Game Titles and Japanese/English Phonemes

[Stan]

Okay, I want to see what people think about this so we can figure out what route is the best.  If you look on the Disk list, for example, you'll see a game called Big Challenge!  Go Go Bowling.  Techinically, though they do mean "bowling," in Japanese they have no phoneme (sound unit) to equal the English "l" as it appears at the end of that word.  Thus, the actual title is Big Challenge! Go Go Bowring.  Should we try to stick with original transliteration or go for the translation in some cases?

[JC]

Maybe the simpliest way for me to put it is that the translation we use on our lists should be the one that is clearest to English speaking gamers. "Bowring" doesn't tell me the game is about bowling. If they mean "Bowling," let's go with that. Let's avoid the confusion. Same with the Bubble Bobble title, I think.

[Stan]

Good idea, maybe if and when you add notes or whatever later we can make it know.

[featherplucknfilms]

bowling in japanese is boringu.  a lot of english words are used in japanese and just made to be japanese words with there pronunciation and "alphabet".  These words even have a separate "alphabet" so you know they were taken from english or another language.  I think the best way and the way that seems to be done all the time in romanized japanese titles is to translate the originally english words back into english.  It makes much more sense.  You definitely don't want o be reading and trying to figure out what "basubaru suta" or "donarudo rando" is, anyone?

[manuel]

You bean beesubooru sutaa? That would be Baseball Star,  And Donarudo Rando is Donald Land.

I'd also say leaving English words in the original English spelling is the best way.
As already stated above, Bowling would be "booringu" (ボーリング)

[featherplucknfilms]

pin pon...that was too easy for you manuel.  and the american counterparts, baseball stars and mc kids.

[Toneman]

Yeah I can read some katakana really good, that's how I made my Bahamut Lagoon battle videos on YouTube. Most of the time it's like playing a game of mad gab with the Japanese pronunciations, the more you keep repeating it to yourself, the sounds become clearer.

[manuel]

pin pon...that was too easy for you manuel.  and the american counterparts, baseball stars and mc kids.

ワーイ!
Yay! What do I win? ;p

[Stan]

Sounds great guys, I agree after seeing how some of the transliterated titles may confuse people.

[Doc]

LOL, it's interesting seeing you two trade Japanese names back and forth actually. What's the Japanese way to say "Sweet Home"?

[featherplucknfilms]

suiito houmu

[Doc]

That's exactly how it sounds on the commercial...lol awesome!

[JC]

I want to have this debate again, but from a slightly different angle.

Famicom World is intended to be an English-language source of Famicom information. Yet, when you look at the games lists, you see a lot of games that still are not fully translated into English. In other words, you see games like: $1,000,000 Kid: Maboroshi no Teiou Hen, or Valkyrie no Bouken: Toki no Kagi Densetsu. I don't know about you, but when I look at titles like that, they're meaningless.

The games lists are a bit schizophrenic. Some of the titles are in English and some aren't. I think all the games should be written in English. I understand that some games are widely known by names that have been used for years; I don't want the list to confuse people (so perhaps we can still list somewhere the most commonly used name for each game). I think we should translate all of these games into an English that represents the most accurate names for each game, and in a sense, create a new way of speaking about some of these games.

Agree or disagree?

[manuel]

I'd say let the names as they are and add an English translation in brackets.
If you need translations, you know who to contact.

[JC]

Aahhh you're in opposition just because you can speak it.

And I may take you up on that offer to help translate the names. Don't know what we'd do without you.