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Post by sinkbaek on Mar 13, 2010 17:37:31 GMT 2
I applaud your patience Aris.... I wouldn't have lasted three entries into that list, if I had to type it up And yes....Mario Balls is by far the funniest title...and propably also the best title to explain why they changed some of the titles, when they introduced them to other markets ;D By the way - rensmits - "Mogura Tataki" litterally translates to "Mole Pounding"... It's not the name of the devoloper P.S. The "Yellow Mario" title is by far the one that makes the least sense.... But if you think about it...the english title really doesn't make that much sense either. "Super Mario Bros.", when Luigi is nowhere to be found in the game? Update: I've tried to find an explanation on the net, for why they would call the game "Yellow Mario".... I didn't exactly find one directly from Nintendo though But it turns out that the colour yellow is associated with courage in japanese culture. So a reasonable explanation seems to be that while the litteral translation of the title is "Yellow Mario", a translation of the meaning of the title would be something like "Courageous/Brave Mario". This again explains why they chose to change the title....If an american or british person was told that someone is "yellow" they wouldn't think he was litterally the colour yellow - they'd think he was a coward... and in the west we all know that our friend Mario is anything but "yellow"
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Post by Gawaleus on Mar 14, 2010 8:26:01 GMT 2
Here is the list I have on G&W.ch: Silver Serie: AC01 - ACtion or ACrobat FL02 - FLagman MT03 - MoleTrap or Mogura Tataki RC04 - ResCue IP05 - InterPret Gold Serie: MH06 - ManHole CN07 - CarpeNter LN08 - LioN Wide Screen Serie: PR21 - PaRachute OC22 - OCtopus PP23 - PoPeye FP24 - Frying Pan MC25 - Mickey Mouse EG26 - EGg FR27 - FiRe TL28 - TurtLe ID29 - InDians SP30 - SnooPy Multi Screen Serie: OP51 - Oil Panic DK52 - Donkey Kong MD53 - Mickey & Donald GH54 - GreenHouse JR55 - donkey kong JR MW56 - Mario's World LP57 - Laundry Panic TC58 - TitaniC PB59 - PinBall BJ60 - BlackJack MG61 - Maze Game BD62 - Bombs Department or Bomb sweeper & Dynamite jack JB63 - Juvenile Buster or Jail Breaker or Jail Buster MV64 - Montezuma's Vengeance ZL65 - ZelDa Table Top Serie: CJ71 - Cong jr. or Color jr. CM72 - Concrete Mixer SM73 - Snoopy Music or Snoopy Melody PG74 - Popeye's Game Panorama Serie: SM91 - Snoopy Music or Snoopy Melody PG92 - Popeye's Game CJ93 - Cong jr. or Color jr. TB94 - Throw Bomb DC95 - Donkey kong Circus MK96 - MicKey mouse New Wide Screen Serie: DJ101 - Donkey kong Jr. ML102 - Mario & Luigi NH103 - maNHole TF104 - Tropical Fish YM105 - YumpMan (originally Mario was called Jumpman) DR106 - DRagalo BF107 - BalloonFight MB108 - Mario vs Ball Super Color Serie: BU201 - Blow Upwards UD202 - Up & Down Micro vs. System Serie: BX301 - BoXing AK302 - Attack & Kill (okay, we agree ... this one IS farfetched!) HK303 - HocKey Crystal Screen Serie: YM801 - YumpMan DR802 - DraGalo BF803 - BalloonFight Special: YM901s - Yellow Mario Well, most of them were mentioned already Patrick
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Post by Aris on Mar 14, 2010 16:13:21 GMT 2
