More naming progress
Hey, it’s me: that other guy who’s working on the project. I heard that Tomato’s head imploded from all the sprite welding so I’ll be doing this update.
First of all, the naming screens are all done. Spick-and-span, clean, and working. 100% full power.
Remember in Earthbound when Tony would call you up and ask for YOUR name? The person holding the controller? Well, you can name yourself in MOTHER 3 as well. Later on in Earthbound you get a chance to confirm or change the name you had originally inputted. But here’s something you may not have known: in MOTHER 2, when you get asked for the second time to input your name, you’re only allowed to use English letters. As a result, you actually have two player names by the end; the English one gets shown in the credits because there simply isn’t enough room for an entire Japanese credits font.
Click onward for some juicy screenshots and programming talk!
This was paralleled in MOTHER 3: two different names, the second one is English-only, and only the second one is shown in the credits. We could have left it that way, but it was sort of lame because you could only have like 9 letters for the English one, and the alphabet selection was so limited. So a couple days ago I decided I wanted to make it like Earthbound where you have one name that’s extra long and with a full alphabet!
For the sake of undisclosing certain spoilers, let’s refer to the first name as the nickname, and the second one as the player name. The first item on the agenda was to increase the letter limit from 9 letters to 16 letters on the nickname screen. sblur had already conveniently found the fix for this a while ago, so it wasn’t too tough. Here’s a before and after comparison of that screen:
As you can see, it uses the same full letter selection from the regular naming screen. I’ve also extended the upper box to accomodate a full 16-W name. We tend to max out nameable things with the letter W because it has the largest width and it lets us predict how much room we have to make for things. On that note, here’s what that screen looks like when it’s maxed out with W’s:
So that was pretty cool. The next part, the player name screen, was a challenge. For one, the screen only lets you select the 26 letters of the English alphabet. My goal was to make this screen look identical to the nickname one (well, except for the background, but the rest was to be exact). The first thing I did was I allowed the cursor to move everywhere on the screen as if it were on the nickname screen. This was actually a one-line fix, thankfully! That made me glad because the routine that decides where to move the cursor when you navigate around is a huge scary bug-infested land of all that has ever haunted you in your sleep. After that, I needed to actually make it display all of the letters at the bottom, but that was a simple matter of copying the nickname screen arrangement over the player name one. Here’s what that one looks like now:
Another nifty feature I added to this screen is the ability to have the pre-selected name from the nickname screen already show up when you first see the player name screen. That’s hard to show you guys through just pictures, so you’ll have to wait until the patch is done until you can see that in action. After I did that, I contracted the upper boxes to match the nickname screen. Here’s a 16-W pic of this screen:
The last hurdle turned out to be a big one: displaying the name in the ending credits. Remember how the player name screens in MOTHER 2 and 3 only let you choose the 26 capital English letters? Well, as it turned out, the credits font also only had those 26 letters, meaning I had to go through and painstakingly draw each and every other possible letter that could appear. Luckily the credits programmer wasted a lot of tile space here and I didn’t have to suffer another migraine of extending the tileset, so I drew those letters this morning and I was up and away.
At first, the name didn’t show up properly, because A) it was reading the player name from the old, wrong memory location, and B) it was stuck on the old letter format and would require a letter-to-tile lookup table. Those weren’t too hard to fix, actually, and it worked on the first try!
Whoever this Mr. Ato guy is, I bet he’s darn proud.
Well, that’s one more thing crossed off the To-Do List. Man, every time I look at that list, I get goosebumps because I’m beginning to realize that the light at the end of the hack-tunnel may appear soon. Both Tomato and I are very busy right now, though, so it’s still going to be a long while before we polish off the list. Tomato’s still going at it with the sprite welding, and he’s finding that a lot of it is intertwined with code that will affect the main dialogue and item length issues as well, so let’s all hope for the best and hope that his head gets better soon.
thug love baby
empty the clip
i love earthbound
His head imploded? As in fell in on itself? Strange, I thought ruptured blood vessels caused by incompitant coding means heads EX-plode.
Congrats on finishing the Naming Screen Jeffman! Another one bites the dust.
This is pretty cool!
16 letters huh? that’s…. a lot! lol
Earthbound 2 lives!
but mother 3 is better than earthbound(or mother 2 XD)
Awesome, another big step closer to completion.
This is totally BAWESOME!!! I’ve never really played Mother 3 so if it is better than EarthBound… but thanks to the Tomato of Enlightenment, I can finally decide! When they’re done.
And all you other guys too are also awesome.
Wow. Mother fans are nice.
That’s cool and all, but… my name (first and last) is 17 letters.
Doesn’t really matter, though.
Keep up the good work! I’m looking forward to the patch’s completion!
Jeffman… the baby is yours!
ARN’T YOU HAPPY FOR US?
Wow!! One step closer to M3 in English!
Reminds me, i was playing Wario Land 3 today and when i started it asked if i wanted to display in English or Japanese. Oh, how i wish Mother 3 was like that…
Great job Jeffman, looks ace.
Awesome. Hell, we’re all getting goosebumps looking at that list.
and tomato sauce, everywhere! oh, the humanity…
Awesome work jeffman! I do have a nagging question though:
How come the y in “Please enter your name” is all bunched up (as in, the “hook” doesn’t actually hang below the rest of the letters)? Is that the way they are going to look throughout the game or is this just another case of goofy menu programming?
I will never figure out as to why Mother 2 was the only game to make it here. I had e-mailed Nintendo about this and they said that there simply wasn’t enough of a fan base for them to see the GBA games as worthy of bringing to the states. I have just looked into the story of mother 3 and have had the roms of mothers 1 & 2 and this is easily one of my favorite series EVER. I really wish that the U.S.A. would get out of this faze of games that consist of you simply running around, shooting things and dying every five seconds. Although we do get some winners like Devil may cry, GTA, and Grandia, our game library has been riddled with the same thing: games that were rushed out for a quick buck. Just look at Sonic 2006. We need something new, something exciting, something that hasn’t been explored before, and as one list note, I couldn’t think of any better way of seeing the GBA out than with the Mother trilogy.
rusty: There are two fonts in the game, the 16×16 normal font, and a small 8×8 font. The naming screen uses the 8×8 font everywhere it prints text pretty much. You can also see the 8×8 font in the enemy description pics and in a few other places, like the gray name boxes when you talk to people, name boxes, the character name boxes in battle, etc.
rusty: The game is still using two different-sized fonts. At some parts, like that area of the naming screen, the programmers decided to use the smaller, 8×8 font. We aren’t able to have letter hooks actually go underneath the bottom line in those cases. Tomato has actually been looking into it a tiny bit to see if we can get the game to treat the 8×8 mode as the 16×16 mode, but for now we’re going to leave it as it is. Another common place it appears is on the HP/PP boxes.
EDIT: Hah, perfect timing.
Hey you, they’re gonna think we’re the same person
Perfect, Both my names together are 15 letters with space!
haha that’s pretty hilarious. you damn robots.
and good work you two!
Hey, this is the first time I was actually able to see an entry within 2 hours. :O
When I saw the entry, I was like, “It’s Jeffman, that guy whose name is always associated with ‘awesome’!” ..Then I started reading. I enjoy reading about how far the project’s going along.. Well, even though I don’t exactly know how difficult this is.
The 16-W thing is pretty clever. I’ll keep it in mind.
What I want to see is how the 16-W name would look it the credits. ;D
!!!عودتي
!!!بحبّك يا ماتو
Guys……
…… .. ..diligence…. you both have it
I’m a retard. I sat there for like 5 minutes wondering if “Tom Ato” was Jeffman’s real name or something. :p
so will both naming screens have only english letters, or will the other letters/characters be available(like the very first naming screen)…or will that just waste more space?
oh, and you guys DESERVE a good night’s sleep or two! oh, and i’ll have to bake Jeffman a pie too!
