All Hacking Complete

3 months ago by Mato

(unless crazy bugs decide to show up in the next few weeks, that is, though it’s unlikely)

After some enlightenment, I managed to fix and finish the sprite hacking routine earlier today. It now runs at a fast speed, has no weird graphical lag or distortion, and is rock-solid and 100% professional-looking. So that means we can cross the final hack off the to-do list.

Right after I fixed the sprite text, we noticed that the game would freeze during the ending. It was a pesky bug, but we finally fixed it, it was something that crept in late last night. While I was at it, I also betterfied the fix for this old bug, which is nice.

There’ve been so many pics and videos that there’s not too much more to show now, but I recorded one thing real quick showing a bunch of different systems that had to be hacked over the past year. You can see them all working in harmony together and looking nice and professional. Nothing spoilery, don’t worry.

Now that the hacking’s pretty much done (some miniscule things remain which may not be worth bothering with), that just leaves the testing phase. It’ll probably start sometime this weekend, and before people start asking, we don’t need help testing. The testing will be done internally for several weeks.

It’s also important to clarify that testing doesn’t mean “play through and have fun”, it means playing stuff over and over, trying to break things, analyzing every little detail, stuff like that. It’s NOT fun. But this way the game will be less likely to freeze/crash/act stupid when the patch is released to the public. Some last-minute polish will be going on during the testing phase too.

I don’t know how updates will be during the testing, it may just be a weekly thing saying we’re alive and well, but if we find stuff and fix it, I’ll mention that quickly.

More info and details and blah blah at a later time. For now, just know that the translation’s entered its final stage. Very very close now!

Posted on Friday, September 26th, 2008 at 8:37 pm by Mato, filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

552 Responses to “All Hacking Complete”

  1. Flammable said 3 months ago:

    Hooray! Semi-grats, guys.

  2. kevinchai said 3 months ago:

    I LOVE YOU!!
    Before the soup gets cold, we must care for Mato Mato. Before the knife gets rusty, we must care for Mato Mato.

  3. MagicBarrier said 3 months ago:

    Holy crap, you’re finally done with the (major) hacking! :D

    I can almost taste Mother 3. Congrats!

  4. Christopher said 3 months ago:

    First time poster here, great job! So nice to see all the hacking done, can’t wait for the finished product!

  5. Faux said 3 months ago:

    Tears of joy!

  6. HELL YES said 3 months ago:

    HELL YES!

  7. ilovemother said 3 months ago:

    I can’t stop smiling

  8. tapioca said 3 months ago:

    i can’t stop smiling either. :D

  9. Magic Ant said 3 months ago:

    Oh my goodness, the path is so close, I can taste it!

    …. It tastes like OmlettesHomeRu.

  10. Zatech said 3 months ago:

    *breakdance*

  11. Adam said 3 months ago:

    You Rock!

  12. 199X said 3 months ago:

    Awesome!

  13. sniff sniff said 3 months ago:

    Lol 11 minutes late. I’m actually not laughing out loud, I’m crying :’(

  14. EmpoleMew said 3 months ago:

    Let me quote some thing from Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door.

    OMIGOSH OMIGOSH OMIGOSH OMIGOSH OMIGOSH OMIGOSH OMIGOSH!!!!

    This update came just as I was posting in the last one.

    Also, to the first time poster, my name also happens to be Christopher. O.O

  15. 199X said 3 months ago:

    Are you not crossing off the entire Hacking section on the to-do list because a problem might pop up?

  16. Wallace said 3 months ago:

    Awesome! Great job!

    Hey Need help testing????

    Haha just kidding… ;)

  17. OfficerJordan said 3 months ago:

    Awwww yeah! Now there’s just the beta testing, even though that will be hard. I’m praying for you, beta testers! Godspeed!

  18. AJ said 3 months ago:

    take that japan, thats we dont need a translation from you when we got mato to do it for us

  19. Beck said 3 months ago:

    Beyond awesome.

  20. Justbob said 3 months ago:

    I love you guys.

