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[IrishNinja]

after about 2 years without any posts on the official blog for the effort (i wanna say the racketboy interview as around this time?), it appears it's still happening! having never been able to play what looks like an amazing sendoff for the Dreamcast/sega's hardware business, i can't wait.

Sega & Retro-GAF, celebrate! again no date on it but i'd feared it was dead in the water (again), so here's to that. really hope they get it going on original hardware at some point too, though NullDC will do in a pinch.

 

[Fewr]

This is great news. It always seemed a fun game.
Keep up the good work. I'm looking forward to this, even if it's in a let's play youtube video.


EDIT: yes, I know, it's not nice to break hearts in first reply so I edited.

 

[Exr]

I have been waiting for this for a really long time. Great news.

 

[IrishNinja]

heartbreak, in the very first reply~

let's just get this out of the way so we can talk about Alex Kidd working the item shop, and how evil sony is, and...wow the timing on this might be pretty interesting, heh

 

[Elija2]

That's great to hear. This game always fascinated me as it was sorta Sega's swan song before going third-party and it's a really interesting premise. I hope I'll be able to play it one day.

 

[ThatsMytrunks]

I'd definitely play it. Hell, I'd burn a copy and play it on actual hardware.

 

[Lambtron]

Can't believe it's still happening. Definitely gonna give it a whirl.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Fantastic news! I hope they manage to finish this translation, I'd love to play the game (as would many people).

 

[sixteen-bit]

neat

 

[geebee]

Glad it's still alive. This is one Dreamcast game I've really wanted to play.

 

[Javier]

Huh, I've never heard of this game before. *Googles*

BWAHAHAHA HOLY SHIT

 

[DICKS AHOY]

Always wanted to at least try out this game due to how trippy of a concept it is. I don't think modern day SEGA or any major publisher really would be comfortable making a game that takes the piss out of the entire industry the way I'm under the impression Segagaga does.

 

[G0523]

Hopefully the translation project will finish sometime this decade. I've been wanting to play this game for what feels like forever.

Oh, and Hundred Swords! Is there still a fan translation project on that game as well?

 

[TL21xx]

Have been following this since I was a sophomore in High School, so glad to see it's not dead! Hopefully the patch allows for it to work on original hardware, I'm willing to risk my laser for it.

 

[Crayons]

You can finally play Sega Simulator!

 

[LorDjidane]

I remember reading about this game in a magazine and thinking "damn, I really should learn Japanese."

I haven't.

 

[MaschinenZimmer]

Huh, never heard of this game before.

Is it considered good?

 

[Kikujiro]

This is why I love SEGA, they weren't afraid to try (amazing) crazy shit. I've always wanted to play Segagaga.

 

[Visualante2]

I remember reading about this in Edge and being pretty fascinated.

Can't wait to try it out. The story of how he spent the entire marketing budget on a wrestling mask and went around Akihabara signing copies of the game at launch was pretty neat.

 

[Pepsiman]

Huh, never heard of this game before.

Is it considered good?

Segagaga is mostly known for being a really tongue-in-cheek take on Sega's game library and game industry politics around the time of its release, but the core gameplay surrounding it is solid stuff. I've played a chunk of it in the original Japanese and came away from it pretty thoroughly entertained. It's a funny and poignant swan song for the Dreamcast and Sega's legacy up to that point and from a historical perspective is a game well worth bringing out to English.

As for the translation itself, it's heart-warming to see it's still alive and ticking. There are parts of what I've seen of that translation that I'd probably handle a little differently, but I have no real reason to judge when not everybody can just readily play it in the original language anyway. I'll never cease to be impressed how far they've been willing to go in researching the references and whatnot, managing to catch a lot of stuff even I didn't catch onto when I played, though. The game's in good hands and I hope we'll see the day soon enough where it gets the sort of English script it really deserves.

 

[Diablohead]

No other game has as much fan action and character cameos as segagaga has, NONE.

 

[MrT-Tar]

This is one of those games I've always wanted to play, I guess I'll be one step closer to actually doing that soon.

 

[Teknoman]

I've had this on my favorites list forever now *_*

Has one of the best end boss rushes i've seen, especially for fans of Segazords / "tower of power".

