Cargodin's Translation Project Masterpost

[Cargodin]

Hi there! I'd like and get more involved by making an ongoing thread about various game translation projects I'm working on.

Last updated: October 1, 2023

Priority projects:

Addie's Present (PSX) with Esperknight: Final hacking edits underway. Game could come out in October.

Linda Cubed Again (PSX) with Esperknight: Audio-only segments will be soft-subbed next, but they've been such a sharp pain in the ass, Esper's poked at other projects for now to let off some steam. Linda's been playtested multiple times and completed successfully. Ideally, we'd be set by Christmas but can't make any promises.

Kowloon's Gate (PSX) with Esperknight: -> Storyline is 100% translated and proofread by both _dk and myself. Graphics edited and inserted thanks to Esperknight and Hilltop. Subtitles are made and timed, but not inserted into the game. Lots of fine-tuning needed before this can be testable, as navigating the item menu crashes the game.

Sampaguita (PSX/PSP) with Esperknight: Now in playtesting!
Yukiwari no Hana (PSX/PSP) with Esperknight: Now in playtesting!

Help Wanted thread here!
N/A

First draft translated, hacking + second drafts to do next:

Fox Junction (PSX): Got a recent second draft. Hacking is sorta up in the air atm
Tengai Makyou Apocalypse IV ((It's like "Revelation IV" the book, btw)) (PSP/Saturn): Talks on this sorta went ghost
Tenshi Doumei (PSX/Saturn)
The Adventures of Robin Lloyd (PSX)
Universal Nuts (PSX/Saturn)
Abarenbou Princess (PS2) -> storyline done, UI not done, wanna tackle NPCs+rewrite before hacking
Sengoku Turb (Dreamcast) -> storyline, basic UI done, wanna hack before doing NPCs


Released:
Napple Tale (Dreamcast): October 16, 2019
Find here!

Double Cast (PSP): November 30, 2020
Find here!

Planet Laika (PSX): February 14, 2022
Find here!

Iblard: The City of Hatching Laputa (PSX): August 29, 2022
Find here!

THE Maid Uniform & Machine Gun (PS2): November 05, 2022
Find here and here!

b.l.u.e. ~ Legend of Water (PSX): December 15, 2022
Find here!

Dog of Bay (PS2): August 16, 2023
Find here!

[goldenband]

These all sound like awesome and pleasantly offbeat projects, and all on platforms that badly need more attention. I love seeing visual novels like Universal Nuts get translated -- they're fun to play through with my wife when we don't feel like tackling an action-oriented game.

I look forward to seeing the fruits of your labor in 2017!

[Blackiris]

Great work! Thanks for the update!

[ObiKKa]

Hey. I was looking up the superfamicom profile for Glory of Heracles 4, which you all know has just been translated, when I noticed an eye-catching name near the end to the bottom-right side. There is Shoji Masuda who was the supervisor of that Glory of Heracles 4 game!

As Cargodin already knows Shoji has done Linda Cubed Again, Abarenbou Princess and a couple Tengai Makyou projects!

[irvgotti452]

That's awesome to see Napple Tale on that list. I did a menu translation a long while back (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S2K92i0taY). I can throw those pvr files your way if you haven't already done that work yourself already. 

[Cargodin]

That's awesome to see Napple Tale on that list. I did a menu translation a long while back (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S2K92i0taY). I can throw those pvr files your way if you haven't already done that work yourself already. 

Wow, super sorry for the late reply. ": I
That's really kind of you to offer! I don't think anyone will be peeking into the technical side of the patch anytime soon as the text itself isn't finalized to go in just yet. I don't think we would put it to good use right away but I'd be happy to take a look at the files either way if you have them! : )

[Cargodin]

Images really pad up the post, but here are a couple previews of my first image-editing for a game that didn't blow up in my face. There are many more images and text sprites I had to edit, but these two shots show at least a few. I'll post more once Esper gets a chance to reinsert them and send me some screencaps.

Each Yarudora game comes with demos of the other 3 in the set, but we're of the impression that the entire games are still on the iso, just intercepted by a splash screen at the end of the demo. We'll find more on that later down the line. If other translators are interested in games in the series, that would be an exciting culmination, but until then and until I ever get the time to really take the whole series on myself, I'll most likely be doing just the demos until further notice. I also edited one game's title sprite into English throughout all of the images featured. "Kisetsu o Dakishimete" is now "Embrace The Season" across all images of the game. It was the only title sprite without a roman character subtitle, so eh. Enjoy.




Here's how the text appears so far in Double Cast. Unfortunately, the demo text really hits the fan(possibly another checksum at work, I swear to god...). Until then, Mitsuki being cute makes everything better, so enjoy:

[BlackDog61]

Seeing the Yarudora logo makes me want to discuss a more generic topic. What makes you (RHDN people) choose and prefer between:
- a logo with the Japanese in big size and a sub in English (probably a "respectful" approach of the translation?), vs
- a logo with the English using most space, and the Japanese remaining in smaller letters, vs
- just the English, no more Japanese?

