So this started as a "could this even work" experiment and kind of got out of hand.
I've been messing with the idea of an English voice dub for the Saturn version of Policenauts — on top of the brilliant fan translation, not replacing it — and ended up building a whole desktop tool to make it manageable. Figured I'd put it out there in case anyone wants to run with it as a group, because honestly the dub itself deserves real voice talent, not what I can throw at it solo.
Full disclosure: the audio I've generated so far is a rough AI proof-of-concept. It's serviceable for proving the pipeline works end to end, but it's not production quality and I'm not pretending it is. The point of releasing the tool is that the hard technical parts are done — so a team could focus on the actual performances.
What the tool does:
- Pulls the voice (PN_VOX1.PAC) and the cutscene movies straight out of your own disc image — you just point it at your bin/cue.
- Breaks everything down line by line with the on-screen subtitle text and the game's own timing, mapped to who's speaking.
- Lets you record a real voice actor per line (mic pick, preview, A/B against the original) OR generate an AI scratch take, and it auto-fits each line to its subtitle window so it stays in sync.
- Cast view to manage one voice per character and batch things.
- Rebuilds a byte-exact patched disc with proper CD-ROM EDC/ECC, plus the cutscene MOVs.
Code + a Windows build: GitHub - likeagfeld/PolicenautsDubbingStudio: English AI voice-dubbing workstation for Policenauts (Sega Saturn). Code + docs only; no game data.
(There's a prebuilt .exe under Releases if you just want to poke at it — you supply your own disc.)
Huge credit where it's due: this only exists because of the Policenauts Translation Project's Saturn English patch (Marc Laidlaw, GameZelda, FacundoARG, SaturnAR, Raizing, SkyBladeCloud, IlDucci, and the testers). This is just a fan tool sitting on top of their work — totally unofficial, non-commercial, no game data included.
If anyone with voice-acting/casting/audio chops (or who just knows the game well enough to direct it) wants to take a crack at making this a real thing, I'd love the help. Happy to answer anything about how it works.
I've been messing with the idea of an English voice dub for the Saturn version of Policenauts — on top of the brilliant fan translation, not replacing it — and ended up building a whole desktop tool to make it manageable. Figured I'd put it out there in case anyone wants to run with it as a group, because honestly the dub itself deserves real voice talent, not what I can throw at it solo.
Full disclosure: the audio I've generated so far is a rough AI proof-of-concept. It's serviceable for proving the pipeline works end to end, but it's not production quality and I'm not pretending it is. The point of releasing the tool is that the hard technical parts are done — so a team could focus on the actual performances.
What the tool does:
- Pulls the voice (PN_VOX1.PAC) and the cutscene movies straight out of your own disc image — you just point it at your bin/cue.
- Breaks everything down line by line with the on-screen subtitle text and the game's own timing, mapped to who's speaking.
- Lets you record a real voice actor per line (mic pick, preview, A/B against the original) OR generate an AI scratch take, and it auto-fits each line to its subtitle window so it stays in sync.
- Cast view to manage one voice per character and batch things.
- Rebuilds a byte-exact patched disc with proper CD-ROM EDC/ECC, plus the cutscene MOVs.
Code + a Windows build: GitHub - likeagfeld/PolicenautsDubbingStudio: English AI voice-dubbing workstation for Policenauts (Sega Saturn). Code + docs only; no game data.
(There's a prebuilt .exe under Releases if you just want to poke at it — you supply your own disc.)
Huge credit where it's due: this only exists because of the Policenauts Translation Project's Saturn English patch (Marc Laidlaw, GameZelda, FacundoARG, SaturnAR, Raizing, SkyBladeCloud, IlDucci, and the testers). This is just a fan tool sitting on top of their work — totally unofficial, non-commercial, no game data included.
If anyone with voice-acting/casting/audio chops (or who just knows the game well enough to direct it) wants to take a crack at making this a real thing, I'd love the help. Happy to answer anything about how it works.
