Xanadu I and II - General Translation Project(s) Thread

[Dicer]

Little update.

All of the logo-business in the other thread took most of my focus for about a week. Once elmer got the dimension for that increased from 240x32 to 240x64, however, I could rest easy knowing it wasn't going to take a compromise to get something nice in there.

I'm finally back at my second pass of Chapter 4 of Xanadu 1, and it's coming along well. As I mentioned ages ago, this one might be the most complex in the game just in terms of the sheer number of locations and characters. Doing another pass has helped me tweak some things that will make the story easier to understand.

Also, I'm now almost done making my own test-dub, which I'm doing to polish the dub script. I try to put an hour or so toward this every day.

You and everyone else are doing the lords work...tyvm

[esteban]

^ The Lord's Work. Thank you.

[spenoza]

The Lord's Wok is how you make Holy Stir Fry.

[esteban]

The Lord's Wok is how you make Holy Stir Fry.

Indubitably.

[SamIAm]

Chapter 4's second pass is done.

The next three chapters are the big fat ones. I'll probably need until the end of the month to get through them. The good news is, it's downhill after that; story-wise, the last third of Xanadu 1 is relatively short and fast-paced, and Xanadu 2 only has about 40% as much text as the first game.

My current prediction is that I'll finish the second pass of both games in August.

The work won't end there - aside from the dub madness, I'll probably want to have people test-play the games and give them a light third pass myself. However, after this second pass, I think I'll be able to say that I've done most of what I can for the scripts on my own. Hopefully, that will mean they're already pretty decent.

[jtucci31]

By August I will probably have beaten Xanadu 2 on my first go around, so I'd love to give both games a light passover once you've done your part. Count me in for helping out on that front if you'd like the help

[elmer]

Help!!!

SamIAm has a few important distractions right now, and I'm really, really enjoying playtesting his wonderful translation and want to get passed this blockage.

I'm stuck on Ch.5 (the one with the rock-slide, and the underground section where you dynamite your way through an underground section to get to a town).

I've got to the forest where I'm supposed to capture a Spirit's Tear (the small white sprite that's moving around), in order to take it back to the Head Nun in the Church.

I can't figure out how to trap the darned thing!!!

Can anyone give me a clue? Please? 

[Dicer]

Help!!!

SamIAm has a few important distractions right now, and I'm really, really enjoying playtesting his wonderful translation and want to get passed this blockage.

I'm stuck on Ch.5 (the one with the rock-slide, and the underground section where you dynamite your way through an underground section to get to a town).

I've got to the forest where I'm supposed to capture a Spirit's Tear (the small white sprite that's moving around), in order to take it back to the Head Nun in the Church.

I can't figure out how to trap the darned thing!!!

Can anyone give me a clue? Please? 

Let me test and I'll help ya out...

[elmer]

Let me test and I'll help ya out...

Thanks! 

SamIAm popped up out of nowhere and gave me a clue, and I finally got the darned thing.

It was as simple as pressing the "action" button at the right time as the sprite passed through me.

I thought that I'd already tried that ... but apparently not.

I feel like a total idiot!  :oops:

<EDIT>

BTW ... this game is great!

SamIAm has done such a great job on the translation!

I' really loving all the detail that Falcom put into this game that SamIAm is conveying so well in his words as I'm playing it. 

[SamIAm]

Update time.

The second pass of Xanadu 1's Chapter 6 is done, and Chapter 7 (the biggest in either game) is about a third complete. Thankfully, the amount of polishing I have to do keeps going doing with each chapter, as it seems I kept doing things in a smarter and smarter way as I went on during the first pass.

I think you guys will be impressed with the sheer volume of story in Xanadu 1 in particular. Each chapter is practically a bite-size RPG all by itself.

My first child was born on the 18th. He's a cute little dude and I'm happy to give him all the attention he needs, but he does cut into my time to work on the project.

Also, my job's six weeks of peak business is coming in mid-July. Whether I can keep up the pace will depend on how much overtime I have to do and how mentally burnt out I get.

I still spend time on this project every day - at least an hour on work-days, and a lot more on my few days off. I also usually manage to make progress on both dub side and the in-game text side.

There's really no reason to rush the dub, so I'm not going to. Getting it done now won't make the project finish any faster, and taking it slow is probably going to result in better quality.


I hate to say it, because it's going to become another big "thing" to do, but we really ought to get a project page going for this. 

[Bonknuts]

Just don't burn yourself out. It's easy to do on these large projects.

[esteban]

Just don't burn yourself out. It's easy to do on these large projects.

Seriously.

These two have accomplished so much in a comparatively short period of time.

I still have novels I want to read on my "to do list" ...they have been there for over 20 years now...

[elmer]

My first child was born on the 18th. He's a cute little dude and I'm happy to give him all the attention he needs, but he does cut into my time to work on the project.

Woohoo, finally a chance for a public "congratulations", Sam! 

There's really no reason to rush the dub, so I'm not going to. Getting it done now won't make the project finish any faster, and taking it slow is probably going to result in better quality.

Ack ... I'd forgotten that I need to get those "insertion" scripts written for you to test stuff!  :oops:

I hate to say it, because it's going to become another big "thing" to do, but we really ought to get a project page going for this. 

I've spent many years carefully cultivating a blissfull ignorance of web-page design techniques, so I'm afraid that I'm not going to be much help there.

Just don't burn yourself out. It's easy to do on these large projects.

Yep, SamIAm's been doing a lot of work on these for a long time.

Occasionally it's important to just kick back for a while and recharge ...

[spenoza]

Congrats, SamIAm! I have one on the way. Take your time. We've waited this long. I think we'd rather have you happy and healthy, as that's a better guarantee this'll get done. You get burned out and all bets are off the table  ; )  Besides, you have a little OBEY to raise into the PCE family.

[SamIAm]

Just don't burn yourself out. It's easy to do on these large projects.

Ha ha...if that was going to happen, it would have happened already. 

I can't even believe it when I say it, but we are honestly and truly getting close to having two full size PCE RPGs completely translated at the same time.

I've wanted to do something like this for over a decade. There is nothing that is going to stop me from getting these games done now. 

Woohoo, finally a chance for a public "congratulations", Sam! 

Thanks! 

The little guy is beginning to figure out when he's only being held rather than actively being paid attention to, which means that when I park him in my lap while doing some play-test-editing, I have to give him running commentary.

Ack ... I'd forgotten that I need to get those "insertion" scripts written for you to test stuff!  :oops:

*cracks whip*

...Nah, I won't actually need it too quickly. In terms of what you have left to do, there's the ADPCM insertion, the chapter-title graphics for Xanadu 2, the credits...anything else?

I've spent many years carefully cultivating a blissfull ignorance of web-page design techniques, so I'm afraid that I'm not going to be much help there.

Maybe we can just provide some text and graphics, and some brave champion will volunteer to pretty it up a little.

Actually, it really doesn't need to be much. For the dub auditions, we need a nice table that lays out the name/image/bio/voice-type/audition line/link to Japanese sample for each character, probably put into separate pages for male and female roles.

For the main page (note the singular), we mostly just need something that we can link to in our announcements, including the RHDN news bulletin. This would have a generous number of screenshots, links to a couple of teaser videos on youtube, and a full-bodied, nicely written introduction.

Bandwidth allowing, we could also host scans of advertisements and other things.

Yep, SamIAm's been doing a lot of work on these for a long time.

Occasionally it's important to just kick back for a while and recharge ...

Ha ha ha...

My unofficial theme song while I work on these games is this.