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Tech and Homebrew => Turbo/PCE Game/Tool Development => Topic started by: Arjak on March 21, 2011, 12:32:38 PM
Title: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on March 21, 2011, 12:32:38 PM
A guy going by the username SamIAm is currently working on a translation for LoX2 (Why the first one was skipped, we may never know!) with EsperKnight. How do I know? Romhacking.net is your friend: http://www.romhacking.net/
Along with translating all of the in-game text, they are also endeavoring to dub the game as well... Link: http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/showthread.php?64437-Kaze-no-Densetsu-Xanadu-II-PC-Engine-CD-Action-RPG-Fan-Dub
I am currently in the running for the part of Nuse. (I tried out for several roles, and Nuse was the one that worked best with my unusual voice.)
I'm so excited about all of this! It's always good to see a little love for our favorite system! Hopefully, this will be completed, as I am really wanting to see full translations of all the great PCE games, so I can, you know, fully appreciate them. It really feels to me like the PC Engine is one of the last great, unexplored frontiers of translation hacking. I would definitely like to see more! Who knows? Maybe if this project succeeds, more people will become interested in translating other PCE games...
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on March 21, 2011, 08:02:00 PM
Already been discussing it here https://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=9441.0 :D
I beatcha to the punch :-"
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bonknuts on March 22, 2011, 11:12:48 AM
Wasn't SamIam the guy who supposedly was translating Emerald Dragon for Dave Shadoff, then just completely disappeared/abandoned the project? Or is that a different Sam? If Esperknight is working on this, there's hope. One reason for translating this game over the first one, is that this one has MUCH less text and is much shorter game. So on that level, it's an easier project. The game is awesome though.
And for you guys that think PCE needs more translations - shit... make some damn noise over at RHDN (romhacking.net). There are quite a few very talented translation hackers over there (more important than the translator themselves, IMO). But they're not going to waste time on games that don't have much demand (these translation hacks take a ton of personal time and a lot of skill (well, game dependent) - especially for a CD based system like the PCE. Don't let anyone tell you different).
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on April 06, 2011, 06:41:16 AM
Same SamIAm. You're just going to have to trust me with this one. Progress is going very, very well. By the way, if anyone wants to finish the Emerald Dragon script, they can go for it. Dave and I both have the last drafts.
Whether the hacking or the translating is harder really depends on the game no matter what the system. In this case, Esperknight and I are both fairly lucky in that the script isn't huge and there is no complex menu or battle engine to hack. On the other hand, to say nothing of the hacking, whoever translates Far East of Eden II is pretty much going to have to be a god among translators.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: sunteam_paul on April 06, 2011, 08:24:58 AM
I wish I had the skills to translate or hack the games to translate. It's one thing I'd love to do on a lot of games (and not just spralling RPGs). I hope this one goes well, very much looking forward to it.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on April 07, 2011, 11:14:00 PM
I'm taking a break from translating, and I thought I would post this since it's been on my mind for a bit.
If anyone's wondering why the Emerald Dragon project didn't work out, there are a couple of reasons involved. The SNES version patch coming out of nowhere didn't help. Real life got in the way a lot, too. However, the primary reason, frankly speaking, is that the game turned out to be the single worst RPG I've ever played, and working on it ceased to be enjoyable.
I asked Dave for help when I was about 1/3 of the way through playing Emerald Dragon for the first time. At that point, there were still plentiful cutscenes, unique new areas, a nicely developing story, and a simple but fun battle engine. The last 1/3, by contrast, was a disaster. The story stalled a lot, the cutscenes basically vanished, and the environments were mostly rehashes. There wasn't enough music to go around, either. Worst of all, the dungeons became maddening mazes, and the random battles became incredibly boring due to the player being almost uninvolved in them. I never would have made it to the end without Magic Engine's 5x fast-forward feature. For a 2 minute battle, you'd have 10 seconds of inputting and 110 seconds of watching the AI. I can't believe there are Japanese people who have played this more than once, I'll say that much.
Why translate a game I'd warn people against playing? It's easy to see why things stopped. I felt bad for wasting Dave's time and getting people's hopes up, but on the other hand, I'm pretty sure that the lion's share of wasted time was my own. The script was at 60% when I quit, and there hadn't been any substantial work done on reinsertion or hacking any menus.
Finally, I promised myself that I wouldn't ask for help on another game until I had beaten it first. Years passed, I bought a Duo-RX, and I popped Xanadu II in to try it. I practically couldn't stop until I had beaten it, and I knew I had found a winner. Not only that, but I'm on my second playthrough and I'm loving it even more this time around. I'm actually excited to share it with people. I'm even looking forward to play-testing the crap out of it.
So yeah, that's the story with that. Has anyone here ever beaten Emerald Dragon on this system? I'd be curious what you thought of it.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: runinruder on April 07, 2011, 11:19:24 PM
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on April 07, 2011, 11:26:24 PM
Good grief, that other review you linked to was astonishing. It's like reading a review of The Phantom Menace by someone who thinks it's the greatest movie ever made.
To each their own, and I understand why ED would appeal to a certain taste, but sheesh. I'm glad you found a lot of the same problems that I did.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bonknuts on April 08, 2011, 05:17:51 AM
Emerald Dragon was the first Japanese RPG I imported for any system back in the day. IIRCC, sometime in '93 (thought it would have been early '94). I knew zero Japanese at the time. I learned while I played that game (well, learned Kana and a lot of Kanji, but not the language itself). I loved that game and beat it. It's the reason why I ordered more JRPGs, although mostly for the Duo. I ordered Legend Of Xanadu I next and beat that. That was tough. Emerald Dragon was very easy in comparison. I almost beat Ys IV, but got stuck near the end of the game and all the broken english translation I had made notes for, didn't help. So yeah, I thought ED was amazingly great game BITD. On a side note, good thing I never did start that new print routine for ED >_>
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on April 08, 2011, 07:24:24 AM
Well, I'll shut up about it, then. I guess I just wasn't born to be the translator for that game.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SignOfZeta on April 08, 2011, 10:57:21 AM
A lot of PCE players think of ED as a "top five" game, easily up there with the Tengai and Ys stuff.
I guess the "Holy shit!" stuff in the beginning of the game keeps people going through the boring shit at the end.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: shubibiman on April 09, 2011, 06:29:52 AM
I cleared this game and enjoyed it.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: TheClash603 on April 09, 2011, 06:51:02 AM
If this were somehow released in a physical format, I would buy to support the PCE/TG16 homebrewers. However, part of the reason I like the TG16 is the lack of RPGs, which tend to be tedious. The RPGs that are out, like Ys, are action RPGs, so I am cool with those.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on April 09, 2011, 09:45:57 AM
I prefer action RPGs as well, and I'm really happy to be working on one of the best ones I've ever found. You know what I like about Xanadu II? There's no bullshit. Pardon my French, but seriously, there's nothing tedious, nothing wasted, no filler and no cheap tricks in Xanadu II. You could say it's short and easy, but that's really to the game's advantage. The pacing is excellent, the graphic/sound/game design is wonderful, and the story is good fun. It's modern and old-school at the same time, so it's very accessible. When we're finished, I'm betting this one's going to be a hit. For now, just writing this makes me want to work on the translation more.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: TheClash603 on April 09, 2011, 09:50:15 AM
I prefer action RPGs as well, and I'm really happy to be working on one of the best ones I've ever found. You know what I like about Xanadu II? There's no bullshit. Pardon my French, but seriously, there's nothing tedious, nothing wasted, no filler and no cheap tricks in Xanadu II. You could say it's short and easy, but that's really to the game's advantage. The pacing is excellent, the graphic/sound/game design is wonderful, and the story is good fun. It's modern and old-school at the same time, so it's very accessible. When we're finished, I'm betting this one's going to be a hit. For now, just writing this makes me want to work on the translation more.
I'm sold.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SignOfZeta on April 09, 2011, 10:11:24 AM
If this were somehow released in a physical format, I would buy to support the PCE/TG16 homebrewers.
Well it isn't homebrew, its a translation of a pre-existing high dollar retail release so if you paid for a physical copy you would be supporting, essentially, pirates.
Alternatively you could just buy a retail copy of the Japanese version (or not, it hardly matters now) and donate money to the translation project (if they except donations, many do). Stick your CD-R translation in the case with the retail copy.
Quote
However, part of the reason I like the TG16 is the lack of RPGs, which tend to be tedious. The RPGs that are out, like Ys, are action RPGs, so I am cool with those.
Wow. You are that guy NEC was marketing their stuff to! I knew you liked the cardboard boxes and the shitty coverers, but I didn't know you disliked RPGs too. If only there were about 900,000 more of you, the TG-16 would have been a huge success!
This gives me an idea. Does anyone have a 8 year old kid or perhaps nephew/niece, or perhaps a mentally retarded Janitor, who can do a terrible Xanadu drawing? We can then print up superfluous cardboard boxes to stick our Japanese copies of Xanadu in. The translation would be complete!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: TheClash603 on April 09, 2011, 12:12:32 PM
If this were somehow released in a physical format, I would buy to support the PCE/TG16 homebrewers.
Well it isn't homebrew, its a translation of a pre-existing high dollar retail release so if you paid for a physical copy you would be supporting, essentially, pirates.
Alternatively you could just buy a retail copy of the Japanese version (or not, it hardly matters now) and donate money to the translation project (if they except donations, many do). Stick your CD-R translation in the case with the retail copy.
Quote
However, part of the reason I like the TG16 is the lack of RPGs, which tend to be tedious. The RPGs that are out, like Ys, are action RPGs, so I am cool with those.
Wow. You are that guy NEC was marketing their stuff to! I knew you liked the cardboard boxes and the shitty coverers, but I didn't know you disliked RPGs too. If only there were about 900,000 more of you, the TG-16 would have been a huge success!
This gives me an idea. Does anyone have a 8 year old kid or perhaps nephew/niece, or perhaps a mentally retarded Janitor, who can do a terrible Xanadu drawing? We can then print up superfluous cardboard boxes to stick our Japanese copies of Xanadu in. The translation would be complete!
Not going to lie, I was that guy. I'd take China Warrior over Dragon Warrior any day of the week, never mind all of those words.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: blueraven on April 09, 2011, 03:47:05 PM
Audition sent in.
:mrgreen:
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SignOfZeta on April 09, 2011, 06:13:50 PM
Not going to lie, I was that guy. I'd take China Warrior over Dragon Warrior any day of the week, never mind all of those words.
OK, so then I have a question. Did you appreciate the sports games on a non-ironic level? If not, then I guess we can assume nobody does and those things were a waste of time to develop and release. :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: TheClash603 on April 09, 2011, 09:29:15 PM
Not going to lie, I was that guy. I'd take China Warrior over Dragon Warrior any day of the week, never mind all of those words.
OK, so then I have a question. Did you appreciate the sports games on a non-ironic level? If not, then I guess we can assume nobody does and those things were a waste of time to develop and release. :)
TV Sports games were pretty bad. I actually enjoy some sports games, but those were just poorly made. Hit the Ice is a good example of a sports game done right.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Keranu on April 10, 2011, 10:47:39 AM
Not going to lie, I was that guy. I'd take China Warrior over Dragon Warrior any day of the week, never mind all of those words.
OK, so then I have a question. Did you appreciate the sports games on a non-ironic level? If not, then I guess we can assume nobody does and those things were a waste of time to develop and release. :)
I actually like a lot of sports games on the Turbo, they're generally simplistic and not simulation-based. Have never really been able to appreciate the TV Sports games much yet, but I've been eager to find appreciation for the basketball game ever since a member here praised about it years back.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on April 13, 2011, 09:41:14 PM
I just want to say, hats off to sunteam_paul for his help ripping the game's visual scenes. Now that dub-recording has started, having something for the actors to watch and get the visual context is invaluable.
Things are moving right along. I have lots of free time these days, so this might get done really quickly. It just depends on how tough the hacking side turns out to be. We're still missing half the script, and reinsertion might be a bit of a pain with this one.
Anyway, we'll keep you all posted!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on April 14, 2011, 05:24:49 AM
I'm sort of hijacking this thread as a place to post my thoughts on the game and the project as they come to me.
So, the music:
I uploaded the soundtrack to my mp3 player today, and with a bit of bass boost, I came to realize that the PSG songs in this game, which pretty much make up the whole soundtrack, are great. I've heard a healthy share of PCE chiptunes, and this stuff is both well composed and well programmed. The songs compliment the atmosphere of each area and event very well, to the point that they really enrich them. I encourage anyone to try to appreciate this as they play the game.
Some people might be disappointed that there aren't more redbook music tracks. It may be alarming that the final boss fight has the only in-game BGM to come from the CD. However, I think they made the right choice in using the PSG for most of the music. See, there are 52 PSG tracks, totaling to 68 minutes without any looping (based on the soundtrack CD). But wait, between the title screen, intro, ending, voiced cutscene tracks and other stuff, there's 54 minutes of redbook on the game disc already. So, instead of trying to cram in too much and forcing you to listen to the same few songs for the entire game *cough*emeralddragon*cough*, you instead get to enjoy 6 or so unique tracks for each of the games 8 chapters spread over 10 hours. None of it gets old.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: sunteam_paul on April 14, 2011, 05:47:16 AM
When I first played it I was also a little put off by the lack of CD music - but it wasn't long before I realised how good the chip music was and just forgot about redbook entirely.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: blueraven on April 14, 2011, 05:54:24 AM
Looking forward to the finished product :mrgreen:
Good luck. And let me know where I can get it as soon as it's available!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: runinruder on April 14, 2011, 06:08:57 AM
The songs compliment the atmosphere of each area and event very well, to the point that they really enrich them.
Indeed. The tune in the last dungeon is my favorite. Very dramatic.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on April 14, 2011, 07:29:45 AM
Those of you who can read Japanese and are playing/will be playing this game should check out this link: http://www5.ocn.ne.jp/~kenmatsu/consumerPCECheats_and_Hints/kazenodensetuzanadolu2Cheats_and_Hints.htm
Dark_Fact's walkthrough, while being very helpful in its own right, totally missed a couple things that you can find on this page. Chapters 1, 3, and 4 all have special story events that can only be accessed by going through long and specific strings of actions. It's not too difficult, but you'd miss them if you were playing quickly. Chapter 1 has Meltina give a singing performance, chapter 3 has Meltina and Pyura singing a duet, and chapter 4 has Sheryl, the rich merchant's daughter, share a special moment with Arios under the stars on her balcony. There are also a few powerful items that you will only find in a similar fashion.
I think I'll be writing up my own small crash-course/hidden stuff FAQ when the translation is released.
Oh, and if anyone finds high-quality scans of the manual, please send them to me. I might consider translating it as well. I actually have it, but I don't have my own scanner.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Black Tiger on April 15, 2011, 03:04:00 PM
Here's an updated version of the walkthrough I was working on 6 years ago-
It has more details and maps for the first two chapters, plus I've put all three parts into one file since I now have a computer that can handle it. :P
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arm on April 15, 2011, 04:14:55 PM
I've uploaded the manual in pdf format. Hope it's useful.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5OEIJ6VV
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on April 15, 2011, 05:33:11 PM
I've uploaded the manual in pdf format. Hope it's useful.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5OEIJ6VV
Wow, thank you!! This will be nice to have to show people when the time comes. I was kind of thinking of actually going in with a simple editor and replacing the Japanese text with English text. I expect to have a lot of time to kill while the script is being reinserted, and the manual is fairly short and simple. Just curious, but do you happen to have this in higher resolution? I don't want to sound ungrateful, but if I do something like a special manual translation, then that's what I'd need.
Thanks again for sharing!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arm on April 16, 2011, 12:15:07 AM
Alright, I'll rescan it at 300 dpi. Here you go :
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LMJXNHA0
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on April 17, 2011, 07:53:47 PM
Wonderful. Thank you very much!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arm on April 17, 2011, 08:38:09 PM
You're welcome. :) Hope it will be useful.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on April 22, 2011, 04:20:10 AM
Here is most of the stuff from the manual that people will be interested in: the story prologue and the character introductions. Maybe I'll do the boss introductions tomorrow. They're pretty much just strategy, though.
If anyone here knows what they're doing in photoshop, let me know if you'd be interested in helping the project by doing some text inserting with the manual that Arm supplied. Even if it's a bit redundant, I think it would be cool to make an English manual for this game.
-------
A tale of tragedy...
Long ago, those called the Heralders created a world. When they passed on from existence at last, they left behind two human gods: The God Rugon, and the Goddess Ishtar.
The Goddess Ishtar, who embodied peace and creation, restricted the growth of mankind to a gentle pace. The God Rugon, who embodied chaos and destruction, accelerated the growth of mankind such that it would fall to disarray. The two gods stood in complete opposition, each existing to provocate the other.
Once, a war broke out between them. The Goddess Ishtar could not understand why Rugon was fighting her. She knew, after all, that the death of one of them meant the death of them both.
The world fell into chaos. Rugon had the power of darkness, however, Ishtar's power of light was stronger. The battle would go on for an eternity, it seemed, until Ishtar's victory finally brought it to an end.
The God of Destruction, his body smashed by the Goddess, came to rest in the southern lands. With this, the world returned to stability, yet the battle had inflicted unimaginable wounds on it. Now torn, this world would never return to its former glory even with the help of the Goddess.
The God Rugon, however, was not completely destroyed. The very existence of the Goddess herself was proof that somewhere, the God of Destruction lived on. -------------------- Now introducing the charming cast of Xanadu II! Each party member has unique abilities, so be sure to make the most of them during boss fights. *All character commands assume the character is facing to the right.
Arios Descendent of the hero Aineas. Formed the fighting group "Liberators of Ishtaria" after defeating the wicked dragon Dardandis. He continues his fight for justice in order to protect his people from monsters and bandits. When his friend Leucos goes missing, he sets out for a new continent to search for him.
Daimos A knight of dauntless courage who is regarded as the most skillful swordsman in Ishtaria. Out of empathy with Arios, he spends his days in battle fighting alongside the Liberators of Ishtaria.
Leucos A self-proclaimed "chivalrous thief". With his lighthearted personality, he causes trouble from time to time. However, deep inside, he has a heart of pure gold. While adventuring in a new continent, he was attacked and has since been unheard from.
Pyura A magician at Arios's side with a bright, energetic personality. Currently undergoing re-training with her master, Enas...supposedly. In her heart, she secretly has a special place for Arios.
Meidia The sworn protector of Sophia, member of the Temple Guard. An unrivaled beauty, she is also famous for her archery, and is skilled in all areas of battle. At this time, she is at Sophia's service in the Temple of Partia.
Landis His body cased in a suit of black armor, this knight appears to have been born on the new continent, yet his background and lineage are wrapped in mystery. He appears to be searching for something, but what?
Meltina A girl from the port town of Razan onn the unexplored continent of Ashnal. It is she who saves the wounded Leucos. A kind, innocent girl, she is always worrying herself over what's going to happen to him next.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Black Tiger on April 22, 2011, 10:38:33 AM
Here is most of the stuff from the manual that people will be interested in: the story prologue and the character introductions. Maybe I'll do the boss introductions tomorrow. They're pretty much just strategy, though.
If anyone here knows what they're doing in photoshop, let me know if you'd be interested in helping the project by doing some text inserting with the manual that Arm supplied. Even if it's a bit redundant, I think it would be cool to make an English manual for this game.
I'd be happy to do it. Here's a small sized pic (I'm working at 600dpi) of how far I got with the prologue today-
http://superpcenginegrafx.net/misc/x2_story2.png
I'll touch up and redraw in the background next.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on April 22, 2011, 07:25:44 PM
Hey, that looks really good. I like your choice of font, and the overall result looks quite natural.
There are a couple of typos: Heralders should probably be capitalized. Passed is written as "past" After all needs a space in between the words There should be comma after "The God Rugon" and before "however" in the last paragraph.
Anyway, one other guy sent me a message saying he would be interested as well. Since you've already done this much, you can have the project if you like. If it's a pain for you, we can ask the other fellow. Let me know what you think!
Thanks for your help. It's much appreciated.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on April 22, 2011, 11:30:38 PM
Good news! Esperknight says he figured out the key to some undumped script! Hopefully it will turn out to be the key to all the undumped script. :)
Black Tiger, I've got up through page 11 in the manual translated now. I'll try to knock it out completely before the weekend is up.
edit: Holy crap, I didn't know you could switch characters during boss fights by pressing the run button! Guess I should have read the manual first. 8)
edit 2: I'm not the most experienced guy in the PCE world. Does anyone know (and hopefully have a digital copy of) an English CD game manual that would serve as a good example of the kind of syntax I should use for writing this? I remember translating a Mega Drive manual years ago, and seeing a similar manual already in English really helped in this regard. The result read a lot more like it was genuine. It's not a big deal, but if you have the Ys manual or something sitting around your hard-drive, now is a good time to bring it out. Thanks!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: geise on April 23, 2011, 02:38:46 AM
SamIAm I have a question and I'm sorry if it's already been answered. It's about doing the dubbing for the cut scenes. Whenever the patch does get finished, are you going to give the option to leave the cut scenes with the original voice acting and have a separate patch or option to add the dub?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on April 23, 2011, 02:46:48 AM
The voices are all on redbook audio tracks. Swapping the dub with the original voices is as simple as swapping in the original CD tracks. We'll make this easy. Plus, I'm going to release the script for people who want to read it.
I respect that some people will want to enjoy the original voices, especially since our dub is inevitably not going to be quite as polished. On the other hand, I just hope that some people use the dub and enjoy being able to play the whole game without having to look at a long text file to get the story.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: BlueBMW on April 23, 2011, 03:03:01 AM
edit 2: I'm not the most experienced guy in the PCE world. Does anyone know (and hopefully have a digital copy of) an English CD game manual that would serve as a good example of the kind of syntax I should use for writing this? I remember translating a Mega Drive manual years ago, and seeing a similar manual already in English really helped in this regard. The result read a lot more like it was genuine. It's not a big deal, but if you have the Ys manual or something sitting around your hard-drive, now is a good time to bring it out. Thanks!
I could scan one of my game's manuals for you this afternoon... whats a good game to compare it to? Beyond Shadowgate? Vasteel? Ys 1/2?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on April 23, 2011, 03:10:04 AM
I hate to make you subject your old, precious manuals to the scanner (sorry Arm!). You don't have to rush, just in case one turns up already scanned. If you do go through with it, go ahead and be easy on the spine. All I need is to be able to read it.
I'm thinking another Falcom game like Ys would be a good choice. :) Seriously, though, no hurry. I bet SOMEONE out there has already scanned a Ys 1/2 manual.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arm on April 23, 2011, 05:23:13 AM
2 manuals (not falcom games) :
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=91S04M74
2 other manuals (falcom games) :
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DB1BKCRM
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on April 23, 2011, 05:27:46 AM
Damn. I don't have any excuses now, do I? Black Tiger, let's show Arm our gratitude by making a really nice manual. :D
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arm on April 23, 2011, 06:43:13 AM
No problem :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: BlueBMW on April 23, 2011, 06:46:48 AM
And my manuals can stop shaking in their cases :lol: Thanks for posting that Arm!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on April 23, 2011, 07:29:54 AM
It took me practically all damn day, but the translation is pretty much finished now. Thanks again for letting me look at some other manuals - it was really nice to see how others worked with this kind of stuff.
Black Tiger, are you in? I've got a draft that is polished enough for you to try replacing the Japanese with it. We can talk about any size problems if you run into any. Let me know, and I'll email the file to the address in your profile. Or, if you're busy, I'll get back to the other fellow. :wink:
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: esteban on April 23, 2011, 07:59:38 AM
If B_T is busy, I can also replace your translated text into the original Japanese manual if you need someone to do it.
The manual will be finished and look damn fine, one way or another. :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Black Tiger on April 23, 2011, 09:20:48 AM
If B_T is busy, I can also replace your translated text into the original Japanese manual if you need someone to do it.
The manual will be finished and look damn fine, one way or another. :)
esteban would probably do the best job, but I can help with any kind of touch ups that might prove challenging (like the lined art background that I started).
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on April 23, 2011, 04:11:06 PM
Well, if you put it like that, perhaps we should go with esteban? I'm sure you could do a good job as well, though. Judging by your post counts, you're both long-time members here, so maybe I'll just leave it to you two to decide who wants it. :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: esteban on April 23, 2011, 06:44:08 PM
If B_T is busy, I can also replace your translated text into the original Japanese manual if you need someone to do it.
