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Post subject: Spot Translation Request
PostPosted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 4:46 am 
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This is not the usual type of request in this category. I won't be posting a series of strings in a long scene that I need fully translated for story refinement.

Instead, I will post a few random strings and ask about specific usages within.

This first one is driving me absolutely nuts tonight. I'm in a village called Mukabi about 15% into the game. The place is beset with a fungus disease. Spores are raining down. Everything is contaminated, even the drinking water and food. The people are going crazy, and many of them are uttering a gibberish that appears to be sort of a hysterical laughter. If I've guessed correctly, I could make it about anything along that line. What I want to do, however, is confirm exactly what it means and come up with a good localization.

It's something along the order of: "Go-ho-tsu, Go-ho-tsu, Go-ho-go-ho-tsu" In this first string we have the generic RPG village greeter who says, "This is Mukabi Village. We have a situation for the time being!" But it's interspersed with all of this other gobbledegook! It's Katakana, but as I said I can't make heads or tails of what the author "borrowed".

.POINTER = $215E51
; Start = $2165A8
; 「ゴホッ ここがムカビの町ゴホッ!
; とりあえず 伝えることは伝えたぞ
; ゴホゴホッ!

Here are a few more:

.POINTER = $215E7D
; Start = $2168F2
; 「ゴホッ どうやらカビ病に
; やられたようじゃ ゴホッ ゴホッ

.POINTER = $215E89
; Start = $2169D5
; 「ゴホッ… カビ病は治ったけど
; カゼひいちゃいました… トホホ

.POINTER = $215E91
; Start = $216A7D
; 「ゴホッ! ゴホゴホゴホ
This woman spouts nothing but: "Go-ho-tsu! Go-ho-go-ho-go-ho."[end]

Next, I see the possible word "nikki" in this game frequently. The meaning of everything else in the numerous strings containing "nikki" are usually crystal clear. But I would like to know if I'm missing something that pertains to a unique characterization in this game.

.POINTER = $215E59
; Start = $216653
; 「最近 カビ病という病気が
; はやっておる かかったものは
; まず助からん恐ろしい病気じゃ

Finally, I see the word "eagle" frequently, but we have no "bird eagle" in the game. As best I can tell, it relates to surveillance or detection of information through various means including a device or vantage or maybe even a huge crystal ball-type contraption the villain possesses. Or, in some cases, as the one below, it seems to pertain to a specific person the speaker is referencing or addressing.

.POINTER = $22013F
; Start = $220C58
; ポット「Rumiella, そんなに わしに会いたかったのか

Whatever nikki and eagle mean in these strings will probably be universal in this game and clear up about half of my muddles. Many thanks, kind translator who happens along!

Edit: It came to me in a dream last night (really!) that all of this "go-ho-tsu" business could be a choking or throat-clearing sound. Remember, the town is literally suffocating under a constant barrage of yellow mold spores raining down.

l also dreamed an encounter with a woman who uttered a double entendre with a sexual innuendo that I can't repeat on this "family hour" show! Geeze, I wish I could use it somewhere in this story, but I can't! I will say the lady was somewhat akin to Barbara Stanwick in The Big Valley TV series - a strong matriarchal type with a definite attitude toward protecting her domain.

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Post subject: Re: Spot Translation Request
PostPosted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 5:49 pm 
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Posts: 30
Wildbill wrote:
This is not the usual type of request in this category. I won't be posting a series of strings in a long scene that
It's something along the order of: "Go-ho-tsu, Go-ho-tsu, Go-ho-go-ho-tsu" In this first string we have the generic RPG village greeter who says, "This is Mukabi Village. We have a situation for the time being!" But it's interspersed with all of this other gobbledegook! It's Katakana, but as I said I can't make heads or tails of what the author "borrowed".


It's coughing.

Wildbill wrote:
Next, I see the possible word "nikki" in this game frequently. The meaning of everything else in the numerous strings containing "nikki" are usually crystal clear. But I would like to know if I'm missing something that pertains to a unique characterization in this game.

.POINTER = $215E59
; Start = $216653
; 「最近 カビ病という病気が
; はやっておる かかったものは
; まず助からん恐ろしい病気じゃ


Do you mean "byouki" or illness?

Paraphrasing and taking a bit of liberty with the sentence. I don't have the voice correct. Is it an older man speaking?

