Xanadu I and II - General Translation Project(s) Thread

[seieienbu]

Hurray!

[Johnpv]

The progress on this has been amazing, you guys rock!

[SamIAm]

Major milestone reached: The first pass of Xanadu 2 is done.

Both games are now essentially playable in English. It's all about polish from here out. That, and the dubbing project.

Elmer recently gave me the ADPCM stuff from Xanadu 2. Unlike the first game, Xanadu 2 only uses ADCPM for very short (~1 second) voice clips in and around boss fights. A lot of it is just "Yaa!" type noises. Sadly, these seem to be mushed together in a way that is going to be very inconvenient to deal with, so the dub project is going to need yet another week or two to kick off. At this point, I'm thinking late May or early June.

This is the right way to do it, though. By getting everything in line before we ask anyone to record, we are saving everyone time and trouble down the line. Anyway, don't worry, this is all coming right along.

[NightWolve]

If you had told me one day that both Xanadus would be getting fan-translated simultaneously, I wouldn't have believed it. Still hard to believe and with the level of detailed updates, persistence, determination, etc. that we've seen here... Don't get burned out. ;)

[elmer]

Major milestone reached: The first pass of Xanadu 2 is done.

Both games are now essentially playable in English. It's all about polish from here out. That, and the dubbing project.

Woohoo! Congratulations, Sam!

Now, perhaps, you'll actually let me play the game and see all your hard work! 

We've definitely come a long way:

...from...	...to...

[NecroPhile]

Heh, "we're almost there" indeed.

You guys are doing great work and much more quickly than I was expecting.  You're animals!

[ginoscope]

Great news keep up the good work. 

I am really amazed at the attention to detail.  The update posts have also been really awesome so thanks for the updates.

[Dicer]

Dreams do come true...

 

[NightWolve]

"Don't let your dreams be dreams... Yesterday, you said tomorrow. So just do it!!!!"

"Just do it!!! DDDDOOOOO IIIIITTTTT!!!"



Sorry, I just had to... DO IT!!!

[roflmao]

This is so awesome!

[elmer]

"Don't let your dreams be dreams... Yesterday, you said tomorrow. So just do it!!!!"

[seieienbu]

When you guys release the translation patches, we'll have the option to Not use the English dub, right?

edit:  I'm not trying to be rude here, I'll definitely play the English dubbed version as well.  I just want the option to pick either.

[shawnji]

Wow.  I'm really impressed at the amount of time you guys put into this and that it's almost finished.  I've been kind of inactive on here lately due to my workload increasing, but I would love to be part of the dub if you have need.  Ideally, I'd like to have an excuse to buy the nice mic setup I've been eyeballing on Amazon, too.

[mj9123456]

When you guys release the translation patches, we'll have the option to Not use the English dub, right?

edit:  I'm not trying to be rude here, I'll definitely play the English dubbed version as well.  I just want the option to pick either.

I was actually going to ask the same question. I'm really looking forward to playing the game, thanks a lot for all your hard work.

[SamIAm]

Yes, the option will be available.

[spenoza]

The ole' subbed vs dubbed debate is SO polarizing. So glad you will give folks the option. That way people can continue to grumble at each other and yet still win.

[mj9123456]

Yes, the option will be available.

Great news. It's always nice to have the option to play a game undubbed. Thanks.

[SamIAm]

A little update.

I started my second pass of Xanadu 1, and I'm already through the first two chapters.

The first chapter, the prologue, was still very rough. When I did the first pass, this was the very first area that I ever tackled, and since I was just getting my bearings, I wasn't very diligent. In a sense, this second time was my first proper pass of it. I'll definitely want to give it another careful go-through before I say it's done.

The process is, you translate something in the text dump, you get it running in the game, and when you see a line you don't like, you change it...but then what? Do you move on to other lines? Or do you shut the game down, re-insert your latest script, and restart it to see if the updated line is actually better and displaying properly?

During my first pass of Xanadu 1's prologue, when I altered something that wasn't working well, I was usually reloading and checking only once or not at all. For big overhauls, I might have gone through two cycles. However, if you really want to do it right, you need to reload and test every alteration as many times as it takes until you see the line (and the lines around it) running in the game in a fully satisfactory way.

I did that a little more during my first pass of the second chapter, and it definitely made the second pass a lot easier. IIRC, I was doing things the proper way from the fourth chapter onward, so hopefully things will be smooth from there out. The third chapter, I'm expecting to still have problems.

