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Fan translation of video games

RPGe's translation of Final Fantasy V was one of the early major fan-translated works. Original Japanese is on the left; RPGe's translation is on the right.

In video gaming, a fan translation is an unofficial translation of a video game made by fans.

The fan translation practice grew with the rise of video game console emulation in the late 1990s.[1] A community of people developed that were interested in replaying and modifying the games they played in their youth. The knowledge and tools that came out of this community allowed them to work with translators to localize video game titles that had never been available outside of their original country of origin.

Fan translations of video game console games are usually accomplished by modifying a single binary ROM image of the game. Fan translations of PC games, on the other hand, can involve translation of many binary files throughout the game's directory which are packaged and distributed as fan patch. In dealing with translations of console games, a console emulator is generally utilized to play the final product, although unofficial hardware, hardware mods or software mods can be used to run the translated ROM image on its native hardware.

  1. ^ Szczepaniak, John (June 2006). "Japanese ROM Translation". Retro Gamer. 25: 102–105. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-18. Retrieved 2011-07-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2011-07-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-18. Retrieved 2011-07-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-18. Retrieved 2011-07-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

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