A couple of years ago there was a real cool game called "The Typing of the Dead". Now the second part is comming out and it looks fun, and it might even improve one's Japanese:

HerrPetersen Wrote:A couple of years ago there was a real cool game called "The Typing of the Dead". Now the second part is comming out and it looks fun, and it might even improve one's Japanese:

I'm sure everyone who's been in an arcade has played the original with a gun at some point. I recall seeing it with the keyboard set up so I had to give it a try. From what I remember, the arcade had the game set up in romaji instead of kana...which sucked. Game was identical to the one with the gun though.

suffah Wrote:From what I remember, the arcade had the game set up in romaji instead of kana...which sucked.

This is probably related to the fact that only two people use direct kana input, so romanji might as well be kana.

I've never tried Typing of the Dead in Japanese (I might be able to find a copy, if I cared enough), but since TotD2 doesn't have an English release date, I'll probably pick up the Japanese version of that, even if I can't understand any of it, romanji be damned.

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Lol, I like the machine-gun sound. Wish my keyboard did the same when I'm chasing bugs!!

Darn it! You just gave me an idea for a quiz for the onyomi, my to-do lists keep getting longer and longer, argh.

Please don't say romanji.

JimmySeal Wrote:Please don't say romanji.

Shall I also use macrons and italics whenever I am so inclined to use this foreign word? I kid. Sure: ローマ字. Take your fruits.

ファブリス, what you're saying sounds like an interesting exercise: all the ludicrous fun of TotD with all the practice of reading kanji. Too bad the actual game uses roman, er, rōmaji.

Megaqwerty Wrote:

JimmySeal Wrote:Please don't say romanji.

Shall I also use macrons and italics whenever I am so inclined to use this foreign word? I kid. Sure: ローマ字. Take your fruits.

I think the point was, Romaji vs Romanji.

Personally, I've always heard it as romaji and this "romanji" sounds really strange (though technically makes more sense).

Looking back, I actually alluded to TotD in an earlier post. I would link Typingmania, but not only is the link in that thread, it seems to be dead.

I was being wholly facetious with the ローマ字 remark: I've been power-reading Gulliver's Travels all this evening and subsequently apologize for my transgressions.

I loved the original of this, just because I was the only on my floor at uni who could touch type!! I'll definately hunt out number 2 when it comes out

sutebun Wrote:Personally, I've always heard it as romaji and this "romanji" sounds really strange (though technically makes more sense).

Not really. It's the equivalent of saying アメリカン人 or スパニッシュ語.

Sounds like Jumanji..

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Megaqwerty Wrote:ファブリス, what you're saying sounds like an interesting exercise: all the ludicrous fun of TotD with all the practice of reading kanji. Too bad the actual game uses roman, er, rōmaji.

I'm not wide awake yet, but I thought the Japanese also type in romaji into their PC keyboards? Their mobile phones have phonetic characters like the Japanese direct-input mode, but their PC keyboards work just like the Japanese IME here, right? Ahhh. I guess you're referring to the reading being shown in alphabet, I suppose that makes it more interesting for them, and the reverse is true for us

Is there a Dvorak equivalent for a Kana keyboard layout? I've read here I believe that Japanese is not the quickest language in the world when it comes to typing. The cellphones feels faster to say the least. Basicly, what's the best input method thus far?

Granted, a better IME (I use JWPce) on my work computer would be outstanding. Wonder if the IT's can be bothered with a trouble ticket for that?

ファブリス Wrote:I'm not wide awake yet, but I thought the Japanese also type in romaji into their PC keyboards?

There is a Japanese keyboard layout that assigns each of the 46 kana characters (except を, which is Shift+わ) to keys on the keyboard. This takes up all the letter, number, and punctuation keys except for three. All of the corresponding kana for this layout is printed on standard Japanese keyboards.

These days, though, romaji input is the norm.

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Yep, it's called "direct input" mode in the Japanese IME on Windows XP, but difficult without the keyboard, unless you learn blind typing + Japanese keyboard typing at the same time

Yeah, and it's not very intuitive either. I would argue that since people rarely type one letter at a time, the new layout wouldn't necessarily be faster, even for a really good typist who knew it. When you type, you tend to type in sets of triplets really fast.

Direct input also comes at the expense of losing punctuation and number keys. There's also the fact that the internet made a whole generation of japanese users comfortable using roman characters on a computer for things like url's, usernames, and passwords.

So, a labelled direct-input keyboard is something that, if it hasn't already, will slip into obsolescence.

The direct kana input is largely a leftover from typewriters afaik. I've yet to meet a Japanese person who even uses it, or see a computer in Japan with it setup.

Even if you directly enter kana, it doesn't dramatically speedup the entry of Japanese text since you still need to use the IME to select the kanji, or change to katakana from hiragana.

Nukemarine Wrote:Is there a Dvorak equivalent for a Kana keyboard layout? I've read here I believe that Japanese is not the quickest language in the world when it comes to typing.

Here's a list of alternative Japanese layouts
http://jisx6004.client.jp/layout.html

Although I use colemak for English I don't type enough in 日本語 to warrant learning an entirely new layout (yet).

I especially like きゅうり（改）and others that work like it (a mix of romaji and dedicated keys for some kana)

Take a look at this site: http://blindtoucher.blog89.fc2.com/
They have lots of typing games.

There are at least two Japanese demos available in the "Typing of the Dead series" in case anyone is interested. I can't figure out if there is a Typing of the Dead 2 demo because my Japanese is not good enough to fully read the page.

This one seems to be a "love" version." Looks weird. Just has a practice mode. Download is link at bottom of page.

http://sega.jp/pc/soft/tod/trial/tod_tl.html

This other one is a demo of the 2004 version. Its a better demo and features the whole first level with randomly produced Japanese vocab. I played about 5 times and didn't get any repeated words.

http://sega.jp/pc/tod2004/trial.shtml

http://sega.jp/pc/soft/tod/trial/

OS X version.

Can anyone recommend somewhere to buy the OSX version that ships to the UK. I found it on Amazon JP, but they wont ship it internationally.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B000Q35SH6/

Dragg Wrote:TThis other one is a demo of the 2004 version. Its a better demo and features the whole first level with randomly produced Japanese vocab.

After trying this out, I have been gladly corrected: the game, well, the 2004 version at least, uses kana and kanji just fine; it's just the actual typing in progress thingie that uses romanji, fortunately.

Having discovered that, I will absolutely try to buy this now, heh.