Wow great job gang! One step closer
Reanzet: All naming screens in the game have the exact same letter selection, which is what you see in the screenshots.
That is wicked cool.
Aw, the Japanese version gets cool PSI-related Greek alphabet characters and we get punctuation?
[insert screams of glee and joy]
Although for a second, I thought the author of this post was Tomato! XD Jeffman has come to the stage again! But most likely, he’ll remain back stage again. >:( DON’T BE SHY YOU!!!
Actually, I don’t remember you entering your name twice in Mother 2… or 3. O_o I did remember doing it in Mother 1. Hmm… I now have an excuse to player M2 again.
Errr… I meant to write in “play M2″ not “player M2″. XD
This is amazing. My name is exactly 15 letters long, actually, so brownie points for me! And also, having your head implode is the closest thing to eating your own head. That, my friends, is a feat in itself.
I finally got my lazy self to update my computer and its great to read that the naming screens are all done one less thing on the to do list and I hope Mato is ok from all this hard work.
I wish I could eat my own head…
I WISH I COULD EXPRESS MY FEELINGS IN WORDS BETTER!
INSTEAD I’LL JUST TYPE IN CAPS TO INDICATE THE JOY THAT I AM FEELING!!11one
“# Mato said 2 hours, 36 minutes ago:
Hey you, they’re gonna think we’re the same person
:P”
Come on people. Have you ever seen JeffMan and Mato in the same room before? Nooo? THAT’S BECAUSE THEY ARE THE SAME PERSON!11eleventy
/just kidding!
@starman_373: That’s ok. -___-;; I’m too embarrassed to admit how long it took me to understand the “Cattlesnake” pun.
I hope mitch gives us a comic about mato’s head implosion… on second thought that sounds rather creepy.
Keep up the good work all the same, can’t wait to finally play M3!
ZeroTrig: I feel your pain; my first+last is 17 letters too. =P
Wow, a JeffMan post for once. Mindgames!
This hack is true greatness! Hopefully the US will finally see that it isn’t all about platformers and shoot-’em-ups. I’d love to see the next EB in the series get released here for the DS in 3-D
YAY!!! Good Job Jeffman!!!
Mato: Dude u need a break, want a Kit-Kat Chocolate Bar?
“Gimme a Break! Gimme a Break! Gimme a Break on that KIT-KAT BAR!!! DO DOO~!!” XD
but yea dude take a nice long nap if u need it xD
Ahhh… I too, just realized my name (first name, space, last name) is 17 letters.
…but of course, that’s why I’ve always used my screen name as my player name!
Tonto: See here:
Thanks Giantstep, now I’m going to have that stuck in my head all day…
Break me off a piece of that… Chrystler car.
Break me off a piece of that… Mother Three.
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
# Xemion said 4 hours ago:
but mother 3 is better than earthbound(or mother 2 XD)
———-
I wouldn’t go that far. Nothing beats Mother2/Earthbound. Nothing.
i guess i’m the only one who feels it kind of ruined the experience of finding out that there was a point in this title too where you were asked for your real name, aka personal spoilers i guess.
Derrek: Yeah, if you’re that sensitive to things (I’d probably be in the same boat myself to be honest) then you probably shouldn’t even be watching this blog. We’re avoiding the big stuff and a good deal of the lesser stuff, but there’s a point where you gotta expect people really sensitive to the slightest things to not hang around. That’s one reason we have the email list thing; people can sign up there and not bother with the site until it’s done.
one step closer to the edge
AND I’M ABOUT TO BREAK
Awesome!
I love you guys!
Man I remember this feature in the original EB. The way it was used at the part of the game they used it was totally WHAAAAAA and blew my 13 year old mind
I started out doing this as a quick thing but it ended up being colored terribly.
JEFFMAN EDITION:
http://i30.tinypic.com/xf7rf6.png
LOOK OUT MATO YOU GON GET RAPED D:
Hey mitch, I think it’s good. You use photoshop?
Hm. So, you hacked the credits font to include lowercases? Will all the names in the credits be altered to take that into account, or will you just leave those in all caps?
Well, I’ve been keeping up with the site for the past 4-6 months and I felt this was an appropriate time to say thanks to mato and jeffman and everyone working on this patch out there for all of us mother fans.
Mitch: Nice picture, seen some of your others and I love them.
Well for now I’ll just have to keep pwning ppl in brawl with Lucas.
Anna: Totally thinking the exact same thing about the picture!
Thanks for kind words, everyone.
Jon: Yeah, I use Photoshop. Just layers and brush tool.
I hear that the “infinite free time” cheat for real life was 0xDEADBEEF. Now, where on earth can we find a Gameshark you can insert into a person and who wants to be the guinea pig?
Tomato:
I’ve had a question on my mind that I’m pretty darn sure is spoiler-material…It’s about the name of one of the characters. You’ve probably answered it before though, but is there some way I can ask without ruining anything here?
TheFreak: i’m pretty sure you can post spoilery stuff on the starmen.net forums
I love this game!! Its gonna become my favorite, I already ate the ending thanks so much for this news!
LOL mitch your pics are the greatest.
Mitch your picture didn’t make Jeffman MANLY enough. It looks like a Jeffguy.
I demand a do-over
(kidding I really liked it ^-^)
Nice, Jeffman! Names are a nice thing to have
So close… Man. I cannot wait.
@Captain Bozo: All I could think of after your post was Jefflypuff. O.o
You guys always busy yet are still able to pull off amazing and timely updates. I love it! You guys inspired me to dabble in ds homebrew using palib (still new to it
Dr. Meat: Cmon dude, that theme was awesome, and they dont even make comercials like that any more. and its indeed a good Candy Bar :p
Sixteen letters long
My name in my Mother game
Makes me write haikus.
mitch: Wahaha, you’re too awesome, dude. Keep ‘em coming, I love the pics you make.
joeymartin64: Nah, we’re going to leave the staffer names in upper-case; they’re actually stored as map tiles, not text data, so it would take quite a while to convert them.
Kamon… Jefflypuff?
That HAS to be included as a secret enemy…
The apocalypse is coming!!!
Hurry Mato and Jeffman hide with me under the covers in my bed!!!
…..? lol
I’ve calculated, based on an arbitrary rating system and the to-do list, that the project is currently ….,
wait for it….
59.6%. including testing, which I gave lots of weight to. if I give testing and translation less weight, then we’re…
72.6% done
Mato refuse to give you a completion percentage? Fear not! For I, hasone, will make up a number for you!
*backflips and claps hands*
If I may…
http://nutsjesmoar.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/jefflypuff1.png
Glad to see Mato isn’t the only one doing this project - he’s just the most talkative one. Great job, JeffMan; it looks like you’ve done a very thorough job.
Jeffman - great to hear from you and that is damn fine work! Also, glad to hear you haven’t gone the way of the buffalo as it seems so many of the other hackers have. I can’t blame them, though. I too know the strains of having a LIFE outside of this project and I’m just a reader!
My gf just finished EB this weekend, so add another one to list of many eagerly anticipating this patch.
what are you gonna work on next, jeffman
Is it possible to fix it up so that the player’s name is displayed with both uppercase and lowercase when used in game text, but all uppercase in the credits? I mean, if all the other names are in all caps, having lowercase in the player’s name would look a bit awkward.
My programmer’s intuition says Jeffman will reorder “menus1″ next, because it’s probably the last thing left that won’t affect what Mato is doing or cause them to duplicate any work.
Then again, he mentioned that they both have lots of RL work to work on, so they may have to do that before they worry about Mother3.
