Fan translation

A fan translation is an unofficial translation of a computer game or video game, into a language that it was never marketed in.

The fan translation practice originated with anime and manga, and expanded to video games more or less concurrently with the rise of console emulation in the late 1990s. Fan translations of manga are known as scanlations, and an unofficial dubbing or subtitling of an anime is referred to as fansub.

Fan translations of computer and video game console games are usually accomplished by modifying the binary ROM image of the game. In dealing with translations of console games, a console emulator is generally utilized to play the final product, although game copiers or similar devices can be used to run the translated ROM image on its native hardware. The most common type of fan translations are those of Japanese computer and video games, which are often marketed exclusively in Japan, into English. The easier part of fan translation hacking is hacking encoded text. Hacking graphic text and title screens is the more difficult part of fan translation hacking. Seiken Densetsu 3 was one of the most difficult fan translation projects in the history of fan translation.

Fan translation allows players to play and understand games that were never localized to their native language, as well as to improve upon a poor quality official localization. Two of the most well known fan-translated games whose official translations are considered subpar are Final Fantasy IV and Phantasy Star II.

Origins

Reverse engineering and the rise of console emulation made fan translation possible. The first complete translation patch for a video game was released in 1997. The patch, produced by RPGe, was designed to translate Final Fantasy V for the Super Famicom (also known as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System) into English. While translating games had been around by the time of the patch, it was the first to prove that the in-depth hacking required for such a project was feasible. New groups quickly sprang up in RPGe's wake and began translating other works.

Legal issues

While fan translations are indisputably illegal (Article 8 [Right of Translation] of the Berne Convention explicitly reserves the right of translation to the copyright holder and whoever receives permission of them, saying "Authors of literary and artistic works protected by this Convention shall enjoy the exclusive right of making and of authorizing the translation of their works throughout the term of protection of their rights in the original works."), it is unusual for copyright holders to object. This is probably largely because the electronic games in question are generally not considered commercially viable in the target language, so the translation is rarely seen as a source of lost revenue. However, in 1999, one well-known incident in which copyrighter holders took action involved the Kanjihack translation of ASCII's RPGMaker 95. As the product was still viable, ASCII sent a member of the team working on it a cease-and-desist letter. Kanjihack complied, but the project was then continued by others. The Berne Convention does not explicitly prohibit parallel importation.

A popular belief in the fan translation community is that distributing only the translation, as a patch to the original game, is legal. The reasoning is that the patch only contains the new data and directives for where it is to be placed, and does not have the original copyrighted material included in any form, and therefore it is useless unless the user applies it to a (copyrighted) ROM, the acquisition and legality of which they are left completely accountable for. This belief, while untested in court, is probably not supported by international copyright law, but this strong anti-software piracy attitude by the fan translation community may have convinced copyright holders to, by and large, turn a blind eye.

There have never been any legal cases involving fan translation issues, and such projects have been relatively widespread over the Internet for years. In recent years, anime fansubbers have started to attract the attention of some American anime distributors; and as of 2004 one manga scanlator has been handed a cease and desist by a Japanese company, but most of this attention has been restricted to polite entreaties asking fan translators to refrain from dealing with licensed material.

List of fan-translated games

This is a partial list of Japanese video games which have been translated into English by fan translators.

MSX translations

• Snatcher (Konami, 1988) — translated by Daniel Caetano, Takamichi Suzukawa & Artemio Urbina
• Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (Konami, 1990) — translated by Maarten ter Huurne, Takamichi Suzukawa, Jon Taylor, Marat Fayzullin et al.

Nintendo Famicom/NES translations

• Akumajou Densetsu (a.k.a. Castlevania III) (Konami, 1989) — translated by Vice Translations
• Cosmo Police Galivan (Bussan, 1988) — translated by Jair in 1998
• Final Fantasy II (Square Co., Ltd., 1988) — translated by NeoDemiforce in 1998
• Final Fantasy III (Square Co., Ltd., 1990) — translated by Neill Corlett and Alex W. Jackson in 1999