The manual will be finished and look damn fine, one way or another. :)
esteban would probably do the best job, but I can help with any kind of touch ups that might prove challenging (like the lined art background that I started).
Your sample page was gorgeous! :)
I don't want to step on your toes, but I will gladly help you/assist if you are busy.
Also: Your source material appears to be of higher quality than the .pdf from Arm. Did you use Arm's scans? Or did you scan the page yourself? :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arm on April 24, 2011, 12:04:20 AM
The posted image by bt is at 600 dpi. But if you zoom in photoshop at 200%, the image is pixellated, so I guess the image original resolution is around 150 dpi. (like the 1st pdf I posted.) Or the size of the picture has been reduced after being scanned.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Black Tiger on April 24, 2011, 11:46:38 AM
If B_T is busy, I can also replace your translated text into the original Japanese manual if you need someone to do it.
The manual will be finished and look damn fine, one way or another. :)
esteban would probably do the best job, but I can help with any kind of touch ups that might prove challenging (like the lined art background that I started).
Your sample page was gorgeous! :)
I don't want to step on your toes, but I will gladly help you/assist if you are busy.
Also: Your source material appears to be of higher quality than the .pdf from Arm. Did you use Arm's scans? Or did you scan the page yourself? :)
I can't download from megaupload or whatever since I'm on cable. I scanned my own manual at 600dpi. I figured that it would be no big deal scanning it as-is without removing the staples, but it was a lot of work blending out the fold shadow/highlights. I suggest that anyone doing anything like this save themselves the trouble and just scan each piece of manual separately.
Also, 600dpi wasn't really big enough for the kind of detail in this particular picture. The rest of the manual looks extremely straightforward though. I still think the higher the res, the better.
This is as much work as I'd like to put into this, I do think that it is good enough though:
Full image (http://superpcenginegrafx.net/misc/xanadu_ii_manual_pages_4_5.psd)
I figured that you're the best person around here when it comes to design and have done some nice photoshopping in the past, plus it sounded like SamIAm wanted to get this done asap.
I was just inspired the other day to take a shot at that one tricky picture, since I wanted it to turn out good (even though I gave up on hitting the target I'd set out for myself :P).
Why don't you go ahead and finish it off and just let me know if you'd like help with anything. :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: esteban on April 24, 2011, 04:30:16 PM
I hear you, B_T :) I'm glad you were inspired to work on pages 4 & 5 because they're great, even if you didn't reach your goal.
Anyway, I knew I wasn't going crazy--your preview image was so goddamn nice, I knew you must have had better source material to work with.
Thanks for the .psd file... I won't let you down.
REQUEST #1 (for B_T): do you have the version before you flattened the layers? I would love the text layers (editable), if you (hopefully) still have that .psd :)
REQUEST #2 (for anyone and everyone!): Can you scan the LoX II manual at 300+ dpi and provide me with LOSSLESS files (or, at least .jpg/.png save at maximum quality)?
Arm, can you do this? It would be awesome if you could :)
If you still have the .tiff files, Arm, I'll take them. :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arm on April 24, 2011, 09:44:55 PM
Hi,
I've already scanned the full manual at 300 dpi and sent as a pdf, but I don't have the files anymore. If you want, you can uncompress the file and save the pages as bmp or photoshop files. Sorry, I won't rescan a 3rd time at more than 300 dpi (I don't have time now ) :) I don't think it's necessary for a BW manual like this and the files size would be really huge. Having done graphic works before, 600 dpi is good for magazine prints or really hires artworks but but I think it's unnecessary for a BW manual like this one. At 300 dpi, you can already zoom 2/3 times the images without problem. :) Maybe someone else can provide the images at 600 dpi.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on April 25, 2011, 01:19:55 AM
esteban, I just emailed all the text to the address in your profile.
The latest scan from Arm seems like it's good enough quality to allow people to enjoy the manual as much as possible. If anyone wants to make a better scan, that's certainly fine; I won't complain either way. :)
I'm not in a terrible hurry to get this done, so don't lose sleep over it or anything. On the other hand, I like moving quickly with these things, and it would be nice to have this early to pass around as a kind of teaser for the finished patch.
Thanks, guys!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: esteban on April 25, 2011, 04:55:31 AM
I've already scanned the full manual at 300 dpi and sent as a pdf, but I don't have the files anymore. If you want, you can uncompress the file and save the pages as bmp or photoshop files. Sorry, I won't rescan a 3rd time at more than 300 dpi (I don't have time now ) :) I don't think it's necessary for a BW manual like this and the files size would be really huge. Having done graphic works before, 600 dpi is good for magazine prints or really hires artworks but but I think it's unnecessary for a BW manual like this one. At 300 dpi, you can already zoom 2/3 times the images without problem. :) Maybe someone else can provide the images at 600 dpi.
Hey Arm, I didn't want to come across as ungrateful, it's just B_T and I are very similar in our workflow...
...you see, B_T and I have a history of putting out Large Print FAQs and Large Print Manuals that we'll still be able to use when we are curmudgeons with cataracts (hey, it's going to happen sooner than we'd like to admit).
Seriously, though, I always try to obtain the best-quality source material before I dive into a project.
Since I'm going to work on this today, I'll gladly use your scans :)
Work in Progress: http://reference.tg-16.com/LoX/preview_1.jpg
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: roflmao on April 25, 2011, 05:44:57 PM
Lookin' good!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on April 27, 2011, 07:23:51 PM
Got another big chunk of the script dumped! We now have about 75%, I reckon. I'll get this new stuff translated in just a few days. Hopefully, there aren't too many more "keys" to crack in order to find the rest of the script.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: m1savage on April 28, 2011, 01:45:59 AM
My thoughts when I saw this post -
:-s :pray: :dance: :clap:
Thanks for the continued work on the patch guys. Heck, I'm just thrilled to be getting a translated manual!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Black Tiger on April 28, 2011, 06:02:23 AM
Got another big chunk of the script dumped! We now have about 75%, I reckon. I'll get this new stuff translated in just a few days. Hopefully, there aren't too many more "keys" to crack in order to find the rest of the script.
Thanks for the updates. It really means a lot to the community having an idea of how these kinds of projects are progressing.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on April 28, 2011, 06:30:32 AM
I'm more than happy to post them. :)
Here's something funny from the latest dump. Apparently, they left some text from the promo CD in the final version. Forgive all the control codes; that's just how the script looks.
<$12><Name> //<$9eb7> <$17><$14> What the...?<$20> It looks like we're stuck.<PAUSE>
//<$a584> <$17><$14> Lord Arios, this is only the <$1a>Trial Version<$1f>.<NL> I'm afraid we can't go beyond the prologue.<PAUSE>
//<$9eb7> <$17><$14> Are you serious?<$20> Well that's weird...<NL> Talk about an unhappy ending!<PAUSE>
//<$a584> <$17><$14> It can't be helped.<NL> Let's head on back to the title screen.<PAUSE>
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: DragonmasterDan on April 28, 2011, 06:38:28 AM
Cosmic Fantasy 1 and 4-1 were also started at one point. Of all the of the RPG translations for PCE, the only one that was finished so far was Ys 4. I'm holding out hope that this gets done but a lot of translation projects get started and so few get finished.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on April 28, 2011, 06:43:33 AM
I guess that's going to make this all the more remarkable, then. 8)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: incrediblehark on April 28, 2011, 05:31:45 PM
Cosmic Fantasy 1 and 4-1 were also started at one point. Of all the of the RPG translations for PCE, the only one that was finished so far was Ys 4. I'm holding out hope that this gets done but a lot of translation projects get started and so few get finished.
There was also a translation for Xak III that was finished
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: m1savage on April 29, 2011, 01:41:38 AM
Startling Odyssey II has also been translated.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: shubibiman on April 29, 2011, 02:05:29 AM
DOTB's translation IS finished too. It's yet to be inserted though (and it's in french).
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Necromancer on April 29, 2011, 02:54:21 AM
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 01, 2011, 09:04:33 AM
I'm replaying the game again as I work on the translation, and I'm reminded of one interesting point: Stylistically, Xanadu II was pretty clearly influenced by Tales of Phantasia on the SNES. The main character and sprite design, the town aesthetics with vaguely western-European traditional music, and other minor things are very similar. It's not a rip-off or anything, just influenced.
Also, if you want to make the game more challenging, the answer is simple: don't grind at all. Unlike many games, this is a realistic challenge for even casual gamers. I'm finding that where I used to grind during other playthroughs, I can now just pass through and reap higher benefits from later enemies.
This would be a really good RPG to try speed-running.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Black Tiger on May 01, 2011, 09:13:54 AM
I'm replaying the game again as I work on the translation, and I'm reminded of one interesting point: Stylistically, Xanadu II was pretty clearly influenced by Tales of Phantasia on the SNES. The main character and sprite design, the town aesthetics with vaguely western-European traditional music, and other minor things are very similar. It's not a rip-off or anything, just influenced.
Also, if you want to make the game more challenging, the answer is simple: don't grind at all. Unlike many games, this is a realistic challenge for even casual gamers. I'm finding that where I used to grind during other playthroughs, I can now just pass through and reap higher benefits from later enemies.
This would be a really good RPG to try speed-running.
I really don't think that the game was influenced by Tales of Phantasia since it was released 6 months earlier. :wink:
Since the release dates are so close, I don't think that ToP would've been trying to ape LoXII either.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 01, 2011, 09:22:42 AM
Wow, no kidding, for some reason I thought it was '94 that ToP came out. Well, never mind, then. Seriously, though, there's some kind of similar vibe happening there. Must've been part of some larger trend.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Black Tiger on May 01, 2011, 09:46:38 AM
Wow, no kidding, for some reason I thought it was '94 that ToP came out. Well, never mind, then. Seriously, though, there's some kind of similar vibe happening there. Must've been part of some larger trend.
Depends on whether you trust wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_Phantasia) or not. It was definitely an upcoming trend, like the Square pale/cool/autumn/dingy color style (which LoXII uses outside of boss fights). LoXII's visuals really reminded me of Legend of Mana the first time I played through it.
Anearth Fantasy Stories has similar style battles as ToP and it was released only a couple weeks later.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 02, 2011, 04:20:54 AM
Anearth Fantasy Stories is one of those PCE games people talk about a lot as being prime for translation. Is there anything that makes this version better than the Saturn one? Is it just 16-bit charm? I prefer the Sega CD Lunars for that reason, so it's a good one. :)
I loved ToP, so maybe I'll check this out.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: m1savage on May 02, 2011, 06:26:19 AM
The two versions of Anearth are very similar. The Saturn one has a couple of small scenes added in, but I prefer the music in the PCE version. If you have the ability to play either one then the Saturn version has the advantage of being much cheaper to buy.
I've got $20 that says you can't translate PCE Anearth next! :mrgreen:
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Black Tiger on May 02, 2011, 06:34:58 AM
Anearth Fantasy Stories is one of those PCE games people talk about a lot as being prime for translation. Is there anything that makes this version better than the Saturn one? Is it just 16-bit charm? I prefer the Sega CD Lunars for that reason, so it's a good one. :)
I loved ToP, so maybe I'll check this out.
Unfortunately (for me), I have yet to play through both versions of Anearth Fantasy Stories, even though I own them and m1savage has made the greatest walkthrough possible for the PCE version.
From what I've seen, the Saturn version has replaced at least some of the cinemas with real-time SNES-style sequences. The Saturn version also has more 32-bit aesthetics for the battles and I believe poorer character art. I'd rather play a fully 16-bit version of a game than a mixed bag, but I'm glad that both exist.
The game most deserving of a translation because its worthy and would benefit the most gameplay-wise because of the ridiculous quest chains... Is Legend of Xanadu.
The game most deserving of a translation because of quality and the deep language language barrier/cultural subtleties/humor/etc is TM Fuun Kabuki Den. Kabukiden is also one of the best candidates for a translation because every single piece of dialogue is subtitled and a full translation would require zero voice dubbing.
Of course, I know that programmers are more concerned with how easy it would be to extract and reinsert any game's text.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 02, 2011, 07:33:25 AM
Cool, thanks for the info.
Certainly, hacking is a big issue to overcome. Getting the script back into Xanadu II is going to be one of the most challenging hurdles in the project, given how strangely it's stored. On the other hand, apparently the first Xanadu game uses similar storage methods, so Esperknight might be able to crack it really quickly if the need arises.
Legend of Xanadu...right off the bat, there appears to be WAY more voice acting. What's more, a lot of it is stored as ADPCM, so it would potentially be much harder to work with for a dub. However, I do agree that it would be a totally great game for a translation.
Tengai Makyo Manji Maru and Kabukiden could really surprise people with how deep and characterized their worlds are. I don't know about Kabukiden, but Manji Maru has three problems: 1) The script must be effin' huge. 2) The game itself is so long that it would be really hard to get totally familiar with it and play-test it. 3) The language is psudo-old style/dialectic Japanese, with tons of culture references that you pretty much need to be Japanese to get. For that last point, I bet a native Japanese writing somewhat funky English would make a better translation just because he'll really understand everything.
It's exciting to talk about this stuff, but I don't want to get ahead of myself. For now, I need to finish Xanadu II. On that note: I finished first drafts of all the latest materials! There's only about 25% of the script left to pull out. The dub is almost ready to come together as well. I hope we kick some butt this month and start play-testing in early June. That's just my hope, though.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on May 02, 2011, 03:14:43 PM
For Manji Maru, just talk to ....Konami I guess :P I'm sure they have an unfinished(maybe finished) translation for either the Turbo version or the DS version, as both were in the works at some time, so, just contact them, I'm sure they'll fork over anything you need :D
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 03, 2011, 11:29:15 AM
For Manji Maru, just talk to ....Konami I guess :P I'm sure they have an unfinished(maybe finished) translation for either the Turbo version or the DS version, as both were in the works at some time, so, just contact them, I'm sure they'll fork over anything you need :D
Was Konami handling the port? Anyway, Manji Maru is so huge and complicated that it's the kind of thing you'd pay a staff of professionals to translate/reprogram full-time for a while. I guess it wouldn't be too bad if we could get a nice, orderly script dump and the coding turned out to be easy.
I may have said this before, but Manji Maru seems to be by far the most well-regarded PCE-CD RPG in Japan. If you search the Japanese internet, you immediately see people gushing over it like it's Chrono Trigger, even over Ys. It's be fantastic to get the original PCE version in English, but holy hell, what an undertaking it would be.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Black Tiger on May 03, 2011, 02:12:30 PM
Was Konami handling the port? Anyway, Manji Maru is so huge and complicated that it's the kind of thing you'd pay a staff of professionals to translate/reprogram full-time for a while. I guess it wouldn't be too bad if we could get a nice, orderly script dump and the coding turned out to be easy.
I may have said this before, but Manji Maru seems to be by far the most well-regarded PCE-CD RPG in Japan. If you search the Japanese internet, you immediately see people gushing over it like it's Chrono Trigger, even over Ys. It's be fantastic to get the original PCE version in English, but holy hell, what an undertaking it would be.
TMII has been the most popular/highest regarded PCE game in general since it was released. Well, by PCE fans at least. I'm sure that there are many Castlevania fans who don't know what a PCE is who think that Drac X is amazing, even if they have never played it.
TMII has most of its voice work subtitled too, so that should be a big incentive to anyone interested in translating it. I think that only major cinemas lack subtitles. Kabukiden is every bit as good of a game, with much higher production values and a lot less length (and is fully subtitled, short of the opening cinemas). So it may be more attractive.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 03, 2011, 02:48:02 PM
Hmm. What's the clear-time for Kabukiden like? When I read about Manji Maru taking 70+ hours for typical players, I thought it was a bit much for me personally.
I've been reading about it a bit, and one of the biggest criticisms is that you kind of need to know the first two games to fully enjoy Kabukiden's story. Everyone says it's basically entertaining, though. What did you think?
Pardon me while I burn myself a little sample. :wink:
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 03, 2011, 05:23:01 PM
Jeez...as usual, Tengai Makyo is Japanese as hell. Writing Kabukiden in a coherent, accurate, and entertaining English style would be a huge challenge.
Kabuki himself is pretty loud and over-the-top. I was a little stunned when he made a joke in the first five minutes of the game after reading a letter from Manji Maru, the lead character of TMII: "That little brat! He hasn't changed at all! I mean, is the guy still sucking on his mom's tits, or what?"
Stuff like that raises certain translation dilemmas that I haven't really had to deal with so far. :-s
And by the way, the big cutscenes look like they don't have any subtitles. #-o edit: Oh, it's just the opening scenes?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on May 03, 2011, 06:30:22 PM
I think Hudon was still in control when they were "talking" about bringing over the DS version(which is basically the PCE version, with some updated tunes where the PSG was IIRC), but, legally, I'd say it's all in Konami's hands now. Who knows how far....if at all, TTI got with the Turbo version or Hudson got with the DS version.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: termis on May 03, 2011, 08:27:10 PM
...Kabukiden is also one of the best candidates for a translation because every single piece of dialogue is subtitled and a full translation would require zero voice dubbing.
Jeez...as usual, Tengai Makyo is Japanese as hell...
...the big cutscenes look like they don't have any subtitles. #-o
As far as I know, the only PCE CD RPG I've personally played to date where ALL voices, from intro to ending, were accompanied with text is Dragon Knight III (maybe the prequels as well, but I've yet to play those). That would actually be a pretty awesome project if it ever panned out (I actually mentioned that in my review of the game too). The game is short & sweet, and gamers would get sooooo much more out of the game if they could understand all the jokes the game dishes out.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 03, 2011, 08:43:03 PM
Well, why don't you put up a want-ad on romhacking.net and see if someone will dump the script for you to translate? If you really love the game, it's easy to work on.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: termis on May 04, 2011, 12:27:03 AM
Hm... I've never visited, but I'll give it a go. Just registered.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bonknuts on May 04, 2011, 08:34:02 AM
Hm... I've never visited, but I'll give it a go. Just registered.
If you do and you put a team together, I can help out. Console code print routines and string read routines are my specialty for PCE (for making the inserted script actually look good and not have poor "tracking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracking_(typography))" you normally get if you don't change the print routine).
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on May 04, 2011, 02:15:20 PM
It's probably very remote, but I wonder if there's even a slight possibility that the English version of Dragon Knight 3 on PC(Knights of Xentar or somethign like that?) uses the same routines or whatever, & the script could be dumped from that & inserted into the PCE version :-k I'll assume it can't happen, but, figured I'd throw it out there just incase.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: termis on May 04, 2011, 09:08:04 PM
Yeah, if someone did dump the script, I'd certainly take a look into translating it. Though my Japanese isn't my primary or secondary language, I do have some experience in the art of translating (I translated for a couple US manhwa publishers), so I can probably make it sound decent.
A bigger problem for me (Much like the Joe who translated the PC version of DK3), I haven't played the prequels, so I can only make presumptions during dialogs where it refers to such events.
Hm... I've never visited, but I'll give it a go. Just registered.
If you do and you put a team together, I can help out. Console code print routines and string read routines are my specialty for PCE (for making the inserted script actually look good and not have poor "tracking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracking_(typography))" you normally get if you don't change the print routine).
I'll keep that in mind. I certainly don't know much about hacking part of the game.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 06, 2011, 03:59:23 AM
Jiminy Christmas, some crazy Japanese person typed up the entire goddamn script of Tengai Makyo II and organized it really well. It's about eight times the size of Xanadu II, though that's just an estimate. Here I was thinking it would be nice to have something to work on while Esperknight tackled the hacking of Xanadu II, and I pretty much got it. Esperknight is already familiar with TMII's hacking side...damn, we could really do this.
Would you guys be interested in playing Tengai Makyo II? :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Necromancer on May 06, 2011, 04:04:07 AM
Would you guys be interested in playing Tengai Makyo II? :)
f*ck yea!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on May 06, 2011, 05:43:50 AM
"H" to the "E" to the "L" to the "L" to the "Y" to the "E" to the "A" to the "H"!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 06, 2011, 06:04:01 AM
OK, I talked to Esperknight, and I think we're on for TMII. While I'm waiting for the rest of the Xanadu II script to come along, and while he's writing the insertion program later, I'll chisel away at this giganto TMII writeup I got. The script is huge as hell, but the organization makes it easy to work with.
Anyway, Xanadu II is still a major event to look forward to. Honestly, it's the game I prefer to play. I hope we get it done soon. At the same time, it's also obvious how cool it would be to do a TMII translation. We'll see how it goes!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bonknuts on May 06, 2011, 07:25:30 AM
OK, I talked to Esperknight, and I think we're on for TMII. While I'm waiting for the rest of the Xanadu II script to come along, and while he's writing the insertion program later, I'll chisel away at this giganto TMII writeup I got. The script is huge as hell, but the organization makes it easy to work with.
Anyway, Xanadu II is still a major event to look forward to. Honestly, it's the game I prefer to play. I hope we get it done soon. At the same time, it's also obvious how cool it would be to do a TMII translation. We'll see how it goes!
PM sent.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Black Tiger on May 06, 2011, 10:16:04 AM
That would be a dream come true. :O
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: nectarsis on May 06, 2011, 10:54:43 AM
Jiminy Christmas, some crazy Japanese person typed up the entire goddamn script of Tengai Makyo II and organized it really well. It's about eight times the size of Xanadu II, though that's just an estimate. Here I was thinking it would be nice to have something to work on while Esperknight tackled the hacking of Xanadu II, and I pretty much got it. Esperknight is already familiar with TMII's hacking side...damn, we could really do this.
Would you guys be interested in playing Tengai Makyo II? :)
Could you send me the script, I may help as I wouldn't want to tackle this game's translation alone? I'll PM you my e-meil address.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 06, 2011, 11:32:31 PM
I appreciate your offer, but if I'm going to do this, I'd rather do it alone. I can make it more consistent that way, especially since the typed-up script is linear. I've done professional translation projects (almost) this big before, and I can knock this out fast enough. I'm already making good progress on it while I'm waiting. I have a lot of free time these days thanks to the economy. :-({|=
The only reason why Xanadu II has been taking so long is because the hacking side turned out to be a giant pain in the ass. Similarly, I bet I can finish the TMII script before Esperknight can prepare a reinserter (maybe I should make a bet with him to motivate us).
Thanks again!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: shubibiman on May 07, 2011, 05:46:27 AM
No worry. But I'd like to make a french translation of it at least ;)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: EsperKnight on May 07, 2011, 12:41:55 PM
If I made a bet with you SamIAm I already know I'd jinx myself and lose :D
If anyone's curious about why it's taking so long with Xanadu II it's due to the fact that each script is hard coded to load for certain scenarios and the pointers to the pointers for the lines are hard code into the code plus they're all spread out (the pointers). The scripts themselves I think number at almost 200 currently as each one has maybe a max of 10 lines a script (if even).
The good thing is I can automate finding possible script blocks. The pain is filtering them (which I do programatically but that doesn't mean a 100% hit). The other part is just time and RL stuff :)
The next fun part will be going through all those scripts and setting them up for insertion :(
We're getting there though!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Black Tiger on May 07, 2011, 02:07:58 PM
If I made a bet with you SamIAm I already know I'd jinx myself and lose :D
If anyone's curious about why it's taking so long with Xanadu II it's due to the fact that each script is hard coded to load for certain scenarios and the pointers to the pointers for the lines are hard code into the code plus they're all spread out (the pointers). The scripts themselves I think number at almost 200 currently as each one has maybe a max of 10 lines a script (if even).
The good thing is I can automate finding possible script blocks. The pain is filtering them (which I do programatically but that doesn't mean a 100% hit). The other part is just time and RL stuff :)
The next fun part will be going through all those scripts and setting them up for insertion :(
We're getting there though!
We certainly appreciate all your hard work. Translating a game like this is as much a treat as a new original game. :D
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on May 07, 2011, 03:52:55 PM
If I made a bet with you SamIAm I already know I'd jinx myself and lose :D
If anyone's curious about why it's taking so long with Xanadu II it's due to the fact that each script is hard coded to load for certain scenarios and the pointers to the pointers for the lines are hard code into the code plus they're all spread out (the pointers). The scripts themselves I think number at almost 200 currently as each one has maybe a max of 10 lines a script (if even).
