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Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 5:43 pm
by DefaultGen
Osiris wrote:We'll keep at it until it's finished, don't worry.

I've been looking forward to the Policenauts translation more than any other game this year

Although I'm sure many other people agree with me on that.
Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 4:59 pm
by Kojima_Devotee
DefaultGen wrote:I've been looking forward to the Policenauts translation more than any other game this year

Although I'm sure many other people agree with me on that.
I agree. As someone that's not planning on upgrading to a 360, PS3, or Wii, I can say that this is the release of the year for me. Unfortunately, filling out the collections on my current consoles, from NES to PS2, is just too expensive. Nevertheless, I still made sure I had the funds to secure a copy of Policenauts that I can rip and prepare for patching.
Even though it's a Sticky, it's good to keep the topic alive.

Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 1:34 pm
by joeypete
1st off respect to the ppl who made this translation happen!
Yeah, I'm looking forward to this just as much as any current gen release this year. I actual dig this a bit more than Halo 3 even! LOL! (tho that is just me I'm sure)
BTW best to get a copy now it would seem (if you do not have it) be4 the release of the translation patch. Bet the price will go through the roof once more ppl get clued into PN being now available in english. I saw a sealed new PlayStation The Best (J) copy on eBay (UK seller but world wide shipping) for 3 GBP and 6 GBP shipping so in USD that is $18!! Not too bad, less than $20 for PN... It will go up I'm sure soon.
I am happy this is coming soon. Very, very cool.

Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 2:35 pm
by Kojima_Devotee
You've got that right. If it isn't news of the patch, then it's just Kojima Fever sweeping the planet. (Due to MGS4's release.) Whatever the case may be, Policenauts is no longer cheap - I was lucky to get mine for just under $20!
If anything, it just adds to the excitement, but those that haven't secured a copy should definitely start looking. :shock:
Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 8:40 pm
by joeypete
[quote=Kojima_Devotee]then it's just Kojima Fever sweeping the planet[/quote]
I feel you! The only reason I own a PS3 is for MGS4.

Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 9:56 pm
by Kojima_Devotee
joeypete wrote:I feel you! The only reason I own a PS3 is for MGS4.

Hahaha, I understand - I just looked through all three console's line-ups, and, I have to say, the PS3's US Release List doesn't look bad at all. The reason I didn't buy a 360 or Wii was because MGS3 was just too amazing of a game, and, for me, it would be a crime to miss Guns of the <B>Patriots</B>. If the PS3 gets all the big-name games it's been promised (From Uncharted: Drake's Fortune to Final Fantasy XIII), I'll definitely pick one up and finally play Kojima's last big MGS masterpiece. Unfortunately, that's years and years down the road. :shock:
For now, all I have are the Policenauts patches.
EDIT: Why is <B>Patriots</B> in bold? :razz:
EDIT 2: Pat-riots shows up as < B > < /B > HTML tags in Quote mode, but, in Edit mode, the term in question remains untouched.
TEST: <B>Patriots</B>, <B>Patriots</B>, <B>Patriots</B>.
Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 11:22 pm
by DefaultGen
<B>Patriots</B>?
Edit: omg
Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 4:05 am
by Charlie Johnson
<B>Patriots</B>
Nice idea.
Although it would've been better if you did this with "Policenauts Translation".

