Jackals
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0012878
Any idea how to play it? I've managed to select all my people and move them about, but I'm no good with Russian so I dunno what it's all about. Looks like a cool little game, even if the full version is missing.
Any idea how to play it? I've managed to select all my people and move them about, but I'm no good with Russian so I dunno what it's all about. Looks like a cool little game, even if the full version is missing.
Post edited by mulder on
Comments
It's only a demo from years ago now, but I'd love to see it completed and in English. Failing that, something similar but new wouldn't go a miss.
EDIT:
You can click on a blokie, move him to the right until you see 2 buildings, then click on the buildings and you get options for the buildings too. Could you translate those?
Could non-English games be "translated" via the 256colour thingy?
I.e. instead of really colouring the games in marvelous 256 colours, the foreign gubbins could just be translated/painted into the needed language and then saved/run as the 256 fileformatthingy.
This would be a possibility, right?
Hmmm, I think there might be one potential problem there. What if some of the "text" is actually something like a picture? Or the fonts (UDG/pics) have been re-desgined, then you're stuck with that character set :-(
Yes, you'd need to substitute the font with a English one. For Jackals, that might mean redesigning the whole font as it's a small one, not the normal 8x8. You could simply redesign the graphics if it's all made up of little sprite style pictures or UDGs.
You are correct about the font being a small one. Some of the Cyrilic characters were initially difficult for me to work out, and there is not enough room in the font to represent some of the letters completely accurately.
For example, the same character in this tiny font is used to represent both ш and щ which are different letters in Russian.
Here's the translation for the two buildings and their respective options.
These translations are certainly open to further interpretation. I'm sure to a native Russian speaker, the precise meaning would be apparent in the context of the game right away. I on the other hand can get the general idea, but have to make an educated guess to the exact meaning!
For example:-
"Военное дело" could be translated as "Military Science", perhaps even "Military theory" or "Military tactics".
Looking on the Russian Wikipedia suggests it could have even other connotations like "Preperation for a war footing".
But, "Military Science" is probably the neatest concise, direct translation.
"Защита воинов" meaning "Soldier's shield" is also translated elsewhere as "Warrior's shield", but we get the general idea.
All the other words are straightforward though!
Yes, it's a shame we don't have the full game available, because it does look like it would be a good one.
It's difficult to say if this demo is fully working, or just has the basic features available, as I can't get the buttons to do anything obvious either.