OK, in November 2020 i start the rus translation of S3K for SMD. I forgot it many times, then I worked on it a lot. While doing this translation, I studied graphic editing, as well as editing asm. As a result, I left it in February because I didn't know how to edit the hud, and I had work on hacking another game. But, a few weeks ago i done hacking of other game, and i thought: What if i make not a simple translation on russian, but for another languages too? And put it in one ROM! And make it possible to switch languages in a separate settings menu! But, as you understand, i can't make it alone. I need the help of those who are interested. But, the task is not only to make a lot of translations, but also to improve the game itself as a whole. For example, make big arms available, add new sprites to rotate on a barrel from origins, and much more. And NO, i don't asking you to do all the work for me, i'm asking you to help me. Well, to prove that the project exists, I attach a screenshot with a Russian title. Spoiler: Image I don't know why you need it, maybe you can at least laugh at how badly I draw :p If you have any requests or suggestions for cooperation, please write here. Translators from all countries - unite!
It was a good idea for a project... There's been a few translation hacks in the past, but nothing that I can find for Sonic 3.
Reminds me of Sonic 1 in Hebrew by Barak, he didn't do it for any practical or useful reasons, it was more of a thought experiment I believe, a Russian version sounds like fun though, shame you're dislodging the idea,
Wow, finally someone is replied! Ok, I thought I was going to be sent to hell with this idea, or something like that XD. In any case, I probably should wait for volunteers who know other languages and will be able to help me, but in the meantime, I will fix the game itself and experiment with the settings. (Seriously, imagine being able to switch a bunch of languages in the settings menu, and find your native language among them )
I want to see a French version of this with the prototype tracks one day. We have a Sonic 1 French hack already so why not this and Sonic 2?
Put every line of text you need to change on a list and I'll translate them to spanish for you. Not just for me, you can make that blank text sheet to share it with anyone who wants to help with this. Oh, and I can also provide you basque translations if you want; it's just a regional language from here, but may be you want to do that one too.
I can help with Greek translations, though some translations might be a bit difficult to incorporate into the game, such as for example zone names grammatically becoming "The Zone of the (name)." I can also help you style the fonts to fit with Greek if you'd like.
I'd be surprised if an unofficial Russian translation of Sonic 3&K doesn't already exist - there was a business of translating ROMs, shoving them on crappy cartridges and putting them up for sale, and I'd have thought Sonic games would be prime candidates. Although I suppose there isn't a great deal to actually translate. It's not like it's a narrative-driven RPG.
I think there's a harder work in handling the graphics for the text since there's gonna be a good bunch of languages put together in the same game, a lot of them with different alphabets. For example, if it allows for english, french, italian, german, portuguese, greek, russian and japanese, you have 8 languages and 4 alphabets, which multiplied by the number of fonts (title, menu, competition, title cards, score tally, credits), gets rather big because just fitting pre-made pictures in won't work for the languages that share an alphabet.
They were translated in the multilanguage manuals, and most of them are descriptions, not names (imagine United Kingdom Zone neither talking about the real world UK nor being a country name at all). Plus, where would be the fun? It's all or nothing in my book. That aside, a phonetical conversion of "Knuckles" to spanish sucks: Sonic would still be that, Tails would be Teils (great to annoy german fans), and Knuckles would be Cnacols, usually pronounced just as Nacols. I prefer to translate them as "Sónico", "Colas" and "Nudillos", still cringey but readable.
When I said phonetically, I meant languages that don't use the latin alphabet. In Spanish I'd leave all the names as-is. You're right about the zones though, the manuals do set a precedent. I haven't played Sonic 3 for a while but I'm very familiar with Sonic 1, so here's a list of all the places text appears in that game: Title screen Sega screen "Sonic Team Presents" screen Level select Title cards HUD "Sonic Has Passed" cards Special Stage results cards Continue screen Hidden credits screen (Japanese) HUD Special Stage objects Spring Yard Zone background Ending logo Ending credits screens "Try Again"/"End" screens Crash error messages
OMG, so many humans is replied... nice! Ok. I don't mind You can help with translation and integration of it in the game? Anyway- it's good idea and I will accept your offer It was, but only as S3 alone and separately S&K. And translation was TERRIBLE! Launch base become to "spaceport", Mushroom Hill become to "Fly agarics zone" and Death egg becomes to... "UFO zone"....WHAT THE Ok. I'm ready. Um... it will be looks weird... Лаунч Бейз.... No, I think, better if it will be translated) There are difficulties in all languages. If I will translate characters' names, it will be "Звуковой колючка" for Sonic, "Хвостик" for Tails, and "Ехидные Костяшки пальцев" or "Ехидные Суставы" for Knuckles. Also I can't translate Eggman as "Человек-яйцо", or "Яйцемен", because the "Яйцо" in Russian language had a two different meaning: "Egg" and that second meaning of the "nuts" word Thanks everyone for feedback, I'll try to make everything for putting this languages in game. But, I really need the programmers. If at least two people want to help me in terms of code, it will be great P.S., @Black Squirrel, in 2000s, in Russia was translated 90% of SMD games, include titles like "UMK3", some hacks from internet, and... "Sonic Jam 6".... It was a really dark times XD P.P.S.: I hope it doesn't look weird
It made using Online-translator... I hope, I didn't offend anyone List of words will be uploaded later...
No offense at all ) it‘s just a literal translation and sounds funny in German, Sonic would be called „Schall“ then
Ok. I glad I didn't offend anyone So, about zone names: You can use just 7-8 letters from main level title and 4 from extra tile file with Z,O,N,E letters. Letters from extra file should be universal, so that they are used by all levels. You need to imagine something with competition zones names, because cards used for competition level select menu uses one mappings file, and you had a graphics limitations. But, title cards for this levels can be restored, so you can make translations for title cards, and for cards from level select- just write something like "Speedway A..." or something... in general, you will have to show imagination Title screen, level select (with 26 letters limitations) can be redrawned without strict limitations. So... write for requests, or suggestions for cooperation. Good luck! Thanks for attention Project is based on GitHub disasm
Seems fitting, can't find an issue in that. XD This will actually happen with a lot of languages. A good example in spanish for comparison would be: "Marble Garden Zone" -> "Zona del Jardín de Mármol" While the main words are of the same length, it not only changes the length of the text through the use of articles, but also changes the default arrangement of the title card. I suppose you could get away with "Zona Jardín Mármol" in this case even if you'd never write that way (it would become more like a filename or a codename), but the word arrangement is still the opposite to the english one. It's more like there are difficulties in putting all those languages together. It may be a good idea to group the intended languages by alphabet first, then make even smaller groups putting together those that work similarly enough, and make separate hacks for each language pack to properly customize the visuals and manage the edited content more efficiently. Not because you couldn't put everything together (I don't know if you can) but because it will be an enormous headache to handle a full babel tower edition of the game.