  21. :O said 3 months ago:

    FLIPPIN’ SWEET!

  22. Bat Fax said 3 months ago:

    Equals Dee

  23. Mad Dean said 3 months ago:

    Exuberance.

  24. Josh D said 3 months ago:

    Mind = Blown.

  25. Happy Lee said 3 months ago:

    Hooray! I’ve been refreshing obsessively for hours now.

    Time to celebrate with some Brawl…Lucas shall kick butt and take names!

    Kudos, Mato!

  26. BriGuy92 said 3 months ago:

    YES! That is all I have to say.

  27. grandleon said 3 months ago:

    Brain = Implode upon contact with awesomeness

    Godspeed, Mato. May the Force be with you.

  28. grandleon said 3 months ago:

    (er…. just uh… keep at it guys. hahaha)

  29. LordTyphoon said 3 months ago:

    Not fun eh? Depends. Maybe some testers do like testing, regardless of whether or not it is a painful process of redoing the same 30 seconds in 3000 different ways to break it.

    I’m looking forward to getting an email from this site in the next 2 months max! (I hope it’s shorter, given it’s going pretty well, but I know not to ask too much of you guys now, you’ve done enough.)

  30. Hale said 3 months ago:

    Congrats Mato! Now all that’s left is to finish up the script. Do let us know so we can start to worship tomoatoes again @_@

  31. kevinchai said 3 months ago:

    :D :D :D :D :D

  32. Hale said 3 months ago:

    *tomatoes >_>

  33. iluvpudding4eva said 3 months ago:

    MATO DESERVES THRREE WISHES NOW!!!

  34. mazoboom said 3 months ago:

    Congratulations, Mato. I know you’re a translator and not a hacker, and that you did this really shows dedication to not only the fans but also to the series and Itoi.

  35. Faux said 3 months ago:

    For Mato:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LleTgVFiIAI

  36. Edgar the alien said 3 months ago:

    Yay

  37. evillawngnome said 3 months ago:

    hooooooooooooly cow.
    Mato, i am shipping you beer.

  38. iluvpudding4eva said 3 months ago:

    paypal donations, anyone?

  39. rogueofmv said 3 months ago:

    *massive crowd cheers in honor of the miracle of the great guiding spirit, Mato* ^_^

  40. Blue Protoman said 3 months ago:

    Don’t die in the next couple of weeks! We need you to finish this! :D

  41. Mailman said 3 months ago:

    I LOVE YOU PEOPLE WITH ALL THE FIBER OF MY BEING.

    I BELIVE IN ROSES KISSED WITH DEW!

    WHY SHOULDN’T I BELIVE THE SAME IN YOUUUUUUUUUUU……

  42. Reaver490 said 3 months ago:

    Impressive. The video was flawless.

  43. MentallyAbstract said 3 months ago:

    congrats guys, can’t wait to try out the fruits of your labour.

  44. Nevi901 said 3 months ago:

    Oh my god! It’s almost here! It’s almost here!

    Is it safe to assume that when this comes out starmen.net and this page will be like crazy with new people entering having no idea this translation existed but wanted to know who lucas is since brawl came out?

    Thank you Mato! Because of you now all Mother/Earthbound fans will be enjoying this awesome game!

  45. Jatopian said 3 months ago:

    There are actually tiny tears of joy in my eyes. I can only imagine how I’ll react when it’s released. I’m gonna allow myself some crazy fan reaction now:

    I LOVE YOU MATO PLEASE BE AWESOME FOREVER~~~!!!!

  46. Kira said 3 months ago:

    Just by watching that video, that so felt like Earthbound and had the Earthbound feel. Damn, guys, you rule. Sweet Mato, keep it up!!!! Alrighty!

  47. YoshiRiRu said 3 months ago:

    I’m still just waiting for the “Haha, just yankin’ ya guys. There never was a Mother 3 translation. Fooled you!”

    :P

    Great job though. I’ve been with this since the beginning. More power to you!

