Page 1 of 1
what about voice overs...
Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 9:49 pm
by dandad1
This may be a stupid question, but wouldn't it be easier to change the audio instead of the text, I'm sure you could get plenty of people who would be willing to do voice overs for the game including me, and then all you would need to do is switch out the audio files instead of doing all kinds of translation, especially since you already have the menus and stuff translated.
I know not all the text is spoken in the game but it could be, couldn't it, and if not you could just translate what isn't spoken which would be less then doing the whole game.
Id do voice overs for free and I'm sure others would to, I'm no professional but I'm actually pretty good at it.
What do you guys think?
Re: what about voice overs...
Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 10:27 pm
by Artemio
The topic has already been covered, at least once, on the main Policenauts translation thread. The short answer is that we'll do text only. Voice overs would neeed synch, compression, indexing of pointers and lots of extra work in edition and voice acting/directing, with unforseable results.
Thanks for taking the time to offer help and expressing your ideas.
Re: what about voice overs...
Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 10:15 am
by JimboKudo
Yeah, that might turn out kind of strangely, but if you got good enough people to do it then it would be almost like a real english version of the game. I know that this whole idea sorta flops, but it's still a cool sounding idea. I'm actually decent at voice acting myself, and would even plan on becoming a professional, but I don't really have time for that. dandad1, did you grow up in a house with siblings? The reason I'm asking is that, I have a theory that the majority of people who are good at voice acting are from large households. So far, all of my friends with big families would be excellent voice actors, but they just don't like that type of job. Anyway, I'm from a family of 11, so I can do some crazy stuff with my voice (I think it's because you play with little kids, and it has an effect on your voice).
Re: what about voice overs...
Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 5:19 pm
by dandad1
JimboKudo - I am from a large family no where near 11 but its big there are 5 in my family, I’m the only one that’s any good at voice acting out of all my brothers and sisters.
I would actually love to be a voice actor, infact I could get a job at Funimation (anime company) if I wanted to because it’s in the same city as me. I can do about 15 different voices and 5 different accents and everyone I’ve done them for agrees there good, I just have one problem in order to do voice acting you need acting experience and I don’t have any.
Like Artemio said it would be alot of work to do voice overs, but I think it would be cool - I just hope they remake both games, Snatchers and Policenughts becaus that would be great.
Re: what about voice overs...
Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 5:57 pm
by Artemio
dandad1 wrote:Snatchers and Policenughts
Please, please... never use those "names" again.. it is Snatcher and Policenauts.
Re: what about voice overs...
Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 8:39 pm
by JimboKudo
dandad1 wrote:JimboKudo - I am from a large family no where near 11 but its big there are 5 in my family, I’m the only one that’s any good at voice acting out of all my brothers and sisters.
I would actually love to be a voice actor, infact I could get a job at Funimation (anime company) if I wanted to because it’s in the same city as me. I can do about 15 different voices and 5 different accents and everyone I’ve done them for agrees there good, I just have one problem in order to do voice acting you need acting experience and I don’t have any.
Like Artemio said it would be alot of work to do voice overs, but I think it would be cool - I just hope they remake both games, Snatchers and Policenughts becaus that would be great.
Hmm, I guess that kinda shot down my theory. Yaknow, 5 might not be a lot compared to 11, but that's pretty dang good compared to most families nowadays. Oh well, I wish I lived in the same city as Funimation or some other company like that. I heard that voice actors get pretty good pay. I think it's one of those things I could get a job for, but I'll probably never actually get to do. One thing that I wouldn't like is that there are a lot of people out there that can't stand the english voice actors who play in anime and other foreign cartoons. I think there are a lot of really good ones. I think my favorite voice actor is probably Steven J. Blum (voice of spike from Cowboy Bebop). One of my friends hangs out with Scott Mcneil (Koga from inuyasha and Duo from gundam wing), but I've never gotten to meet him personally.
Re: what about voice overs...
Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 5:06 pm
by dandad1
Sorry Artemio for some stupid reason I keep trying to but an s on the end and I don’t know why and Policenauts is spelt wrong because I suck at spelling, (at work I dont have firefox to spell check my words)
I actually prefer English voice actors I like the shows in Japanese but when your reading the text you don’t get the full enjoyment of the show because your always looking at the bottom of the screen, but I guess if I knew Japanese I’d probably always watch them in Japanese.
In the past most of the English voice overs were not very good but now I think allot of them are great. I wish I knew some people like your friend I’d hang out with them all the time, infact my brothers friend did a voice over for a character in Blue Gender (I’ve never seen it) his name is Ned Record (he talked for Gernreich) he is listed on imbd.com so that’s cool, he was a weirdo though so... anyways where do you live because there’s ADV in Houston, and ViZ in California not sure of the city and if you live in California I’m sure you could easily get a job if you pursued it.
Re: what about voice overs...
Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 8:36 pm
by JimboKudo
dandad1 wrote:Sorry Artemio for some stupid reason I keep trying to but an s on the end and I don’t know why and Policenauts is spelt wrong because I suck at spelling, (at work I dont have firefox to spell check my words)
I actually prefer English voice actors I like the shows in Japanese but when your reading the text you don’t get the full enjoyment of the show because your always looking at the bottom of the screen, but I guess if I knew Japanese I’d probably always watch them in Japanese.
In the past most of the English voice overs were not very good but now I think allot of them are great. I wish I knew some people like your friend I’d hang out with them all the time, infact my brothers friend did a voice over for a character in Blue Gender (I’ve never seen it) his name is Ned Record (he talked for Gernreich) he is listed on imbd.com so that’s cool, he was a weirdo though so... anyways where do you live because there’s ADV in Houston, and ViZ in California not sure of the city and if you live in California I’m sure you could easily get a job if you pursued it.
I've never seen Blue Gender, but it's supposed to be amazing. I have absolutely no clue as to what the storyline is or who any of the characters are. Did you mean the character was weird or your brother? Man, I wish I had my name on imdb, that would be cool to show to my friends. I don't think there are any big anime companies around here, I live in St. Louis Missouri. It's ridiculous, because we're supposed to be "the heart of America" as many people put it, but it kinda sucks living here. (There was a guy from Boston here a while ago, and when he asked me what he should go see that he couldn't see anywhere else, all I could tell him was, "Well....we have the arch....") Anyway, I just looked up your brother, and he was also in a Lupin movie, that's pretty cool.
Re: what about voice overs...
Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 9:59 pm
by dandad1
JimboKudo - Its not my brother its my brother's friend that did the voice for Blue Gender he was the weird one but I think it was do to his father dieing, he was a normal guy before that but then he just stopped talking to people, he moved to england to do acting but then moved back here (Texas) hes not as weird now but he and my brother don't talk or anything anymore but we have bumped into him a few times at various places around town (Fort Worth/Dallas).
Well since this is the Policenauts section of the forum I should probably talk about it before this thread is closed for having nothing to do with the game since the first post, Have you ever played Policenauts, I own it on SEGA Saturn but since I don't know Japanese (yet) I'm really hoping for the translation to come out soon I've been wanting to play it for awhile now, I'm even having my friend from Japan send me a Japanese SEGA Saturn just for it. I know there are emulators but I figured it would be more fun on the actual system, I also know that the translation is of the Playstation version and I'll get one when the translation is complete so I can play both the English (translation) and Japaneses version just like I'm doing with Snatcher for the SEGA CD and PC-Engine (TG16) and then when the SEGA Saturn version is translated (I believe there planning that for after the Playstation) I'll play it again. Well thats enough to read so I'll stop here for now.
Re: what about voice overs...
Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 10:13 pm
by JimboKudo
dandad1 wrote:JimboKudo - Its not my brother its my brother's friend that did the voice for Blue Gender he was the weird one but I think it was do to his father dieing, he was a normal guy before that but then he just stopped talking to people, he moved to england to do acting but then moved back here (Texas) hes not as weird now but he and my brother don't talk or anything anymore but we have bumped into him a few times at various places around town (Fort Worth/Dallas).