--------------------

Thank goodness Xanadu 1 and 2 let you save and load anywhere. It would take an excruciating amount of time to test changes if it didn't. See, if you're doing a fan-translation of a cart game, chances are that the game engine calls text directly from the ROM each time, and that means that you can often get away with using savestates to test changes. Since CD games load blocks of text into a RAM cache, however, you can't really do that. PCE-CD games especially tend to load up huge chunks of game at once to keep loading times down, so you might have go through an entire dungeon again from the start just to test changes to a conversation with a boss.

If and when someone tries to do another translation of a PCE-CD RPG in the future, I expect this to be a big problem. I'd recommend three things to deal with it:

1. Do your initial translation of each line while watching it appear in a recorded playback of the original game so that you make the best judgement calls possible right from the beginning. Look on nicovideo for a playthrough, or record your own with Mednafen.

2. Convince whoever is doing the hacking that you need cheat codes. You'll want to be able to turn off random battles, and also to make yourself so strong that you can wipe out any boss immediately.

3. Record your test-playing. Being able to rewind and rewatch something a few times will help you catch all the things you'll want to tweak.

---------------------------

Anyway, once I finish the second pass of the third chapter of Xanadu 1, I'm going to hand the translation to elmer to look at. I hope he doesn't think it sucks!

My wife is due with our first baby in mid-June, so I really want this as done as possible before then.

[Bardoly]

Great news!  Thanks for the updates!

[SamIAm]

Update time.

My second pass of Xanadu 1 is complete up to the start of Chapter 4 (aka the fifth chapter).

While the first two chapters were still rough, I am pleased to be able to say that by this point during my first pass, I was definitely doing a better job. The result is that during this second pass, what I'm doing to the lines is less like reforging and more like polishing.

Still, I'm testing every line repeatedly until I am happy with it, so it takes a while.

Elmer is going through Xanadu 1 for the very first time now. Can you believe he was nice enough to commit hundreds of hours to hacking a game he had never even played? He's completed the first three chapters, and the verdict so far seems positive.

Work on the dub is continuing on an almost daily basis, by the way. When is the script going to be ready? I don't know. But there's really no rush, because we're not going to release the game until everything is done, and that's a ways off.

[SamIAm]

Little update.

All of the logo-business in the other thread took most of my focus for about a week. Once elmer got the dimension for that increased from 240x32 to 240x64, however, I could rest easy knowing it wasn't going to take a compromise to get something nice in there.

I'm finally back at my second pass of Chapter 4 of Xanadu 1, and it's coming along well. As I mentioned ages ago, this one might be the most complex in the game just in terms of the sheer number of locations and characters. Doing another pass has helped me tweak some things that will make the story easier to understand.

Also, I'm now almost done making my own test-dub, which I'm doing to polish the dub script. I try to put an hour or so toward this every day.

[Dicer]

Little update.

All of the logo-business in the other thread took most of my focus for about a week. Once elmer got the dimension for that increased from 240x32 to 240x64, however, I could rest easy knowing it wasn't going to take a compromise to get something nice in there.

I'm finally back at my second pass of Chapter 4 of Xanadu 1, and it's coming along well. As I mentioned ages ago, this one might be the most complex in the game just in terms of the sheer number of locations and characters. Doing another pass has helped me tweak some things that will make the story easier to understand.

Also, I'm now almost done making my own test-dub, which I'm doing to polish the dub script. I try to put an hour or so toward this every day.

You and everyone else are doing the lords work...tyvm

[esteban]

^ The Lord's Work. Thank you.

[spenoza]

The Lord's Wok is how you make Holy Stir Fry.

[esteban]

The Lord's Wok is how you make Holy Stir Fry.

Indubitably.

[SamIAm]

Chapter 4's second pass is done.

The next three chapters are the big fat ones. I'll probably need until the end of the month to get through them. The good news is, it's downhill after that; story-wise, the last third of Xanadu 1 is relatively short and fast-paced, and Xanadu 2 only has about 40% as much text as the first game.

My current prediction is that I'll finish the second pass of both games in August.

The work won't end there - aside from the dub madness, I'll probably want to have people test-play the games and give them a light third pass myself. However, after this second pass, I think I'll be able to say that I've done most of what I can for the scripts on my own. Hopefully, that will mean they're already pretty decent.

[jtucci31]

By August I will probably have beaten Xanadu 2 on my first go around, so I'd love to give both games a light passover once you've done your part. Count me in for helping out on that front if you'd like the help

[elmer]

Help!!!

SamIAm has a few important distractions right now, and I'm really, really enjoying playtesting his wonderful translation and want to get passed this blockage.