Here is the list I have on G&W.ch: Silver Serie: AC01 - ACtion or ACrobat FL02 - FLagman MT03 - MoleTrap or Mogura Tataki RC04 - ResCue IP05 - InterPret Gold Serie: MH06 - ManHole CN07 - CarpeNter LN08 - LioN Wide Screen Serie: PR21 - PaRachute OC22 - OCtopus PP23 - PoPeye FP24 - Frying Pan MC25 - Mickey Mouse EG26 - EGg FR27 - FiRe TL28 - TurtLe ID29 - InDians SP30 - SnooPy Multi Screen Serie: OP51 - Oil Panic DK52 - Donkey Kong MD53 - Mickey & Donald GH54 - GreenHouse JR55 - donkey kong JR MW56 - Mario's World LP57 - Laundry Panic TC58 - TitaniC PB59 - PinBall BJ60 - BlackJack MG61 - Maze Game BD62 - Bombs Department or Bomb sweeper & Dynamite jack JB63 - Juvenile Buster or Jail Breaker or Jail Buster MV64 - Montezuma's Vengeance ZL65 - ZelDa Table Top Serie: CJ71 - Cong jr. or Color jr. CM72 - Concrete Mixer SM73 - Snoopy Music or Snoopy Melody PG74 - Popeye's Game Panorama Serie: SM91 - Snoopy Music or Snoopy Melody PG92 - Popeye's Game CJ93 - Cong jr. or Color jr. TB94 - Throw Bomb DC95 - Donkey kong Circus MK96 - MicKey mouse New Wide Screen Serie: DJ101 - Donkey kong Jr. ML102 - Mario & Luigi NH103 - maNHole TF104 - Tropical Fish YM105 - YumpMan (originally Mario was called Jumpman) DR106 - DRagalo BF107 - BalloonFight MB108 - Mario vs Ball Super Color Serie: BU201 - Blow Upwards UD202 - Up & Down Micro vs. System Serie: BX301 - BoXing AK302 - Attack & Kill (okay, we agree ... this one IS farfetched!) HK303 - HocKey Crystal Screen Serie: YM801 - YumpMan DR802 - DraGalo BF803 - BalloonFight Special: YM901s - Yellow Mario Well, most of them were mentioned already Patrick Interesting differences Patrick! Some inconsistencies I can point out right off the bat are: JR-55 can't be described as donkey kong JR, since the game is actually Donkey Kong II, and they already have a game called Donkey Kong Junior Junior Rescue is weird too, but, at least it's not the name of a different game in the group of 60. MD-53 should actually be DM-53, so, Donald and Mickey rather than Mickey and Donald. Cong Junior doesn't fit, since Kong is spelled with a "K" not a "C". The Jumpman theory is interesting. I like it better than Yellow Mario! But do the Japanese pronounce their "Js" as "Ys"? I mean, is Japan really Yapan??? ;D What's DRagalo? Mario & Luigi for ML-102 is also strange, especially since Luigi is nowhere to be found in the game.... Doesn't Mario juggle stars and other objects in the Mario the Juggler game, rather than juggling balls? Mind you, they could just be using the term "Ball" since that was the name of the first game they released, and with the character changing to Mario from that stick figure of a guy, I guess "Mario Ball" makes sense then. Montezuma's Vegeance, or Montezuma's reVenge (as I've heard it referred to most of the time) is funny! And those descriptions for the Supercolour games might as well just be porn titles! Especially Crab Grab's! ;D I don't know how many of us have actually read the instruction manuals for these games, but, I wouldn't be surprised if in some manuals, there is some sort of reference to the model number coding mystery. AC out
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Post by mpanayiotakis on Mar 14, 2010 16:31:28 GMT 2
And those descriptions for the Supercolour games might as well just be porn titles! Especially Crab Grab's! ;D ROFL!! ;D ;D Michael
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Post by sinkbaek on Mar 14, 2010 17:20:25 GMT 2
I think it's obvious what we need.... We need someone who can read japanese....and possibly romanize the original japanese titles for us I'm sure that would give us a definitive answer to the whole titles vs. model numbers mystery.... Ha ha! Porn for people with a fetish about having bugs in their junk? Sure - why not....I've seen....uh...I mean...I've heard about weirder stuff ;D Dragalo is the name of the dragon you have to slay in "Climber"...at least that's what I've heard... P.S. I think Yellow Mario makes more sense than Yumpman... Mario hadn't been called Jumpman in years when SMB came out.... Nintendo (re)named him when they released the arcade version of Donkey Kong Jr. in the early 80's
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Post by rensmits on Mar 14, 2010 18:18:13 GMT 2
I wonder where Flo got his list from?