> Recently we've been stricken by a so-called mold disease. It's a terrifying illness with no cure (for the infected).

Wildbill wrote:
Finally, I see the word "eagle" frequently, but we have no "bird eagle" in the game. As best I can tell, it relates to surveillance or detection of information through various means including a device or vantage or maybe even a huge crystal ball-type contraption the villain possesses. Or, in some cases, as the one below, it seems to pertain to a specific person the speaker is referencing or addressing.

.POINTER = $22013F
; Start = $220C58
; ポット「Rumiella, そんなに わしに会いたかったのか



No. The is is Pot making a joke I think. (Urnie is brilliant btw :-) Again, not in any sort of voice for him.

> Urnie: Did you really want to meet me so much, Rumiella?


Maybe in November I can take a look at the script. Do you have a VCS or something to manage it?


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Post subject: Re: Spot Translation Request
PostPosted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 10:05 pm 
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Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 11:54 pm
Posts: 2340
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gerb wrote:
Wildbill wrote:
This is not the usual type of request in this category. I won't be posting a series of strings in a long scene that
It's something along the order of: "Go-ho-tsu, Go-ho-tsu, Go-ho-go-ho-tsu" In this first string we have the generic RPG village greeter who says, "This is Mukabi Village. We have a situation for the time being!" But it's interspersed with all of this other gobbledegook! It's Katakana, but as I said I can't make heads or tails of what the author "borrowed".


It's coughing.

Wildbill wrote:
Next, I see the possible word "nikki" in this game frequently. The meaning of everything else in the numerous strings containing "nikki" are usually crystal clear. But I would like to know if I'm missing something that pertains to a unique characterization in this game.

.POINTER = $215E59
; Start = $216653
; 「最近 カビ病という病気が
; はやっておる かかったものは
; まず助からん恐ろしい病気じゃ


Do you mean "byouki" or illness?

Paraphrasing and taking a bit of liberty with the sentence. I don't have the voice correct. Is it an older man speaking?

> Recently we've been stricken by a so-called mold disease. It's a terrifying illness with no cure (for the infected).

Wildbill wrote:
Finally, I see the word "eagle" frequently, but we have no "bird eagle" in the game. As best I can tell, it relates to surveillance or detection of information through various means including a device or vantage or maybe even a huge crystal ball-type contraption the villain possesses. Or, in some cases, as the one below, it seems to pertain to a specific person the speaker is referencing or addressing.

.POINTER = $22013F
; Start = $220C58
; ポット「Rumiella, そんなに わしに会いたかったのか



No. The is is Pot making a joke I think. (Urnie is brilliant btw :-) Again, not in any sort of voice for him.

> Urnie: Did you really want to meet me so much, Rumiella?


Maybe in November I can take a look at the script. Do you have a VCS or something to manage it?
Edit:

Oh, I "cheat" when I translate. I'm always in the actual game at my insertion point, so I pull out the "meat and potatoes" and whatever else I can glean directly from the raw string. Then, if the speaker is a monster, villain, old man, king, princess, child, girl, mayor, barkeep, doctor, shopkeeper, whatever - not to mention specific characters that I "know" very well, I can add the "young fellahs", "whippersnappers", "hail fellow - well mets", soldier-talk, drunken gibberish, central metaphors, and anything else indicated in the Katakana, spiced with my own flavor (style) of "storytelling".

As for Urnie, all of the pots, urns, and jars in the games are now just straight urns. Urnie get VERY excited over urns. Some contain trapped summon-monsters, and Urnie always builds the suspense whenever a hapless game player clicks on a potentially "hot" urn! And... your humble story writer has been known to build the excitement level ever higher...! (Just short of setting off a nuclear explosion if we click on it again!) I guess we could say... For Urnie, these two games are "urn-based" RPGs, hee-hee..., in two different ways!!*

*
Spoiler! :
For those who don't know, Urnie is a summoner who has been imprisoned inside an urn for various "misdeeds"!


-end edit

Gerb, hello again, and thanks! Hey, that would be fantastic! Should I keep muddling along to shorten your workload should you decide to take it on?

The way I'm managing the script is through block files that I open in EditPadPro with settings for Japanese support. That way I can see both the Japanese (above) and the English (below) for side-by-side comparisons.

