Ultimania Translations

Are you interested in Ultimania Translations?

  • Yes

    Votes: 19 86.4%

  • No

    Votes: 3 13.6%
  • Total voters
    22
Krysta

Krysta

Blue Mage
Joined
Aug 7, 2008
Messages
184
Gil
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For a few days now I have been translating parts of FFXII Battle Ultimania.
It's mostly information about all the monsters, where to find them, what their strenghts are and how to beat them and such. Information about the way battles work, status changes, licence board, leveling stats, equipment (nice pictures of those), Character information (battle wise), everthing about the hunts, the rare monsters, all magic, items, gambits, summons, quickenings, Chaining. Pretty much 592 pages of information on anything battle related.

But there obviously is copyright on the book. And so far I haven't violated anything because I haven't put the translations up on the internet yet.
And I won't put it up in its curent form either. Because I just erased the Japanese words and put in English words in the digital version of the book (normal scans).
I know that it is probably against the law to put the edited version on the internet. But what if I put al the information I have translated into my own tables and such to put on the internet. Would it still be violating Copyright?

Or is nobody even remotly interested in translations of this book or any other Ultimania book anyway? (I have VIII too) I'm just starting to wonder if it is worth the trouble.
 
I think that's a good idea. It can't be illegal, people use excerpts from the Brady Guide all the time in their online walkthroughs. I believe you're safe with that bet. Also, it's no different from uploading a store-bought CD that is under copyright protection and listing it under Limewire, and cops never do anything about it, so... :D
 
Its an original idea for sure and it would answer alot of questions people have.

But then again there must be others who have tried to do this as well since it is an interesting topice, I wouldn't mind having regular updates on your progress.
 
I have uploaded an example page I made, and like I said, its English words put on the original. I will continue doing it like this, updating and stuff. But it will take a while, since i'm still in school. And in the weekends I don't always have my computer available.
Should I stick with this method or make my own maps and tables (that will take longer though). I would like to know what everybody's opinion on this is.

[URL="http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee341/UltimaniaTranslations/Final%20Fantasy%20XII%20Battle%20Ultimania/002-003-1.jpg"]This is the translation I'm talking about[/URL]
 
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I don't mind, but you can find full plot analysis's (for every FF) on the internet; they contain information from the Ultimania guide as well as the plot in-game. It would be less of an eye-sore to see it from the actual guide rather than a text document. If you want to keep it within the law, you could send the files stored on your computer to whomever requires them. (through the use of MSN or Email presumably)
 
Regarding the "This is the Ultimania translation I'm talking about" link:

Dude! This is excellent! I was half expecting some sloppy, small image: I was so pleasantly suprised, I immediately made an account here to say "nice work" and let you know I (and I'm sure others) are definitely interested in more!

The posts I've seen while I've been looking around on the net definitely seem to indicate that translation work has been done before -- but as text files, not images. And apparently whatever translation collections were around a year or two ago aren't being shared (at least, I can't find them).

Note that not-for-profit derivative works (work that you do based on someone else's work) are generally convered under "Fair Use" -- that is, are not copyrighted/illegal; do a search on "Fair Use" for more info!


Here's an example of a data dump, from the Bestiary part of the book (link): [see post about "Helvinik"]
Sample:

No367 Helvinek D: Darkmare R: **
aggressive ---------------------- STATISTICS ---------------------- Flying: no
V | LVL | HP | MP | STR | MAG | VIT | SPD
a | 48-49 | 99999 *1 | 999 | 40-42 | 26-29 | 72 | 20-21
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Movement: GR, TE
V | ATT | DEF | MDEF | EVA | EXP.PTS | LP | CPT | GIL
a | 78-80 | 26-27 | 32-36 | 6-8 | 6594-6770 | 13 | 2160-2361 | 0
Click to expand...

To all:
I'm sure others have translated parts too: if you're one of those people, you should post here in this thread!

Notes:
 
That is indeed correct, this is probably the site which covers a lot of info about it http://www.ff12maps.com/. It was made with scans with some help from some well know people who make guides for Final Fantasy games on Gamefaqs, Sephirosuy and Split Infinity.

