Showing posts with label Fan Translation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fan Translation. Show all posts

Segagaga Encore: A Fan Recreation for PC - Alpha Footage Released!

Back in June, while scrolling the paragraphs of conversation that populate the Dreamcast-Talk Segagaga forum thread, I came upon a post from a developer known as Rengundo, who mentioned that he was working on recreating the first chapter of Segagaga in Unreal Engine 5. Sharing a short 27-second clip of some gameplay, it looked surprisingly faithful to the original. It was on PC, as opposed to the Sega Dreamcast, but —perhaps most importantly— it was in English!

After getting the chance to recently talk with Tez Okano about Segagaga, my appreciation for his game was at an all-time high. But I was soon hit with the sobering reminder that an English fan translation patch for the game continues to remain a non-starter, despite the community's best efforts. As detailed in the introduction to that interview with Okano-san, technical issues with in-game text hacking has been the main hurdle that has prevented any fan translation patch project of the game from reaching completion.

That was when I found myself wondering about Rengundo's project once again. Replying to a comment on his original video, it turned out he was still working on it. He had encountered some issues with Unreal Engine 5, but had since switched the project over to Godot, and confirmed that an update was due imminently.

A cutscene from Segagaga Encore, which uses Ross O'Reilly's open source translation of Segagaga.

On January 5th, alpha footage of what Rengundo was now calling "Segagaga Encore" appeared on YouTube, and well, it's looking really impressive! In the new engine, Rengundo had not only managed to effectively recreate the game's distinct graphical look and "Development Studio A" area, but also its opening cutscenes (complete with English dubbing), and its RPG battle system — all in widescreen. This remake will also feature modern quality-of-life improvements like free movement and cinematic camera angles. If you want to see it for yourself, I have embedded the video below.

While we all obviously want a fan translation patch of Segagaga to be released someday for the Dreamcast, this outside-the-box approach of delivering at least something playable in English —in this case the first chapter— is certainly not something to be sniffed at, especially when it looks this good. Intrigued to learn more, I got in touch with Rengundo to ask him all about the Segagaga Encore project.

DCJY: Hi Rengundo, thanks for agreeing to answer our pressing questions about your Segagaga Encore project. We're really loving what we've seen so far, and are excited to get into the ins and outs of the project with you. First though, we must ask: when was the first time you encountered Segagaga? What was it that drew you to the game?

Rengundo: Thanks for inviting me to answer these questions! I first heard about Segagaga in early 2023 while looking around forums for interesting games to potentially translate. The strange name immediately caught my attention, and the more I learned about it, the more intrigued I became. I’m not sure there’s anything quite like it. It’s this wonderfully self-deprecating, meta take on Sega’s own struggles at the time, where two high schoolers are tasked with saving the company from bankruptcy. 

What truly fascinates me is the way Segagaga blends humor and commentary on the gaming industry. For instance, its “battle system” revolves around arguing with Sega employees. After each battle, there’s a chance to negotiate salaries with the employees, trying to bring them onto your team at the lowest possible rate to maximize your budget. A lot of its jabs at industry practices, like rushing out unfinished titles to boost sales during high demand, still feel very relevant today. It’s such an interesting little game that it’s impossible for me to ignore.

Various technical hurdles with hacking Segagaga have been blamed for why we don't have an English fan translation patch for it already. Was your recreation of Segagaga on PC an attempt to take matters into your own hands and bypass the roadblocks that face the Dreamcast version?

Absolutely. By the time I learned about Segagaga, there was some decent progress on many of the hurdles, though there were notable issues that still remained. As someone new to the Dreamcast modding scene, and seeing the nearly two decades of failed attempts to make an English version, I didn’t feel confident in my ability to create a translation patch. I had the idea of making the game in Unreal Engine, as it didn’t seem too logically complicated if I only focused on the RPG parts. I decided to recreate the first chapter of the game, hoping that part of the game being playable in English could build interest and support for patch efforts. 

For the earliest version, I ripped the player’s sprites from VRAM to make a sprite sheet for him and put some basic movement code together. I shelved the project when new people announced they were working on a translation patch. But after more than a year with no updates from them, I decided to pick it back up and have been making progress since.

An Interview with Tetsu "Tez" Okano - the Mastermind behind Cult Dreamcast RPG Segagaga

There isn't a day that goes by in the Sega Dreamcast community where someone doesn't ask when an English fan translation of Hitmaker's 2001 Japan-exclusive Segagaga —the RPG simulation title where you run Sega— is releasing. Since the mid-2000s, a handful of translation projects have been announced, only to inevitably fizzle out, leading some to go as far as to brand the game as "cursed" (see also: “the final boss” and “the Half-Life 3” of Dreamcast translations). But what many may not realise is that rounding up the perfect group of persevering translators to see a translation through to fruition is the least of Segagaga's problems. The biggest hurdle facing any translation patching attempt is actually the way the game was originally programmed to draw text from the Dreamcast's BIOS, as opposed to using a font sheet, like many (successfully translated!) Dreamcast games do. While the core of this issue has been solved by some exceptionally talented hackers in the Dreamcast fan community, there is still much to be worked on.