  48. gBev said 3 months ago:

    Mato, thank you for dedicating so much time to this project. I’m not sure if anyone else would have been crazy enogh to do it, but you hacked a seemingly hack proof game in under a year and a half. Congrats on being almost there!

  49. Invalidd said 3 months ago:

    You did it!

    Now, only one month of testing and polishing to go. :D

  50. DeltaBladeX said 3 months ago:

    Looking forward to playing this.

  51. biff said 3 months ago:

    Ahhhh…best news I’ve heard all day.

    thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou.

  52. ALX said 3 months ago:

    YES YES YES!!! Mato and everyone else who worked on this, you ROCK!

  53. Internet user said 3 months ago:

    WHERE IS THE TRANSLATION PATCH MATO
    YOU SAID THERE WOULD BE A TRANSLATION PATCH

  54. Pango.PD said 3 months ago:

    I can feel…my heart is beating….so long I don’t feel this sensation. I thought my heart had stopped a long time ago.

    Thank you, great Mato.

  55. Dark Hamstelord said 3 months ago:

    That video looks like Nintendo quality, if not better.

    YOU ARE AMAZING.

  56. Neurovore said 3 months ago:

    I thought you said that the sprite morphing bug would take weeks. I guess not. I will dedicate a post to you on my humble blog, N^4.

  57. ikari7789 said 3 months ago:

    Mato… Jeffman… Harmony… everyone who has been working on this translation, I would like to thank all of you from the depths of my SOUL! I realize just how hard this has been, but in the end, you’re work looks simply amazing. Ask anyone and they won’t even be able to know if it was done professionally or not. This is by far one of the best hackings that I have seen.

  58. Trimalchio said 3 months ago:

    I’ll bet with all your work so far, there might not be very many more bugs or typos or demon programming left to find during testing!

  59. Viktor said 3 months ago:

    HEll Yeah, mato ,jeff, everyone, awsome job, i hope things go nice & easy from now on, you´re gonna give my GF and me an awsome anniversary - birthday present Yay! n_n

    we both love you all at the starmen HQ :p

  60. Mikeyman64 said 3 months ago:

    Three cheers! And a big cyber cookie. :)

  61. Poe said 3 months ago:

    Whoa. So close now. :o So close I can tasssste it.

  62. Elise said 3 months ago:

    This is great news! Congratulations!

  63. xybur said 3 months ago:

    Thanks bro.

  64. YoshiAngemon said 3 months ago:

    Faboo. Hopefully, I’ll buy my own laptop computer that will actually support the game.

  65. ruok said 3 months ago:

    i feel bad for you mato you have to look at every little detail AGAIN, oh well ‘dont have fun’ lol jk :)

  66. Silver256 said 3 months ago:

    Awesome! Been waiting for this update for a while.

    But I hope the weird bug I see with the feather during the part showing you buying items is just another thing made by the video compression.

  67. ruok said 3 months ago:

    also to touture us when you post the patch you can make it an extra hard secret link

  68. Axel said 3 months ago:

    Oh man this IS SO EXCITING OH MAN

  69. Silver256 said 3 months ago:

    Otherwise we’d have to wait even more, and that’d be bad for us Earthbound fans.

  70. Moose said 3 months ago:

    Thought there would be another update today after reading the comments of the last post.

    Huzzah!

  71. Jupiter-x said 3 months ago:

    Is it too early for champagne? :D

  72. Dead Joe said 3 months ago:

    CONCHETUMADRE!!!!!!!

    SOY MUY FELIZ AHORA!!!! ;_;

  73. Old West said 3 months ago:

    Congratulations, sir. I never thought this day would come. I am beyond overjoyed. ;_; for (i=0;i<a gazillion;i++) print “THANK YOU, TOMATO.\n”;

    It’s all smooth sailin’ from here on out, relatively speaking of course. Best of luck to all of you.

  74. Chris said 3 months ago:

    Wow, awesome! Great work!

  75. That Random Guy Down The Street said 3 months ago:

    YOU

    FUCKING

    ROCK

    !!!

  76. Pockyninja said 3 months ago:

    Congrats man. I cant wait to play this. You guys are awesome.

