De Tijdmachine / The Time Machine

[lurkio]

I appear to have gone and used Google Translate to cobble together a translation of the Dutch text adventure game De Tijdmachine by Gerton Lunter (based on HG Wells's novella The Time Machine), of which I was sent a Beebified BASICODE version.

The game can be played online, or downloaded:

• http://bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=3407

Here's my BASIC source code, which includes the original Dutch text and my English translations together in the same file. You can copy and paste the contents of the file into BeebEm and the English version will magically come into being, overriding the Dutch:

• https://github.com/lurkio/tijdmachine

If you speak Dutch and you spot any errors then please let me know! I really can't be sure my translation is entirely correct, mainly because I don't actually speak any Dutch at all. (E.g. I've translated "sterk water" as "formaldehyde". Is that correct?)

[roland]

If you speak Dutch and you spot any errors then please let me know! I really can't be sure my translation is entirely correct, mainly because I don't actually speak any Dutch at all. (E.g. I've translated "sterk water" as "formaldehyde". Is that correct?)

That's quite correct. "Sterk water" is a liquid that was used to preserve organic tissue or even complete bodies (mostly small animals but I have also seen embryo's in a jar). These were displayed in musea. It is water with formaldehyde solved in it.

[lurkio]

I've translated "sterk water" as "formaldehyde". Is that correct?

That's quite correct. "Sterk water" is a liquid that was used to preserve organic tissue or even complete bodies (mostly small animals but I have also seen embryo's in a jar). These were displayed in musea. It is water with formaldehyde solved in it.

Thanks! I was fairly sure I was right because of the context, but it's weird that Google Translate doesn't offer "formaldehyde" as one of the options!:

• https://translate.google.com/#view=home ... rk%20water

[Rod C]

Nice work on the adventure, lurkio. I just had a quick try and like the concise presentation. Unfortunately, I didn't find any formaldehyde before I died.

I think that chemically speaking, formaldehyde is a gas and when dissolved in water (formaldehyde solution) is often known as formalin. As roland said, this is used to preserve tissues and specimens.

Back to the time machine...

[roland]

I have had a look through the source code. The translation is all right. Just a question about this:

Code: Select all

3410 PRINT "In de ";L$;" ligt een doosje lucifers."
3410 PRINT "In the "+L$+" there's a box of matches."

Is this a correct syntax with the + ?

Another thing:

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3750 PRINT "Je kunt de bloemen niet goed thuis-"
3750 PRINT "You can't really bring the flowers"

3760 PRINT "brengen. Ze ruiken erg sterk.":GOTO 1100
3760 PRINT "home. They smell very strong.":GOTO 1100

Although "thuis brengen" is literally "bringing home" it is more symbolic here, like identify or classify. I suggest "You can't really identify the flowers", like You don't exactly know these flowers.

Code: Select all

4110 PRINT "volbrengen. Pas de volgende keer een"
4110 PRINT "assignment. Next time be a little nicer"

4120 PRINT "beetje beter op Weena!":GOTO 4000
4120 PRINT "to Weena!":GOTO 4000

I suggest "Pas de volgende keer een beetje beter op Weena!" to translate with "Next time, take a little bit more care of Weena!" (or some better English )

Code: Select all

12090 GOSUB 260:I$="Weg hier!"
12090 GOSUB 260:I$="Get lost!"

I suggest "Get out of here!".

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13092 PRINT "duidelijk stratenplan te zijn.":RETURN
13092 PRINT "doesn't seem to be a clear street-plan.":RETURN

Street plan or road map?

That are a few things that I have found.

[lurkio]

Code: Select all

3410 PRINT "In de ";L$;" ligt een doosje lucifers."
3410 PRINT "In the "+L$+" there's a box of matches."

Is this a correct syntax with the + ?

No! I forgot to change the pluses back to semicolons after I decided not to use a PROC to print to screen after all! Thank you. EDIT: Actually, yes! It is valid syntax, apparently! Who knew?!

I'll act on your other points too, all of which are valid. Many thanks.

[Rod C]

Got a little further and found a bug at line 13104 where there is an extra quote at the end of the line causing a crash.

[lurkio]

Got a little further and found a bug at line 13104 where there is an extra quote at the end of the line causing a crash.

Thanks for reporting this!