Photo of the regular Segagaga release. Photo: doceggfan.

But it's only natural that out of all the games, an English translation of Segagaga would be the most sought after by fans of Sega and the Dreamcast alike. Segagaga satirises Sega itself, providing an entertaining tribute to its diverse and beloved back catalogue of franchises and characters, while also not pulling any punches in its portrayal of the then-struggling corporation's various business missteps. Some great tributes have followed since, such as the animated series Sega Hard Girls, and ensemble games like All-Stars Racing Transformed. However, through its brutal honesty and self-awareness, it is Segagaga which stands out the most, not only as a fitting love letter to Sega, but also as a prime example of the rebellious nature the corporation was known for during its time as a console manufacturer.

When it came to masterminding Segagaga, there was truly only one man for the job. Step up Tetsu Okano, aka Tez Okano, aka "Zolger Tetsu", aka "Ichizou Zoruge", aka the director of the best Astro Boy game. Known for his unconventional approach to everything from video games to manga, Okano-san truly took a risk when he set out to create a game that poked fun at the very company he worked for, and we are elated to reveal that we recently got the chance to talk to him all about his career, and of course, Segagaga.

Screenshot of Segagaga. Credit: CDRomance.

Translator extraordinaire Duralumin —who previously assisted with our Kenji Tosaki interview— returns once more to translate Okano-san's answers from Japanese. Laurence Goodchild also deserves a shout out for assisting with the questions and supplying the lovely photos of the Segagaga launch event, scanned from issue 16 of Italian Dreamcast magazine Dreamcast Arena.

But this wouldn't be an interview with Tez Okano if it didn't diverge from the traditional format in some way! When asking Okano-san about his earliest memories of video games, his reply was... a comic? Well, in case you didn't know, in Japan, Okano-san published an autobiographical manga called "8-Bit Chronicles" which covers his formative years as a child discovering the burgeoning world of video games. He supplied us with the first two chapters in Japanese, and Duralumin —who translates manga professionally— proceeded to translate them into English. We have uploaded them to a Google Drive folder so you can read them, which is something I implore you do. The comic is not only an awesome homage to the golden age of video games, but also very amusing.

A small preview of the first page of 8-Bit Chronicles, as translated by Duralumin.

Finally, Okano-san wanted us to stress to you, our audience, that the answers you see below from him are his recollections of events that happened over two decades ago. He wanted to make sure that we clarify that he is not speaking officially on Sega's behalf, just recounting his own memories of the time. With that disclaimer out of the way the interview!

Photo of Tez Okano. Credit: Sega Retro.

DCJY: Thank you for talking with us, Okano-san! We thought it was only right to start at the beginning, so what are your earliest memories of video games?

Tez Okano: When this is published, I hope you'll share the first chapter of my manga, 8-Bit Chronicles. It covers Space Invaders, Galaxian... I could talk about those games all day! But this is probably the easiest way to understand the story of why I, as well as many other Japanese kids in the late '70s, fell in love with video games.

What led you into a career in the games industry, and how did you eventually join Sega?

When I was still in my college years, I made my debut as a manga artist through Kodansha. However, working as a manga artist, you don't really have any security once your series is over, so I found myself enticed by the gleam of the rising star that was the gaming industry. And of course, Sega at the time was still young, and seeking unconventional talent.

"Morning" magazine, where Tez Okano's early manga work was published. His name can be seen at the top of the woman's right shoulder.

So let's get into Segagaga. It has been documented that you developed the game in secret for two years before presenting it to Sega. What was your reasoning for keeping it a secret?

Many places have a particular culture around satire, parody, and irony, Japan included. However —I understand you’re from England irony is much less familiar to us in Japan than it is in the UK. And while Sega was a pretty big umbrella, it had no shortage of people who would take issue with self-deprecating parody. You'll also notice there's never been any effort to make, say, a Namcococo or Nintendododo, for example, and that should tell you something. That being said, Sega has always prided itself on doing the crazy stuff that no one else could pull off, and the Segagaga project explored that philosophy to the limit. But, it just wasn't the kind of thing that you wanted to make a show of around the company, and invite all that scrutiny and risk the project's survival.

PlayStation Emulation, Silent Hill 3, Metal Slug, New Indies and more on Dreamcast! - Dreamcast News Round-Up July 2024

It's 2024, we’re now into July, and the SEGA Dreamcast is still not dead. Critics are baffled. "It was supposed to have been declared dead in 2001, dammit!" - some PlayStation 2 owner, probably. In fact, there's been so much Dreamcast news recently that I've found it hard to keep up with it all, so in an effort to convince you all that I'm still in the loop (perhaps not sanity-wise), I've rounded up all the best items of recent news into one post. So, here's everything that has happened in the world of Dreamcast recently...

Indie and Homebrew

Or "bedroom coders" as people used to apparently say back in the '80s. I wouldn't know, as I literally didn't exist. Anyway, this supremely talented bunch are doing some cool stuff with software on the Dreamcast. Let's take a gander.

A huge breakthrough in Dreamcast development...