  77. noco said 3 months ago:

    yay mato <3

  78. Reagle said 3 months ago:

    So close to th
    :|

  79. Shadowcatgc said 3 months ago:

    Mato, I’d bear your children, but I’m pretty sure that’s scientifically impossible because I am a cat and you are a vegtable.

    Anyways, awesome work, everyone!

  80. eddward said 3 months ago:

    I want to ask this one question. I noticed that Lucas has 1 of this item. If Lucas carried 2 of the same item would the game say, “Lucas has 2 of these items?” Just wanted to ask.

    Congratulations Mato and Co. This, Disgaea and Sonic Chronicles are on my list of games to beat.

  81. Ness said 3 months ago:

    Awsome!
    Can’t wait for it. =D

  82. Zero said 3 months ago:

    OH MY GOD

  83. A Fan said 3 months ago:

    Yay!

    Out of curiosity, what guideline will you use to tell you when things are finished? Wait until X weeks or playthroughs have happened with no bugs? Have X testers get through the entire game with no problems? Play it by ear?

    Just curious :-) Now the waiting begins!

  84. StarFoxA said 3 months ago:

    Some late night happiness for me. Thanks Mato!

  85. That Random Guy Down The Street said 3 months ago:

    One thing I forgot to add, will you be posting a goal ETA for release?

    (If you do, PLEASE don’t say November 18th. Please do not even fucking think about saying November 18th. I bet everybody who gets the joke would laugh, though. I sure wouldn’t.)

  86. Anonymous said 3 months ago:

    Have my babies Mato.

  87. StarFoxA said 3 months ago:

    Also, this.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwEMxYggoKQ

  88. Mato said 3 months ago:

    There’s no ETA, we won’t know for sure until probably days/a week or so before it’s out. It all depends on what bugs, if any, we encounter. Sooner would be better of course.

  89. Odan said 3 months ago:

    So can i help test?
    Actually no , lol i was expecting more of those glancing through some of the replys here.
    Great job on the patch , hope the testing goes well , theres always one or two things that happen. So i’ll be playing Mother 3 in approx a month now , can’t wait/

  90. Reg teh Yoshi said 3 months ago:

    Only 3 weeks to go…

    I’m speechless…

  91. Janus said 3 months ago:

    Easily the best news ever.

  92. NovaMan XP said 3 months ago:

    :D

    Me = happy

    You’ve all come a long way. It’s almost over.

  93. Forgotten Man said 3 months ago:

    Unbelievable.

    Good luck!

  94. Jon said 3 months ago:

    This is first update where I actually stepped back and realized that we will be able to play it soon.

    It’s kinda wierd, like when you know it’s in reach and then some guy just walks up and gives you what you wanted.

  95. Mr. Nosy said 3 months ago:

    EEEEEEEEHH! (That is the cheer that the game gives you when you finish a 16-hit combo!) You are tehnically done!

    By the way:
    “It’s also important to clarify that testing doesn’t mean “play through and have fun”, it means playing stuff over and over, trying to break things, analyzing every little detail, stuff like that. It’s NOT fun.”
    It is nice to have/give that proper perspective. However, I doubt your statememnt of that, since, at the least, seeing your game go together all nicely (plus the “charm” of Mother 3) has to give you SOME fun. (Am I wrong?)

    Nevi901-san: “Is it safe to assume that when this comes out starmen.net and this page will be like crazy with new people entering having no idea this translation existed but wanted to know who lucas is since brawl came out?”
    I bet so. I do not really care about spoilers, since I already played through Super Smash Bros. Brawl,a nd it was the Super Smash Bros. series that gave me interest of the Mother series!

    ruok-san: “also to touture us when you post the patch you can make it an extra hard secret link”
    Extra hard!

    moose-san: “Thought there would be another update today after reading the comments of the last post.”
    I thought that there would be a few “in the middle” posts with the final one being a few weeks later!