The good thing is I can automate finding possible script blocks. The pain is filtering them (which I do programatically but that doesn't mean a 100% hit). The other part is just time and RL stuff :)
The next fun part will be going through all those scripts and setting them up for insertion :(
We're getting there though!
We certainly appreciate all your hard work. Translating a game like this is as much a treat as a new original game. :D
Ditto!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 07, 2011, 10:03:12 PM
Good news, guys! Esperknight just dumped the rest of the Xanadu II script!! I don't know how long reinsertion is going to take, but the translation side is about to finish! Well, finish until play-testing begins, that is - I'm going to want to re-edit the script after I get a chance to play the first draft of my translation. I do want it to look good, after all. :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on May 09, 2011, 08:55:37 AM
ZOMG! First LoX2, now TM2!? I think I'm feeling euphoric right now! =P~
BTW, does anyone know how the translation of TM1 is going? I haven't heard anything for a while.
EDIT: One other thing, if you decide to make Manji Maru your next project, and if you are planning to do an English dub, send me an email! I'd be glad to try out for some parts! I really enjoyed playing Nuse in LoX2, and I would love to do more!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 10, 2011, 02:44:52 AM
Just curious, but what do you folks in this community think of the Working Designs translation style? I've played a couple of their translations and the original Japanese versions (particularly Popful Mail on Sega CD), and working on an RPG translation myself, it's really easy to see how they approached their stuff.
They used a lot of pop-culture jokes, which I don't especially agree with, but they also had a way of twisting some of the more boring, asinine lines into something funny by saying essentially the same thing, but implying a little more mischief. It's mighty tempting to mimic some of that with LoXII, but I'm being conservative since it basically doesn't fit the tone of the original. If I do TMII, on the other hand, I think it's appropriate to let loose a little more. What do you guys think?
EDIT: Oh, and Arjak, thanks for your help! We'll be in touch. :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Necromancer on May 10, 2011, 02:56:41 AM
Except for popular references that get less funny with each passing day, I'm generally okay with irreverent translations as long as the revised script is competently written and not cornier than Iowa in August.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 10, 2011, 03:13:19 AM
Maybe I'll just take the Dave Barry approach and add "...HAR!" after any bad puns I come up with.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on May 10, 2011, 06:03:58 AM
I think that I'd would actually prefer if there were not too much rewriting, except things like making the jokes accessible to English speakers. If you think you can add a little pizazz here and there to the script and make it stay true to the tone of the original, I'm fine with that. Just don't, PLEASE don't go full-blown Working Designs style on us. For one thing, I know that some people are offended by how much WD changed things just to add cheap gags, and I also feel that jokes just for the sake of jokes is unnecessary, especially if it doesn't fit the style of the story being told. A good story can stand on its own without constantly winking at the audience.
Imagine if some idiot had written tons of pop culture references and poop jokes into Shakespeare's plays; I don't think people would appreciate them as much.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 10, 2011, 07:12:23 AM
Heh, don't worry, you're safe from having me try to pull that kind of stuff.
I always try to maintain the tone of the original, and as I said, in LoX2's case, it's pretty straightforward. It's tempting to exaggerate the occasional pointless NPC line to make it a little more entertaining, but I'll hesitate to do that most of the time. Of course, as anyone translating Japanese dialogue to English should, I've taken a couple liberties in places so far. However, I think most would agree with the choices I've made, and that the changes themselves are fairly minor.
If I do TMII, on the other hand, I think there's a very silly tone that really ought to be represented in English even if it does mean taking a greater degree of liberty with the script. Again, a good example is Popful Mail on Sega CD. Pop-culture jokes aside, the stuff WD added to that game was mostly appropriate simply because being lighthearted and funny was the whole point from the beginning. In fact, that's one game where I dare say the translation was a little better written than the original, if only because the English characters and scenes are funnier and more memorable. That's just my subjective take on it, though.
How is Cosmic Fantasy II on the Duo?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Black Tiger on May 10, 2011, 09:05:18 AM
What Working Designs did in theory, particularly the way you describe it, is fine. It was the execution that was off quite often. Dropping any humor into a humorous or wacky game is not the same as using the right humor. Bad jokes are jokes... except that they're bad. :P A game having jokes in the Japanese original isn't an excuse for any jokes at any time.
People usually argue about whether WD should've put jokes into games at all. For me it was more the actual content that was disapoointing at times, not the principle. Cosmic Fantasy 2 was probably the best jokey translation they did. Popful Mail's Hanz and Franz impression was pretty terrible. It wasn't well written (or performed) humor, it was a bad rip off of someone else's character, reciting a list of puns in place of legitimate jokes.
What you are pitching would be cool and you sound like you could pull it off well. But I think that Working Designs provided many examples of how not to do it. Although they did some good non-jokey writing, most of their humor was exactly like how a bad sense of humor is normally portayed in film, TV, etc. Michael Scott has the exact same sense of humor as Vic Ireland, except that he's a fictional character and his poor grasp of humor is the joke.
I might just not have sense of humor since I don't find everything or anything hilarious and movies like Norbit make hundreds of millions of dollars. So I'm definitely in the minority. :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: roflmao on May 10, 2011, 09:39:14 AM
Yeah, I remember finishing Cosmic Fantasy 2 (finally.. back in 96 or 97 or somewhere thereabouts) but man it was a complete slog by the end. It didn't keep my interest like even some of the later WD Saturn rpgs, and didn't come close to most of the stuff Square did (though I never finished FF7 so take my comments with a grain of salt).
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 10, 2011, 10:27:50 AM
^^Do you mean slog in terms of dialogue, or in terms of gameplay/the experience as a whole?
Not to come off as haughty or anything, but back in college, I actually took a J2E translation class. One of the big concepts the professor drove home with us is just how much translation style depends on what the audience is expecting. At least from a certain perspective, the expected style of the output is actually more important than the style of the original material.
The trouble with a translation that's supposed to appeal to a wide audience is that there's simply no pleasing everybody. People often talk about translation in general being an imperfect process just because of differences in language and culture, but this target-audience aspect adds another layer to that as well.
Without a doubt, every Working Designs game I've seen has what I consider to be bad jokes in it. I also totally agree that they've taught the localization business what NOT to do just as much as anything else. Still, I can sympathize with them. It's bloody difficult to decide what kind of humor to settle on, in addition to coming up with material in the first place. I'd like to think that I can just roll with my own style and judgement completely, and maybe that's what they did, but in a way, that's even scarier.
Anyway...phew!...Sorry, I needed a break. :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: roflmao on May 10, 2011, 11:51:14 AM
I don't know if it was translation or part of the experience as a whole - I would guess the experience as a while as I cannot compare the Japanese version. I don't mean to bag on WD - I'm thankful to them for bringing over as many RPGs as they did - you know it had to be a challenging task or more game companies would have attempted it. I think the game just got way to repetitive from what I remember (though we're talking about a game I completed nearly 15 years ago so my memory's fuzzy). Also I think the random battles happened way too often if I remember correctly, but what RPG out then didn't?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: termis on May 11, 2011, 04:59:59 AM
I have mixed feelings about being super creative about translations.
I once translated something, and the editor of the series heavily changed the context/environment of the series into something that just didn't fit very well (Force-fitting European myth/legends over Korean ones). It just came out reading... a bit weird to me. That said, I guess it probably made it easier to read for the average Joe westerner.
In all, I think some RPGs are more suitable for creative translations - ones that already have humours, light-hearted background/music/charcaters/etc in the original. For example, RPGs like Dragon Knight, Gulliver Boy, Lunar, Cosmic Fantasies. On the other hand, taking more creative liberties in translating more "serious" RPGs like say... Phantasy Star series, would just come out sounding awkward.
Now, I haven't played LoX series yet, so I don't know much about the general atmosphere/mood of this particular series.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on May 11, 2011, 08:00:00 AM
From what I can remember, I enjoyed WD's translations, I don't ever recall having any problem with ...well, anything. I liked the pop jokes......though, probably moreso then the poop jokes :D I don't recall any poop jokes at the moment, but, atleast these day, they don't ring well with me. With that said, atleast in regards to NPC's, I really don't mind if you spice things up. I've gotten to the point where I HATE talking to NPC's! So, any spicy'ing that can be done, awesome, but, I'm just one man, with one man's opinion. :D
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Black Tiger on May 11, 2011, 08:51:07 AM
From what I can remember, I enjoyed WD's translations, I don't ever recall having any problem with ...well, anything. I liked the pop jokes......though, probably moreso then the poop jokes :D I don't recall any poop jokes at the moment, but, atleast these day, they don't ring well with me. With that said, atleast in regards to NPC's, I really don't mind if you spice things up. I've gotten to the point where I HATE talking to NPC's! So, any spicy'ing that can be done, awesome, but, I'm just one man, with one man's opinion. :D
I totally don't mind someone writing original dialogue for useless NPCs in the average RPG, instead of translating their text. I just think that it matters what you actually write for them. For a game as special as TMII, I'd really like to get an idea of what was really being said in the original version.
Joe has some nice screen captures from Magic Knight Rayearth. One priceless quote goes something like "Guess what? I just pooped my pants! Nice and squishy!" Another invloves someone in the fantasy world having too many condoms in their dresser.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bernie on May 11, 2011, 09:38:44 AM
Another I cant wait till its done project. :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 11, 2011, 09:41:52 AM
Joe has some nice screen captures from Magic Knight Rayearth. One priceless quote goes something like "Guess what? I just pooped my pants! Nice and squishy!" Another invloves someone in the fantasy world having too many condoms in their dresser.
That's pretty awful. I must've missed that line when I played MKR, or at least mentally blocked it. It's funny, I remember that they did most of that translation in a pretty straight-laced kind of way, too. Weird.
TMII fortunately shouldn't need any spicing up per se. It's just that there appear to be a lot of jokes, insults, and generally odd people, and with those, you pretty much just have to try to translate the spirit if you're not able to really translate the literal meaning. Otherwise, it just comes off as awkward, and that's always a shame in my opinion.
Basically, I take liberties and am conservative at the same time. I won't be replacing any lines like "It's a beautiful day." with lines like "Where are my pants?" or anything. If I tweak anything, you probably won't even be able to guess that I did so.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bonknuts on May 11, 2011, 11:15:19 AM
Joe has some nice screen captures from Magic Knight Rayearth. One priceless quote goes something like "Guess what? I just pooped my pants! Nice and squishy!" Another invloves someone in the fantasy world having too many condoms in their dresser.
That's pretty awful. I must've missed that line when I played MKR, or at least mentally blocked it. It's funny, I remember that they did most of that translation in a pretty straight-laced kind of way, too. Weird.
I also missed most of the crazy NPC lines and thought for years that it was one of their better, less pop culture jokey translations. :P Then it came up in an old thread and later Joe Redifer posted some crazy examples, including screen shots like the examples I mentioned. Apparently there was also a Bob Vila reference and a masturbation joke.
But like I said in that original thread, I'm not too concerned with lame dialogue for non-story-moving NPCs so much as main characters. MKR may have some of WD's worst low-brow jokes sprinkled on the side, but the main story and performance was well done.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on May 11, 2011, 06:24:30 PM
Good grief, I don't remember any of that in MKR, though, it's been forever since I've played it. Just based off the fact that I've been watching the anime lately, I'd say, while there is humor thruout it, I can't imagine any poopy or masterbation jokes being in the original game, sheesh! I'm glad they didn't do anything too wild in Dungeon Explorer 2, maybe TTI had them under control on that one thank goodness, cuz I don't recall there being much humor in it.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Black Tiger on May 12, 2011, 08:10:35 AM
Good grief, I don't remember any of that in MKR, though, it's been forever since I've played it. Just based off the fact that I've been watching the anime lately, I'd say, while there is humor thruout it, I can't imagine any poopy or masterbation jokes being in the original game, sheesh! I'm glad they didn't do anything too wild in Dungeon Explorer 2, maybe TTI had them under control on that one thank goodness, cuz I don't recall there being much humor in it.
Was it ever established that Working Designs did any translation or rewrites for DEII? I always thought that they only performed/recorded the voice work. Minor re-writes for voice dialogue I could see, but it never felt like a WD game to me.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Keranu on May 12, 2011, 11:15:34 AM
I just hope any translations done for future PCE games don't contain any internet memes like other fan translations have in the past.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on May 12, 2011, 03:20:46 PM
Good grief, I don't remember any of that in MKR, though, it's been forever since I've played it. Just based off the fact that I've been watching the anime lately, I'd say, while there is humor thruout it, I can't imagine any poopy or masterbation jokes being in the original game, sheesh! I'm glad they didn't do anything too wild in Dungeon Explorer 2, maybe TTI had them under control on that one thank goodness, cuz I don't recall there being much humor in it.
Was it ever established that Working Designs did any translation or rewrites for DEII? I always thought that they only performed/recorded the voice work. Minor re-writes for voice dialogue I could see, but it never felt like a WD game to me.
That's what I recall WD telling me at the time(one of the Shirley Bros. I talked to) said they were handling the cinema translation & TTI was handling the text. Other then that, maybe WD did it with TTI in the room like an 800 pound gorrilla to make sure all goes according to plan :) That's also what he told me was suppsosed to happen since TTI ended up getting the rights to Shubibinman 3 to be called Shockman 2(originally Vic wanted it, & was going to call it Cyber Twins). Though, there's not much text....if any in Shubibinman 3(other then the title/options), so, that would've been 99% WD in regards to translation.
Like you said, DE2 did have WD's voice cast, so, he was atleast partially telling the truth.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: grahf on May 12, 2011, 04:04:25 PM
I just hope any translations done for future PCE games don't contain any internet memes like other fan translations have in the past.
Yeah, this sort of thing totally ruins it for me. It NEVER works. Even when it's funny, it completely disconnects me from the game experience. More often though I don't see them until after it's no longer funny, in which case it just makes the game feel dated and lame.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 12, 2011, 04:46:34 PM
I'm not even putting curse words in the script, because I know that that's not how games were written back then. Recreating a fairly authentic kind of experience is an important aspect for me. Memes are out of the question.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Tatsujin on May 12, 2011, 06:04:50 PM
Good decision SamYouAre :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SignOfZeta on May 12, 2011, 06:51:14 PM
WD-style translations...not a good thing, for the most part. Their games are loaded with stale as f*ck early 90s time stamped lame ass jokes about Clinton and cable TV and other such crap. f*ck those guys. It wasn't funny to anyone with an IQ over 85 back then, and now its just old.
In the case of a game like TM2 though...you are going to have to do some "localization" as well as translation, I'm pretty sure. The game is hella Japanese.
I'd rather you came up for workarounds for certain "untranslatables". One obvious example is when fan translators use terms like "kun" and "chan". Sometimes its hard to express in English a significant use of honorifics, but its better to get creative with the translation than to use "san" all the way through the game just so you can bust out the "sama" at that one key point like the Japanese script did.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Keranu on May 12, 2011, 07:02:20 PM
I'm not even putting curse words in the script, because I know that that's not how games were written back then. Recreating a fairly authentic kind of experience is an important aspect for me. Memes are out of the question.
I feel the future of PCE translations is safe in your hands, I trust your judgement :D .
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Tatsujin on May 12, 2011, 07:06:31 PM
I am a big opponent of censoring and deformations, therefore best thing is to put everything in place as it was meant to be. Doesn't matter how long it's since.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: DragonmasterDan on May 13, 2011, 12:44:36 AM
That's what I recall WD telling me at the time(one of the Shirley Bros. I talked to) said they were handling the cinema translation & TTI was handling the text. Other then that, maybe WD did it with TTI in the room like an 800 pound gorrilla to make sure all goes according to plan :) That's also what he told me was suppsosed to happen since TTI ended up getting the rights to Shubibinman 3 to be called Shockman 2(originally Vic wanted it, & was going to call it Cyber Twins). Though, there's not much text....if any in Shubibinman 3(other then the title/options), so, that would've been 99% WD in regards to translation.
Like you said, DE2 did have WD's voice cast, so, he was atleast partially telling the truth.
I remember Vic discussing this a bit years and years ago on the WorkingDesigns.com forum. TTI was doing a lousy job with localizations and as a favor, Working Designs handled the dub and a first draft of the script for DE II. My understanding was TTI then did the final draft of the text script with the WD voices.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 13, 2011, 12:58:10 AM
I am a big opponent of censoring and deformations, therefore best thing is to put everything in place as it was meant to be. Doesn't matter how long it's since.
I totally understand where you're coming from, but in the case of LoX2, the original game gives off a very "Rated G" kind of vibe. Snatcher I could understand, but LoX2 I could not. Same goes for most old-school fantasy RPGs, IMO.
I'd rather you came up for workarounds for certain "untranslatables". One obvious example is when fan translators use terms like "kun" and "chan". Sometimes its hard to express in English a significant use of honorifics, but its better to get creative with the translation than to use "san" all the way through the game just so you can bust out the "sama" at that one key point like the Japanese script did.
That's pretty much my philosophy. If the original writer were writing in English, there's no way he'd use san/chan etc. so why should I?
Here's a good example. In LoX2, there's one scene that goes like this: the character Nuse shouts for his servant to bring him, Daimos and Arios some tea. Daimos and Arios haven't been there in years. The servant turns out to be Daimos's sister Lumina, which is a shock for Daimos.
The original, literally translated: Daimos: What! Lumina! Lumina: Big-brother! (Oni-chan) Arios: Hey, I didn't know you had a sister, Daimos.
My translation (this is dubbed, so Daimos's line is short for time: Daimos: My sister is your... Lumina: Daimos! Arios: Hey, I didn't know you had a sister, Daimos.
In my opinion, it's stretching it pretty thin to say that "Big-Brother" or even just "Brother" is something native English speakers would say in that situation. To me, that smacks of translated language. However, it's necessary for sake of Arios's line (and the next few lines) for Daimos and Lumina to communicate that they are related in that first space. So I take a little liberty, taking care not to compromise the scene, and *poof*, problem solved. You might say it's not the most graceful liberty, but I still say it's way better than "Big-brother".:)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SignOfZeta on May 13, 2011, 06:15:27 AM
Yeah, that's another example. In Japanese people refer to their family members by function more often than English speakers do, and often times (at least in genre stuff) refer to older roll model types that aren't even relation as "big brother" quite often. That's extremely rare in the English speaking world.
In Tengai Makyou...that might make sense, the game is set in Japan, but Xanadu is totally Western in setting.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bonknuts on May 13, 2011, 01:09:50 PM
That's what I recall WD telling me at the time(one of the Shirley Bros. I talked to) said they were handling the cinema translation & TTI was handling the text. Other then that, maybe WD did it with TTI in the room like an 800 pound gorrilla to make sure all goes according to plan :) That's also what he told me was suppsosed to happen since TTI ended up getting the rights to Shubibinman 3 to be called Shockman 2(originally Vic wanted it, & was going to call it Cyber Twins). Though, there's not much text....if any in Shubibinman 3(other then the title/options), so, that would've been 99% WD in regards to translation.
Like you said, DE2 did have WD's voice cast, so, he was atleast partially telling the truth.
I remember Vic discussing this a bit years and years ago on the WorkingDesigns.com forum. TTI was doing a lousy job with localizations and as a favor, Working Designs handled the dub and a first draft of the script for DE II. My understanding was TTI then did the final draft of the text script with the WD voices.
Well, you can tell it's not simply some sublet WD game/work hidden/done under a TTi label... simply by the mere fact that it actually has a decent new font and print routine. </snicker>
BTW, wasn't TTi new when DE2 came out? I'm pretty sure it was NEC doing it for most text heavy translations/localizations of Japanese games before that. IIRC, "TTi" was new on the scene. Actually, I think with TTi we saw the least amount of RPGs/action-RPGs/etc(anything text/script heavy) relative to translation during their reign. But that's probably just coincidence. ...or is it?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on May 13, 2011, 04:52:50 PM
I was thinking DE2 was more near the end of TTI's days, but, maybe I'm wrong.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Black Tiger on May 13, 2011, 05:19:08 PM
I remember DEII as a later release (magazine coverage and all), which I bought as soon as it became available in my area. The Japanese version was released during 1993, after TTi took over.
I don't think that it was too lopsided between NEC/TTi when it came to RPGs/action-RPGs/etc(anything text/script heavy). Under TTi we got Dragon Slayer, Sim Earth, Dungeon Explorer II, DM Theron's Quest, Dynastic Hero, Loom, Might & Magic III and Neutopia II. There wasn't much in the way of heavy script translations for the Turbo by either company.
Thank god for importing. :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: DragonmasterDan on May 14, 2011, 03:41:41 AM
BTW, wasn't TTi new when DE2 came out? I'm pretty sure it was NEC doing it for most text heavy translations/localizations of Japanese games before that. IIRC, "TTi" was new on the scene. Actually, I think with TTi we saw the least amount of RPGs/action-RPGs/etc(anything text/script heavy) relative to translation during their reign. But that's probably just coincidence. ...or is it?
TTI started April 1st 1992 (not an April Fools day reference). DE II came out Fall/Winter of 1993. So it was a ways in. Also TTI planned to bring over Tengai Makyo II for example, but those games are a lot more difficult to localize than shooters, which is why the only ones I can think of that they did localize during their reign was Dragon Slayer (possibly started by NEC) and Might and Magic III.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 19, 2011, 12:00:36 AM
OK, the first draft of the script is done, proofread, and submitted. Now it's pretty much up to Esperknight to get it reinserted. There are still tiny bits that are undumped, and I'll want to do one more revision after I see the first reinsertion in action, but the translating side is essentially finished. For now, I'm going to go back to working on the dub. Let's hope things come together quickly!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 20, 2011, 12:44:34 AM
Say guys...
I was in the local game shop here in Fukuoka looking around at this and that, and I came across some PC Engine and PC Engine Fan magazines. They were wrapped so that I couldn't open them, but it seems like many issues of these two publications from between January and July of 1995 have articles about Xanadu II in them. It would have cost a fair chunk of change to pick all of them up, but I'll bet that there are interesting tidbits hidden somewhere in them.
So, if anyone has copies of mags with 風の伝説ザナドゥII written up anywhere, and if you don't mind scanning or even taking a nice photo (I just need legible text), I'll see if there's anything at all interesting to share with you guys. Failing that, if anyone just knows which issues have the most info, I might consider buying one or two.
By the way, was there every anything like an official strategy guide for Tengai Makyo II?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Black Tiger on May 20, 2011, 03:26:25 AM
I have some PCE mags with decent LoXII coverage. That was what convinced me to spend a couple years tracking it down back when it wss never available in english speaking circles.
I also have the big official TMII guide book as well as some mini guides that were included with magazines.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 20, 2011, 04:09:23 AM
So there was a big official TMII guide book? Can you tell me info to make it easy to search for? I'm actually starting to work on TMII a little on the side as well, and I'm thinking that having hard copy of the guide book so I can know the story context is better than having to play the game 3 times through to memorize the whole plot. Any idea how much it goes for? If it's like 10,000 yen or whatever, I'll be happy make do with your text guide instead. :)
As for LoXII, if you have spare time and a digital camera that can make the text legible from whatever is there, I would be happy to do some translating/summarizing. Walkthroughs are a little redundant, but I'm thinking there is probably some info on the development of the game that might be interesting for people to know. Reviews I've read hint at some things, but I'd rather get any info as directly as possible. Again, failing photos, do you know the specific issues that have good content?
Thanks!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 24, 2011, 07:17:44 AM
Wow. I just listened to a super-preliminary but nonetheless complete mix of the dub for LoX2, which I played in-game via an emulator. I watched every cutscene in English for the first time ever.
I'll say this much: if you old-schoolers don't find yourselves grinning ear-to-ear while you watch these scenes with English voices, your heart is at least two sizes too small.
There's a lot of work left to do, including some retakes, but the end is in sight. I'll see this through to the finish. Wish us all luck!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Keranu on May 24, 2011, 07:59:23 AM
Awesome, very exciting! Can't wait to see/hear how the dub turned out!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bonknuts on May 26, 2011, 04:21:52 AM
Hah! I had a guess as to your nick name. That line just proves it ;) Great to hear (no pun intended) that it's actually coming along. :D
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 29, 2011, 01:02:12 AM
If anyone knows any girls who would have fun saying a few lines into a microphone, you can help the Xanadu II project a lot by sending them my way! I need two female voices to complete the casting for the dub. The previous plan was to recycle other actors, but I'd really prefer not to do that at this point.