Credit: Orc Face Games

A few weekends ago, Ross Kilgariff, the Dundee-based maestro behind the highly anticipated Dreamcast indie HarleQuest and head of Orc Face Games, dropped the Junkyard a DM about a big breakthrough in Dreamcast development which will result in a significant performance upgrade for new games being developed for our beloved platform. Take it away, Ross... 

"We (Orc Face Games) recently hired TapamN to get the HarleQuest! engine running as fast as possible. For those who don't know, he's one of the best programmers in the unofficial Dreamcast scene, with over 20 years of experience and he's helping elevate everyone's understanding of the platform. 

While optimising the code, he found a critical bug in the operating system that's used as a basis for many unofficial projects including HarleQuest!, Simulant Engine, Spiral 3D and more. This operating system, KallistiOS, is a community-driven effort to provide re-usable code that makes Dreamcast development easier for everyone.

The issue is quite technical but I'll try to keep it simple. There's a special kind of memory inside the CPU called the cache. It's way faster than RAM, but also way smaller (only 16KB in the Dreamcast's case). Normally the cache works automatically and doesn't need any special programming - it just stores things you've accessed recently so it's faster to get them next time. However, the Dreamcast's CPU has a special feature called OCRAM that lets you take control of half the cache manually. This can let you get great performance, but you need to actually program it. It's not on auto-pilot anymore. 

The bug is that since November last year, OCRAM mode was being enabled by default in KallistiOS. This meant every game was saying "give me manual control over half of the cache" on startup, then simply not using it - in effect being left with only 8KB of automatic cache instead of the full 16KB. 

As soon as we made the KallistiOS community aware of this they got straight to it and fixed the bug within a few hours. Falco Girgis identified the cause and worked with darc and BBHoodsta to coordinate the fix. The developer responsible for the Doom 64 port (jnmartin84) verified the fix and reported that with this change along with another optimisation, the busiest areas of the game don't chug any more and play much more smoothly. 

On one hand, it's unfortunate that the bug occurred in the first place, but the benefit is that all those cool 3D demos and games we've been seeing recently will be able to pull the latest version of KallistiOS and might get an automatic speed boost. 

Hopefully this is one step closer to seeing more high-quality games on the platform. I have a good feeling about 2025."

Thanks to Ross for letting us in on this big development and for supplying us with an explanation. The future sure is bright for Dreamcast game development! Speaking of Ross, last month he put out the first part of a video series showcasing the results of his "What Dreamcast Gamers Want" survey, which is well worth a watch.

Dreamcast Light Gun title Death Crimson 2 has been Translated into English!

For a console that famously championed peripheral use, the Sega Dreamcast sure had slim pickings when it came to games that utilised the light gun. Most notably, the console received arcade-perfect ports of both The House of the Dead 2 and the severely underrated James Bond 'em up Confidential Mission; but what else was there? Those who dared to discover were met with Silent Scope without light gun support, a port of Virtua Cop 2 that was stuck on a disc with a load of poorly emulated Genesis games (unless you imported the standalone Japanese release), a hidden light gun mode in Demolition Racer: No Exit (yes, really), and the Death Crimson series.

Developed by Ecole and released exclusively in Japan in 1999, Death Crimson 2: Meranito no Saidan has the very distinct privilege of being the sequel to a game so notoriously bad that it had a particularly masochistic set of Japanese fans gluing the game's disc into their Sega Saturn so as to make sure the console could never play any other game. Luckily, Ecole did improve, and Death Crimson 2 was received better than its predecessor. Perhaps the most intriguing part about this sequel was the inclusion of a full story mode with almost Resident Evil-esque free-roaming sections where you explore in a third-person perspective outside of the light gun gameplay. While an "improved" version of Death Crimson 2 called Death Crimson OX did receive a Western release (in the USA, at least), it completely dropped the story sections, meaning non-Japanese speakers never got a chance to experience this weird mishmash of gameplay in the English language. 

Well, fret no more, as a fan translation of Death Crimson 2 has just released today! And who translated this Dreamcast light gun oddity, you ask? Well, it's the same guy who did the last English Dreamcast fan translation, too, and many before that! That man being - of course - the ever-busy Derek Pascarella.

With Derek's patch, everything in the game is now translated into English. This includes everything from the story sections, to cutscenes, to textures and graphics; with misspelled English place names (such as street signs) also being corrected to match the official Western release of Death Crimson OX. 

As always with Derek's releases, he's gone above and beyond with extras and enhancements. First up, Derek has added a VMU icon for the game, because Ecole were too lazy to implement one themselves. Next, he added a cheat function, which can up your lives and reset any countdown clock with a simultaneous press of the Dreamcast controller's left and right triggers. The reasoning for this is to allow players to experience the game's story without having to endure going through numerous difficult stages repeatedly.

Then you have the bonus content section, which is accessible from the game's main menu. Utilising a modified version of the Dream Passport browser, players can access a variety of extras from the series, including a video of composer Kunitaka Watanabe tearing it up on the keyboard as he plays the original Death Crimson theme, along with an archive of fan support messages from Ecole's now-offline official Death Crimson 2 website, which have been machine-translated into English.

