Why do we translate?

Yeah, I wonder, they spend a lot of time into it, but never really get anything... Or something bad, "Ur tranzlasion iz teh sux" because something is wrong... I'm glad that there are so many translation(thanks for our narutoII ds translation can't wait for my cart)
And the Jump Ultimate Stars one looks awesome, I mean, I think the komas are translated too!
Your a good translator, I'm too lazy to try anything. Anyone here who can hack a rom and do something good is awesome. Bored is what motivates people, hell, my art sucks, but I'm still working on it, I even have a manga idea, I'm not even probably going to sell it, just host it online just for the hell of it, I would submit to TokyoPop(is 13 too young ) but they overprice manga.
I wish there was a way to translate psp games... hell, I still get lost trying to play phantasy star portable.

Translation isn't my preferred school of ROM hacking, but people get some games out in their language that they wouldn't otherwise get to try.

Of course then there are just the ungrateful pricks that want them because they're too lazy to learn another language.


I think a lot of ROM hackers do it for themselves out of fun with either the hacking/challenge itself or respect/admiration for the source material.

Actually there are a few around here who remember us rom hackers.People like me get forgotten in like two days.

I miss the good ol days of just turning SMB into dicks. A much simpler time for ROM hacks.


How is ACMLM's doing?

i like to express my utmost respect to all romhackers here now.

ignore those ungrateful pricks and keep it up!

I spend my whole vacation in front of my laptop just to make sure the Fire Emblem patch is out on time yet most of the posts when the patch was released were uncostructive criticism...Really if I had to answer why I do translate games I guess I am pretty moved by making people happy I don't care if I get any credit at all.or any negative posts it's just the joy of some certain people that keeps me going at times like this.

uncostructive criticism can be really discouraging.

i helped someone in school with a program, put my whole weekend into the thing, and all i get is "this is not what i imagined it to be" "why is that function not working yet?" "why didnt you do ...." instead of a thank you.

this fire emblem project was spending about a month in front of my pc for nothing.I don't regret it, it was to meet new people but sometimes people on the board are as harsh as it gets.

Man, I know how it sucks when people only trash and bitch, I'm mad when I read it, I can only imagine how do you feel then..
I was part of the team that initiated translation of Sakura firmware for M3 Real....and I must say I was really happy seeing how it become big soon, and how many people use it..It was worth all the effort in the end....

I'll say it again, I'm most utterly grateful for your Fire Emblem hack, because it's one of my favorite serials from GBA, and I really want to play this game.....And I do hope you'll get to translate the script and everything, but even if you don't, I'm happy you even did menus, so it's easier to explore the game....

All four games that I wanted to see translated will be in english sooner or later..ASH (the official translation is on the way), SomaBringer (hacked by DarthNemesis and his team), Tales of Innocence (Absolute Zero, the complete translation to be done) and Fire Emblem (I'm waiting for your patch update!!)..
Thanx all of you guys for doing it, and believe me, most of you, who did something, aren't forgotten in two days!!

[quote name='Toni Plutonij' post='1384589' date='Sep 7 2008, 02:33 AM'][/quote]
Now this is what motivates me to continue translating...it's nice to hear people care about you.

It's really getting to you huh? Don't worry, there are still people who appreciate your work like Toni there(and me!), but it's up to you really whether you still want to translate or not. Also, I feel your pain, people are ungrateful for the most part in my experience, always expect the worst out of them...

I guess you could say its the same reason people do charity i mean i personally am always very grateful to any translation hack or even effort.

[quote name='Noitora' post='1384590' date='Sep 7 2008, 02:36 AM'][quote name='Toni Plutonij' post='1384589' date='Sep 7 2008, 02:33 AM'][/quote]
Now this is what motivates me to continue translating...it's nice to hear people care about you.
[/quote]
Well yeah...I think that our "scene" is something special....I found many people on internet, that were willing to help about anything, GBAtemp is really special and all about stuff like that..But still, I think that "community" is very different from "the scene"..In community, you have lots of people that actually demand stuff, talk, critique, but most of them don't contribute anything other than theoretical stuff.....
While "the scene" is something more special, and people here work together....It's highly appreciated if some team makes something, put some effort into developing, hacking, translating.....I appreciate and admire everyone that has any skill about anything, and use them to help others....
I think I was working on Sakura for the same reason as you're translating Fire Emblem, because it's nice to see people use it and are happy about it, and it nice to see they give you credit for the effort and time you spent doing it..
I know how badly it feels when you work a lot, and some 10-14 years old kid comes along and starts complaining that translations is crap, it's too slow, it has errors, bla bla bla.....and it kills the will for continuing the project....
But remember that there are people who really recognize your work, knows what are you going trough, and how long does it take to translate even a little part of the game..
Translating the game is a huge deal, and whole team of developers usually take few months to do it......Kids knows shit, so don't even listen to them.....If you want my opinion...You have my vote for continuing translating, I sure will appreciate it..

