ROM Hack Game Center CX : Arino no Chosenjo 2 (New Start?)

[Celice]

Just wait until the Kacho himself asks for a copy!

 

[Mars_x]

Oh, GBATemp is back up!

Other than what I wrote above, I am down to 10 more files from the original 1020 and I did the game descriptions in the game selection screen both in the room and at the game shop. I also committed the last changes to the SVN repository.

And I notice I still don't have some of the in-game manuals done. That needs to be done too but at least with the Adventure games wrapping up I can work on finishing up a lot of these little things.

That's awesome! You are about to hit another milestone. I know it's been said a lot, but Thanks (expect more when it's finished).

And in related news I already have people messaging me demanding I give them the alpha version patch. I guess this means more people are aware of what's going on. I'm just waiting for my first death threat over this now, ha!

That's awful! C'mon people, don't ruin it.
Making Aaron read your annoying messages it's just stealing time from him...
Which means the patch will take longer thanks to you guys. :/

 

[Deleted User]

That's awesome! You are about to hit another milestone. I know it's been said a lot, but Thanks (expect more when it's finished).



That's awful! C'mon people, don't ruin it.
Making Aaron read your annoying messages it's just stealing time from him...
Which means the patch will take longer thanks to you guys. :/

it was just a matter of time until it happened now that the translation got some media attention ( hi tinycartridge )

I wouldn't say those messages are stealing time, but it's really something bothersome, I remember that, at first, the SaGa DS3 translation was shut down thanks to fan "input"

Just carry on as you normally would Aaron and please ignore those negative messages

 

[kikuchiyo]

I'm continuing to work on the RPG. Along the same line as Aaron, I have a translation question to throw to the community. It's a bit of a spoiler, so I've hidden it below:

Spoiler

It appears that the party goes to the underworld in the course of the RPG. The game text calls this meikai (めいかい presumably 冥界). I originally was translating this as "hell" because I dislike translations that soften hell when it's obvious, like Dragonball. However, the sense I'm getting as I go further in the dialogue is that Hades or even The Underworld may fit the game's/area's style more. Thoughts?

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Kikuchiyo> If it helps, I think in Demon Returns it refers to the world as Hades so you should be good to use that if you don't want to put in hell/keep it consistent.

Thanks for the messages, everyone. I don't let things like demands bother me; it's only a minor nuisance. The game is going well and I'm just plodding along as usual. I'm just amused by it all.

Other than the Adventure(s) and RPG I did notice something annoying about Triotos (the Tetris-like game). The description text in the menus (the only place with any real text; it isn't much) is actually a graphic, and annoying because each letter has its own mapping from an alphabet image. I think I can "cheat" that and just overlay a large image that has the English text in it.

Actually, I'm rapidly approaching the point where I'll have to mess with the images a bit for menus and options including the RPG game...if my plan of mapping the OAM table to parts of a new image I'll attach to the end of the old one (rather than reverse mapping the mapped image tiles) works, it might not be so bad but up until now NDS graphics and me haven't had the smoothest relationship.

The only other worry right now for me is actually in the Adventure games. There are a few files where the extracted text with control codes (during any decision making dialog/scene) don't quite match the standard or codes of everything else in the game. It might be fine but it struck me as odd and I'm thinking if the game is going to freeze somewhere, it will probably be at those points. The ones in particular are beyond the initial 4 challenges for the game though, so I don't think you will hit that point until the very end when you have to clear everything or you don't save and try to blast through the Adventure game that way. Again, it might be nothing and everything works fine but that is one place to watch while testing. (Particularly when you have those moments of self thought to try and work out the clues in your head for certain cases)

I guess that's it for the moment. When I finish the last adventure files I'll put up a few more screenshots and show the game selection screens as well.

 

[MarkDarkness]

I'm continuing to work on the RPG. Along the same line as Aaron, I have a translation question to throw to the community. It's a bit of a spoiler, so I've hidden it below:

Spoiler

It appears that the party goes to the underworld in the course of the RPG. The game text calls this meikai (めいかい presumably 冥界). I originally was translating this as "hell" because I dislike translations that soften hell when it's obvious, like Dragonball. However, the sense I'm getting as I go further in the dialogue is that Hades or even The Underworld may fit the game's/area's style more. Thoughts?

The word "hell" does carry a lot of Christian baggage in the English language. Perhaps "underworld" would be an interesting alternative that is more neutral.

