I bet you didn't have this on your bingo card for today, did you? You've played Farm Simulator, you've worked in a tavern on your favourite RPG, but did you ever think you'd get to play a bus simulator for the Dreamcast from 1999? It's niche, isn't it, but there it is - Fortyfive's game 'Tokyo Bus Guide,' which only ever released in Japan, can now be played and understood by all English-speaking gamers.
The translation patch comes to us from cpc, who has rebuilt the game from ' lhsazevedo’s Tokyo Bus Guide decompilation'. As a result, the translated lines are accurate and don't just need to meet the same character count as the Japanese lines.
This project is very much in its infancy, and CPC has been open about the 'heavy use of AI' in making a working demo of the game. But they're wanting translators and developers to get in touch so that text that has been baked into the graphics can be translated for Western gamers to understand. They're also looking for developers to get in touch to help the game progress, as well as bug testers and gamers.
So far, twenty-six lines of passenger dialogue have been corrected in version 1.1, as well as translating the penalty warnings to let you know what you're doing wrong while playing.
You guys know me well - 'heavy use' of AI always puts me off, but I'm choosing to write about this project because CPC is getting humans involved with the translation, and that makes the project feel much more like something I can be a part of. I'm not sure this bus simulator from almost three decades ago is going to revolutionise your world, but it's a cool slice of Dreamcast history and a game to play when you're bored of replaying Crazy Taxi - I think my bus driving will probably be just as erratic!