Someone who needs translations needs to convince their company to give Mato a month-long, high-paying contract to translate a few pages worth of text so he has more free time
double post sorry but i got banned at starman. net so can someone help
Just wondering, will all the glitches from the original Mother 3 still be in the English Version of the game? Cause I’m a sucker for glitches!
NICE JOB!
joeymartin64: Dude…… no offense at all, but that would be such a waste of time, unless they already know how to do it and it’s just a minor change that needs to be done…. but in my opinion, seeing my name in all caps would look more weird than seeing it normal while everything else is in caps….
just my 2 cents…
The continuing adventures of Jefflypuff!…
http://nutsjesmoar.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/jefflypuff2.png
http://nutsjesmoar.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/jefflypuff3.png
http://nutsjesmoar.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/jefflypuff4.png
http://nutsjesmoar.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/jefflypuff5.png
I agree with Rod here. All that effort going into getting the full character set for your name, I’d like to see it used!
Oh god Nutsjesmoar that’s awesome you rock <3
I cannot wait to play this game! Rock on with the fixes
Help me please mato T_T
Lol at the Jeff pics! xD.
Nutsjesmoar and mitch, you’re both awesome.
All right I really need some help because I don’t know what I did wrong please this is the only place I can post this please help.
PS:I did not break any rules so tell me if I’m the only one or not.
Well, EarthBound has it the way I’m suggesting. If it’s all that complex, no big deal, but it’s a polish thing. Take FF6/3 on SNES. You’ve either got the characters’ names in all caps during normal text, or battle-screen inconsistency when guest characters like Banon are in the party (Terra, Edgar, Sabin, BANON.)
But, again, if it’s too much effort for what it’s worth, no big.
Oh by the way I’m glad that you guys are almost done
Haha, those Jeffy Puff pictures are great. The great thing about Earthbound was I always had corresponding friends to name the characters after. One of my friends is an electrical engineer, the other is into martial arts, and of course there’s always the girlfriend…
Marking my place…again.
Wow, that to-do list is tiny. And it’s nice to see an entire category crossed off. Hopefully, these last few fixes will put an end to all the hacking work and we can all get down to what we’re really looking forward to: the translation.
Let me know as soon as the sprite-welding hack is finished. I can’t wait to see all the different things it fixes.
breaking bread with the jefflypuff camp with a poor doodle:
http://i32.tinypic.com/33mbolk.jpg
JefflyPuff… how about PaulaChu or PooThoot or NessElia?
(Pikachu) (hoothoot) (Cresselia)
You know, I never came across the second naming screen in all my plays of the game, as far as I can recall. I can’t wait to play this in English and REALLY explore every bit and piece of the “World of Mother 3″. I also seem to remember earthbound’s naming screen allowing a heckuva lot of letters, as I could fit all 20 letters of my name, with 2 spaces! All that space is unnecessary though.
You guys are truly going above and beyond expectations. I truly believe this “fanslation” will be better than anything NOA could have come up with. Can’t wait… can’t wait can’t wait!
And Mato: take some aspirin for that head implosion.
G.Wicks: No, you’d have to have done the second naming screen. Can’t progress unless you do that part. It probably just didn’t seem memorable enough or something. I know I forgot about it after a while too.
———
Took like an hour out last night to tinker with stuff. It looks like the very lowest glyph buffer function is what’s shared by the various text routines, and that will probably be shareable, but some extra code will be needed for each type of text. Those things actually seem a lot less scary now, though
At least for now.
Meanwhile, I think Jeff’s been planning out/writing that quick little app so people can use their Japanese ROM/Menu Patch saves with the eventual final translation. byuu’s offered to help out with that, he’s written a really nice GUI library. Also, Jeff’s been messing around with switching 8×8 stuff to 16×16 stuff, not sure if it’ll be helpful or usable yet though. He also looked more into this other bug involving map names on the file menus.
I also ate some Dora the Explorer animal crackers.
Also, I think all this recent stuff means Jeff needs to start maining as Jigglypuff
Speaking of WWWWWWWWWWWW, I see Japanese folks using w’s a lot in comments on youtube and dA and such. I have a feeling it’s akin to our “lol” or something similar, any idea what it means, exactly?
Awesome to see Jeffman posts every one in a while :b You guys are really coming along! It’s all looking so beautiful…! ;u;
I’m not Japanese internet savvy, but I believe wwwwww comes from “warau”, which means “to laugh”. So yeah, it’s like our lol/rofl/rofdwfm3/etc.
I should also note that with the save converter I’ll be making, there’s a 99.99% chance that it’ll only be compatible with battery saves, which would be the .sav (or .sa1 with VBA) files. This means that save states (.sg1 with VBA, for example) will NOT be compatible. So if you’ve been playing the game on an emulator using only save states, find the nearest save frog so that you have a battery save file to use.
Wow, that looks like a lot of work was done. I’m very proud to say that the elite are working on this project.
But I would like to comment on something. Don’t you think it would be better if the Player Name screen (not the nickname one) did NOT have the lower case letters. If I remember correctly, all the other names on the credits screen (Japanese transliterations of the originals) were all in capital letters like: SHIGESATO ITOI. So it would look better if the Player’s name was as well in capital letters like: TOM ATO.
About the two naming screens in the first earthbound-
The first one you had to run into (it was in the Port in summers) to progress in the game, but you only got the second one after you drank coffee in the Tenda cave (either that or if you talked to the chief of the Tenda tribe after you cured the tribe’s shyness, I don’t remember which). The second naming screen looked almost exactly like the first, except for the changes Jeffman and Mato mentioned.
so are most people following this translation project in the 19- 22 maybe 23 age range? just wondering
Circa survive- the greatest lie
listen to it if your kinda bored. good song.
WHOOOOO!!!!! NEW UPDATE!!!!
I started something with the Jefflypuff thing, didn’t I…
Those pics are great, though!
I’m not going to play Brawl until the patch is out.
Gotta keep my priorities straight, y’know?
That being said, best of luck!!
Mother 3 bound: maybe. I’m not, just turned 13 like a month ago
@jeffman:
Speaking of the save converter, if you need an OSX port (because most people don’t have Macs to make them) let me know and I’d be happy to make it happen.
I’m 23 this year. I’ve been waitin for the next mother game since earthbound dropped over a decade ago. Go MATO! GO JEFFMAN!
rofdwfm3 = rolling on floor dying waiting for mother 3 ?
and yeppp im 22.. in a few months
I think most of the people here are older since most of us may have grown up with EarthBound and obviously are awaiting to play the sequel. I am 20 and I grew up with the game when I was pretty young. Its good to see younger people actually being able to play this game. For anyone that is under, lets say 16 or 17 because thats around the time people could have played EarthBound in 1994, how did you hear of EarthBound and when did you play it? The first time I played it, my stepdad rented it for me when I was 6 and I was extremely confused on what the hell was going on. I still fell in love with it though haha. How about everyone else?
Good luck to you guys on finishing the project! =D
Perhaps your right.. I was 10 when Earth Bound 2 come out, but didn’t discover the series till 2002. When I look through my mustyold gaming mags, I see only two adverts for EB 2 spanning 20 magazines (’94-95). Old or young, i believe a huge fraction of the mother fan base is a new community–it’s larger size a result of emulation spreading the series over a wider range of people..
I remember getting the game, along with Sim Ant, for my birthday the year after it came out. I still have the first file I ever made on my cart. Looking back at my equipment screen, I can tell how awful I was at playing RPGs since I barely had any equipment with me.
I’m pretty sure that was my 6th birthday, so that would make me 17 now, almost 18.
Mother 3 bound:
I am 21 years old and have been an avid Earthbound fan since I first rented the game back when it first came out. Its interesting to play the game now and understand a lot of the humor that I missed when I was a child (for example that the blue blue guys were members of a cult). I check this site at least once everyday it helps distract me from my Electrical Engineering homework (sometimes too well).
