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Metal Gear 2 Retranslation?
Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 2:35 pm
by Charlie Johnson
There are two english translated versions of MG2: SS available.
The fan translation of the MSX2 original and the official translation of the Subsistence port.
I'll prefer the Subsistence translation, mainly because they left some stuff out in the fan translation.
Though I prefer playing the MSX2 original, because I prefer the original character portraits and the so called "original" difficulty of the Subsistence port is actually a lot easier than it is in the MSX2 version.
Now wouldn't it be possible to use the official Subsistence translation as base for a newly translated fan release of the original MSX2 version?
What do you guys think? Am I the only one who'd love to see that happen?
Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 8:48 pm
by 87th
I love MetalGear 2: Solid Snake more than any other game, so I'm all for a new version. I thought the PS2 version was great, but didn't really replace the experience of playing it in Japanese on my dodgy MSX2. (note- 87th can't read Japanese)
I'd much rather see a re-translation of SD Snatcher, before anyone bothered with a MG2 re-translation, though. It would be nice to play an MSX2 version of the boss battle mode, though (hopefully one that has a few more of the bosses than Konami's attempt, too).
Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 10:34 pm
by snatcher1988
I agree with 87th. I'd much rather see a new translation of SD Snatcher, as well.
P.S. Charlie, your signature kicks ass! Love, love, love the graphics in the PC98 version of Policenauts.
Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 10:45 pm
by shidoni
Guess I should actually sit down and play MG2, huh, seeing as everyone loves it.
Sigh, does anyone know how to get the text sizes to work... I'm code-retarded.
Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 7:01 pm
by X_Lupin
I'm stuck at that damn bit where you have to bring the cold key back to the other side of the map.
Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 7:12 pm
by 87th
Use the sewers to travel between buildings quicker.
Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 9:14 pm
by Marc
87th wrote:Use the sewers to travel between buildings quicker.
That sounded just like something a character would say over the radio.

Re: Metal Gear 2 Retranslation?
Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:40 pm
by Nekura_Hoka
Charlie Johnson wrote:Now wouldn't it be possible to use the official Subsistence translation as base for a newly translated fan release of the original MSX2 version?
What do you guys think? Am I the only one who'd love to see that happen?
Just to chime in late...
I considered doing this when Subsistence came out. It's not an impossible task, but It would not be easily accomplished (in comparison to how easy any translation project is). The subsistence scripts are very wordy and Konami appears to accomplish this in a way which would not be feasible for a standard rom image emulation situation. Personally, I think the scripts for the subsistence versions sound translated and unnatural. I'd rather do a retanslation from scratch, using the subsistence scripts as a means of maintaining accuracy.
Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:40 pm
by Marc
I offer to work on the translation if anyone wants to go ahead with this.
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:24 am
by Nekura_Hoka
I'll probably spend some time poking around the subsistence versions this weekend for some information. I will, however, be honest and say that while I have interest in doing such a project, I do not have the motivation these days to stick to it. Hell, I was meaning to do a bug check on the disk save/load hack for Metal Gear early last year and never got around to it. In other words, I couldn't really be counted on to produce anything, but thanks for the offer Osiris.
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 12:54 pm
by Marc
Sure, I understand. But if you do, you know where to find me.

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 8:52 pm
by Nekura_Hoka
Figured I'd post a bit of a report on my investigation into the Subsistence scripts...
I dumped the scripts and posted them on my MG site (linked below). The scripts are extremely wordy (moreso than I originally thought). In the case of original Metal Gear the script contains very roughly 50% more data than our Remix version script (which in turn contained 30% more data than the UK version).
As I determined originally with the Remix project, a script of this size isn't possible in the existing MSX version. It would have to be reassembled as a larger memory image (256KB more than sufficient) to work. I personally don't have the patience to mess with it. Konami, it seems, didn't either. The PS2 version appears to be an actual port, rather than merely an MSX ROM running in emulation on the PS2. This gave them the nifty abilty to use addresses larger than 16-bit (the most that a MSX Z80 can manage), and also to use some modern day compression on the script itself. I'm betting the compresion is the same as that used on MGS3's codec and Stage.dat files. Hell the codec font used in the games is higher resolution than the game itself, that's kind of a dead giveaway that there's more than just MSX emulation going on.
That's basically why a new script insertion isn't feasible. I kind of liked the idea of inserting an updated script into MG2 because I figured I could squeeze more into it than the current translation based on what I learned doing Metal Gear, but the Subsistence ports make this a moot point. (I probably wouldn't have done it anyway out of respect for MTH and Takamichi.) The best possibility to accomplish a big long script with old fashioned MSX graphics would really be to hack the ps2 version and give it the old graphics and names. Personally, I'm a bit skiddish to mess with a game that is still on shelves in some places if you catch my drift.
All that being said, I might take a look at SD Snatcher this week, lol
Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 9:59 pm
by Marc
No worries, dude. I know it would be a lot of work.