true. some of us are suburban kids whose mums bought themselves an N64 because they wanted to play Ocarina of Time so bad.
(jokes aside I’ve backlogged this one, sounds interesting! thanks :) )
a good read. it’s a topic that my partner and I have talked about at length–it’s not something I ever originally noticed, but by talking to him and paying closer attention when others talk about games and game history, it’s almost impossible for me to not see it now.
Really really good article, hearing about Legend of Sword and Fairy for the first time was my first real wake up call to this idea, and there’s been a handful more since then that are always reminding me to like… actually dig some more if I wanna find the kinds of games I like to say I’m interested in (The other big names in the Taiwanese gaming scene the article namedrops also look pretty interesting, although unfortunately I’m not getting much luck with finding a way to play The Twin Heroes in english. Ditto for the first Xuan-Yuan Sword game, but it looks like its got sequels and spinoffs that have official english translation, albeit done by machine. I think I did find one for Heroes of Jin Yong, but it might just be a fancy fan-made port to make it work on modern hardware, not a translation)
your mentioning translations actually reminded me of something! my partner’s earliest experiences with games were largely with ones he couldn’t read; they were in a language he didn’t understand until years later. I think it’s had a profound effect on how he approaches games. meanwhile I’m spoiled for choice as a native English speaker.
my only taste of this experience so far has been playing a game in Japanese, and while I can certainly pick out a word or two and sometimes even phrases, I wouldn’t say I have any real proficiency. I had to just…figure it out as I went, and it was an interesting experience! it’s something I think I should try to be more open to when it comes to choosing games.
I would be lying if I said that getting to play more games (And also read more books, tbf) that don’t typically have reach in the west wasn’t a big reason I’m interested in learning to speak a second language, especially Japanese and Chinese. Fan translations are great, but I want a bit more agency in what I play than hoping to learn one exists
Dangit, I missed the opportunity to share this here
My experiences with the PSX were buying a memory card to go play games at my local Game Club since I’d “take” the saves home with me. Got through Megaman X4 and most of Digimon World like that.
Not sure how many of these still exist, I’ve never watched the doc they made, but AFAIK its still a thing in some cities