Teppo Holmqvist

Sorry, I had to...

I didn't mean space in most classical sense. Many games have fixed length for paragraphs, and if your translation is longer than the fixed length, you need to adjust code. Here is good and relatively simple example from my own Kid Icarus english-to-finnish translation: Original english paragraph "MAY I HELP YOU?+ WE HAVE EVERYTHING. 35 characters Finnish translation "KUINKA VOIN AUTTAA TEITÄ?+ MEILLÄ ON KAIKKEA." 44 characters + = Means break in the text. Without doing any changes to code, my translation would be restricted to maximum length of 35 characters, resulting in some extremely wonky dialog. That's actually reason why old NES games had some bizarre dialog. When localizers translated text, they were forced to work on same character lengths that original writers had used. They couldn't add more size to game, because bigger cartridges would have been too expensive to manufacture. These days situation isn't really that much better. Japanese can fit their dialog in much smaller space than in english, and localizers need adjust code to make their translations fit. And even this isn't always possible, because in menus, for example, there literally isn't room for long words. In these cases, you must replace words with icons, use abbreviations*, or do something *really* creative. When European localization starts, you get even more problems, because all four European languages are little bit different structure- and grammar wise. Sorry for long explanation, but I really hope this helps to understand what problems localizers face. * Some good examples could be PhoenixDwn for Final Fantasy VI, and C.STN from Breath of Fire.

But the difference between TTYD US and UK launches was only month. If we look Gamecube release list, Nintendo did decent job on localizing Gamecube games, with only exception being Animal Crossing.

Yeah, but it is clear that they waited for european localizations to be ready before launching game in the west. Game like Bullet Witch can be translated to english in two months.

Western companies are much better when it comes to localizing games, and most X360 games are from western developers*. Same is true for Wii. If you haven't noticed, EA and Ubisoft release titles near simultaneously worldwide, but japanese companies like Bandai, Konami and Atlus have serious problems with localizations. * And those few japanese developed titles for X360 tend to have same problems with localization as Wii titles. For example, it took over six months before Bullet Witch was localized.

Localization is main reason why its late. Those who haven't never done localizations can't understand that it isn't just about translating something language A to B. In many cases, localization team needs to literally re-code some parts of game, because developers didn't reserve additional space for other languages in the first place*. If code's structure is changed, you must also debug whole game and make sure that changes didn't broke anything. Then you need to fucking proof read each translation, and make sure translation is coherent. Then there is reserving studio time for re-dubbing, etc. All this stuff takes combined lots of time, especially if your localization team isn't that big. And because company must reserve printing time many months before localization is finished, even minor slip on scheducle can mean that game gets into print month or two later. * For example, Alltp's japanese version text was stored in pure ASCII format. Localization team couldn't get english translation fit into 1 MB cartridge, so they were forced to write simple, but effective compression algorithm to save space. In this algorithm, most common words and syllables were compressed into single characters, making translation possible without using bigger cartridge, and adjusting certain parts of code.

Well, Nintendo has been targeted most with pedo- related controversy and trials. One of the classics was how Fox TV told that pedophile can get your address from children by using pictochat. In their scenario, pedophile is driving on the highway, and he quickly uses pictochat to communicate with children that is on the car on the opposite lane. It's horrible really. I mean, the pedophile is driving about 120 km/h, and his hands don't leave the wheel. So only realistic conclusion is that he is writing to pictochat with his erect phallus! That's scary. I also didn't know that Wi-Fi has reach of 300 metres.

Walkthrough for PC-Engine version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5RX_UNIf3Q And for comparsion, arcade version:

Yup. Pointer is only used when you search clues from the screen.

The sad thing is that ANN is actually playing the game with emulator (probably JNes), and using pirate version of TMNT rom. This can be noticed by watching title screen, because pirate version is missing the copyright text on the bottom of screen.

From data we gathered so far, it would this one. Of course, it is damn hard to say as Fale asked specificially about friend lists, not friend codes.

The thing here is that we don't know how adding new buddies to game specific list is implemented. It could be just one click from the address book, meeting your friend in lobby and clicking his name, or inputting secret hebrew code that recites names of 10 members of angelic host. From information we have gathered so far, any of these options is possible.

Nah, not really. If you aren't forced to input system codes for each game, and can just add them to your game's list, then there shouldn't be any problems.

If you played certain games (Socom, most EA titles), you were forced to create new, game specific account.

Well, you basically created accounts to each game. Because there wasn't any kind of unified structure, features varied from game to game.

Before retard rodeo gets into full swing, I would recommend certain people learn to read. Gamespy didn't say anything at all about friend codes. Just that friend lists are game specific. Same way as they were with PS2.

Did you actually read the reviews, or just checked the score? 1UP's review was just a joke*, Gamespot's review gave game low score even if only negative thing they had was how online is missing and graphics aren't really that good. * In fact, it is copy of yesterday's preview from word to word.

All these wondrous games are from Phoenix Games Group, European budget game publisher. http://www.phoenixgamesgroup.com/

Article clearly states that they used retail unit. Of course there will be probably some patches out before release. But I can't understand how anyone could find this surprising, as it is always easier to emulate generic bulk crap, than highly optimized AAA title that uses standard libraries in unexcepted and strange ways. That's also why X360's backwards compatibility has so many shitty games on it.

Well, well. It is first NTSC-only title on US VC.

Yeah, that is quite possible.

LBW and Home didn't really have any kind of impact on other, non-gaming related forums where I visit daily. I was actually quite surprised about this.

Like this? And yes, those photos are real and taken by Gabe and Tycho.

NextGenwars is just guessing (you can even ask this from the owner). http://vgcharts.org/, in the other hand, is quite trustworthy, as they use Media-Create and NPD as their main source. My only problem with VGCharts is that they often add official estimations to sales numbers, and then adjust numbers again when confirmed numbers come out. For example, currently their Wii numbers probably have air because Wedbush Morgan estimated that Wii sold 300 000 units in February. This might be true, or perhaps it isn't. No matter what the truth is, I would wait for official numbers before changing number of sold units.

Actually, if we take known numbers so far, Wii is around 5.3 mark. This number has Media-Create's current numbers, NPD's numbers after January and Chart-Tracks numbers after January. I don't find this surprising at all, as Nintendo's current aim is to manufacture 6 million Wiis before end of march. I believe after february's and march's sales numbers, Wii is around 6 million mark or maybe little bit higher.