James Howell of DELTAHEAD Translation Group LLC looks for a Programmer to complete the Segagaga translation for SEGA Dreamcast:

I know that a lot of people are anxious to know the status of our translation patch for Segagaga, and I apologize for the information vacuum. As I had noted in an earlier blog, I'm enrolled in a rigorous graduate program which has taken most of my time. Now, however, I've got some time to devote to the project, and a public statement on our progress is a great place to start.

The good news: we have enough text translated to make the first RPG dungeon segment of Segagaga playable in English.

The bad news: we need a new programmer. (I choose to leave the specific circumstances of our problem unexplained in the interest of everyone's privacy.)

Here are the qualities required for the work, with brief explanations of each:

   1. An original copy of Segagaga. Since we respect Sega's copyright on Segagaga, we will not distribute illegal images of Segagaga under any circumstances.


   2. Hardware necessary to extract the Segagaga data from a self-made backup of an original copy. We work as much as possible from scratch, again to reinforce our respect for Sega's copyright. Working in this manner helps to prevent the illegal distribution of software.


   3. Hex editing skills. The Japanese text resides in the software's hex code, and we will need to replace the J-text with English text within the code directly.


   4. Programming skills that will enable the construction of a patch that can be applied to a backup copy of Segagaga. I don't have any experience in this regard whatsoever, but it's necessary for our work to see practical results.


   5. Good communication skills. When we're working on this project, I will need clear and honest communication regarding the status of the work.


   6. Devotion to good work. We have worked hard to translate the text elegantly and correctly, and we expect a programmer to respect our efforts by likewise doing good work.



Please know that this is not a paid position, and you will not retain rights for any work that you do. As mentioned before, because we want to respect Sega's copyright ownership of all things Segagaga, we intend to release this patch as a public domain localization. If this sounds a bit unforgiving, you might take comfort from the facts that

(a) none of the translation staff has been paid or will be paid for their work,

(b) none of the translation staff has retained or will retain rights to their translation, and

(c) all who work on the public domain localization will be specifically credited for their contributions and effort.

In other words: no profit but in glory.

Please contact me through my 1up.com account if you or someone you know can help us see the work through!

For more details head over to his blog at http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8555790&publicUserId=5772603

Digg this story