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Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 3:25 pm
by GillianSeed
Well, I was thinking about it and I think it would be cool to do an English fandub of the game. Now I know that generally when people think about fandubs, they think "bad dubbing", but I know some websites, that have some pretty decent amateur English voice actors. However, this voice patch wouldn't replace the main patch, but it would be an alternate patch. And obviously, the patches size would much larger, but I think if done correctly, it could be cool.

But let's look at this realistictly. Like, how would the whole process go? Well, we'd probably have to first post an ad on an amatuer voice acting site. Now one of the bad things about doing that is, is that if your fandub isn't Naruto or some big popular anime, it probably won't get that much interest. There's also scouting, but even then, there's a chance you won't get a reply.

Then say we do get the right voice actors and eventually get the lines recorded, we could perhaps try to see if the coders of this project could hack the voices into the game. Now, I know the official English version was canceled because voices didn't sync up, but it honestly doesn't even matter to me, I'd just like to see what the voices sounded like in English.

But yeah, if we could pull it off successfully, it could very cool. I know it would be difficult to find the right people for the job, but trust me, there are amateur voice actors out there who can do pretty decent voice acting.

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 5:00 pm
by James_The_Stampede
Back in the days of yore, someone else proposed this very same idea. Let's just say we haven't seen much of him after "the incident"...

//Seriously though.. not a good idea :P

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 6:01 pm
by GillianSeed
James_The_Stampede wrote:Back in the days of yore, someone else proposed this very same idea. Let's just say we haven't seen much of him after "the incident"...

//Seriously though.. not a good idea :P
And why not, because all fandubs are crap right? If it's the syncing I can understand it. But all I'm saying is you have to drop the "all fandubs are crap" attitude, because there are actually decent ones out there. Not saying that was your point, but I can't think of any other reason.

If it's the difficulty with inserting the voices, I can understand that too.

Only problem I can see with fandubbing is someone not being dedicated enough to finish their lines.

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 6:02 pm
by slowbeef
I dunno how you'd get that going well without the original materials. You'd have to rip the music, get all the "actors" in a recording studio so they all have the same audio quality (or I guess buy them all the same or similar mics and sound cards), put their audio over the music, retime everything, and then encode it back in.

I don't know anything about fandubs so maybe that's all easy or done before, so hey.

That's for all the VOX and MOVs, not to mention weird one-off scenes like the motorcycle shooting scenes.

Audio romhacking is a pretty empty field as most people only hack the text and graphics. I honestly wouldn't even be sure where to begin.

I dunno.

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 6:15 pm
by GillianSeed
slowbeef wrote:I dunno how you'd get that going well without the original materials. You'd have to rip the music, get all the "actors" in a recording studio so they all have the same audio quality (or I guess buy them all the same or similar mics and sound cards), put their audio over the music, retime everything, and then encode it back in.

I don't know anything about fandubs so maybe that's all easy or done before, so hey.

That's for all the VOX and MOVs, not to mention weird one-off scenes like the motorcycle shooting scenes.

Audio romhacking is a pretty empty field as most people only hack the text and graphics. I honestly wouldn't even be sure where to begin.

I dunno.
Well you're right about that. As far as audio quality goes that can be fixed inside a program. Now, I'm not sure how Policenauts does the audio, so knowing that might also help me. Heck, as far as encoding and mixing stuff goes though, I could probably do that if I had the right materials.

I'm already aware we're not going to be able to do anything near the level of Konami, but yeah.

I think we could figure out how to turn MP3's or whatever back into XA files it wouldn't be too hard. As far as timing goes, to make sure that's accurate, we could compare the original file, with the game's file.

In the end, a lot of hard work but it could work. Just need someone who knows how to compress and recompress audio data and someone willing to mix the audio and voices. And if it's really needed, I have experience with that.

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 6:51 pm
by slowbeef
A LOT of hard work. Someone else asked about this in the SA Policenauts thread and here's what I said there:


Well... okay, the hardest thing would be the movies because the audio's encoded with them. You'd have to rip that, get the music, redo voices, re-encode the audio and figure out how to compress it and put it back into the game.