Long live Earthbound (I grew up with Earthbound, not Mother
) Also you kick ass Mato, same to Jeff and Byuu and even Nintendo who might not have taken the time to release it themselves, but at least they are respectful enough of their fans to turn a blind eye to this project.
> I also ate some Dora the Explorer animal crackers.
Why didn’t you tell us important news like that earlier!!!
Seriously, though, I hope those nasty glyphs all fall into place, then you’ll be a long ways towards crossing off some of the most evil-looking items on the to-do list.
In the mean time, I’ll be having nightmares about a Jefflypuff trying to sing or doodle on my face. Ghaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
I am six months older than the Earthbound and finished it at six.
My friends cousin gave it to him with the guide, and then gave it to me. I love that game like teens love doing stupid stuff.
Oh and (Remember that joke) Jeffman you are the third strongest hacker on the team (next to Mato and the Mondo Mole.)
Got to love/hate freeze/burn/shosk with lightning that mole even if he is not ahacker but an evil mole embodied with power
Vagn, I grew up with EarthBound too, but I still prefer the title “Mother”. It has more meaning and purpose than EB does.
so…after eating those crackers, how much HP/PP did u recover? XD
16 here, I think the first time I heard about Earthbound was when I listened to the music on OCRemix.org. I’m one of those freeks who knows more about games he’s never played then some of the ones he owns. For instance, Chrono Trigger. Never played it. Never even seen a cart or ROM of it in my life. But, I watched a guy on YouTube play the entire game, 100%.
Earthbound was like that for me. I downloaded a PDF of the Player’s guide, and since I didn’t care about spoilers really, a friend of mine showed me the entire final battle scene on a ROM. I also knew a guy and he turned out to like Earthbound too, and he bought me a cart as a gift! Needless to say, I was hooked since the moment I first heard those magic melodies…
Oh, man, it’s horrible to say, but back in the day, I thought Ness was an original character to Super Smash Brothers (N64, I’m not THAT young.) and his logo was the Earth because he was supposed to be from the “real world” or something. xP and sorry for the postx2
Mother3bound: I’m 16. I first played the game about 10 years ago, had no idea what I was doing, gave up. Played it again about two years ago (go smash brothers, nice job thar), was like “ok this isn’t so bad” and never touched it again for some reason. Much earlier this year I decided it’s about time to just get playing Earthbound Zero since thinking I really want to won’t get it played, and I LOVED it, so here I am, now most of the way through Mother 3.
I really do love it though, I’m hyping it up like crazy everywhere… that and Arcana Heart (it comes out in the USA tomorrow! Check it out!).
Little side note, I just got MOTHER3+ and MOTHER3i. Good stuff. I’m with Mato on this one, but I’ll throw in that they’re both pretty great overall.
Can you imagine earthbound being released on the wii the same day as the mother 3 English patch is release by Mato.
this is more of a starmen.net forum question, but anyway.. I’m 21, making the transition to real life reality and about to end college soon. so the mother 3 translation comes at just the right time in my life, where the right kind of meaningful escapism (mother 3) becomes all the more poignant.
20 on this end. Played the game when I was either 8 or 9. I also split Starmen.net and Earthbound.net by accident. True story.
To be honest, it was probably gonna happen anyway
EDIT: BTW, they’re together again if you haven’t noticed.
I read a bunch of the history stuff. It would have been cooler if you managed to get moonsi.de somehow imo XD
A app for converting Japanese saves to English would be great, but I’ll probably just restart since I’m probably missing so much of the Mother/Earthbound humor by playing with the story translation script.
31 here. Been waiting since I was 17, I guess.
Mato: Have you been working on Shin Wars for Adult Swim? Cos I know you said you worked on Shin in the past and I just saw the commercial. I’m really glad you guys are so close to crossing an evil hack off of the list. Don’t work too hard.
I can’t rember when I first got Earthbound. I rember downloading the ROM on dialup and saying, “This is so cool. It’s not cliche fantasy.” A few months later I got the big box, game and guide at a garage sale for only $30. Loved it since. Still own that big box too. Earthbound beats out Final Fantasy for me. I prefer the silly modern setting versus the Fantasy enviroments that most people seem to love.
Mato: You eat Dora the Explorer animal crackers? Cool! I do to. They are fun! Sometimes I like to say, “Swiper, no swiping” when I eat em. I love those looks I get when I do that.
im 15 and i loved super smash bros series and i liked to play as ness and read all the trophies then i wanted to play earthbound but i couldnt find a Snes and a cartridge of earthbound so i could play it until 2005 where my friend showed me emulators and roms
I’m about to turn 19 and I used to watch my mom playing when I was 6 and her friends lent it to her.. she bought it a week later and I took over..
ironically I thought the game was very amazing because she told me “Now I have to beat frank!”(”tenho de derrotar o frank” in portuguese) and I misunderstood.. I thought she said “Now I have to steal a chicken!”(”tenho de roubar um frango”) hahahaha
without knowing any english, beating it was a hard task..
but I eventually got it done in one year or so! lol
ps, if you’re wondering, I used to live in azores, in the military area.. so we bought the game from the american shops we had there
Ahhh… I was in 5th Grade back in 1995. I played the big box after one of my friends pointed me to it. I was a huge Chrono Trigger fan, and after beating it, I was totally starved for another RPG. My friend Tommy started telling me about Earthbound (I believe he sold it as “It’s awesome. You get to run around and beat up old ladies with bats, and taxi cabs attack you and stuff!”). He showed me the game, and my first reaction was “…wt..f…?” LOL
It took until I got to about Twoson for me to really fall in love. Once I hit that point… Ha ha, I couldn’t stop playing.
Mitch, you are quite talented with your photoshop skills, makes reading the comments a lot more joyful, keep it up.
As for you Mato and Jefflypuff, you keep on rockin. I’m with you all the way my friends.
I’m 21. I rented EarthBound when I was 13. Eventually, I got it for my mom for her birthday (a true “Mother’s Day”) and we’ve both been in love with the series ever since. You can imagine my astonishment when I realized a few years ago that the series’ true name overseas is actually Mother. This series has always held a special place in my heart.
Eeep… that is, I’m 20… about to turn 21 in two months. Ah, what’s it matter?
I may as well be 21 now. 
The time in a man’s life when he doesn’t have to feel like a kid and live in the past anymore. Nope. Now I can smoke, and drink all I want. Woohoo!
…man, I keep forgetting that I’m still 20 inbetween sentences.
To Mother 1, 2 and 3. To being young at heart and loving every minute of it. I LOVE YOU SHIGESATO ITOI!!!
…oh, and of course Tomato and Jeffman too.
You guys are awesome! Keep it up! Wooooo!
I’m 24, never owned Earthbound, but considering all the times I’ve rented it, I probably ought to have just bought myself a copy. I did the same thing with Final Fantasy 2.
Jupiter-X: Yeah, the problem with some ROMs is that they don’t emulate sound correctly, like with Mario RPG and (if I remember right) Chrono Trigger as well.
Also, I’m 23. We were at some game store in Germany and saw the huge EB box on a top shelf, so we got it and I fell in love since. I’ve seen the ending in speed runs, but keep forgetting to beat it X)
…wait, what was that about Arcana Heart being released here tomorrow?! *spazzes out and runs around the room, shouting and whooping*
I just turned 26, I bought earthbound when I was like 12? 13? RPGS were my favorite genre and that HUGE BOX definitely got my attention, that´s why I decided to buy it, I loved it back then, and re-playing it now as an adult makes me appreciate even more the game and all those little details (talking to a tiny sesame seed in the middle of the desert, Pincho, Pancho, and Thomas Jefferson resembling Mexican immigrants), by the way I´m Mexican and I don´t like stereotypes of my beautiful country but I found that hilarious.
