We never got a taste of Sega’s 2000 Dreamcast title, Rent-A-Hero No. 1. But fans have stepped in where the company let us down by creating a very comprehensive translation of the title.
Originally released in Japan in May, 2000, Rent-A-Hero No. 1 was a game that got lost in the implosion of the Dreamcast. Sega eventually ported it to Xbox in 2003, but since that was when the company’s support of Microsoft was starting to waver, it never made it across the pond. This is despite the fact that some reviewers at the time were actually provided with copies of the translated version.
Rent-A-Hero No. 1 is an action RPG about a 16-year-old who gets a set of armor that allows them to take a part-time job as a super-hero. Perhaps Sega never wanted to market it over here because of its deep roots in Japanese culture. That’s less of a problem in today’s world of Yakuza and Persona titles, but at the time, it was enough to give publishers pause.
Rent-A-Hero No. 1, is actually a remake of the 1991 Genesis/Mega Drive title that also was never localized. You know, it’s never too late, Sega.
Until they realize that, a hefty team of unofficial modders (dubbed the Rent-A-Modders) did a pretty outstanding job at handling the localization. Beyond translating the text, the team added many exclusive features, including new models and animations, VMU graphics, and secret modes. It’s a hefty little patch that has a lot of love behind it.
You can find the patch, as well as the full credits of the Rent-A-Modders, right here on their Github.
Zoey Handley
Staff Writer - Zoey is a gaming gadabout. She got her start blogging with the community in 2018 and hit the front page soon after. Normally found exploring indie experiments and retro libraries, she does her best to remain chronically uncool.
Scientists have developed a system that can read a person's mind and reproduce the brain activity in a stream of text, relying in part on a transformer model similar to the ones that power Open AI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard.
This is an important step on the way to develop brain–computer interfaces that can decode continuous language through non-invasive recordings of thoughts.
Results were published in a recent study in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Neuroscience, led by Jerry Tang, a doctoral student in computer science, and Alex Huth, an assistant professor of neuroscience and computer science at UT Austin.
A non-invasive method
Tang and Huth's semantic decoder isn't implanted in the brain directly; instead, it uses fMRI machine scans to measure brain activity. For the study, participants in the experiment listened to podcasts while the AI attempted to transcribe their thoughts into text.
“For a noninvasive method, this is a real leap forward compared to what’s been done before, which is typically single words or short sentences,” said Alex Huth. “We’re getting the model to decode continuous language for extended periods of time with complicated ideas.”
Illustrative image of artificial intelligence. (credit: PIXABAY)
These kinds of systems could be especially helpful to people who are unable to physically speak, such as those who have had a stroke, and enable them to communicate more effectively.
According to Tang and Huth, study findings demonstrate the viability of non-invasive language brain–computer interfaces. They say that the semantic decoder still needs some more work and can only provide the basic “gist” of what someone is thinking. The AI decoder produced a text that closely matched a subject's thought only about half of the time.
The decoder in action
The study provides some examples of the decoder in action. In one case, a test subject heard, and consequently thought the sentence "... I didn't know whether to scream cry or run away instead I said leave me alone I don't need your help Adam disappeared."
The decoder reproduced this part of a sentence as "... started to scream and cry and then she just said I told you to leave me alone you can't hurt me anymore I'm sorry and then he stormed off."
A work in progress
The researchers also added that they gave the aspect of mental privacy some concern. “We take very seriously the concerns that it could be used for bad purposes and have worked to avoid that,” said Jerry Tang. “We want to make sure people only use these types of technologies when they want to and that it helps them.”
For this reason, they also tested whether successful decoding requires the cooperation of the person being decoded, and found that cooperation is absolutely required for the decoder to work.
Huth and Tang believe their system could in the future be adapted to work with portable brain-imaging systems, such as functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).
“fNIRS measures where there’s more or less blood flow in the brain at different points in time, which, it turns out, is exactly the same kind of signal that fMRI is measuring,” Huth concludes. “So, our exact kind of approach should translate to fNIRS.”
Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Succession season 4, episode 6!
Lukas Matsson's Tweet gets him into a lot of trouble in Succession season 4, episode 6, and here's what his social media post actually means. Although this storyline isn't introduced until the very end of the episode, it is one of the most significant moments in it, with it most likely having a massive influence on the future of Succession. So, here is the translation of Lukas Matsson's Tweet, what it means, and why he sent it in Succession season 4, episode 6.
Succession season 4, episode 6 is the latest episode of HBO's beloved comedy-drama, with it being one of the last episodes in the final season of Succession. Episode 6 sees Kendall and Roman Roy tackling their first investor day meeting, with the duo deciding to present a new real estate venture known as Living Plus. GoJo CEO Lukas Matsson, who isn't a fan of the deal, immediately took to Twitter to criticize the latest Waystar Royco announcement, but his Tweet was met with instant backlash in Succession season 4, episode 6.