So, to download Derek's fan translation patch for Death Crimson 2, just head to its dedicated GitHub page to download it. For detailed steps on how to apply the patch for your desired method of play (i.e. burning to a CD-R, playing on an ODE), see the patching instructions section of the README. While the game does support the standard controller, if you're going to be using a light gun I recommend consulting the section on light gun compatibility. Make sure you report back to Derek if you experience any issues with a particular light gun setup, as he will aim to try and resolve such compatibility bugs in the future.

Are you going to crack out the light gun and give this English fan translation a go? Let us know in the comments below, or by hitting us up on one of various social media channels!

Dreamcast shooter Trizeal has been Translated into English!

Only days after reporting the news that an English fan translation patch has been released for one Dreamcast shoot 'em up (Under Defeat), we've already received another, and this time it's for Triangle Service's 2005 vertical-scrolling shmup Trizeal. The patch was created by the one and only Derek Pascarella, and I must say, I'm feeling a bit of deja vu...

Fact about this game: the head of its tiny development team begged fans to purchase it upon release because the arcade game it is a port of didn't do that well financially. Despite this, Trizeal is definitely not a title to sniff at. While it isn't often brought up in conversations about Dreamcast shmups, and lacks some of the gimmicks seen in other more acclaimed DC shooters, it is still a high-octane romp that can be enjoyed by any seasoned genre fan.

While the game doesn't have anything in the form of a storyline, Derek's patch translates all Japanese in-game text/graphics, and even improves some instances of English text. Something cool that Derek has also added to this patch is a new unlimited continues option that can be toggled on and off during gameplay by pressing the L and R Trigger buttons simultaneously. A small asterisk will appear next to "1P SCORE" during gameplay to indicate unlimited continues is on.

To download Derek's fan translation patch, just head to its dedicated GitHub page to download it. For detailed steps on how to apply the patch for your desired method of play (i.e. burning to a CD-R, playing on an ODE), see the patching instructions section of the README.

Are you a fan of Trizeal, or are you going to give it a go now this patch has been released? Let us know in the comments below, or by hitting us up on one of various social media channels!

Dreamcast shooter Under Defeat has been Translated into English!

Thanks to TapamN, who previously brought us a whole slew of helpful VGA patches, comes an English translation of the shoot 'em up Under Defeat.

Under Defeat was what we in the West would call a "late release" for the Dreamcast. Considering the Dreamcast was cancelled in 2001, it's mindboggling to acknowledge that over in Japan, games like this one were still coming out for many years. This one even came late enough to be acknowledged on this very blog upon release! 

Developed by G.rev, Under Defeat has been praised for its smooth controls and challenging but fun gameplay. Most notably, however, are its excellent graphics: with attractive 3D throughout, the level of detail on display in this game is astonishing. It's not one for genre fans to overlook, and now with TapamN's translation patch, English Dreamcast fans can now have some insight into the game’s plot too.

Here's a list of everything translated in this patch:
  • Opening text 
  • Ending text 
  • The tutorial 
  • End of level results screen 
  • VMU selection text 
  • Menu descriptions 
  • VMU Save file descriptions (seen in the console's BIOS)
  • In-game VMU text translated 

To download the patch, head over to the Dreamcast Talk forum post, and if you have an account, be sure to thank TapamN for this translation! Also thanks to Derek Pascarella on Twitter for the heads up.

Have you played and enjoyed Under Defeat before? Are you excited to get a chance to experience its story in English? Let us know in the comments below, or by hitting us up on one of various social media channels!

Cool Cool Toon has been Translated into English!

Cool Cool Toon characters
For years, Cool Cool Toon, a Japanese-exclusive rhythm title from SNK, has been considered a must-have for import Dreamcast gamers everywhere due to its easily accessible gameplay (which many have compared to that of Space Channel 5) and zany cel-shaded comic visuals by illustrator Ippei Gyoubu (of Gundam fame). But despite its gameplay being so accessible, many who cannot read Japanese have had to miss out on the game's delightful storyline... until today, because community workaholic Derek Pascarella and his talented team have finally released their English fan translation patch for Cool Cool Toon!

Completed over the span of a year, this project's team was comprised of the following individuals:
While I am not familiar with the translation work of rio de popomocco, Cargodin's work on Napple Tale: Arsia in Daydream is stellar, with that project standing as one of the very best Dreamcast translations, so I have no doubt that this game's script will be of similar quality.

Everything in the main game has been translated - from menus to cutscenes to graphics - meaning that Cool Cool Toon is now fully accessible to English speakers. To get a taster before you play, check out this trailer for the project put together by GGDreamcast.
Screenshot from the trailer for Cool Cool Toon
As seen before with Derek's other hacks, he's made sure to go above and beyond when it comes to bonus content. The option on the main menu titled "INTERNET GATE" is inaccessible to those who've never configured ISP settings on their Dreamcast, so Derek has removed this in favour of a Bonus Content page, powered by the Dream Passport browser, in a similar fashion to that seen in his previous translation project Nakoruru: The Gift She Gave Me.

