Idol Hakkenden English translation
アイドル八犬伝
LIPEMCO! Translations' complete English patch for Idol Hakkenden, a gag-filled Famicom adventure about a would-be pop idol.
What it is
LIPEMCO! Translations released this English translation of Idol Hakkenden in September 2018. Supper did the hacking, in collaboration with TheMajinZenki and cccmar, and the whole game is playable in English, title screen included.
The game
Idol Hakkenden is a command-based adventure: you pick actions from menus to talk, look and move through scenes. Most of its appeal is in the writing, a stream of jokes and parodies, which is exactly what a translation makes accessible.
Open source
Supper published the project's source materials (code, art and script) on GitHub under the GPLv3, so others can build on the translation.
Playing it
Apply the patch to your own copy of the Japanese cartridge, following the instructions on the group's page. A separate English translation by Woolsey Fan Company was released later, in 2020.