Related: Succession Season 4, Episode 5 Ending Explained
What Matsson Tweeted In Succession Season 4, Episode 6 Translated
Alongside a promotional image of Living Plus, Lukas Matsson Tweeted three words: "Doderick macht frei." This phrase is derived from the German saying "Arbeit macht frei," which translates in English to "work sets you free." This phrase was prominently featured in concentration camps throughout World War II, with it most famously being on the main gate into the Auschwitz I concentration camp. The phrase has become inextricably linked with the Holocaust, with Lukas Matsson's use of it making light of the tragic genocide of the Jewish people throughout WWII.
Matsson's Tweet did alter this phrase, replacing the word "Arbeit" with "Doderick." Doderick the Dog is one of the fictional mascots of Waystar Royco, with the character being featured in the marketing campaign for Living Plus. This further upset the employees of Waystar Royco, as Matsson's Tweet equates their mascot to Nazis.
Related: What's Going On with Shiv & Matsson? Succession Love Triangle Setup & Twists Explained
Although Lukas Matsson was attempting to be funny with his Holocaust allusion, the Tweet had a sinister motive behind it. Matsson wasn't a fan of Living Plus when he first heard about it, knowing that the announcement was a scheme to raise Waystar Royco's stock price before the GoJo acquisition. Matsson, who said that Living Plus was like concentration camps for grannies, wanted to take down the new venture, but it didn't go as planned.
Lukas Matsson's Tweet obviously faced immediate backlash for attempting to make light of the Holocaust. While he may not like Living Plus, equating it to Auschwitz was completely uncalled for, with the controversy most likely playing into future episodes of Succession. Realizing this, Matsson quickly took the Tweet down, but the damage has already been done. This Tweet could cause Matsson's reputation to be ruined or even the GoJo deal to fall apart, with it definitely having an influence on the ending of Succession season 4.
Fans of Pele have been missing him since he died in December at the age of 82, but they've just found one sweetly permanent way to honor him. NPR notes that since his death, a Brazilian charity dedicated to promoting his legacy has been vying to have a term added to the Michaelis dictionary, a Portuguese-language reference, in tribute to the Brazilian soccer great (real name: Edson Arantes do Nascimento). On Wednesday, thanks to 125,000 signatures on a petition toward that end, the Pele Foundation's dream came true, with "Pele" slipped into the dictionary's online edition.
The term's meaning, per the AP: "The one that is extraordinary, or who because of his quality, value, or superiority cannot be matched to anything or anyone, just like Pele." The entry goes on to call the three-time World Cup champ the "greatest athlete of all time," adding the descriptors "exceptional, incomparable, unique." And how exactly would you use it in a sentence? The dictionary offers the following examples: "She is the Pele of tennis," or "He is the Pele of medicine."
Pele, who played with both the Brazilian national team and the Santos club, was their most prolific player, and is still the youngest player to ever score in a World Cup, which he pulled off when he was 17. "The expression that was already used to refer to the best in what you do is immortalized in the pages of the dictionary," the foundation tweeted Wednesday. "Together we made history." ESPN notes that Pele's family will receive a plaque with the entry on it. The word will be added to the dictionary's print edition when it next comes out. (Read more Pele stories.)
During the recent Eid Mubarak celebrations, a few Kiswahili advocates in one of the WhatsApp groups in Uganda demonstrated mixed reactions.
This followed a poster with the text “Towa siimu yako,” as a translation of “switch off your phone.” Given the degree of similarity of translated words to the Kiswahili language, the text was generally perceived to be of that language – Kiswahili. Unfortunately, most group members remained silent, probably puzzled by this ‘Kiswahili’ text.
However, the few who commented on it seemed to agree that the translation was perfect because it was communicatively oriented, much as others maintained that it was incorrectly translated. Indeed, one individual suggested that the text exhibits the form of Kiswahili historically used in Uganda, so it be.
Unfortunately, the translated text’s target audience was/is unknown. Nonetheless, with or without knowing the audience, the translated text defies several conventions, eg, of the Kiswahili language (i.e, at the word, sentence, and meaning level), even if translated using the communicative approach or for communication purposes. Yes, the communicative language learning and usage models provide room for errors. However, those agreeing to the translated text as correct might have forgotten that communicatively, there is room for error, mainly in the spoken form of the language rather than in its written form, as in the above text.
