Potential English For Episode 3

[Nexus]

I think I can pull off an English translation for Episode 3 without open source. But the question is do I need to track down the author to get permission? Or could I just go ahead and submit something directly to the site for consideration. People could be in for a real treat.

[Rocco]

Hi Nexus,

Why particularly Episode 3? Normally you have to contact the Author first, before you translate an episode and i haven't seen him here for years.

[Nexus]

Because I'm chronological and if we start from 1, Episode 3 is the first one without English.  The next one I'd be interested in is 4. When you say normally, does that mean there are exceptions? Technically, you could say its a new game since a couple of files would be changed, but I understand...

[Rocco]

Ok, so when you want to start chronologically i would strongly suggest you to start the other way round.
Because the latest episode 93 is the newest and it would be great if the newest episodes could be played in english too, short after release
and the authors from newer episodes are usually available.

I mean i could not speak for everyone, but i would say nobody cares if you translate episode 3 because it's also not the highest quality game.
And episode 4 is really extremly hard to translate, cause it is based on german phrases and idioms, so i would say it is nearly impossible to translate epi 4 properly, do you understand german? I mean you can try if you want to translate epi4, i think the author is available too, but i would suggest you start with epi 93 if you really want to translate some episodes.

[Nexus]

Yes, I will take your point about going from new to old into consideration. Any work on Episode 3 submitted should be a good indicator of my ability to translate. In Episode 4 are the German phrases part of a puzzle? If they are a variation could be to leave the phrases in German. Do you know where I could submit an English version of Episode 3 for consideration?

[Kinkilla]

You can translate Episode 4
But you should write poetical phrases and anyway it wannabe very difficult to translate without German skills
Episode 93 is "easy" to translate- you dont need any German skills (Okay Google Translator was with you:) )
But something I don't get:
Is it allowed to make a Remake of Episode 3
With greetings in the Credits for the real Author
Yes it is true Epi3 isn't the best one, a Remake should be wonderful
The Chronology is very important, because you want play the Episodes from 1 until 100
Sorry for the bad English
Lg Kinkilla

[Rocco]

So you have finished the translation for episode 3 already?

Normally you contact the author, then the author will make a translation file and send it to you,
in this file you write your translation, when finished you send it back and the author compiles it and produce a english.tra file for instance,
which could be used in the game.

I think there is a possibility for "hack" the original game somehow without the sources to produce the *.tra file, but i have no idea how it works and i won't recommend it.
 
@Kinkilla:
hmm, the chronology isn't that much important (at least not for translating) cause most of episodes are standing for itself and have no connection to other episodes (of course there are execptions).
But for the popularity it would be great to translate first the newest ones, then the most popular ones, before translating everything else.

I don't know if a remake from an existing episode without asking the real author is "allowed",
maybe you could start a community poll and see what other authors think about it.

[Nexus]

I have translated Episode 3 for my own personal use and while I feel its pretty close and captures the intent I wouldn't call it a 1:1 translation. I don't see the need for the .tra file to change files unless it helps with the verb button images, because it's really the sprites I haven't figured out.

[Kinkilla]

Community poll is coming 
But if you want to create a Translation, I have some tips
- Episodes from MisterL
- Episodes from FireOrange
- http://www.maniac-mansion-mania.com/index.php/de/spiele/hall-of-fame.html

[fireorange]

Community poll is coming 
But if you want to create a Translation, I have some tips
- Episodes from MisterL
- Episodes from FireOrange

Thanks. But there are some problems with my episodes:

Episode 29: Ressources are lost.
Episode 42: Maybe lost too, I don't know it exactly.
Episode 48: I didn't found the ressources yet as well. It's bad, I know.
Episode 66: Ressources available, but same problem as Episode 4!
Episode 72: Not a high quality episode.
Das Monster aus der Racoon Lagoon: There is already a translation in production.