    Shadowcatgc-san: “Mato, I’d bear your children, but I’m pretty sure that’s scientifically impossible because I am a cat and you are a vegtable.”
    Annonymous-san: “Have my babies Mato.”
    /evokerplz/
    You spoiled this moment with that gag.

  96. Daniel-Ness's Ally said 3 months ago:

    One thing:

    I may be the god of neutrality,
    but Mato is the god of hacks.

    AKA.
    We’re going to hold an english MOTHER 3 in our hands in a fast amount of time!

  97. LECHE92341 said 3 months ago:

    Awesome! Keep at it! We’re rooting for ya all the way in Mexico!

  98. The Unknown said 3 months ago:

    First time poster here, long time reader.

    I remember coming across this translation effort when it was in its infancy. I loved the idea of it, but I wondered how long it would take for it to grind to a standstill. Not to say that I didn’t have faith in you guys, but these fan-tanslation projects always seem to lose their steam. This one, however, has not. For that I am very grateful.

    I know there is still work to be done, but now the greatest hurdles are behind. To all of those involved in this grand endeavour, I salute and thank you all. You have done a great service in the name of translating art for people that would not have been able to understand it otherwise. You improve the human condition. All of you, be proud. You are, in a sense, heroes, and not only to EarthBound/MOTHER fans, but to anyone interested in creative works.

    May fortune smile upon you.

    =)

  99. ttmar said 3 months ago:

    ALL CAPS THANK YOU.

    That video looked so good.

    I can’t wait to play this game in all of its English-language glory. Thank you, sincerely.

  100. Poo said 3 months ago:

    Did mato get really good at hiding the hidden links, or did he just stop posting them?

  101. Leah said 3 months ago:

    This is the first time I’ve posted, but I’ve been following this the past several months. Congrats on finishing the hacking; you guys have been working so hard to get this done, and I’m sure you’ve heard this so many times, but….WOW! You guys are amazing! Thank you so much for all your hard work on this. No words can adequately express my gratitude or excitement. =D

  102. BFM said 3 months ago:

    I-I came~ <3

  103. Mr. Nosy said 3 months ago:

    “Defeated”? Not “tame”?

    By the way, you must be so tired that you are getting bad at this game…maybe your skills in hacking it will make you mbetter at the game after a “until Christmas”, “not waking up in the middle” sleep.

  104. Mr. Nosy said 3 months ago:

    Poo-san: I think he is no longer posting them.

  105. limberheadpollen said 3 months ago:

    You should find 50,000 bucks in a well for this! ^_^

    I PK love your work ^_^

    Because your PK Rockin!

  106. wow said 3 months ago:

    Wow i’m impressed and amazed at the commitment of you doing this for ever fan out there. I thank you!

  107. Zade said 3 months ago:

    This calls for a little trip to the caps-lock key.

    OMG ZOOM YAY YAY HAPPY FUN!

    Etc., etc., so on and so on.

    Congrats on all your progress, and thanks again for all your hard work and dedication. It truly is a wonderful thing to see.

  108. hank said 3 months ago:

    i have followed you since the beginning this blog was given life and waited patiently..it was so worth it! If you can do this kind of work then im going to be very curious of what you can pull off in a college level computer programming course..or better yet a team. You have quite a talent there..fixing things and making other things work that get broken from that fixed thing. Im very very impressed and hope to see this kind of quality work carry over to whatever you do next =).

    Best of luck
    Crazy Earthbound Fan
    -Hank

    PS-Keep us updated on what your up to even after this project is done! A lot of us will be curious to know what other stuff your busting your head in!(whether it be computer programming or whatever hehe!)

  109. KirbyPhelpsPK said 3 months ago:

    AAAAAAAHHH!!! YES!! It’s finally done. The hack is at perfection!! WOOT!! I can’t wait until testing’s done.

  110. Richarbro said 3 months ago:

    AWESOME! Congrats!!!! Can’t wait omg! :D

  111. Tsukuyomi said 3 months ago:

    I haven’t posted much, just mainly watching the bickering between everyone. But good job on the hacking! Can’t wait! Thank you!

