At least in the immediate case, the demo version of the game was released for free on the web by the original publisher to promote the game, as demos often are. Technically a translated version is a violation of the "do not reverse engineer" provisions in the README file (which, ironically, have been faithfully translated for the English README, heh heh), but it's probably unlikely that this will cause a major legal fuss.
The copyright issues surrounding a translation of a full commercial game are different, and often the solution is to only release a patch file with the new script so that users must first purchase the original game to play the translated version.
Revolve and Mirror Moon are currently working on Tsukihime. At the moment they report the translation as 28% complete, though they haven't released a partial patch yet.
This game is a Japanese "visual novel" game demo, i.e. a lot of minimally-animated pictures, some sound effects, and a lot of text. If you're an anime fan you might appreciate the art style.
You can see some screenshots at Type Moon's Fate page, as they're the original publisher.
Another recently released parody trailer is Matrix Unravelled. Some nice special effects shots, and the performance by "Bill" the Architect is just spot-on.
For a little light-hearted Matrix appetizer, there's a new parody trailer which was released a couple of days ago... some nice green-screen effects and virtual sets. And "Bill" the Architect is just perfect.
Check it out. The video downloads are via BitTorrent, so it should survive a moderate Slashdotting.
If you watch carefully earlier in the movie, when they are setting up the house ahead of time, they put some sort of optical device in the window, which presumedly spreads the beam out to non-lethal but still popcorn-making intensity
It's kind of hand-waving at the problem, but the movie-makers did think about the issue, at least.
One of my favorite tricks to keeping up with basic news with my Tivo is to set up a manual recording of Headline News for a half-hour just before I normally wake up in the morning. Then I can watch it at my convenience over breakfast and fast-forward through the stories I don't care about.
Since only two episodes air per month, not all that many have been released, which is one reason why there aren't many fansubs so far. I think at this point only six have aired, and I'm told that fansubs of 5-6 should be out shortly.
The other aspect, of course, is that the series is very licensed: Bandai grabbed it before it even premiered and has been helping to fund the production, so a lot of fansub groups are avoiding it for ethical reasons.
The little robots do appear and have a reasonably good role in the currently-airing TV series "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex". The fansubs I've seen generally render the name as "tachikoma", though, and I'm not sure which is correct, nor what the term might actually mean.
In any case, they are a highlight of the show, in my opinion... robot spider-tanks with the personality of an enthusiastic puppy. A nice bit of minor comic relief and a heavier bit of thinking when you go back and ponder: well, if you're going to be giving guns to the AIs, what sort of personality would you want them to have?
I picked up a Fiva 206E earlier this year, and
have been very pleased with it. It's Transmeta
based, and in addition has the truly unique
feature of a hardware OS-selector switch. It
comes from the factory with WinME and a reduced
version of Linux (which they've targetted as a
quick-boot MP3 player for when you don't want to
bother waiting for Windows).
Here
are some quick instructions on how to set
up the system to get a full version of Linux on
it and dual-booting in this manner.
Note that Casio currently has some... issues...
with their compliance of the GPL. I am still
waiting for the promised CD of source code.
Definitely was not included in the box.
Anyway, it's a bit pricey, but it's tiny
and reasonably powered as well. I love it...
even with the extra-large battery (rated for 9
hours), it's just 2.5 pounds.
Have you considered using eye-pointing when designing the interface?
At the ACM1 conference a few months ago, I did talk to a couple of companies doing eye-trackers. Unfortunately, as far as I was able to determine, the hardware isn't really up to the task yet. To do eye-tracking well, you need a big camera (and preferably several) pointing back at the face, which isn't feasible for a head mount. Head-mounts jiggle around, too.
One problem is that the heads-up displays we use have a field of view of only ten degrees or so, which is about the same as a PalmPilot held at normal viewing distance. So to be able to eye-track to on-screen controls well, you really need at least one degree of angular accuracy, which is hard in a portable system.
That being said, though, it would be hugely useful to us as interface designers just to be able to tell when the user is attending to the display instead of looking at something in his environment. With that, you only need 10 degree accuracy or so, which is feasible with a simple CCD camera system. We'd love to find someone willing to collaborate on making such a basic head-mounted system.
Is there a nice, step by step how to on the MIThril?
Unfortunately there isn't yet. The reason is that MIThril doesn't use just off-the-shelf parts. Our video driver board, for instance, is completely custom: we've been hand-soldering them ourselves for the prototype systems.
That being said, there's nothing really proprietary in the systems. We're in the process of publishing circuit schematics and the like, so anyone else can build on our research. It is intended more for other research groups, though, as opposed to individual enthusiasts, because of the needed involvement in fabrication.
Personally, I really wish that someone was selling commercial systems of similar capabilities. We don't really want to be in the hardware arena, since it's not our specialty, but making these prototypes ourselves seemed to be the only way to get into the really interesting areas of software design and social research that we want to investigate.