I'm stuck on Ch.5 (the one with the rock-slide, and the underground section where you dynamite your way through an underground section to get to a town).

I've got to the forest where I'm supposed to capture a Spirit's Tear (the small white sprite that's moving around), in order to take it back to the Head Nun in the Church.

I can't figure out how to trap the darned thing!!!

Can anyone give me a clue? Please? 

[Dicer]

Help!!!

SamIAm has a few important distractions right now, and I'm really, really enjoying playtesting his wonderful translation and want to get passed this blockage.

I'm stuck on Ch.5 (the one with the rock-slide, and the underground section where you dynamite your way through an underground section to get to a town).

I've got to the forest where I'm supposed to capture a Spirit's Tear (the small white sprite that's moving around), in order to take it back to the Head Nun in the Church.

I can't figure out how to trap the darned thing!!!

Can anyone give me a clue? Please? 

Let me test and I'll help ya out...

[elmer]

Let me test and I'll help ya out...

Thanks! 

SamIAm popped up out of nowhere and gave me a clue, and I finally got the darned thing.

It was as simple as pressing the "action" button at the right time as the sprite passed through me.

I thought that I'd already tried that ... but apparently not.

I feel like a total idiot! 

<EDIT>

BTW ... this game is great!

SamIAm has done such a great job on the translation!

I' really loving all the detail that Falcom put into this game that SamIAm is conveying so well in his words as I'm playing it. 

[SamIAm]

Update time.

The second pass of Xanadu 1's Chapter 6 is done, and Chapter 7 (the biggest in either game) is about a third complete. Thankfully, the amount of polishing I have to do keeps going doing with each chapter, as it seems I kept doing things in a smarter and smarter way as I went on during the first pass.

I think you guys will be impressed with the sheer volume of story in Xanadu 1 in particular. Each chapter is practically a bite-size RPG all by itself.

My first child was born on the 18th. He's a cute little dude and I'm happy to give him all the attention he needs, but he does cut into my time to work on the project.

Also, my job's six weeks of peak business is coming in mid-July. Whether I can keep up the pace will depend on how much overtime I have to do and how mentally burnt out I get.

I still spend time on this project every day - at least an hour on work-days, and a lot more on my few days off. I also usually manage to make progress on both dub side and the in-game text side.

There's really no reason to rush the dub, so I'm not going to. Getting it done now won't make the project finish any faster, and taking it slow is probably going to result in better quality.


I hate to say it, because it's going to become another big "thing" to do, but we really ought to get a project page going for this. 

[TurboXray]

Just don't burn yourself out. It's easy to do on these large projects.

[esteban]

Just don't burn yourself out. It's easy to do on these large projects.

Seriously.

These two have accomplished so much in a comparatively short period of time.

I still have novels I want to read on my "to do list" ...they have been there for over 20 years now...

[elmer]

My first child was born on the 18th. He's a cute little dude and I'm happy to give him all the attention he needs, but he does cut into my time to work on the project.

Woohoo, finally a chance for a public "congratulations", Sam! 

There's really no reason to rush the dub, so I'm not going to. Getting it done now won't make the project finish any faster, and taking it slow is probably going to result in better quality.

Ack ... I'd forgotten that I need to get those "insertion" scripts written for you to test stuff! 

I hate to say it, because it's going to become another big "thing" to do, but we really ought to get a project page going for this. 

I've spent many years carefully cultivating a blissfull ignorance of web-page design techniques, so I'm afraid that I'm not going to be much help there.

Just don't burn yourself out. It's easy to do on these large projects.

Yep, SamIAm's been doing a lot of work on these for a long time.

Occasionally it's important to just kick back for a while and recharge ...

[spenoza]

Congrats, SamIAm! I have one on the way. Take your time. We've waited this long. I think we'd rather have you happy and healthy, as that's a better guarantee this'll get done. You get burned out and all bets are off the table  ; )  Besides, you have a little OBEY to raise into the PCE family.

[SamIAm]

Just don't burn yourself out. It's easy to do on these large projects.

Ha ha...if that was going to happen, it would have happened already. 

I can't even believe it when I say it, but we are honestly and truly getting close to having two full size PCE RPGs completely translated at the same time.

I've wanted to do something like this for over a decade. There is nothing that is going to stop me from getting these games done now. 

Woohoo, finally a chance for a public "congratulations", Sam! 

Thanks! 

The little guy is beginning to figure out when he's only being held rather than actively being paid attention to, which means that when I park him in my lap while doing some play-test-editing, I have to give him running commentary.

Ack ... I'd forgotten that I need to get those "insertion" scripts written for you to test stuff! 

