Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery is currently available for FREE on the Apple Store. It's one of my all-time favourite games and one that I have partially translated. I suggest you get it if you have an Apple device. If you don't, it's available on Steam (for money) and it shows up in Humble Bundles a lot. Play it! Love it!

A Change of Pace

Having acquired (read: cobbled-together) a copy of Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP's game script, I have been translating lines from it. I think alternating between this and Pokemon Red will give me more energy for it, since a change of flavour is refreshing.

In Pokemon Red I'm fighting Misty! It was surprisingly hard to find a word for "Mermaid." It was easier to find a word for "Tomboy," honestly.

Karaj Legantoj,

I really enjoy the saying "Karaj Aŭskultantoj."

In other, more relevant neŭs-- I mean, "news"-- I am still in Cerulean. I've felt rather distracted lately, but I am working. I've run across something interesting: In the original Japanese, the names of the badges are merely reflective of the colour of the town they come from. In other languages, though, they have more varied names. I'm somewhat torn between these two methods and I don't know which I like better.

I've adopted a more expedited method of translation which involves skipping the names of Pokemon, Items and Attacks that I don't know off the top of my head. These can all be filled in later with search-and-replace and then cleaned up in a second read-through.

So, Google (bless their hearts, as we say where I am from) has a translation tool thingy similar to Google Docs. It allows for line-by-line translation, word indices and side-by-side script comparison. All of this is well and good, except for one issue: when you upload a file to be used, it automatically translates the entire document via Google Translate, which is problematic because Google Translate is often less-than accurate and makes a lot of stupid, stupid mistakes. I'd spend more time fact-checking and correcting Google's translation than it would take me to simply translate it myself. I also only want the game script translated, the surrounding explanations are useful for the translation process.

Also, I ended up doing 30% of the Google Glass demo subtitles in Esperanto. They're probably pretty bad, but no one else was doing it and I felt like I had to. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that the site they're using allows for a bunch of people to each translate a part, so one person has to do it all and upload it. I think that's how it is.

I never realised how often we say things like "a little," "some," "a bit," and "yeah," until I ended up typing "iom" and "kelka" like, thirty times. Don't even get me started on "yeah." Not having slang equivalents of words can lead to some pretty stale and silly-sounding dialogue.

**EDIT**

Forgot to mention: Having just finished playing through Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, I've kind of fallen in love with it a little bit. I couldn't find a copy of the game script, but I have sent an email to the creators asking if I could have a copy of it with which to do a translation. It's really short and the dialogue repeats a lot of phrases, so once I got those knocked out I'd be able to finish it really quickly.

Also: If anyone can find me the lyrics to TEAM's "Kapon Redonu," I will be eternally grateful. I've tried with all my might, but have come to the conclusion that they do not exist on the internet at this time.

A Short (but meaningful) Absence

I say "absence," but that does not mean I'm not going to be translating, merely that I will be in a different place.

You see, my family vacations every other year to an island off the coast of our state. Now, why bother telling you this if I'm still going to be translating while I'm there?

Because on this trip, two years ago (in the same house, even, we normally change houses each year) was when I first heard of and began studying Esperanto.

The one-year anniversary slipped past me because I was dealing with some stuff this time last year (and I still am), but I'm still surprised at how long ago it seems. Even though I've more than neglected studying most of the time, I've still grown a lot in the language and I hope to make a great deal more progress in the coming months!

I'll set a goal to make it out of Cerulean by the end of the week. That may not sound like much, but Cerulean includes the area north of it, which has like 20 trainers. Anyway, I'll certainly have time to work on it.

ALL RIGHT, I ADMIT IT

I've been cheating on you guys with... with...
Translating Esperanto songs into English (I regret nothing!)

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1y-DmVeLBJlOpuHRoaHjuhKxd-r1cuecPJVGwuStyxro
(That's a really rough document of some of the songs)
It started as something I did for myself so that I knew what some of my favourite songs meant and it kinda grew.

Anyway, I'm one trainer (a Lass) from Cerulean, so I'll do that tomorrow probably. Trainers are difficult, but it's getting easier.

Change of lists.

The Esperanto version of Wikipedia now has a list of Pokemon. Since this is the most "official" list (there's at least a dozen out there), it will be the one in use from now on. Some changes may be made, but will probably be reverted in editing.

Preskaŭ apud MT.LUNO,

Ĝis

Back to business.

Did some more translating today. It's going rather smoothly, I should get out of Pewter next time I sit down to work on it (tomorrow or the next day).

I gave up for the day when I hit the phrase "Let's get happening." Yes, I could translate that, no it would not make sense. In fact, it already doesn't make sense. The nineties were weird.

Now on Twitter!

In an attempt to do something, Projekto Ruĝa has taken to Twitter. https://twitter.com/#!/Projekto_Rugxa

Se vi konas ajnulon kiu, tiu povas fari ikonon por ni, bonvolu diri iun.

Something has happened

Something has come up and I don't think I'll be able to get much translated over the next few weeks. I hope that by Summer, things will have blown over.

I apologise.

A Bump in the Road

Right, so, I'd gotten into the habit of translating on Tuesdays and Thursdays, at which times I have most of the day open (I have only one class those days), but last Tuesday, my laptop cord finally broke and I haven't gotten a replacement yet. I've ordered one that should come in next week, but until then (since I do all of the translating on my laptop), translation will be on hold.

