Rare systems

[vf10a]

I'm back again. After all your help with my retro gaming question I thought someone might be able to help me with this:

Is there anywhere in the UK/US that sells or supports wonderswan stuff? I own a wonderswan crystal and some games and like the system but nowhere seems to have info on it. There is only about 4 (very bad items) on ebay at the moment.

I know Lik-Sang sell some games but I would rather avoid custom fees more expensive than the games themselves if it can be helped.

I also know that there is an emulator for the gp32 but I would need to own the games first wouldn't I

Thanks for any help.

 

[Flack]

If eBay doesn't have what you're looking for, I'd start looking around at some of the gaming sites and their forums. http://www.digitpress.com has a nice big forum, you might try looking there.

 

[zboy9]

Do you like your Wonderswan crystal? I live in Japan, and they are readily available, and I was thinking of buying one. BTW, I don't think there is a wonderswan emulator for the GP32, but one is being worked on.

 

[angrypants]

yes there is a wsc emu for gp32 alread but its not very good. There are two more being worked on by ryle and yo-yo the guy who did little john.

 

[EvilDragon]

Do you like your Wonderswan crystal? I live in Japan, and they are readily available, and I was thinking of buying one. BTW, I don't think there is a wonderswan emulator for the GP32, but one is being worked on.

Completely offtopic, I know... but, oh well...

You live in Japan, so I guess you speak Japanese...

I just like to know if it is difficult to learn japanese, not talking or writing, just that I can understand RPGs (the whole story, not just menu commands or something like that).

How hard is that, what do you think?

 

[generalnmx]

As an English-speaking American who's taken three semesters in Japanese, I can answer your question, EvilDragon...

Learning the underlying syntax is rather simple. Japanese doesn't have many nuances like English does. "KA" always makes a "KA" sound, regardless of what it's paired up with. Learning to speak Japanese is the easy part.

Learning to read Japanese, that's a different story. There are three sets of characters you will need to learn: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. The first two won't be too difficult to learn, but Kanji may make your head explode. Kanji is borrowed from Chinese, who instituted a system of writing which involves a different character or collection of characters for each word. Since many RPGs are aimed at adults in Japan, you may need to know over 500 Kanji in order to really follow the story.

Not knowing the Kanji is easily bypassed by a Kanji dictionary (in Japanese or English), but it could become tedious by your standards.

 

[Octavius]

Do you like your Wonderswan crystal? I live in Japan, and they are readily available, and I was thinking of buying one. BTW, I don't think there is a wonderswan emulator for the GP32, but one is being worked on.

Completely offtopic, I know... but, oh well...

You live in Japan, so I guess you speak Japanese...

I just like to know if it is difficult to learn japanese, not talking or writing, just that I can understand RPGs (the whole story, not just menu commands or something like that).

How hard is that, what do you think?

I speak fluet Japanese and live in Japan. I'm American and regarding your question, understanding RPG's is sometimes more difficult than speaking. First of all, you would have to be able to read at least Hiragana and Katakana. But besides all that.. RPG Japanese is unique because it uses really really OLD Japanese language. The first RPG I played through was Final Fantasy X which took quite a while. Games like FF5 or 6 are cake though. Just remember.. it's gonna take some time. I've been studying for the last two years (since I was 18) and still got a long way to go.

btw, I don't think zboy speaks Japanese. He's a military child, if I remember correctly.

 

[Octavius]

sorry about the double post

 

[NiN^_^NiN]

Im curious octavius who is that girl in your avatar?

h34r:

 

[Octavius]

Im curious octavius who is that girl in your avatar?

h34r:

Are you familiar with Suzuki Bakuhatsu? Don't know if this board can use Japanese characters but here it is (????) <-- maybe you can see that.. maybe not.

One of the most fun games for PSX that NOBODY knows about unless you live here in Japan. I met the character in real life, so, it has a lot more meaning to me now.

 

[Octavius]

Admin: You should get the Japanese language pack installed for this board maybe some of my friends (and other GP32 owners) in Japan can use it here.

 

[NiN^_^NiN]

What psx game is that?

h34r:

 

[Octavius]

http://www.square-enix.co.jp/games/ps/suzu...tsu/index2.html

 

[EvilDragon]

Thanks for your help!
I really hoped that RPGs didn't use Kanji... how the heck do they fit all these characters into the game??
Well, I have to hope for nice translations of the games... most already are, but I'd really like to play all three parts of the Romancing Saga

 

[VirtuaLeech]

how the heck do they fit all these characters into the game??

Well actually one kanji most of the time stands for several "western" letters. Or one kanji kan mean a whole word.

So while the kanji character set does indeed takes up more space then a western character set the actual game text takes up less space.

This is also the reason why in most old RPG's you are only able to enter four letters for your name. In the japanese version they reserved space for four kanji, in the western version this translates to four letters.

 

[Octavius]

games usually use anywhere from 1500 - 3000 kanji. thats really not too many considering how many there really are.

 

[NiN^_^NiN]

I think im in love :wub:
Very beautiful girl and the game looks cool from what i gather its a game where u dismantle bombs but i can't tell what the story is about really from the translation.

h34r:

 

[zboy9]

yes, I am a military child, and I am about to take my second year of Japanese, but I have a long while to go before I am fluent. I was off the computer for a day, so I lost track of this topic almost.