heya sven - shin megami tensei 1 and 2 have been given fan translations, you can find the patches for the roms here:
 
http://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=smt
 
http://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=smt2
 
just a bit of warning, though - if you play the *first* game on the side of Law, dont expect to be able to beat it without using a cheat.  unfortunately, when they were working on releasing the patch, the fellow who did the play testing of the Law side of things... eh, apparently flaked out and didnt bother to finish the game.  so, later in the game, if you're Law, it glitches and you'll be unable to progress any farther.  but if you do an alignment cheat (seems a number of emulators have code systems built in) to change your alignment to something else, then back to Law after the iffy part, should be fine.  
 
as of yet, that's all of the rom translations, i'm afraid - the group that released the above two titles *was* working on a lot of other translations, including the original nes megami tensei, majin tensei 1 and 2 (the two strategy titles in the series), and even a translation for the playstation version of Devil Summoner:  Soul Hackers... but all have been on hiatus for *years* now, and i doubt they'll ever be completed (still, you never know - they're still up in the "current projects" section of that site).
 
also of note - in the past, a group of delightful ladies made a script which translated basically all of the important dialogue of Persona 2:  Innocent Sin (which didnt come out in north america, though the second part of Persona 2 - "Eternal Punishment" DID get released).  but they've removed the script now    but some other people, who i know nothing about, went and released a FULL english *patch* for the game late last year!  ... which i cant play, because apparently it doesnt work with the particular version of the game i have    but if you ever get your hands on a copy of that game (not the "The Best" version, which i have), you might want to give it a shot.

well, i dont know if i'd say what's been done is a *letdown*, per se... the fact that the first two shin megami tensei games were translated at all is a rather impressive feat, considering just how much dialogue a typical rpg has.  because of the translation script, i was able to play to completion P2:  Innocent Sin, and i was really surprised when i found out that just recently that translation patch for the whole game was completed (i'd heard about it a few months before, and rolled my eyes and assumed it'd be one of those projects that went on permanent hiatus).  
 
if any more of these games are to be translated, though, it would likely depend on if a megaten community - like this one - is able to attract people who are able to read and translate japanese, and if the community attracted people who were good at romhacking.  the original version of this forum, which died long ago (and i wont get into that) was once quite thriving, and it had precisely the above-mentioned people (Gideon Zhi, who seems to actually run Aeon Genesis, used to be a regular.  and the fellow who ended up writing the official strategy guide for the english language version of SMT3:  Nocturne used to be, too - he translated the dialogue on SMT1 and 2).  
 
myself, i've only recently re-joined this place, and i mostly just lurk.  but it'd be nice to see the Megaten Haven thriving once again... while i'm not too fond of Persona 3 or 4, they *have* been getting a lot of publicity lately, so if they *do* manage to attract more people to megaten in general, you could be right, we could be seeing an increased activity with rom hacks...  
 
suppose time will tell.