He has probably got the right one.
René
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Post by Aris on Mar 14, 2010 22:48:54 GMT 2
D'oh! You're right Sinkbaek! I just read the instruction manual and the dragon's name is indeed Dragalo! Go figure, it's my favourite game, and I didn't even know that! Well, if I'm not mistaken, Ash, Aaron and Baluce are all fluent in Japanese, so, perhaps one, or more, of the three of them can help us out here. I would imagine Ash would be the most likely, since he visits here more often than the other two. Ash - Does Yellow Mario make sense? Rene- I have no idea where Flo got his information from, but, he obviously has a lot of connections with "Nintendo People" (current and/or former employees), so, I concur, I think his information is probably pretty darn accurate. AC
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Post by andycole on Mar 15, 2010 17:30:15 GMT 2
I don't consider any of these lists official. Unless Flo comes back telling us that his list came directly from Nintendo, then I'll treat it the same way as I do any other 'facts' I read about G&W - with suspicion! YM wouldn't mean something different between YM105, YM801 and YM901S. They are the same game. Whatever it means in one model applies to the others. The colour has nothing to do with it. (just my opinion, feel free to disagree with me!) There are too many holes in all those lists for them to be official. Sinkbaek, I had to laugh at your excitement hearing about tetris. I'm sure you've realised by now that we've known about the tetris theory, like, forever. Andy
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Post by ash888 on Mar 15, 2010 21:08:14 GMT 2
D'oh! You're right Sinkbaek! I just read the instruction manual and the dragon's name is indeed Dragalo! Go figure, it's my favourite game, and I didn't even know that! Well, if I'm not mistaken, Ash, Aaron and Baluce are all fluent in Japanese, so, perhaps one, or more, of the three of them can help us out here. I would imagine Ash would be the most likely, since he visits here more often than the other two. Ash - Does Yellow Mario make sense? Rene- I have no idea where Flo got his information from, but, he obviously has a lot of connections with "Nintendo People" (current and/or former employees), so, I concur, I think his information is probably pretty darn accurate. AC I tend to trust Flo's list is accurate since he has Nintendo connections, and he released a book on the subject. Yellow Mario makes sense to me. I'm no expert, but I think the special YM came out first (in Japan only) which was indeed yellow, and then the normal YM was released in light blue, but only outside of Japan. By that time the "YM" part of the model number had already been determined. That's just a guess. And no, "Y" is not used in place of "J" in the Japanese language. Isn't that German? What question did you have related to Japanese, Aris? Was that it? Finally, I think "Mario Balls" is funny, but maybe it was actually "Mario Ball" which would make sense for the "Mario" version of Ball.
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Post by sinkbaek on Mar 15, 2010 21:54:23 GMT 2
I don't consider any of these lists official. Unless Flo comes back telling us that his list came directly from Nintendo, then I'll treat it the same way as I do any other 'facts' I read about G&W - with suspicion! And one should always be suspicious....of everything! ;D But if we could get someone, who's fluent in japanese, to translate the japanese titles to english...I'll have to say that's good enough for me. My guess is that the model numbers reflect the japanese games...and to deny or confirm that guess I'd say a translation of the titles would suffice That's what I'm thinking too. I like the "yellow means brave" explanation.... It's the same way we use colour as a metaphor in many other contexts - "green" technology.... "dark" world view.... better dead than "red"...and so on... Well it wasn't the theoretical concept of Nintendo making a Tetris G&W that got me going.... It was the fact that the list actually pinned a model number on it, suggesting that development had gone further than just "hey, we should make a Tetris G&W" If it turned out Nintendo had made a Tetris prototype or perhaps even were ready to start mass producing Tetris G&W's.....that would be exciting
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Post by sinkbaek on Mar 15, 2010 22:11:46 GMT 2
And no, "Y" is not used in place of "J" in the Japanese language. Isn't that German? Not as a general rule.... Usually you just use a J in german, whenever a J-sound is required....and as I remember you'd not substitute a J with an Y. You'd substitute it with an I. You probably substitute more J's with Y's in english, if you compare the two languages.... "May", "Youth", "Year" etc..... Would be "Mai", "Jung" and "Jahr" in german
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Post by ash888 on Mar 16, 2010 2:45:26 GMT 2
And no, "Y" is not used in place of "J" in the Japanese language. Isn't that German? Not as a general rule.... Usually you just use a J in german, whenever a J-sound is required....and as I remember you'd not substitute a J with an Y. You'd substitute it with an I. You probably substitute more J's with Y's in english, if you compare the two languages.... "May", "Youth", "Year" etc..... Would be "Mai", "Jung" and "Jahr" in german Thanks for the lesson. The only reason I guessed Y is used for J in German is because my daughter's name is Jasmine, but is Yasmine in German. I suppose spelling it with an "I" would still sound like "Yasmine."
