I want to translate Goldenland to English please help me

Gokyabgu

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I have waited Goldenland for almost 7 years, from when they announced the project in 2002. Since that time i have desperately waited for it. Strategy First would published this game in English speaking territory, but i think there was some dispute at some point and they abandoned the project.

Now after all these years i found the Spanish version of it. It's orginally a Russian game and released in Russia in 2003. This spanish version released in Spain in 2005 from Zeta Games.

Anyway, from the screenshots, previews, reviews and a some gameplay experience that i had, it is a decent RPG with the BG and Arcanum style. It has isometric view with admirable prerendered backgrounds (like BG), turn based combat system and steam punk setting (like Arcanum). From the russian review that i read thanks to google translator it worths our time..... if there would be an english version of course.

So i want to translate this game to the english, try to win it to the english speaking role playing gamers. The file structure of the game is in pak files, but i can not open them with traditional pak openers. I figured if i can open the scripts.pak file i can translate them with google translator. I also trying to obtain the russian version. I will try to translate both spanish and russian version to english and then compare the two. Then, with playing and getting help from a friend of mine which knows Russian language, i will try to correct the grammar in it. I know it is not an easy job and my native language is not english but if i try maybe i can make a english playable version. In the past, i was able to translate a good portion of Evil Islands to my native language, Turkish by the way, because its scripts file designed in simple text file.

I need help. And i think best place to get help to a RPG like Goldenland, is this site. RPGWatch which is a worthy successor of RPGDot. I know a good portion of the RPGWatch crowd are programmers and able to help me to open this pak file. And also if you know spanish or russian, or only english and want to help me to translate it please answer me.

I can provide whatever files you need, even the game itself if you are eager for it. I know it is illegal to share games that do not have abandonware status. But, the opportunity to release the game in english territory is long gone, even the developers and publisher (Russobit and Burut) did not answer my questions. And, i think no one cares about this game other than me according to the internet.
 
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Today when i tried to find a solution to open Goldenland's pak files, i encountered Burut Pak Extractor v1,35. But, no avail. I can not open them unfortunately. I find a web site of someone who translate Burut's FPS game Kreed's expansion. I emailed to him and wait for an answer. Maybe he can find a way to open the files.
 
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I wonder who the intended publisher was. Strategy First, maybe? They had a track record of being willing to publish foreign (Russian) games then not paying royalties.

I'm going to take it you only speak English in spite of your Russian sounding name. I think it may be easier to find Spanish translators if that version of the game was any good.

Using translation software might be a good place to start then cleaning it up after if you can exrtact those text files.

Have you tried a Hex Editor?
 
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Thanx for answering. At least someone cares for my attempts, i expected better reaction from rpgwatch. I do not think it needs a hex editor. If i can find a way to open these pak files i easily can reach the scripts. Evil Island's script file is a text file. I hoped the same for Goldenland.

By the way, my nickname is not Russian. It is in ancient Turkish language and means lord of the skies. :)
 
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Yeah, well in spite of this being the only site I know of that has heard of Gothic some of the other obscure RPG's seem to slip through.

Someone brought up Goldenland the other day and it made me realize it had never been released in English.

After Space Rangers and Seal of Evil did well in Europe we saw both of them in NA 6 months to a year later. If someone could get it sold and marketed in Spain I can't see why the UK would be a problem.

How does Evil Islands relate to Goldenland? Is it the same company?

Myself, I can usually translate broken English into native phrases as my old roomamte was Korean. I stopped though because then his words started to look like mine on paper.

--

appears the developer was burut at www.burut.ru/eng - same folks who made hard to e a god.

maybe we can extract some of the development from that to see how it was done on Golden Land.
 
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If you are patient you can start the game, it is very possible it would create a temp version of the pak file in ram memory or even on a temporary file on hard-drive. After that you could use a program to capture ram memory and copy the text into that program.

Also make sure you have the legal rights to modify and distribute these pak files.....
 
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Yeah, well in spite of this being the only site I know of that has heard of Gothic some of the other obscure RPG's seem to slip through.

Someone brought up Goldenland the other day and it made me realize it had never been released in English.

After Space Rangers and Seal of Evil did well in Europe we saw both of them in NA 6 months to a year later. If someone could get it sold and marketed in Spain I can't see why the UK would be a problem.

How does Evil Islands relate to Goldenland? Is it the same company?

Myself, I can usually translate broken English into native phrases as my old roomamte was Korean. I stopped though because then his words started to look like mine on paper.

--

appears the developer was burut at www.burut.ru/eng - same folks who made hard to e a god.

maybe we can extract some of the development from that to see how it was done on Golden Land.

Evil Islands made by Nival Interactive. But, Goldenland made by Russobit and Burut. If you enter Burut's english forums, Burut do not care about Goldenland's English version. I try to reach Burut from there, but no avail. It is an isometric RPG, and nowadays no publisher thinks that they can sell a 2d isometric RPG to the market. So, i have no hope that the game ever can see the light on English market. This game has very good prerendered backgrounds, can easily compete with BG2 in this matter.
 
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If you are patient you can start the game, it is very possible it would create a temp version of the pak file in ram memory or even on a temporary file on hard-drive. After that you could use a program to capture ram memory and copy the text into that program.

Also make sure you have the legal rights to modify and distribute these pak files.....

