I hope that I have not bitten off more than I can chew, but I'm thinking of working on a rough text translation (as opposed to iso hacking or patches) of Dai Houshin Den, for the Japanese Sega Mega CD.
As I've stated before, I'm in the process of learning the Japanese language, but I don't get enough practice. You can only do all of the workbook lessons a few times before they get really boring, and without the practice, to me atleast, I've been forgetting a little bit of what I've learned.
So, because of that, I've come up with the idea of translating a Japanese game, and what better platform to do than the sega mega cd? It'll help me keep up practice with my kana, learn new kanji, and hopefully gain a lot better Japanese vocabulary, while doing something productive.
I've mentioned a few times in the past about how you can beat a lot of the Japanese games without knowing Japanese, but one of the problems is that you miss the storyline completely.
While cosmic fantasy stories is probably one of my favorite Japanese sega mega cds, there are already walkthrus out for it. I wanted to do an RPG. So, my choices were Dai Houshin Den, Death Bringer, Aisle Lord, Fhey Arie, Funky Horror Band, Burai, Arcus 1,2,3, 3x3 eyes, shin megami tensei, and heroic legend of arslan.
I don't care for shin megami tensei or 3x3 eyes, but I believe there are super famicom versions of both of them already translated.
Right now, I'm just going to work on Dai Houshin Den for a few days, to see how well it goes, and if everything goes smoothly, I will continue to work on it. If not, I'll probably try something easier.
Anyway, it could take many months or even longer for any released text translation to be released if all goes well.
As for the format, I was originally going to do it by hand, on pen and paper, but I decided to use a japanese word processor program, with the original language, the romaji, and then the english translation. It'll be in the order I play the game by, and not 100% the same way you may decide to play the game through. Like I said, a "rough" text translation.
If anyone has any other ideas, let me know.
*UPDATE* While I have started working on this, it seems like my timing was a bit off. A lot of stuff has happened with being sick, work, death in the family, and even lack of experience with the Japanese language.
I was thinking that with what knowledge I knew already, as well as with the resources as my disposel, I could translate a good ammount of the game. However, the Kanji is kicking my butt.
The two things I should have done was to try a more simple game translation, and keep practicing/learning the japanese language, and meet somewhere in the middle.
Now, after all of the stuff that has happened in the last few months, I am starting back on the language, and maybe we can get the ball a rollin' on this (or other) project(s).
If you're wondering what you can do to help, and have no knowledge of the Japanese language, maybe it's time to start the learning process. Buy or check out books, audio cds, software, etc on the language, attend a course, study it from the net, wherever. If you can help with just 1% of a project, you're doing more than the hundreds and thousands of people just sitting there asking "Are you gonna translate X or Y game? Well, can you hurry it up?"
As I've stated before, I'm in the process of learning the Japanese language, but I don't get enough practice. You can only do all of the workbook lessons a few times before they get really boring, and without the practice, to me atleast, I've been forgetting a little bit of what I've learned.
So, because of that, I've come up with the idea of translating a Japanese game, and what better platform to do than the sega mega cd? It'll help me keep up practice with my kana, learn new kanji, and hopefully gain a lot better Japanese vocabulary, while doing something productive.
I've mentioned a few times in the past about how you can beat a lot of the Japanese games without knowing Japanese, but one of the problems is that you miss the storyline completely.
While cosmic fantasy stories is probably one of my favorite Japanese sega mega cds, there are already walkthrus out for it. I wanted to do an RPG. So, my choices were Dai Houshin Den, Death Bringer, Aisle Lord, Fhey Arie, Funky Horror Band, Burai, Arcus 1,2,3, 3x3 eyes, shin megami tensei, and heroic legend of arslan.
I don't care for shin megami tensei or 3x3 eyes, but I believe there are super famicom versions of both of them already translated.
Right now, I'm just going to work on Dai Houshin Den for a few days, to see how well it goes, and if everything goes smoothly, I will continue to work on it. If not, I'll probably try something easier.
Anyway, it could take many months or even longer for any released text translation to be released if all goes well.
As for the format, I was originally going to do it by hand, on pen and paper, but I decided to use a japanese word processor program, with the original language, the romaji, and then the english translation. It'll be in the order I play the game by, and not 100% the same way you may decide to play the game through. Like I said, a "rough" text translation.
If anyone has any other ideas, let me know.
*UPDATE* While I have started working on this, it seems like my timing was a bit off. A lot of stuff has happened with being sick, work, death in the family, and even lack of experience with the Japanese language.
I was thinking that with what knowledge I knew already, as well as with the resources as my disposel, I could translate a good ammount of the game. However, the Kanji is kicking my butt.
The two things I should have done was to try a more simple game translation, and keep practicing/learning the japanese language, and meet somewhere in the middle.
Now, after all of the stuff that has happened in the last few months, I am starting back on the language, and maybe we can get the ball a rollin' on this (or other) project(s).
If you're wondering what you can do to help, and have no knowledge of the Japanese language, maybe it's time to start the learning process. Buy or check out books, audio cds, software, etc on the language, attend a course, study it from the net, wherever. If you can help with just 1% of a project, you're doing more than the hundreds and thousands of people just sitting there asking "Are you gonna translate X or Y game? Well, can you hurry it up?"
