rwthw wrote:
Yeah, Takashi/Tako/ChiBTenchI, he used to go to CTC as well back when we were all working on the project, then the whole emupolice thingy happened, then he stopped romhacking and turned his focus to art. The original patch/screenshots of when we worked on it together, I'm not sure how/who did the translation work on it, if there was any, in fact I remember the very first preliminary work the main character was translated to "Duu" hahaha.
But Tako passed away last January, I believe it was from an aneurysm. Chojin was pretty good friends with him and was the one who broke the news to me.
I'll send you an email when I have some free time, I'm no longer the 16 year old adolescent I was when I first got into this thing so many years ago haha.
Deltaflame
There are some familiar names I remember from the past - before I sort of checked out of the scene. When you mentioned Takashi, I knew who you meant. By all means - if the whole group and team agree - I would support dedicating our BH patch to Tako. At any rate, don't mourn the fact that some of our early translations were less than accurate or pristine during their early stages. I recently stated that we did the best we could during those days, using the knowledge and resources at our disposal. People who stepped up to meet the challenge, and then shared some of their efforts are to be commended. They should all be thanked, not condemned!
Believe it or not, I was 16-years-old once. I considered myself fairly sharp at the time, although I possessed considerably less experience, education, and achievements. From a purely physical standpoint, aging may have altered my physical appearance somewhat, but certain aspects of my mind remain intact from childhood.
I can see myself now during my final days in about 30 or 40 years, still writing game scripts if any SNES RPGs remain undone. Yes, I'll have this gadget at my bedside that Bongo` invented. I'll pick it up and see the game on one side and a sound-activated word processor on the other. I'll speak the new dialogue then utter, "Paste." Naturally, I'll want to use Byuu's plug-in that inserts voice into the expanded ROM, but I'll designate that my voice be substituted for Charleton Heston's or Zsa Zsa Gabor's, wherever applicable!
Then, Draken's face, who is signed into instant edit mode, will suddenly flash over my working side. "Who is this senile old fart who thinks he can still write stories at HIS age?" he will sputter. Heh, I'll just chuckle and mention the broken teapot! Then Bongo` will check in and I'll ask him if we can finish fixing the TnD title page and Intro in time for a 2025 release! Taskforce will keep tampering with the font, changing the CPL constantly, but my auto-format software will redraw the game screen display. I won't need to look up control codes all the time either or cut and paste from somewhere. I'll just place a gnarled finger on the spot and holler [newscreen]! Or, I may call it
[nextscreen] - doesn't matter - the silly computer will
know what I mean and do what it's supposed to do!
About that time, Red Soul's IM flash will report 25 edits in the previous chapter. I won't need to review a file, though. The software will have already auto-validated the edits. It won't matter anyway, every little detail. Players can speak their own dialogues into the game, paste their own faces into characters, and insert their own voices and sound effects at will. But they'll need our patch code to unlock and expand the Japanese ROM into a matrix that makes all of this possible.
Anyway, Deltaflame, you've got another home here at D-D, if you want. It's a much smaller operation than the CTC, but in many ways this makes it even better. Instead of inviting other groups to join, we take on a few manageable joint projects here and there. That way, we don't need to deal with the rancor that follows turning down someone who wants to bring in a group with an unsavory name. Nor do we experience the bad feelings that ensue whenever we invite someone productive to affiliate with us who decides not to join because he doesn't want to water down the alleged personal glory that goes with translating games.
I can't speak for the others, but I have reached a point in which the only thing that matters to me personally now is the camaraderie here, followed by the excitement of finishing one more English RPG! I hope you're doing well, Deltaflame. I believe Sir Yoink said he was married and had a family and such. Heh, even AsusP grew up, I heard somewhere, and was doing good things in his life and educational process, as many of us who have shared this hobby got around to doing... eventually.
BTW, we dedicated
Mystic Ark to ChrisRPG, who became ill a couple of years ago while he was still actively translating games. Tragically, he did not recover.