The VOX (the subtitled voiceovers) is actually one big file, so that'd also be a major pain in the ass - especially because the pointers to it are all in other game files. That was kind of nightmarish just doing the text.

(Actually only one conversation went over on each disc. Scarboy and I got around that by copying the problem sections to the end and changing only those individual pointers.)

Honestly, I'm not sure how you'd do it, but I think it's a high level of difficulty.

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:43 pm
by GillianSeed
slowbeef wrote:A LOT of hard work. Someone else asked about this in the SA Policenauts thread and here's what I said there:


Well... okay, the hardest thing would be the movies because the audio's encoded with them. You'd have to rip that, get the music, redo voices, re-encode the audio and figure out how to compress it and put it back into the game.

The VOX (the subtitled voiceovers) is actually one big file, so that'd also be a major pain in the ass - especially because the pointers to it are all in other game files. That was kind of nightmarish just doing the text.

(Actually only one conversation went over on each disc. Scarboy and I got around that by copying the problem sections to the end and changing only those individual pointers.)

Honestly, I'm not sure how you'd do it, but I think it's a high level of difficulty.
Hmm... So you're saying all the voices are in one file? Hmm... it would be difficult. But if I could possibly get tools to extract the movies and stuff, it might be possible. I certainly don't have the hacking skill, but I'm sure someone might. If I could get tools to extract the movies and audio that's a start.

But about the VOX, does that mean that all the voices are in one big XA file?

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:56 pm
by slowbeef
No. Absolutely none of the voices are in XA whatsoever. In fact, the only thing in XA is the intro movie, which is why people are having trouble burning it.

The VOXs and the MOVs are in proprietary Konami compression (TM) so you would need something to go back and forth from MP3 to that.

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:01 pm
by GillianSeed
slowbeef wrote:No. Absolutely none of the voices are in XA whatsoever. In fact, the only thing in XA is the intro movie, which is why people are having trouble burning it.

The VOXs and the MOVs are in proprietary Konami compression (TM) so you would need something to go back and forth from MP3 to that.
Ah, I see, so to start I would have to find someone who has experience in programming a decompressor and recompresser for those compressed files.

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 10:16 pm
by Artemio
which are completely custom, so you need someone to develop those tools specifically for your endeavor.

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 11:06 pm
by GillianSeed
Artemio wrote:which are completely custom, so you need someone to develop those tools specifically for your endeavor.
Yep, so I'll have to find someone who's willing to make them. I myself don't have anywhere near the programming knowledge needed to make tools like that.

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 6:19 pm
by Kassius
I'm not really sure if there's any demand whatsoever for a fandub.

This translated version has nearly captured every nuance, joke, and piece of dialogue to an impeccable degree.

The reason there was a demand for a translation patch was obvious, so people could understand what's going on in the game.

There is no salient reason to have a fandub since the primary objective has already been completed.

I can't imagine someone actually thinking it would enrich the game furthur. You'll notice this game's massive cult fanbase was entirely devoted to the Japanese version in itself, it's story, art, music, and dialogue. When have you heard someone say, "dam this'd be like 10X better if they were talking in english"

Not to mention the fact Junker HQ has preserved the game in it's complete original state to the greatest extent that they could, translated words and text. What you're suggesting is to go a step beyond that and tamper with the contributions that people have actually made for the game by lending their voices, which is borderline insulting.

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 6:29 pm
by Kassius
Also not to mention that when you begin uncompressing videofiles to replace audio within them and repack them, there is no way to distribute a fandub patch without it being like completely illegal.

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 11:26 pm
by Frogacuda
Attempting to dub this was supposedly why Konami gave up on the US Saturn version in the first place. I can't imagine you'd have better luck than them.

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 5:21 am
by IlDucci
You can always start by recording the game and do the dub and the english soundtrack mixes over a movie, then start thinking about inserting stuff into the game. I speak from the perspective of someone who has inserted a fandub into a game, so good luck. Things like this are REAL tough to do.

