Metroid Prime's Space Pirate Language can be translated!?[]
So back in May of this year I discovered that James Dargie uploaded new Metroid concept art to his website's portfolio, see here: https://www.claviusbase.com/metroid
One piece from his portfolio is particularly curious: https://www.claviusbase.com/metroid?pgid=jfhr12ya-d65d14c2-44a8-489f-aef4-6a8f45284f48
Archived here by me (once the page has finished loading, you have to reload the page MULTIPLE TIMES to see the image): https://web.archive.org/web/20240508135033/https://www.claviusbase.com/metroid?pgid=jfhr12ya-d65d14c2-44a8-489f-aef4-6a8f45284f48
His caption there is so enticing: "Alien/Pirate Language - I should post a translation, but oh boy is this more fun ;)"
He also posted a cute new never-before-seen creature cut from the game called the Killmeleon: https://www.claviusbase.com/metroid?pgid=jfhr12ya-a6d114df-ff8b-406b-bf44-c97d484cb797
Archived here by me (once the page has finished loading, you have to reload the page MULTIPLE TIMES to see the image): https://web.archive.org/web/20240508135922/https://www.claviusbase.com/metroid?pgid=jfhr12ya-a6d114df-ff8b-406b-bf44-c97d484cb797
I think this is completely new information. This means that the Pirate Language we see on the Frigate Orpheon and in Glacier One in Metroid Prime 1, as well as select areas in Metroid Prime Hunters and Metroid Prime Hunters First Hunt, can actually be translated. (It took me since May until now to finish replaying all the Metroid Prime games, with the exception of Metroid Prime Pinball, to confirm which games feature this Pirate Language conceived by James Dargie).
Did anyone know this before? When I encountered this in May, I saw zero discussion of it online. I made sure to archive this material on the Internet Archive, and only now have I got around to posting it here. Just google for any mention of "Killmeleon" before May of 2024. The KIllmeleon should get its own page, while I'm at it.
My request to everyone is to help properly archive James Dargie's Metroid portfolio, both here and on the Internet Archive, and of course help translate the Pirate Language!
So far, I have uploaded all 15 images in Dargie's Metroid portfolio to this wiki, both in JPG and WEBP form, with only "fe561c_7f0efc1bc9054063b9c5b20980ef0374~mv2" missing in WEBP format (I could only upload that image as JPG for some reason). Some images I have uploaded are duplicates of images that were already featured on James Dargie's Wikitroid article page here, but the ones I uploaded should be higher quality. So I would like to ask everyone to help streamline his page so that the newer version I uploaded of some of these duplicate images will replace the older screencaps. We should also find consensus how these images should be described in the gallery on his page. For now, I went with the names and descriptions he mentioned on his site.
In addition, there are 11 videos compiled in Dargie's Metroid portfolio on his site, but I can't find a way to download them and post them here.
Furthermore, I really want everyone to help archive his site, especially the Metroid related materials, on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. I already made an attempt at it back in May but I didn't successfully manage to archive everything. The videos couldn't be archived properly at all, and many images don't load properly in the archive even after reloading the archived page multiple times.
Spimpom (talk) 20:14, 26 November 2024 (UTC)
P.S> I claim the Killmeleon
- Hey, thanks for compiling all this info! I believe this content first appeared on Dargie's website at around the time of this DYKG video, and some of the bigger headlines like Dargie's name for the gunship were added to the wiki at that time, but somehow a lot of the images and content from his site fell through the cracks (possibly because we were still getting through the new info from Dread at that time).
- I definitely didn't realize so much of this was absent from the wiki, so I really appreciate your work to get it included! Regarding the video files, I saved backups of them in MPEGts format back when the interview first appeared, so I can convert those losslessly to MP4 and add them here. Unfortunately, I'm traveling for Thanksgiving, so it might be a little bit until I'm able to spend time uploading those and organizing the pics.
- Lastly, about the Space Pirate text- I was as excited as you when I spotted that note, since I've been very involved in deciphering the Chozo and Luminoth languages in the past. However, after sharing the image from the portfolio with a Discord server for Chozo language enthusiasts and attempting some analysis of the text (both from the portfolio image and in-game) I think it's very unlikely that it actually means anything. There appears to be heavy repetition of certain longer sequences of characters, alongside smaller segments of that text which are inserted out-of-order for variety, which is consistent with how Retro has created other gibberish alien text. One of the server members did email Dargie to see if he could offer any further insight, but as far as I know he's never replied.
- P.S. You are absolutely welcome to do that, although I would also suggest including mention of the Tallon Chameleon!