Here's a post I made at the Voice Acting Alliance forums: http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/showthread.php?66075-Kaze-no-Densetsu-Xanadu-II-PCE-CD-Action-RPG-2-female-roles-open&p=1093689#post1093689
The roles are for minor characters, one of whom almost anyone could do (Lumina). Give us a hand if you can! :wink:
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 31, 2011, 03:39:32 PM
Black Tiger kindly gave me a scan of a magazine that had an LoX2 feature. To be honest, it was a pretty typical preview/pseudo-walkthrough, but one interesting thing that it pointed out (or who knows, maybe just tried to sell) was that the characters in LoX2 are written with more individuality than in LoX1. They said you can tell whose line it is just by the way it comes across, and I think that's fairly accurate. Of course, it's not always true - there were no names in front of each line in the script dump that I got, and that got mighty confusing at times. Still, I could usually figure out the speaker just by the style of the line.
Does anybody who has played LoX1&2 have any comment about this?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: blueraven on May 31, 2011, 07:11:31 PM
Having beaten them; LoX is a bit more dry comparatively as far as the vocal delivery, but the voices are very discernible from character to character. Despite less emotion, they are all drastically different. The second game relies more on visuals and is much shorter than the first; which was arguably about Arios and focused mostly on his interactions and development, laying out the issue with the world, who has to save the cheerleader, etc. It rewarded you immensely with a stupid-fun side-scroller stage that made it 2 games in one - Although the overhead aspect of teh RPG is what makes the game so monumental.
The parts are more "scripted" for LoX2; Emotion, back-story, and sprite design are emphasized and the menus are simplified. Less is left to the imagination. They also decided to make Pyrra go from kinda frumpy to really smoking hot. Lykos is now the prince of thieves, Daimos has cooler armor and returns as the stoic warror-badass. There is this "Mystery Knight" running around. They had a lot more time to develop the storyline.
I could see how getting a a huge text file without character names would be confusing, even with knowledge of the characters.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 31, 2011, 07:16:14 PM
Just curious, but what was Lykos before?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: blueraven on May 31, 2011, 07:33:18 PM
In the first game he is described as a thief "with a heart of gold", who is also a master of disguise. He's in with the pirates, and gets you a free pass when they take over the ship. You meet him in a jail in level 3 of LoX 1. I never caught the prince of thieves thing in the first game.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 31, 2011, 07:59:54 PM
Erm, I don't think he's ever referred to as a "prince of thieves" or anything like it in the 2nd one, either. Again, just a leader of a pirates. Interesting that he's a master of disguise, though.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: blueraven on June 01, 2011, 08:47:35 AM
Hmm. Maybe that was an article or review I read somewhere. I'll try to dig it up.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on June 13, 2011, 06:37:34 AM
Request: Can someone tell me, possibly via PM, where the best place to host a 200MB file for a small group of people might be? I want to send my voice actors a preliminary version of the dub in high quality, which I have compressed to 197 megs. I also want to keep this away from where any outsider might snag it easily, but still leave it convenient for downloading. Do any of the decent rapidshare-style sites let you upload that much without an account?
By the way, Esperknight writes and says that the script is successfully compressed. Now there's just getting it to display. :pray:
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: vestcoat on June 13, 2011, 04:23:22 PM
Apparently Dropbox does 2GB for free (http://www.dropbox.com (http://www.dropbox.com/)). I haven't used it, but a lot of sound engineers I know use it with their clients and swear by it.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: sunteam_paul on June 14, 2011, 06:05:05 AM
Wetransfer does 2Gb as well without registration ( https://wetransfer.com/ )
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: roflmao on June 14, 2011, 07:58:30 AM
I've been using Dropbox for awhile now and I love it. The more people you refer, the more space you get.
(Shameless referral link: http://db.tt/RDCfgbH)
I use it to share project files with co-workers/clients, to sync files between the laptop and the desktop, and I've created a custom home page with my most commonly used links and a couple google widgets that I can access from any browser (handy!).
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on August 03, 2011, 04:10:14 PM
No news, really, except that Esperknight continues to chip away at the hacking side. I decided to lay off bugging him too much for a while, but I'm thinking about changing that. :wink:
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Black Tiger on August 03, 2011, 04:23:20 PM
No news, really, except that Esperknight continues to chip away at the hacking side. I decided to lay off bugging him too much for a while, but I'm thinking about changing that. :wink:
Thanks for the update. :) I did my best not to bug you about it, but it has been on my mind. :wink:
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on September 02, 2011, 06:58:55 PM
Hey, SamIAm! How are things going with the project? Has much progress been made in the past month? I just gave the preliminary dub of the intro another listen and it got me wondering...
By the way, if you need help beta testing, let me know. I have some experience in such matters...
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on September 02, 2011, 09:51:02 PM
As far as I can tell, it's coming. With the script done, it's pretty much out of my hands, but Esperknight checks in with me about his progress every week or so.
Meanwhile, I've worked on TMII a good bit. Also, a friend of mine and I just finished making Japanese subtitles for The Thief and the Cobbler: Re-cobbled Cut, which is exciting. We're going to do sketches from Chappelle's Show next. :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on October 17, 2011, 05:56:49 PM
Just so you know, it's not dead. From Esperknight:
You know I think I forgot to give you the newest update huh? Last time I emailed you was on the 28th of last month (damn time flies...) I did successfully reinsert a test block and it works great now :) Figured out the block after it wasn't needed any longer so I can overwrite it (yay). So now I just need to start inserting text :D Soon enough ;D
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on October 19, 2011, 04:49:17 AM
Good to hear that this thing is still going! I was going to ask how things were, but decided to wait; it seems my patience was rewarded.
So, the script is ready for reinsertion, huh? Does that mean this project is nearing completion?
Also, you mentioned getting some work done on Manjimaru in your previous post; how is that going?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on October 20, 2011, 10:16:22 AM
I've done some work on Manjimaru, but I've also been spending my time working on subtitle projects for independent movies. I'll talk more about Manjimaru once LOX2 is finished.
The script is basically ready, but whether or not everything is near completion is debatable. Reinsertion is actually going to take a while, even though we've got some text working already, because we apparently can't just automate the process; it's got to be done by hand, to a degree. If Esperknight pops around, he can probably give more details. I don't really have a hand in the hacking side to speak of. :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Burnt Lasagna on October 28, 2011, 10:13:10 AM
Very excited about both of these project! I originally heard about these projects from my brother, who is apparently one of the actors for the LOX2 fan dub.
Always ready for some Falcom/RED company goodness, keep on rockin SamIAm and Esperknight!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: dairugger on November 28, 2011, 04:34:56 PM
i cannot express how excited i am for this game!, major thanks to everyone whos making it possible.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on December 31, 2011, 10:19:26 PM
As of last night, all text-compression/decompression hacking is complete. If the wind stays behind Esperknight's sails, there may be some very good news soon. If you know him, send Esperknight an email and tell him he's awesome. :)
The project is far from dead. I swear, as soon as the hacking side is complete, I'll polish the script, play-test the crap out of it, and get this thing done. I'm dying to finish it.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: esteban on January 01, 2012, 12:27:44 AM
This is very promising news :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on January 01, 2012, 06:27:27 AM
Yay! I was starting to get worried about this! Great news, SamIAm! :clap:
BTW, is there any chance of seeing a YouTube video previewing the patch? I think it would be great to see the opening cutscenes completely finished to whet our appetites... :wink:
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on January 01, 2012, 06:56:37 AM
Honestly, by the time the hacking is done to such an extent that the text looks presentable, the patch is going follow almost immediately after anyway. Remember that minus a couple undumped scraps, the script is finished, and there's no battle engine and virtually no menu hacking to be done. If Esperknight emailed me tomorrow and said the script is inserted and the dialogue displays correctly, plus gave me the last pieces to translate, we could have a final version out in two weeks.
If for some reason there is a delay, I'll think about it. :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SignOfZeta on January 01, 2012, 09:49:41 AM
You should release a beta in case you get hit by a bus or something and the project gets cancelled.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: BigusSchmuck on January 01, 2012, 10:51:55 AM
You should release a beta in case you get hit by a bus or something and the project gets cancelled.
Would be nice now wouldn't it? The fact that there might be a patch in less then a year is a record!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on January 01, 2012, 02:48:28 PM
Maybe atleast release it to a few select people you feel you trust, incase something happens. They keep it on ice, & if something happens, then they can release it if there's no other choice? :-k
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Burnt Lasagna on January 01, 2012, 03:28:22 PM
You should release a beta in case you get hit by a bus or something and the project gets cancelled.
Would be nice now wouldn't it? The fact that there might be a patch in less then a year is a record!
I can tell you right now this won’t happen. Really pumped for this translation though! :D
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on January 02, 2012, 12:46:09 AM
Oh man, Esperknight put in some serious hours again yesterday, and we're damned close to having English displaying in the game. It sounds like it's showing up, but it needs a bit of tweaking. His last email basically explained that he's making an automated inserter, which I believe will make script revision a piece of cake. Once he finishes the inserter and puts my current script in, I can start play-testing. I'm really excited!
Here's what's left to do before things are finished:
Esperknight's side: Create auto-inserter and insert script. Hack menu (appears easy) Dump remaining dialogue Set up variable-width font (optional) Hack end-credits (optional)
My side: Finish mixing fan-dub Translate remaining dialogue/item descriptions/misc. stuff Polish script to glossy shine
I also expect to do most of the play testing, partially because after editing the script once in text-file form, I want to do further edits based on how it looks as it appears in the game.
Anyway, keep those fingers crossed, guys!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Burnt Lasagna on January 02, 2012, 03:42:56 AM
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on January 07, 2012, 12:07:16 PM
Esperknight has been putting in good time and is making progress.
The original script dump that I worked on contained all kinds of mysterious junk-text mixed in with the Japanese text. In the process of dealing with compression and making his inserter, Esperknight got to the point where he understood enough to modify his old program and produce a totally clean script-dump from one section of the game. This was just last night, actually. It may not seem like much, but it shows that we're close to getting things inserted properly. It sounds like there are just a few more pointer issues to be solved.
Maybe I'll prod him to come around here and give an update from his perspective.
EDIT: Got a screenshot! I'll keep it under my hat for now (it's a bit rough), but I can assure you that we've got English displaying in the game.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on January 07, 2012, 06:25:53 PM
And to show my rejoicing, I shall agree with Burnt Lasagna!!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: dairugger on January 07, 2012, 07:22:05 PM
This is awesome news! I cant wait to finally play this game.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bernie on January 07, 2012, 09:34:34 PM
Seen the comment NightWolve made over at the ME forums recently, so it does appear that this thing is approaching fast. Thanks to all involved! :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: shawnji on January 08, 2012, 01:46:13 PM
I'm pretty excited at the prospect of playing through Legend of Xanadu II in English. I'm slowly working my way through the first one at the moment, and even with decent Japanese ability, I still get bogged down reading through all that text as my mind still doesn't process it nearly as fast as it would with English. It's always much easier to just kick back and enjoy playing through something in your native tongue. Thanks for all your hard work on this SamIAm!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on March 14, 2012, 06:59:15 AM
Bump.
How are things going SamIAm? We haven't heard from you in a while. :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on March 14, 2012, 07:33:52 AM
Well, things stand pretty much as they have for a while. There's not a lot for me to do until Esperknight either inserts the script we have or dumps the last pieces that we don't have. He did some good work toward insertion in January, and he has recently gotten some of the stuff we were missing before. It's not quite enough for me to do anything yet, though.
Esperknight has a full-time job and a family, not to mention other hobbies, so it's rare for him to spend more than a couple of hours a week on hacking games. What's more, he's the type of person who prefers to keep several projects going at once, so I think I wind up with some fraction of that time for this and Zeroigar. I send him an email every day to make sure we don't lose touch and to encourage him. Just yesterday, he made some pretty concrete progress on Zeroigar. Before long, I hope we can finally get that 100% dump for Xanadu II, and a fully functional inserter.
Here is what he sent me a couple months ago. This screenshot shows how we still don't have punctuation working yet. There are other issues to overcome as well. Anyway, it's still pretty neat.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bernie on March 14, 2012, 07:38:12 AM
Nice. I will be glad to finally be able to play this game.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on May 20, 2012, 01:34:55 AM
Believe it or not, Esperknight and I still email each other about this a few times a week. Steady progress is being made, whatever the pace.
This has been a far more difficult game to hack than I anticipated. I won't bore you with details or tease you with promises of results soon, but I will say that I'm feeling good about the progress I've seen recently.
To give you a little idea of how much a pain in the ass this is, I had to play Xanadu II in an emulator and make savestates at every last event dialogue in the entire game so we could get a proper and complete dump of the script. That was last month. The current dumper is now getting all the script, but there's still more to be done.
Don't worry, though. It's happening.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on May 20, 2012, 12:02:07 PM
Thanks for the update. As long as progress is being made and it gets done eventually, I'm happy. :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on August 17, 2012, 10:11:42 AM
Just thought I'd bump this thread to remind people of the project's existence... :P
BTW, SamIAm, how are things going? Not too hectic, I hope.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: esteban on August 19, 2012, 05:27:32 AM
Just thought I'd bump this thread to remind people of the project's existence... :P
BTW, SamIAm, how are things going? Not too hectic, I hope.
(http://junk.tg-16.com/images/pcds.png)
SILVER LINING TO DELAYS: Now I don't feel so bad for not finishing the translated LoX II manual yet. I think it is safe to say that the translated game and manual will be released simultaneously (http://junk.tg-16.com/images/pcds.png).
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on August 20, 2012, 04:16:15 AM
I had a super-busy July and first half of August, but things are settling down, and I'm hoping to get back in the habit of working on this with Esperknight.
It's really mostly hacking that has to be done. Again, Esperknight is a guy for whom this hobby is something he does for a few hours every month, and that's the kind of pace we're talking about. He does make progress, it's just slow. Maybe I can inspire him to put in another burst of effort like he did in January, but no promises.
There is one more big task for me to do, and it kind of sucks. The first dump was a little f*cked up and loaded with junk characters, and second dump, which is done properly, is so different that we can't whip up a program to automatically copy the translated lines from the first one. In other words, I have to manually search, copy and paste every line. This only takes slightly less time than retranslating the entire thing. It's mighty tedious.
I'm still working on Princess Crown, by the way. It's coming along. I'll see about getting Bazaru Degozaru done, too.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: esteban on August 20, 2012, 07:08:22 PM
Awesome! As soon as I get some translation materiel I'll start working more on this project :)
Also, don't know if this is entirely appropriate for this thread, but did anything ever come of Spriggan Mark 2? I know Bonknuts (Tom) was doing the hacking and he sort of dropped off of the rom hacking scene in recent months due to some personal issues.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on August 21, 2012, 05:23:46 AM
The translation side of Spriggan Mark 2 is completely finished. Bonknuts's inserter is also totally finished and AFAIK he made a test version of the game that's completely in English.
However, the cutscenes are another matter. Again, the translation is finished, but the hacking is a big challenge. There's the option of doing a dub, which as you know, is quite an ordeal. Otherwise, I think he's leaning toward making subtitles. I could be wrong, but I think whether that's easy or difficult was going to depend on whether there's enough space in the main CPU RAM for a print routine and enough in the video RAM for a font. If not, some serious work would be required.
Bonknuts did have some personal things come up, and I can't blame him for putting this kind of thing aside while he takes care of what he needs to. I really hope he finishes it, though, because I know it's a game he loves.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Burnt Lasagna on August 21, 2012, 08:45:46 AM
Hm, I'm guessing Spriggan Mark 2 has most, if not all, voices as ADPCM, not Redbook? I've never looked at it so I can't say for my self. If it was all Redbook, like Xanadu II, then it might be cleaner to dub it. I would imagine hacking in a subtitling system would be incredibly difficult, if not impossible.
However if anyone could pull it off it would be Bonknuts, his knowledge of the inner machinations of the PCE is quite unprecedented. Though in the long run I don't know if subtitling it would be any less of an ordeal then dubbing it. I guess it's completely up to him on what he prefers and what road he wants to take with the project.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on September 11, 2012, 06:46:24 AM
If a dub for Spriggan does happen, let me know. I'd love to try out!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bardoly on September 11, 2012, 11:47:21 AM
Just discovered and read through this entire thread, and this looks great! I hope that work is still progressing (even if the pace be slow).
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: burn_654 on September 12, 2012, 03:20:02 PM
Likewise - I would definitely try out for a dub. I missed the boat for the Ys IV dub due to some life changes (moving etc.) but would love to get in on such a project. :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on October 16, 2012, 02:34:58 PM
I would just like to give this thread a bump, since it's been almost two months since the last status update. :wink:
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: EsperKnight on October 22, 2012, 11:45:32 AM
Plenty of progress :D I finally started back into it full throttle and now have a complete toolkit to insert/(fake) compress/build/insert all into the CD :D With this is in hand SamIAm and I are going to start really digging in as this automates everything. Still bugs here and there but this at least makes it a lot simpler to test and figure out things :)
If anyone's curious about the fake compression, it's due to Xanadu 2 using a different prefilled buffer for decompressing with for each block, meaning if I don't have that buffer or something similar enough, it decompresses wrong. So I now I just now set it so everything is not compressed but it still conforms to the compression scheme that Xanadu 2 uses (really any and all falcom games I found out). Way too much time to find and use all those buffers that are needed and this works good enough for at least 99% of the cases I figure. The only cases it may not are those that go beyond the allocated buffer for loading it from the CD. It may also slow it down a bit too but really none of the blocks are that big either so I'm not anticipating any issues at this time with the compression :)
Edit: Clarify it's each block that has a different buffer
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bernie on October 22, 2012, 11:55:18 AM
This is awesome news. The way these things have been churned out so quickly lately is just great!! Hopefully this one wont take too much longer.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: roflmao on October 22, 2012, 01:43:01 PM
Woo hoo!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Burnt Lasagna on October 22, 2012, 03:04:49 PM
I'm quite impressed EsperKnight :clap: I always think of this project as "The Little Engine that Could". Making progress, one step at a time... (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bSGk5BwlBR0/T6qZSjLcqZI/AAAAAAAACbo/RrekqFXKV8w/s1600/little-engine-that-could.jpg)
Keep up the good work! I'm looking forward to playing this game for the first time! :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: EsperKnight on October 22, 2012, 04:20:39 PM
Nice :D Yeah this one's definitely one of my PITA projects :) Next up would maybe be Tengai Makyou Ziria but that one was a lot easier to automate (for the most part) than this one. Although I do have one other that's even worse then X2 but that's cause of the amount of tediousness with tracking down stray sentences and all the asm fixes needing to be done.... Just wish there was more time in the day :) Luckily though I'm getting a bit more free time to work on projects so trying to use it to my advantage :D Thanks all for the encouragement!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bonknuts on October 22, 2012, 04:57:05 PM
I remember looking at the compression scheme of some PCE CD game a number of years back (could have been this game or Seiya Monogatari, or some other high profile game. Maybe even GoT, I forget since it's been so long). The LZSS circular buffer was pre-primed with a specific set of values every time a LZSS chunk was decoded. The primed values seemed to be the same for any type of text, but you had to have it in order to decompress the chunk correctly. You could get around it on recompressing if you didn't 'reference' the buffer before anything was written. Though it's kind of silly 'cause you needed to know the primed state to begin with in order to decompress, so you'd know it upon recompressing too. It's just that most LZSS compressors don't have this feature (none that I've seen, anyway).
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on October 23, 2012, 02:46:38 AM
There's a surge of activity happening right now. Today was my day off, and I put in a good 8 hours. I know Esperknight's been rocking it, too. I hope we have some amazing news soon.
Also, here's a dude on niconico playing PCE tunes on a piano. Hats off to anyone who can name all the songs just by hearing them (esteban?). :)
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm2037838
EDIT: In that video, he plays a Monster Maker song at 3:30ish. I checked this game out, and the music in general is impressive. I guess the game's glitchy as hell, though. Too bad. :(
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bernie on October 23, 2012, 02:55:12 AM
There's a surge of activity happening right now. Today was my day off, and I put in a good 8 hours. I know Esperknight's been rocking it, too. I hope we have some amazing news soon.
Also, here's a dude on niconico playing PCE tunes on a piano. Hats off to anyone who can name all the songs just by hearing them (esteban?). :)
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm2037838
Dedication!! Thats what Im talking about!!!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: LentFilms on October 23, 2012, 02:58:15 AM
Good to hear another update! There are so many Esperknight projects I'm following I can't even count them all but "Legend of Xanadu II" is one of my most highly anticipated. I also played a minor role in the SamIAm's dub that was recorded back in 2011. I was probably the worst actor in the cast but it sure was a lot of fun and I can't wait to play the full game.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: NightWolve on October 23, 2012, 03:53:00 AM
I would just like to give this thread a bump, since it's been almost two months since the last status update. :wink:
Having gotten Ys IV out of the way, Arjak continues the finish-the-patch poking! ;)
Well, I have no skills that would allow me to help out at this point, so being a nuisance and forcing status updates is the best I can do! :P
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: EsperKnight on October 23, 2012, 10:19:39 AM
Bonknuts you're right in that the buffer shouldn't matter but for X2 at least it depends if you get lucky :) When decompressing, X2 will load it's prefilled buffer and somehow it'll get messed up when it decompresses my compressed version that uses 0x00. Not sure how it's doing it as I can decompress mine and theirs fine regardless but it's some quirk that I must not have included in mine. So I get around it by just not compressing any of it and just making it look like it is. Figure that'll work for 99% of the cases hopefully :) Anything is better then doing a buffer for each block (500+) :D
Edit: Just thought about that you would need to know the original buffer IF they end up using the original/latest LZSS algorithm (I've seen an older one where it doesn't use binary trees). The original LZSS has a quirk/unintended side effect (I suspect) of RLEing data that matches what's in the original buffer setup. So in that case, yeah you would need to know how the original buffer is setup :)
LentFilms, what's bad is I have so many I tend to forget about which ones need what work :D
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: LentFilms on October 24, 2012, 04:15:08 AM
LentFilms, what's bad is I have so many I tend to forget about which ones need what work :D
Addie's Present, 4th Unit, Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, Team Innocent, Captain Rainbow, the Yarudora Series (not sure about that one), and many many more. You are a mad man sir and I have a great deal of respect for all your hard work and enthusiasm.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: NightWolve on October 24, 2012, 05:16:18 AM
You know, a little late, but welcome to the forums, LentFilms! Did I read that there are 3 brothers total in the Lasagna clan or just you ? You drew the Ys IV stuff, right ? I thought it was interesting that you were merely recent Ys converts, it wasn't something you had grown up with or knew about for all that long.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: LentFilms on October 24, 2012, 06:35:20 AM
You know, a little late, but welcome to the forums, LentFilms! Did I read that there are 3 brothers total in the Lasagna clan or just you ? You drew the Ys IV stuff, right ? I thought it was interesting that you were merely recent Ys converts, it wasn't something you had grown up with or knew about for all that long.
Thank you. In total I have 5 brothers including Lasagna and Tim who drew the Ys IV artwork and the fake Rondo of Blood cover. Tim also did the envelope art on the letter we sent to Retronauts and I drew the picture of Adol on the letter itself.
And yeah my brothers and I are new Ys fans, so new that I’ve only really finished one game in the series. I fist found out about the Ys franchise when Ys Books I & II was released on the Wii's Virtual Console in 2008. I actually avoided the Ys series for a while because of people's comments on the game's "bump and run" gameplay. I only started playing the series in 2010 thanks to sites like Retroware TV, Retronauts, HG101, and XSEED releasing Ys Seven. 2010 was also the same year that Lasagna, Tim, and I all played Sakura Wars 5 together witch indirectly lead to the Ys IV Dub.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Keranu on October 24, 2012, 06:48:36 AM
Thank you. In total I have 5 brothers including Lasagna and Tim who drew the Ys IV artwork and the fake Rondo of Blood cover. Tim also did the envelope art on the letter we sent to Retronauts and I drew the picture of Adol on the letter itself.
Wow, you got my family beat! I only have four brothers and I'm smack dab in the middle! Ain't it great when you have enough siblings to fill up a Turbo Tap? :D
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Burnt Lasagna on October 24, 2012, 08:22:24 AM
Ain't it great when you have enough siblings to fill up a Turbo Tap? :D
Ha, all fun and games till someone wins for the third time in a row. Then it's an all out dog fight on the sibling that won, "stares at half broken controllers" :lol:
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Opethian on October 24, 2012, 10:51:59 AM
Xanaduder deuce!@!!!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: EsperKnight on October 24, 2012, 02:53:21 PM
Addie's Present, 4th Unit, Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, Team Innocent, Captain Rainbow, the Yarudora Series (not sure about that one), and many many more. You are a mad man sir and I have a great deal of respect for all your hard work and enthusiasm.