Well since this is the Policenauts section of the forum I should probably talk about it before this thread is closed for having nothing to do with the game since the first post, Have you ever played Policenauts, I own it on SEGA Saturn but since I don't know Japanese (yet) I'm really hoping for the translation to come out soon I've been wanting to play it for awhile now, I'm even having my friend from Japan send me a Japanese SEGA Saturn just for it. I know there are emulators but I figured it would be more fun on the actual system, I also know that the translation is of the Playstation version and I'll get one when the translation is complete so I can play both the English (translation) and Japaneses version just like I'm doing with Snatcher for the SEGA CD and PC-Engine (TG16) and then when the SEGA Saturn version is translated (I believe there planning that for after the Playstation) I'll play it again. Well thats enough to read so I'll stop here for now.
Whoops! Sorry for the misundestanding.
I've played the playstation version of Policenauts. I'm able to understand VERY basic things that they were saying (I didn't hit any snags on where to go), but I decided to stop playing because I figured it might spoil some cool surprises if I played it all the way through in Japanese. That's gonna be awesome to have a Japanese Saturn, I need to get one of those. I hear there are quite a few good games for it, like Mr. Bones. Since you're getting a Japanese one, then you might want to look into getting a game called Princess Crown. I'm not sure if you're interested, but it's basically the "original" Odin Sphere, which is a pretty cool game. It only came out in Japan, but I have it for my psp, since there's no region code. Anyway, it requires absolutely no knowledge of Japanese, even though it is an rpg of sorts. Definetly a good game if you're into imports (oh and don't be bothered by the girly sounding name, it's a GOOD game). Anyway, I think I might start with buying a Sega CD before the Saturn, because there's a bunch of games that I want for that, like Snatcher and Flashback, but I guess that's not for this section of the forum. Anyway, sorry again for the mixup.
Re: what about voice overs...
Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 5:19 am
by dandad1
No big deal people make mistakes all the time.
I was actually thinking about getting other games for the SEGA SATURN but was not sure what would be good thanks for the names I'll defiantly look them up, I think since I love video games so much if I get some in Japaneses games it will force me to start my lessons up again since I've been putting them off for about a year now (I don't know why because I enjoyed it allot), its just I don't know any body who speaks Japanese so its hard to learn it when you never get a chance to speak it.
I own Snatcher and have been playing it on a SEGA CD emulator but I'll probably get a real one sooner or later cant get every system at the same time (ain't that rich) and I'm enjoying the heck out off it. If you do get a SEGA CD you should get Space Adventure Cobra its in the same style as Snatcher and from the small part I've played it was very cool.
I've started my copy of Policenauts on a SEGA SATURN emulator twice and watched the intro got very excited and quit because I didn't want to play the game and not understand it that and it just didn't feel right playing it on an emulator, unlike Snatcher which I'm fine with on an emulator (don't know why) maybe because its in english and I can get into it more.
Re: what about voice overs...
Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 6:46 pm
by JimboKudo
I'm just starting to bid on a Sega genesis with the CD attachment, and I already bought the game Heart of the Alien. Hopefully it will all work out. I was looking on ebay a while ago for Snatcher, but it was a bit too expensive, so I think I might get that later after I get Flashback and Rise of the Dragon. Thanks for the suggestion for Space Adventure Cobra, I'll check that one out too.
Whenever I start to play Policenauts on my psp, I do the same thing. By the time I'm done watching the intro, I want to play it in English, so I quit. I was learning Japanese last summer, but I had the same problem as you where nobody else could speak it with me. I think I'll pick it up again this summer, so I can play a couple of the imported games I have with at least some understanding. Did you focus more on the writing or the speaking? I did much more work towards speaking, and I found some good (and corny) instructional videos on Veoh. I'll have to post a link for it, because it's really good. Anyway, hopefully I'll get to buy a Saturn after I finish buying the games I want on the Sega CD.
