[4o4]

So, I'm perusing all the documents listed on the Getting Started page, and while this is nice info (if not always formatted legibly) I'm not too keen on the "play around with it 'til you get it" approach to self-education. I looked at the Help Wanted page, but that seems more oriented towards those of you who already know what you're doing. So what I'm getting at is that, in order to become more experienced, I'd like to get on some projects and help with the tedious work so that I can figure out this crap with the benefit of guidance to show me what I might do wrong and pick up some extra tricks more easily. Didn't see any threads of this sort when I searched, so I figured I'm not stepping on any toes. If this ain't whatchu guys are about then no worries, I'm just trying to save some of my own time during the pesky learning-phase.

[Pikachumanson]

Well for the mOst part the experienced guys on this board kind of look down on threads like this. They don't want to hold anybody's hand while guiding them through a project. You have to be big on self learning and if you run into trouble then you come on to this board to ask questions. But if you want to get involved in a project I am doing a couple translations right now, Necromancer for the the TG 16 and Akagawa Jirou no Yuurei Ressha for the nes. I believe Akagawa is the much easier of the two. Necromancer has compression thAt i am still sorting out. But if you would like to help me on the nes game I'll be happy to have you. Pm me.

[4o4]

If I implied that I just wanted some lazy hand-holding, then I must offer my apologies, that wasn't my intention. I was just figuring to save myself time, as prior experiences with tech communities have been to the effect of: "If I ask my question well and have at least a clue what I'm talking about, their help is wonderful, but even I'm trying to read manuals/guides/etc. that they've written, half of it is moonspeak and the other half suffers from a host of other problems making it difficult to use and apply at best." I have been reading through the various articles provided on the site, but so far they've all either been too introductory for me (excuse me, but I don't need you to prattle on about the difficulties of hex to me as if I'm five, it's a simple concept) or advanced enough to soar over my head. Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places. Regardless, I know that my own learning-style is best suited to being shown how to do something and then applying that knowledge immediately. Now, I know that sounds like hand-holding, but it needn't even be so. What would probably work best is: "Here's what I need you to do, and when I need it done by." When I know exactly what I'm doing it's a helluva lot easier to find pertinent information on what I'm doing, and to actually figure out how to get it done. It also saves me from fiddling 'round aimlessly and possibly picking up bad habits that could screw me over in the long run. Hope I've clarified my intentions here, and if that's a problem I won't stick to my guns or anything. Just trying to handle the actual learning-phase as efficiently as possible.

[Auryn]

What is you aimed system to work with??
Basically the concepts are always the same but there are specific things and the believe that the newer the system is the more it's complicated to translate, it's completely wrong.
I believe that the NDS is a good starting point to learn. Pick yourself a early game (if possible non an RPG or games from Nintendo/Square-Enix that are almost a garantie to have something special on them).
Pick maybe something that have another (european) language so you can see the differences example in pointers.
On SNES i would go for something like Mickey Mouse games or Animamiacs/Tiny toons.
Pickachumanson is sadly right with saying that you have to learn the basics yourself and when you will show you at least got to a good level, many will come to help you but till then, it's a long road.
Good luck and feel free to ask smart questions with maybe screenshots and telling what game you are working on.

[Gideon Zhi]

I dunno about anyone else, but I could always use a labor monkey for text formatting.

Do you have AIM? Use IRC at all?

[4o4]

Thanks for the input guys, if I had to guess I'd say I'm probably most interested in handheld hacks or SNES. As for text-formatting, I think that'd be something I'm down for. At the very least I've got a good eye for such nonsense as kerning, indentation, other negligibly important format-crap. Only program I use for IMing at the moment is Skype, but I could be persuaded to adopt another for hacking projects. PM me on the subject.

[Dr. Floppy]

Are you just interested in the Translation side of things, or does more analytical stuff like ASM suit your fancy?

[4o4]

A little bit of both, but I've definitely more interest in actually creating new content. For one thing, I'm not fluent enough in any other language to comfortably do a translation, and if I'm not translating then all the fun leaves doing a translationhack. (my humble opinion)