From George Plamantouras <xxxxxx@loki.stockton.edu>
Date
The truth of the matter is this... Hudson stopped giving a damn about
the Duo a long time ago. They bailed (yeah they were frustrated with NEC
limited budget) on TTI. I know there is still a HUDSON Group in the US
(Seattle?) but no customer phone #, no website, I don't know what they do
here anymore. I wonder if Hudson USA has any old TTI people? I would
LOVE to get a phone number to call them and riddle them with
questions. Lots of these Japanese develoing houses don't know the half of
what goes on here. Do you think GameArts knows that Working Designs
reprinted 3,000 Lunar: Eternal Blue's for Sega CD? Do you think Telnet
knew that WD was considering releasing Cosmic Fantasy 3? Do you thin
kSquare knew that Secret of Mana 3 was translated and posted on the net in
English by a bunch of fans? It is so easy to screw a company out of
royalties because, like you said, they all assume
their game and the console it was developed for are dead!
NEC USA up until 1997 had a menu option for Turbo
Grafx 16 on one of their 1-800 company help lines. It was a dead link
forever. Everytime I would try dialing it (insane curiousity) I would get
nothing. I doubt NEC USA EVER had much to do with the console. All of
TZD's contacts with NEC seem to be Japanese.
I would love to know what NEC and Hudson USA really had to do with
the console at all. Lucky for them TZD stepped in because federal
requires a company to continue support for a product for 5 or 7 years
after its discontinuation. (Who the heck is handling SNK's old stock and
service? It MUST be someone!).
There is no reason in the world why TZD couldn't make games. They
must have access to a developer's kit. With their contacts in Japan and
with the endlessly resourceful people in the Turbo community, it is
entirely within the realm of possibility. And IF one of these developing
houses found out that their games were being reprinted or sequeled or
translated, so what? Do you think they will spend the money to send
lawyers to the US to find out who is doing it? I DARE them to show that
much concern! It would make me feel so good to put down their PS2 projects
to come here and show how important their games are to them. I just sense
this real abandoment especially where the Duo is concerned. Hell, it put
HUDSON on the map! They are only a shade of what they were up until in
the mid 90s, though I know they still make some cool games.
What I always thought would be better than making new games (only
slightly better, mind you) would be to figure out a way to break into the
text of some of these RPGs and use our combined knowledge of japanese to
translate them. I don't mean emulators either. I mean go through games
like Legend of Xanadu, Emerald Dragon, and the Tengai Makyou series and
make english versions and subtitle the cinemas. It CAN'T be that
difficult. Especially when you consider the WD formula of transalting
games- translate the essential information that characters need to read
(story, where to go next, etc.) and make up the rest. I would be willing
to put money in with anybody to make copies and package a game like
this. The trick of course is having the ability to break into the code of
a game and translate the text. I know squat about programming and stuff
like that, but I am a polyglot, and my Japanese is getting better. This is
the direction we should go in. I wish I knew how you hackers did it! I
would love to know all of the technical details on such a project. Please
be as specific as possible. I know this couldn't be done overnight but
wow would this be a great thing for the list to do.
Can you imagine a great PC Engine RPG being translated into
English?! That would sell like crazy...Telegames, NCS, TZD, Buyrite,
whatever...
I would love to hear your feedback about this...
Regards,
George
On Sat, 31 Mar 2001, Eagan Rackley wrote:
> Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2001 22:41:38 -0500 (EST)
> From: Eagan Rackley <xxxxxx@earthlink.net>
> To: xxxxxx@joyce.eng.yale.edu
> Subject: Re: Update from TZD
>
> You know dear old TZD and fans,
>
> I was wondering, with all of the great new tools for turbo development out
> there, is TZD ever thinking about releasing their own *new* turbo games?
>
> Just curious if it could ever happen. Maybe one day I'll get around to
> trying my hand at an Ys clone once Ysonline ether dies or hits the public:).
> Sure seems like there would be enough people wanting a new game to add to
> their collection.
>
> Also, does anyone know where NEC stands as far as licensing for new turbo
> games? Since NEC HE is gone, does that mean that people making new games
> would no longer need one?
>
> Take Care,
>
> Eagan
> icq:38232923
> xxxxxx@earthlink.net
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <xxxxxx@tzd.com>
> To: <xxxxxx@joyce.eng.yale.edu>