FRONT MISSION 2
FAN TRANSLATION PROJECT, DATA CONVERSION TOOL NOTES
By Front Mission Series Fan Translation Team

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DISCLAIMER
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We do not condone piracy in any form. We intend to respect Square Enix
copyrights as fully as possible. This is a purely voluntary, not-for-profit
localization effort. We do this for love, not profit, of the series. we hope
Square Enix will have empathy and understanding on this matter.

*********************************
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING SECTION
*********************************

Team's Note:

We do not encourage distribution of patches through BitTorrent or other 
means. This is very disrespectful to us and the hard work we put into the
project. Basically, this is plagiarism. If any sort of patch or patched
copy is found outside of frontmission.info, we WILL NOT MAKE FUTURE PATCHES
AVAILABLE ON THE DOWNLOADS SECTION! That means when we release future 
patches, you will have to prove to us that you will refrain from this sort
of action. Respect the team, do not attempt to distribute patches or 
patched copies outside of frontmission.info, and all will be well.

Likewise, please refrain from selling patches or patched copies of the 
game. This is illegal and will likely attract unwanted attention(namely 
Square Enix). We DO NOT want to encounter any form of legal trouble so 
keep this in mind.

-----------------------
VERY IMPORTANT REMINDER
-----------------------

KEEP THIS TOOL AND ANY PATCHED IMAGES OF THE GAME OFF THE INTERNET IF YOU
WANT TO SEE ANY OTHER FRONT MISSIONS TRANSLATED BY US AND DON'T WANT SQUARE
ENIX TO CEASE-AND-DESIST US! IF YOU WANT TO SEE FRONT MISSION 2 AND ANY 
OTHER JAPANESE-ONLY FM GAMES, RESPECT OUR REQUESTS!

*****************************
PLEASE READ THE ABOVE SECTION
*****************************

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GENERAL INFORMATION
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Carnivol

This folder contains two patches (in xdelta format): one for patching an
original version to become identical to the reprinted versions. The other one
is for patching a reprinted version to become identical to the original
version.

Why would you need to know, or want such a thing? Aren't these the same?
The short answer is...NO! They're not the same. Front Mission 2 came with two
different releases.

The original print version:
Front Mission 2
Catalog ID: SLPS-01000
CRC: 119787E4
MD5: 088F9C250FC07CD0064C46EF93308533

The two reprinted versions:
Front Mission 2 (Labeled either Front Mission History or Ultimate Hits)
Catalog ID: SLPM-87331 / SLPM-87397
CRC: A0EBB70B
MD5: 41ACF140394BF0E0254294039607E260

The differences between these two versions (original vs reprints) are so that
the reprints have had various optimization tweaks added to them to decrease
the game's notoriously long loading times. This optimization includes a full
re-arrangement of the disc's file structure. There is also an added feature
called Quick Battle that enables you to skip or disable battle animations to
further speed up the gameplay.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DATA CONVERSION PROCESS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Carnivol

Along with this document, you should see a few files:

1. Ori2His.xdelta
This turns an original version (SLPS-01000) into a SLPM-87331 version.

2. His2Ori.xdelta
This turns an ISO of History, Ultimate Hits version (SLPM-87331/SLPM-87397)
into an original version.

These two require an xdelta patcher to work and a clean Front Mission 2 ISO.
Using ImgBurn to extract the ISO image (BIN/CUE) of the game to your hard 
drive is recommended. Put your ISO (BIN/CUE) in the same folder as the patch
you want to use and a copy of xdelta. ImgBurn can be found at this link:

http://www.imgburn.com/

3. xdelta3.exe
This is the patcher. Use it with one of the patches and an ISO to create the
desired outcome.

Example: xdelta.exe -d -s fm2-original.bin patch.xdelta fm2-patched.bin

4. FM2Ori2His.bat

This is my poor excuse for a patching utility. Amazingly enough, it was the
most time consuming part of this entire thing. (Yes! It even took more time
than this Readme!) Turned out Windows had some default max buffer thing set
for CMD, so instead of suggesting everyone just use that I decided to just
start trimming off "not-so-flashy" features and make the thing a very bare
bones and typical everyday .batch file...a batcher!

5. Readme.txt
This file!

If the command line frightens you or the patcher hates you more than it
hated me (it goes both ways), there's always the GUI version of xdelta,
which you can find at this link: 

http://www.romhacking.net/utils/598/