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

[elmer]

Chapter 9 of Xanadu 1 is finished, except for literally two or three text boxes that sit behind a weird bug that elmer will hopefully have worked out soon. It happens at a moment when the game does something that it never does anywhere else, so it's neither terribly surprising nor worrying that the same bug will pop up elsewhere.

Found it! Thanks for the savestates! 

I tell you guys ... without Mednafen, this translation would never have been done, at least by me, and possibly by anyone-else either.

Anyway ... that one particular piece of assembly-code in the script is directly calling some cursor-display code at the lowest-level, rather than using the game-code's cursor-flashing routines (that have been patched for the new font code). 

It's an easy fix ... I just need to add another special-case-command to the script-compiler to fix this one specific script-chunk.

While I'm doing it ... I should probably scan all the other script-chunks in Xanadu 1 and Xanadu 2 and see if this new patch needs to be applied anywhere else.

If I had to guess, I'd say they probably print off lots of copies of the draft-scripts, get a few people to sit around a TV or a projector, then repeated the video footage over and over with the sound off, with people test-reading the lines to each other in real time and making notes.

Yep ... I think that's what normally happens. AFAIK the actors get to watch the video, and hear the foreign audio on their headphones (if they want), all while recording the dub.

This would all be in a studio, with an engineer there to politely point out if the actor has mistimed their lines.

You might think about making videos of everything available to the folks that are doing the dub, complete with timestamps for every line that they're supposed to do.

But that would be a crazy amount of work! 

[spenoza]

We're all about the crazy, 'round these parts.

[SamIAm]

Found it! Thanks for the savestates! 

Woo hoo!

There might-just-might be something similar in the next chapter, so I'm glad that was apparently not too terribly complicated. 

Yep ... I think that's what normally happens. AFAIK the actors get to watch the video, and hear the foreign audio on their headphones (if they want), all while recording the dub.

This would all be in a studio, with an engineer there to politely point out if the actor has mistimed their lines.

I mean before the actors come in, though. How do the writers get the script to the final draft? I assume they can't be re-writing too much on the fly during recording, or else it would get sloppy and/or they would have to start paying lots of money to the actors just for sitting around.

It's amazing how sensitive the timing can be. When you've got two seconds for a line and no leeway to go over, you have to test it... and in order to test it properly, you need to see how it fits with the lines around it.

Maybe one person could do it alone, but I imagine that it would work better if you had two or three "testers" watching short clips on loop and reading the dialogues out loud to each other.

You might think about making videos of everything available to the folks that are doing the dub, complete with timestamps for every line that they're supposed to do.

But that would be a crazy amount of work! 

Ha ha...that would be a a breeze compared to the other steps I've gone through so far. 

But my real plan is to just give everyone a youtube link with timestamps to each individual scene, rather than each individual line. They're all short enough that I don't think people will have a lot of trouble finding where their lines are supposed to go.

[SamIAm]

By the way, one thing that might be fun for people on this forum would be to help me make background chatter for a couple of the tracks. Off the top of my head, I'm going to need:

- People cowering as the sky turns black and everyone loses the ability to use magic
- People cheering for Areios as he comes home
- People cheering for Areios as he prepares to leave on a sea voyage

Even if you're shy to try out for a more major part, this could be a neat way to get your voice in the translation. It's kind of like being an extra in a movie. The volume of your voice would be turned way down and have lots of other voices layered around it, but it would be there.

Post in this thread to let me know if you're interested. I could probably use 10-15 of you, and if I can't get any women directly through this, I hope you won't mind recruiting your wives/girlfriends/landladies/whoever to join in. It will all be really simple stuff, like "Bon voyage!" "Welcome home!" and "What's going on!?"

You wouldn't need a great mic, but you would need a minimal level of quality, and you would also need to convincingly shout. You might alarm your neighbors while recording.

If you plan on trying out for a real part, you can still join in. However, if you wind up getting a real part, don't be too surprised if I have to basically bury your background chatter to keep people from recognizing that it's the same voice.

Don't be shy - I'm going to join in, too! 

[seieienbu]

I'd be happy to at least be a cowering peasant; the thought suits me just fine!

[ashrion]

Sorry my bad english.
I complete many rpg pc engine in Japanese, when they went on sale, gulliver boy, xanadu2, ys1-2-3-4, xak1-2-3 fray, alnan, cosmic fantasy 4 part 1 and 2, tengai kabuki, but there are some that without the language are impossible, xanadu1, tengaimakyo, anearth. I will often I started, but I get stuck.

In xanadu1, i arrival 6 stage, and the game is one the best rpg all rpg of 16 bits (and the most f*cker)... and 32 bits... I hope could complete the translation and after 22 years to complete game, I would be thrilled.
Thank you.

[SamIAm]

I really appreciate that you took the time to write a nice message.   

Chapter 6 is not very simple, and Chapter 7 is even worse. Hopefully, understanding the language and having a good English guide will make the game much more enjoyable.

Please tell me your opinion of the game again after you try it in English! 

[LentFilms]

I'd be happy to do some background voices, I have a Snowball mic so hopefully my audio quality should be adequate.

[Johnpv]

I'm in to do some background voice(s), kind of tempted to try out for a bigger roll too!

[SamIAm]

The first test-play-edit of Xanadu 1 is complete. Today, I started on Xanadu 2.

Later, I'll go back to Xanadu 1 for another pass, and that should be the last one that involves any major editing. I'm anticipating that the early chapters will need more work, in part because my first drafts of those were rougher in the first place, and in part because I didn't play-test those quite as thoroughly. Call me lazy, but at the time, I hadn't refined my process to be as efficient, and there was just so much left to do that I had to go fast to keep up my morale.

Anyway, after the next round, I'll do another quick pass with some playtesters to nab typos and get feedback, and that should be it.

Xanadu 2 is so much smaller than Xanadu 1, I'm hoping I can get a first pass of it done within a month.

-------------

Oh, and I'll have some background-chatter lines written up soon. Right now, I have a few days off work in a row, and I'm using that to really focus on play-testing.

[poponon]

I'll volunteer for some background sounds. I hope my mic quality is good enough! It'd be so awesome to  have some contribution to this project. Really really really really appreciate all your guys dedication and expertise.

[deubeul]

Is there a french character in the game? 

[elmer]

Is there a french character in the game? 

Was this what you had in mind? 

Sorry, I know that's a terribly stereotyped joke ... but I love the movie anyway!

P.S. I'm still hoping that someone from the French PC Engine forums will eventually show some interest in doing a French version of Zeroigar!

[Bonknuts]

The first test-play-edit of Xanadu 1 is complete. Today, I started on Xanadu 2.

Wow, you guys got a lot done!

[deubeul]

Is there a french character in the game? 

Was this what you had in mind? 

Sorry, I know that's a terribly stereotyped joke ... but I love the movie anyway!

Lol, I was more asking Sam if he needed a french accent dubber, but thanks for the reminder and the good laugh 

P.S. I'm still hoping that someone from the French PC Engine forums will eventually show some interest in doing a French version of Zeroigar!

If you only need someone to translate the script to french, and if there's no hacking involved, I'd love to do it!