Hey Tomato, (and everyone else here) since you translate Japanese texts aplenty and exhibit a genuine interest in the subject, I was curious if you currently or previously enjoyed Japanese music? I’m totally in love with “Maximum the Hormone”, their tracks are hip and off the wall — they’re so heavy and they jam like they mean it… and obviously they have a lot of fun while doing so. They seem to endulge in a wide variety of rock and metal, (in such a fun and cool way, might I add) much like our now deceased “System of a Down”. So what Japanese artists do you listen to and why? Wouldn’t you agree that there are plenty of legends in the making over there?
As Usual.. Much Respect.. Wish You Weere Mato (as I Do Not Know you JeffMan.. but Still I respect your Works !Very Interest to Me).. Maybe You can Solve Mystery for me which Has Gone Unanswered..
I Constant Ask Mato “My Boy.. How muhc Methamphetamine You Do To Get this Much Work Done on Mother Translation Project” But he Never answer My Ask..
JeffMan… How Much Methamphetamine Do Mato Smoking?
@MetroidMan: I played EarthBound because I played smash when I was 4 and I loved Ness, so I played it on an emulator. I’ve been a fan for less than a yar
year, not yar (PIRATE!!!)
Wow… it’s so weird. I just noticed how weird this is. I feel so old, even though I’m so young. I grew up with the Atari 2600, Intellivision and NES systems to start, and just now I realize that the new gen kids started with the 64… not to mention the ones starting with the GCN, Wii and otherwise recent systems. This blows my mind. I hope the young ones won’t be dissing and missing out on our generation, and our ancestors’ generations of gaming. Why, back in their day, they just made shadow puppets in front of a camp fire and called it good. I know this shouldn’t be any kind of shocking news to me or anything, but dang… still so weird in many ways.
Yeah, I know what you mean. A couple years ago, I found a bunch of old casette tapes I used to have, and my younger sister (9 years my junior) asked me “What’s that thing?” That was such a weird feeling. Growing up on NES with these other kids growing up on PS2 and PS3 is just nuts.
<3 Mother 3 translation, keep up the awesome work!
I remember when I was wee little kid. Going down the Hollywood Video and walking down the SNES aisle and seeing this giant box with a odd robot thing on it. I remember pointing right at, looking at my dad and saying “I want to play that!”
So, I played it… and loved every second of it. I got it for my birthday several years later (sadly without the box or book) on my 12th or so birthday. I’m 18 now, 19 in a few months.
I love the whole series. Long live Mother/Earthbound!
this is looking amazing, cant wait
Let’s get married when you’re done, m’dear.
I posted that question about ages when you played EarthBound to see if my hunch was right, and it was. It seems more or less people that are over 17 seemed to have played the game when we saw it in stores when we were wee lads. However it seems the younger generation (people 13 and under now) caught wind of the game through Smash Bros, a friend or just finding it randomly on the internet. Doesn’t that mean the fanbase for the series has drastically grown over the past 14 years since EarthBound has been out? Why doesn’t Nintendo factor that into sales for Mother 3 or putting EB on virtual console? Sometimes Nintendo is quite stupid with banking on certain stupid franchises (Custom Robo, Chibi-Robo ect. Also this is just my opinion) and by doing so, shafts others (Giftpia, how I wish I coulda played you…sigh). Discuss if you want.
A PootHoot? Okay, now the pokemon crossovers are getting weird…er
As for me, I saw Earthbound in Nintendo Power, and being an RPG freak, I even wrote them asking about inconsistencies in some of the screen shots
(It’s not just you, Mato.) Then I had a local video place that I was a frequent renter from order it for me. They were quite nice. And I was also one of those people who knew entirely too much about games they’d never seen (e.g. Golgo 13). Got a free rental by answering a question about a game I had never seen before out of that once, though 
But I’ll never live down the infamy of the call that started with the phrase “Is this the Nintendo nut?” … *heh*
I got the game around when I was first able to drive, because I remember driving down there to get it, whereas I had to walk most of the time I rented from them before that. It was also cool to get the strategy guide with it for once. Nintendo Power didn’t have much in the way of useful info, as I recall.
27… I saw the game in Np when I was in my teens. I wanted it but didn’t have money. Eventually I found a loose copy a few years later. Played till the end…but I sucked at rpgs so I didn’t quite understand leveling and I was never able to beat the boss. I have a copy of Zero coming in. Once I get it I’m gonna play them all in order.
The little I’ve played of 3 patched has been awesome. Great details.
Someone mentioned Brawl… 3694-9717-7450
I’m 17 and played it cause my older siblings said it was good. =P Which was great cause I got to explain to all my friends who Ness was when the first Smash Bros came out, cause almost nobody else my age had heard of Earthbound. (And again for Lucas in the new one, incidentally)
I’d post my friend code for brawl but I have no idea what it is… I’m never online anyway. =P
@Karol: 2492-3951-6523
Heh, anyone who hasn’t played Chrono Trigger should. I had no trouble emulating it
If for some reason it doesn’t work on the latest zSNES, try an older version. I think I have to try that with Super Mario RPG anyhow, thanks to that one crazy chip.
Oh, and Naki, I think you CAN actually steal chicken in Earthbound, when you can swipe from that store
Of course, you have to raise them from eggs, but…
It’s funny sometimes to read things that sound the same in one language once you translate them to another
Actually i have a good story with it IMO. my friend had bought it at the time, and he told me a little about it. He lent it to me, and then i picked it up, ran through the first hour or so, from the meteor to the death of buzz buzz, to the start of the journey and i was hooked for life. so i knew i HAD to buy it off him. He wanted, what, 65 bucks for it. the gianormous box was missing and the nintendo player’s guide (which IMO were the greatest strategy guides money could buy, i have a collection of em cause i like to read em for fun, not really for strategy, wat can i say, imma 20 something dude who played a lot of videogames in the good ol days) was a little beat up but i had to. My love for the game has yet to wane. man, i spent 65 bucks on a used game, which in inflation must be like 100 bucks. wow i overpaid NOT! it was money well spent. I still have the cartridge. Specially because it’s the only rpg in the world where it’s hero’s greatest weapon was a bat, and his archnemesis was a fat one eyed kid named pokey, and the great ol subtle difference in King if you take/don’t take him with you during the opening hour. I remember my first play through and thinking, what the hell, why’s King just sleeping? He’s supposed to be AWAKE like in the pictures!!! LOL. my mistake.
I remember hearing about EarthBound, and in my old neighborhood I had a friend who I must’ve played through Onett with (read: watched him play). I found the game so bizarre and funny and charming and fun. Then I moved.
One day, must’ve been in middle school or beginning high school, I walked into a local K-Mart and they had about six or seven somewhat beat-up but otherwise intact boxed copies of EarthBound. We’re talking complete with strategy guide and all. It looked like a clearance item, but wasn’t especially cheap, and I bought it as soon as I had the cash and it has been a prized possession in my SNES collection since.
Oddly enough, I had to download an emulator and finish the game on my PC. The cart works, I just never got around to beating it (never made it past Fourside) until my SNES was out of reach.
You’d think Nintendo would do something as risk-free as selling EarthBound on the Virtual Console. Enough people have fond memories of EarthBound, and enough people who weren’t around for the SNES days have caught wind of the series from Smash Bros., that they could easily make some money that way, not to mention test the waters. And it would be entirely painless to release Mother 1+2+3 as a single DS cart and break even, let alone reap huge profits from putting a whole series on a single cart.
Nintendo might not be sitting on a gold mine wit EarthBound, but they do seem content to sit on a solid little pile of cash.
Agh, DS froze… And on such a long post.