  112. Versiani said 3 months ago:

    Oh, my… I’ll have multiples nerdgasms for now on…

    Frockling awesome!

    Srly… I love you guys!

  113. Frozen_Fish said 3 months ago:

    Great work everyone involved, you’re on the home stretch now guys :D

  114. JayDee said 3 months ago:

    Been following this project since the beginning, and I have to say, I want to congratulate Mato, and those who have helped him for getting this far. A year and a half ago, I wasn’t sure this project was ever going to be completed by anyone. You’ve really put your heart into it, and from what I’ve seen, it shows.

    I’m also glad to know that you’re taking your time on playtesting it. I’ve waited a long time for this game, waiting a little longer for something this beautiful isn’t that hard.

  115. mike k said 3 months ago:

    I love you. I am REALLY looking forward to playing this.

  116. Acacia Sgt said 3 months ago:

    Now, I hope nothing bad happens that forces the whole thing to stop or having to be done again, not wanting that, that’s for sure.

  117. Zaxtur said 3 months ago:

    Awesome! Just awesome!

  118. Vague Rant said 3 months ago:

    Mato, I hate to be this guy, but I noticed a tiny bug in the video and wanted to make sure you were aware of it. I know you’ve spent hours and hours playing the game, so anything I notice, you’ve probably seen weeks ago, but what the hell, just in case:

    http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/3268/m3straypixelxv1.jpg

    At about 1:32-1:35 in the video there’s a stray pixel hanging about in the item description; as you can see in that picture, it appears to come from that first “e” in “Restores”. In the video, it appears to fix itself a moment later; maybe that’s your fix for it in action? I don’t know. Sorry for being this guy. Super excited for the release, my thanks to you and everyone else for your hard work.

  119. KAY-O said 3 months ago:

    Good luck with the testing guys, hope everything goes smoothly

  120. blade the mercenary said 3 months ago:

    awsome can’t wait for the translation to be finished!!

    GO FOR IT GUYS!

  121. Mato said 3 months ago:

    Vague Rant: Come on now, don’t be that guy, you’re supposed to be cool. Those are video compression artifacts - the original video had some level of compression, and Youtube added some, though I assume it’s the former that causes it. I also checked with the game using the same everything and there is nothing there.

  122. Henry SG said 3 months ago:

    My dreams are coming true!
    ITS TIME TO EAT CAKE!

  123. coromoro said 3 months ago:

    I hope the world doesn’t end before the patch is out.

  124. Vague Rant said 3 months ago:

    Sorry. I thought about that, but it didn’t look like any artifacts I’d seen before; I should know better than to expect high quality from YouTube videos.

  125. shade said 3 months ago:

    *falls over*

    Ten years. Ever since I first read that sign in Fourside.

    Ten Freaking years. And it’ll all be over soon. Gods among men, you are.

    Here’s the best part: Ten years ago, I was 13, and I bought EB for my 13th birthday. If you can’t see the irony here, you haven’t played EB/M2 enough.

    I’m gonna go play Earthbound again. On my still-working SNES.

  126. lemon pie said 3 months ago:

    shade: i don’t get the irony. Please explain.

  127. eyfey said 3 months ago:

    Reading this update chwarmed my heart :D

  128. ejgeorge said 3 months ago:

    Hey mato i dt know if you remember me, but a couple of months ago a asked you a question, once, and since you already have some kinde of super power for translating, hacking, being funny, i just though you may have supermemory too (do you?, no? ok)

    this is great i have been seeing this since those time where we though genesis was going to come and help, or somebody else but is seems our litlle boy from smallville has become a full superman (kudos from the Dominican Republic, your greatnes has reach this far)

  129. utoh said 3 months ago:

    I love you Mother 3 tranlation crew….almost as much as i will when you release..and then i will play m3, get addicted, fall in love with it, and never think of you again…unless you keep up being cool and stuff lol :)

  130. nerdyness said 3 months ago:

    DISCO PARTY!!!!

  131. Andy said 3 months ago:

    All the hard stuff is now officially out of the way. Congrats!