Wow! Always great to know someone's waiting on some of the others :D None of the games in the Yarudora series has any translators as of yet but Filler is interested so maybe after some of the others he's doing... :) Course anyone who's interested is free to offer *wink wink nudge nudge* ;) And thanks! I love doing this :D
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: esteban on October 26, 2012, 02:20:03 PM
There's a surge of activity happening right now. Today was my day off, and I put in a good 8 hours. I know Esperknight's been rocking it, too. I hope we have some amazing news soon.
Also, here's a dude on niconico playing PCE tunes on a piano. Hats off to anyone who can name all the songs just by hearing them (esteban?). :)
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm2037838
EDIT: In that video, he plays a Monster Maker song at 3:30ish. I checked this game out, and the music in general is impressive. I guess the game's glitchy as hell, though. Too bad. :(
I have to register again to watch the video! (http://junk.tg-16.com/images/pcgs.png)
I can't remember my old login info.
ALSO: I concur, Monster Maker does have nice songs (http://junk.tg-16.com/images/pcgs.png)... http://junk.tg-16.com/audio/Monster_Maker/Track_09.mp3 http://junk.tg-16.com/audio/Monster_Maker/Track_10.mp3 http://junk.tg-16.com/audio/Monster_Maker/Track_11.mp3 http://junk.tg-16.com/audio/Monster_Maker/Track_12.mp3 http://junk.tg-16.com/audio/Monster_Maker/Track_13.mp3 http://junk.tg-16.com/audio/Monster_Maker/Track_14.mp3 <--this is the track from the video you linked to! http://junk.tg-16.com/audio/Monster_Maker/Track_08.mp3
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on October 27, 2012, 02:11:49 AM
Thanks a lot for posting all those links. :)
I've already got the tracks, but Monster Maker is a decent addition to any VGM collection, so I hope others nab them!
Anyway, I stumbled upon that video while watching a LoX2 longplay (for the purpose of searching for specific lines). Niconico definitely has some interesting stuff that you won't find on youtube.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: PunkicCyborg on October 27, 2012, 10:33:55 AM
Whenever i look for pce longplay vids i look on nico. Most stuff on YouTube is tool assist vids or just the opening video or even worse some nerds annoying commentary.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: esteban on October 28, 2012, 12:14:45 AM
I've already got the tracks, but Monster Maker is a decent addition to any VGM collection, so I hope others nab them!
Anyway, I stumbled upon that video while watching a LoX2 longplay (for the purpose of searching for specific lines). Niconico definitely has some interesting stuff that you won't find on youtube.
No problem. The funny thing is that I had never heard of the game until I was grabbing desktop wallpaper from pcenginebible.uk.love many years ago...Paul had just added a nice desktop image for Monster Maker and I was intrigued. What is this game? (http://junk.tg-16.com/images/pcgs.png)
UPDATE: http://pcengine.co.uk/Wallpapers_index.htm (for folks who may not know about sunteam_paul's old stuff)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on October 28, 2012, 01:56:26 PM
I was reading about Monster Maker in Japanese. It's a tragic story, really. Or a story of incompetence, whichever you prefer.
The project actually started in like 1991 or so, and it had a famous producer who made good stuff but took forever doing it. Wouldn't you know, Monster Maker got delayed. Then it got moved to the Super CD, and was delayed again. Then they decided to redraw the character art, so they had another massive delay. They said in interviews that they wanted to make the best RPG anyone had ever seen.
Who knows exactly what was going on behind their doors? But I'd guess that the management at NEC Avenue lost their shit at some point and ordered them to finish it and turn it out within a few months or else. The game that came out in late '94, over two years past its original release date, was loaded with bugs and only half-finished. Seriously, there was supposed to be an equally large part-two in the works, but it was canned. More alarmingly, the game came with a small pink piece of paper saying "once you go into this one tower, don't come out until you have this one conversation or the event data will get borked and your game-save will be ruined forever." And that's just the worst of a long list of bugs.
It looks like it could have been really cool, too. I like the moody piano music and the funky pastel art. What a shame.
Anyone here play it all the way through? There's a full play on niconico, but speak of the devil, it's got a Japanese nerd talking over it the whole way (saying the most obvious crap in the world, too).
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Black Tiger on October 28, 2012, 02:13:00 PM
I only had one bug happen before getting worked over by the game ruining bug. Early on in a castle with a boss a few weird things happened and I couldn't get events to move forward after killing the respawning boss over and over and I believe that eventually it crashed. It was no big deal though, because I just reloaded my save and everything was fine up until that late game tower.
Since I had no idea about that very specific bug, I didn't clear the tower before coming back out and saving again, which permanently prevents you from clearing the tower. The reason I didn't beat it in one go, is that Monster Maker is full of hidden staircases and chests. After igniting the bug, there is a floor in the tower where you see that you should have taken the other staircase from the previous floor. But it instead takes you to some other floor.
It's still a full length game and a great one with some unique aspects. Definitely worth playing through. Since the tower bug has been figured out for gaijins, there's no doubt you can beat the game and even if you only made it as far as I did, it is a hell of a ride. :)
I wonder if the same team was working on Space Fantasy Zone? Both games were advertised together for a very long time as they continued to be delayed.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: runinruder on October 28, 2012, 03:13:49 PM
That looks good, the coloring/graphics comes close to looking SNES-RPGish. Is this on your list of possible translation projects, Sam ? That why you brought it up ?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on October 28, 2012, 07:49:35 PM
Damn, I never knew the game was riddled with bugs! I've played a bit of it, I forget how far I got. It's pretty & has some nice music for sure!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: runinruder on October 28, 2012, 09:11:01 PM
I'm just copying this from a post I made here a few years ago, but it's a description of another strange bug I found in MM:
"I discovered another weird glitch a little earlier in the game. The orcs give you a hot-air balloon that you're supposed to ride to a (different) tower. Instead of hopping into the balloon immediately, I wandered off to do some leveling up. Occasionally, when I'd re-enter the screen with the balloon, it'd be replaced by some sort of garbage sprite. At first I paid no attention to this sprite, but after it appeared multiple times, I finally inspected it, and found myself warped back to an old kobold-inhabited town.
From that point, you can revisit the old locations (which might actually be kinda worthwhile if you think you missed something, like a spell or a treasure chest) and even re-recruit old party members who left (although they'll leave again at the appropriate spots in the story). I should probably mention that I'm not 100% sure that you can make it back to where you were, because I got sick of repeating the old stuff after just a few minutes and loaded up my proper file, but it seems entirely possible (the boat you need to sail across the sea to a different area is right back at its original dock, for instance). And, from what I saw, you don't need to re-fight bosses.
Along with these glitches, the game occasionally freezes during voice-acted parts and frequently chokes while loading up combat scenes. It's strange how a game can seem so nice and polished in many different ways (especially the battle graphics) and be so screwy in others."
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bernie on October 28, 2012, 09:13:20 PM
I just got MM in the mail the other day, so I will be giving it a go soon.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: esteban on October 29, 2012, 03:45:54 AM
I was reading about Monster Maker in Japanese. It's a tragic story, really. Or a story of incompetence, whichever you prefer.
The project actually started in like 1991 or so, and it had a famous producer who made good stuff but took forever doing it. Wouldn't you know, Monster Maker got delayed. Then it got moved to the Super CD, and was delayed again. Then they decided to redraw the character art, so they had another massive delay. They said in interviews that they wanted to make the best RPG anyone had ever seen.
Who knows exactly what was going on behind their doors? But I'd guess that the management at NEC Avenue lost their shit at some point and ordered them to finish it and turn it out within a few months or else. The game that came out in late '94, over two years past its original release date, was loaded with bugs and only half-finished. Seriously, there was supposed to be an equally large part-two in the works, but it was canned. More alarmingly, the game came with a small pink piece of paper saying "once you go into this one tower, don't come out until you have this one conversation or the event data will get borked and your game-save will be ruined forever." And that's just the worst of a long list of bugs.
It looks like it could have been really cool, too. I like the moody piano music and the funky pastel art. What a shame.
Anyone here play it all the way through? There's a full play on niconico, but speak of the devil, it's got a Japanese nerd talking over it the whole way (saying the most obvious crap in the world, too).
Thanks for providing context to this game--I have a greater appreciation for it now. I played through a significant portion of the game before encountering a bug/problem that I was unable to overcome. I don't think I had a bug, per se, but just was stumped and lost interest.
A two-year delay at that point in the PCE's lifespan could only hurt overall sales, I would think...
I'm just copying this from a post I made here a few years ago, but it's a description of another strange bug I found in MM:
"I discovered another weird glitch a little earlier in the game. The orcs give you a hot-air balloon that you're supposed to ride to a (different) tower. Instead of hopping into the balloon immediately, I wandered off to do some leveling up. Occasionally, when I'd re-enter the screen with the balloon, it'd be replaced by some sort of garbage sprite. At first I paid no attention to this sprite, but after it appeared multiple times, I finally inspected it, and found myself warped back to an old kobold-inhabited town.
From that point, you can revisit the old locations (which might actually be kinda worthwhile if you think you missed something, like a spell or a treasure chest) and even re-recruit old party members who left (although they'll leave again at the appropriate spots in the story). I should probably mention that I'm not 100% sure that you can make it back to where you were, because I got sick of repeating the old stuff after just a few minutes and loaded up my proper file, but it seems entirely possible (the boat you need to sail across the sea to a different area is right back at its original dock, for instance). And, from what I saw, you don't need to re-fight bosses.
Along with these glitches, the game occasionally freezes during voice-acted parts and frequently chokes while loading up combat scenes. It's strange how a game can seem so nice and polished in many different ways (especially the battle graphics) and be so screwy in others."
Hey runin, is this post still here (at pcefx.com) or did you save some old threads? If you have old threads saved, could I see them? (I'm just curious about stuff that has been buried with little-to-no-chance of ever being unearthed to see the light of day again). Thanks in advance. (http://junk.tg-16.com/images/pcgs.png)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on October 29, 2012, 03:57:01 AM
That looks good, the coloring/graphics comes close to looking SNES-RPGish. Is this on your list of possible translation projects, Sam ? That why you brought it up ?
I hope to have final drafts of my two big translation projects done within the next 6-8 weeks, though that will depend partially on how the hacking goes. After that, I'll have time for something new. I'm on alert for something to really grab me.
The Tengai Makyo 2 script was requested a long while ago by the guy working on Ziria (non-Bonknuts Tom), so I don't have anything in my cue. One possibility I've been discussing with Esperknight just a little is Xanadu 1. Apparently, some significant number of the hacking breakthroughs from Xanadu 2 would apply to Xanadu 1, and given how difficult the hacking side is for CD games, it would almost be a waste not to take advantage of the situation. I'll have to play it all the way through first, though. That's my rule after the Emerald Dragon affair.
Monster Maker looks like it could be cool, but there's just too many bugs. Some might be easily fixed, but some might not.
Thanks for providing context to this game--I have a greater appreciation for it now. I played through a significant portion of the game before encountering a bug/problem that I was unable to overcome. I don't think I had a bug, per se, but just was stumped and lost interest.
A two-year delay at that point in the PCE's lifespan could only hurt overall sales, I would think...
One thing I remember reading is that during the more than two years between the original release date and the actual release date, another Monster Maker game was announced and released on the SNES. That's part of why I imagine NEC Avenue's execs would have demanded that they rush the game out after a certain point.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on October 29, 2012, 05:11:54 AM
If you decide to do LoX1, let me know. I'd be glad to reprise my role as Nuse, if possible. :)
Tengai Makyo 2 is one that I'm REALLY looking forward to! I would LOVE to try out for some parts in that one, my dream part being Kabuki! I really enjoy playing loud, over-the-top characters! :lol:
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Black Tiger on October 29, 2012, 05:51:58 AM
There is also a computer version of Monster Maker featured in magazines that looks similar to the PCE version. The SNES versions are both different games from the PCE version.
Other than making use of the hacking breakthroughs made with LoXII, the first LoX is one of the PCE RPGs that would most benefit from a translation, since it involves so many specific tasks.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on October 29, 2012, 06:42:35 AM
I remember you mentioning that. I'd definitely be interested in doing it if I can enjoy a good playthrough of it.
All in good time, though. I'm going to be really busy in the next couple months if either hacker gives me a complete insertion to test.
:-" You guys should shower Esperknight in praise so he keeps working on LoX2 like he has in the past 2 weeks.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: esteban on October 29, 2012, 06:47:09 AM
A two-year delay at that point in the PCE's lifespan could only hurt overall sales, I would think...
One thing I remember reading is that during the more than two years between the original release date and the actual release date, another Monster Maker game was announced and released on the SNES. That's part of why I imagine NEC Avenue's execs would have demanded that they rush the game out after a certain point.
Now that's totally crazy/ridiculous. SFC announced. Released. PCE version? Nowhere to be found.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on October 29, 2012, 02:22:22 PM
I remember you mentioning that. I'd definitely be interested in doing it if I can enjoy a good playthrough of it.
All in good time, though. I'm going to be really busy in the next couple months if either hacker gives me a complete insertion to test.
:-" You guys should shower Esperknight in praise so he keeps working on LoX2 like he has in the past 2 weeks.
Esperknight be praised! May Esperknight live on until times indefinite! :) Seriously though, Esper is cool & hardworking, & dedicated, this can't be easy work!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on October 29, 2012, 03:55:03 PM
Thanks. :)
Here's the pink slip of paper in Monster Maker if anyone's interested, btw: (http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u305/sirsinnes/MM02.jpg)
If you play it, watch out of the バッソ Tower on the ソルレンド continent. It's the 2nd one you come to, apparently.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Black Tiger on October 29, 2012, 04:04:16 PM
A two-year delay at that point in the PCE's lifespan could only hurt overall sales, I would think...
One thing I remember reading is that during the more than two years between the original release date and the actual release date, another Monster Maker game was announced and released on the SNES. That's part of why I imagine NEC Avenue's execs would have demanded that they rush the game out after a certain point.
Now that's totally crazy/ridiculous. SFC announced. Released. PCE version? Nowhere to be found.
I'm pretty sure that the first SFC Monster Maker title was just a board game.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on October 29, 2012, 04:22:58 PM
Nope, it's the second one. First one was Monster Maker III in Dec. 1993, then Monster Maker Kids (the board game) in Nov. 1994.
My bad about the PCE one, though - it came out in March 1994, not later in the year.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on October 29, 2012, 05:57:18 PM
Huzzah, just checked mine, & yes indeedy, it has the pink slip :D
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on November 02, 2012, 04:56:11 PM
By the way, I don't know for sure, but I think the plan is to eventually use a variable-width-font.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: EsperKnight on November 02, 2012, 05:07:48 PM
Man your fast Sam :D But yeah I'd say hopefully all of the kinks have been worked out of the compressor. One big thing I forgot since I hadn't looked at it in so long (but was reminded when typing up about the RLE use in LZSS) was that I also implemented the RLE as well (this code is used by other projects). This of course causes issue with Falcom's routine or can if you hit it just right with the RLE... oi. So with that removed and a few other things I think it should be hopefully accurate enough to work through the whole game. I did extensive testing this time and can at least confirm I can uncompress all my compressed versions of the chunks with 100% accuracy :D So now that this is out of the way it's just tweaking the text extractor since I still haven't captured all the different codes and we have some messed up lines due to it. This at least is much simpler to fix and just needs to be handled by a case by cases basis. Also need to remove any junk output in the scripts themselves but at least it's easy. Just tedious is all :) So yeah I'd say from here on out it should be a lot easier to test and fix, yay :D
And yup, plan is to implement a VWF. I just wanted to make sure everything else was working before hand before starting in on it again (I still have my old version for TMZ that I need to redo as it breaks on the real deal) and I'm thinking we may be there :D
And thanks all for the support everyone :D
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: dshadoff on November 02, 2012, 05:28:27 PM
You don't even have to implement variable-width... fixed-width would be fine (as long as it's better than the system font). Something like 8x12 could work really well, and require less code and effort.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: EsperKnight on November 02, 2012, 05:36:25 PM
Very true but you need a nice font for that I think... Would you happen to have any that would fit? I suck at font creation and usually just use the system font but VWFed :D
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bonknuts on November 02, 2012, 06:01:37 PM
I'd say go with a 6x12 font. It looks great (Dracula X intro uses it). It's great in that it's easy because almost all PCE CD games use the 12x12 system card font, so hacking the 12x12 print routine to show FWF 6x12 is pretty minimal, with great results.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: NightWolve on November 03, 2012, 03:02:42 AM
Very true but you need a nice font for that I think... Would you happen to have any that would fit? I suck at font creation and usually just use the system font but VWFed :D
Well, if you can do 8x12, here go two Ys-related fonts attached. The first is Courrier and is what the current Ys IV patch uses. The 2nd one is a hacked version (converted to 8x12) taken from Ys Book I&II; it might be used on a future Ys IV patch, that or perhaps I give the user an option to choose between the two during the patching phase.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on November 03, 2012, 06:15:08 AM
Awesome screens, SamIAm! I'm super excited about this project coming together. EsperKnight, you're doing an excellent job. Keep up the good work, you two! :D
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Keranu on November 03, 2012, 06:40:44 AM
By the way, I don't know for sure, but I think the plan is to eventually use a variable-width-font.
Thank you SamIAm and EsperKnight! Looks fantastic... (http://junk.tg-16.com/images/pcgs.png)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on November 22, 2012, 11:31:54 AM
I just thought I'd let you guys know that my copy of Legend of Xanadu II is in the mail out of anticipation! I can't wait! =P~
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on November 24, 2012, 05:30:49 AM
Cool, Arjak! I hope you enjoy the game as much as I do.
A little status update: I finished manually putting the old dump into the new dump, and with Esperknight's recent inserter, we have all of the text going into the game and displaying. Now the only things to do are to settle on a font/print routine, and to get the menu hacked. There are a few other loose ends, but they're fairly minor.
With a little luck, I'll be doing some play testing before the year is out.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on December 10, 2012, 08:46:32 AM
Bump. :P
Has anything happened since last we've heard? The closer we get to a finished patch, the more anxious I get! ](*,)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: EsperKnight on December 24, 2012, 06:34:52 AM
A bit of this or that :) Been slow lately myself due to being busy at work and not much time. Did get some earlier though so fixed an issue with menu not working. This'll be a huge step I think as now we can really start testing everything and nailing down all the missing text :D I know there's still a bit missing (mainly the place names I believe) but hopefully there won't be too much left :) Getting there! :D
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: esteban on December 25, 2012, 12:24:41 AM
A bit of this or that :) Been slow lately myself due to being busy at work and not much time. Did get some earlier though so fixed an issue with menu not working. This'll be a huge step I think as now we can really start testing everything and nailing down all the missing text :D I know there's still a bit missing (mainly the place names I believe) but hopefully there won't be too much left :) Getting there! :D
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on January 02, 2013, 04:02:16 PM
Update on Spriggan Mark 2.
I had a day off today and I spent all of it...ALL of it...on the dub script. My brain is completely frazzled at the moment.
I've learned a lot from this project, though. You see, originally, I was writing all the lines from the cutscenes with subtitles in mind. I even made a fully formatted test version using a youtube longplay and virtualdub. But then this turned into a dub project and damn, that changes everything. I rewrote a ton of stuff.
Both are hard to do really well, but I think dubs are harder to get to the point that they're even just pretty good. I'm not talking about the acting, either, just the writing. For one thing, you've got to try a lot harder to sound natural, because some things that look perfectly fine as text sound awkward when a real human says them. For example, I got rid of some things just because they sounded funny when spoken quickly.
That brings me to the other thing, though, which is that the lengths you can wind up going through to get the timings just right can be brutal. First you've got to measure each original line accurately - no rounding to the nearest second. Then you've got to go through your script line by line with a stop-watch reading the lines aloud and seeing if they fall in range. There's pauses and pacing and all kids of shit to worry about. With subtitles, all that really matters is that you can read a line before the next one comes.
In the end, the differences between my subtitle draft and my dub draft are really interesting. They each really have their strengths and weaknesses. It goes to show you how translation is such an imperfect science.
Subtitles can be hard to polish in terms of timing if you want to do a really good job (I can't wait for you guys to see Zeroigar, because I got those subs looking pretty good if I do say so myself). Subs give you a lot more leeway in general, though. Everything breaks down into nice chunks that you have total control over. At least with this particular dub, there are lots of places where it's possible for the actors to exceed the time limits.
I'm starting to ramble now. Anyway, Xanadu II is still coming. I ought to bug esperknight again. Oh, and Princess Crown is coming along, too! God I hope these projects get done this year.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: dairugger on January 02, 2013, 04:34:23 PM
omg! this and princess crown? these are really exciting times my friends. :-0 i wonder if its the saturn version or psp princess crown?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: blueraven on January 02, 2013, 04:36:07 PM
Well, good luck dude. I'm looking forward to the release of X2.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Burnt Lasagna on January 03, 2013, 02:52:26 AM
I had a day off today and I spent all of it...ALL of it...on the dub script. My brain is completely frazzled at the moment.
I've learned a lot from this project, though. You see, originally, I was writing all the lines from the cutscenes with subtitles in mind. I even made a fully formatted test version using a youtube longplay and virtualdub. But then this turned into a dub project and damn, that changes everything. I rewrote a ton of stuff.
! :D Ah, thank you, this is amazing! :) This was never publicly stated, but I'll be directing the dub for Spriggan Mark 2, after Sam's finished with the script.
With Ys IV, I had to work with a rather sloppy translation by Deuce, which he made back in 2004. His translation was made for a GameFAQ walkthrough and was definitely not optimized for dubbing. Having gone through that, your script sounds like a breath of fresh air!
I look forward to reading your script Sam and greatly appreciate the extra mile your putting into it! It will definitely save me from allot of headaches and confused actors :)
Oh, and Princess Crown is coming along, too! God I hope these projects get done this year.
I hope so too! I loved Odin's Sphere back when it came out and always wanted to play the original. God bless you Sam!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on January 03, 2013, 09:25:59 AM
Awesome! Can't wait to have another PCE game in English!
When you're ready to start auditions, let me know. :wink:
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on January 03, 2013, 11:52:05 AM
Yeah, I too would like to try. I've only played Spriggan 2 a lil bit, but I get the feeling the tone of the voice acting in general is more serious, & less colorful then Ys 4.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: esteban on January 03, 2013, 05:30:37 PM
I had a day off today and I spent all of it...ALL of it...on the dub script. My brain is completely frazzled at the moment.
I've learned a lot from this project, though. You see, originally, I was writing all the lines from the cutscenes with subtitles in mind. I even made a fully formatted test version using a youtube longplay and virtualdub. But then this turned into a dub project and damn, that changes everything. I rewrote a ton of stuff.
Both are hard to do really well, but I think dubs are harder to get to the point that they're even just pretty good. I'm not talking about the acting, either, just the writing. For one thing, you've got to try a lot harder to sound natural, because some things that look perfectly fine as text sound awkward when a real human says them. For example, I got rid of some things just because they sounded funny when spoken quickly.
That brings me to the other thing, though, which is that the lengths you can wind up going through to get the timings just right can be brutal. First you've got to measure each original line accurately - no rounding to the nearest second. Then you've got to go through your script line by line with a stop-watch reading the lines aloud and seeing if they fall in range. There's pauses and pacing and all kids of shit to worry about. With subtitles, all that really matters is that you can read a line before the next one comes.
In the end, the differences between my subtitle draft and my dub draft are really interesting. They each really have their strengths and weaknesses. It goes to show you how translation is such an imperfect science.
Subtitles can be hard to polish in terms of timing if you want to do a really good job (I can't wait for you guys to see Zeroigar, because I got those subs looking pretty good if I do say so myself). Subs give you a lot more leeway in general, though. Everything breaks down into nice chunks that you have total control over. At least with this particular dub, there are lots of places where it's possible for the actors to exceed the time limits.
I'm starting to ramble now. Anyway, Xanadu II is still coming. I ought to bug esperknight again. Oh, and Princess Crown is coming along, too! God I hope these projects get done this year.
