The great translation topic

[Levellass]

As initially mooted here: viewtopic.php?t=2504

We have in our ranks speakers of many a diverse language and it is within our power to translate the Keen games (And mods) into many different tongues.

So this topic has been created hopefully to enlist people towards translating Keen from English into various languages. All that is really required is accurate renditions of game text that can then be organized into patches.


So discussion, volunteers, questions?

[Keening_Product]

Hmm, I just realised: How hard would it be to make SGA the in-game font? That'd be by far the easiest translation. (Mainly because it isn't a translation, but hey.)

[DoomJedi]

So discussion, volunteers, questions?

What do exactly you mean to translate? "Keen Wiki"?
Or mods...what do you mean to translate in mods? Menus? Story?

...I know russian and hebrew.

[troublesomekeen]

What do exactly you mean to translate? "Keen Wiki"?
Or mods...what do you mean to translate in mods? Menus? Story?

From what I gather, the project here is the translate the mods from English to a different language -- starting with the uTUIT series? Every word of English must be translated, so that means the Main Menu, the F1 Help Menu, the Story, the Status Window, the Star Wars text, and any English words on the Cover Art of the game.

The SGA is just a letter-by-letter replacement -- so it's basically English in disguise. All the SGA symbols could be assigned to the alphabet of the target language. But I reckon other languages don't have 24-letter alphabets. So I'm not sure what is to be done about the SGA.

Sad to report I speak only English other than Gibberish. But I have taken a liking to French (because I found a goldmine of some good 70s French-Canadian music). Perhaps I will learn it someday.

[Keening_Product]

But I reckon other languages don't have 24-letter alphabets. So I'm not sure what is to be done about the SGA.

I know they don't. I was discussing this with my sister yesterday - I guess we could just re-work some SGA letters based on their relation to the symbols of other alphabets?

I was just talking about an English SGA transformation anyway - not a translation.

[Benvolio]

I think that one could use translation of a mod as a linguistic learning exercise. Think of the vocab and grammar one would learn if one went to the trouble of translating a mod and working meticulously until you have the translation as accurate as possible. Perhaps then to pass it on to a speaker of that language to review. Thus one would be combining one's niche hobby (Keen) with a generic lifeskill (language).

So, say, Troublesomekeen, I dunno if you have any basic grounding in French grammar. But whether you do or not, you could get a basic book like a schoolbook or something and try it out. Learn by doing. This idea certainly appeals to me! I wouldn't be the best of French speakers but I'd certainly review anyone's french were they to be unsure how good it is!

[Flaose]

Well, as I mentioned in the other topic, I can try my hand at translating in-game text to Spanish. I did the Spanish translation for the RGB Classic Games website so I'm not a complete stranger to such things, but no guarantees in accuracy!

[tulip]

I started translating the keen story to chinese somewhere but I don't know if I still have that. I should be able to translate mods to shaky chinese full of grammatical errors, but it'd be hard to include all the characters in the small font file.
Besides that I know German, English and French. And I may able to get something translated into Thai.

[VikingBoyBilly]

Any swedish or japanese keeners out there?

Not that I'm fluent in either, but I have friends who are. <=== instert emotikeens for countries other than UK here

[Levellass]

Hmm, I just realised: How hard would it be to make SGA the in-game font? That'd be by far the easiest translation. (Mainly because it isn't a translation, but hey.)

Changing in-game fonts to SGA would require someone to make those fonts, but then it would be trivial to implement.

What do exactly you mean to translate? "Keen Wiki"?
Or mods...what do you mean to translate in mods? Menus? Story?

I was thinking the official games or some choice mods. The KeeWiki is... no, you'd never manage it.

[TerminILL]

Just pitching in to say that I'd be more than happy to help with the "technical" side of things, although I'm not sure how much help I'd actually be, or whether any is even needed. Still, I'm here, and in about three weeks I'll have more free time than I know what to do with (implying I don't already).

No foreign language know-how, though, so yeah.

[Benvolio]

I think that any of the non-roman-alphabet languages would be an amazing acheivement if placed in a mod. Very difficult. You'd have to make some kind of conversion chart between say the japanese letters and the upper and lowercase letters of the Keen font, and painstakingly write out the correct letters. It would also be fun to patch the game to reverse the orientation of the text and translate a game into Arabic. The above are unlikely to happen.

So yeah some choice mods, you say?! Sounds good to me!

[Levellass]

Indeed, the font system limits us drastically as to what we can do, though for Keen Galaxy we have at least double the English alphabet capacity.

The next question is what to translate and into what.

[Benvolio]

Well okay, I plan to translate into French and German (the latter hopefully pending review by a fluent speaker) some of my favourite keen1 mods, and possibly some of my own. For instance I might start with KeenX, Yorphius II and maybe one of mine such as A Sham on Inishmort.

I guess we're not going to translate every mod into every language so a haphazard system where people decide what they want to do is best! This does sound like quite the fun project.

[Flaose]

I submit that we begin with Yorphius II, as it was the first mod. After that though, let the people choose!