 

[Suairyu]

One of the few games that made me wish I understood Japanese. Cannot wait!

... if only because I understand it has some super-salty, super-blame-shifting portrayals of SEGA of America in it.

 

[IrishNinja]

... if only because I understand it has some super-salty, super-blame-shifting portrayals of SEGA of America in it.

ah, i'm expecting the sony shots, but SOA got it too? this is gonna be interesting

 

[Zonic]

I've really wanted to play this after hearing about it. A shame Sega never brought this over. Great to hear the fan translation is back.

 

[BlazeHedgehog]

I always figured they'd update again. Wouldn't be the first time that blog went quiet for months or even years and then suddenly came back with a "no we're not dead, here's recent work on the project" post.

 

[Tohsaka]

I've been wanting to play this forever, hopefully the translation comes to fruition.

 

[jay]

This is relevant to my interests.

 

[Hot Coldman]

One of the few games that made me wish I understood Japanese. Cannot wait!

... if only because I understand it has some super-salty, super-blame-shifting portrayals of SEGA of America in it.

Someone needs to show Peter Moore this translation.

 

[jay]

Someone needs to show Peter Moore this translation.

I heard Bernie Stollar used evil magic on his deathbed in the future to prevent this game from being localized.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

The game also references things associated with Sony's PS1 and PS2 and there is as a strange cameo appearance from Ralph Macchio of Karate Kid fame, who in various mecha-forms,can be fought in one of the R&D departments and persuaded to join your team.

.

 

[ChapaNDJ]

Great stuff, i just bought a used DC last week.
Glad to own a Dreamcast once again, i don't know what i was thinking when i sold it back then.

 

[dallow_bg]

Really want this and Game Center CX 2.

 

[sega4ever]

One of the few games that made me wish I understood Japanese. Cannot wait!

... if only because I understand it has some super-salty, super-blame-shifting portrayals of SEGA of America in it.

so did sega japan ignore their part in sinking the s.s. sega?

 

[Elija2]

.

Whoa. Did they actually get him to do voices and stuff? I thought the game had a pretty low budget so I'm surprised that they got a celebrity in there.

 

[geebee]

Whoa. Did they actually get him to do voices and stuff? I thought the game had a pretty low budget so I'm surprised that they got a celebrity in there.

That is such a random cameo.. haha.

 

[BlazeHedgehog]

so did sega japan ignore their part in sinking the s.s. sega?

Going by what the Segagaga Blog said on the subject, Segagaga viewed themselves as the "wunderkind" (in the blog's words) who were a font of creativity and joy that were squelched by the "shrewd" Americans looking to turn a profit

This is in reference to real-life turmoil between Sega Japan and Sega of America - in order to get their foot in the door in America, Sega of Japan appointed Tom Kalinske as head of Sega of America. Japan thought a lot of his proposed methods were insane - Kalinske was responsible for deciding to pack Sonic the Hedgehog in with the Genesis, for instance, which Japan hated because they didn't want to give away their best game for free.

Kalinske was a smart man, and made Mattel a force to be reckoned with before going to Sega. His methods took Sega from less than 1% market share to an even 50% split with Nintendo. Officially, he made Sega of America more profitable and more successful than Sega of Japan.

Sega of Japan hated that. They did not view Sega of America or Tom Kalinske as "equals". In their eyes, Kalinske's success was making a mockery of Japan's domestic struggles to make the Mega Drive relevant. The hired help turned out to be smarter and better than their masters. So, they did what seemed natural to them: they punished Kalinske for being too successful.

He got tired of being stonewalled and left the company.

It's not hard to imagine that Sega of Japan thought that they were precious artists being spoiled by Sega of America's big business. The parallels between Segagaga's "Special Task Force Director Cool" from America and Tom Kalinske are apparently pretty obvious. According to the Segagaga Translation blog, Director Cool is responsible for almost destroying the company with his shrewd business sense, which is obviously not what was actually happening with the real Sega.

Pay attention to the company's history and you learn that Sega of Japan seems to be its own worst enemy.