Anyway, basically, I’m fourteen, I had to sneak every night before my curfew to play some Earthbound because my brother didn’t want me playing it. I got addicted. This was about eight-ish years ago just before the Gamecube came out… So I was… six-ish… Yeah, there was another kid I became friends with, too, because he played Earthbound, too. He was 3 years older than me, but we’d help each other out(I told him how to get to Threed, he told me about the Zombie Chick, etc.).
Yeah, I loved the game, so I started searching everywhere for the cart, but they weren’t being sold anymore. A while later I joined starmen.net as Steely(I just realized how stupid I was when I first joined, I guess because I wanted to prove I’m smart, or something. I had just gotten internet). I still haven’t beaten Mother 1, honestly. I was somewhere around Magicant…
Anyway, you guys are doing great- amazing! And mitch has a good way to show his appreciation. lol
I might just try to make a picture but I barely can draw….
I just finished Mother 3.
I wept.
I’m so happy for this, glad to know it’s all done, the naming screen that is. Not long now before we see it in English I bet.
Keep up the good work guys. I am currently listening to “Great Guy theme” from mother 3 as I type and I can’t wait to play it. You guys are great. After finising Mother 2 again today I can’t wait to see what happens next. Good Luck you guys.
it figures the moment i start looking for updates daily. they stop showing up daily
Hey methinx this is my first post, but i’m a huge fan of the mother series and what you guys are doing is awesome. especially with regular updates because few people actually post play by plays of whats going on. i played through mother 3 with the patch that you guys had a while back and that was months ago, but you guys are still hard at work. keep up the great work, can’t wait to try out the finished product.
Just a quick question… any way to ban posts containing the words “smoke” and “methamphetamine”? that poster’s driving me crazy
You’re just fueling the fire, Inzoum. It’s better to just ignore it and move on, what’s one post in 200 or so?
Besides, if Mato was really all that bothered by it, he’d probably just IP ban.
19 here (going on 20 in a month)… Like Jupiter-x, though, I also thought Ness was an exclusive character to the Smash Bros. series… until I saw his profile. I discovered EarthBound’s existence and… well, I’ve been a devoted fan ever since!
I’m a proud owner of both EarthBound and MOTHER 3 carts, and I’ve been paying attention to this translation project for quite some time now. You guys are phenomenal! Keep up the awesome work (and take your time, too; it’s never good to rush)!
Doot doo, dee doo doo! Phenomenon!
Doot doo do doo! Phenomenon!
Doot doo, dee doo doo, dee doo doo, dee doo doo do do doo doo do do doo!
…I would personally have to thank the person who said phenomenon and came up with that catchy (yet annoying) song.
Haha, it’s from a Swedish porn movie. Which was then stolen by the Muppets. Which really explains a lot.
I first learned about EarthBound from Nintendo Power and became obsessed with it before I even started playing. I was ten years old. I bought it as soon as it came out. My brother also got into it, but not as crazily and obsessively as I did. I waited with eager anticipation for EarthBound 64. When that failed, I hoped they would release it for gamecube (I wanted them to call it EarthBound^3 (EarthBound cubed :))).
I was surprised when I tried downloading a ROM of EarthBound, only to find out that it was for the NES and not the Super NES. And when I played it on a NES emulator, it turned out to be EarthBound Zero, an entirely different game. This was in High School.
I nearly died when I heard that Mother 3 for the GBA was going to be released. I had found Starmen.net while looking for information on EarthBound 64 and participated in that first petition. I’ve been a regular ever since(though I’ve never actually registered on the site).
Just wanted you to know, you’re my heroes.
Man, so many comments to read… I feel an update drawing ever closer, though (mini or otherwise).
I think also feel that their might be a mini update soon they just have been working really hard.
Simple question that probably has already been answered:
Will you release the tool you’re using to translate (M3 Funland, I believe) to the public ? When you’re done, I’d like to (try) translate MOTHER 3 in French. I know some people who I told that I’d try to translate EB, but shoot, you did that already.
So how about translating MOTHER 3 into French, then. Heh.
Also, [dreams] I’d sent the ROM to Nintendo of Europe and tell them “JUST RELEASE IT, YOU NOOBS”. [/dreams]
No mini-updates from me at least. Still got a few days left of work.
Action 52: I’ve already talked about this in updates. At some point I (maybe we?) plan to work with people to translate it into other languages after the English patch is out. Check some of the recent updates, I talked about this.
I added the “other languages” thing to the FAQ page, for those who are interested. I dunno if Jeff’ll be for it, but at the very least I’ll offer my help to competent translators of other languages. Most of our hacks should work fine with most European languages (we’ll need to add font stuff and modify our insertors mostly) but things that are too different from English might not work so well. Most European languages should be fine, mostly I’m worried there might not be enough font space for languages with tons of extra letters.
I dont know what it says in mother 3 when it asks for your name but it would be funny if you added “or the one with their hands on the keyboard” after “the one holding the controller” since many people will probably play this translation on a rom.
Reznik, I considered that myself, too, but then I remembered that I wanted to load the ROM to a flash cart and play it on a system. There’s probably a number of people who’re planning that, too.
When I did play Mother 3, I was playing a ROM (so the translation was always nearby on my computer), and I was actually playing it on a PS2 controller via Pelican converter.
Keyboard really is just about the worst option IMO.
hey mato what flash cart would you recommend i get to to the full translation i know its not done yet but from your point of view which do you think would work the best
I’m not one to demand many changes or anything, but if you guys are worried about that why not, “the one looking at the screen”? It’s applicable to all the situations that I can think of… until M3 gets translated into braille.
Who IS this mystery man?
Will we ever know?
Twitches: I’m thinking that an EZ-Flash V 3-in-1 expansion pack will work, as long as you have a compatible Slot-1 flashcart (i.e. M3 Simply/R4DS and most of it’s clones, CycloDS, EZ-Flash V) It’s also pretty cheap, ~$20 online.
cool thanks
Mato, I think you should put it on the FAQ.
If you plan to use it on DS, I suggest on of the following:
- R4 + EZ Flash V 3in1
- M3 Real + M3 Real GBA Expansion
For GBA/GBAplayer/Micro:
- Probably an M3 Perfect or something.
- If you have the R4 with the EZ Flash 3in1(GBA-size), you can load games onto it.
just a heads up… but i have been doing some reading and the r4 is no longer being produced due to some kinda of factory buyout junk
I wouldn’t get into recommending any particular flash cart until the game is actually done and tested.
I am however, eagerly awaiting a new update. GO GO GO GO.
Is it even worth it to buy a flash cart? I mean the playability would be more comfortable. But is it hard to set up? or is it like a flash drive?
“The one looking at the screen”… hmmm… what if I’m playing it on the computer or on the GameBoy Player while I have company over?
Anyone who’s looking is going to assume it’s talking to them, haha.
I’m just teasing, of course.
Tom Ato? ROFL!! I remember that from Pokemon!
Mother 3 works great on the psp. i can play it on my “fat” psp with the newest hombrew firmware.
I feel like an idiot cuz everyone else is like 19 and up
false!
oh really?
yes, really, but age really shouldn’t matter…to me, the older, the more time you have probably spent loving the Mother series. To note, I have Earthbound(Mother 2) on ZSNES emulator, and it was(and still is!) awesome
To be honest, I’m 18 and only just started getting into EB. My first consoles that I played on were the NES and the Sega consoles. I always wanted an SNES but my mom would never let me get one, and they had them all the time at the day care I went to when I was 5. I’m actually suprised that EB wasn’t a part of that place’s SNES collection. I know i’m still sort of young, but I miss the days of cart blowing when trying desperately to get Mario 3 to work.
lol, cart blowing,…
i actually blow on the CDs sometimes….
Boom 22 yrs right here got the EB cart with guide (unfortunately missing pages toward the end and no box, to my great shame), got Mother 3 too, but not the deluxe version because I don’t care. Would’ve liked the Franklin Badge though. It’s way better to play these things on a TV, instead of a computer screen.