*cracks whip*

...Nah, I won't actually need it too quickly. In terms of what you have left to do, there's the ADPCM insertion, the chapter-title graphics for Xanadu 2, the credits...anything else?

I've spent many years carefully cultivating a blissfull ignorance of web-page design techniques, so I'm afraid that I'm not going to be much help there.

Maybe we can just provide some text and graphics, and some brave champion will volunteer to pretty it up a little.

Actually, it really doesn't need to be much. For the dub auditions, we need a nice table that lays out the name/image/bio/voice-type/audition line/link to Japanese sample for each character, probably put into separate pages for male and female roles.

For the main page (note the singular), we mostly just need something that we can link to in our announcements, including the RHDN news bulletin. This would have a generous number of screenshots, links to a couple of teaser videos on youtube, and a full-bodied, nicely written introduction.

Bandwidth allowing, we could also host scans of advertisements and other things.

Yep, SamIAm's been doing a lot of work on these for a long time.

Occasionally it's important to just kick back for a while and recharge ...

Ha ha ha...

My unofficial theme song while I work on these games is this.

[elmer]

Ha ha ha...

My unofficial theme song while I work on these games is this.

Hahaha, listening to that immediately made me think of this ...

Gotta watch that again, soon.

[NightWolve]

My unofficial theme song while I work on these games is this.

Fine choice from a masterpiece, I really loved that game! That final battle was truly epic, just incredible, and it reminded me why I ever got into gaming in the first place! Glad I picked it out of my backlog and finished it off a few years ago.

[SamIAm]

Update time.

The second pass of Xanadu 1's beastly Chapter 7 is done. Chapter 8 is just shy of being halfway. The next two chapters are both happily on the skinny side, and they are also essentially the last ones since the final Chapter 11 barely has any text in it.

Sadly, the busy time at work is upon me. I have a week to prepare, and then it's going to be crazy until the end of August. My progress is going to slow down, and I might not be able to participate in some of the time-consuming discussions we've been having around here or keep in touch with elmer quite as frequently.

The good news is that I do have days off, including an entire week from August 11th to the 16th and the last three days of that month. Tomorrow is a day off as well, and if I can finish Chapter 8, I might be able to manage getting all the way through Xanadu 2 by the end of August as I originally hoped.

After that, I'll focus exclusively on the dub for a while. When we have that in the can, I'll do a (hopefully faster) third pass that will be include some testers...and that might be it.

When elmer and I were working on Zeroigar, I was able to approach editing in a truly perfectionist way. That game only takes about an hour to beat, and we went through it again and again over the course of a few months. It was easy to savor each line both on its own and as part of the whole, and tweak things over and over until we really felt like everything was as good as it could be. You could show me any line from that game, and I could tell you why I think it's in the best form possible.

These Xanadu games are just too big for that. Word-count wise, we're probably talking about over 100x as much text. We can polish out all typos, grammar errors, inconsistencies, and really flat-sounding lines. For the most part, this is already done. However, if we try to make it so that every single text-box is phrased in the absolute most ideal way possible, we'll never get this done.

It think this will be an exercise in leaving well-enough alone and hoping that anything that is less than awesome won't really detract from the overall experience anyway.

[destructive cactus]

Whoo! This is so exciting. I forget if I've already commented in this thread before, but I'd like to volunteer for any help with audio/testing. I have a duo-r with an everdrive and also am a recording musician with a good vocal mic and outboard gear/effects and could help out in that capacity, if there's a need. Please feel free to ask me anything in here or via PM if you think I might be able to help!

[jtucci31]

These Xanadu games are just too big for that. Word-count wise, we're probably talking about over 100x as much text. We can polish out all typos, grammar errors, inconsistencies, and really flat-sounding lines. For the most part, this is already done. However, if we try to make it so that every single text-box is phrased in the absolute most ideal way possible, we'll never get this done.

It think this will be an exercise in leaving well-enough alone and hoping that anything that is less than awesome won't really detract from the overall experience anyway.

Yeah as long as it reads pretty well and is devoid of any glaring grammatical errors, I'm completely and utterly happy with this! I still just can't even believe it's gotten as far as it has

[SamIAm]

Whoo! This is so exciting. I forget if I've already commented in this thread before, but I'd like to volunteer for any help with audio/testing. I have a duo-r with an everdrive and also am a recording musician with a good vocal mic and outboard gear/effects and could help out in that capacity, if there's a need. Please feel free to ask me anything in here or via PM if you think I might be able to help!

Hi, and thanks for your interest!

