Dead of the Brain I & II

LowRes · 02/12/2018, 07:43 AM

Did a search on here and didn't come up with much recent information. Seems there was a lot of talk about this game getting worked on for a English translation years ago. Since it's 2018 now, has any progress been made on this game in English? I'd even be happy with the rumored French Translation lol

The game looks really good, It be nice to understand what's going on but I might try to give it shot regardless.

NecroPhile · 02/12/2018, 10:04 AM

I'd love to play it in English (it's got neat art), but I think it's sadly been abandoned.

LowRes · 02/12/2018, 02:52 PM

Quote from: guestI'd love to play it in English (it's got neat art), but I think it's sadly been abandoned.

That's unfortunate. Really looks like a good game. I think the PC98 version is translated so maybe I'll have to get into the PC98 too lol

tknjin · 02/13/2018, 06:23 AM

I have been wanting to get some people to do a translation with me. I would even be willing to help the programmers out by lending them my copies of the pc98 editions and pc engine versions to them. Although I have no idea how to get a team together to do such a project.

LowRes · 02/13/2018, 03:39 PM

Quote from: tknjin on 02/13/2018, 06:23 AMI have been wanting to get some people to do a translation with me. I would even be willing to help the programmers out by lending them my copies of the pc98 editions and pc engine versions to them. Although I have no idea how to get a team together to do such a project.

I have no idea how any game get's translated, I'm sure it's very time consuming. The game is also on the MSX. The MSX has Snatcher and SD Snatcher Translated which is great, I'm surprised there hasn't been more interest in Dead of the Brain getting translated on MSX too. Looks to be the same style of game as Snatcher

cccmar · 02/13/2018, 04:34 PM

Slowbeef (the Youtuber guy you may or may not have heard about) has been working on and off on a PC-98 port of this game, but I don't know how far along he is. You'd have to ask him about it probably. VNs are sadly the hardest to translate, because of the amount of text. This especially pertains to the ones for older, more obscure systems. Well, sometimes RPGs are worse I guess, due to all the menus.

Some projects are relatively easy - like the PCE HuCard games we did (War of the Dead, Out Live, Gai Flame etc.) PCE-CD games are considerably more difficult to work on, which is likely why you almost never see fan-translations for it - most of the translation groups are very Nintendo-centric anyway. By that I mean, there aren't any PCE-dedicated groups, like AGTP in the case of SNES. Anyhow, I hope either slowbeef or someone else finishes this game at some point. The PC-98 version would likely be easier to hack. One person made a translated walkthrough of it on YT, too (don't remember if he finished it or not) -

That's the best you're gonna get for now, I think.

esteban · 04/15/2018, 09:40 PM

Quote from: cccmar on 02/13/2018, 04:34 PMSlowbeef (the Youtuber guy you may or may not have heard about) has been working on and off on a PC-98 port of this game, but I don't know how far along he is. You'd have to ask him about it probably. VNs are sadly the hardest to translate, because of the amount of text. This especially pertains to the ones for older, more obscure systems. Well, sometimes RPGs are worse I guess, due to all the menus.

Some projects are relatively easy - like the PCE HuCard games we did (War of the Dead, Out Live, Gai Flame etc.) PCE-CD games are considerably more difficult to work on, which is likely why you almost never see fan-translations for it - most of the translation groups are very Nintendo-centric anyway. By that I mean, there aren't any PCE-dedicated groups, like AGTP in the case of SNES. Anyhow, I hope either slowbeef or someone else finishes this game at some point. The PC-98 version would likely be easier to hack. One person made a translated walkthrough of it on YT, too (don't remember if he finished it or not) -
That's the best you're gonna get for now, I think.

Ahhhh... thank you for all of this great info.

NightWolve · 04/15/2018, 09:52 PM

Quote from: cccmar on 02/13/2018, 04:34 PMPCE-CD games are considerably more difficult to work on, which is likely why you almost never see fan-translations for it - most of the translation groups are very Nintendo-centric anyway. By that I mean, there aren't any PCE-dedicated groups, like AGTP in the case of SNES.

Don't count out our PCECD powerhouse combo, team elmer & SamIAm!

NightWolve · 09/28/2018, 08:37 PM

Happy to report David Shadoff made some progress on the Dead of the Brain I & II fan translation project!

Quote from: @Shadoff_d 7:01 PM - 28 Sep 2018I finally got a chance to rewrite the PC Engine Dead of the Brain print function to my liking. It can also now intersperse 12x12 kanji and 8x12 roman characters. ...Now to work on script reinsertion.

Oh, the same print function is used in DotB 1 and 2, so that's a bonus.

It looks like he made use of the 8x12 PC-FX BIOS font I gave him from the Emerald Dragon project.

The NEC PC-FX, the future brother of the PC Engine, helping its predecessor of the past complete English localization projects in the present! That'd be a noteworthy "PCE-FX" legacy if it holds... ;)

dshadoff · 09/29/2018, 09:18 AM

Quote from: NightWolve on 09/28/2018, 08:37 PMHappy to report David Shadoff made some progress on the Dead of the Brain I & II English fan translation project!

To clarify, I don't have an English script - this project will be French (at least for now).

Dave

NightWolve · 09/29/2018, 05:29 PM

Oh yeah, you worked with a French translator starting off. I remember now. Too early of us to celebrate then, I see, that was quite a tease...

I take it SamIAm wouldn't be interested but there is that Tom guy. So we gotta help with English translator recruitment in due course.

exodus · 10/02/2018, 01:46 PM

Total aside, but I recently got a game called Marine Philt (weird name) for the FM Towns. Where Dead of the Brain is Nightmare Collection I, Marine Philt is Nightmare Collection II - so I guess it's like a... not a sequel, but a spiritual successor? That's fun!

You can see some stuff about it here:
https://www.mobygames.com/game/nightmare-collection-ii-marine-philt

pixeljunkie · 10/04/2018, 11:53 AM

Very cool update! I've always salivated at the thought of playing through this one.

NightWolve · 10/04/2018, 07:26 PM

Yeah, but just note again, this is a French-First project, heh. Though if it's fully hacked now, all the tools, the ability to go for English next is available eventually.

Another Japanese-English translator is needed because Dave wouldn't wanna go from French to English.

JoeQuaker · 10/05/2018, 02:02 PM

I played some of the PC-98 version then paused on that because I got into X-Girl (heh-heh) for a while. There's a video of a dude playing DOB for PC-98 in Japanese but he reads it aloud in English which might be helpful.

tobasoft · 10/09/2018, 03:44 PM

I actually just started playing the French translation of surging aura for mega drive. I can read spanish well so french isn't too hard to power through

NightWolve · 11/01/2023, 03:59 PM

David Shadoff/@dshadoff pulled off an English patch for Dead of the Brain 1 after all, and not just French First which was done by @shubibiman! Just in time for Halloween to boot!

romhacking.net/translations/7087/
github.com/dshadoff/PCE_xlate_DeadoftheBrain