This bonus content page contains all kinds of extra goodies. As per usual, Derek offers a downloadable save file that unlocks all in-game content. "On-Disc Extras Page" grants you access to artwork which was originally part of a webpage that could be accessed when putting the retail GD-ROM into your computer, including character portraits, artwork development pieces, title screens, wallpapers, and a lot more. As a cool bit of history, you can also access Cool Cool Toon's original Dricas website, preserved in its untranslated form. Finally, Derek has included some instructions on how to use the Dreamcast maracas with Cool Cool Toon. It turns out the game is actually compatible with this shakin' peripheral, so much so that the developers actually included instructions on the disc explaining how to use them with the game, which is what you see fully translated here!
Cool Cool Toon's new bonus content internet page
Another awesome extra that has been preserved and translated for this patch release is the functionality that allows the game to connect to Cool Cool Jam for the Neo Geo Pocket Color using the Dreamcast's Neo Geo Pocket link cable. Points earned in Cool Cool Jam can be transferred to Cool Cool Toon on the Dreamcast, allowing players to unlock more costumes and characters, and vice versa. This is definitely niche as heck, but still appreciated nonetheless, as I love me some Neo Geo Pocket Color! Paying upwards of £100 for that cable, on the other hand...
Photo of the Neo Geo Pocket Colour connected to a Dreamcast
Cool Cool Toon's Neo Geo Pocket Color link cable functionality in action, as shown by Derek.

So, without further ado, head over to the dedicated GitHub page to download the Cool Cool Toon translation patch. As always, for detailed steps on how to apply the patch for your desired method of play (i.e. burning to a CD-R, playing on an ODE), see the patching instructions section of the README.

Download Patch (v1.1)

A big thank you goes out to all involved with the creation of this translation. Your hard work is helping to keep the dream alive!

Screenshot of Cool Cool Toon gameplay
Have you played Cool Cool Toon before? Are you excited to give this English translation a go? Let us know in the comments below, or by dropping us a line on one of our social media channels!

Daytona USA back Online, Dreamcast: Year Three, Samba De Amigo in VR, and more! - Dreamcast News Round-Up July 2023

Summer is here... not that you'd know in the UK, though, because it's been raining nonstop for two weeks straight. At least the forecast for new developments in the Dreamcast community is looking promising, so much so that I thought I'd round it all up for you in this handy post. There's an overarching theme of homebrew wizardry this month, whether that be in the form of new software or hacking old software, so be sure to thank all the talented individuals mentioned for their hard work.

Dreamcast: Year Three announced!

This piece of news is one I have no shame plugging first! Last month saw the release of Dreamcast: Year Two, a book edited by Andrew Dickinson that features many written collaborations from The Dreamcast Junkyard team and others in the Dreamcast community. Well, for those who were wondering, Andrew confirmed in a tweet that Dreamcast: Year Three is coming, revealing its awesome cover, illustrated by KinkySketch, as well as saying to "expect a [Kickstarter] campaign mid-2024". The plan with this one will be to launch the campaign with much of the content already produced to avoid long waiting times for backers.
Front cover art for Dreamcast: Year Three
For more information on The Dreamcast Junkyard's book releases, check out our dedicated section on the website.

Debug Indie Sampler, Vol. 3

Wave Game Studios have already given away two great demo samplers, each featuring snippets of the latest and greatest in Dreamcast indie games and homebrew. Anyway, here's a heads-up to say that Debug Indie Sampler, Vol. 3 has gone up on Wave's store for pre-order, and as before, the only ask if that you pay for shipping. None of the demos have been confirmed yet (as represented by the anonymous coloured squares on the cover below), but Wave have said that "[we] won't be disappointed". Exciting! The sampler is limited to 2,000 copies and won't be reprinted, so make sure you go and grab one!
Cover art for debug indie sampler, vol. 3
This modern art is getting out of hand...

Reinvigorating the games of old...

While you sleep, talented hackers in the Dreamcast community toil away, tweaking the inner workings of your favourite Dreamcast games to make them more accessible in various ways. You may never have knew you needed hacks like the ones discussed below until this article, so let us know if they went straight onto your GDEMU or a CD-R after reading.

VGA Dreams
This follows on from a topic brought up in Lozz’s last Dreamcast News Round-Up. TapamN has been doing some amazing work making a whole load of Dreamcast games compatible with VGA output. A bugbear of many a DC fan is the seemingly random assortment of games that don’t natively work with this oft preferred method of video output, so what TapamN is doing is a godsend. 

The most recent title to receive TapamN's VGA treatment is the The King of Fighters '99 - Evolution, the Japan-exclusive Dreamcast remake/port of The King of Fighters '99. Here's to enjoying Neo Geo-quality bouts in beautiful VGA on the best console ever made.
Screenshot of King of Fighters '99 working via VGA
The King of Fighters '99 - Evolution working in VGA mode, as shown by Derek Pascarella (ateam).
Also hacked to work with VGA is survival horror title Seven Mansions - Ghastly Smile, another Japan-exclusive game that received an English fan translation thanks to SnowyAria and MrNobody back in 2019. This one is particularly handy, as I'm pretty sure it was the only fan translated game available for the console that lacked VGA compatibility, so this hack is a great addition to GDEMUs everywhere.