I've been drawn towards the "English only" approach because I like feeling I've gotten the game rid of non-English language. But then maybe people find that too extreme?

What's your take, Cargodin?

[Cargodin]

Seeing the Yarudora logo makes me want to discuss a more generic topic. What makes you (RHDN people) choose and prefer between:
- a logo with the Japanese in big size and a sub in English (probably a "respectful" approach of the translation?), vs
- a logo with the English using most space, and the Japanese remaining in smaller letters, vs
- just the English, no more Japanese?

I've been drawn towards the "English only" approach because I like feeling I've gotten the game rid of non-English language. But then maybe people find that too extreme?

What's your take, Cargodin?

This is a fun question! I'll try to take a stab at it. For note, I was never a Graphic Design major in school and have only learned tricks of the trade by freelancing on the side during my college career. I feel I still have a lot to learn, but I enjoy the challege of remaking Japanese graphics into English when given the opportunity.

I find it pretty situational, as I tried to consider how the logo was displayed in-game and what was the easiest but cleanest way to edit everything while retaining consistency and funcionality above all else. Where the English text for Yarudora shows up in the logo, it was really just the full drawn out "the drama you do" bit in Japanese. Still no one is going to really google that when looking for the game. They'd never find it! So I did want to stick with Yarudora no matter what.

Kisetsu o Dakishimete on the other hand, like Double Cast and the other title images, was implemented some 12 times each within the release, and some overlappedother semi-transparent UI buttons and boxes needed to make the rest of the menu look okay. I mainly wanted to avoid mucking all that up, but as the logo has to be consistent through each iteration it shows up in, I didnt have too many options to cleanly remake all of the logos, so I focused on the overall functionality.

Certainly less polished than remaking it from scratch, I still wanted to make sure it came out legible for players. Should Esper insert those anytime soon I can post those here to better explain.

I agree with the notion that English only or a very tiny Japanese subtitle(like a few of the Tales games) all look much cleaner and more polished.

[Cargodin]

Quick update:

Hah! I say I'll do one thing, but then go digging a ways deep into another. Anyhow, I'm checking in with a few things to say.

First, things have been super slow on the translation front. As those who regular the Tengai Makyou Zero thread are aware, I have been spending most of my time editing a manual and packaging bundle for Tom, to celebrate the release. I don't have anything to publish just yet, but I have done two other covers for Tom since October, for a couple of his other projects. Not sure if/when thise will hop online, but I hope it can be something cool that fans will have fun looking at. (Not for any repro-sellin fucks, although sadly, I know that's a risk too.)

Anyhow, esper has been focusing on Double Cast semi-recently. I was test playing almost a week ago and we've hit a hangup. It keeps replaying one clip for eternity, so we're suspecting yet another checksum is in play here.  Why I oughtta...

In other news, I've been tinkering with new writing habits, and have been tinkering with Yarudora Ep. 3, Sampaguita for PSP as well as Sengoku Turb for Dreamcast. his is my first real run with the former, as I'm just translating as I go. Sengoku Turb is a fun one that I enjoy  so if you enjoy Tamagotchi and bludgeoning the hell out of your enemies, keep an eye out. I have 3 early-on bad endings out of 28 total done for Sampaguita, as well as 6 our of 16 chapters or so for Sengoku Turb. I hope that by dedicating myself to proper writing habits in these translations will help me in the long run, but I was wanting a fresh slate, and these two smaller games might help me out on that.

Anyway, once the manual and packing are done and done, expect to hear more from me. I'm excited to get back in and focus more on the other projects that require a little more sit-down dedication from me.

[Melodia]

Well....

Someone at Gamefaqs mentioned you were working on Napple Tale. Count me in as someone really enthusiastic about wanting to see that happen.

[ObiKKa]

Cool. I shall be keen to find out more about those other games that you've been working on.

But here's a bit of a fun fact that I've found out recently. You know 'Sugar & Rockets' was the developer behind the Yarudora (and PoPoLoCrois) series? Well they once were called 'Exact' whom worked on several Sharp X68000 and PSX games before they merged as an entity with the Sony Computer Entertainment Interactive body.
So, it was by then that I now can see the special sauce behind these Yarudora games, so to speak!

[Cargodin]

Cool. I shall be keen to find out more about those other games that you've been working on.

But here's a bit of a fun fact that I've found out recently. You know 'Sugar & Rockets' was the developer behind the Yarudora (and PoPoLoCrois) series? Well they once were called 'Exact' whom worked on several Sharp X68000 and PSX games before they merged as an entity with the Sony Computer Entertainment Interactive body.
So, it was by then that I now can see the special sauce behind these Yarudora games, so to speak!