I don't mind the rambling.
I hear you, though: subtitles vs. dubbing require a very different approach and have their own, unique requirements.
(http://junk.tg-16.com/images/pcds.png)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: dairugger on January 03, 2013, 07:21:16 PM
i dont consider this rambling either, on the contrary its really insightful. sort of a behind the scenes. :mrgreen:
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: NightWolve on January 04, 2013, 06:26:30 PM
With Ys IV, I had to work with a rather sloppy translation by Deuce, which he made back in 2004. His translation was made for a GameFAQ walkthrough and was definitely not optimized for dubbing. Having gone through that, your script sounds like a breath of fresh air!
I looked up logs to refresh my memory on this as I thought I said something inaccurate elsewhere. Here's how it began, somewhat (trying to be thorough with dates): I tried to get him to work on the Ys IV translation on around about Sep 20, 2003 because Shimarisu was being problematic (the translator that founded the project originally with Akimaru and Neill Corlett). She had lost her work for a long time and I was waiting on her, so I was giving up... Oddly enough, 10 days later, she finds her script work which was about 94% complete and hands it over. On Oct. 19, I gave it to him fully prepared in my script management software (Translation Station (http://www.ysutopia.net/special/TransTool.gif)) and tried to get him to finish the 6% or so strings that weren't finished, review what was there instead of having to translate from scratch. Well, he didn't finish that till next year, July 25, 2004, cause of work, distractions, life, plus he didn't like her work to boot, etc. There was lots of pestering in between that time, instant messaging of, "Did you finish yet? Is it done yet? Purty please?" etc.
So as the script translation was finally nearing completion, on July 22, 2004, he asks me this: "BTW, is there any chance of perhaps (I know, I know) dubbing the voices in Ys IV rather than subtitling?". I said no because I didn't know much about that myself at the time and David Shadoff hadn't yet produced the ADPCM utilities. 3 days later, the 25th, same day he finally finished the whole script, he remembers about a transcript that he ran into by a Japanese guy called Sugimo back in '03. Sugimo essentially listened to every bit of spoken dialogue, wrote it down in Japanese and made it public on his website. Anyhow, having found this, using WWWJDIC, his online Kanji dictionary dependency (he can't do anything to Japanese without this), he translated it in about 5 days... This log is right before he finished:
Quote from: July_29_2004
DeuceBag: I still feel compelled to try to find a way to dub the ADPCM. DeuceBag: What kind of work will be required to apply the patch? Will it work on a full ISO, or just ISO+MP3? Sef1roth: Both. DeuceBag: :D Sef1roth: I make it for both. DeuceBag: Bitchin'. DeuceBag: Is there any chance I could get you to sniff around to see if you can find a ADPCM conversion tool? Sef1roth: I'll ask when it's all over. DeuceBag: Aight. Sef1roth: Dave would know. DeuceBag: For now, at least the speech will be translated.
So yeah, it was made with the intent for a dubbing project and he pushed the idea. It was submitted to GameFAQs the day after, though. Seems on August 7, David Shadoff had succeeded in the ADPCM tools after I asked him about accomplishing dubbing and on Sept 27 is when Justus Johnston showed up and the first dubbing attempt became serious and fully possible, etc. But yeah, this was occurring during the wrap up of the textual translation and I got it done in time for Christmas. TurboRip was created about a year and a half later with this in mind so that redbook tracks could easily be replaced as Justus would come back from the dead, telling me not to declare that aspect of the project over and what not, but you know how that went. ;)
Anyway, I'd say the problem is that speech translation had only 5 days spent on it. I thought I remembered a conversation where I was told that Justus had been given a slightly improved/edited version though. Not sure if it was for a couple of lines or what, but eh, don't matter now...
EDIT: OK, yeah, I found it.
Quote from: Oct_20_2004
DeuceBag: Justus and I are finding, btw, that the script is going to require some expansion to make everything sound good. Sef1roth: Oh? DeuceBag: Just because it takes a lot less time to say the English lines as-is than the original Japanese. DeuceBag: So, I'm going to have to bulk up most of the lines a bit... which isn't really such a bad thing. It'll make them sound more natural in the end, I expect.
I distinctly remember trying to get this from Justus, but he couldn't find it or something... Part of the stuff he lost in his HDD crash maybe. =\
Anyway, I'd say the problem is that speech translation had only 5 days spent on it.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on January 25, 2013, 11:45:06 AM
I see you now have a website, Burnt Lasagna. Nice![/stealthy bump]
So, how are things going with Xanadu 2 and Spriggan 2, Sam?[/obvious bump]
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: LentFilms on April 03, 2013, 07:09:52 AM
I have a rather random question about the Legend of Xanadu games. I was researching the series recently and noticed that both games were released on the Virtual Console in Japan and were given new CERO ratings. The first Legend of Xanadu was rated C (15+) and the 2nd game was rated B (12+). Does anyone one know why the first Legends game has a higher rating? Just curious.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Black Tiger on April 03, 2013, 07:13:49 AM
The first game is twice as long, with much more dialogue and cinemas, including some war scenes.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on April 13, 2013, 06:08:59 AM
It's been about three months since we've heard anything about this project. Has there been much progress? Are we any closer to seeing a release? :pray:
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Zead on April 29, 2013, 02:43:47 AM
Hello everyone. I just registered here to say a big THANK YOU and good luck to everybody who are making this possible, that this is/looks rad and I can't wait for finally play it in English. I'm a big Falcom fan and I love Legend of Xanadu I&II so much (even to the point to upload their long and fantastic soundtracks on YouTube for everybody's pleasure), so when I found that Legend of Xanadu II was going to be translated, I cried of joy and imported the game (AND the prequel). It was worth every penny, and I can't wait to see more people finally enjoying it and read their opinions about this amazing game. I understand that translating is hard work, no talk about the programming part, so I'm not going to say "WORK FASTER DAMMIT" or stuff like that :P
Now, I have 3 questions:
- How are the things going? Any progress? Announcement incoming?
- Any possibility for the first game (Legend of Xanadu) to get fan-translated? I know that Nightwolve tried it back in the past, but he had some difficulties around that time and then decide to do the Xak III's translation.
- This one is for Nightwolve itself (don't know if he'll read it, but here goes!): does still work the "Donate" button on YsUtopia? I'm seriously considering on donate you 10€ (I know, not too much :oops:) because your efforts, especially the Ys IV translation project (Ys IV in FULLY English? That's hot man!), although before I would like to ask you something about that precise game (and preferably by private).
Anyway, good luck again guys! :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: NightWolve on May 01, 2013, 04:58:11 PM
- This one is for Nightwolve itself (don't know if he'll read it, but here goes!): does still work the "Donate" button on YsUtopia? I'm seriously considering on donate you 10€ (I know, not too much :oops:) because your efforts, especially the Ys IV translation project (Ys IV in FULLY English? That's hot man!), although before I would like to ask you something about that precise game (and preferably by private).
Sure, it's just a link to Paypal with my chosen email address. Easiest way to have found out if it works was by clicking it, ya know ? ;) Anyway, PM away as to anything private you're wanting to know.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on October 08, 2013, 06:12:28 AM
I just wanted to bump this thread to remind everyone of this project's existence. I hope things are going okay and that it won't get cancelled. It's been a really long time since any official news was given, and I know there have been some setbacks as of late. I still have faith that it will one day be finished and released, though.
Good luck, SamIAm. Know that I'm still cheering you and Esperknight on. I know I've been a little overzealous about knowing how things are going, and I'm sorry about that. I've just been really excited (and a little impatient). Keep fighting the good fight.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: geise on October 17, 2013, 01:52:32 AM
He's been busy with the Princess Crown translation project, but should get back to this at some point.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on January 23, 2014, 07:16:11 AM
It has now been OVER A YEAR since the last status update from SamIAm regarding this project. If there has been any progress, or even just more difficulties, I would certainly appreciate hearing about it. When you know nothing for so long, any news is good news.
Please?
Is there anybody out there? *Creepy Synthesizer Effect*
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on January 23, 2014, 08:37:02 PM
Don't despair, but it's kind of a long story.
AFAIK, the biggest hurdle in the way of finishing the project is getting a decent print routine to work.
Esperknight once coded a variable-width font routine for use on some other project, but apparently it didn't work on real hardware. He's looking for alternatives.
His plan for a while has been to try and see what Ah! Megami Sama! on PC-FX does for its VWF and duplicate it for other games, but to do that he needs some additional debugging features in Mednefen, the emulator he uses for all his PCE/PC-FX hacking. And there's no telling if or when Mednefen will get those features. To my understanding, that's been the holdup for a while.
I'm thinking I'll start goading him into using a fixed-width font so we can get this project done. It's important to be tactful though, because he's doing all this for free. I also think he wants to do other PCE translations and hopes to get a working VWF routine figured out that he can apply to any or all of them.
Anyway, I just emailed him now and asked him if he has any news for me.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bonknuts on January 24, 2014, 03:57:08 AM
So, you guys tried a FWF routine and it worked fine, but the VWF routine had problems? Tell him to send me an email and I'll take a look at it (second set of eyes is always good); tomaitheous-at-pcedev-dot-net.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SmaMan on January 24, 2014, 01:43:11 PM
SamIAm! Great to hear from you! Good to know someone's at least trying on this still. Still remember those voice samples I recorded for it. Good times!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on January 25, 2014, 04:11:39 AM
So, you guys tried a FWF routine and it worked fine, but the VWF routine had problems? Tell him to send me an email and I'll take a look at it (second set of eyes is always good); tomaitheous-at-pcedev-dot-net.
Thanks a million! I gave your address to esperknight. I hope he gets in touch with you soon.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bonknuts on January 25, 2014, 04:15:49 AM
So, you guys tried a FWF routine and it worked fine, but the VWF routine had problems? Tell him to send me an email and I'll take a look at it (second set of eyes is always good); tomaitheous-at-pcedev-dot-net.
Thanks a million! I gave your address to esperknight. I hope he gets in touch with you soon.
Cool :D I have a something I'm working on to get out the door, but as soon as I'm done - I'll be bringing SM2 up to date. It's mostly just that one stage where I need to write a special compression scheme to fit the text in.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on January 25, 2014, 07:51:04 AM
Are you referring to Spriggan Mark 2? I remember hearing about that project being in the works a while ago, but haven't heard anything since. Are there still plans to do a dub? I remember hearing that Burnt Lasagna was going to direct.
If there IS going to be a dub, let me know. I'd love to audition! :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bonknuts on January 25, 2014, 01:20:43 PM
Are you referring to Spriggan Mark 2? I remember hearing about that project being in the works a while ago, but haven't heard anything since. Are there still plans to do a dub? I remember hearing that Burnt Lasagna was going to direct.
If there IS going to be a dub, let me know. I'd love to audition! :)
A dub is planned. But I'm not handling that part (other than maybe helping on the tech side, say ADPCM stuffs). I haven't had contact with Burnt Lasagna in awhile, so I don't know if he's still interested in the project. SamIam redid all the game translation (I had a partial translation before) as well as translating the cinema dialog. I just have to tidy up little bits on my end and have him give the final OK on it, or make any changes. But yeah, Spriggan Mark 2.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SmaMan on January 26, 2014, 04:26:39 PM
I'm totally down for another PC Engine game dubbing too! :D
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Burnt Lasagna on January 27, 2014, 05:00:45 AM
A dub is planned. But I'm not handling that part (other than maybe helping on the tech side, say ADPCM stuffs). I haven't had contact with Burnt Lasagna in awhile, so I don't know if he's still interested in the project. SamIam redid all the game translation (I had a partial translation before) as well as translating the cinema dialog. I just have to tidy up little bits on my end and have him give the final OK on it, or make any changes. But yeah, Spriggan Mark 2.
Hey Bonknuts, great to see you still around! I don't exactly want to derail the Xanandu II thread, but I'm still interested. Though its been almost a year an a half since this project went cold, so it's hard to remember what was finished/sent to me...I think the last thing was waiting for you to send me the ADPCM pointers, as well as a translation for the in-game text/ADPCM. I know SamIAm sent me the improved dub script awhile back for the cut-scenes (which is fantastic!).
I'll have to PM you sometime later to touch base on this. Again, nice to see you around again man!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bonknuts on January 27, 2014, 07:26:36 AM
A dub is planned. But I'm not handling that part (other than maybe helping on the tech side, say ADPCM stuffs). I haven't had contact with Burnt Lasagna in awhile, so I don't know if he's still interested in the project. SamIam redid all the game translation (I had a partial translation before) as well as translating the cinema dialog. I just have to tidy up little bits on my end and have him give the final OK on it, or make any changes. But yeah, Spriggan Mark 2.
Hey Bonknuts, great to see you still around! I don't exactly want to derail the Xanandu II thread, but I'm still interested. Though its been almost a year an a half since this project went cold, so it's hard to remember what was finished/sent to me...I think the last thing was waiting for you to send me the ADPCM pointers, as well as a translation for the in-game text/ADPCM. I know SamIAm sent me the improved dub script awhile back for the cut-scenes (which is fantastic!).
I'll have to PM you sometime later to touch base on this. Again, nice to see you around again man!
Sounds good. I have a forum; I'll setup some private sub-sections for SM2 stuffs.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Burnt Lasagna on January 27, 2014, 08:40:45 AM
I agree to disagree... for surely nobody of sound mind would dispute or contest the fact that the title of "best song of all time" belongs to Barnes and Barnes for their Seminole masterpiece: Fish Heads
I agree to disagree... for surely nobody of sound mind would dispute or contest the fact that the title of "best song of all time" belongs to Barnes and Barnes for their Seminole masterpiece: Fish Heads
I used to listen to Dr. Demento on the radio when I was a kid. (http://junk.tg-16.com/images/pcgs.png)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on March 30, 2014, 06:22:48 AM
This project thread recently had its third anniversary! Many happy returns. :P
Has there been any progress on getting that damn Variable Width Font to work? ](*,)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Echelon5 on April 06, 2014, 05:41:23 PM
If the opportunity never rises to play and understand this game I think it'd at least be pretty cool to understand the story. I've always been curious as to the plotlines, the villains and characters, etc.
Would anyone knowledgeable on the subjects like to talk about it?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Echelon5 on April 07, 2014, 04:32:53 AM
Uh, well thanks but I really would like to know the actual story of the games (if anybody knows them).
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: tggodfrey on April 07, 2014, 05:54:36 AM
you want to learn the plot.....go learn japanese and play the series.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: spenoza on April 07, 2014, 07:06:23 AM
you want to learn the plot.....go learn japanese and play the series.
I feel like I'm on Slashdot. "How do I x on my computer?" "Switch to Linux and dump Windows like a bad habit."
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Echelon5 on April 16, 2014, 09:54:10 AM
Still genuinely curious about the story if anyone knows. No thanks are wise ass comments though, I've had my fill of those. Actually no, if you've got some zingers that's fine too.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Necromancer on April 16, 2014, 11:12:09 AM
You'll probably have to try searching for Japanese reviews (using 風の伝説ザナドゥII and not english); it'll be messy but at least you'll get something.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Echelon5 on April 23, 2014, 05:05:16 AM
You'll probably have to try searching for Japanese reviews (using 風の伝説ザナドゥII and not english); it'll be messy but at least you'll get something.
Most of the stuff I've seen using this is either A) unintelligable or B) reiterating stuff we already know. Thanks though, got to see some neato images using that, I appreciate it.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on July 10, 2014, 06:27:22 AM
Another half-year gone. I think I'm starting to become prejudiced against variable-width fonts...
Has there been any progress with that damn thing, Sam? It seems like getting that font routine to work has taken more time than anything else. If there has been no progress on getting this VWF to work for the past year or two, I think that means it's time for Plan B. ](*,)
The search for perfection never ends, Sam. At some point you're just going to have to declare it "good enough."
Title: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: esteban on July 10, 2014, 07:30:21 AM
Another half-year gone. I think I'm starting to become prejudiced against variable-width fonts...
Has there been any progress with that damn thing, Sam? It seems like getting that font routine to work has taken more time than anything else. If there has been no progress on getting this VWF to work for the past year or two, I think that means it's time for Plan B. ](*,)
The search for perfection never ends, Sam. At some point you're just going to have to declare it "good enough."
But then I'll have to finish making the English version of the instruction manual, and that would be stressful (deadlines!)
I can't believe that was over three years ago. I would have sworn it was 1-2 at most.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on July 10, 2014, 05:10:52 PM
Basically, it's all in Esperknight's hands. I'm not really the manager of the translation or anything, just one half of a two-man team, and my half has been done for years. I do think that Esperknight could finish the project in short order if he set his mind to it and sank in a concentrated 10 or 20 hours. It's really not my place to make demands of him, though, and there aren't any other hackers chomping at the bit to do PCE work.
Believe me, nobody wishes this were finished more than me.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: clackattack on August 12, 2014, 01:34:56 PM
Still no news on a projected completion? Not trying to be a thorn in anybody's side, but between this translation and Anearth, I am one excited RPG-fan! especially since they are for my favorite system 8)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bonknuts on August 12, 2014, 05:36:16 PM
Basically, it's all in Esperknight's hands. I'm not really the manager of the translation or anything, just one half of a two-man team, and my half has been done for years. I do think that Esperknight could finish the project in short order if he set his mind to it and sank in a concentrated 10 or 20 hours. It's really not my place to make demands of him, though, and there aren't any other hackers chomping at the bit to do PCE work.
Believe me, nobody wishes this were finished more than me.
I got a few of his games/projects mixed up. What is required? What's left?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: shubibiman on August 12, 2014, 06:41:33 PM
Basically, it's all in Esperknight's hands. I'm not really the manager of the translation or anything, just one half of a two-man team, and my half has been done for years. I do think that Esperknight could finish the project in short order if he set his mind to it and sank in a concentrated 10 or 20 hours. It's really not my place to make demands of him, though, and there aren't any other hackers chomping at the bit to do PCE work.
Believe me, nobody wishes this were finished more than me.
I know what you feel. I feel exactly the same with my translation of Dead of the Brain, which I've completed 5 years ago now ;(
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: NightWolve on August 12, 2014, 07:29:09 PM
I know what you feel. I feel exactly the same with my translation of Dead of the Brain, which I've completed 5 years ago now ;(
Ah, one of the guys that worked with David Shadoff. Did you use translation software called Translation Station for it ? I remember Dave gave me back a copy of the database to fix for a project cause Access would get buggy and damage it after prolonged use. I think it was for you, but not sure. Well, that is the custom software I developed for my projects. I let Dave have a copy to see if he could make use of it and to my surprise he did. He started a lot of projects I see but they've mostly stalled.
Anyway, you only translated it from Japanese to French, correct ? Did he get a working font hack, is that the problem ? Or is it text compression woes ?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on August 12, 2014, 08:10:46 PM
I got a few of his games/projects mixed up. What is required? What's left?
He's got the compression fully done - he can decompress the Japanese script and recompress my English script and have it display. He's also got the script fully extracted (and I've got it fully translated and edited).
What remains is primarily the print routine. As it stands, the routine displays big fat 16x16 FWF tiles, and it doesn't handle line wraps and overflows properly. Esperknight has been saying for a while that he wanted to make his own VWF routine, but one that he made for a different game didn't work.
Additionally, there is the menu, but it *should* be very simple. All of the icons are already in English. There is only a small text box at the bottom of the menu that prints using what appears to be the exact same routine that is used for the dialogue text. We have none of the menu text dumped and no English printing in the menu yet.
Finally, I think Esperknight said he needed to merge an old dump with a new dump, but I'm foggy on those details.
I am 100% sure he would be psyched to get an email from you, especially about the VWF stuff. Actually, I ought to email him now.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bonknuts on August 13, 2014, 02:57:28 AM
I got a few of his games/projects mixed up. What is required? What's left?
He's got the compression fully done - he can decompress the Japanese script and recompress my English script and have it display. He's also got the script fully extracted (and I've got it fully translated and edited).
What remains is primarily the print routine. As it stands, the routine displays big fat 16x16 FWF tiles, and it doesn't handle line wraps and overflows properly. Esperknight has been saying for a while that he wanted to make his own VWF routine, but one that he made for a different game didn't work.
Additionally, there is the menu, but it *should* be very simple. All of the icons are already in English. There is only a small text box at the bottom of the menu that prints using what appears to be the exact same routine that is used for the dialogue text. We have none of the menu text dumped and no English printing in the menu yet.
Finally, I think Esperknight said he needed to merge an old dump with a new dump, but I'm foggy on those details.
I am 100% sure he would be psyched to get an email from you, especially about the VWF stuff. Actually, I ought to email him now.
VWF print routines themselves are easy, but it's the complexity of the routine that's hard to work in (requires more free space and more processing time). Why not do a 6x12 (see my Dracula X 'intro' translation print routine) or 8x16 font routine mean time, then if there's time do the VWF later. Honestly, no one really cares except for the hackers and translators (about VWF). Hell, even couple of TGCD games use 12x12 fonts - and no one in the PCE/TG community has ever bitched about/made fun of it but me (one of the Exile games IIRC). Some US games cheat and realtime scale the 16x16 font into 8x16 (Valis 3).
Once I get situated with school and place to live, I'll work on this to get a working print routine (might not be VWF though - depends on the time needed for it). This I promise. I REALLY want to play this game translated.
This is what happened with shubibiman's work with DotB. I did the new print routine. It's finished. There's one problem though, there isn't any more free space to add specific automated support for certain things in text. I.e. you need to manually do certain things in the script (you had to do a manual 'box' clear and no longer use the 'box' wrap auto function. I.e. the script chars need to be measured and a special control code placed for this. That's it. Everything is done for the game otherwise. This is basically the hold up). Since all I handled was the print routine, I could never get Dave to understand what and why he had to do on his side. Plus, our schedules were never in sync and it made it a real pain to try and work this out. If I had access to the script and tools, I could have finished the game already (years ago). That's part of the problem when work with a team VS do almost all the work yourself. I almost went back and did a 6x12 FWF for the game, to be done with this issue. But I got soo sick of working on it.
I know what you feel. I feel exactly the same with my translation of Dead of the Brain, which I've completed 5 years ago now ;(
Made you should talk to Dave and have some else take over the translation. Like NightWolve?
I did the new print routine for Cosmic Fantasy I (it was my first duel font routine - shows both SJIS and small roman font - perfect for translate as you go). The game is even upgraded to SCD too (great for script expansion). I think I might just make the patch public, since nothing has seem to come of it, and hope someone steps up to handle the script part.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: shubibiman on August 13, 2014, 07:03:28 PM
Yes, I used Transtation and it bugged so many times that I nearly gave up. I finally managed to complete this work and from what I recall, the text of DOTB1 had been implemented.
I contacted Dave a few years ago but he was busy back then. Not sure if he would have time now to work back on it.
It is very frustrating because as long as this project is not completed, I won't work on a new translation project again. And next time, I'd rather translate directly in english (even though it would need correction by a native). And it wouldn't be too long to translate DOTB from french to english.
I'd be even more willing to work on another translation project if I could use a more reliable version of transtation ;)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Trenton_net on August 14, 2014, 02:54:35 AM
Too bad no efforts are being made for translating Snatcher. That's something I'm sure a lot of people have been waiting for.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Dicer on August 14, 2014, 04:39:43 AM
Too bad no efforts are being made for translating Snatcher. That's something I'm sure a lot of people have been waiting for.
You can already play it in English (Sega CD) so there is probably less demand.
I thought the Sega CD version was altered/censored/etc?
Anyway regarding to OP's announce, Legend of Xanadu II looks absolutely amazing. Very much looking forward to a patch release, and thanks for working on such a project!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Lochlan on August 14, 2014, 06:31:08 AM
I wish the programmers of half-translated projects would put their work onto github. If you're going to sit on a project for years and never finish, maybe open source it so somebody can pick up where you left off? It's not uncommon in the open source world for package maintainers to change as interest among maintainers waxes and wanes, it would be great if the world of PCE translations would adopt this ethos.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Dicer on August 14, 2014, 07:43:01 AM
I wish the programmers of half-translated projects would put their work onto github. If you're going to sit on a project for years and never finish, maybe open source it so somebody can pick up where you left off? It's not uncommon in the open source world for package maintainers to change as interest among maintainers waxes and wanes, it would be great if the world of PCE translations would adopt this ethos.