In other news, I'm almost out of Pewter. I'd be at Mt Moon by now, but there have been several tricky phrases that I've struggled with.

Dankon

A Change of Venue

While this doesn't relate so much to the actual translation of Pokemon Red, I'd thought I'd keep you up to date on how the process is going.

Previously, I had been using a .txt file in a Dropbox to type in my translations. The other day, when I went to work on it, I opened the file to see that all of the diacritic characters (ŝĝŭĵĥĉ) had been replaced with questions marks! (?)

Apparently, I (or ShootingStarMax) opened and edited the document and saved it in a form that didn't support diacritics. I loaded up an older version of the file and picked up from there, only losing a couple of dialogues. Because of this, I have now switched to using Google Docs, though I may revert later if I end up not liking it.

On something a bit more relevant:
Esperanto, being a Construct Language, has some peculiar features/lack of features that you don't find elsewhere. For example: I encountered a BUG CATCHER who says "darn" when defeated. "Darn," being a minced oath, has no perfect translation. It's just a corruption of the word "damn." I know how to swear in Esperanto, but it didn't seem quite the path to take when translating this, so I was forced to come up with a minced oath in Esperanto. I settled on using "feg," at least for now.

By the way, if anyone could help me find a Japanese Script for Pokemon Red, I'd be very appreciative. It would help a lot with things like this.

Gis!

Not Dead

I promise, I've just been busy with classes starting up again. I'm out of Viridan Forest and am taking a short break to brush up on my vocabulary and phrasing. After some more study I will continue.

Decembro kaj Preter!

Longa Senvidas!
My November of writing is over and now exams have begun. Those finish in the next few days, then I'm free once again to tirelessly pour myself into this silly little project. Expect updates in the coming weeks and more of my senseless ramblings and sentences that I start, then forget what I was saying. Simila tiu.  

Ĝis Pli Posto,
Vespero.

Breaking for November

Not sure if I mentioned this before, but I'm taking a break from translating for this month. I'm participating in a writing event called NaNoWriMo, which will be using most/all of my time. Ĝis Decembro, Vespero.

Lost in the Forest

School's been hitting me pretty hard lately, so I haven't progressed much in translating. I'm still in Viridian Forest, and things are going slowly because BUG CATCHERs like slang. Slang is hard to translate. They have several different ways of saying "hello," which has forced me to fabricate some greetings, such as "Hej" and Jo. Similarly, I am currently working on the phrase "jam out" (to vigorously enjoy lively music, often by ones self. Just in case you aren't familiar with 90's English slang). Things are going slowly. In other news, my copy of La Hobito that I ordered from La UEA arrived. I am enjoying it immensely.

Al Marverdarbaro!

In translation, we are now entering the Viridian Forest. This is going to be when we first start meeting other Pokemon Trainers and translating what they say, rather than what someone is saying to tell us how to play. It's exciting! I had to use my first Ju des pli construction, which was a bit harrowing, but I think I got the sentence into a working order. Otherwise, things are progressing smoothly. But, I think we are still looking for people who know things about Gameboy Pointers/ROM Hacking.

New Contributor

Saluton!
I'm ShootingStarMax, and I'll contribute to Projekto Ruĝa from now. I'm in charge of the ROM editing and some of the translation. I'm still learning Esperanto, but I'll do my best!

To keep you informed, the translation is progressing smoothly. We even have some screenshots for you:






We've still haven't made a lot of progress, but, as you can see, we're working steadily.

I'll generally keep you informed about the technical aspects of this project (though I'm not yet very experienced at it, read below), publishing screenshots or talking about how we work along with Vespero.

I'd be nice if the existence of this project were knew by other esperantists or other Pokémon fans. Please share this with people who would be interested in playing the first game of the awesome videogame franchise in the universal language.

Ĝis la revido!

PS: For now, our biggest problem is on the part of ROM editing. If you know about Gameboy Pointers or have experience in ROM hacking, please contact with us!

The Train Keeps Rollin'

Well, I'm still in Viridian (the schoolhouse has a bunch of instructional books that are a pain) But I'm making headway! Even more exciting, ShootingStarMax, has begun assisting me by translating smaller, uniquely named things (currently, Moves). So stuff is happening. He's quick about his work, so I better pick up the pace. @ShootingStarMax, when you read this, send me an email at stickmansamurai@gmail.com. I get an email whenever someone (including myself) posts on this blog, so we might as well just use email to communicate.

A Continuing Struggle

I've still received no word from the translator of the Pokemon Names which I hope to use. Additionally, my return to College has placed a great deal of stress upon me which both eats up my time and my health. Because of this, I am still in Veridian City. But, even as I write this today with a bad headache and an unrelenting desire to return to my bed, I have made some progress today. Most encouragingly, I found the bits I wrote today came easier than they have in the past. Translating is becoming closer to second-nature and my speed of transference is increasing, even as my frequency drops.

Stalled

I've yet to receive a response from the translator of the Pokemon names that I would like to use. This, combined with the fact that school has started back for me, is stalling things. I am currently still in Viridian (pre-Pokedex), but I will be heading back home tomorrow for the weekend and will work on it there.

In the meantime, I need to translate "Pokedex" into something that's not too long.