Kojima's Policenauts now playable in English

by JC Fletcher on Aug 24th 2009 7:30PM

Now here's some Kojima-related news worth counting down to. The fan translation patch for Hideo Kojima's sci-fi graphical text adventure, Policenauts, is now complete and available for download. The game, originally planned for official release on the Sega Saturn in 1996, was never released in English by Konami, so a group of fans worked to localize and patch the files.

Policenauts is an adventure game in a similar style to Kojima's Snatcher, consisting of mostly still images with fully-voiced dialogue and a text-based menu interface. The game follows Jonathan Ingram, a one-time policeman on an extraterrestrial Earth colony, who drifted into space and returned to Earth 25 years later, having been saved by a "cold sleep" system in his suit. Following his return, he works as a private investigator and attempts to solve a murder and a mysterious disappearance.

The patch requires a copy of the Japanese PlayStation version of the game and a PlayStation that can play CD-R discs -- that's because you have to rip the game files, apply the patch, and then burn it to another disc. Finally, a reason to dust off that PlayStation you modded to play Beatmania ten years ago!

[Thanks, Mike]

Source

Tags: hideo-kojima, japan, konami, localization, playstation, policenauts, ps1, retro, translation

Reader Comments (36)

I don't believe many will have modded PS1s, I myself will have to try this on a PC emulator.

Let's hope that Konami won't try to shut this down.

You could always use a modded PS2, or a PSP with custom firmware

Things you can play this on:
PS1
PS2
PSP
Japanese PS3
PC
Xbox

and probably other stuff, as well.

i been waiting years for this...

anyways i got it last night and playing it since, excellent game. the resolution stinks tho :P (320x240)

I'm glad I never tossed my modded PS1 now. =D

@Surfaced:

How exactly are you going to play a burned CDR on a Japanese PS3?

Or maybe you didn't read the summary and think this is just the Japanese version of the game?

I still have a modded PS1 for Japanese games in my basement somewhere...I'll have to find it tonight.

That's cool for PS1 owners, but why not just make it a PC game? I'm interested in it, but don't have a PS1 or any knowledge how to do emulation (have tried and gave up a couple times).

Because this was a fan modding project that just replaces Japanese text in the game with English text. To port the game to another system would require the source code, or re-writing the game essentially from scratch. It would be a project several orders of magnatude larger and more difficult to accomplish than swapping out some images for some other images.

Setting up and running emulation for the PS1 isn't that difficult to do; but if you feel it's beyond the pale for you, a search of torrent sites and the like should net you an already set up emulator that you need merely extract to your computer and use. :)

HIDEO KOJIMA'S BIRTHDAY.

Cool, I will try to play this game on my CF PSP. At first by looking at the screen, I thought it was a anime movie :P

*crosses fingers that it works*

ermmm, re-release it on PSN so everybody can enjoy?
(more like, so Konami can sell the game agian?)

[Banned!]

I thought you didn't have to mod PS1 to play downloaded games on it?

I believe you are talking about the PS3. The PS3 can play PS1 disks but only original ones (the ones with a black surface). Since Policenauts requires to re- burn the game with the patch to a new disk the PS3 will detect it is not an original PS1 disc.

That is why you need a modded PS1 or PS2 that can read game images on any disc.

Your right alex in a way. There were a few work-around/tricks to get burnt discs to work like opening the game mid-launch and switching the disc, playing some games and during loading scenes, open the disc, etc. Umm, boot-discs supposibly worked for a while. Rumored some discs worked if the bottom was the right-color, like certain cdr brands along with using 1:1 apps like CloneDVD, etc.

I think a number of those methods were no more than folk tales about a friend of a friend.

I have an Action Replay card (the one that attaches to the parallel port on the back of original PS1 model), and using a small spring to hold the lid close button down while the lid is open, you can load a retail game with the Action Replay, and after it has read that game's copy protection, open the lid (the spring will keep the button pressed down, so the PS1 thinks the lid is still closed) pop in a copied disc, and voila! I know first-hand this works, not "friend of a friend" knowledge. But, I'm not sure how hard it is to find one of those original Action Replay cards now though. I bought it specifically to play imported Japanese games, but it works on copies as well.

I also had one of those Action Replay cards and well remember doing exactly all those things. Unfortunately it (and the PS1) got lost during a move about 5 years ago. At the time I blew it off, but now I wish I still had it and my games library.

Cool.

You're thinking of the Dreamcast. With PS1, you had to have one of those cheat devices that plugged in the back or a modchip.

or a blunt pencil....

I used to swap discs on my PSX (purchased day 1 at CC). This was before AR and before mod chips. CDRs were about $10 ($7 in bulk) and the 4X yamaha burner was $1100. good (expensive) times.

Beatmania? I think you mean DDR. I mean... pretend I said nothing. I play manly games with guns and...

Yeah. Eager to check this out. For the record, from the headline, I assumed this was going to be a PSN download. I would have purchased this, but will play it on my modded ps1 instead. Which is to say, I am legit, but not so much that I should quit.

Playing it now on PSP, its bloody fandozer-tastic!!! If you ever played or had any interest in SNATCHER or Bladerunner-type games you'd love Policenauts to bits, its simply incredible!

Thanks for this man, been waiting ages for teh translation and now its happened!

YAYS!!!

PS: Here's hoping they release it translated on PSN too so everyone can play it!!!!

Legendary game!

~NW~

no, this translation is done by modders not konami. i seriously doubt konami would go to them.

That's something I've never understood. If someone has already done the work for you, without recompense, what would stop a publisher from doing so? Most of these teams would be very pleased to see their hard work show up in a retail release.

This is a good example, as is Mother 3. The translation for it is so good, you'd swear Nintendo released it themselves.

heh thats where your wrong the translation is TOO good cant have been official :P

I allways see 'nauts' at the end of game names, can someone explain what its supposed to mean?

astronauts + policemen = policenauts.

Deepfriedsushi has the explanation for it in terms of this game. The game takes place on an orbital colony, the main character used to be a police officer there, so he's a police astronaut. But the "naut" suffix as commonly used translates roughly to "sailor", so words like "astronaut" roughly mean "astro sailor".

How did you know I modded my ps1 to play beatmania 10 years ago! Man... Joystiq must have Psycho Mantis working there.

Installed this yesterday on PSP. Works perfectly. Having been a fan of Snatcher for many MANY years I was extremely excited to see the spiritual successor in action and it doesn't disappoint in any way.

I think you can play this on every version of Play Station either it is PS1,PS2,PSS3 PSP...............all are accessable on it sp enjoy the wide range of Play Station along with this game.............
http://www.elecrocomputerwarehouse.com

I have been waiting so long for this. Instead of making a billion more MGS games, Kojima should consider revisiting the Snatcher and Policenauts universes. Until that day, I'll just have to savour this.

so basically its used literally. I allways thought the various 'nauts' usage in games was a meme i didnt know about lol.

Hey! I still play Beatmania on my modded PS1!

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Kojima's Policenauts now playable in English

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