Space Adventure Cobra and Snatcher

[EmperorIng]

If the topic is brought up again and again, and the answer, again and again, is "play the mega-cd version", it sounds to me like it's mostly a closed issue.  Perhaps there is some historical novelty to it, but I'd reckon that people usually funnel through the path of least resistance (MCD). The demand probably is not as great as it seems, especially compared to waiting for translations of Falcom games (which are popular these days) and obscure labor-of-love translations. Speaking of obscure labors of love, Sol Moonarge, c'mon man.

[Bonknuts]

I nominate Elmer 

[elmer]

And I nominate Arkhan! 

Who's next? 

[Enternal]

Since those game are available in English through the Sega CD, it makes much more sense for hackers to put their effort into completely unlocalized games. Xanadu 1/2, anearth fantasy stories, and emerald dragon to name a few.

I somewhat agree with this, but you can't deny that Snatcher keeps coming up as a major topic time and time again. At the very least it shows that there is great demand for a translation, even if an English version does exist in the form of the Sega CD. The problem is, regardless of public demand you need to get stakeholders to buy into the idea (Ie. people with the talent who can do translation patches), and it seems most just go "play the Sega CD version".

Considering how often the subject comes up, I would have assumed someone would have just done it already to get the monkey off the translation scene's back. It would stop the Snatcher topic from coming up again and again, plus it would make (I would think, in my humble opinion) a large portion of the PCE community very happy. Not that they are owed anything, but just to say that the effort would be sincerely appreciated and not gone to waste.

We did get the translated Rondo of Blood even if those had pesudo ports. (snes/psp)

Space Adventure has started to gain in popularity and has tripled in price in two years. Maybe the stupid game chasers and alpha omega sin helped carry that along.


Of the two, Snatcher has several changes the big one being censorship, and Space Adventure Cobra? Not much? It's one of the rare games of that time that managed to get the nudity across intact.

With the Sega community resources it probably easier to edit the censored changes on the Sega Snatcher than to translate the PCE one.

[seieienbu]

Considering how often the subject comes up, I would have assumed someone would have just done it already to get the monkey off the translation scene's back. It would stop the Snatcher topic from coming up again and again, plus it would make (I would think, in my humble opinion) a large portion of the PCE community very happy. Not that they are owed anything, but just to say that the effort would be sincerely appreciated and not gone to waste.

I don't personally like this assumption.  Very few PC Engine games get translated and released.  To the best of my knowledge, the only one so far this year is Valkyrie no Densetsu.  Given the vast number of PC Engine exclusive games that don't have English translations, why should the few people translating games worry about one that's already in English?  It seems a far better use of resources effort for people to say "If you want to play Snatcher in English, check it out on Sega CD" than to have capable hackers/translators spend the time it would take to translate that much in game text and work on something else that wasn't already playable in English.

[technozombie]

I would love to see the PCE Snatcher translated, but as a gamer it just makers much more sense to ask for Legend of the Wind to get translated vs. A game that I could already play if I wanted too. It's not like it is Metal Gear for MSX vs. NES where there are significant differences.

[Black Tiger]

I love Cobra II and the localization for Sega-CD and can't help but feel that it would be worth trying to get that same translation and voice work into the PCE version. Snatcher for Sega-CD has mostly awful voice work and too many changes. If Snatcher CD-ROMantic were to be translated it should be from scratch.

With that said, Princess Eyedoll should be done before those two are considered. It's the Sapphire of 16-bit digicomic/adventure games and has the best RPG graphics of the generation.

[SignOfZeta]

Yeah, Snatcher is special. I agree. I would love to see it translated and I'm sure some day we will.

[deubeul]

With that said, Princess Eyedoll should be done before those two are considered. It's the Sapphire of 16-bit digicomic/adventure games and has the best RPG graphics of the generation.

 I second that. (assuming you're talking about private eyedoll  )

[dshadoff]

The important thing to recognize here is that "the scene" is not an organized group which directs resources according to a central plan.  It is a collection of hobbyists, each of whom has their own reasons and motivations.  There are no resources to allocate toward one game versus another.

If your favorite game, by chance, happens to be a game that one of the very rare hackers or translators is interested in, you may get lucky and get a translation eventually.

What motivates a person to translate a game is likely going to be some combination of the below:
1) ease of translation at a technical level (i.e. text is found, little or no compression, easy-to-understand code flow)
2) ease of translation at a translation level (kilobytes, instead of megabytes of text)
3) relative enjoyment (actual or anticipated) of the game, as judged by the translation team.
4) playability (and replayability) of the game if it were translated versus left untranslated
...and so on

If the translators themselves are able to find essentially the same game in English on another platform, they are less likely to feel items 3) and 4) above are worth their while (although there may be exceptions, as this is a very personal choice).

In any case, there is value suggesting games which might be fun if translated (or even fun to translate) - but only to the point that translators will look into whether it's worth their while.

-Dave