I agree 110%
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: shubibiman on August 14, 2014, 10:28:40 AM
I wish the programmers of half-translated projects would put their work onto github. If you're going to sit on a project for years and never finish, maybe open source it so somebody can pick up where you left off? It's not uncommon in the open source world for package maintainers to change as interest among maintainers waxes and wanes, it would be great if the world of PCE translations would adopt this ethos.
Not a bad idea at all. Although, it's not really source code per se, but whatever - even just research notes and all documented stuffs would help. Most hackers (coders) prefer to do their own thing and write their own code, but that last part would be invaluable time saver IMO.
But to be honest though, any hacker worth their like of salt doesn't really need other peep's stuff. It's not exactly like source code; you're not building an application from the ground up. And there are plenty of capable hackers out there that would have no problem starting ~any~ number of PCE/CD projects on their own - github or not. It's just that PCE isn't really a popular platform for most hacker-coders. Most hackers are just fans of the snes/nes systems. Some pick NES because it's both popular and easy. Other pick SNES because of the mass popularity. Not really sure why the Genesis platform is often over looked, but it did have a couple of decent translations in the past few years (King Colossus comes to mind), and it's a fairly easy arch to hack.
What I want to know is... has NightWolve lost his PCE translation spirit? ;) He's got a pretty good track record with completing translations (two PCE-CDs no doubt). And for the gritty details (like new print routines, single byte ascii support, etc) - other hackers could step in and fill that goal (Mooz, Ccovell, myself, others - are capable hackers).
Quote
Efforts would be made if translators could see their work actually being published instead of being thrown in a bin.
It goes the other way too. I did a good amount of work on Makai Shada, only to have the translator bail on me (and I couldn't find anyone else). For Spriggan Mark 2, I went through three translators over the years before working with SamIam. I did the single byte ascii and new print routine for Cosmic Fantasy 4 chapter 1 and chapter 2. Nothing ever came of that (and that game has uncompressed SJIS text). Same for Cosmic Fantasy 1 - new read and print routine.. years ago. A couple of others that I can't remember now.
The only ones that got released where Bubble Gum Crash, but that's because Matt LaFrance had already translated it - by the time I stepped in, he just had to adjust a few edits. Lady Sword, but Matt did the translation and script insertion all himself. And.. Dracula-X, but I was just a small part in the team and there wasn't a lot to translate. Spriggan is almost done, just in the editing phase (which work will continue when I get my new place and stuff out of storage).
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: seieienbu on August 14, 2014, 12:46:48 PM
As cool as Snatcher is, I'd much rather titles that were unique to PC Engine were translated first. After Xanadu 2 the game I want to see most translated is probably Tengai Makyou 2.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: spenoza on August 14, 2014, 04:24:55 PM
Emerald Dragon, yo, Emerald Dragon! Why no love for this one?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: A Black Falcon on August 14, 2014, 04:27:37 PM
It goes the other way too. I did a good amount of work on Makai Shada, only to have the translator bail on me (and I couldn't find anyone else). For Spriggan Mark 2, I went through three translators over the years before working with SamIam. I did the single byte ascii and new print routine for Cosmic Fantasy 4 chapter 1 and chapter 2. Nothing ever came of that (and that game has uncompressed SJIS text). Same for Cosmic Fantasy 1 - new read and print routine.. years ago. A couple of others that I can't remember now.
The only ones that got released where Bubble Gum Crash, but that's because Matt LaFrance had already translated it - by the time I stepped in, he just had to adjust a few edits. Lady Sword, but Matt did the translation and script insertion all himself. And.. Dracula-X, but I was just a small part in the team and there wasn't a lot to translate. Spriggan is almost done, just in the editing phase (which work will continue when I get my new place and stuff out of storage).
That's true but I was only talking of my own experience ;) DOTB required a huge amount of work for me and my guess is it's the longest translation for a PCE game that ever came to an end.
Anyway, if you're looking for someone to translate such games as Cosmic Fantasy 1, I might do something for you as the game is not so long.
If the read and print routine is ready for this game, then don't hesitate and send me the script ;)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: ultrageranium on August 14, 2014, 11:11:26 PM
I wish the programmers of half-translated projects would put their work onto github. If you're going to sit on a project for years and never finish, maybe open source it so somebody can pick up where you left off? It's not uncommon in the open source world for package maintainers to change as interest among maintainers waxes and wanes, it would be great if the world of PCE translations would adopt this ethos.
Not a bad idea at all. Although, it's not really source code per se, but whatever - even just research notes and all documented stuffs would help. Most hackers (coders) prefer to do their own thing and write their own code, but that last part would be invaluable time saver IMO.
Yes, I believe not jut the end result would be worth having on a public repository. Other elements that would deserve opening up is the whole toolchain and workflow for translation work, and while I am not familiar at all with the latter I can imagine that a public distributed push/pull DCVS approach to translation may attract casual contributors and bring more eyeballs, to paraphrase the open source and free software saying, to check for typos and suggest improvements.
Of course, all that should be properly licensed to avoid abuse/dispute and make life easier for potential take over in case of abandon.
Quote from: Bonknuts
But to be honest though, any hacker worth their like of salt doesn't really need other peep's stuff. It's not exactly like source code; you're not building an application from the ground up. And there are plenty of capable hackers out there that would have no problem starting ~any~ number of PCE/CD projects on their own - github or not.
Yes, however, having such projects more visible and open is more likely to make the learning curve easier and therefore more attractive for those who would be interested to contribute or get started but do not yet possess all the necessary skills to be completely autonomous. Yet, in a more cooperative system, they could provide useful contribution and learn at the same time (for instance writing tech documentation is often the least popular task, yet ones to really helps to understand how things really work).
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on August 25, 2014, 10:23:23 PM
Quote
Once I get situated with school and place to live, I'll work on this to get a working print routine (might not be VWF though - depends on the time needed for it). This I promise. I REALLY want to play this game translated.
Bonknuts, man, if you ever want to do some translation projects, I am in.
I love Esperknight, but he's got a million projects going at once, and at this point all I really hope for from him is that he finishes Xanadu II someday. He loves games, but I don't think he was ever really that interested in Xanadu II. I, on the other hand, get a lump in my throat when I hear the intro music because it's still one of the best action RPGs I've ever played.
If you can help get Xanadu II out the door, that would be freaking awesome. The hacking side is just stagnant right now, and a few emails between you and Esperknight could be all it takes to make the wheels start turning again. There's not much I can say to motivate him anymore, but just talking with you could be a huge catalyst for him. He respects you a lot, and I think he would gladly accept your help. This stupid project has been so close to being done for so long, it's maddening.
But I'm not just talking about Xanadu II.
You've got the passion for the games, and you might be the single most capable PCE hacker around. I don't want to brag, but I've definitely got the Japanese credentials. We could be a very formidable team. Yes, teams can be dysfunctional, but one person getting a lot of shit done can motivate another person to get a lot of shit done, and we're just the right guys to get a whole lot of shit done.
If you've got anything else like Spriggan mk2, where you had a dumped script and working insertion/printing, send it my way. Did you dump those Cosmic Fantasy scripts? If there's something you would be interested in doing, you should let me know. I can't promise that I'll want to work on just anything, but I'm open to a lot.
By the way, seriously, let's finish Spriggan mk2. All I need is for the stage 4 text to insert properly so I can tweak it. Give me a fully working inserter and two hours and I'll have my end at 100%. Once that's in, we just get BurntLasagna to do the dub, and it's finished.
(PS: I am internetless for a few more days at least, but I'll be back. Like you, I just moved)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: esteban on August 25, 2014, 11:24:38 PM
Once I get situated with school and place to live, I'll work on this to get a working print routine (might not be VWF though - depends on the time needed for it). This I promise. I REALLY want to play this game translated.
Bonknuts, man, if you ever want to do some translation projects, I am in.
I love Esperknight, but he's got a million projects going at once, and at this point all I really hope for from him is that he finishes Xanadu II someday. He loves games, but I don't think he was ever really that interested in Xanadu II. I, on the other hand, get a lump in my throat when I hear the intro music because it's still one of the best action RPGs I've ever played.
If you can help get Xanadu II out the door, that would be freaking awesome. The hacking side is just stagnant right now, and a few emails between you and Esperknight could be all it takes to make the wheels start turning again. There's not much I can say to motivate him anymore, but just talking with you could be a huge catalyst for him. He respects you a lot, and I think he would gladly accept your help. This stupid project has been so close to being done for so long, it's maddening.
But I'm not just talking about Xanadu II.
You've got the passion for the games, and you might be the single most capable PCE hacker around. I don't want to brag, but I've definitely got the Japanese credentials. We could be a very formidable team. Yes, teams can be dysfunctional, but one person getting a lot of shit done can motivate another person to get a lot of shit done, and we're just the right guys to get a whole lot of shit done.
If you've got anything else like Spriggan mk2, where you had a dumped script and working insertion/printing, send it my way. Did you dump those Cosmic Fantasy scripts? If there's something you would be interested in doing, you should let me know. I can't promise that I'll want to work on just anything, but I'm open to a lot.
By the way, seriously, let's finish Spriggan mk2. All I need is for the stage 4 text to insert properly so I can tweak it. Give me a fully working inserter and two hours and I'll have my end at 100%. Once that's in, we just get BurntLasagna to do the dub, and it's finished.
(PS: I am internetless for a few more days at least, but I'll be back. Like you, I just moved)
STATUS: Incessant weeping. The tears flow faster than I can wipe them away. (http://junk.tg-16.com/images/pcgs.png)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Sadler on August 26, 2014, 04:36:46 AM
You've got the passion for the games, and you might be the single most capable PCE hacker around. I don't want to brag, but I've definitely got the Japanese credentials. We could be a very formidable team. Yes, teams can be dysfunctional, but one person getting a lot of shit done can motivate another person to get a lot of shit done, and we're just the right guys to get a whole lot of shit done.
If you've got anything else like Spriggan mk2, where you had a dumped script and working insertion/printing, send it my way. Did you dump those Cosmic Fantasy scripts? If there's something you would be interested in doing, you should let me know. I can't promise that I'll want to work on just anything, but I'm open to a lot.
By the way, seriously, let's finish Spriggan mk2. All I need is for the stage 4 text to insert properly so I can tweak it. Give me a fully working inserter and two hours and I'll have my end at 100%. Once that's in, we just get BurntLasagna to do the dub, and it's finished.
(PS: I am internetless for a few more days at least, but I'll be back. Like you, I just moved)
I grinned like an idiot reading this. I can't tell you guys how much I appreciate your efforts. Thank you! :D
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: deubeul on August 26, 2014, 07:26:18 AM
Each time i see this thread updated, my heart misses a beat. This time more than ever!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: pixeljunkie on August 26, 2014, 08:48:43 AM
so much excite after reading this
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: roflmao on August 26, 2014, 03:28:49 PM
EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on August 27, 2014, 05:48:24 AM
I am so moved by this turn of events that I just dramatically shed a single tear.
Well, not really, but I am totally f*cking pumped to see what comes of this partnership! :dance:
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bonknuts on August 27, 2014, 07:05:06 AM
Once I get situated with school and place to live, I'll work on this to get a working print routine (might not be VWF though - depends on the time needed for it). This I promise. I REALLY want to play this game translated.
Bonknuts, man, if you ever want to do some translation projects, I am in.
I love Esperknight, but he's got a million projects going at once, and at this point all I really hope for from him is that he finishes Xanadu II someday. He loves games, but I don't think he was ever really that interested in Xanadu II. I, on the other hand, get a lump in my throat when I hear the intro music because it's still one of the best action RPGs I've ever played.
If you can help get Xanadu II out the door, that would be freaking awesome. The hacking side is just stagnant right now, and a few emails between you and Esperknight could be all it takes to make the wheels start turning again. There's not much I can say to motivate him anymore, but just talking with you could be a huge catalyst for him. He respects you a lot, and I think he would gladly accept your help. This stupid project has been so close to being done for so long, it's maddening.
But I'm not just talking about Xanadu II.
You've got the passion for the games, and you might be the single most capable PCE hacker around. I don't want to brag, but I've definitely got the Japanese credentials. We could be a very formidable team. Yes, teams can be dysfunctional, but one person getting a lot of shit done can motivate another person to get a lot of shit done, and we're just the right guys to get a whole lot of shit done.
If you've got anything else like Spriggan mk2, where you had a dumped script and working insertion/printing, send it my way. Did you dump those Cosmic Fantasy scripts? If there's something you would be interested in doing, you should let me know. I can't promise that I'll want to work on just anything, but I'm open to a lot.
By the way, seriously, let's finish Spriggan mk2. All I need is for the stage 4 text to insert properly so I can tweak it. Give me a fully working inserter and two hours and I'll have my end at 100%. Once that's in, we just get BurntLasagna to do the dub, and it's finished.
(PS: I am internetless for a few more days at least, but I'll be back. Like you, I just moved)
On the Spriggan stuffs, might be a couple of weeks until I can get to the assets (my PC tower). But hell yeah! I hope Burt Lasagna is still interested.
Slightly offtopic: EsperKnight and I had chatted about making an extended system card for translated games. I.e. a hucard rom+ram; something a little bit more than the 192k of the system card adds. I was thinking an additional 64k of ram. The problem was, no one was making hucards. So it would be limited to emulators. I still like this idea, and when that one guy from France started making those new hucards with the rom bump - the first thing I thought was SCD 3.0+ card. You'd just need another trace setup for another chip (or two more). So 512k rom, and 256k ram (or two 128k ram). Done and done. This would make CD translation hacking soooooooo much easier. There are a few unused bios functions entries in the system card; those could be easily used to point to the code in ram (indirection). The idea, is basically the same as ROM expansion.
If I do a serious homebrew CD game, I'm probably gonna go this route (though maybe 512k rom + 512k ram for a sys card, or 256k rom + 768k ram).
Anyway, let's get Xanadu II and Spriggan Mark 2 out of the way - since they are sooo close to being finished. My son, when he was 7 years old, played through and beat Xanadu II (he doesn't know any japanese, but he's a falcom fan). Not only for my own love of the game, I'd love for him to be able to play through it again in English.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: shubibiman on August 27, 2014, 07:08:25 AM
Anyway, if you're looking for someone to translate such games as Cosmic Fantasy 1, I might do something for you as the game is not so long.
If the read and print routine is ready for this game, then don't hesitate and send me the script ;)
:wink:
I never handled the script dumping process, so I have no idea of the pointer table format. I do know the script is uncompressed. Esperknight had looked into the SegaCD version of the game and they appear to be near identical to that port. I'll be honest, script handling is not my preferred thing when it comes to translations (decompressors though, no problem). I know Esperknight is busy, but would be great if we could do a three man team on that one. Haha - 'cause basically my read/print routine is already done. But hey, if it comes down to it - I'll do the script work. It's gonna be a quirk and dirty kind of thing though (one town down at a time).
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: deubeul on August 27, 2014, 07:54:07 AM
My son, when he was 7 years old, played through and beat Xanadu II (he doesn't know any japanese, but he's a falcom fan). Not only for my own love of the game, I'd love for him to be able to play through it again in English.
Beautiful story, and tough kid! :shock:
Title: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: esteban on August 27, 2014, 08:24:32 AM
Bonknuts said .... then SamIAm said ... then Shubibiman said ...
I cannot stop the deluge of tears flowing...
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: seieienbu on August 27, 2014, 12:38:50 PM
Slightly offtopic: EsperKnight and I had chatted about making an extended system card for translated games. I.e. a hucard rom+ram; something a little bit more than the 192k of the system card adds. I was thinking an additional 64k of ram. The problem was, no one was making hucards. So it would be limited to emulators. I still like this idea, and when that one guy from France started making those new hucards with the rom bump - the first thing I thought was SCD 3.0+ card. You'd just need another trace setup for another chip (or two more). So 512k rom, and 256k ram (or two 128k ram). Done and done. This would make CD translation hacking soooooooo much easier. There are a few unused bios functions entries in the system card; those could be easily used to point to the code in ram (indirection). The idea, is basically the same as ROM expansion.
If I do a serious homebrew CD game, I'm probably gonna go this route (though maybe 512k rom + 512k ram for a sys card, or 256k rom + 768k ram).
Just a thought, but would it be more feasible to create a new system card or to simply make games compatible with the extra memory on an Arcade Card?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bonknuts on August 27, 2014, 01:02:44 PM
Just a thought, but would it be more feasible to create a new system card or to simply make games compatible with the extra memory on an Arcade Card?
No, because ram isn't directly accessible on the Arcade Card (only indirectly). It's great for making new games, but almost useless for translations. It could help for font space (and even extra strings for in-game), but it can't help for code. And there in lies the problem :/
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: BigusSchmuck on August 28, 2014, 02:52:43 AM
Once I get situated with school and place to live, I'll work on this to get a working print routine (might not be VWF though - depends on the time needed for it). This I promise. I REALLY want to play this game translated.
Bonknuts, man, if you ever want to do some translation projects, I am in.
I love Esperknight, but he's got a million projects going at once, and at this point all I really hope for from him is that he finishes Xanadu II someday. He loves games, but I don't think he was ever really that interested in Xanadu II. I, on the other hand, get a lump in my throat when I hear the intro music because it's still one of the best action RPGs I've ever played.
If you can help get Xanadu II out the door, that would be freaking awesome. The hacking side is just stagnant right now, and a few emails between you and Esperknight could be all it takes to make the wheels start turning again. There's not much I can say to motivate him anymore, but just talking with you could be a huge catalyst for him. He respects you a lot, and I think he would gladly accept your help. This stupid project has been so close to being done for so long, it's maddening.
But I'm not just talking about Xanadu II.
You've got the passion for the games, and you might be the single most capable PCE hacker around. I don't want to brag, but I've definitely got the Japanese credentials. We could be a very formidable team. Yes, teams can be dysfunctional, but one person getting a lot of shit done can motivate another person to get a lot of shit done, and we're just the right guys to get a whole lot of shit done.
If you've got anything else like Spriggan mk2, where you had a dumped script and working insertion/printing, send it my way. Did you dump those Cosmic Fantasy scripts? If there's something you would be interested in doing, you should let me know. I can't promise that I'll want to work on just anything, but I'm open to a lot.
By the way, seriously, let's finish Spriggan mk2. All I need is for the stage 4 text to insert properly so I can tweak it. Give me a fully working inserter and two hours and I'll have my end at 100%. Once that's in, we just get BurntLasagna to do the dub, and it's finished.
(PS: I am internetless for a few more days at least, but I'll be back. Like you, I just moved)
On the Spriggan stuffs, might be a couple of weeks until I can get to the assets (my PC tower). But hell yeah! I hope Burt Lasagna is still interested.
Slightly offtopic: EsperKnight and I had chatted about making an extended system card for translated games. I.e. a hucard rom+ram; something a little bit more than the 192k of the system card adds. I was thinking an additional 64k of ram. The problem was, no one was making hucards. So it would be limited to emulators. I still like this idea, and when that one guy from France started making those new hucards with the rom bump - the first thing I thought was SCD 3.0+ card. You'd just need another trace setup for another chip (or two more). So 512k rom, and 256k ram (or two 128k ram). Done and done. This would make CD translation hacking soooooooo much easier. There are a few unused bios functions entries in the system card; those could be easily used to point to the code in ram (indirection). The idea, is basically the same as ROM expansion.
If I do a serious homebrew CD game, I'm probably gonna go this route (though maybe 512k rom + 512k ram for a sys card, or 256k rom + 768k ram).
Anyway, let's get Xanadu II and Spriggan Mark 2 out of the way - since they are sooo close to being finished. My son, when he was 7 years old, played through and beat Xanadu II (he doesn't know any japanese, but he's a falcom fan). Not only for my own love of the game, I'd love for him to be able to play through it again in English.
Pardon me if this has been asked before, but why not use the arcade card? Or create repros of the arcade cards?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: BigusSchmuck on August 29, 2014, 06:09:22 AM
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on August 30, 2014, 03:20:35 PM
No internet at home until the 8th. I will try to respond from work. Bonknuts, feel free to contact Esperknight. Bye for now
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on September 02, 2014, 03:39:36 PM
I'm all for just focusing on Xanadu II and Spriggan MK2 for now, so don't worry too much about anything else I write.
The special 3.0+ card idea sounds reasonable to me. On the one hand, I'd hate to put anyone off from playing a translation just because they didn't/couldn't get their hands on the special system card. On the other, if it turns the hacking side from a nightmare into a breeze, I think it's quite practical. Years keep rolling by with no major PCE RPG translation. If this changes that, then go for it.
Xanadu I is one of the most entertainingly written games I've played on the system, and by cracking Xanadu II Esperknight has already solved half the hacking problems. I'd love to translate it. However, it would seem that the 256k of RAM is packed very tightly based on how the game only loads once per chapter. Extra RAM could make a huge difference in that case. Tengai Makyo II has this same problem, I think.
What good 2.0 RPGs are there? Those could be expanded to ordinary 3.0, right? Tengai Makyo 1 is being done by Esperknight and another guy. One that looks interesting to me is Tenshi no Uta 1. The sequel gets really high reviews, too, and it's one that I intend to play soon.
EDIT: Oops, Tenshi no Uta 1 is also a 3.0 game. Damn.
Finally, about Gulliver Boy. I started playing it last weekend, and it's really good. Also, it's built to use the Arcade Card from the get-go to minimize disc accesses. I understand about the extra memory only being able to be accessed indirectly, but is it maybe possible for this particular game to use the extra Arcade Card memory for English script? It seems worth checking.
There's the Saturn port of Gulliver Boy, which is pretty much a straight port AFAIK, and would probably be easier to hack because there's almost got to be leftover RAM. The compression might be easier, too. But Gulliver Boy on the PCE is Hudson's swan-song RPG, the culmination of everything they learned to do for the system. On the Saturn, it's very much just another game. I'd love to see it done for PCE.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Djangoo2 on September 03, 2014, 03:55:48 PM
I was talking with Dave Shadoff about continuing Dead of the Brain, but I need a translator for both games. Since there is no English translation for the first (the French translation does not help me), that would all be done from scratch. I've got some people in mind to do the translation, but I'm still working with them on other projects and the time is not yet right. Basically I would redump all the scripts and setup my own insertion system.
I'd also love to do or at least help with doing the PCE CD version of Emerald Dragon. I know the SNES version's translator, Eien ni Hen, and she'd be down to translate any other version of the game.
Esper sent me the WIP of Xanadu II, but I keep telling him to do a font hack or at least contact BonkNuts. Esper has a VWF routine that he's used for his various projects, but it doesn't work on hardware. It works on Mednafen though, which complicates the issue.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on September 03, 2014, 04:10:18 PM
Dave Shadoff and I worked on the PCE version of Emerald Dragon. He extracted the script, and I translated about 60% of it. See this post for details
I could be persuaded to finish the translation on two conditions: One, a hacker would have to show some serious interest, including actual work done, and two, somebody else would have to take care of playtest editing. That's one game I really don't feel like playing again.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: shubibiman on September 03, 2014, 06:43:12 PM
I was talking with Dave Shadoff about continuing Dead of the Brain, but I need a translator for both games. Since there is no English translation for the first (the French translation does not help me), that would all be done from scratch. I've got some people in mind to do the translation, but I'm still working with them on other projects and the time is not yet right. Basically I would redump all the scripts and setup my own insertion system.
I'd also love to do or at least help with doing the PCE CD version of Emerald Dragon. I know the SNES version's translator, Eien ni Hen, and she'd be down to translate any other version of the game.
Esper sent me the WIP of Xanadu II, but I keep telling him to do a font hack or at least contact BonkNuts. Esper has a VWF routine that he's used for his various projects, but it doesn't work on hardware. It works on Mednafen though, which complicates the issue.
Why redo everything from scratch ? The script for insertion already exists and, as I said here earlier, it wouldn't take too long for me to translate from french to english (I'm the one who made the french translation).
There are things I just don't get.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Dicer on September 04, 2014, 05:50:22 AM
Dave Shadoff and I worked on the PCE version of Emerald Dragon. He extracted the script, and I translated about 60% of it. See this post for details
I could be persuaded to finish the translation on two conditions: One, a hacker would have to show some serious interest, including actual work done, and two, somebody else would have to take care of playtest editing. That's one game I really don't feel like playing again.