You probably already know this. The pointer information at the top zings the English into the working ROM at the correct location. Control codes and other symbols direct what inserts and what doesn't in a given string. I can take a finished block from a translator, zipped and attached to an e-mail, unzip it, insert all of the new English directly in, and refine it from there. So, all I really need is two things: the English typed directly below the Japanese in each text file with no semicolons (;) in front of each English line and second: the control code [end] at the very end of the last English line in each string. Any line in the text block file with a semicolon as the lead character will NOT insert, so that is a good way to write notes with amplifying information.

BTW, SSMS-I is completely finished. I just need to make final beta refinements. I'm in no hurry to release it, though. I would rather work on this one than spend a week writing a readme and dealing with player reports for a month after that! Plus, gamers still have the old English version out there to play.

Characters back from #1 include Poyon, Babu, Kupi, Elder Hermit Crab, Great Gnome, and Urnie. Finding Urnie in Grangram Castle was a real hoot, hee-hee...! I won't spoil it. I was hoping more old fighters would return, but I am loving the new characters just as much.

The real magic in this project is that Bongo` cracked and expanded this HUGE ROM! The whole structure of data storage, etc., is different than the prequel. Some items in the original that were file-loaded are graphic-loaded in this one. I also lost the clear-screen code [clrs] in this one, so the story will scroll with a keypunch following string, regardless of how many lines it contains (up to three), based on the [end] codes. We do have the [newl] code, but it places a blank line between two text lines, so it's used very sparingly.

Nice to hear from you again, Gerb! Take care.


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Post subject: Re: Spot Translation Request
PostPosted: Mon Sep 08, 2014 12:49 pm 
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Another reason why this game will take forever if I translate it...

Everything following may or may not be a spoiler because people have differing viewpoints regarding this subject. To me, none of this would be a spoiler.

I just wanted to point out how critical a good translator is to what we do. Sometimes, I don't believe we give them enough credit.

Here is a townie speaking in Tontace Village. The information he is imparting is important to story flow and presages upcoming tasks, unlike many townies who just restate the obvious or make conversation. If I was fluent, I could probably type a translation as fast as I could read it and move along rapidly. Instead, I worked on this a good fifteen minutes to produce a decent first draft.

.POINTER = $215EBB
; Start = $216D96
; 「イノスが いいなづけのアンドレを
; さがしに 西のナイカロ山に
; 行ったきり もどってこねえだよ
Andre's fiance Inez left to
look for him on Nycalo mountain
in the west.
Neither returned, and everyone
is worried about them![end]

My raw translation looked something like this:

Inos is Andre's good associate.
She went to Naikaro mountain in the west to search [for him].
She has not come back.

So, knowing some of the back story, I learned in the previous town that Andre was a woodcutter who was engaged to Inez, but no one could travel to the wedding because of the mold disease. Therefore, "good associate" became "fiance". Now I arrive in Tontace to hire "Andre the lumberjack" to remove an obstacle in my path, only to learn that the engaged couple has disappeared. Some of my background knowledge derives from Arcadia's excellent walkthrough. Dialogue strings and audiovisual information add to that.

With patience and a bit of Japanese knowledge, I feel that anyone can translate with roughly 95% accuracy. What I either miss or struggle with are slang usages, dialects, idioms, truncations, Japanese pop-culture expressions, historical (period) context, sound effects, and finally - syntax. Wrapping up the first draft of this string, I built suspense by adding my own statement of the obvious that "the village is worried". Otherwise, a literal translation is about as exciting as gathering horse apples for lawn fertilizer!

I'm not bragging, but personally I feel a bit of satisfaction at being as successful at translating as I've become. I constantly surprise myself by looking at an impossible string after an hour sometimes and saying, "Yeah, I believe this is what is really happening in this game!" I literally watch this game come to life one tiny piece at a time - in English! But translating is not and will never be a strong aptitude for me. In fact, it's a really frustrating struggle at times, but I do these extra tasks to help the team produce another English game.

I am a writer. That is what I do. Truth be known, that is all I really wanna do!

So... SSMS-II, Captain Baltz, Urnie, W/B, and Bongo` are literally crying out for someone who can peer into a みかがみのさら and declare, "I am a translator. That's what I do!" Hee-hee...!!

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