Let’s get this out of the way upfront and not waste anyone’s time. This second Shadowrun Sega CD uses generative A.I. in various ways. If A.I. I mention this early because I understand many gaming fans, especially retro gaming fans, are not interested in A.I. usage. Personally, I care about the result. With that out of the way, on with the announcement of the Sega CD version of Shadowrun and its SECOND fan translation project work in progress.
Who Remembers Engrish?
If you grew up in the 8-Bit Nintendo era of the mid to late 80s then you probably remember how bad translations were sometimes. Remember this classic – Bimmy or Jimmy Lee? What about “All your base are belong to us” (I know, it is from the early 90s but still funny)?
According to many people in the Time Extension comments those older translations likely are BETTER than what generative A.I. is churning out.
This is likely due to the nuances of different languages and some things simply do not translate directly. This is where a skilled linguist in both languages is key. Generative A.I. is not that.
Feast or Famine
Translations of any kind are hard, time consuming, affairs. Some projects can take years and still never see a public release before the team disbands, or worse – work is lost due to a crash of some sort.
A title like Shadowrun for the Sega CD is VERY heavy on text. The story is complicated with real world, and made up, tech jargon which farther complicates translating for a person, let alone a machine. The story in the Sega CD version is darker than what we saw in the Super Nintendo Shadowrun game.
You would think A.I. would be great at translations. While text is “simple” the essence of text is not. A.I. doesn’t understand slang, puns, etc., especially translating between other languages.
This means, at least for now, using generative A.I. can result in some wild translations. Without an experienced human going through and verifying the translation what we saw in the 80s likely could be considered Shakespeare in comparison.
Where do you stand on generative A.I. used in games? Let me know in the comments below.