Soul Hackers translation underway

cj iwakura · 05-18-2009, 09:18 PM

Alternate topic: Gemini & Tom rule.

SOUL HACKERS IN ENGLISH.

I bet this will take a while, but it's a start.

Quote:

General
Genre: J-Rpg
Version: NTSC/JP
Publisher: Atlus
Platform: Playstation
No. of Players: 1
No. of Discs: 2

Status
Translation: ?%
Hacking: ?%
Complete: ?%

Short Story Description
If you're a MegaTen freak just skip this part: you'll love the game anyway, no matter what I say about it.
You're a member of the Spookies, a group of hackers investigating on Algon Soft and its newest, suspicious product: the Paradigm X, a virtual world where its users' souls are mysteriously vanishing.
While doing your stuff, your best friend (or should I call her a girlfriend?), Hitomi, is attacked by a supernatural entity known as Nemissa. The two become a single being, and you are the only one who knows exactly what's wrong with her (everybody else will just pretend she's acting weird).
Will you be able to stop Algon Soft, restore your friend back to normal, and fight hordes of demons while you're at it? Oh yeah, and you also have a weird gun computer, a "GUMP", to kill things with through a nice yet weird summoning system.

Misc Information
This project started about 8 months ago, a few weeks before the Innocent Sin beta testing. It has been sitting there for most of those 8 months, until a few weeks ago, when Tom and I decided to give it the spotlight once again.
I don't have a status report yet, but the game feels a lot smaller than Innocent Sin in terms of text. On the other hand the hacking will probably be as annoying as IS's because of the idiocy of a Saturn game forced to work on the Playstation hardware making it still behave as if it was running on the Saturn. The fact that TOSE handled the porting makes it even worse, especially because TOSE is the company who converted the whole FF4-5-6-CT compilation to the Playstation (and later to the GBA/DS). From what I can see from their code, they sure didn't know #### about the target hardware and in fact the result is a terrible mess, harder to hack than the average game.

I wish you all the best of luck. My Saturn copy's ready and waiting. (...assuming it's patchable.

)

Yikes, I just realized how old that post was... ah well.

SickleCellAnemia · 05-18-2009, 09:20 PM

Hells yes.

unknown · 05-18-2009, 09:23 PM

I can't wait.

Sleepless Neko · 05-18-2009, 09:36 PM

Is this Saturn version or Playstation ver?
Neverthless, YEAH, Soul Hackers!!

Tom · 05-18-2009, 09:42 PM

Looks like the cat's out of the bag.

By the way, cj... The patch will be for the Playstation version, not the Saturn version. Patching is a rather delicate process, so it's not possible to make a patch that works with either the Saturn or PS version.

Gemini is even planning to get the Pocketstation mini-games playable in English, not that anybody has a Pocketstation, anyway.

(Gemini does, though.)

Anyway, back to translating!

(By the way, that post is so old because he only decided to work on it back then. He made some dumps, but told me not to work on them because he wanted to focus on other things. We've really only just started to work on it seriously, and things have been moving quite quickly in the past couple of weeks.)

diosisback · 05-19-2009, 01:23 AM

Hell yeah, way to start the day !!!

You guys are awesome, allowing us to enjoy such gems.

SomethingDifferent · 05-19-2009, 01:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by diosisback

Hell yeah, way to start the day !!!

You guys are awesome, allowing us to enjoy such gems.

^this. Someone finally decided to translate Soul Hackers for real, and I can't think of anyone better than you two to do the job. Good luck.

I can't believe I missed such an old post, though.

Gemini · 05-19-2009, 02:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SomethingDifferent

I can't believe I missed such an old post, though.

You didn't really miss it. It was hidden until yesterday.

Emilio Morales · 05-19-2009, 05:37 AM

Soul Hackers... I can't wait!!

Ike. · 05-19-2009, 09:32 AM

Is there a blog for this one?

Kenji · 05-19-2009, 11:52 AM

I think we were all hoping/expecting this... and there certainly have been enough hints dropped.

But, like Atlus finally making the announcement after all the teasing in P4's manual, it's nice to see Gemini and Tom finally announcing Soul Hackers!

Finally, I'll get to see what all the buzz is about... now I just have to find an actual copy of this game. Hopefully, I'll get as lucky as I did with P2...

Ike. · 05-19-2009, 01:38 PM

The PSX version pops up on eBay once in a while.

cj iwakura · 05-19-2009, 01:50 PM

The Saturn one also sells for pretty cheap. I got mine for like $15.

Enzeru · 05-19-2009, 01:52 PM

Awesome! Can't wait. I'm loving what you did with IS so far. ^^

Tom · 05-19-2009, 02:09 PM

All of the rooms (which account for almost all of the game's story) have been translated, so the bulk of the story is pretty much done now (though it's only a first draft). I'll work on the shops tonight. Once I'm done with those, I can start working on the big old demon conversation scripts.