A full list of the VGA patches that are available and where to download them can be found on the console mods wiki. With these most recent additions, the number of Dreamcast games that remain incompatible stands at a surprisingly slim 24. 

Nakoruru: The Gift She Gave Me - Samurai Shodown Spin-Off for Dreamcast Translated into English!

After nearly two years of hard work, I am absolutely elated to inform you that a team consisting of Derek Pascarella, Duralumin, Marshal Wong and myself have completed our English translation of Nakoruru: Ano Hito kara no Okurimono for the Sega Dreamcast, and today you will be able to play it.

Being a fan favourite character of SNK’s beloved Samurai Shodown fighting franchise (known as Samurai Spirits in Japan), it’s only natural that Nakoruru would get her own spin-off game. SNK granted developer Inter-Let's the privilege of crafting a story that explored her character in finer detail, with the result being Nakoruru: The Gift She Gave Me (as we’ve decided to dub it), a Japan-exclusive visual novel game released for Windows in 2001, with an improved Dreamcast version releasing a year later in 2002. To take a source material known for its intense arcade fighting thrills and adapt it into a quiet, heartfelt text-based adventure was definitely intriguing, so much so that it made us want to produce an English translation almost two decades later! 

To translate the game into English was no small feat, however. With over 12,000 lines of text, our translation of Nakoruru was going to take us more than a year to produce. But it honestly feels like that time has flown by, because the more we worked on translating the scripts, the more we fell in love with the game's plot and characters.

Mikato meets Nakoruru for the first time.

The game’s story is told from the perspective of seven-year-old Mikato, an orphan who is taken in by the people of the snowy village Kamui Kotan. She is selected by the village's chief to serve as assistant to the shrine maiden Nakoruru, somebody the people of Kamui Kotan admire for her strength, dependability, and outward positivity. Mikato soon realises, however, that deep down, Nakoruru is harbouring an intense sorrow. 

While Nakoruru is based in the world of Samurai Shodown, it can be played without any prior knowledge of the franchise, but if you are a Shodown fan, there are quite a few playful references to other characters in the franchise sprinkled throughout the game's script.

Nakoruru's childhood friends Yantamu and Manari.

The gameplay of Nakoruru is simple, and familiar to those who have played a visual novel before. Advance the story with a button press, and occasionally make choices, some of which greatly affect the game’s narrative.

Also included throughout the story are several basic but charming mini-games. These include quizzes, fishing, dodging enemy attacks, playing music, and more. 

While Nakoruru may lack the 3D graphics and arcade action many associate with the Dreamcast, it still boasts gorgeous, crisp, hand-drawn 2D artwork, and its beautiful coming-of-age storyline will pull at your heart strings as it deals with topics of friendship, loss and insecurity. The Dreamcast received over 100 visual novel titles in Japan, and in terms of quality, Nakoruru is up there with the best the system has to offer. For those new to the visual novel genre, you can learn more about them in this fantastic video by Bowl of Lentils.

Combat training mini-game where you dodge left or right to escape attacks.

We adopted an assembly line process to translate the game’s script. First, dialogue for an individual scene would be translated by Marshal and Duralumin, then the editors - both myself and Derek, would check over the translations for any spelling or grammatical errors, but primarily to ensure they read as naturally as possible in English. Once the script edits were complete, Derek would insert them back into the game. Working together and seeing the story come to life, and by our own making, was incredibly rewarding. 

Making an important decision in the heat of combat.  
But our translation would have been for nothing if it wasn’t for Derek’s hacking wizardry. The Dreamcast is still in an immature state when it comes to debugging and hacking, unlike other systems, such as PlayStation, which is more streamlined. A project like this for the Dreamcast required a slew of different tools to achieve. Along the way, Derek had to make many tweaks to the game so it worked with our translation, such as modifying mini-games, ensuring the character’s voice audio persisted across multiple textboxes, reallocating where RAM data was written to make room for larger text data, and more. But the biggest challenge Derek faced was implementing a half-width font (as Japanese characters are wider than English ones), which took him months, but felt incredible when he finally pulled it off. The end result of Derek's hard work is fantastic-looking English text displayed in game.

Rent-A-Hero No. 1 has been Translated into English for Dreamcast!

The beauty of the Dreamcast is that when you think you've played everything the console has to offer, something new lands in your lap. These days, that often comes in the form of a brand new indie game, or in the case of what we have here today: a Japanese game from back in the day being playable for the first time in English on the Dreamcast thanks to the hard work of fans.

Many of us had a good feeling about Rent-A-Hero No. 1, some possibly even since the early 2000s, when muddling through the game with a translation guide was the way for non-Japanese speakers. Those wanting to truly experience the game were thrown a bone in 2008 when an unreleased officially-translated Xbox prototype leaked onto the internet, but those wanting to experience the game on its original platform, the Dreamcast, were still stuck with guides and translation apps... until today.

Thanks to the hard work and perseverance of VincentNL and his talented team of "Rent-A-Modders", Rent-A-Hero No. 1 is now fully playable in English on the Dreamcast! But this is no ordinary fan project, because the lengths this team had to go to in order to bring us this high-quality translation is an entire topic of conversation in and of itself. Before we go into all that, though, a bit of background on the game first...

