From George Plamantouras <xxxxxx@loki.stockton.edu>
Date
Getting organized is a great idea, but this will all be for naught if we
can't find the people who have some programming know how.
Who knows how to break into a game?
Who is somewhat familiar with Turbo code to identify where the in game
text is? (is it simply in quotes?)
Who is willing to do this?
This has to be the priority. The person or people who do this job
must also be the ones who will somehow send out the japanese text to the
translators (keeping track of where they took it from) and then replace
the original japanese text with english. Again, each line of text must be
catalogued in some way so that we can somewhat preserve the game's
story. From there, we can do what WD did with Exile II and
others; include the essential text and paraphrase the next. That is
really minutiae at this point.
I know we are all busy but this project would probably be the biggest
thing any group of fans has ever been involved in since Trekkies around
the US lobbied to name the first Space Shuttle "Enterprise". I suspect,
the first game would be the most difficult because...well, it's the first
attempt.
Again, I propose (once we find some programming volunteers-or at least
one) we find a good japanese RPG with relatively little text. It
obviously needs to be a CD, like, Y's IV. A game like that is good to
start with for a few reasons:
-we know the story very well
-most if not all voice acting has easily replaceable japanese subtitles
so we don't have to worry about creating our own subtitles (and we
can leave in the cool japanese acting and still know what they are
talking about (this is a major plus which can also be found in the
Far East of Eden series and Gulliver Boy to name a few)
-we know there is an interest in this game
-it is a FALCOM game and WHEN we figure out how to do this, it will
open the doors to Xanadu I& II, Dragonslayer, and a host of other
great games, since presumably, the formula will be the same for those
games as well
----------------------
Once we get the necessary help, let's break a game and start with
something easy like locating the in-game menu (weapons select, experience,
options, etc.) and translating that (of course, we'd have to find the menu