Also I’m not an early EB player either, I didn’t get my copy until about 2004. Kind of funny, I actually rented it as a kid (big box) and while I enjoyed the players guide I hated the actual game since all I had played up until then was platformers and stuff like that so I had no idea what was going on.
Eventually I traded a Super NES for it years later (I had two). I didn’t scam the girl who gave it to me, though, I swear. I let her know it was a pretty popular game and that she could probably buy 10 used SNESes with the money from selling it and the guidebook on ebay. Got it anyway though. Whatever, she didn’t like it and I’ve since played it through like five times.
i feel like an idiot for just getting the tom ato thing
metroid man: that was my question silly. I made the original hypothesis, only i assumed it was like 17- 24 and im seeing numbers in the 30’s. i guess the game just reaches out to people, and most everyone seems to share the same unexplainable feeling toward it.
good question if you had asked it before this thread.
my best friend(in the day) was getting eb from his mother for christmas. he would always find his gifts and we would play them months earlier than we would’ve. this was also done with chrono trigger. he’d let me borrow it and i wouldn’t give it back, which i admit was not cool. but this is how a love began thirteen years ago. btw Tom Ato rocks the socks.
Oh hey look we’re talking about flash cards again. Just putting my quick two cents in, if all you want is playing GBA games, (i.e., just the Mother 3 translation, you dirty pirate) then I think it’d be worth looking into the EZ-Flash IV, which is what I have and it’s worked great so far for GBA games. Everyone’s probably going to recommend either an R4 and M3 or whatever, but that’s more expensive than you need to get if playing Mother 3 on a real system is all you want.
Plus I made a kickin rad Mother 3-themed EZ-Flash IV skin, which you can’t use with an R4 or whatever.
great…i love earthbound and im looking FORWARD to playing this in full obsession mood hehe.
I just want to say how terribly impressed I am with all the both of you have done for the fan community in the past years.
I’m 23 (24 this Saturday) and I’m happy to say I’ve had the distinct pleasure of enjoying many of your previous endeavors including Bahamut Lagoon, Star Ocean, Famicom Tantei Club II, and others from since I was back in my teens. You’ve always done professional quality work and continue to do so, often with no reward other than a few “thank you”’s. The amount of dedication you have to projects like this is amazing to me, mostly because I don’t think I’d be capable of it myself. I’m sure you already know how much meaning the work you do has to all of us, but I just want to add my thanks for providing so much wonderful entertainment for so many years.
Hard to believe it’s been that long, but five years ago I spent a year in Japan as an exchange student, and it was the most wonderful experience of my life, and one of the things that helped my learning of the language along was your patch of Bahamut Lagoon. I used to sit in my room at the foreign student dormitory and play it simultaneously on my PC and Super Famicom and compare versions while I studied new Kanji.
Even though I am now able to play through many Japanese games with little need for assistance (save the occasional use of my Kanji dictionary), I’m saving my first experience with Mother 3 to be in English just as it was with Mother 2, and later, Mother. I’m just glad to know that so many people will be able to enjoy a quality English version of the game thanks to all the hard work you’re doing. Thanks and best wishes in every regard.
- A Fan
I know what you mean shawnji.
Although, I just couldn’t wait for the English version and just went on and played it with a guide.
Just, excellent. Sometimes I wonder why this isn’t in the U.S.
I love the music, though, Earthbound had great music.
The last part was quite surprising. But it was fun. I wish there was still more to do.
I feel sad now that I’ve gone through the 3 games, but I’ll go through Mother 3 again when it’s in English.
Alright… any second now… yes, any second now… Tomato’s gonna come out and open up a mini update…
…what?
Unsavory Maggot: I think if I had a time machine and saw all this now, I’d first be like, “Oh god what have I gotten myself into now” and then “wtf they finally made the third game?!” and then I’d look up winning lottery numbers before going back.
Future lottery numbers FTW!
mato, having just gone through a similar expereince of knowing what true exhaustion means, i can honestly say “thanks” and mean it from the bottom of my heart because I know what you have gone through.
so “thanks”!!
napolean I’ve had homebrews for the fat psp, but can you get them for the newest psp.. or did they fix that
Yes, there is at least 1gba emulator on the psp slim, i believe.
Wow, this is getting awesome. I’ve been following this page from the get-go, and it looks like we’re going to see the hack in full. Mother 3 deserves to be translated, because it is a shame that we see Lucas in Brawl, but not in his original element.
I can’t wait to play an emulated Mother 3 rom with this patch when it’s done. I already came up with a name for the monkey, “Wheeler.” (If you don’t get the reference, you haven’t seen Yu-Gi-Oh GX.)
Twitches: I don’t think so, but even so, you can still buy them, or just Me Simply’s or something.
Dr. Meat: Yeah, EZ Flash IV is great for use on gba. I don’t know how much it costs, but I know you can get an R4, EZ Flash 3in1 and a 1gb microSD for ~65$, now. Whatever is cheaper is best, unless you don’t only want Mother 3 or gba games. You could even get a normal GBA-sized EZ Flash 3in1 for use on Gameboy player, or something(which I might consider).
I really hope they release Earthbound on VC, soon. And this might not be the best place to ask(I might ask again later on starmen.net), but could we have a Smash tournament, then the winner would get Earthbound, free?
Anyway, take it easy. Mother 3 is looking more beautiful than ever… Actually, I’m in the mood for some Earthbound…
Mine cost around $30. I think it’d be a good deal for someone just looking to play the patch on the real hardware, without needing to get into DS homebrew.
I like the smash tournament idea! Even if I can’t win, I’ll make my bro do it for me, cuz no one ever, EVER beats him (muahaha!)
Not that anyone in the house but me would PLAY Earthbound…
heh, i’d take him on, but my wifi runs like molasses moving uphill in the middle of winter, blahblah(and i could go on). once i get that sorted out, ill face people.
-i just wish i could learn advanced programming skills. Then, i could help this project along too, although im probably not the only one with that wish…
I’d join the tournament if there was one… but someone would have to e-mail me the time and day of the tounament.. and everything.
Hey, Tomato, I’d kinda be interested in helping translate Mother 3 into Spanish. Spanish is like tied with English being my first language, so yeah. There’s only 6 extra letters in Spanish, ñ (which is pronounced ehn-yeh), and the accented vowels (á, é, ó, ú, and í). And although ll (double l) is considered its own letter, its really just that, a double l with a y sound.
Woo. How’d I get off on that? I’m not so sure on when to use accented vowels though, but fortunately my father is a Spanish literature major, so any doubts, I can ask him (and pray he won’t get angry at me for being too much of a “Yankee” >_> Stupid racial differences wtf).
Aaaaaaaanyhow, Tomato, I have a question. It has nothing to do with Mother 3, its actually just a curiosity, but I figured it best to ask a professional translator…
How do the Japanese know when they’re reading the katakana “ka” and the kanji for power? They look they same, right? Do they usually write kanji bigger than kana?
I never noticed it until my friend pointed it out (he’s taking Japanese classes, I’m learning it by myself, but I’m thinking of taking some classes too and minoring in Japanese). X_x Sorry for the ol’ block of text.
Well, I’m gonna wait until after the patch is out before considering who to work with for other languages. Don’t want to start any international translation drama at the moment
As for how to tell the difference between 力 and カ, one, they’re drawn every so slightly differently, and two, context. It’d be very rare to see the katakana カ would be used where 力 would be expected. It’s a lot like “read” (I will read the book) and “read” (I read the book yesterday). We native English speakers don’t have much trouble knowing which pronunciation to use, we almost automatically, without even needing to think about it, analyze the context and use the corresponding pronunciation. So it’s mostly just getting the flow of things ingrained into your brain to the point where you don’t need to even think about it. It’s been a while since I thought of the two of looking alike, for example
I actually just gave a presentation on how speech recognition software knows you mean “time” when you say “You are on time” — Because “thyme” would rarely if ever be used in the context of “You are on”. Likewise, we as humans instantly know which is meant. So that’s not non-sequiterish at all. Give me a break, you guys are 2 and a half days overdue for an update.
