What would you like to know about the Segagaga Translation?

[Original_Name]

Okay guys, here's the draft... I've made him wait longer than I should have on this, so I'm gonna have to ask you to make any revisions rather quickly.

Questions:

~For those of us who aren't familiar with your company, what can you tell us about DELTAHEAD in terms of personnel, objectives, aspirations, et cetera? How has DELTAHEAD changed since the project began?

~Many of us have been aware of this project for years. In that time, how much have you and your team been able to accomplish? Can we get any rough estimate in quantitative terms how much work remains or how long it will be until we can play a translated Segagaga?

~When it does come out, what will we be playing it on? In a previous interview with GameSetWatch you said you planned to code a patch which you could burn onto a backup of Segagaga to play with an actual Sega Dreamcast. Is this still the plan? Will the game be playable on emulators?

~You've stated that the translation will be released in the form of a patch which can be applied to a back-up of the game, but I've seen a good deal of confusion on a handful of forums as to why exactly you're taking this approach since the majority of translations in the Dreamcast scene have been released as entire standalone CDIs. Because of the large quantities of files and cut-scenes, along with the presumably high data volume expected of a patch, the translation is expected to be played on multiple discs. Could you clarify the advantages of taking the approach of multiple patches separately applied to multiple back-ups of the same game?

~Speaking of cut-scenes, how extensively will you be altering them from their original state in terms of compression, audio, and handling Japanese background text?

~On the technical side of things, what has been your biggest challenge over the course of the project? What difficulties are you currently facing?

~On the cultural and linguistic side, making the wacky Japanese jokes and references in Segagaga comprehensible to the western gamer has presumably been a massive challenge for you and your staff -- how have you gone about effectively translating the dialogue without forsaking gamers of too much of the game's personality? What about all the crazy parody video game box-art with phonetic Japanese puns -- how are you handling the likes of "Valkyrie Frohaile" or "Rokujoman"?

~In a similar vein, a big Segagaga enthusiast at the Talk-Dreamcast Forums by the handle "Captain Dreamcast" has a very specific question for you...

"How will you translate the cracker guy with the ski mask from R&D B/Akihabara?

You know, this is a very personal question. In one of 'em text-only translations he was translated as the Deprogrammer. So my question is, will you call him the Depro again, or give him some mistranslated name?"

~This is very humorous game with a ton of goofy moments -- so far, which scene has made the team laugh the most? Are there any golden quotes you think will catch on with the cult Sega gamers?

~Segagaga is already a very compelling game because it is one of the most intimately self-referential video games ever made by one of the most storied and significant video game companies, but it is made significantly moreso by the fact that said company was experiencing an incredibly turbulent period in their history which ultimately lead to their buyout and, in the eyes of a number of true-blue fans, their demise. Segagaga was written right as Sega was approaching the apocalypse, so to speak. How do you think this affects the way Sega portrays themselves and the industry in the game? Is this ultimately a celebration or a vindication... or a little bit of both?

~Here's a melodramatic one: as a swan song, will Segagaga give the tormented Sega fans the closure they've searched for since the Dreamcast's cancellation, or do its optimistic motifs showing faith that future triumphs would come for the company (as seen in the lyrics of the "Sega March") only salt the wounds in light of the company we see today?

~One of your blog posts in particular illustrated the incredible lengths you've gone to in order to make sure this is a masterful translation of Segagaga, paying great attention to the intricacies of how not only diction, but enunciation affects how a character is read and perceived. Clearly you have quite the mind for linguistics -- how far do you think this attention to detail will go for the average gamer?

~For the budding programmers, will you be releasing any of the tools your tech-wizards over at DELTAHEAD have created for the Segagaga project to the public in order to make future Dreamcast translations quicker and easier?

~For the foreign game enthusiasts, you've impressed a lot of people by devoting such a professional effort towards translating the highly-niche Segagaga. What other obscure untranslated video game stories do you think that English-speaking gamers should be exposed to?

~The previously mentioned "Captain Dreamcast" has released the best-optimized CDI release of Segagaga and would like to offer you his services if desired -- are you looking for the help of any highly-able members of the gaming community at large? And what about us average folk, what can we do to help?

~Finally, is there anything else you and your team would like to share with the eager masses?

[Anthony817]

Amazing write-up! Wow, very grand choice of words there, color me impressed!

I spoke with a friend named Vasiliy, that wants to ask...

- when the project was started ?
- why SegaGaga ?
- how many member was involved in translation initially ?

Hope it's not too late!

I think that should be all, and I agree, we have made him wait longer than anticipated on this one.

Anyway, great final draft, I didn't notice any grammatical errors, so I think all is good.

[Original_Name]

Amazing write-up! Wow, very grand choice of words there, color me impressed!

I spoke with a friend named Vasiliy, that wants to ask...

- when the project was started ?
- why SegaGaga ?
- how many member was involved in translation initially ?

Hope it's not too late!

I think that should be all, and I agree, we have made him wait longer than anticipated on this one.

Anyway, great final draft, I didn't notice any grammatical errors, so I think all is good.

Not too late, but almost -- I'm sending it right now . I edited the questions a bit and his last question is more or less included. For the others, you can tell him that the project officially began in 2006, and James has already answered the second question here: http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2006/09/gam ... s_ja_1.php

[Original_Name]

Hey everyone, the interview's up for all to read!

http://www.racketboy.com/editorial/inte ... oject.html

[Anthony817]

You should get some form of recognition for this, like a gold SGGG medallion or something.