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				  Kid Niki 3
                             English to Japanese 
                                 Translation
                                   v. 1.00

                   


-------------------------- DEDICATION & INSPIRATION ---------------------------
 
This translation is dedicated to SnowBro. Not only did I use one of his tools
to do the actual work (and would have used another if it worked in XP), I also
used him personally. SnowBro is the kewlest Norwegian 6502 assembly hacker in
the entire world!

Lately, I've been listening to an Everclear compilation that I made myself, so
that's what I'll credit with inspiring this particular translation.

	You know I want to be the way you want me to
	Big hearted and tall enough to cover you 
	I would break in half if you said it loud 
	Splinter out of myself just like mercury 

	-Everclear "Nervous and Weird"

------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------------

    I. Dedication & Inspiration
   II. Table of Contents
  III. Introduction
   IV. Version History
    V. Distribution Notes
   VI. Technical Notes
  VII. Staff
 VIII. Tools
   IX. Patching Instructions (** READ THIS BEFORE ASKING QUESTIONS!! **)
    X. Contact Information
   XI. Closing

--------------------------------- INTRODUCTION --------------------------------

Kid Niki 3 is the second sequel to Kid Niki: Radical Ninja, which was released
in America in 1987. It's quite an improvement over the first with Niki having
added several new moves to his arsenal.
     In a highly original storyline, Kid Niki must rescue Princess Kurumi from
his worst enemy, the evil Stone Wizard! What? That doesn't sound very original?
True, but how often does the hero find out that his beloved has been kidnapped
via a message written on a paper airplane? Pure genius, I tell you!

-------------------------------- VERSION HISTORY -------------------------------

v. 1.00 - February 28, 2003

What's Complete
 - all text translated
 - minor graphics hacks (title screen, ending screen and 2 in game quotes)
 
What's Incomplete
 - nothing that I am aware of

------------------------------ DISTRIBUTION NOTES ------------------------------

This Kid Niki 3 translation should be distributed in a file named kn3e100.zip
and should contain the following files:

	  kn3ev100.ips - the translation patch
 	  kn3ev100.txt - this readme file
	   kn3-man.txt - a manual for the game
	 kn3-fixed.ips - a patch that corrects the Mapper 19 hack.

These files are (C)opyright 2003 by Suicidal Translations. All rights reserved.
You may distribute this translation in any manner you desire as long as the
original archive remains intact with no modifications and the archive is
distributed free of charge.

Kaiketsu Yanchamaru 3 - Taiketsu! Zouringen is (C)opyright 1993 by Irem

------------------------------- TECHNICAL NOTES -------------------------------

There wasn't a whole lot of text in the game, just the introduction to the
bonus stage and the ending, along with a couple of graphics, so everything is
more or less accurate to it's original meaning. The poor English used when Niki
yells WILL HELP YOU! is intentional, based on the opening scene of the original
Kid Niki game.

The full Japanese title of the game is Kaiketsu Yanchamaru 3 - Taiketsu! 
Zouringen which literally translates into Swift Hero Yanchamaru 3 - Showdown!
Zouringen. I went with Kid Niki rather than Swift Hero Yanchamaru since the game
is known in the U.S. as Kid Niki. I was going to add a subtitle of Stone Wizard
Showdown but the title screen is a bit of a pain to hack, so I ended up leaving
it off.

Ok, now for the really technical part. There are 4 different Kaiketsu Yanchamaru
3 ROMs. The original (correct) dump, a bad dump, a Mapper 19 hack and another
mapper hack labeled as a Nesticle hack that only slightly differs from the first
Mapper 19 hack. So to which ROM do you need to apply the translation patch?
Here's the kicker... none of the above.

See, the original game uses a mapper that doesn't seem to be emulated properly
by any emulator. I tried FCE Ultra, Nesten, NNNesterJ and anything else I could
get my hands on and they all had the same problem, an intense hatred of epilepsy
sufferers. The game flashes like a disco ball on crack. On the other hand, the
Mapper 19 hack fixes the flashing problem, however, upon reaching the final
boss, I discovered that the Mapper 19 hack had a problem that the original
didn't, the boss graphic was glitched.

Enter the all mighty SnowBro. In short, SnowBro ripped the ROM to pieces, 
figured out what was wrong with the Mapper 19 hack and fixed it.
The kn3-fixed.ips file should be applied to the original ROM. This will create
a proper Mapper 19 hack. You must then apply the kn3ev100.ips patch to that in
order to have a fully translated game.

SnowBro also went through hell helping me with the title screen hack. The
graphics were uncompressed but the name and attribute tables were apparently
put into place by someone smoking Japan's finest crack. I wouldn't understand
what exactly he did to fix the problem but suffice to say, he worked hard and
deserves more thanks than I can afford to give at the moment. I think he spent
more time changing the palette used by about 24 tiles than I did inputing the
English text.

GoodNES calls the ROM Kaiketsu Yanchamaru 3 - Taiketsu! Zouringen (J). Your best
bet for locating the ROM is to check a full GoodNES archive, though you should
import the original cartridge from a shichiya (Japanese for pawn shop) for the
sake of legality.

------------------------------------ STAFF ------------------------------------

Hacking:
InVerse - http://www.pigtails.net/ST
SnowBro - http://www.stud.ntnu.no/~kenth/

Translating:
Shih Tzu - http://www.flammie.net/vse/
Oogami -  Spongeriffic!

Huge thanks to SnowBro for all his ASM skills. Thanks to Shih Tzu for the
translation of the ending via MO's board and Oogami for the bonus game
translation via MSN. Also, thanks to a_nevels666 for the translation of the
title screen.

------------------------------------ TOOLS ------------------------------------

The following tools were used for this translation:

       Hexecute: hex editing
 Tile Layer Pro: graphics hacking & font insertion
         IPS XP: patch creation
     
Most of these tools, as well as ROM hacking tutorials, can be downloaded from
The Repository (http://www.romhacking.com).

----------------------------- PATCHING INSTRUCTIONS ---------------------------

Patching a ROM is extremely simple. You need three things. A ROM, the patch and
a patching program. To patch with ips.exe, you simply type:

	ips <ROM name> <patch name>

So if your ROM was named kn3.nes and the patch was named kn3ev100.ips you
would type:

	ips kn3.nes kn3ev100.ips

Make sure you have the ROM, the patch and IPS in the same directory.	
	
To patch with SNES Tool, simply select USE IPS, choose the patch and then 
select the ROM to which you wish to apply the patch. It's self explanatory. If 
you can't figure it out, the game is probably too hard for you anywayz.

To patch with IPSWin, you simply select the ROM you want to patch, the patch
you wish to apply and then click Patch. Once again, if you can't figure it out,
the game is probably too hard for you.

------------------------------ CONTACT INFORMATION ----------------------------

 The official Kid Niki 3 english translation home page is currently located
 at http://www.pigtails.net/ST

 E-Mail addresses concerning the project can be located on the official page.

 Do NOT, under ANY circumstances, ask for ROMs. You will not only be denied,
 you will have your request for illegal files forwarded to your ISP.
 
------------------------------------- CLOSING ----------------------------------

 So there you have it. Have fun and remember, it's just a game.

 -InVerse