The first Rent-A-Hero was developed by Sega-AM2 and released exclusively in Japan for the Mega Drive in 1991. The Rent-A-Hero character next saw an appearance as an unlockable character in 1996’s Fighters Megamix for the Sega Saturn. The game we’re talking about today, Rent-A-Hero No.1, released for the Dreamcast in Japan in May 2000. A remake of the Mega Drive original, it shares the same quirky and humorous tone of the game it is based on, but brings the gameplay into the world of 3D. The game is effectively an action-RPG that has you assuming the role of 16-year-old Taro, a budding hero for hire. As Taro, you run around town doing odd jobs and missions assigned by SECA to build his way up the ranks of herodom. The game also has beat 'em up style combat that uses the same fighting engine as that used in Sega's arcade game Spikeout.

Rent-A-Hero No. 1 looks and plays great on the Dreamcast, and if it wasn't for the incredibly eccentric Japanese humour that it wears like a bejewelled bangle on its sleeve, questions about the game's lack of a Western Dreamcast release would definitely be flying around. Oddball humour is this game's strongest suit, and with an abundance of Sega references throughout, Rent-A-Hero No. 1 is a game every fan of the house of hedgehog should spend some time with. Whether it be the inclusion of Segata Sanshiro or the "Creamcast" console you access in the game, the tributes to our favourite ex-console manufacturer throughout are hardly subtle.

So, back to the translation. This translation patch required many heavy lifts to get to what you’re seeing in this final release. A deep analysis and understanding of numerous original Katana SDK libraries was needed in order to reverse-engineer and interact with a slew of the game's already-compiled assembly code.

Samba de Amigo Ver. 2000 has been Converted into English

Samba de Amigo Ver. 2000 cover

Samba de Amigo is that monkey game with the maracas. 

What that rather inelegant opening serves to say, is that Samba de Amigo needs no introduction. Not only is it beloved by Dreamcast fans for its colour-soaked rhythm hijinks that made use of the delightful maraca peripheral (which required a significant amount of space to store on your gaming shelves), but it is also well known for a port it received on the Nintendo Wii; one which appeared at the right time to slot neatly into the motion control hype of the seventh console generation.

This Wii port is actually important to our topic today, because it incorporated many of the additions that were introduced as part of the Samba de Amigo Ver. 2000 package, a Japanese-exclusive upgrade for the Dreamcast. While this DC release was never brought to the West, it was still an easy import for many gamers (including DCJY's very own Andrew Dickinson) due to it lacking any significant language barrier to its gameplay.

Samba de Amigo big box
Photo nicked from Mike's @DreamcastPics account. Sorry, Mike.

This didn't stop hacker dukeblooders from converting Samba de Amigo Ver. 2000 into English, though. The reason I refer to this as a "conversion" is because what has been done here is effectively a similar process to what we've seen previously with community projects that made Space Channel 5: Part 2 or Resident Evil Code: Veronica Kanzenban (Resident Evil Code: Veronica X) accessible to English speakers, by taking content seen in later Western ports (in this case, the Wii port) and inserting it into the Dreamcast version with some kind of wizardry that I will never be able to comprehend.

On dukeblooders' project page on GitHub, they explain that there isn't technically any text in this game, only images. The majority of images and audio were replaced with those from the English Wii versions, although some images had to be reproduced by dukeblooders.

If you want to give this English conversion a go on Dreamcast hardware, you will have to play it on an ODE like a GDEMU or a MODE, as currently it is not able to be burnt onto a CD-R. Otherwise you can still play it via emulator using the Type A controller mode, sans maracas. Just head over to the GitHub page to download the patch, which can easily be applied to an image of the game using Derek Pascarella's Universal Dreamcast Patcher.

English Translation Demo of Shiren the Wanderer Gaiden: Asuka Kenzan released!

I have often heard repeated online that the Dreamcast library was lacking when it came to RPGs... well, I guess that's kind of true, especially in the West. While we received standouts like Skies of Arcadia and Grandia II, along with a few other titles, there's plenty of Dreamcast RPGs that remained relegated to Japan. Shiren the Wanderer Gaiden: Asuka Kenzan was one of those titles. Today, however, I come bearing great news, as a translator known as SharkSnack has released a partial translation patch that will allow players to experience the game's first region.

Shiren the Wanderer is a series of roguelike RPG titles by Chunsoft (now Spike Chunsoft) that spawned from the Mystery Dungeon franchise (probably most famous for containing the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series of games!) The first Shiren the Wanderer game was released for the Super Famicom in 1995. The series didn't see a Western release until 2008, when that original game was ported to the Nintendo DS.

The Dreamcast entry, Shiren the Wanderer Gaiden: Asuka Kenzan, was released in 2002, and was developed by Neverland. This title provided players with a side-story to the main series that focused on the character Asuka, a close friend of Shiren the Wanderer. Like other titles in the series, Asuka Kenzan features traditional roguelike gameplay. Graphically, the game looks similar to the series' second entry on Nintendo 64 (which also uses a top-down perspective with pseudo-3D looking sprites), but with an added Dreamcast sheen.

Talking to your sidekick, a ferret called Koppa.