Oh! I didn't actually know all of that information. Thanks for sharing! It's always really fun to hear more about the trail behind developers and see where they disappear and reappear in the gaming timeline. : )

As an update: I've done about 13 of the 28 endings in Sampaguita, but Esper is taking a look at giving it a test drive in the game itself. Not sure how that'll go, since Lord knows Double Cast is a buggy ol' thing too.

Also, the storyline for Sengoku Turb has been translated, as has most of the menu stuff we were able to dump. Besides the item lists and such, all I really have to do is go in and talk to a bunch of NPCs in the battlefield levels of the game, but that'll wait until we're sure we have all of the text before I go stressin about it.

For the past couple days, I've been putting my time into Tom's Tengai Makyou Zero manual and giving my Vita a little TLC.

Who do I gotta blow to get an El Dorado Gate text dump around here? Kidding, kidding...?

[Arminius]

Wow, glad I stumbled upon this post! No idea you also updated things here! 

I was following that linda post for quite some time without updates, was worried you guys had dropped it. How's it going, any updates this year yet?

[Cargodin]

Wow, glad I stumbled upon this post! No idea you also updated things here! 

I was following that linda post for quite some time without updates, was worried you guys had dropped it. How's it going, any updates this year yet?

Hey there! Sorry for the late reply with this. I've really just been in lurker mode lately.
I've been involved with another user's project heavily since February, so I haven't been able to zero in on Linda Cubed. So far, I've been making an html folder to distribute that will have side-by-side dialogue translations for all 3 routes (and all the unsubbed movies therein), and I will try to expand on it with an item list, maps, and a generalized walkthrough. It will also have a translation notes page and such.



While the English patch is absolutely not dead, I feel that until Esper and I can really sit down and hammer out the hacking issues, this will be the most efficient way for me to stay busy with the text while having something to offer for fans that have waited so long.

[VicVergil]

That pic fills me with extreme joy for so many reasons. Really glad that one is still on your mind

I didn't think you'd do the Saturn (and uncensored) Linda Cube version, considering the PS1 port has a more "standard" video format than that one. I hope you'll figure out a way to edit the Cinepack videos, the damn format's documentation much less tools is hard to come by (unless of course I suck at searching for this stuff online, apparently lots of it is leaked obscure development kits).

[Cargodin]

That pic fills me with extreme joy for so many reasons. Really glad that one is still on your mind

I didn't think you'd do the Saturn (and uncensored) Linda Cube version, considering the PS1 port has a more "standard" video format than that one. I hope you'll figure out a way to edit the Cinepack videos, the damn format's documentation much less tools is hard to come by (unless of course I suck at searching for this stuff online, apparently lots of it is leaked obscure development kits).

They were just the texts a Japanese user had posted online, whose site I included in the credits. I decided it'd be helpful as I go through the PSX version again, so I can really know the differences in dialogue (if any).

I really want to start a bunch of other projects(and try to go hard on making Abarenbou Princess happen, as it's perhaps my favorite import game), but this is one I just can't leave behind. : )

[Cargodin]

Quick Update:

1. Started a new warehouse job, so I am sleepy all the time and was pretty much dead in June, but my legs look great.

2. Saving up to buy a new computer soon. If anyone has recommendations on a less costly guy that'll still run PS2 emu well, I could really use that for PS2 game testing with AbaPri.

2. Eien sent me the revised scripts for Napple Tale text, so I am writing the second draft going into the game.

3. Still working on the Linda Cubed HTML file.

4. Doing some in-game graphics for Tom's ~VN Project of Mystery~.

[Cargodin]

Update:
I saw down a couple months ago and reworked my entire Double Cast translation. It needs to be reformatted by hand to read well within the game, but esper is on it.

Currently finishing up the new draft for Napple Tale. Looking for help with ripping/reinserting the music videos to subtitle them, but all songs have been rewritten and are ready to go. Rewriting the cards+diary entries, then I'll be ready to talk with someone about graphic editing.

[Arminius]

Wow, glad to see you're still working on stuff here!!

Can really imagine from your 2017 July update how your life has been busy... it`s hard doing all this stuff without a team. And living your life on top of it.

It's been a long time for sure since anyone posted anything, but I want you to know that how I (and lots of other people I`m sure) admire and appreciate all the hard work you voluntarily put into these projects. I have the utmost respect to romhackers and translators like yourself who made accessible to me in my golden days of emulation gaming, several gems of gaming like Seiken 3, Rudra no Hihou, Live a Live, and so many others.

Don't ever forget to live your life, and if you feel like continuing your projects, know that I and countless others are supporting and cheering for you!! 

All the best!