Re: what about voice overs...
Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 7:33 pm
by Anubis
I would definitely pick up a Saturn. I got one and installed a mod-chip not to long ago and it's fantastic. Panzer Dragoon Saga is quickly becoming on of my favorite games.
Also worth noting for the Sega CD is that it has no copy protection. You just have to burn a game correctly and it will play fine.
I recommend checking out
Snatcher
Popful Mail
Lords of Thunder
Sonic CD
Re: what about voice overs...
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 4:08 am
by 87th
Anubis wrote:Also worth noting for the Sega CD is that it has no copy protection. You just have to burn a game correctly and it will play fine.
Well, Region permitting, anyway. I've been playing around with my ISO of the Sega CD Flashback to attempt to get it to run on my Mega CD for around a year, now.

Re: what about voice overs...
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 12:48 pm
by JimboKudo
87th wrote:Anubis wrote:Also worth noting for the Sega CD is that it has no copy protection. You just have to burn a game correctly and it will play fine.
Well, Region permitting, anyway. I've been playing around with my ISO of the Sega CD Flashback to attempt to get it to run on my Mega CD for around a year, now.

Isn't there any type of Magic Swap or something like that?
Re: what about voice overs...
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 12:55 pm
by Anubis
Is it patched to the correct region?
Re: what about voice overs...
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 1:06 pm
by 87th
It's the correct region, as it works in PAL mode in an emulator. I think I know what I need to do, but I haven't bothered trying it, yet.
Re: what about voice overs...
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 4:37 pm
by dandad1
JimboKudo - I focused more on writing Japanese because I figured it would be the hardest part of the language and while learning how to write it I would understand the sounds and structure of the words, so I would basically be learning How to write, read, and speak at the same time.
I have found some very good books on learning Japanese, I’ll try to make a list and post it for you later.
How did you get policenauts on your psp (that sounds awesome) I have tried to put emulators on my psp since I got the darn thing and have yet to get any to work, do you have a good tutorial, and what firmware was your psp when you did it.
Anubis - Thanks for the list I’ll have to check them out when I get my Saturn
Re: what about voice overs...
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 7:00 pm
by JimboKudo
dandad1 wrote:JimboKudo - I focused more on writing Japanese because I figured it would be the hardest part of the language and while learning how to write it I would understand the sounds and structure of the words, so I would basically be learning How to write, read, and speak at the same time.
I have found some very good books on learning Japanese, I’ll try to make a list and post it for you later.
How did you get policenauts on your psp (that sounds awesome) I have tried to put emulators on my psp since I got the darn thing and have yet to get any to work, do you have a good tutorial, and what firmware was your psp when you did it.
Anubis - Thanks for the list I’ll have to check them out when I get my Saturn
That actually sounds like a better way to learn a language, maybe I should start my studies up again that way, since the way I did it ended a bit unsucessfully. If you could post some links when you can, that would great.
Here's a link that you can use that will show you how to convert psx to psp.
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/538170
If you have any problems figuring things out, then I'd be happy to help out. One word of advice, on the tutorial DO NOT put the compression to 9. If you do, then it will be heavily compressed and won't even necessarily work. I usually use a compression of 4 or 5. Anyway, I hope that helps.
Re: what about voice overs...
Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 4:45 pm
by dandad1
JimboKudo - Here are some links for you:
But before you start learning Japanese there are a few things you need to know about reading and writing it, first learn Hiragana that’s what they teach to kids first and Hiragana is what is used for Japanese words only, after that, learn katakana it’s used to write foreign words for example computer is a foreign word so its written in katakana and foreign names like mine Daniel would be written in katakana, I would have shown katakana examples for you but my computer here at work doesn’t support Japanese symbols.
After that you should learn kanji there are over 45,000 kanji but only 3,000 of them are commonly used and you only really need to learn 1,000+ of them. (Sounds hard I know) kanji was adopted from the Chinese about 5,000 years ago, and instead of using symbols to represent sounds they are used to represent objects (kind of like a noun minus the person.)