The written errors are accommodated more in classroom settings where formal instructions of a particular language occur than in public spaces, e.g, in the form of posters. In most cases, once a text has been translated or written correctly or incorrectly in a book, newspaper, or public space, it becomes ‘permanent.’ It is assumed by whoever (mainly beginner language users) reads it considers it authentic. Nonetheless, in the spoken form, the speaker – either in classrooms or public spaces, can use different techniques to quickly correct what s/he has said in case it is incorrect. Yes, sometimes we write texts or speak words in classrooms or public spaces that we think are correct, yet they are contrary, mainly at the word, sentence, or meaning levels.
In any case, for a country like Uganda where the use of Kiswahili in public spaces is still peripheral, as its advocates, we need to interest ourselves more in its incorrect use in any form – i.e, written or spoken. It will save us from being in the same boat as one of our neighbouring countries’ population that still grapple with the ‘correct’ use of this language yet have been using it for an extended time. In other words, it is necessary to attempt advising whoever is concerned on the correct form of such texts other than keeping quiet or reinventing the wheel with justifications, including those given in the first paragraph of this essay. This can easily be done if we familiarise ourselves with basic but crucial aspects of a language – in terms of acquiring, learning, and usage. Thus, we need to distinguish the written form of a language and its spoken form. Yes, contemporary models – e.g, communicative theories and their related approaches and methods – for learning a given language allow one to use that language with errors, as someone learns it.
Nonetheless, the question(s) that can arise is related to the relevance of the communicative notions of accuracy, fluency, and complexity in spoken/written texts – either in public spaces or classrooms. In other words, at what level should, for example, accuracy as a notion be rendered relevant in a text whose purpose is to communicate a given message? In fact, accuracy must be carefully adhered to in translations if the translated text is to communicate or express the intended meaning mainly in public spaces.
Dr Caesar Jjingo is a Kiswahili pedagogy and materials development specialist at Makerere University.
A partnership between Dallas-based Spoken Worldwide and Seed Company to create 20 Bible translation projects for language groups that are primarily oral, not written, in their communication, is on track as it enters year three.
The ministries are currently a bit behind the timeline announced in 2021, which called for them to launch six new oral Bible translation projects by March of 2022, seven more by March of 2023, and the final seven by last month.
Spoken CEO Ed Weaver said they had already completed 380 chapters of Scripture in 10 languages in the first two years, not 13 languages as projected, but will complete 10 new projects this year.
“It has taken us a while to get into a rhythm on this,” said Weaver, but in year three, research and systems already in place have sped the process along. “It gets faster every time we launch.” He said the work completed so far shows that “we have something to add to the Bible translation community.”
In year two, the partners started new projects in these languages: Sertanejo (Brazil), Olu’ba (South Sudan), Chakali (Ghana), Sakalava (Madagascar), two projects in Nigeria, two projects in the Philippines, one in North Africa and one in Ethiopia.
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Translated Scripture portions include Gospels (Mark is a favorite) as well as the Old Testament books of Jonah and Ruth that introduce people to the “story of redemption from the whole counsel of God,” not only the New Testament. These three books are also in narrative format, which makes them easier to translate and easier for people to understand.
Spoken’s motto is “Deliver truth …where written words can’t go,” and it releases its new translations in audio form via micro SD cards that people can use in phones, solar powered MP3 players, as well as the internet. “But a lot of the groups we serve don’t have online presence” Weaver said.
Weaver said the mission is to make its translations available free to other ministries that want to use them. Some have already done so. He said the new translations have already been used by ministries involved in evangelism, discipleship, and church planting.
“We are seeing fruitful impact in the community as recordings are completed and Scripture is released,” Weaver said. Each language project takes about five years to complete.
Year two of the project generated new translations in five languages:
Rindire in Nigeria
Sertanejo in Brazil
And one language each in three countries — the Philippines, Ethiopia and Ghana — where revealing the languages could jeopardize the safety of the workers.
Spoken Worldwide is formally known as Dallas-based T4 Global Inc., a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit that is a member of the ECFA. It raised $3.4 million in 2022 and spent $966,700 on the translation work. It also trains pastors and leaders, provides orality coaching, and funds community development.
Spoken hasn’t yet completed its 2022 financial report, but Weaver says the ministry spent 73-75% of its income on program expenditures. In 2021, it spent 73% of its $2.3 million income on programs, with approximately $300,000 going to the partnership with Seed.
Weaver said Spoken will continue to support the projects after the three-year partnership with Seed has ended. Spoken had hoped some projects might be self-sustaining, but many communities face “an extreme poverty level that may not allow local support.”
This article originally appeared at MinistryWatch.
Steve Rabey is a veteran author and journalist who has published more than 50 books and 2,000 articles about religion, spirituality, and culture. He was an instructor at Fuller and Denver seminaries and the U.S. Air Force Academy.