  132. apteryx said 3 months ago:

    Mato and Jeffman; favorite kind of beer/liquor and address emailed to me, NOW.

  133. Some guy said 3 months ago:

    Gratz yo!

  134. nullstring said 3 months ago:

    All i want is a pre-thanksgiving release. hopefully you can make this happen. =)

  135. KKMP said 3 months ago:

    WHA-WHA-WHAT?

    I was really not expecting this so soon.

    Mother 3 beware, Mato is pretty cool guy and doesn’t afraid of anything.

  136. Lark said 3 months ago:

    You guys rock.

  137. Dr. Meat said 3 months ago:

    Man I hope it’s smooth sailing from here on out. It’s so close I can taste it. It tastes like plastic and metal so it’s pretty gross but I can still taste it.

  138. Tonto said 3 months ago:

    The cake is a lie, Mother 3 in English is not.

  139. buttfrenzy said 3 months ago:

    THIS IS PERFECT! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT. I ALMOST THOUGHT I’D NEVER SEE THIS DAY. Now I know what I was celebrating when I boozed tonight :D :D

    THANK YOU MATO. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

  140. Kirk said 3 months ago:

    When I first heard that Nintendo was not planning a US release of Mother 3, I, like many others I’m sure, was incredibly disheartened. But then you guys came along and gave us all hope. You guys really are heroes. To us, anyway.

    Let me demonstrate a strange power before I go. I realized this power as a child.

    PSI Thank You! Now!

  141. UW Ness said 3 months ago:

    WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

    High fives all around!!!!

  142. UW Ness said 3 months ago:

    Oh and might I add, “the hacking is the main thing holding everything up” ;)

  143. UW Ness said 3 months ago:

    Crap, I stuck a ‘no longer’ in there with arrows, but they fainted. :(

  144. Molor- said 3 months ago:

    w00t, fiesta!

    Good work, Mato and co!

  145. bunz said 3 months ago:

    i dont even know what to say, i am so unbeleivably happy right now. thi sis something that we as earthbound fans have deserved and we are finally getting it. my thanks goes out to mato and all those who have been working on this roject.

  146. Obby said 3 months ago:

    Awesome.

  147. Rawlandsabeast said 3 months ago:

    # shade said 2 hours, 31 minutes ago:
    *falls over*
    Ten years. Ever since I first read that sign in Fourside.
    Ten Freaking years. And it’ll all be over soon. Gods among men, you are.
    Here’s the best part: Ten years ago, I was 13, and I bought EB for my 13th birthday. If you can’t see the irony here, you haven’t played EB/M2 enough.
    I’m gonna go play Earthbound again. On my still-working SNES.

    Rawlandsabeast:
    I’ve always HATED that sign…
    I tried cause every glitch I could think of to break into that building, even though I knew the coding didn’t include anything there.
    In just over a month I’ll be able to walk in through the front door.
    Thank you Mato.

    Btw, yes I do know that the building is said to be having a meeting to plan Earthbound 2, and not actually claiming to house the game its self. I don’t care.

  148. 8BitWalugi said 3 months ago:

    MATO! IM SO EXCITED! YOUR KILLING ME HERE! THE SUSPENCE! THE SUSPENCE!!!! GAH!

  149. Rawlandsabeast said 3 months ago:

    MATO, not that big of a deal, but thought that I’d point out that the “downloads” section says that there’s still a few months of work to do.
    It’s ~1 month or less from what I understand, so…
    Just sayin.

  150. Corncracker said 3 months ago:

    I just managed to destroy the very fiber of my spirit by watching the PResidential debate and listening to the mind numbing crab that was spewed from one of the canidates mouth. (To avoid political debates, I’ll avoid specifics. :p)

    You, however, have cast Healing Ω on my once defeated soul and restored it to its proper place.

    I thank you.