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Post by Gawaleus on Mar 16, 2010 8:55:39 GMT 2
Thanks for the lesson. The only reason I guessed Y is used for J in German is because my daughter's name is Jasmine, but is Yasmine in German. I suppose spelling it with an "I" would still sound like "Yasmine." Names are a different type, they don't follow the regular rules. Basically it's up to everbody to decide which letters to use for names: Johanna or Yohanna, Yolanda or Iolanda. The "Y" is not used too often in the German language, it's mostly "I" and "J". You probably substitute more J's with Y's in english, if you compare the two languages.... "May", "Youth", "Year" etc..... Would be "Mai", "Jung" and "Jahr" in german Correct. :-) Patrick
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Post by ash888 on Mar 16, 2010 8:57:58 GMT 2
Update: I've tried to find an explanation on the net, for why they would call the game "Yellow Mario".... I didn't exactly find one directly from Nintendo though But it turns out that the colour yellow is associated with courage in japanese culture. So a reasonable explanation seems to be that while the litteral translation of the title is "Yellow Mario", a translation of the meaning of the title would be something like "Courageous/Brave Mario". This again explains why they chose to change the title....If an american or british person was told that someone is "yellow" they wouldn't think he was litterally the colour yellow - they'd think he was a coward... and in the west we all know that our friend Mario is anything but "yellow" That's a very creative theory, but I suspect you're thinking much too deeply about this. The "yellow = courage" idea is most likely something that was relevant hundreds of years ago and all but gone from the lexicon today. I've never heard of that before, and I'm willing to bet it would be news to the average Japanese person on the street. It's not uncommon in the game industry to tag a game early in development with a rough, tentative name for reference purposes until the game is about 70% near completion (or sometimes even closer to completion than that). It's probably safe to assume that Nintendo did this very thing with the Game & Watch series, and needed the model numbers before each game got its final name. Unrealistic deadlines often lead to this sort of thing. I think "Yellow Mario" might have been hastily attached to Super Mario Bros. early in the development process when they had sketched out an idea to use "Disk Kun" as a case for it, which is yellow. I know the special version has a higher model number than the others, but the light blue one came out in 1988 I think, while the special was given out as prizes in early 1987(?) The crystal screen was apparently released in 1986, but that doesn't rule out the possibility of the special being the very first of the three to be sketched out on paper. Now even I'm thinking too deeply about this. ;D
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Post by ash888 on Mar 16, 2010 9:25:36 GMT 2
I think it's obvious what we need.... We need someone who can read japanese....and possibly romanize the original japanese titles for us Sinkbaek, The final names are identical in Japanese to the final English names, just rendered in katakana which makes them sound a little different. For example Vermin = Baamin etc. (not "Mogura Tataki" which was probably a tentative name hastily attached for reference during development). My guess is that Japanese developers (who really don't speak English) came up with these titles which may sound odd to a native English speaker, but sounded really "cool" to Japanese kids in the 80s. It's pretty common for Japanese companies to market products in their own country with English names that the consumer will "nantonaku" (vaguely) understand, which has proven to sell products time and again. I mean really, does "Ball" sound like a good name for a juggling game? Mego was smart enough to localize the name to "Toss Up" for their target audience.
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