On the translation side, it seems a lot easier than Innocent Sin, actually. Shop talk isn't always very fun to do, but there's been some interesting stuff so far. I've enjoyed it. In any case, I want to get it finished quickly.

Ike. · 05-19-2009, 02:31 PM

If you need proofreaders or beta testers you can always come to us

Tom · 05-19-2009, 02:46 PM

One star, I see. Somebody's trying to be cute again.

Yukichin · 05-19-2009, 02:50 PM

Ooh. Awesome. I'm lookin' foward to this! =D The story sounds interesting!

Onion of Mystery · 05-19-2009, 02:52 PM

Just for form's sake, let me remind y'all not to link to downloads or download sites, or sites listing places where you can get downloads of copyrighted material.

Thank you, and namaste.

raiku · 05-19-2009, 03:02 PM

gemini and tom now owe me a new pair of pants

now i can play my first megaten game in english

Tom · 05-19-2009, 03:10 PM

No problem, Onion. We're actually fans of the game and the series, so we definitely encourage everybody to play by the rules here. The PS version of Soul Hackers isn't so rare; you can buy it on ebay pretty easily. (Though the price is a bit steep.) It's definitely worth the price of admission, though.

jeffx · 05-19-2009, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom

No problem, Onion. We're actually fans of the game and the series, so we definitely encourage everybody to play by the rules here. The PS version of Soul Hackers isn't so rare; you can buy it on ebay pretty easily. (Though the price is a bit steep.) It's definitely worth the price of admission, though.

Really? I see a ton of Saturn games, but no PSX version. Either way, it's not like that money is going in Atlus' pockets...

I think everyone should buy Brandish 2, BTW. Thing is like 5-10$ mint on eBay.

Ike. · 05-19-2009, 03:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffx

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom

No problem, Onion. We're actually fans of the game and the series, so we definitely encourage everybody to play by the rules here. The PS version of Soul Hackers isn't so rare; you can buy it on ebay pretty easily. (Though the price is a bit steep.) It's definitely worth the price of admission, though.

Really? I see a ton of Saturn games, but no PSX version. Either way, it's not like that money is going in Atlus' pockets...

I think everyone should buy Brandish 2, BTW. Thing is like 5-10$ mint on eBay.

That's because I bought the last one ten minutes ago.

Tom · 05-19-2009, 03:52 PM

Buying used games contibutes to their scarcity...

That scarcity makes the games become more valued by collectors, who then yearn for a complete collection (and are thus more likely to buy new releases of later games in the series - and Atlus makes money)... Buying used games may not support Atlus directly, but it still supports the series, and they can profit from it in the long run.

http://stores.ebay.com/Japanese-manga-and-Video-Games

This store is selling the game. Just type Soul Hackers into the store's search bar. It's the PSOne Books release. (That's the one that I have.)

Emilio Morales · 05-19-2009, 03:58 PM

To bad the one on Amazon is for the Saturn. :S

Ike. · 05-19-2009, 04:03 PM

Books edition for $47.00

Kenji · 05-19-2009, 04:33 PM

So, is that implicit confirmation that the prospective patch will be geared toward the PSOne Books edition?

EDIT: (in any case, I bought it... because I am a tool)

Tom · 05-19-2009, 05:14 PM

From what I understand, and Gemini can correct me if I'm wrong, is that there are three releases of Soul Hackers... Original printing (that came with an Innocent Sin demo disk!!), PS One Books, and Playstation The Best.

Gemini and I both have the PS One Books version (unless he has the Best version, but I don't think that's the one he got)... He was intending to get the original pressing, but the ebay seller ended up sending him the Books version! :O

I guess it's most likely to be a Books release patch, but if there's no change in coding between the various releases, it may also work on those versions too. I'm guessing the Books version is the one that is most widely available, anyway. It's Gemini's decision in the end.

jeffx · 05-19-2009, 05:27 PM

I guess I suck at searching. Maybe it's cause I'm using ebay.ca(nada). I understand your point about the used games, but it only really applies to niche publishers like Atlus. Besides, these days most devs are completely against the used game market...

Anyway, best of luck to you guys! Great project.

Tom · 05-19-2009, 06:41 PM

I think most developers are opposed to the used game market when it applies to new games... For example, some people will wait a week after a game has been released until a used copy arrives for a few dollars cheaper. They buy that game instead of the new title, which cuts into the company's profits.

For out of print titles that can't be purchased new anymore (like Soul Hackers), it's always a good idea to buy a used game to contribute to the scarcity and allure of the series. If people have a hard time finding used copies, it's more likely that they'll buy the next game in the series while it's new.

In any case, this is a fun project to work on, and I hope that the Devil Summoner series continues to do well in the future.