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

Spoiler

Google Translate translates めいかい as "Nether world". I think "Nether World" or "Netherworld" would be an interesting way to have it translated in the game. You don't normally see "Nether World" as a translation...usually "Underworld" is used. It might have a bit of issues, seeing as "Nether World" is usually associated with Minecraft, but it would be unique and interesting.

冥界, though, is translate in Google Translate as "Hades". This is an uncommon term for a world like this, but it has been used in some places. I would probably go with a translation of めいかい instead, however, because it's more unique.

 

[Mars_x]

Hell sounds too religious and Hades is the name of a god.
'The Netherworld' sounds like an interesting suggestion but as stated before, I directly associate it with Minecraft.
I think 'The Underworld' fits better, it has a bit of mystique and I don't associate it with anything.

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

Hell sounds too religious and Hades is the name of a god.
'The Netherworld' sounds like an interesting suggestion but as stated before, I directly associate it with Minecraft.
I think 'The Underworld' fits better, it has a bit of mystique and I don't associate it with anything.

I was thinking for a minute there that maybe "The Netherlands" would work better, until I remembered that's a real life place.

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Okay, good news!

The text files in the Adventure games are all finished! Out of the original 1020 files, 873 needed at least some text done. In any case, that major hurdle is cleared so now it is just a matter of banging it into better shape. Still, this took months to get this far (granted, with a family and full time job on the side, too) so I do get a nice sense of accomplishment. Oh yes, I suppose I should check in the last of these files to the repository while I'm up. (EDIT> Done. All files are in the repository)

I can not guarantee at this point everything fits on the screen or looks right nor can I even guarantee some of the text is "correct" in the sense now that everything is in the game, some text may need to be replaced and/or fixed...and there are consistency issues I'm sure.

For anyone interested, I made a dump of all of the files (completely subject to change; this is just the first pass and there is English for everything now. Consistency is still a major issue)
http://aaronin.jp/shashin/arino2/output_adventure.txt

^ Spoilers in there (goes without saying if it is the entire game text) It's also like it was originally, completely out of order. Also, the tags may make it hard to read at a glance. You could do some search/replace to get rid of the tags if you want. I might do that actually for the testers (if the game crashes or something looks wrong, they can let me know what file by searching for the text in the game)

*THIS BRINGS ME TO AN IMPORTANT DISPLAY ISSUE QUESTION *

There are many ways to display the quotes and dialogue. I'll list a bunch of possibilities and could you let me know which one you think works best? I will do a mass search/replace to get it all consistent.

1. The style as it appears in Japanese

Arino 「I can't believe my
      cheese grater was
      attached to my shoe!」

2. Removed the quotes but kept the indent (what it is now for most of it)

Arino  I can't believe my
      cheese grater was
      attached to my shoe!

3. Adding a colon:

Arino：I can't believe my
      cheese grater was
      attached to my shoe!

4. Adding a colon and removing the indent:

Arino：I can't believe my
cheese grater was attached
to my shoe!

Well? Also, what about punctuation in general? Should I skip periods like:

Arino：No!
      My dog says my
      ice cream melted.

Arino：No!
      My dog says my
      ice cream melted

Also, there were some parts of the game that just didn't translate well so I'll have to work with the testers to see if we can come up with any suitable replacement for what I have now. The situations (not too much of a spoiler but I'll blur the details)

* You have to talk to a character in a specific regional dialect
* There are numeric codes based on goroawase (number play in Japanese)


In the meantime (while touching up the Adventure) I'll zoom through the in-game manuals which are much easier in comparison and then I'll lend a hand with the RPG

Oh, and here are some quick touch ups of the game selection screens (home and the game shop) This can be changed easily but I wanted something in English there.

Oh, and this is unrelated, but I stumbled upon some old Famicom Disk games and noticed the Adventure Club games liked to use the First/Second part thing with their games (前編　and　後編)

Okay, it's past midnight now. If I messed up anything in this post I'll fix it tomorrow. Nighty night~~

 

[GHANMI]

(3) or (4).
Since you kept the (2) formatting (which is fine if not the confusing lack of colons), I suggest (3) then:
indent, colon, removing any sort of Japanese brackets 「」『』【】or western-style ones ( ) [ ] << >>
99% of localization work do away with those, and one of the very rare exceptions would be Survival Kids for the GBC (sentences wrapped with brackets), or from Xseed, brackets around only the NPC names in a single game, Trails in the Sky PSP.
No skipping periods. I understand it's accepted in Japanese but... it would seem ugly and unfinished in non-Japanese/Chinese/Korean material.

