Esperknight and Filler's PC-FX Translation Projects

[filler]

Howdy! I'd just like to start by saying thank you for the support shown for the translation of Welcome to Pia Carrot that I worked on as translator. It was my sincere pleasure to have been able to work together with David Michel to release that patch for others to enjoy.

Being a big PC-FX fan I of course have a burning interest in translating additional PC-FX games. Reverse engineering enthusiast and fellow obscure Japanese gaming platform fan Esperknight and I have teamed up to start working on some more fun translation projects for the PC-FX. I normally hang around Romhacking.net but I wanted to post here in particular due to the nature of some of our projects so you guys can stay informed about the latest developments.

When Esperknight and I first began collaborating we started talking about the PC-FX. I love the system as I got to play a number of games on it in the mid-late 90's when it was contemporary and I was first learning Japanese. Esperknight had just been reading (watching?) Ah! Megami-sama so we decided to take a look at that first. EK was able to dump a script and start and initial script insertion. His work is really incredible.



I set to work on the script which is sitting at around 10% complete. Additional info about the Ah! My Goddess PC-FX translation project.

Additionally, EK started playing with Team Innocent. He even posted a great detailing how he went about using Mednafen's debugging features to crack the games text handling. I told you he's good. Below is a shot of the awesome initial script insert that he succeeded in just the other day.



We haven't located all the text quite yet, but I've translated what we have so far. You can see more information about the Team Innocent PC-FX translation project here. NOTE: We may have a new page coming at some point if I ever finish it. I'm keeping some info on my projects page for now.

If you are still with me after all of that, I hope that at least some of you are looking forward to checking out the projects when they are done. I don't know if any of you follow translation projects ever, but they are normally a long affair. Script translations alone can take months to years to complete and the programming/reverse engineering is not easy. Bringing a project to completion takes hard work and dedication to the hobby. Not looking for sympathy, just trying to promote understanding.

We are actively looking at some other PC-FX projects but that's all I'm going to say for now.

[KingDrool]

That's awesome! I can't wait to see more.

[DJLobo]

This is great news to hear! Didn't think there would be any other translations besides Pia Carrot, but two new ones is something I'm looking forward to seeing. Good luck to both of you on these new projects.

[_joshuaTurbo]

Team Innocent translated would double my efforts to rejoin the PCFX clan!

[filler]

Team Innocent translated would double my efforts to rejoin the PCFX clan!

Heh-heh, once you join there is no escape!

Thanks for the support guys. Esperknight just dumped a bunch more blocks of text from Team Innocent so I need to get translating. The good thing is that the larger block I already translated seems like it had a lot of the more mundane text in it so these scenario blocks I'm translating now are even more interesting.

I also just compiled a bunch of information on PC-FX games to use as a reference so we can get a better idea of what looks interesting on the system. I've been a fan for years but there are still a number of games on the system I haven't spent much time with. My sincere hope is that the bulk of the ire directed at the platform is because people cannot enjoy the games due to the language barrier and not due to them simply being unenjoyable. I'd go as far as to call it a belief in fact, one that I'm willing to put a lot of effort into proving correct.

[filler]

Team Innocent is coming right along. I've translated another 6 blocks of script. Still 14 left out of an unspecified number to go, a couple of which are pretty large. Esperknight is looking at inserting a couple more blocks of text back into the game.

I'd like to take this opportunity to mention that if you know Japanese and like PC-FX games we'd love some additional help translating. Whether it's a project we are already working on or another PC-FX game of your choosing, as long as it's not prohibitively difficult to work with, we'd be interested in setting you up with a script to work on. I've also coded a custom translation memory/translation aid web application that I'd be willing to share with you to help with the process. EK is really skilled so chances are we could probably accommodate your request. If you've never considered translating a game script, it's a lot of hard work but it's fun and rewarding. It's way better than watching TV in your spare time. Let us know if you'd like to give it a try.

[Lum]

Expect me to sometime in the indeterminate future poke around and see who in the US has an unwanted PC-FX then.

[filler]

Expect me to sometime in the indeterminate future poke around and see who in the US has an unwanted PC-FX then.

In regards to translating games or playing them? Excellent news either way of course.

[Keranu]

Exciting thread, can't wait to keep up with the updates! Would love to finally be able to play Team Innocent in English, and well, any PC-FX game translated!

[tru]

Games I would like to see translated for this great system are: Blue Breaker, Boundary Gate, Miraculum and Dragon Knight IV... not that I would complain about any other games being translated... Ah My Goddess would be high on the list had you not already started that one! Love that anime!

[SamIAm]

I briefly thought about making subtitles for the cutscenes in Zeroigar since it's such a badass game and it would be easy to recode the subtitled scenes to play on real hardware. However, I decided against it when I realized that everyone is saying exactly what you think they are saying anyway.

I'll consider working on a PC-FX game if I find one that really spins my jets. So far, the search continues...

Good luck with your projects, filler!

[Necromancer]

Awesome, simply awesome!  Translated PC-FX games make me happy.

[Arkhan]

pfsht untranslated ones make me just as happy! 

even if I cant read em!

[filler]

Thanks guys. I can't wait to have 2 PC-FX games under my belt.

I'll consider working on a PC-FX game if I find one that really spins my jets. So far, the search continues...

That would be awesome. I hope you find something you really love.

[Aggie Tsubi]

I think it's fantastic that you guys are working on translating PC-FX games. Thanks so much for your hard work. I usually stick to just playing games on their respective consoles, even if that means in Japanese, and despite that I only know a tiny bit of Japanese (very, very far fluent; most of what I can get out of Japanese games is reading katakana when it's used to represent English), I'm very good at getting through most types of games, even text-heavy stuff like RPGs. But there are some PC-FX games that really benefit from understanding them, and with the ability to play the patch on the real hardware, you can't beat that. I'm definitely going to burn a copy of Pia Carrot to go with my Japanese copy, and I'll be eagerly following your upcoming releases. I hope with these translations many more people will be willing to give the PC-FX a shot.