the past.... well, Willy is *not* the easiest character to start with.

Robot_Maker20 · Post by **Robot_Maker20** » Sun Jul 14, 2013 12:56 pm

I'd like to second everything scoriae said - I'd strongly suggest you stick to subtitles.