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 an 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 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 Bern 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; this belief has no support in international copyright law (probably because for video games, the translation can be played only through emulation), but it seems plausible that the strong anti-piracy stance the fan translation community has taken has contributed to the tendency of copyright holders to turn a blind eye. Fan translations are mainly done for Japan-only games that were developed for the Japanese versions of game systems that were discontinued in the United States. Article 8 of the Berne Convention, or international copyright law, may be controversial for the fan translation community and the emulation community, and it has been believed by some gamers to have unintended chilling effects on free speech, and that it only serves to force the audience to learn the language that the games in question were marketed in, thus unintentionally making more potential translators. There have never been any legal cases involving fan translation issues. As for manga, there was never a need for a test case, since manga fan translations have been published on the Internet for years. Japanese companies are unlikely to sue the fans, especially for animes, and fan translations of animes have been around a long time. According to Yu's Behind the Scenes of IRC, there have been beliefs that "there is a gap between people's opinion and what is written in the law."

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
(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
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
' (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
' (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
' (Technos, 1994) — translated by Aeon Genesis''' in 2003
' (Enix, 1996) — translated by DeJap''' in 2004
Tales of Phantasia (Namco, 1994) — translated by DeJap in 2001
' (Falcom, 1993) — translated by Aeon Genesis''' in 2000

Other translations

Xak III: The Eternal Recurrence (Microcabin/NEC, 1994, NEC PC-Engine) — translated by NightWolve - RIGG
Ys I & II Complete (Falcom, 2000, PC) — translated by NightWolve - RIGG
Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys (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.