This is where i want some real programming help from the crowd. I think RPGwatch's regulars are mostly programmers, and some of them may have experience in game programming. But, i definitely try it. Thanks for advice.
 
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If you are patient you can start the game, it is very possible it would create a temp version of the pak file in ram memory or even on a temporary file on hard-drive. After that you could use a program to capture ram memory and copy the text into that program.

Also make sure you have the legal rights to modify and distribute these pak files.....

That's interesting GG, I wouldn't even know where to begin to do something like that.

Does anyone have HtbaG to see how text is handled there?

I wonder how I'd get a Spanish version of GL in NA...
 
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I think the reaction is soft because:

1. Goldenland had - as far as I can tell - a mediocre reputation in Russia
2. Translating from Russian/Spanish to English requires language (and possibly technical) skills only a handful have.

So, you need Russian/Spanish/English speakers to put a lot of work into translating something that probably isn't that great to start with.

I'm not trying to poor cold water on your efforts and I wish you luck. I'm just explaining why there are few responses.
 
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Finally, last night, i found Goldenland's russian name and wrote it to google with 'pak' phrase, to my suprise i found a small dos based non graphical program (like pkzip, arj) that called burut.pak, and finally i opened the pak files. About two hours of searching for the right file i finally found the dialogs file. All dialogs in one file. This is more than i hoped for. I will try to transate it with translators and tell you the results. :)
 
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I opened the dialog file (dialogsphrases.sdb) with Hex editor, all dialogs are in this file. And from what i saw they can be easily translated. I am now using Google Translator and Altavista Babel Fish translator at same time to compare the two, and try to find the best suitable words. I have no Spanish by the way not a single word. Fortunately, both translators are all decent and with little modification they are quite understandable. Of course, i am not talking about a NWN2 or Ps:T level dialogs.

Only one problem about the file is you can not change the size of any dialogs, even 1 byte. For ex, if spanish phrase 24 characters, you must make the english version exactly the same number of characters. But, mostly it is not a problem cause English version usually have less characters and i can fill the remaining, unused places with space. If the place is narrow, then i try to shorten some words for ex: 'something - smth' or 'go to - goto'. Add only 1 byte, and the file is totally useless with the game. And, the game won't run with this messed file. But, at the same time this mechanism prevents you to make unreturnable mistakes, so running the game is like a test whether the file screwed or not.

I don't know when i will finish the translate. Several months or maybe a year. But, i will continue to translate in my spare times at work. I have translated the dialogs with the character's teacher at the beginning of the game. I will try to put some screenshots here to show my work. Byes :)
 
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Some screenshots of my translation:
 

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Other two:
 

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nice!

are you using this utility here?

there's a probably an index or a key somewhere or possibly an end of line delimiter that divides the statements.

You are working from the spanish or russian version of the game? that looks like russian phrasing with its limited conjunctions. Very to the point.

Where did you get a copy? What are their titles? tierra de oro just picks up something about casinos even when using juegos.
 
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First, i tried the utility you mentioned, but it can not open Goldenland's files. Then with little hope, i googled Goldenland's russian name with pak phrase. "Златогорье pak" and tada. A dos command based archieve program named burutpak.exe, third party program with only 1 kbytes. http://www.vkph.com/kreed/TnH_e.html you can find it from this site. It was a bit difficult to learn the correct parameters, but now i can easily decode and code a Goldenland pak file. It meant for the Kreed game, a FPS style game from the same company.

I am using the Spanish version. Because of the language structures translators can easily translate them. Using two translators at the same time has extremely useful, because when one translator fails to interpret some sentence, other corrects it.

In order to change the dialogs' size, one must know the exact location of which code triggered the dialog and extensive knowledge about programming. Which is beyond me, unfortunately.

By the way, Goldenland we know is known as Goldenland 2 in its home country Russia. Since, Goldenland 1 is known as Heath: The Unchosen Path in the world.
 
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Dhruiny may be right. One review I find in Russian gives it a 60% from the critics and 21% (Awful) from their forum members.

It looks gorgeous though. I'm curious about Heath now. That looks like an aRPG and what is this I see about a Golden Land 3?
 
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Almost one week has passed since I began the translation. I was able to translate quite a portion of the first city's dialogs. I am using three online translators at the same time to translate the game correctly. Most of the time translations are understandable, I just correct the translation's grammar. But, sometimes it is hard to understand. I think it is because its translation from Russian to Spanish isn't that good. Sometimes, dialogs just seem funny and simple, at these times I try to enhance them with the situation and with my almost 15 years of role playing experience. :) Ofcourse my translation is not at Ps:T or NWN2 level, but it's not 'me go, smash you' level either. :)

Anyway, I am trying my best, and I am determined about finishing it. I even think about translating the manual, and the installation screen, try to apply the modified paks to the installation cds.

I uploaded the sdb.pak file to the rapidshare: http://rapidshare.com/files/251547234/sdb.pak

Especially Lucky day, my friend, if you have the game, please download my sdb.pak file and try the game. You will just replace the sdb.pak with this file in the data folder. That's all. Your comments are important. We can improve the dialogs together. :)

I have not translate any of the main menu or character screen descriptions yet, just dialogs. But, I think I can handle that this weekend. I am waiting your feedback. Take care.

PS: It's not a bad RPG anyway. If you like the dying breed of prerendered isometric RPGs like me, you must definitely try it, and see for yourself. And, it is quite bug free from what I saw.
 
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