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Video Game Translation Books
Press Start to Translate by Clyde Mandelin - What happens when you put the script of Final Fantasy 4 through Google Translate then plug it back into the game? Hilarious nonsense, and then in-depth explanations of why those translations came out the way they did.
Legends of Localization: The Legend of Zelda by Clyde Mandelin - The most detailed breakdown of translation and localizations choices in the original Legend of Zelda that’s ever been done, including manuals, supplementary materials, and re-releases. Ever wonder why it’s a secret to everybody? This will tell you.
Legends of Localization: Earthbound by Clyde Mandelin - A significantly fatter book than the first volume, because Earthbound is probably one of the most text-heavy games on the SNES and the localization process was an unprecedented endeavor at the time. Though there were mistakes and missed opportunities, they did an amazing job of translating the game and making it accessible to the American audience, down to trying to translate puns and replacing wordplay with sensible equivalents. This also documents sprite changes—some of which were specifically to localize wordplay--and adjustments for Nintendo’s censorship policies at the time. Of the three translation books, this one is the most in-depth about localization as a process. “Press Start” teaches you about the mechanics; this teaches you about the broader decisions.
Super Mario Bros. 2 by Jon Irwin – Part of the Video Game Histories series from Boss Fight Books; I bought a Humble Bundle with a whole slew of them. This one honestly didn’t have anywhere near enough material to fill a book; it had a chapter or two of real history material and then another chapter worth of interesting speedrunning trivia, and the rest was padding, repetitive commentary or personal anecdotes I didn’t care about. (I’ll probably read at least one more of the histories, but one by a different author.)
Legends of Localization: The Legend of Zelda by Clyde Mandelin - The most detailed breakdown of translation and localizations choices in the original Legend of Zelda that’s ever been done, including manuals, supplementary materials, and re-releases. Ever wonder why it’s a secret to everybody? This will tell you.
Legends of Localization: Earthbound by Clyde Mandelin - A significantly fatter book than the first volume, because Earthbound is probably one of the most text-heavy games on the SNES and the localization process was an unprecedented endeavor at the time. Though there were mistakes and missed opportunities, they did an amazing job of translating the game and making it accessible to the American audience, down to trying to translate puns and replacing wordplay with sensible equivalents. This also documents sprite changes—some of which were specifically to localize wordplay--and adjustments for Nintendo’s censorship policies at the time. Of the three translation books, this one is the most in-depth about localization as a process. “Press Start” teaches you about the mechanics; this teaches you about the broader decisions.
Super Mario Bros. 2 by Jon Irwin – Part of the Video Game Histories series from Boss Fight Books; I bought a Humble Bundle with a whole slew of them. This one honestly didn’t have anywhere near enough material to fill a book; it had a chapter or two of real history material and then another chapter worth of interesting speedrunning trivia, and the rest was padding, repetitive commentary or personal anecdotes I didn’t care about. (I’ll probably read at least one more of the histories, but one by a different author.)
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