Jonko is a ROM hacker and YouTuber whose primary work is with the Haroohie Translation Club, where he serves as project lead and main ROM hacker. He also dabbles with homebrew and emulator development.
You can follow Jonko via YouTube or website blog explaining how ROM hacking works.
Jonko sits down with FFV Central to give an exclusive overview of project highlights.
Subheadings, screenshots, and trailers added during the editorial process.
FFV Central: How did you get into romhacking and translating?
Jonko: Kinda random. I picked up fansubbing (as a script editor) as a hobby at the beginning of covid lockdown. one of our shows was onegai my melody, and i found out there was a DS game for it. I’m a programmer by trade, so I thought I’d give trying to translate it a go. Cracked it open and found out that I just absolutely loved the work involved in figuring out how a game works and building little tools to edit them. I ended up doing a full translation of Sailor Moon: La Luna Splende with a graphics guy and one of my Italian friends, and then eventually founded this project because of a random gbatemp thread
It just sorta spiraled into a massive effort with a bunch of people involved. Learned a lot as a result of working on it and I’ve developed all sorts of stuff since then. Honestly, pretty life-changing
You might have seen on the site already, but Will and I developed a full editing suite for Choku based on my reverse-engineering work, which is something I’m very proud of haha
FFV Central: Can you share some highlights of your projects?
Jonko: yeah, my credentials are basically:
Released: 2011 (game); 2021 (fan translation from Italian)
RHDN translation entry here
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Released: 2009 (game); 2026 (fan translation completed)
Japanese: 涼宮ハルヒの直列
Original announcement post here
In flight: other Haruhi games, next up is Heiretsu and Gekidou (wii games)
Available for Windows, macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon) and Linux
Project webpage here
For a video explainer on how this editing suite was made, click here.
In flight: Loopy Suite (hacking tools for the other Haruhi games)
Unannounced commercial DS homebrew game Jonko is developing with a friend (William278 of Breaking Bad DS fame) and a team of talented artists
FFV Central: Awesome! Thank you for this overview and for the scoop on the unannounced homebrew game. We wish you all the best on these and future projects.
So, what do you think? Have you played Jonko’s translations, and if so, which is your favorite? Comment below, or come check us out on Discord.
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