Found in Fanslation podcast Banner about retrogame SEGA fan translations

Found in Fanslation Podcast:Hear stories from the dedicated folks (plus me!) who contribute to the dedicated SEGA fan-translation community who make these amazing games playable in English, out of the goodness of their heart!

Telling the Untold Stories of Passion-Project Retrogame Fanhackers

Since Sonic hit our TVs, shoes blazing, in 1991, I hung up my NES for a Genesis and never looked back. Although I appreciate all great classic systems and games, SEGA of the ’80s, ’90s and Dreamcast eras will always be No. 1 in my gamer’s heart, because of its creativity, daring and fun.

Phantasy Star IV Brought Me to the Exciting World of Romhacking!

As a huge Phantasy Star fan, I’d always wished that PSIV (which wraps up this epic, one-of-a-kind RPG series) had a better English translation. At its heart a fantastic story, the English version often features awkward phrasing, untranslated jokes, and lore mistakes and mistranslations that severely damage its world-building and links to the previous games.

In 2017, I simply could not believe that among the myriad of classic-game fan- and re-translations that no one had updated this gem from 1994! So, despite not knowing anything about romhacking, I decided to try myself.

Thanks to the help and generosity of established fanhackers, and after hundreds of hours of work, I made my dream a reality, releasing “Phantasy Star Generation:4”. Taking feedback and criticism to heart, and after discovering additional lore and story that couldn’t make it into the original game, 3 years later I “finished”!

Found in Fanslation Tells the Stories of Unsung Retrogame Heroes

Putting in such a ridiculous amount of work made me appreciate what tougher and larger projects must’ve done through — and most importantly, what inspires us all to do all this work for free!

Not seeing much online covering the inside story of these passionate folks, who see their work enjoyed by thousands of English speakers, I started “Found in Fanslation” as a pandemic project. I wanted to learn about and tell the stories of those who create and help us further appreciate games we love.

I’m Chris Hatala, or “GhaleonUnlimited” – I hope you enjoy learning about the inside scoop of the people behind the projects!

Please let me know what you think on Twitter @GhaleonU ), or email me through this website (my business page, which is related to classic videogaming but unrelated to my hobbies!) I also frequent SEGA discords such as Sega Saturn, Shiro and SegaXTreme.

If you’re interested in Phantasy Star Generation:4, you can find screenshots, an in-progress YouTube playthrough, and of course the patch and PS fan resources I used here.

If the podcast won’t play for some reason in your browser, click the direct link
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Episode 7, Part 1 of 2: “French Teddies & Puzzling Puns” – Sakura Wars Columns 2 EN translation team

-Our 2nd fan-translated vintage Sakura Wars game, with tons of story and character!

-An extremely high-quality project, from translation/localization quality to custom-made graphics
-An awesome team made it happen!

Part 1: Translation/Localization

Project Manager/Programming Lead:

@DerekPascarella (aka ateam)

 

Translation/Localization:
Danthrax (@Danbo_4 )
Natsume38 (@blaster_mania )

Direct link to podcast episode: https://anchor.fm/found-in-fanslation/episodes/E07-1-French-Teddies–Puzzling-Puns-with-the-Sakura-Wars-Columns-2-EN-Team-Burntends–Danthrax–Derek–Natsumi-e10e4uc

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Episode 7, Part 2 of 2 (Coming soon!):

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Episode 6, Part 1 of 2: “The Tale of Napple Tale” – @Cargodin & @EsperKnight

-In the making for 6 years! And they’re really fun guests!
-A very special SEGA gem, now in English for the first time.
-Learn about tons more obscure Japanese translation projects (at least, I did!)

Direct link to podcast episode: https://anchor.fm/found-in-fanslation/episodes/E06-1-The-Tale-of-Napple-Tale-with-EsperKnight-and-Cargodin—Technical–Creative-Challenges-of-Translating-a-Crazy-SEGA-Gem-evoq9q

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Episode 6, Part 2 of 2: “The Tale of Napple Tale” – @Cargodin & @EsperKnight

-In the making for 6 years! And they’re really fun guests!
-A very special SEGA gem, now in English for the first time.
-Learn about tons more obscure Japanese translation projects (at least, I did!)

Direct link to podcast: https://anchor.fm/found-in-fanslation/episodes/E06-2-The-Tale-of-Napple-Tale-with-EsperKnight-and-Cargodin—Technical–Creative-Challenges-of-Translating-a-Crazy-SEGA-Gem-e107gb7

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Episode 5: “Phrenchasy Star” – BGE on translating PSIV into French – Part 1 of 3

-How do you make someone speak “old timey” in French?
-The things we do for our kids (e.g. translate an entire videogame)
-How do you translate already-poorly-translated things into another language?  

Direct link to podcast episode: https://anchor.fm/found-in-fanslation/episodes/E05-Phrenchasy-Star-with-BGE—Talking-translation-choices-with-the-fanslator-of-the-Frech-PSIV-eijni1 __________________________________________________________________

Episode 4: “Translating Treasures” – with Rebecca Capowski,  translator of the Phantasy Star “Bible”

Rebecca Capowski pulls out her RPG-Related Translation Junk Drawer to answer my burning questions about her work in translating Phantasy Star and Lunar resources, as well as providing her insights on learning and localizing Japanese.

Direct link to podcast episode: https://anchor.fm/found-in-fanslation/episodes/E04-Translating-Treasures—Rebecca-Capowski-Answers-my-Burning-Questions-about-Phantasy-Star–Lunar–and-Japanese-eh3934

Or if you prefer to read the interview, here it is all typed out.

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Episode 3: “Laquering Laconia” – Maxim and the SMS Power Phantasy Star retranslation 2.0

Find SMS Power’s PS Retranslation patch (plus news and info) here!

Direct link to podcast episode: https://anchor.fm/found-in-fanslation/episodes/E03-Laquering-Laconia—Maxim–SMS-Powers-Phantasy-Star-2-0-Retranslation-Patch-eejc19

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Episode 2: “Decisions, Decisions” – Squirrel, co-editor on Phantasy Star Generation: 4

Direct link to podcast episode: https://anchor.fm/found-in-fanslation/episodes/E02-Squirrel—Decisions–decisions—Relocalizing–Editing-Phantasy-Star-IV-eddh6j

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Episode 1: “Inside the Phantasy Star Generation Remake Fan Translations” – Vivify93, accomplished fan hacker and a big part of fans being able to enjoy the Playstation 2 remakes of Phantasy Star I and II in English.

Direct link to podcast episode: https://anchor.fm/found-in-fanslation/episodes/E01-Vivify93—Inside-the-Phantasy-Star-Remake-translations–plus-PSIV-hacks-ebsv3b _____________________________________________________________________