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

[elmer]

Xanadu II has a couple of scenes that you can unlock by talking to the right people at the right times. I didn't think Xanadu I had any, but now I'm thinking it might. I just played through Chapter 2 last week and am translating it now, and I ran into some text in the script that looks completely out of place. I googled the name of the extra character involved and got nothing, so it's not in any Japanese walkthrough.

Fun! So we may have found something new, that's really cool.

I wonder how difficult it's going to be to figure out how to unlock it ... hopefully we can get some clues from reading the source script.   

[SamIAm]

It's just a small handful of lines, and I might have simply missed it when I played last week, but I wonder if it involves a hidden song like in Xanadu II.

For now, onward!

[in99flames]

This looks awesome....i have not played much Xanadu....i have Faxanadu for nes and Xanadu Next for N-gage. I havent played the original 2. Coincidentally i  own the first two on a japanese Sega Saturn disc but well...cant read it. Ill be following this development for sure

[spenoza]

N-Gage, eh? You can Xanadu while you side-taco-talk! I find it interesting Falcom/whomever decided the platform had enough potential for a title in the series. How is it?

[SamIAm]

Chapters 1, 2, and the prologue are finished and proofread.

Chapter 3 is at about 10%.

Total completion is about 25%, although nothing is in final-draft form.

From now to the end of Chapter 7, things are going to be heavy. I'll try to finish Chapter 7 before January is out, but no guarantees.

I do think this is turning out pretty well, though. I really like the way this game is written and put together. It's never boring to work on.

[pixeljunkie]

Chapters 1, 2, and the prologue are finished and proofread.

Chapter 3 is at about 10%.

Total completion is about 25%, although nothing is in final-draft form.

From now to the end of Chapter 7, things are going to be heavy. I'll try to finish Chapter 7 before January is out, but no guarantees.

I do think this is turning out pretty well, though. I really like the way this game is written and put together. It's never boring to work on.

Thx for the update! It's really fun to follow along with this project. Thanks again for working on this!

[elmer]

The nasty debugger tricks that I needed to use to get the font-hack working before are no longer needed, and both Xanadu 1 and Xanadu 2 are now being properly patched on the CD.

Here's the first dialog from Xanadu 2.

It mainly shows that it's nice to get a lot of text on a single screen, but it also shows that because of the patterned background in the dialog box, it's a lot harder to read than Xanadu 1.

I think that I'm probably going to have to risk the wrath of "purists" and add a drop-shadow to the font.

Hopefully that won't offend anyone.

[pixeljunkie]

[hyperventilating]

So exciting. I know I would not be offended by a drop shadow on that type. 

[SamIAm]

Oh man, it looks soooo much better when the lines fit in the text boxes.

Great work!

[Necromancer]

There's nothing wrong with adding a drop shadow, though that text looks okay to me as is.  I'm just happy for the translation. 

[spenoza]

If adding a drop shadow increases text readability, for goodness sake go with the drop shadow. Purists should play the game in Japanese, because a translation is inherently impure.

Also, from what I've read of SamIAm's philosophy of translation, purists may not be happy, anyway, since it sounds like he prefers good writing to transliteration.

[elmer]

Also, from what I've read of SamIAm's philosophy of translation, purists may not be happy, anyway, since it sounds like he prefers good writing to transliteration.

And that's precisely why I'm working with him ... I like to read the text that he writes. 

It goes back to the recent "Wanting to learn Japanese?" thread.

It takes years of hard work to get his kind of proficiency in Japanese, and a completely different skill altogether in actually being able to make that translation fun to read.

We all benefited from those skills with Zeroigar, and now I'm looking forward to seeing the Xanadu games translated with the same flair. 

[roflmao]

This is so exciting!

[technozombie]

Keep up the good work, it is really enjoyable to read about the project and follow along.

[SamIAm]

Aw, shucks. Thanks elmer.

We make a pretty good team. I'll do my best.

Now back to work!! 

(I'm almost 50% through Chapter 3)