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 9:20 pm
by Marc
I can tell you straight up right now that you'll never see us do an English fandub. It's not just zero interest, it's negative integer interest.

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 4:20 am
by midori_fox
I like the og Japanese voices.
Also most anime would be 20% better
without dubbing and just subs if they
were done as nicely and lively
as the ones in this game.

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 7:38 pm
by adamjgon
that would ruin the aesthetic of the game.

for instance, when you watch a foreign film, subtitles are provided in order for you to enjoy the film; however, this process in no way shape or form changes the character of the film. but, when you use english voice dubs and erase the original voices, that changes the content completely. so, there will never be a fan voice translation, enjoy the fan translation in all its glory.

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 9:13 pm
by The Chosen
I'm just grateful of the fan translation that you guys created. Just so we can understand the game. I don't mind Japanese voice overs, they don't detract from the enjoyment one bit.

I do however still wish for an official translation from Koji Pro with voice overs. I know the probability of it is slim, but I do wait in hope. I know there's no reason for Kojima to do it. From a business perspective it makes no sense, re-releasing a PS1 one game which barely anyone in the west knows anything about just so a few hardcore fans who follow Kojima's games (other than MGS) can get their fill of English Policenauts. To be fair there's more chance of a complete remake of the game on a modern console rather than a re-release PS2 or a HD remix on PSN/XBOX Live.

Ah well, let's just hope MGS: Peace Walker is Kojima's last MGS and that he can make something new, maybe a spiritual successor of some sort to Policenauts. Here's hoping.

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 10:55 am
by Paolo86
Personally I like this game as it is. The dub is very good. Besides , the Japanese voices are part of the charm of the game. No need to put effort in what already works. Give a break to the team also. They have just completed a huge project (for which they are already collecting bug issue reports for tweaking it around the edges,both hack-wise and translation-wise) so let's all sit back and enjoy this awesome piece of software as it is and not put any pressure on them. They had enough of it in the last five years or so.

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 11:04 am
by Paolo86
Ah well, let's just hope MGS: Peace Walker is Kojima's last MGS and that he can make something new, maybe a spiritual successor of some sort to Policenauts. Here's hoping.[/quote]

That would be simply terrific beyond words. I bet that if it wasn't for Konami's pressure ,no more MGS after GOTP would have been done. For me the saga finished with MGS4(since the game itself screams "this is the final episode!" in your face from start to finish) Now it's time for Hideo to move on...

A brand new ZOE game would not be bad either...

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 11:28 am
by Henry Spencer
GOTP screamed to me: they're milking this into the ground.
Ah well, let's just hope MGS: Peace Walker is Kojima's last MGS and that he can make something new, maybe a spiritual successor of some sort to Policenauts. Here's hoping.
Nah, he won't. He said in an interview with IGN that it would be a start of a new franchise. So a point and click adventure game? It won't be. Still, we could always hope.

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 3:13 pm
by GirianSeed573
Wait, Wait, Wait. Doesn't Policenauts mix all of it's audio together in real time from seperate files?

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 3:28 pm
by IlDucci
GirianSeed573 wrote:Wait, Wait, Wait. Doesn't Policenauts mix all of it's audio together in real time from seperate files?
Some of the voices have music as well, for example, on the Ed Brown and Lorraine's photos on Jonathan's office.

The MOVs have everything mixed, so a reconstruction or heavy editings on the soundtrack is needed.

Re: Possible English fandub of the voices?

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 4:01 pm
by GirianSeed573
IlDucci wrote:Some of the voices have music as well, for example, on the Ed Brown and Lorraine's photos on Jonathan's office.

The MOVs have everything mixed, so a reconstruction or heavy editings on the soundtrack is needed.
Oh, really? Huh...

I could have sword it was different. Strange, because the BGM archive has music that only appears in the demo sequences like "End of the Dark," which isn't used anywhere else, unless it's on the CD Collection, which I don't remember seeing. The game houses practically every track clean -- i.e. just music, as well as some music mixed with ambience, albeit for gampley. Why would they include extra tracks like this if they are to go unused because where it's actually used is in a large audio mix?