If you get to that point, I'd certianly give that a go, wouldn't be my first..would be my first in a long time, but I'd like to help any project I can.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bonknuts on September 05, 2014, 07:04:41 AM
Regarding doing anything for translations; I'm completely swamped with trying to handle/manage my time for this semester. I'm still trying to schedule it all efficiently. I have some immediate life needs that have to be managed in as well (major motorcycle maintenance, find an apartment/studio to rent, etc). This accelerated spanish class is consuming a lot of my time (4 hours class, 16+ hours study), but it ends earlier in the semester. So I should have that free time come end of October.
Djangoo2: What side of the fence do you fall on for translations? Hacking or translating?
My immediate list for PCE; the mini game I'm working on, SPM2 finish up, and the LOX2 font routine.
SamIam: I did retrieve my PC from storage, so when I get a little down time - I'll look at SPM2 stage 4(?) insertion issue.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Djangoo2 on September 05, 2014, 08:52:26 AM
I'm a hacker that goes by Pennywise at RHDN. Doing PCE translations was one of my goals when I decided to learn how to hack games, but since I didn't have any sort of previous experience or background in programming, I started with the NES. Which is why most of my translations are for the NES, but I've been branching out the past few years.
As a hacker, I would always want to do a VWF or bust, but since most of my projects are/were NES games, it wasn't possible due to most NES games not having VRAM. I always want my translations to be the highest possible. Anyway, I'd love to see a VWF in X2. I think a game like that deserves the best.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bonknuts on September 05, 2014, 11:27:05 AM
Ahh, we know each other than (tomaitheous) :) I honestly haven't had a good look at what Esper implemented for the VWF routine, but if it's a minor issue and he found enough space for his new routines, then it might be a simple enough fix (..or not - hehe). 'Works in mednafen' is a good starting point.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on September 05, 2014, 02:49:42 PM
SamIam: I did retrieve my PC from storage, so when I get a little down time - I'll look at SPM2 stage 4(?) insertion issue.
Yeah, it was stage four (the one where they reenter Earth's atmosphere). Any modifications I make to the script don't appear in the game. This isn't a problem caused by my use of savestates or anything - that one file just isn't inserting.
I totally understand about your schedule. Please do have a look at Xanadu II and see how you can help Esperknight. Unless of course I bug him so much that he takes care of it by himself. :twisted:
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: spenoza on September 06, 2014, 05:05:12 PM
Dave Shadoff and I worked on the PCE version of Emerald Dragon. He extracted the script, and I translated about 60% of it. See this post for details
I could be persuaded to finish the translation on two conditions: One, a hacker would have to show some serious interest, including actual work done, and two, somebody else would have to take care of playtest editing. That's one game I really don't feel like playing again.
I have a legit copy I picked up recently, but my Japanese is SO damn rusty that I don't know that I want to attack it. But I certainly wouldn't feel bad about running a patched ISO since I own an original. So I'd be happy to take a crack at in-game testing and editing, so long as you don't mind that I am unlikely to be a fast player.
Why are you disinterested in another play-through? Is the game play a bit repetitive or bland in places?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Black Tiger on September 06, 2014, 05:49:18 PM
Quote
Is the game play a bit repetitive or bland in places?
The gameplay never gets old and is always fun for me. It's basically "super Ys".
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on September 06, 2014, 09:33:59 PM
Why are you disinterested in another play-through? Is the game play a bit repetitive or bland in places?
I posted about this before, but in my opinion, the last 1/3 of the game is awful.
- Graphic and music recycling is ridiculously high. - The story stalls and loses focus. - The dungeons become too big and maze-like for the high random battle rate.
But by far the worst thing was...
- The battle system. By the last 1/3, your party has grown to...was it six or seven members? And there are usually several enemies to fight per battle, too. Every single character and every single enemy takes a turn, but you have zero input other than for your one main character. The rest of your party is controlled by AI. What this means is that you will input commands for your character, which takes maybe 5-10 seconds, and then you will spend literally between one and two minutes doing absolutely nothing but watching the AI. When that's over, you get another 5-10 second turn, and then guess what? It's another one or two minutes of drooling in your lap.
It is by far the least involved battle system in any RPG I have ever played. The AI periods are so long that you could get up and make a sandwich. I played it in an emulator with a fast-forward option that shortened the AI periods down to 15-20 seconds, and it still felt boring. And don't forget, the dungeons are long mazes and the random encounter rate is high.
I did learn an important lesson from this, though: never start a translation project for a game you don't know for certain that you like. I had only played the first 1/3 when I started the project, and the first 1/3 is much better because none of the problems I wrote about were really prevalent during that time. The graphics and music are fresh, the story is just picking up, the dungeons are shorter and simpler, and there are fewer party members and enemies to wait for.
I know some people like this game, but I think it doesn't hold up well at all. The original version came out for Japanese PCs in 1989, and while it might have been OK at the time, I think it's disappointing that they made no attempts to evolve it beyond adding CD music and the oh-so-occasional cutscene. Needless to say, there was plenty of room for improvement.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Djangoo2 on September 07, 2014, 06:00:43 AM
Have you tried playing any of the PC versions (X68000, FM-Towns etc.)?
I know for a fact that the SFC port of Emerald Dragon is really bad and that D considers the FM-Towns version to be the best version of the game. It could also be that the PC Engine port of EM is also bad.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: spenoza on September 07, 2014, 06:09:48 AM
I have seen a lot of people speak very highly of ED. Can you do AI presets, or do the characters just do whatever they want and you have no input whatsoever?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: esteban on September 07, 2014, 03:02:49 PM
Why are you disinterested in another play-through? Is the game play a bit repetitive or bland in places?
I posted about this before, but in my opinion, the last 1/3 of the game is awful.
- Graphic and music recycling is ridiculously high. - The story stalls and loses focus. - The dungeons become too big and maze-like for the high random battle rate.
But by far the worst thing was...
- The battle system. By the last 1/3, your party has grown to...was it six or seven members? And there are usually several enemies to fight per battle, too. Every single character and every single enemy takes a turn, but you have zero input other than for your one main character. The rest of your party is controlled by AI. What this means is that you will input commands for your character, which takes maybe 5-10 seconds, and then you will spend literally between one and two minutes doing absolutely nothing but watching the AI. When that's over, you get another 5-10 second turn, and then guess what? It's another one or two minutes of drooling in your lap.
It is by far the least involved battle system in any RPG I have ever played. The AI periods are so long that you could get up and make a sandwich. I played it in an emulator with a fast-forward option that shortened the AI periods down to 15-20 seconds, and it still felt boring. And don't forget, the dungeons are long mazes and the random encounter rate is high.
I did learn an important lesson from this, though: never start a translation project for a game you don't know for certain that you like. I had only played the first 1/3 when I started the project, and the first 1/3 is much better because none of the problems I wrote about were really prevalent during that time. The graphics and music are fresh, the story is just picking up, the dungeons are shorter and simpler, and there are fewer party members and enemies to wait for.
I know some people like this game, but I think it doesn't hold up well at all. The original version came out for Japanese PCs in 1989, and while it might have been OK at the time, I think it's disappointing that they made no attempts to evolve it beyond adding CD music and the oh-so-occasional cutscene. Needless to say, there was plenty of room for improvement.
I never made it this far in the game, so, damn, what a disappointing thing to read. I had high hopes it was going to maintain goodness.
That doesn't mean I'm not gonna finish it.
I will.
Eventually.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on September 09, 2014, 01:40:10 PM
I think the Duomazov review (http://www.thebrothersduomazov.com/2010/12/emerald-dragon.html) of it is pretty fair.
Quote
And I suppose it's worth mentioning that, thanks to a cool and unique battle system that lets you run around crashing into creatures like "hell caterpillars" while the computer manages your allies (competently enough), ED is a lot of fun to play. Unfortunately, even the fun of fighting doesn't last the whole way through. Towards the end of the quest, there are some large locations where the frequent battles become very time consuming and nearly unbearable. Enduring the drawn-out fights and exploring said locations will typically earn you little reward aside from superfluous healing items. So while many great PCE CD RPGs really hit their strides with incredible cinematic moments during their last few hours, ED kind of sputters out and degenerates into a mess of irritating battles.
To be fair, there are only five party members, and usually the wait-for-the-AI period won't cross the minute barrier until the last couple of dungeons. On the other hand, basically the entire second half of the game is going to make you wait at least 20 seconds per round, usually 30 or 40, and to me, that's just nuts.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on September 10, 2014, 01:23:28 PM
Have you tried playing any of the PC versions (X68000, FM-Towns etc.)?
I know for a fact that the SFC port of Emerald Dragon is really bad and that D considers the FM-Towns version to be the best version of the game. It could also be that the PC Engine port of EM is also bad.
I have seen a lot of people speak very highly of ED. Can you do AI presets, or do the characters just do whatever they want and you have no input whatsoever?
I don't know how I missed these two posts.
I'm pretty sure that all versions of ED have the same basic battle engine, which means no input for any of the secondary characters. I'm pretty sure there was some kind of AI preset, but IIRC it wasn't something that you would change frequently. I can't remember, though. It's been about 8 years.
The X68000 version and the FM Towns version are similar, and they share the same art style for the cutscenes. The FM Towns version has CD music, narrated cutscenes and touched up graphics, so it wins out. Beyond that, I don't know what the differences are. One of these days, I just might check. Even the FM Towns version is ripped and emulate-able, after all. :wink:
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on September 17, 2014, 03:04:19 PM
Esperknight is on the case again. He cleaned the scripts of a lot of redundancy to make them ready for insertion. We might go with a FWF after all. I'm not sure what his next move is, but stuff is happening. :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: A Black Falcon on September 17, 2014, 08:08:20 PM
Efera & Jiliora? I know it's an action-RPG, but it is good and a regular CD title. Most of the better RPGs are Super CDs, though, that is true... some of the regular CD RPGs are not very interesting, like Astralius or La Valeur. Regular CD RPGs that are a bit better than that, along with Efera & Jiliora... hmm. Auleria, Tengai Makyou Ziria, Last Armageddon, Redord of Lodoss War I, a few more. I at least think that it'd be pretty cool to play the Record of Lodoss War games translated! The second game is the second half of the story and is a Super CD game, though. I like them, I think, but playing the games without knowing much of the language is hard (they're not simple, linear games with obvious places to go without being able to read what you're being told...), and there aren't even guides for them... ah well. It would be nice if I wasn't so hopelessly terrible at learning foreign languages.
Title: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: esteban on September 20, 2014, 03:30:55 AM
Esperknight is on the case again. He cleaned the scripts of a lot of redundancy to make them ready for insertion. We might go with a FWF after all. I'm not sure what his next move is, but stuff is happening. :)
Should I finish making the English-language instruction manual? I must have those files on my harddrive.
Damn. (http://junk.tg-16.com/images/pcgs.png)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on September 20, 2014, 12:41:52 PM
Esperknight is on the case again. He cleaned the scripts of a lot of redundancy to make them ready for insertion. We might go with a FWF after all. I'm not sure what his next move is, but stuff is happening. :)
Esperknight is on the case again. He cleaned the scripts of a lot of redundancy to make them ready for insertion. We might go with a FWF after all. I'm not sure what his next move is, but stuff is happening. :)
Does he still hang out on IRC?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: SamIAm on September 23, 2014, 03:35:38 AM
You know, I'm not sure, as I've never hung out on IRC myself. I've asked him, though, and I'll let you know. He and I are in frequent contact these days. :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on October 13, 2014, 03:25:18 PM
Sam, how is the audio quality of my voice acting? The reason I ask is because I just got a new higher quality microphone, and I know that the recording quality on my old one was crap, so I'm a little concerned about how good my old recordings sound.
If it's not too much of a hassle, I could probably re-record my dialogue with the new mic if you want. Please let me know if you would want me to do this. :-k
EDIT: Yowza! I just listened to my old recordings of my performance of Nuse and the audio quality is horrible! Sam, could I please re-record my dialogue? I don't want it to sound like it's raining whenever Nuse speaks, especially after all of the hard work you've put into this project! :pray:
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: clackattack on October 20, 2014, 05:34:27 AM
Ya know, ive been told before that I have a good "voice-for-radio", Id be game to do some voice acting if you guyz need any other speech to finish up the tranlation. And honestly, if anyone at any point wants/needs recorded speech for anything, I would be willing to volunteer my vocal chords :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Nighttrate on October 20, 2014, 10:33:48 AM
Hi guy I'm British so my voice would work well for a hero or villain (just putting it out there) Id be up for doing some voice acting as I actully do have my own radio show
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: NightWolve on October 20, 2014, 12:59:38 PM
Hey, SamIAm how much motivation will it take for you to finish the game? The same goes for Anearth fantasy?
He's already finished his work. If you're volunteering your services as a capable hacker/programmer for these passion projects, then that is all the motivation he needs.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: elmer on September 10, 2015, 07:56:52 PM
Here's a little tease for you all ... thanks to Black Tiger's generous help, there's a new English logo for the title screen. :D
If you've got a Xanadu 2 rip that runs in Mednafen, here's a savestate so that you can actually see the title sequence working with the new logo. :wink:
If you've got a Xanadu 2 rip that runs in Mednafen, here's a savestate so that you can actually see the title sequence working with the new logo. :wink:
If you've got a Xanadu 2 rip that runs in Mednafen, here's a savestate so that you can actually see the title sequence working with the new logo. :wink:
I think that EsperKnight probably got discouraged years ago when he got as far as reinserting some of Sam's translations into the game and things started breaking.
He kindly passed on his stuff to me, and it did help save a lot of time in identifying where the data files were on the CD.
But since there aren't any "notes", I've just gone back and started everything again from scratch.
Very nice! Not to put the cart before the horse, but I hope you guys do part I as well.
As I mentioned in the "blog" thread ... Xanadu 1 uses basically-the-same game engine and data formats as Xanadu 2. If we can get Xanadu 2 done, then Xanadu 1 should follow on soon-ish after.
I'll give money for either one, in any order. WORD UP.
The offer is appreciated, and to-be-honest I'm on a fixed-income now and still trying to get used to it and to figure out where in the "budget" is the cash for getting someone here to recap my slightly excessive collection of PCE "development" hardware :pray:
1 Turbo Express 1 Turbo Duo 1 Briefcase 1 Duo-R 2 Core Grafx II with SuperCDROM 3 Super Grafx
But ... the reality is that I'm doing this for the love of the system, not for money, and I know that SamIAm feels the same way.
Any translation like this is a "team" effort anyway. It wouldn't be possible without SamIAm's original hard work, and now Black Tiger's, too.
Probably best to save up your "donations" for a KickStarter to raise funds to buy a license from Falcom to actually make some real CDs and cut Tobias out of any profits. :D
Falcom have a "licensing" page on their website, so they're open to offers, but gawd knows how much money they'd want. :-k
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: jtucci31 on September 11, 2015, 09:56:05 AM
I'll give money for either one, in any order. WORD UP.
The offer is appreciated, and to-be-honest I'm on a fixed-income now and still trying to get used to it and to figure out where in the "budget" is the cash for getting someone here to recap my slightly excessive collection of PCE "development" hardware :pray:
1 Turbo Express 1 Turbo Duo 1 Briefcase 1 Duo-R 2 Core Grafx II with SuperCDROM 3 Super Grafx
But ... the reality is that I'm doing this for the love of the system, not for money, and I know that SamIAm feels the same way.
Any translation like this is a "team" effort anyway. It wouldn't be possible without SamIAm's original hard work, and now Black Tiger's, too.
Probably best to save up your "donations" for a KickStarter to raise funds to buy a license from Falcom to actually make some real CDs and cut Tobias out of any profits. :D
Falcom have a "licensing" page on their website, so they're open to offers, but gawd knows how much money they'd want. :-k
All of your hardware is currently broken and/or needs a recap? While I don't know how to recap that kind of stuff, I could always let you borrow an extra Duo/R that I have. Just let me know, I'd be more than willing for such an awesome project.
This actually came at a real good time. I had just been pushed over the edge to finally just say "f*ck it" and start Xanadu anyway. :)
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: elmer on September 11, 2015, 10:57:16 AM
All of your hardware is currently broken and/or needs a recap? While I don't know how to recap that kind of stuff, I could always let you borrow an extra Duo/R that I have. Just let me know, I'd be more than willing for such an awesome project.
Haha ... no, thanks for the generous offer, but it's only my Turbo Express that doesn't work anymore.
Everything else only gets minimal use so that they remain fine until they're recapped ... but then, too many people here have scared me with stories of Turbo Duo caps leaking and damaging the motherboard, even when they're not plugged in, so I still worry.
As it is ... none of that effects the translation, because as the programmer, I spend all my time in Mednafen and not running on real hardware.
For future development, though ... I'm definitely going to have to get 2 of the Super Grafx and both SuperCDROMs checked out, and perhaps the Duo-R, too.
The other systems are all classified as "really should do to avoid damage", rather than "must do now or can't work".
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Bonknuts on September 11, 2015, 11:01:26 AM
Falcom have a "licensing" page on their website, so they're open to offers, but gawd knows how much money they'd want. :-k
They might be interested in a trade? You get distribution rights for the console, they get distribution rights of the translated product which they can wrap into an emulator and sell on steam? Though that probably wouldn't be Falcom, but some other publisher. Or.. you get the rights for both, PC and PCECD, and distribute both yourself (though you'll need to find an emulation author willing to contribute). Kickstarter would be the way to go on that route.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: elmer on September 11, 2015, 11:21:46 AM
They might be interested in a trade? You get distribution rights for the console, they get distribution rights of the translated product which they can wrap into an emulator and sell on steam? Though that probably wouldn't be Falcom, but some other publisher. Or.. you get the rights for both, PC and PCECD, and distribute both yourself (though you'll need to find an emulation author willing to contribute). Kickstarter would be the way to go on that route.
I was literally just thinking of trying to buy the rights to burn 400-500 Japanese/English sets of PCE CDs for fans (like one of Tobias's special sets), and using the earnings to pay for the license and the costs.
It's hard to imagine what a real "business" deal for a game like this would look like.
Sure, I'm a registered developer ... I could technically do it as a PlayStation Mini on the PSVita/PS3/PS4 or on the Xbox One, or Steam ... but the costs would be pretty steep.
Would there be enough people out there that wanted to play PCE graphics on a modern 64-bit console?
If they wanted to "trade" and start selling the translation, then that would potentially open up a can of worms with the legal state of everyone contributions to the project.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: johnnykonami on September 11, 2015, 12:20:00 PM
Looking forward to this! I just got a copy of Xanadu I a couple weeks back, but I've wanted Xanadu II forever and never got around to getting one. Gotta pick one up before the rest of the world hears of your efforts and prices skyrocket.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on September 11, 2015, 07:04:32 PM
Falcom is still a small company. I wonder how much they would want for the licensing compared to someone like Square or Capcom, etc.?
Title: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: esteban on September 11, 2015, 11:43:32 PM
Falcom is still a small company. I wonder how much they would want for the licensing compared to someone like Square or Capcom, etc.?
Even though they are small, they know their brand is strong.
They are like a boutique, premium brand.
Also, I wonder if the bigger obstacle is not money, but convincing Falcom that the the quality of work would match (or exceed) Falcom's expectations.
Protecting the legacy/integrity of an IP might be Falcom's priority.
Of course, you may laugh at what I just wrote since you played some (most) of the console/handheld Ys games (with have not been of the highest quality.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: elmer on September 12, 2015, 12:25:34 AM
Also, I wonder if the bigger obstacle is not money, but convincing Falcom that the the quality of work would match (or exceed) Falcom's expectations.
Protecting the legacy/integrity of an IP might be Falcom's priority.
It's always the easiest and safest option for anyone in a company, at any level, to "just-say-no".
Especially when dealing with an "unknown" licensor with no history and with little money.
IMHO, there's absolutely no point in talking to them until the translation is 100% done, and the potential packaging is 100% done, so they can quickly see exactly what they'd be agreeing to. There wouldn't be enough money on the line to waste their time with uncertainties.
If they get interested they may want changes ... but you can't go in expecting them to spend dozens of hours of their valuable time shepherding a "fan" translation for a dead platform.
And remember ... you only have to hit one person along the way that wants to "protect" their brand in order to get a "cease-and-desist" ... and if that happens, then SamIAm and I just "obey" and the translation disappears and nobody gets it.
Does anyone here really want to risk that happening just to get a pretty package?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: esteban on September 12, 2015, 02:23:14 AM
Q: Take the risk? A: Hell no.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Gredler on September 12, 2015, 05:03:28 AM
Doesnt sound like the good OBEY to me, an oxymoronic obey that ceases obeying... No, please keep it as above board and far away from the idea of marketing as possible. Packaging is worthless, its whats on the inside that counts :P
I completely agree that mentioning anything to the rights owners would open a can of worms and possible c&d the project, so unless its done it may get halted, and without a cpmplete product to present, any mention will get lawyer deflected.
Also, mednafan? Is that the pro emulator of choice for testing homebrew efforts?
Does anyone here really want to risk that happening just to get a pretty package?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: seieienbu on September 12, 2015, 08:56:55 AM
If you could actually get licensing I'd gladly throw down money to buy real/legit copies. That'd be the best thing to happen on this system in years.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: NightWolve on September 13, 2015, 11:18:38 AM
Great to see progress here! Good thing I bought an original Legend of Xanadu recently. I'll have to look for the sequel some time as well.
Elmer, we'll need your help to hack the title screen of Emerald Dragon down the road, might as well ask now while you're in a hacking mood. I think I got everything else covered (http://www.ysutopia.net/forums/index.php?topic=431.msg3870#msg3870), except for such a graphics hack. I'm guessing the graphics blocks are LZSS compressed the same as the text, but I dunno for sure. But yeah, would love to get your help for that down the road.
Just would want to make that English and I think that's all. I don't care about credits rolls but I am curious, did you guys translate graphical credits rolls in any past projects you've done ?
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: dshadoff on September 13, 2015, 11:31:08 AM
Elmer, we'll need your help to hack the title screen of Emerald Dragon down the road, might as well ask now while you're in a hacking mood. I think I got everything else covered (http://www.ysutopia.net/forums/index.php?topic=431.msg3870#msg3870), except for such a graphics hack. I'm guessing the graphics blocks are LZSS compressed the same as the text, but I dunno for sure. But yeah, would love to get your help for that down the road.
I'm not so sure about that - I think it might have been stored as uncompressed graphics (although jumbled). If I get a chance, I'll take a look....
-Dave
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: elmer on September 13, 2015, 12:11:16 PM
Elmer, we'll need your help to hack the title screen of Emerald Dragon down the road, might as well ask now while you're in a hacking mood. I think I got everything else covered, except for such a graphics hack. I'm guessing the graphics blocks are LZSS compressed the same as the text, but I dunno for sure. But yeah, would love to get your help for that down the road.
Haha ... I hope that SamIAm isn't going to get spoiled with all this programmer-attention these days! :wink:
Looks like the community could have a good year with all the translations. :D
Quote
I don't care about credits rolls but I am curious, did you guys translate graphical credits rolls in any past projects you've done ?
The Zeroigar credits roll is fully translated ... but I don't know if you'd call it "graphical", it's just a scrolling text layer on top of bitmaps that fade in/out.
I'm not so sure about that - I think it might have been stored as uncompressed graphics (although jumbled). If I get a chance, I'll take a look....
Looks like you've already got the perfect person to take a look at it.
I'll be here in the unlikely event that there's any need for my help.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: elmer on September 21, 2015, 07:21:09 AM
Good news ... the new logo is now fully working properly in the game ... i.e. title menu code and logo are both properly patched into the existing compressed data file and load/run from CD. :D
Nice! It's really good to see that the logo doesn't get too close to the edge of the TV. :D
Looks great!
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: esteban on September 23, 2015, 06:33:23 AM
Sweetness.
Title: Re: Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!
Post by: Arjak on September 25, 2015, 12:19:18 PM
Holy shit! I thought I would never see this project make any more progress!
Also, that title graphic is awesome. Kudos to Black Tiger and Elmer!
Keep up the great work guys! I am cheering for you! :clap:
Also, if you guys do decide to go ahead and translate the first game, I would be happy to reprise my role as Nuse. God...that seems so long ago, now...me, recording my dialog on a shitty mic I bought from Wal-Mart...I've gotten a much better mic since then, and I also now know how to use the noise cancellation feature in my recording program! I think I even asked SamIAm once if he wanted me to re-record my dialog with the better setup; I don't think I ever got an answer. I hope it sounds OK.