Basically all of the mixing is going to be done digitally via Audacity, which is adequate for the job. However, one thing we're going to want to have that I'm not really familiar with is cool distortion effects for some of the boss voices. If you happen to be familiar with how to do this, whatever the method, I'd love to chat.

Anyway, with a good microphone, you and/or any of your friends would be in a good position to play one of the roles in the dub. One of these days, I'll get around to casting, and I hope you'll be up for trying out!

-----------------------------

In other news, I finished Chapter 8 and actually got a lot of Chapter 9 done already. My money is on having the second pass of Xanadu 1 complete by the end of the month, and that's a very nice place to be.

Yeah as long as it reads pretty well and is devoid of any glaring grammatical errors, I'm completely and utterly happy with this! I still just can't even believe it's gotten as far as it has

I think people will be happy with the quality. Each time I do a pass, I reload every conversation repeatedly until I test every change and otherwise see the whole thing working well enough that I'm not hit with any ideas about how to improve it. Even in this second round, it's completely normal to reload a conversation more than 10 times before it's done.

It's just that I know that if I did a fourth or fifth pass, I'd probably bump into things I'd want to change. Sometimes it's a matter of not being able to notice one problem because it's surrounded by the noise of other problems. Other times, it's a matter of having gone with an idea that's only "good enough" because I just couldn't think of anything better, but upon coming back to it weeks or months later, I can go at it with a fresh mind and come up something that's actually "good".

Hopefully, by now, there's not much of either kind of issue left, and whatever is there can be zapped in a quick third pass.

[destructive cactus]

cool distortion effects for some of the boss voices

Yeah, I think I could help here - would be glad to talk it over and/or try some things! All the 90s vocal 'tricks' are pretty easy and fun to do nowadays.

[SamIAm]

Chapter 9 is done!

I think I'll have the second pass of Xanadu 1 complete within the next four days.

Xanadu 2 should be relatively smooth sailing the second time around. It's a smaller and simpler game to begin with, and my editing was firing on all cylinders by the time I got to it for its first pass. I'm definitely gunning to have it done by the end of August.

I can't wait to find out which game elmer likes more.

[elmer]

Chapter 9 is done!

And Chapter 9 is played through! Dang, I'm enjoying this game. 

Falcom really went overboard with all the different things that people say.

Since the lines are in the separate scripts that correspond to each different location, and you visit each location multiple times as the story progresses ...  it must have driven SamIAm absolutely mad trying to figure out which line was said exactly when in the overall progression of things in order to give just the right nuance to each line. 

I'm glad that only have to deal with the coding.

But now I'm stuck waiting for Chapter 10 ... and I really want to know what happens next!!! 

[SamIAm]

After a marathon-couple of days, the second play-test pass of Xanadu 1 is done. 

I'm going to wait until maybe Friday before starting Xanadu 2 just to clear my head a little bit.

In the meantime, I hope elmer enjoys finally being able to finish one of the games. 

[SamIAm]

Out of curiosity, who here has completed the dungeon at the end of Xanadu 1 before? If you have, you should give elmer some encouragement now.

I don't want to spoil too much for people who aren't familiar with it, but that last dungeon is dumbfoundingly huge and complex. It's a tower with 30 (31?) floors, and each one is practically as much of an ordeal as any single dungeon in any previous chapter. You could split the whole thing off as a separate game, and it would stand.

The good thing is, you can go back to a checkpoint after each floor, and the middle ten are actually the easiest, so it's not that hard to work at. It just takes a little perseverance, that's all.

[NecroPhile]

You can doo eeet! 

If my dumb ass could make it through with zero moon rune skillz, you should cruise right through soon enough.

[elmer]

I don't want to spoil too much for people who aren't familiar with it, but that last dungeon is dumbfoundingly huge and complex. It's a tower with 30 (31?) floors, and each one is practically as much of an ordeal as any single dungeon in any previous chapter. You could split the whole thing off as a separate game, and it would stand.

It's not SO bad since they've given you a map if you buy the CD ... but OMFG ... I'm only on level 4/5 and they're making me go up one or two levels and then drop back down through holes in the floor just to get to different parts of earlier floors to unlock things!!!! 

I've scanned the map to make it large enough to read, but I'm probably going to have to print it out so that I can mark stuff on it like where the holes go, and where the waterfall warp points go, just so that I can see which bits of each level I've actually explored.

This really does look large enough to be a separate game itself.

[jtucci31]

It ain't easy and it's definitely daunting to say the least. I felt so damn accomplished when I beat it. You can do it elmer!!! Just play for hours on end, don't take many breaks. The more you're at it, the better you'll get.