Let’s not forget, one kanji has a longer “swoosh” than the other. It takes a keen, attentive eye looking at the first vertical strokes of each kanji to recognize that difference.
I have the worst handwriting though, so if I end up writing in kanji, I’ll most likely have to write *big* to make the kanji easier to distinguish.
Actually, what impresses me more is when they can read kanji written in those tiny fonts, where they look like a tiny Rorschach ink blot test
I’ve had to increase the font size to ridiculous just to tell a daikuten from a maru, and the tiny blotch kanji are all the worse
If you don’t know what I mean, think 齢, 療, 調, 課, 織, 職, 機, 構, 題, 警, 賞, or 滅 which I copied somewhat randomly from the Japanese version of Google news. I can barely make out the radicals on most of those. To read them, I’d have to paste them into word and change the font size to 72 or something. I bet Mato can read them, but he’s probably gone through secret ninja training or something…
Yeah, even with my tired, old, probably needing-glasses eyes, I could read them easily from a few feet back. Familiarity goes a long way to recognizing things, kanji included.
Anyway soon, soon I’ll be able to do some more hacking stuff. Can’t wait to get sprite text welding done and out of the way.
MATO: Okay, I think I vaguely remember the second naming screen now. I probably skipped through it quickly because I didn’t realize what it was for.
I wish I was intelligent enough to help you guys.
I’m debating whether to go MR HACKER man, and put a GBA emulator on my SLIM PSP…. (It was so much easier back in the day)… But it would be so worth it to play Mother 3 on my 60 inch HDTV… ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh lol… And if anyone understands what i’m talking about, I have some questions about upgrading to a 3.71M33-2 and if anyone has a spare Magic Stick and Pandora Battery that would be SUPER. Respond and I’ll send you my email… and if you aren’t familiar with hacking a psp you should look it up on google. It really is fascinating to watch/read how brilliant people are. Especially when it’s 4 in the morning…
All for the love of the game…
lol
should make a movie haha
And just trying to deal with how-to tutorials makes my head spin, I can’t imagine how resilient and patient you would have to be to HACK A ROM! not even mentioning translating the game (which is dedication in itself). Thank you Mato,Jeffman, and all the others who are brave enough to take the long stressful ride to give us,the fans, a chance t0 play this game.
I heart you all long time
w2ell Nothing from JeffMan or Mato for some time
I guess they All out of Methamphetamine
So No Hack Today !
SadNess for the Mother Project
Rofl, ^^^^^^ that guy kills me. For non obvious reasons.
Keep up the good work! I’m just happy this didn’t turn into one of those projects that starts but never takes off. Luckily, you guys are a couple of resilient SOBs! Just take it easy!
Oh dear me, it’s been four days.
Hope there’s some great news for the next update!
Thanks for answering my question, Tomato! And don’t worry, I won’t start any translation drama- I’m not into dramas. XD Unless if its Gundam. O.O
I guess because I haven’t looked too much into kanji, I couldn’t tell the difference… But dangit, my friend should’ve! XD (I’ve only been learning katakana through hacking Super Robot Pinball and playing Super Robot Wars games… Woo!)
Rozgabound, don’t forget that they too are fans of the game. You’d have to be a pretty fanatical fan to say “alright, I’m going to spend a lot of time and effort hacking this game into English so that the English-speaking Mother fans can enjoy this game as I have.”
Anyway, I’m honestly surprised how many people in the comments know some Japanese. Considering how different it is from English, and how ridiculously difficult it is to learn, I applaud anyone who knows even a little kana. The most Japanese I know is a few words, and even then I couldn’t write them out to save my life.
Since the topic of flash carts is on the table, I got a question for you guys. If the unpatched rom works on my flash cart if that a good indicator that it’ll work patched? Hope my m3 lite can stand up the challenge.
I know a bit of Japanese. I can’t read most of the Kanji, and having it in extra extra small font isn’t helping.
Hehe, I guess I chose the wrong language for a Mother fan. I speak intermediate Chinese, and I’ve been living, teaching (English), and studying in China for over a year and a half.
I’ve had my full now and am looking to move back to the states by the fall, but it’s been a hell of a ride. I urge anyone with an interest in any language to study it, and after you get your degree (nearly any degree), take a year or two off to go teach English in that country and immerse yourself there. The money isn’t good, but the experience is phenomenal. I’ve got friends who have used their status as a native speaker to get jobs in China, Japan (he was a Pokemanic, actually), Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Singapore. So all you people with an itch to study Japanese, go for it!
And studying Chinese isn’t all a loss re: Mother/EarthBound, because I can read the kanji (in Chinese, “han zi”) just fine.
I’m totally pumped for the final patch. Light at the end of the tunnel!
You guys are awesome, keep at it.
Woo, finally finished that huge batch of work, and on time. Meant cutting sleeping hours out of every day of the week though. Anyway, I’m going to do the following over the next 2 or 3 days:
- Catch up on sleeeeeeeeep
- Hack that one game, I forget its name
- Clean house
- Do my review thingy of that movie that traumatized Itoi
- Eat and drink and be merry
- Sleep
Actually, while working on this latest show, I realized that the story has many things in common with MOTHER 3’s story, which was neat. When the show comes out/gets announced I’ll give more details. It was awesome fun working on it, although tiring
Checking this over lunch was the best idea I’ve had today! Get some good rest, and you’ll be back on your game in no time, Mato.
lol mato
Great to see that you finished that work you’ve been telling us for the past week. Get some needed rest for now.
I bet if you “Refresh” yourself, you’ll be able to do more stuffs sooner with the translation hacking.
Well, just get your sleep FIRST. We don’t want to have to start calling it “that movie that traumatized Mato” just because you couldn’t sleep due to strange nightmares after it
See you next update!!!
well, my calculations state that mato can spend part of friday and all of saturday sleeping, do his weird movie thing sunday morning, and then, since I’ve decided that I’m so impatient that Mato has no life outside work and mother 3, he’ll have all day sunday to whip up some major Hax0rz.
I mean, how could it be any other way, right? Because I’ve never heard of someone having a real life.
*small voice* I don’t */small voice*
Yay mato, congrats!
Always feels good to finish a big project. Hoping to do something similar today, myself!
I can’t wait to hear what you worked on, hopefully it’s something I’ll want to watch as a non-animu fan!
If I may ask a quick but slightly off topic question, since you’ve worked on shin chan, do you have any idea if the series is doing well? As I’ve mentioned before it is very near, dear, and special to me and I want nothing more than to see more and more episodes 
As such I just don’t have an unbiased enough lens of popularity; my friends (many of whom are also not into animu) seem to love it but commercially speaking, is it doing well? No trade secrets or hard numbers required, just want to know whether or not it’s likely ol’ Ted Turner is interested in ordering more episodes or if I’ll have yet another obsession relegated to Mother-style treatment 
Oh and for those not aware–it seems a lot of people are under the impression that Shin Chan is some kids’ cartoon that Adult Swim/Funimation thought would be fun to overlay dirty jokes. But I can assure you that in the original (Korean, anyway) is exactly the same. All that’s changed is retooling some of the humor to make it funny in English and to American (and European?) audiences.
I read the comic books so it’s interesting to see the simultaneous adaptation to TV and English all at once. I really hope the animated version covers the trip to Guam at some point as I want to see how/if a particular joke I find forever amusing but difficult to explain makes it through.
The first American Shin encounters in Guam he runs up to and blurts out “L