I hope you didn’t already know that because it was allot to read, lol
Any way make sure your computer allows Japanese text, here are the links,
This first link is a good website for learning Hiragana, and Katakana:
http://www.freejapaneselessons.com/
Also if you want to know how to write a word or you want to translate a word:
Goggle translates is good for that:
http://www.google.com/translate_t
And here's a website that will translate a word into romanji (Japanese words written in English) for you:
http://www.freedict.com/onldict/jap.html
The next set of links are to books that I have used:
This first one is the best:
Japanese in 10 Minutes a Day
http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-10-Minut ... 0944502369
This book will teach you allot about the language that other books won’t, not the best book but helpful in reading Japanese:
Japanese in Mangaland: Basic Japanese Course Using Manga (there are several of these)
http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Mangalan ... 225&sr=1-1
This book shows you how to write Japanese in the correct stoke order:
Jimi's Book of Japanese: A Motivating Method to Learn Japanese (Hiragana) (Katakana)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/searc ... 0Takahashi
That’s all I got, these books will help you allot I think (I hope), also thanks for the PSP emulator tutorial I’ll have to give it a try.
Re: what about voice overs...
Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 7:38 pm
by JimboKudo
dandad1 wrote:JimboKudo - Here are some links for you:
But before you start learning Japanese there are a few things you need to know about reading and writing it, first learn Hiragana that’s what they teach to kids first and Hiragana is what is used for Japanese words only, after that, learn katakana it’s used to write foreign words for example computer is a foreign word so its written in katakana and foreign names like mine Daniel would be written in katakana, I would have shown katakana examples for you but my computer here at work doesn’t support Japanese symbols.
After that you should learn kanji there are over 45,000 kanji but only 3,000 of them are commonly used and you only really need to learn 1,000+ of them. (Sounds hard I know) kanji was adopted from the Chinese about 5,000 years ago, and instead of using symbols to represent sounds they are used to represent objects (kind of like a noun minus the person.)
I hope you didn’t already know that because it was allot to read, lol
Any way make sure your computer allows Japanese text, here are the links,
This first link is a good website for learning Hiragana, and Katakana:
http://www.freejapaneselessons.com/
Also if you want to know how to write a word or you want to translate a word:
Goggle translates is good for that:
http://www.google.com/translate_t
And here's a website that will translate a word into romanji (Japanese words written in English) for you:
http://www.freedict.com/onldict/jap.html
The next set of links are to books that I have used:
This first one is the best:
Japanese in 10 Minutes a Day
http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-10-Minut ... 0944502369
This book will teach you allot about the language that other books won’t, not the best book but helpful in reading Japanese:
Japanese in Mangaland: Basic Japanese Course Using Manga (there are several of these)
http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Mangalan ... 225&sr=1-1
This book shows you how to write Japanese in the correct stoke order:
Jimi's Book of Japanese: A Motivating Method to Learn Japanese (Hiragana) (Katakana)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/searc ... 0Takahashi
That’s all I got, these books will help you allot I think (I hope), also thanks for the PSP emulator tutorial I’ll have to give it a try.
Thanks for all the links man. I knew some of the stuff about the writing and language, but I didn't know THAT much about it; that's cool. I found the series of videos that are good for learning the language:
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v9493995cBKp ... 276&rank=5
I think you're right about learning the writing first, so I guess that makes the series a bit useless, but they are pretty good for learning the basics of the language. Anyway, I think I'm gonna order those books soon, because they're pretty highly rated, and I saw some examples from them. I just need to get enough extra money to buy them. I also checked out that website link you gave me, and that's gonna be good. I think the main thing is to memorize the Hiragana in the first lesson. I'm still in the midst of doing so. Thanks again.
For the PSP link I gave you, it's not actually an emulator. It converts the playstation game into the format that sony uses, so it's like you downloaded it off of the Playstation Store. It's basically perfect emulation. It's gonna be great playing the translated version of Policenauts on my psp.