Update [Mon 11th Sep, 2023 11:00 BST]: As reported by Sega Saturn Shiro on Twitter, Riverhill Soft's J.B Harold Blue Chicago Blues has now been fully translated into English (with English Audio) for Sega Saturn.
The full credits for the hack include:
"The Project Director / Video Editor / Graphic Editor: Collin "Arjak" Pierce
Translators: Duralumin, Kate Olivia Pierce
English Audio Restoration: Shadowmask
And Special Thanks to: Danthrax, Knight0fDragon, Malenko, Mr Conan, SaturnDave, TrekkiesUnite118, SegaXtreme, Sega Saturn Shiro!"
You can grab the patch now from SegaXtreme.net.
Original Article [Thu 8th Dec, 2022 14:30 GMT]: Riverhill Soft's series of J.B. Harold adventure games is relatively unknown among gamers outside of Japan, due to its spotty release history in the West.
However, the fifth title in the series Blue Chicago Blues interestingly shares a lot of its DNA with the beloved DS game Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (which the former Riverhill Soft employees Takuya Miyagawa and Rika Suzuki would later go on to make).
Because of this, a fan named Arjak has recently been trying to translate the Japanese-exclusive version of the Sega Saturn port into English to make the game more widely accessible to players. But, as Sega Saturn Shiro reports, its team has recently hit a fairly big bump in the road.
After producing an impressive v 0.1 demo (that translates the game's prologue), the project's translator has become unavailable, meaning that Arjak is currently looking for a new person to step in and help him finish the project.
The story for the game (according to its blurb) is as follows:
"Another murder has occurred here in Chicago, where traces of the good old days still remain. The day after a girl in a red dress was found dead, a woman who is the presumed murderer is killed at the same spot; Catherine White, a Liberty Town Police Department detective. Learning of the death of Catherine, her co-worker and fiance, J.B. Harold, immediately flew to Chicago. The complex human relations around Angie Hart, the girl killed, were like a tangled web. The secrets and past lives of suspects hidden behind the case gradually rise to the surface as the investigation progresses... who killed Angie and Catherine? Your eyes will be glued to this large-scale interactive movie game, just like watching a well done Hollywood movie. Welcome to a sensational new mystery adventure, like you have never experienced before!"
According to Sega Retro, Blue Chicago Blues was first released on Pioneer's Laserdisc system in 1995. It was later ported to several other systems including Windows PC, NEC's PC-FX, 3DO, Saturn & PlayStation, but the Playstation, 3DO, and Sega Saturn versions were frustratingly in Japanese only.
As it stands, the Western Windows PC and NEC PC-FX versions are notoriously difficult to run or find today, so the team is hoping to rip and reinsert the English dialogue from the PC version into the Saturn version to create a more easily accessible localized copy of the game. This, of course, also means translating all of the Japanese text and menus.
If you think you can help Arjak, Sega Saturn Shiro asks that you get in touch with them on the website SegaXtreme and help them make this patch.