I think you should create more Krysta, your doing a pretty good job with it. ^^
I'm pretty sure it can help a lot of people, but I suggest you leave a "watermark" as proof you made them. :)
 
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It's cool that you're taking passion in something Krysta and it seems like there's nothing in these books but battle info, which is good. I am not a fan of the Ultimania books... but if there's no plot related information then who cares. Glad to hear your project is coming along.
 
I've decided to definitely continue with the translations. Because I want to know what it says, and it'll give me tons of practice.
However, since there are nearly 600 pages in this book, it's obviously going to take a long time.
And since I'm still in school (learning the Japanese language) I wont have time every day. For now, every time I finished a page, I will put it in the photobucket account. I already put a link up here I believe. When I have lots of page's I'll see to it that it gets its own homepage for easier acces and such.

Just so you know, at the moment it takes me around 4 to 5 hours to completely translate a page. In March I'll go to Kyoto University for Foreign Studies to study Japanese and I wont be back before September. After that though, translations should go really fast. I can continue translations in Kyoto, but I wont be able to put them on the Internet due to lack of photoshop on my netbook.

Anyway thanks for all the support. And I'll keep you all posted on the progress.

On a side note: If you by any chance see an error in one of my translations, please point it out. My English is pretty good, but not perfect as its not my first language. And ofcourse typo's are easily made.
 
You could try this website: http://splashup.com/splashup/splashup.swf
Its not as good as Photoshop but it can surely be helpful at times like that.

Ok then, keep up the good work and good luck. Its nice to see your taking your time to translating them.

Sure thing, will let you know.
 
I'm taking a break from it, because I'm moving to Japan on the 20th like I said earlier in this topic.
Not that I don't really have time to do something about the translations, because I probably do. But I don't want to. It's Japan and there's lots to do and see (plus I have school al day there too). I don't feel like sitting in my air conditioned dorm all evening working on it. But I'll be back in boring Holland in September. So lots of time then.
 
I completely understand. I spent 2 weeks in Japan back in the early '90s and was really busy just sight seeing. Thanks for making the attempt anyways and have fun in Japan.
 
Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania

you said you had VIII's Ultimania translated do you still have it? even if it is in text, Ive been looking everywhere for it but every time I search its either a dead link or 'final fantasy VII' >< so please if you do have it send me a copy? thanks for your time!
 
Copyright

You were asking a few months ago about copyright, while editing and translating the images may turn you into a translator of professional skills faster and better then your peers, the edited images are still under copyright in most of the world. Fear not for there are many work around that are legal and/or viable. A note, I'm not a lawyer so I can not give you legal advice, but my sidework forces me to be familiar with the issues and that is what I describe below.

Legal:
Facts CAN NOT be copyrighted(derivative works on facts such as technologies can be patented, also dissenting facts can be punishable in certain countries) so your idea about exporting the data into tables or your own maps is fine.

Legal in many places:
You can find patch utilities(diff ect...) that will extract the differences between the original files and the modified files. The file created is a patch and provides no copyrighted material(though if it circumvents hardware/software protection methods it may run afoul of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the US and analog laws in the European Union and abroad.)

Quasi/Non-Legal:
A lot of fansubbers of animes release translations based on the idea that since the material is unlicensed in the country they are translating for, and thus copyright is unenforceable from lack of resources. Only rarely do the translators get a C&D from the company itself and that is when the company that owns the work is about to release a translation themselves. I have not heard of any body getting prosecuted for releasing a fansub, especially since they respect the companies wishes when the translated work is released and remove the work from their website. While that does not mean it a trial has never happened, it must be extremely infrequent and rare, so I put this under quasi legal since its still a possibility.



A note about patches:

To create the patch zip/tar the untranslated images into one file and the translated images into another and run the patch/diff utility on the archives to create the difference/patch file. The archive of untranslated images will have to be somewhere on the internet for this to work though and you may have to point people somehow in their general direction.


I hope this helps you out and I'm always interested if anybody has anything to add or take away.
 
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I'd love one, hope you finish =D

What I don't really get is why the Ultimania's haven't already been published in english. Considering many european and american FF fans want copies. It's not as if they'd make a loss, they'd sell REALLY good.

I really would love one. I'm the type of person who would willingly buy every volume of the Ultimanias for the FFs I like just for the sake of having it, even if I can't understand a single word.

The Omega is the one with the lovely artwork isn't it? I suppose that one wouldn't be a complete waste of money...
 
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