The goroase situation...
The leet speak is writing words with numbers, the exact opposite of what you're aiming at (and a totally unacceptable thing for a serious translation). The unreleased localization for Atlantis no Nazo NES actually translated a similar puzzle by simply giving the number.

If you want however to make it a puzzle, you could try something like this:

Spoiler

You could set up puzzles based on A=1, B=2, C=3, ... I=9, O=0
For example "237" would be "BCG"

If you don't want to make it that obvious you could:

b/ Shift the alphabet:
C=1, D=2... K=9, O=0
with "C IS START" or "CDEFGHIJK O" or something more/less Engrishy that hints at this
"237" would be "DEI"

c/ create an imaginary alphabet, something like
alphabet=ARINOSHENY (or anything with 10 letters and no repeating letters)
A=1, R=2, I=3,... N=9, Y=0 (as a hint you could say "ARINOSHENY -- A IS ONE")
And then a number like "237" would be "RIH" or something.

 

[Sludge]

I'd say 3 and 4 are the best options too. Although I prefer the formatting of 3, using the extra text space from 4's formatting might make the translation easier.

As to the punctuation I say keep the periods, it makes the ends of sentences clearer. Since there are probably going to be multi-text box conversations, it'll be good to have some sort of notification that you've reached the sentence's end. For all the player knows the second (period-less) sentence keeps on going:

Arino：No!
      My dog says my
      ice cream melted

<next screen>

Arino：onto my
      shoes!

Oh, and thank you so much for doing this translation. I've really been wanting to play this game for a while.

 

[Fishaman P]

2. Removed the quotes but kept the indent (what it is now for most of it)

Arino  I can't believe my
      cheese grater was
      attached to my shoe!

Arino：No!
      My dog says my
      ice cream melted.

Those are my choices. (1) would be my second choice; I played a visual novel translation that used 「」 for spoken sentences and () for internal thoughts, and it worked surprisingly well. I'm sure I'm in the minority on that one, though.

 

[HumbertHumbert]

3. Adding a colon:

Arino：I can't believe my
      cheese grater was
      attached to my shoe!

4. Adding a colon and removing the indent:

Arino：I can't believe my
cheese grater was attached
to my shoe!

Awesome update. (3) or (4) are my top choices.

I prefer (4). I agree that it may also make fitting text a bit easier, but mainly, I just think it looks better since the indent will change depending on the length of the name of the character speaking. If you try to keep the indent, as in (3), I think it won't vertically line up the second and third lines to the first line speech indentation on the character's first line. I think (4) will look more natural with less work.

 

[Nightwish]

Might as well post to thank you for what you're doing, it would be a real shame if we (the Japanese-challenged) weren't able to.

 

[Ziko]

Are you really doing this whole translation thing on your own? Bravo! Maybe soon I can complete those annoying daily challenges as well as the rest of the game.

 

[Celice]

I like choice 1) or 3).

The first easily shows the text as blocked away from the speaker or other narrative devices. It also leaves a bit of that Japanese retro Famicom vibe, which adds to the experience, and doesn't detract from others who might not be aware of what those shapes mean.

The third is like the first to me, but is more Westernized. Both work, but I just appreciate the first one more because it situates the player in the context of a retro Japanese game better.

 

[Deleted User]

I think Hell is a better choice
it's a more impacting name as probably the game intended it to be

( plus I'm sick of all the religious censorship on western translations XD )

 

[Aaron Chmielowiec]

Ziko> Actually I've already finished the annoying daily challenges but it does need proofreading. Also, I'm not doing the whole thing on my own as the Arino dialogue and in-room chats and telephone calls were already done by the original team but the Adventures, RPG and Daily Challenges (and in-game magazines and manuals) are HUGE and none of that was done before now. The RPG is still underway but a good chunk if it is done (kikuchiyo is to thank for that)

Okay, from my end...

I will put those colons in for sure. They look pretty good, actually. The problem with the indent is the length of some of the characters names. Iida is fine, Takahashi is pushing it since that's a lot of screen real estate to lose if I indent fully. As a compromise I'm trying out indenting 5 spaces on the 2nd and 3rd lines. I'll see how that looks.

On the manuals I have almost 4 done of the main 9 and the other 5 from the game shop are already done, and pieces of the others are also done. It's not so bad but making it all fit on screen might take some trial and error.

Oh, and thanks everyone. It's exciting to see this all finally falling into place.

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

I actually like the idea of [2] and [3] at the same time.

But...um...are you going to do any image editing on the game cartridge images? I would kind of like to know what the titles of the games are just from looking when I'm going to pick a game to play...