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 12:06 pm
by Kojima_Devotee
Hahaha, I agree, but, then again, doing that might take away the novelty - Every post would have a bold word if "Policenauts" and/or "translation" joined the list. :razz:
Either way, it's an amusing feature.
Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 4:43 am
by g00gy
I cant wait for the policenauts translation patch. can anyone tell me approximatly when it might be released?
Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 6:55 am
by MetalGearAlex
no one can really tell you that.
I don't know.
Obviously they don't know.
I'm suspicious.
Does this "Patch" even exist?
Stop... doubting... must... have... faith!
Better be soon guys, cuz I'm running out of pants to wet.
Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 11:08 am
by Marc
Again, the honest answer is right now we do not know for sure when the project will be completed. When there is something to report, we will do that here and send out a newsletter.
Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 3:59 pm
by Crowley
Osiris wrote:Again, the honest answer is right now we do not know for sure when the project will be completed. When there is something to report, we will do that here and send out a newsletter.
Wait, I thought you were aiming to get it done by the end of the year. Maybe I'm remembering nonexistent things.
Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 4:57 pm
by Marc
Crowley wrote:Osiris wrote:Again, the honest answer is right now we do not know for sure when the project will be completed. When there is something to report, we will do that here and send out a newsletter.
Wait, I thought you were aiming to get it done by the end of the year. Maybe I'm remembering nonexistent things.
Yeah, we are, but what I'm saying is we don't know when exactly.
Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 8:26 pm
by joeypete
"When" is not the issue for me. I'm happy that it is to be completed (how ever long it needs to take for it to happen).
I heard a few years back that Kojima himself or some Konami executive scrapped the official Konami PN English translation when it was like 75% finished.
My true feelings from that blow can only be shared to you by this song:
Pain.flac Its in FLAC BTW. Yes, it was a great pain I felt...
IDK is that is true but I was sad an pissed that I'd never see PN in English. Now that it will happen (again timeline = no rush!

) that makes things better!
Tho it sounds like sacrilege to say it there
are others games to play and enjoy till it gets done.

[/url]
Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 1:50 pm
by Ghaleon
I finally found the PSX ver for pretty cheap (it was like $23 with shipping, from Japan) ... and he sent me the Saturn version. Sweet.
But the Visual Data book also arrived yesterday from eBay -- it's really really nice. Got me re-excited to finally play this in English! Finally a lot of good games are coming out starting this month, but I'd shelve BioShock, Metroid, Mass Effect and Mario all for PN

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 2:39 pm
by Kojima_Devotee
Well, keep in mind that the team just released translated trailers, and they've already provided us with a website containing a Timeline and Glossary. I admit, I find the updates vague and repetitive, but I feel that the team needs to keep things quiet.
My reasoning is that hype will result in a huge flow of Kojima fans and newcomers. Allowing hype to generate at this stage would be disastrous - These individuals will flood onto the website with the hopes of downloading the patch. In the end, they will find nothing and either hang around or lose interest. The major goal should be generating this hype when the patch is either close to completion or released. By doing so, we satisfy the legions of fans and get the largest amount of exposure. Doing so at any other point would just be wasteful and ruin the actual release event.
Does that make sense? :razz:
Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 7:11 pm
by seraphssavior
^ Don't get their hopes up for nothing, and keep this site clean from all of the Leet speakers as long as we can.

Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 3:42 pm
by Marc
I was listening to a recent Hidechan, and there was this acquaintance of Kojima who sent in a letter to the show. He said he was now in to LA to study English at UCLA there, and he said, "Before I left, though, there was one thing on my to-do list: play Policenauts! I'm ashamed to say I hadn't played this famous game up until then." Kojima was like, "Famous...? (laughs)" So the friend talked about his favorite parts of the game and everything, while they edited in the end credits song from the game over it. I think Kojima was happy. He also wondered which version he played.
Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 1:34 pm
by Kojima_Devotee
It's a shame Kojima was surprised by the "Famous" comment - Policenauts deserves a wider audience. (Of course, that's the goal of Policenauts.net.)
Perhaps Kojima will be surprised by fan reactions when the patches are released. I'm particularly interested to see the non-English patches - From Japanese-only to several available languages! That'll be quite a change from our current situation! :razz:
Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 11:46 pm
by joeypete
I always wonder... After the patch and this game hits big time (like you know it will) would Konami see the reaction that this "Famous" game will get and try to cash in by finally making a English version of their own? It would be a download on the PlayStation Network most likely.
Humm.....
Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2007 4:11 am
by epitaph
joeypete wrote:I always wonder... After the patch and this game hits big time (like you know it will) would Konami see the reaction that this "Famous" game will get and try to cash in by finally making a English version of their own? It would be a download on the PlayStation Network most likely.
Humm.....
Doubtful. The decision ultimately rests with Kojima and he's explicitly denied to release Policenauts in western territories several times in the past.
Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2007 4:54 am
by Henry Spencer
And the official reason why, is still up in the air. Kojima said because of 'lip synching', but i think there's far more to the story than that...
Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2007 9:59 pm
by Marc
Henry Spencer wrote:And the official reason why, is still up in the air. Kojima said because of 'lip synching', but i think there's far more to the story than that...
Allow me to throw my 0.02 into the ring here. Keep in mind that much of this isn't part of the Official Reason, but inferred.
As we know, Snatcher did not sell very well when it was released for the Sega CD. If Jeremy Blaustein's figure of less than 400 copies worldwide is accurate, then that would make it one of the worst-selling games of all time, unfortunately. Put yourself in the shoes of a Konami exec right after news of that came back: now they have Policenauts on the table, which is many times bigger than Snatcher, both in terms of text and dialogue. It would have required a bigger investment than Snatcher, for possibly just as bad sales. That wouldn't have been a sound business decision. At the end of the day, Konami is a business, and they still need to make money to survive. I still say that the "X% translated" rumor was never true; it was simply started by one person and endlessly repeated as fact.
Also keep in mind that Policenauts is an important game for Kojima. I'm sure he was sorry to see Snatcher fail so badly overseas, and he didn't want the same thing to happen to Policenauts. This is just my own opinion here, but I liken Kojima's relationship with Policenauts to Ridley Scott's relationship with Blade Runner. It wasn't his most financially successful film, though Ridley calls it his most personal and complete work. I think that's maybe what Policenauts is to Kojima. He spent a total of six years on it, and ported it three times, refining it with each new installment. These weren't just ports for the sake of money, they really did improve the game as much as was possible back then. He said in an interview in 1996 that he'd spent more time on the game than his son had been alive, and that with each version they released, it felt like he gave away a part of himself with it.
He also said it's the most difficult project he's ever been involved with. Before I go on too long, I'll just say that right now I'm guessing he holds it in a special place where it's settled over time, and to go back to it would disturb those emotions. He'd also inevitably see things he'd want to change, and he's said he doesn't like to mess around with a game after it's been released (the MGS expansion re-releases being different). Finally, I'm also guessing he'd rather work on a new game than revisit an old one. The guys he works with all love the game, but it's not their thing to endlessly talk about it in public the way fans can. They comment on it whenever possible, but the remaining appreciation is private. We can see that Kojima continues to keep the game's memory alive by referencing it in successive titles (for instance, look at the way the original Policenauts poster is in the most prominent position in the Shell 1 computer room; Kojima's ghost being in one of the Policenauts posters in Otacon's lab; and a Policenauts poster hanging by the computer in Kojima's real-life office), but this requires less work and emotional involvement than going back to the actual game would.
As I've said before, if Konami ever decides to officially localize the game, they're welcome to our translation for free. As a fan who knows the game inside out, I had incentive to do a good job -- I wanted to see the game get a great translation. Translating is also what I do for a living, so you can be assured it'll read naturally. But even if the game never sees an official release, I know you guys will thoroughly enjoy what comes of our project.
Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 5:16 am
by Henry Spencer
Well, quite a story. With emotions running high like that, I can understand Kojima's reaction to not releasing the translated version of the game...
It is like Blade Runner in the sense that there are loads of versions of the one project! (Like BR's various different cuts).
And Kojima still has a poster of the game in his office! Interesting...
If the guy would ever find out about your guy's translation job, I think he would freak, in a good way of course, since if it is his most personal work (seems likely by what you said) then he should be happy a vast majority will finally be able to play the game.
Do you know whether he was really proud of his final product after all that work?
Funny thing is, that Yoji Shinkawa's first project was that game too, has he ever been vocal in his viewpoint too about the game?