SharkSnack started working on their translation of Shiren the Wanderer Gaiden: Asuka Kenzan back in May of last year. While it's mostly been a solo effort, they have also had some technical assistance from VincentNL and Derek Pascarella, Ozidual helped look over some of the translation dialogue, and testing was provided by TheKitchenSunk, Harpu and DocHikari.

Speaking with SharkSnack, I was intrigued to know what inspired them to translate this particular game:

"I think Shiren the Wanderer is a charming, underrated series with great gameplay, and Asuka Kenzan is said to be one of the best in the series within the Japanese communities (people still host events and speedrun the PC version of the game on YouTube and Twitch, despite it being such an old game), so I wanted to make it available for players to experience first-hand in English. 

"I also hope that it increases interest in the series and people purchase the official releases to support the series, because the Shiren community would like to see a new release. The most recent release is Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate, which released in 2020 for Switch and Steam.  

"Prior to this, I also completed a fan translation of Shiren the Wanderer 2: Oni Invasion! Shiren Castle! for Nintendo 64, working as a team with Ozidual."

Someone get that dragon some Antacids!

As stated before, what SharkSnack has released today is a partial translation of the game, a "demo", if you will, that allows players to experience the first region called 'Tenrin'. For players who have previous experience with roguelikes or Mystery Dungeon-style games, SharkSnack reckons the demo could take about three hours to finish. If it's your first time, however, the demo could instead take you upwards of six hours or more. If you get stuck, SharkSnack has been working on a strategy guide that you can use. Regardless of your skillset, though, there's a lot of game to experience here. 

SharkSnack elaborated on the overall progress of the translation:

"In terms of overall translation progress, the game is fully translated up to the first end credits (after clearing the second dungeon of the first region, Tenrin). The story continues into a second region called Sairai and there's a lot more game left after that (12 dungeons total), but since none of the dialogue is translated in that region yet, the demo patch is locked to Tenrin areas. 

"If players are determined to continue playing, they can load their save on an unpatched version of the game, travel to Sairai, and switch back to the patched game. The reason I locked it like that is to ensure people wouldn't have to start over from the beginning to experience the rest of the game once it's fully translated."

Being turned into an onigiri by a boss… or should I say a “jelly-filled donut”?

If you enjoy what you play, stay tuned for the full patch at some point in the future. We'll be sure to update you when that time comes. SharkSnack also let us know about some other Shiren the Wanderer translations they have in the works:

"I'm also working on fan translations for Shiren the Wanderer 4 Plus for PSP (with Arc Impulse), and Shiren the Wanderer DS2 for Nintendo DS as well, so basically the long term goal is to have most of the Japanese-exclusive Shiren games in English."

Checking the menu inside a dungeon.

To download the patch, just follow this link to the translation's announcement trailer. Check that video's description to find a link to get the patch, and be sure to subscribe to SharkSnack's channel while you're visiting! The patch can easily be applied to an image of the game using Derek Pascarella's Universal Dreamcast Patcher. The v0.16 build can be played on both real hardware and emulator.

Thanks again to SharkSnack for their hard work on this patch, and for providing me with information and screenshots. Let's hope this is the first of many Japanese-exclusive Dreamcast RPGs we get to see translated into English! Will you be playing Shiren the Wanderer Gaiden: Asuka Kenzan? Let us know in the comments!

RUN=DIM as Black Soul is now Translated into English!

Despite being a Dreamcast super nerd, I must admit I wasn't aware of the Japanese-exclusive "RUN=DIM as Black Soul" until community stalwart Rolly announced that an English fan translation was in the works for it. Today, I am reminded of this game yet again, because late yesterday we learned that that very translation patch had finally been released.

For those unaware, Rolly (along with frequent collaborator RafaMGam) has been involved in many translation projects for some really cool Dreamcast games, such as The Lost Golem, Karous, L.O.L.: Lack of Love, and probably most notably, Blue Submarine No. 6: Time And Tide. Rolly has also been responsible for some translations of DC games into Polish too.

So, back to RUN=DIM as Black Soul. Peculiar name, but it's essentially a turn-based strategy RPG with mechs. It was developed by Yuki Enterprise and published by Idea Factory in 2001. It appears to be part of a wider franchise (Run=DIM) which includes an anime series, as well as titles for the PlayStation 2 and the WonderSwan Color. Those who worked on the translation recommend the game to fans of Front Mission, Rayblade or Super Robot Wars.

Writing about Run=Dim as Black Soul in his A to Z of Dreamcast games guide, fellow Junkyarder Mike explains that the game "has a fairly large amount of Japanese text interspersed with its stat heavy presentation, which is rather daunting, and it's not exactly clear what is going on to anyone who can't understand the language." He finishes his blurb by saying "I just wish I knew what was going on." Well, Mike, today's your lucky day! With this translation patch, Run=Dim is now penetrable for English speakers. I will definitely be giving it a go. 

Anyway, enough from me, you can download the translation patch here. The translation is playable on real hardware, ODEs (GDEMU/MODE) and emulation. Thank you to Rolly, RafaMGam and EsperKnight for their hard work and dedication bringing this to us.