 

[Pokeytax]

I actually discovered this game on these forums, so you can all take some credit! It's going to be a pain - DC emulation is not very advanced due to the ease of piracy on the system - but we're working hard and it isn't dead.

wow the timing on this might be pretty interesting, heh

 

[krizzx]

I had completely given up hope...*tears*

 

[Het_Nkik]

How big is this game? Will it fit on a CD so we can play it on an actual Dreamcast?

 

[devotedgmr17]

Huh, I've never heard of this game before. *Googles*

BWAHAHAHA HOLY SHIT

^ This is basically me

 

[NullPointer]

Segagaga? Is Popeye doing the translations?

 

[A Black Falcon]

Going by what the Segagaga Blog said on the subject, Segagaga viewed themselves as the "wunderkind" (in the blog's words) who were a font of creativity and joy that were squelched by the "shrewd" Americans looking to turn a profit

This is in reference to real-life turmoil between Sega Japan and Sega of America - in order to get their foot in the door in America, Sega of Japan appointed Tom Kalinske as head of Sega of America. Japan thought a lot of his proposed methods were insane - Kalinske was responsible for deciding to pack Sonic the Hedgehog in with the Genesis, for instance, which Japan hated because they didn't want to give away their best game for free.

Kalinske was a smart man, and made Mattel a force to be reckoned with before going to Sega. His methods took Sega from less than 1% market share to an even 50% split with Nintendo. Officially, he made Sega of America more profitable and more successful than Sega of Japan.

Sega of Japan hated that. They did not view Sega of America or Tom Kalinske as "equals". In their eyes, Kalinske's success was making a mockery of Japan's domestic struggles to make the Mega Drive relevant. The hired help turned out to be smarter and better than their masters. So, they did what seemed natural to them: they punished Kalinske for being too successful.

He got tired of being stonewalled and left the company.

It's not hard to imagine that Sega of Japan thought that they were precious artists being spoiled by Sega of America's big business. The parallels between Segagaga's "Special Task Force Director Cool" from America and Tom Kalinske are apparently pretty obvious. According to the Segagaga Translation blog, Director Cool is responsible for almost destroying the company with his shrewd business sense, which is obviously not what was actually happening with the real Sega.

Pay attention to the company's history and you learn that Sega of Japan seems to be its own worst enemy.

You're mostly right, but Sega of America WAS onboard with the 32X idea, after Japan proposed a second Genesis addon, and releasing the 32X was probably Sega's worst decision, in my opinion. I would certainly say that Sega of Japan has more responsibility for Sega's collapse than Sega of America does, but the Western branches are not blameless. They didn't understand that the 32X was a bad idea, and that turned out to be a huge mistake. On the other hand though, Sega of Japan had ultimate control, and also responded to Kalinske leaving by hiring Bernie Stolar, he of the "Saturn is not our future" statement 2 1/2 years before Dreamcast would be ready outside Japan, so they certainly have a lot more responsibility... but not ALL of it.

Sega's second worst would probably be the awful Saturn launch, and as for that, Kalinske has given somewhat contradictory inverviews about whether he chose to do the early launch, or if Sega of Japan forced him into it. The latter seems more likely, but we can't be certain.

We do know that Sega of America never liked the Saturn hardware, though, and that that was definitely forced on them by Japan... because, as Sega of America rightly thought, it never was the right design for markets outside Japan.

 

[IrishNinja]

Update: it's still going!

from their twitter:

Thank you for your support! We've already made more progress in 2014 than in most of the prior five years combined.

James Howell ‏@Adilegian 5h

Thanks! We have our EXCELLENT programmer Geoff to owe for the screencap, half width font, and all that makes this actually work.

Honestly, with the programming/patch part in good hands, this speeds everything up considerably.

I hesitate to give one. We still have several parts to complete translating, including background text, subtitles, etc.

 

[ThatsMytrunks]

Fascinating! I've always wanted to play this!

 

[Dead Man Typing]

Is it easy to find a Japanese copy of the game? I wouldn't like to just download the fan hacked version without owning a legit copy in some form.

I'd really like to play this.

 

[Teknoman]

Man this and SRW games are my most wanted yet not likely to be translated games. Cant wait!

 

[mcteapot]

My body is ready

 

[ThatsMytrunks]

You're a monster for bumping this.