Impress the ladies by speaking and understanding several different languages using foebea’s RosettaShard.

RosettaShard is compatible with the Rosetta Stone language sets making RosettaShard the top language-learning homebrew app available. So before heading to Bellini’s, you know what to do. I just hope your date doesn’t speak Greek, for your sake.

While the version .8.7 improvements are nearly one year old; here they are:

• added ‘wordwrap’ support;
• two installation methods:
  1. current users, simply replace the EBOOT.PBP;
  2. new or current users, copy the entire “RosettaShardv.8.7″ directory to PSP/GAME;
• if you chose #2 above, it will revert to using the Demo Language Set; edit the CDID to start with your language set;
• the image directory contains 3 replacement images — correct.png, incorrect.png, and temp.png; these replace the floating icons with better transparency and presents a cleaner interface.

And for those interested keeping up-to-date, you may view the RosettaShard v2.0 development road map right here.

Download: RosettaShard v.8.7

Good news! Remember RosettaShard? Well much like the (triumphant?) come back of Corey Haim; foebea returns to the scene with a well deserving update for RosettaShard users. The only difference — this is no doubt a success!

No longer are you tasked with the hassle of converting distorted Rosetta Stone audio files. A PC application was slated for release allowing ease of audio conversion, but scratch that — v.8.6 fixes all the audio issues. Now learn an entire language without converting jack squat!

foebea notes:

Voila! Crazyc over at the ever wonderful ps2dev found that the SWA mp3 files from Rosetta Stone have an unusual 324 byte header, and it is this rather than buffer overflows, memory leaks, or some other difficult to track culprit. By recompiling the psp library ‘libmad’ with OPT_STRICT turned on, when it decodes the mp3 it skips over the header.

What was happening is the decoder was expecting a header of a certain size, and these were encoded without meeting the standard, so were a different size. So the decoder got to what it thought was the end of the header and the beginning of the sound and started playing. So each ‘frame’ or sample of sound was corrupted, starting somewhere in the middle and ending somewhere in the next sample, totally screwing it up.

Bottom line, I just recompiled v.8.5 and it magically became v.8.6
This is not compatible with v.9a

Now you should be able to use all languages (with the exceptions of languages which would not even start in .8.5) without any conversion needed at all for audio or images.

This will of course be included in v.9 which I am still on track for. Unfortunately due to the heat mirage, it is difficult to tell exactly how long that track is at this time.

Just replace this newly compiled EBOOT.PBP in your existing RosettaShard installation.

Download: RosettaShard v.8.6 (update) | RosettaShard v.8.5 (full)

So y’all wanna learn a new language eh? Yhuck, yhuck…

Well, foebea’s RosettaShard will have you on the right path to bilingualism, or maybe even trilingualism for that matter! Better said than myself, here’s the description from the always important README.txt:

This application is compatible with the Rosetta Stone language sets without any conversion needed. Unfortunately it seems some of the audio files from Rosetta Stone are not perfect. They play fine on the PC, but the PSP audio libraries are not able to play some without distortion. Copy your Language Set lessons to the Language directory in the RosettaShard installation folder. If your Language Set has much distortion, it will need to be repaired. This will be done with a PC application which will be released as soon as it is completed. Until then, you can repair them yourself by the following:

• Rename the files so the extension SWA becomes MP3.
• Encode the files to MP3 at 22khz with a bitrate of 80kbits.
• Rename the files so the extension MP3 becomes SWA.

What’s new in version .8.5?

• The HOME button is fixed. It now brings up the HOME screen and works as normal.
• In Choose Setup -> Available Card Sets: Only Units and Lessons which are present on the memory stick are available to select.
• In Choose Setup -> Available Card Sets: Lesson Descriptions have been removed as they were not exceedingly useful. In fact the whole menu system has been replaced.
• Skins have been removed for now. This will be a feature in a later version. Currently the Skin can only be changed by replacing the images themselves. The entire interface can be skinned this way.

Download: RosettaShard .8.5

foebea’s language learning tool, RosettaShard, is transforming into quite the learning tool indeed. This past Sunday (by the way, Happy Easter!) foebea released v.1 with a few additions —

• Support for Rosetta Stone language sets. (conversion required, see readme for details)
• Demonstration card set has been formalized and can be replaced with your own language set by dropping in your TRS files.
• Ability to select which unit and lesson to start with. Quickstart now loads your installed language at unit 1, lesson 1.

For the moment, the Rosetta Stone conversion process is a bit tedious, but should be improved — perhaps even automated — in future versions to come.

Important note #1: If you select a unit or lesson that is not on the memory stick the application will exit.

Important note #2: The application will only load the language set listed on the first line of your TRS file, so be sure to edit that before copying it over.

Download:
RosettaShard v.1
source code

A new submission to the PSP Hacks Homebrew Contest… It comes from developer foebea, and I’ll tell you this, RosettaShard will evolve into the most educational language-learnin’ homebrew app for the PSP ;). I personally haven’t heard of the “Rosetta Stone” language learning tool until now…

An application which has been long desired by some. This will allow you to use some of the more popular tools from the Rosetta Stone language learning tool while on the go. This early version includes 8 flashcards with sound. The flashcard images are royalty free images and the vocal work was done by my mom. This will allow you to see what the purpose of this application is, and with any luck, those of you who have not heard of The Rosetta Stone might check them out. They really are the best for language learning.

Anyone speak Inuktitut?

The controls:

Just to clarify things quickly; this cannot interpret Rosetta Stone language sets just yet. But the current goal is to closely mimic the same behaviour.

Download:
RosettaShard
RosettaShard Source (also great for learning something new)

- release thread -