Super Famicom / SNES translations

• Alcahest (Square Co., Ltd., 1994) — translated by F.H. in 2002
• Bahamut Lagoon (Square Co., Ltd., 1995) — translated by DeJap in 2002
• Cyber Knight (Tonkinhouse, 1993) — translated by Aeon Genesis in 2002
• Dragon Quest I & II (Enix, 1993) — translated by RPGOne in 2002
• Dragon Quest III (Enix, 1996) — translated by DeJap and RPGOne in 2003
• Dragon Quest V (Enix, 1992) — translated by DeJap in 2002
• Dragon Quest VI (Enix, 1994) — translated by DeJap and NoPrgress in 2001
• Dual Orb 2 (I'Max, 1994) — translated by Nightcrawler's Translation Corporation in 2002
• Final Fantasy IV (Square Co., Ltd., 1991) — translated by J2e in 1999
• Final Fantasy V (Square Co., Ltd., 1992) — translated by RPGe in 1997
• Final Fantasy VI (Square Co., Ltd., 1994) — translated by RPGOne in 2002
• Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu (Nintendo/Intelligent Systems, 1996) — translated by J2e and Fire Emblem Sanctuary of Strategy in 2004
• Front Mission (Square Co., Ltd., 1995) — translated by F.H. in 2000
• Front Mission: Gun Hazard (Square Co., Ltd., 1996) — translated by Aeon Genesis in 2004
• Koryu no Mimi (Oosawa Arimasa, M.A.T., Inoue Noriyoshi, VAP; 1995) — translated by RPGOne in 2004
• Live-A-Live (Square Co., Ltd., 1994) — translated by Aeon Genesis
• Mickey & Donald Magical Adventure 3 (Capcom, 1996) — translated by RPGOne in 2004
• Radical Dreamers (Square Co., Ltd., 1998) — translated by NeoDemiforce in 2003
• Rockman & Forte (a.k.a. Megaman & Bass) (Capcom, 1998) — translated by Aeon Genesis in 2002
• Rudora no Hihou (Square Co., Ltd., 1996) — translated by Aeon Genesis in 2002
• Seiken Densetsu III (Square Co., Ltd., 1995) — translated by Neill Corlett, SoM2Freak, Lina`chan, Nuku-nuku, Filia, et. al. in 2000
• Shin Nekketsu Kouha: Kunio tachi no Banka (Technos, 1994) — translated by Aeon Genesis in 2003
• Star Ocean: Fantastic Space Odyssey (Enix, 1996) — translated by DeJap in 2004
• Tales of Phantasia (Namco, 1994) — translated by DeJap in 2001
• Ys IV: Mask of the Sun (Falcom, 1993) — translated by Aeon Genesis in 2000

Other translations

• Xak III: The Eternal Recurrence (http://home.earthlink.net/~nlivaditis/xakiii/index.html) (Microcabin/NEC, 1994, NEC PC-Engine) — translated by NightWolve - RIGG
• Ys I & II Complete (http://rigg.servegame.com/translations/yseternal/index.html) (Falcom, 2000, PC) — translated by NightWolve - RIGG
• Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys (http://rigg.servegame.com/translations/ys4) (Falcom, 1993, NEC PC-Engine) — translated by NightWolve - RIGG in 2004

Unauthorised translations of computer games are also done by Russian software pirates. Interestingly, some games, such as Japanese hentai games are localised using the English version as a source.

See also

• Scanlation
• Fansub
• Console emulator
• Japanese language
• List of Famicom games
• List of Super Famicom games
• Parallel imports
• Regional converter
• Regional lockout
• Regional record
• Reverse engineering
• ROM hacking
• ROM image
• Translation
• Video game
• Video game publisher

External links

Fan translators

• Aeon Genesis (http://agtp.romhack.net/)
• David Mullen's Homepage (http://www.geocities.com/makoknight.geo/)
• DeJap (http://www.dejap.com/)
• Demiforce (http://www.demiforce.com/)
• F.H's Webpage (http://travel.to/fh)
• KingMike's Translations (http://kingmike.emuxhaven.net/)
• Kitsune's Den (http://vice.parodius.com/)
• Neill Corlett (http://www.neillcorlett.com/)
• Nightcrawler's Translation Corporation (http://transcorp.parodius.com/)
• NightWolve - Retro ISO Gaming Guild (http://rigg.servegame.com/)
• Revolve (http://revolve.emuxhaven.net/)
• RPGOne (http://www.rpgone.net/)
• Stealth Translations (http://stealth.romhack.net/)
• The Spoony Bard (http://www.spoonybard.com/)
• The Whirlpool (review and patch archive) (http://donut.parodius.com)