This thread is not supposed to be like the other Shenmue 1 Japanese voices English subs threads I found here. I am not asking you if there is such a version. I want to know whether or not I am the only one who would like to have such a version and if there is other people out there who would like to work on such a version.
I was experimenting a bit with the modification tools provided by the Shentrad team and I can confirm that they are working for Shenmue 1 as well. I am currently working on a complete guide about "japanizing" the PAL Shenmue.I know how to translate the subtitles in the cinematic scene and the free quest mode. I only don't know how to replace the textures (like the original vending machine) but it seems to me like the user "SpinDash" knows how this can be done (according to this thread: viewtopic.php?t=40268) and so this would not be a huge problem.
For the beginning I would be satisfied to complete the translation of the cinematics of all discs and the texture swapping. After this has been finnished I would start with the free quest stuff and look how far i get. The problem with the free quest subtitles is just that it is too much work. There are possibly tens of thousands of lines to translate.
I am not saying that I (or possibly a group of volunteers) could make a perfect J-dub E-sub version but ending up with an incomplete one would be better for me than nothing.
As you may know there are some French Shenmue fans who translated more than 50% of S2 into French. The project is called version 5 or so. According to this (http://www.shenmuemaster.fr/) it might be possible to make something similar for S1.
PS: I also heard that some "insider" claimed that SEGA will release S1 and S2 remakes via PSN/XBLA. In such a case it may be possible that SEGA implemented a feature for the player to choose between ENG/JAP voices.
I don't believe this until SEGA officially approves it and I don't think that this rumor is true so I don't want this discussion to be affected by this rumor.