I have been thinking of purchasing Famicom games but wondered if anyone knew of a website that had the English translation of what is spoken in a famicom game when a speech bubble appears or information about the story in the game.
An example of what I mean is this website http://legendsoflocalization.com/the-legend-of-zelda/first-quest/ (http://legendsoflocalization.com/the-legend-of-zelda/first-quest/)
Or do you think I'm being way over the top of caring what is said in a famicom game? Would I be missing out on key info? Thanks.
Really, the only people who would have information like that are the people who worked on those fan translations. I don't think any of them figured anyone would actually be interested in reading exactly what the Japanese text said. Most fan translators will tell you there is a HUGE difference between the literal translation and what a natural English translation would be. Often, the literal meaning is completely lacking context, some Japanese words have multiple definitions too. Good fan translations often adjust the literal translation so it is easier for English-speaking players to understand.
Would I be better off playing the nes versions of RPGs then if there exists a lot of onscreen text about the story?
Um, yes, if it's an RPG, you'll want to play it in English. There are a lot of Famicom RPGs with English NES equivalents. For any that stayed in Japan, there are lots of very good fan translations.
When playing an RPG or other game with lots of text it's usually more fun to play it in a language you understand. Sometimes there are translation guides (look at gamefaqs.com, both DQ and FF games have complete translations of all dialogue) that people use and play text heavy Japanese games without knowing any Japanese.
Contrary to popular belief, although there are many games with very poor translations (Zelda 1 and Simon's Quest are among the most famous examples), there are many games that are translated splendidly. There's also games that, although translated correctly most of the time, sometimes had to be changed due to the fact that English text takes up much more space than Japanese text (Japanese text uses less characters). And of course for localization reasons.
Dragon Warrior is translated properly in many cases, but in other cases the dialogue is changed a bit to reflect the new style they are trying to introduce into the localization. The general story and meaning is the same though.
If you have a flashcart you could look for fan-translated games. They are usually of amazing quality. Simon's Quest are among the games that have been re-translated and upgraded considerably (http://bisqwit.iki.fi/cv2fin/).
This guy will convert your Japanese FC carts to have English ROMs: http://www.nesreproductions.com/ (http://www.nesreproductions.com/)
Thank you for the tips all :)