The MicroOptical displays actually use a very small LCD display, made by Kopin. The display has a tri-color LED mounted behind it, so full color is obtained by flashing R,G,B frames at 180Hz, which the eye integrates into 60Hz color.
Unfortunately this does mean that the colors fragment a bit when you move your head, since the three colors aren't quite in the same place anymore. As mentioned, they have the option to switch to a 180Hz grayscale mode by just flashing all 3 LEDs at once instead of sequentially, and that's rock solid even when walking around, and bright enough to read outdoors.
Slashdot Mirror
At least in the immediate case, the demo version of the game was released for free on the web by the original publisher to promote the game, as demos often are. Technically a translated version is a violation of the "do not reverse engineer" provisions in the README file (which, ironically, have been faithfully translated for the English README, heh heh), but it's probably unlikely that this will cause a major legal fuss.
The copyright issues surrounding a translation of a full commercial game are different, and often the solution is to only release a patch file with the new script so that users must first purchase the original game to play the translated version.
Revolve and Mirror Moon are currently working on Tsukihime. At the moment they report the translation as 28% complete, though they haven't released a partial patch yet.
Just to clarify, the demo portion of the game has no adult content. The screenshots on Type Moon's page cover the full game.
This game is a Japanese "visual novel" game demo, i.e. a lot of minimally-animated pictures, some sound effects, and a lot of text. If you're an anime fan you might appreciate the art style.
You can see some screenshots at Type Moon's Fate page, as they're the original publisher.
That's correct, this is just the demo, containing a modified (spoiler-free) version of the game's prologue. Still a hefty bit of text, though.
Newlife Anime is working on translating the full game.
Another recently released parody trailer is Matrix Unravelled. Some nice special effects shots, and the performance by "Bill" the Architect is just spot-on.
For a little light-hearted Matrix appetizer, there's a new parody trailer which was released a couple of days ago... some nice green-screen effects and virtual sets. And "Bill" the Architect is just perfect.
Check it out. The video downloads are via BitTorrent, so it should survive a moderate Slashdotting.
If you watch carefully earlier in the movie, when they are setting up the house ahead of time, they put some sort of optical device in the window, which presumedly spreads the beam out to non-lethal but still popcorn-making intensity
It's kind of hand-waving at the problem, but the movie-makers did think about the issue, at least.
One of my favorite tricks to keeping up with basic news with my Tivo is to set up a manual recording of Headline News for a half-hour just before I normally wake up in the morning. Then I can watch it at my convenience over breakfast and fast-forward through the stories I don't care about.
The other aspect, of course, is that the series is very licensed: Bandai grabbed it before it even premiered and has been helping to fund the production, so a lot of fansub groups are avoiding it for ethical reasons.
In any case, they are a highlight of the show, in my opinion... robot spider-tanks with the personality of an enthusiastic puppy. A nice bit of minor comic relief and a heavier bit of thinking when you go back and ponder: well, if you're going to be giving guns to the AIs, what sort of personality would you want them to have?
I just get a kick whenever someone mentions my poor little program on Slashdot, thanks.
Here are some quick instructions on how to set up the system to get a full version of Linux on it and dual-booting in this manner.
Note that Casio currently has some... issues... with their compliance of the GPL. I am still waiting for the promised CD of source code. Definitely was not included in the box.
Anyway, it's a bit pricey, but it's tiny and reasonably powered as well. I love it... even with the extra-large battery (rated for 9 hours), it's just 2.5 pounds.
One problem is that the heads-up displays we use have a field of view of only ten degrees or so, which is about the same as a PalmPilot held at normal viewing distance. So to be able to eye-track to on-screen controls well, you really need at least one degree of angular accuracy, which is hard in a portable system.
That being said, though, it would be hugely useful to us as interface designers just to be able to tell when the user is attending to the display instead of looking at something in his environment. With that, you only need 10 degree accuracy or so, which is feasible with a simple CCD camera system. We'd love to find someone willing to collaborate on making such a basic head-mounted system.
That being said, there's nothing really proprietary in the systems. We're in the process of publishing circuit schematics and the like, so anyone else can build on our research. It is intended more for other research groups, though, as opposed to individual enthusiasts, because of the needed involvement in fabrication.
Personally, I really wish that someone was selling commercial systems of similar capabilities. We don't really want to be in the hardware arena, since it's not our specialty, but making these prototypes ourselves seemed to be the only way to get into the really interesting areas of software design and social research that we want to investigate.
Anyway, I'm happy to answer questions on that or on the MIThril project in general.
Unfortunately this does mean that the colors fragment a bit when you move your head, since the three colors aren't quite in the same place anymore. As mentioned, they have the option to switch to a 180Hz grayscale mode by just flashing all 3 LEDs at once instead of sequentially, and that's rock solid even when walking around, and bright enough to read outdoors.