News

It's been a bit quiet around here lately, hasn't it? While I certainly haven't been idle, I haven't had any actual news to post for a while. Sorry to those of you who've been eagerly monitoring this page in anticipation of new fan translations (are there any of you?).

Well, I finally do have an announcement to make, and a special one at that. The hardcore LIPEMCO! Translations fanbase (a phrase I struggle to write with a straight face) may recall that in the long-ago year of 2018, we released a translation of Sunsoft's Ripple Island as one of our earliest projects. In fact, our group probably owes its existence to the game, because the whole thing started with cccmar brokering a deal between TheMajinZenki and I where he would translate Ripple Island in exchange for my working on Kishin Douji Zenki. As such, it has something of a special place in my heart.

Earlier this year, Sunsoft re-released that game, along with two of their other early titles, in the Japanese compilation SUNSOFT is Back! Retro Game Selection. As there was also interest in releasing the collection internationally, Zenki and I were approached, on the basis of our existing fan work, about providing translations of the games, and -- well, when opportunity comes knocking, you don't say no, do you?

So I'm happy to report that, as announced today, this collection will be released internationally on Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam on September 6th, with a full English translation featuring some of our own work. It includes a heavily revised version of our Ripple Island translation with many improvements, as well as an all-new translation of Kanshakudama Nage Kantarou no Toukaidou Gojuusan Tsugi which we made specially for the collection. (We'd have done The Wing of Madoola too if it wasn't already in English.)

Even if you've already played our existing translation of Ripple Island, I would wholeheartedly recommend getting the new version if you can; as one of our earliest projects, it was quite rough around the edges compared to our later work, and the version in the collection has a much-improved script, better fonts and formatting, and a more polished presentation all around.

It's rare for a group like ours to have the chance to contribute to an official release like this, so we're quite honored, and immensely grateful to Sunsoft and Red Art Games for giving us this opportunity. We hope you'll enjoy the collection when it's available next month!

(I do believe this is the first time I've ever actually announced a project before it came out. Don't get used to it!)

It's once again January 26th, a date of no significance save that it's the day I launched the site six years ago, and in keeping with tradition, I've moved news from the last year to an archive page. I'll be implementing that content management system aaaaany day now.

If anyone's actually keeping track of things, I'm sure you've noticed that I've been trending toward doing fewer but larger translation projects compared to earlier years. We "only" put out two projects this year, but they were both pretty substantial (and both Red Company games, by some strange coincidence). Personally, I find doing bigger projects more satisfying than a bunch of little ones, so I'll probably try to keep that up in the future if I can. (Sorry to anyone who wanted to see more of the likes of Sailor Moon for Game Gear or City Adventure Touch.) But as always, I've made very few plans, so we'll just have to see what actually happens.

I didn't come up with a funny screenshot or anything this year, so I guess I'll just have to say it myself: Thanks, everyone!