Hope is revived

[Dark Jaguar]

http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/02/japa...games.html

It would seem that Nintendo of America is at least "open" to the possibility of releasing those Japan only games in our VC selection, if they can get them translated. I'd be happy muddling through a Japanese game and a .txt translation on my laptop :D. That would, potentially, get us every Fire Emblem game save for the first GBA one.

[A Black Falcon]

Sorry, but I don't think it's going to happen. To summarize:

1) Nintendo isn't releasing English-language, PAL Turbografx games in English-speaking, PAL-format nation Austrailia because the TG-16 in that country before.

2) Nintendo is cheap. When they can avoid paying more than they have to, they often won't... (see: Tetra's Trackers)

3) Nintendo doesn't often back down from decisions it makes... if they refused to release a game once, I don't know if they'll change their minds now, 'part of a series we're now selling there' or not...

4) Nintendo doesn't like to release products without knowing that they will make money. Translations of previously unreleased games will be expensive and time-consuming. This will cost money and Nintendo may not want to spend that kind of cash on products with, they may think, little chance of making that money back (even if most fans would say "that is almost certainly not true", Nintendo's people who decide what games get released where won't agree).

5. Most importantly of all, for games like RPGs, adventure games, and strategy games that have significant amounts of text, if they use their standard systems for how they do these things, in many cases impossible -- the source code for many old games was lost a long time ago. Because of this, the only way to translate most old games is to hack the rom files -- this is what fan rom hackers do when making translation patches. Nintendo's official translators simply use the source... but for all those old games with no source anymore? They're pretty much stuck. There's pretty much no way they'd ever work with the American fan groups, and they can't do it themselves with any ease, so... yeah, just don't do it at all! Besides, are we REALLY sure that this product will make money, all costs considered, even though there are no production or distribution costs?

[Dark Jaguar]

Joykill! There is almost certainly no Star Road...

I'm just saying that at least one guy has said it's still a possibility. He may likely have no say in it or is probably just seeing if it's "cost effective" or some other business jargon.

Anyway, source code lost long ago? Really? They do seem to keep a lot of old source code around actually. I know I do! I would be very surprised if they didn't have the source code for all their games backed up on a server somewhere. I mean, how else do they port all those old games so very many times?

[A Black Falcon]

You could just wrap the rom in an emulator... but yes, for some of those they probably do still have the source. But, uh, isn't the whole point of the 'new games for this region' to get stuff that HASN'T been ported ten times before? Maybe some of them have been ported in Japan before, but even that isn't true in a lot of cases...

Of course I want to see this happen. I just don't think Nintendo truly cares enough (or, more accurately, thinks it would be profitable enough) to go through with it...

[Dark Jaguar]

Maybe. The point is, I'm not hearing a "no", so maybe they will. As they point out, it may in fact be profitable since they don't have to actually make copies and just keep the file on a server for download.

Still, if all they are saying is they are looking into it, skepticism is still warrented.

[A Black Falcon]

I was hopeful for that before this whole thing started, but their actions since then have been so strongly on the other side of things that I'm not going to believe that one 'maybe' completely changes things... we'll see if there are any substantive policy changes, but even Harrison says that it probably won't happen anytime soon.

... I just hope it'll be sooner than he implies. :(

[Dark Jaguar]

http://kotaku.com/gaming/nintendo/reggie...237502.php

Well this is something at least. I've been wanting Mother 3 stateside for some time now. The idea of sticking a GBA emulator on the VC (which as of yet doesn't even exist as far as I know, so they would need to code one) isn't one I'm entirely fond of. I'd rather play it portably as a GBA release as it was meant to be, from the beginning, but I'll take what I can get. Do the right thing! But, the idea of Mother 1 on there, and maybe even old Nintendo Power issues available on the console with those old maps and everything? I'm all for that. I still have those 3 issues with the full guide to Secret of Mana (as told in first person in journal form, which was cool).

[A Black Falcon]

We'll see... we'll see.

[lazyfatbum]

GBA VC would be cool, but i'd much rather have the DS get 'channels' just like Wii and have it's own history of GB, GBC, GBA and special d/l only DS content. Then have the ability to connect to Wii and play the game (VC or otherwise) on the TV screen with either the DS as a controller or using the wiimote.

Earthbound, in its entirety, would kick ungodly amounts of ass. But there's a brand new, never released Earthbound sitting on someone's hard drive. Nintendo should Earthbound on SNES as a market tester, see how many times it gets d/l as a measure to if they should release the new Earthbound with N64 graphics on DS. I could have just typed out '12 women who look like goddesses taking turns licking mango juice off my body' and i'd have just as much faith in that event happening as well.

Just make sure they dont try that 'you need 4 DS's to play a 4 player game' on Wii bullshit. Like, stone them. Or yunno, hurt them somehow (make fun of reggie's clam face).

[Dark Jaguar]

That game is Mother 3. And Mother 3 is the NEW one, the one never released in America. I'm not talking about Mother 2 (Earthbound) here. The N64 game turned into Mother 3. Keep up! :D

That's the game that is huge in Japan and would have sold so much here if they just RELEASED the thing!

[A Black Falcon]

Maybe if they someday release Earthbound on VC and it does well they'll think about Earthbound 3, but short of that... well, there' a fan translation patch in the works. That requires the ROM of course, but when you've got no other option and you want to play the game (and they won't translate it), what can you do...

[Dark Jaguar]

Go without I suppose...

[A Black Falcon]

That's one option...