Sorry for the long post!!

Man...i feel like crying when reading this and at least there are people in this world who care

[quote name='Toni Plutonij' post='1384636' date='Sep 6 2008, 08:09 PM'][quote name='Noitora' post='1384590' date='Sep 7 2008, 02:36 AM'][quote name='Toni Plutonij' post='1384589' date='Sep 7 2008, 02:33 AM'][/quote]
Now this is what motivates me to continue translating...it's nice to hear people care about you.
[/quote]
Well yeah...I think that our "scene" is something special....I found many people on internet, that were willing to help about anything, GBAtemp is really special and all about stuff like that..But still, I think that "community" is very different from "the scene"..In community, you have lots of people that actually demand stuff, talk, critique, but most of them don't contribute anything other than theoretical stuff.....
While "the scene" is something more special, and people here work together....It's highly appreciated if some team makes something, put some effort into developing, hacking, translating.....I appreciate and admire everyone that has any skill about anything, and use them to help others....
I think I was working on Sakura for the same reason as you're translating Fire Emblem, because it's nice to see people use it and are happy about it, and it nice to see they give you credit for the effort and time you spent doing it..
I know how badly it feels when you work a lot, and some 10-14 years old kid comes along and starts complaining that translations is crap, it's too slow, it has errors, bla bla bla.....and it kills the will for continuing the project....
But remember that there are people who really recognize your work, knows what are you going trough, and how long does it take to translate even a little part of the game..
Translating the game is a huge deal, and whole team of developers usually take few months to do it......Kids knows shit, so don't even listen to them.....If you want my opinion...You have my vote for continuing translating, I sure will appreciate it..

Sorry for the long post!!
[/quote]
Hey, I'm 13 and I don't care if there's an error really small. I'm just glad they made an effort. All romhackers are cool.

I wasn't talking about all kids, but usually, most of the times, it'll be some spoiled kid that got used to get whatever he/she wants....Parent's just got him flashcart, and he NEEDS that translation, and it HAS to be perfect, otherwise, he'll cry and bitch and whine and be annoying.....

kinda reminds me in the digital art scene or uploading scene.

Digital Art
If you aren't popular you are guaranteed that you won't get any form of criticism on your art. you will only get criticism if a) you just turned out something incredibly good or b) you turned out something incredibly bad or c) you just are so popular people comment regardless. Thats why i stopped doing LP's and tags, people just don't give you the encouragement you need, in the end it just drives you to quit.

Uploading
People will always whine and bitch about where you upload and if you can upload them something else. Even though it is your choice where to upload it, they don't care, they always want something that suits them . i was uploading anime to MU for awhile, i would always get PM's like "CAN I HAVE X ANIME IN DIS FORMAT??!?!?" or "CAN U UPLOADS TO RSSSS?!??!?!". Maybe 1/20 messages where messages of thanks, it gets really off putting. Its even worse when you see your links at other places than where you originally posted them WITHOUT any credit being given to you. Its gets even worse than that when you see people giving thanks to poster of your links, thanking them, not you.

In the end, its all about encouragement. People saying "Thanks" and "great work" really push you along. but people only say that 20% of the time if that, most of the time they either say "NICE WROK BUT CAN U DO "X" TO IT?!??!?!" asking for more or "NICE TRY BUT IT SCUKS CAZ I CUNT USSSS IT"

I am with Heran Bago, translation is really not my favourite thing to do purely for the amount of effort involved in gathering a team (I can hack, do languages and do artwork to an extent but not well enough to be a one man team), keeping them together, getting them stuff to do in a sensible order.
I would never say it is invalid but as fun as reverse engineering something is, rebuilding something how you see fit is where I want to be and that I can do by myself/without the need for a large team.

Why hacking, truly I would rather be doing it for real world devices (and to some extent I do although nowhere near where I want to be) but for the kind of money I paid for a top flight computer (never mind an acceptable one for this sort of thing) I might just be able to sniff a half decent microscope and maybe if I am lucky a basic metallography setup. Not to mention electronics and the like are increasingly coming into everything.

The opinions of others. The two main industries where I am at right now (and looking around all over the country and most of the world) are insurance or similar and retail, basically paper pushing and/or dealing exclusively with the public. I knew this before I went completely the opposite way (despite the best efforts of career advice types) so it seems the opinions of others do not matter all that much to me, I do stuff and if someone else benefits then that is great.