There's an interesting thread in the Zompist bboard forum Conlangery & Conworlds about translating video games:

www.spinnoff.com/zbb/viewtopic.php?t=27208

The poster asks if someone ever translated an entire video game into a constructed language.

One of the posters in that thread, Serali, would like to see some video game written in one of his/her conlangs, mainly Käläli. Wouldn't it be a cool idea for some game development contest contribution?

What the f*ck are conlangery & conworlds ?
If this is what I think it is, thanks to you I've just discovered a new layer of geeks I didn't know about.

Now as for your suggestion, let's do a little math :

- MSX geeks like us = not a lot of people
- Conlan-thingy geeks = not a lot of people (thanks for that !)

How many people are interested in both ? Hmmm ... Let's see, how about zilch ?

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What the f*ck are conlangery & conworlds ?

Constructed languages and constructed worlds, I guess.

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If this is what I think it is, thanks to you I've just discovered a new layer of geeks I didn't know about.

Tsk, you've never heard of esperanto (or Klingon, for that matter)? Never heard of Second Life?

made up languages are for tossers

funny thing is that esperanto was a serious attempt to develop a world language,
but there are more people speaking klingon then esperanto...

I wanted to translate bluemsx into klingon or elfish (kindof tricky with the font) but I couldn't find a good enough dictionary and I didn't really want to spend any time on it.

Translating a whole game sounds like a lot of work especially since the audience probably isn't that big.

You're right, Aurora!

Your little math seems to be wrong, Metalion, there are lots of people out there occupied with conlanging, even in France and the Netherlands:

www.conlanger.com/cbb/viewforum.php?f=32

www.conlanger.com/cbb/viewforum.php?f=8

Here, Dvik, two links to Quenya courses:

www.uib.no/People/hnohf/qcourse.htm

www.forodrim.org/daeron/md_course2000.html

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Translating a whole game sounds like a lot of work especially since the audience probably isn't that big.

Depends on the size of the game! We may start with small BASIC games for the 25th anniversary MSX-BASIC competition only featuring few words of a conlang, maybe with English translation or an englisch and a <conlang> version.

Translating blueMSX in one of Tolkins elfish languages would be rather difficult due to their lack of todays technological terms. But it would fit for a game setting in an elfish inspired fantasy world.

The audience is as big as people are interested in something new and cool. And it would spread the interest concerning MSX on the conlanging scene and the interest towards conlanging in the MSX scene. This would result in benefit for both sides!

Tanni,

It's not a matter of difficulty or length of the game, it's a matter of audience !
As dvik and I said earlier, the world of MSX and the world of conlangages are very small.
Their intersection is almost zero ! It's not even related hobbies ...

I have another hobby : old american cars from the '50s.
Would the MSX world be interested in a MSX competition about them ?
I don't think so ...

I think its possible to translate blueMSX into elfish. You can use the same approach as icelandic which doesn't allow foreign words and instead either reuse old unused words or make new combinations. Of course that wouldn't really be correct. In icelandic the words are actually approved so inventing your own elfish translation is probably not the best thing to do.

I guess other more stupid languages to translate to would be cockney, pig Latin, or Swedish chef. These are not real languages though, just constructed English dialects.

Metalion, it's not a matter of audience, but one of gaining audience! The world of conlangers doesn't seem to be small according to the mass of material found in the internet. My proposal aims in making the cardinality of the intersection at least less small. Revisit the thread I initially posted. You'll see a lot of relation between conlanging and rom-hacking. But instead of the latter, why not include some <conlang> words in a game to be written? Just to see what happens. You would of course start with a small one, not starting with retranslation of Zelda. I remember a BASIC game called Fantasia, which has lot's of text. That would be another possibility to start with. Conworlding means the invention of fantasy worlds, which can give new ideas for games. I think that is much related.

Yes dvik, you can do that approach to translate blueMSX into an elfish language. But that would have the result in very long system messages concerning the more technical issuses of the emulator.

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I think its possible to translate blueMSX into elfish.

You think so? Didn´t you really know that bluemsx is already translated into elfish?

J.R.R. Tolkien used finnish language to make elfish language, and as bluemsx is already translated into finnish, you have elfish bluemsx already!!

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I have another hobby : old american cars from the '50s. Would the MSX world be interested in a MSX competition about them ?

Metalion...

Which 1950s american cars do you have?? (damn msxorg as there is no teddyboy or elvis lookalike smileys here...) Very Nice to hear there is another 50s addict here...! Is your hobby "just" about 1950s american cars or do you love 50s style and Rockabillies too?

I don´t have 50s (or younger) american cars yet, but hopefully someday... but I have lost my heart to 1950s Rock-A-Billy, Rhythm&Blues, Hillbilly, Doo-wop, fifties style, clothes, american cars, etc long long time ago....

I am already interested about MSX competition about fifties american cars!! Thought I don´t know what more trendy msx folks may think about it.... Do you have ideas about such competition? making Nite-Time Cruisin´ game perhaps..? With authentic V8 sound effects!!!!! thought such low bass sounds are hard for AY-chip......

MäSäXi,

I am restoring a '58 Plymouth Belvedere hardtop coupe (the very same car as in the "Christine" movie). I am into american cars mainly, but I do like the '50s style in furnitures and architecture. I am also collecting anything related to the '58 World Expo in Brussels (maybe a PM would be more appropriate for those comments ...).

As for an MSX game with american cars, I was only trying to put into perspective the proposition of Tanni's competition with another example which would imply some other hobby from an MSX fan. I was merely ironic, there was no real idea behind it ...

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As for an MSX game with american cars, I was only trying to put into perspective the proposition of Tanni's competition with another example which would imply some other hobby from an MSX fan. I was merely ironic, there was no real idea behind it ...

I get the feeling that MäSäXi was being ironic too ;p

Seems that the total webmasters of MRC has to be expanded with quite a lot of people

Metalion, you can PM me about such things you mentioned!

You have nice car, in which condition your project is at the moment? Did you bought it because of Christine movie or just like/love Belvedere´s style?


FiXato, actually I wasn´t ironic, if you meant what I said about american cars MSX game... I have been hoping for years, that someone(s) could program such a game for MSX.... and anyway, our beloved psg CAN imitate V8 sounds, thought result may not be exactly realistic, but good sound programmer can get good results me thinks!

Maybe someone should "test drive" old game called "Street Rod" (for Amiga, probably on Atari ST too, PC, Commodore 64) thought must say Amiga´s "Rock&Roll" musics were pretty crap..... or should I say game´s samples were not the best ones for making 50´s Rock&Roll..... but game idea is nice, buy a car, drive it to your garage and turn it into Hot Rod of your dreams!! And then go street racing against other Hot Roddin´ teens...