Starting an article on fan-translation… need some advices.

[Hachis Parmentier]

Hello there. I've started to gather some resources on fan-translation for an article at Emuscene. I'm only at the beginning of the process…

Do you have some pointers for me? Specifically on the history of fan-translations.

I would like also to set up an interview with some prominent translators/hackers, I'll probably send them some formal requests soon.

The structure as of now looks like this:
1) History of Video Games (as concise as possible, it's only there to give a clear background)
2) When and why did fans started to translate video games? (with maybe some kind of timeline)
3) How do they work?
4) Who are they anyway? (here maybe some short interviews)
5) Legal status of fan-translation/ROM Hacking
6) What's next? (new formats, copy protection, new platforms…)

OK, please tell me what you think of this project…

[Joe Camacho]

I find it pretty interesting, report back when you have more information... Sadly, current dejap member are busy with other stuff, so it might be difficult to contact them, Cidolfas and Tomato post here once in a while, but don't count with a fast response.

Good luck.

[Cidolfas]

I'm here, but unfortunately I'm a very late comer to fan translations, so I can't help you all that much. Tomato and Gideon Zhi (Louis Cypher) can help you more, as can Nightcrawler, Thunderclaw, and a few others who post here.

[Hachis Parmentier]

Yes, Gideon and Tomato are already on my list, so as you, Neil Corlett and some others (I know it may be a little frightening to learn that you are on someone's list), I'll need to do some homework before actually starting the interviews. Too bad DarkForce is out… he could have been helpful I think.

The scene is sooo big, now… there are translators everywhere, taking english patches and turning them into greek or french or brasilian portuguese…

Anyway, thanks for your interest.

[Nightcrawler]

I've been in the translation/romhacking scene since 1996. I used to talk to J3d, the original founder of DeJap! I'd be happy to answer some questions, but I don't have the time to write a long play by play on the history of the scene or anything.

[snkcube]

Off Topic: Hachis Parmentier, your avatar is a tad bit too big. Could you resize it a bit?

[ThunderClaw]

Let me see what I can answer for you here...

The structure as of now looks like this:
1) History of Video Games (as concise as possible, it's only there to give a clear background)

I could write you a college textbook, really. Console games as we are familiar with them started with the Atari consoles, which had a stranglehold on the entire industry for a while. The TurboGraphix 16 (or PC-Engine) was created by someone not-Atari, I'm not sure who right off the top of my head, and Sega and Nintendo came later. They wrestled for a few generations and Sony came in and Sega dropped out. Then Microsoft came in.

2) When and why did fans started to translate video games? (with maybe some kind of timeline)

When is fairly hazy, since pretty much from the dawn of the modern computer, people have been using them to understand systems they couldn't any other way.

When I first joined the emulation scene in 1999, translations were already a brisk trade. Whirlpool had lots of entries even back then. I cannot, however, accurately tell you who did the first translation, or on what game.

The why has remained pretty much the same over the years. They do it because they find the challenge enjoyable and they like helping people by bringing awesome games to thier doorstep. There are particulars that tend to differ--Gideon, masochist that he is, uses reverse engineering as a release after a hard day of work (yes, he is completely insane). Some translators that I've worked with basically want to prove to themselves that they can do it. But the core of the gift-economy mentality is the same.

3) How do they work?

The translation process? Well, to overgeneralize, what hackers basically do is analyze a ROM's compiled, finished form (IE: The same ROM you'd put into ZSNES to play it) and isolate the text based on a few laws for a basis and a lot of fluid experimentation and trial and error. There's lots of stuff that can change this, like compression or things in the ROM that are just 'fucking weird'. The Romancing SaGa games are perfect examples of this. Most games have a lot to most to all of the game's total text in one big block. Not the RS games. They have them rather randomly splattered throughout the ROM's coding.

Anyway, after isolating the text and tabling it up so they know what is what, they have to use specialized programs called text dumpers to get the script to text format. Many times a generic one does not cut it and the hacker has to write specialized tools for each game. The dumped text goes to a translator then.

After the text is translated, it has to be reinserted back into the ROM, which is commonly just as much of an ordeal as dumping it in the first place. All sorts of little details like pointer tables and limiters wreak havoc on paraprofessional attempts. A classic example of this is Yes/No menus. The Japanese use two characters for 'yes' ('ha' and 'i') and three characters for 'no' ('i', 'i', and 'e'). Obviously this does not suit the hacker at all, and they're forced to rewrite the game's coding from the outside to compensate for this. That's one of the most basic examples. You also have to deal with the fact that English requires far more characters than Japanese to say a single thing, so the text blocks that worked fine in a japanese game may be critically short in an English one. That requires the hacker to expand the ROM, which again is no easy task.

4) Who are they anyway? (here maybe some short interviews)

I'd be happy to answer any questions you have, but I'm hardly a prominant figure in the hacking community. I got out of the scene years ago because I wasn't having fun with it.

5) Legal status of fan-translation/ROM Hacking

Disputable. American copyright law expressly allows software owners to make personal modifications their own stuff. However, whether or not translations aid and abet piracy is all debatable. It's a moot point to companies, however, since, particularly with 16-bit consoles, almost all of the games are almost unattainable now and certainly not hurting thier sales.

It's a gray area, but it's a gray area pretty roundly ignored by the law enforcement community.

6) What's next? (new formats, copy protection, new platforms…)

As the understanding of each platform grows, it's inevitable that people will start trying to challenge themselves and translate new games. I'd say it's almost a certainty that we will see translations of PS2 and GameCube games at some point in time, but I'd say it's just as certain that it won't happen until it's become technically feasible to emulate the systems and the understanding of the inner workings of them matures.

[Louis Cypher]

Er, The Whirlpool didn't even open for business 'til March 31st, Y2K

[ThunderClaw]

Er, The Whirlpool didn't even open for business 'til March 31st, Y2K

It didn't? I distinctly remember hitting donut regularly shortly after I showed up. I'm probably just remembering wrong, I guess. Or maybe I just showed up in late '99. I don't even remember any more, honestly.