  151. samlzx said 3 months ago:

    You guys are so professional

    Thankyou for everything you all had done…

  152. TSU said 3 months ago:

    I’ve been a lurker on this blog since around December and as a huge, huge, huge fan of Earthbound, (bought the thing when it came out, I still have the huge box tucked away safely in my closet.) I just want to thank you, Mato, and the entire translation team for this project. I remember when I first heard about Mother 3 and how excited I was, only to find that it wasn’t being localized. But when I found this blog (which I’ve had bookmarked and check every single day) I became ecstatic about this. I mean it when I am grateful for all the work you guys put into this. I’m really looking forward to playing this game in English. I haven’t even played it in Japanese! And I’ve tried my best to ignore Brawl and potential spoiler devices just so I can play this game with a virgin mind as I did with Earthbound.

    Thank you mother 3 translation team!

    =]

  153. Panichurtz said 3 months ago:

    …This is… This is just beautiful.

    Wait, strike that, seeing this, and seeing nothing go wrong at any point, seeing it move so smoothly… There isn’t a word for this.

  154. me said 3 months ago:

    Wow Mato… O.O
    I am just speechless.

    It is because I can hardly wait for this to come out.
    You are sooooo close! Just keep it up and the patch will be released in no time. I still remember what it was like during the sprite text wielding. ;) Now you’re almost done.

    Just out of curiosity, are you going to be taking any other projects after this? (after getting lots of rest of course)

  155. Psychomax said 3 months ago:

    hnnnngh so cool :O

  156. Millhouse said 3 months ago:

    YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!
    oh my god, this is SO EPIC. you guys are gods now, you realize that? whatever god there is will bow to you and your epicness, they will cry tears of gold because they are so happy to finally welcome you among them.

  157. (insert member here) said 3 months ago:

    Awesome? AWESOME!

    I can’t belive it.
    After so long, the hacking is done! Now it’s the testing what’s ahead. GO MATO! *gives 79284 exp. points*

  158. some_dude said 3 months ago:

    *Insert generic praise here*

  159. Millhouse said 3 months ago:

    [sorry for double post]
    what you should do is hide the download link to the patch, in the hardest way you know. in the old video hiding fashion. I really enjoyed reading the posts a few times to find the links.

    @whoever wrote this:
    for (i=0;i<a gazillion;i++) print “THANK YOU, TOMATO.\n”;
    I lol’d, does that make me a geek? I guess so.
    thanks

  160. Jenova said 3 months ago:

    Wonderful work guys.

    But since you are such perfectionists, shouldn’t you also work out the “miniscule things remain which may not be worth bothering with” as well? :) Unless it’s too much trouble, in which case, just drop it.

    Fabulous job again. ^_^

  161. CloudCereal553 said 3 months ago:

    OMFG THANK YOU SO MUCH YOUR SO DAMN CLOSE!!!!!! I DONT CARE IF I CANT TEST AD HELP U GUYS IM JUST SO DAMN HAPPY YOUR CLOSE TO FINISHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  162. kaizerxero said 3 months ago:

    So exciting! I’ve been following the translation since mother3.org (as I’m sure many of us have) and I just wanted to say congratulations on finishing the hacking! Good luck on testing!

  163. Mach said 3 months ago:

    Best of luck guys and hope you break the game less than 2 digit figures. I’ve tested a game or 2 myself (though so much smaller than this that its not that mentionable) and know what a pain it is to intentionally find flaws. Looking forwards to the patches release.

  164. BreakingOrder said 3 months ago:

    Thank you, thank you, I cannot stress this enough :D
    Test away, Mato and friends!
    Test away! (Even if it’s a pain in the butt)
    For everlasting peace!

  165. bnui_ransder said 3 months ago:

    I have also been following everything for a long time. I just wanted to say…

    This is just awesome. I wish I could help in someway, but I know nothing about this kind of thing. And you are almost done anyway.

    The level of professional-ism (is that a word?) that was packed into this is just too great to express in words.

    I am looking forward to playing probably THE best fan translation ever made!!

  166. Fredrik said 3 months ago:

    Awesome.

  167. nintendope said 3 months ago:

    Thank you very much for all of the hard work you and your comrades have done over the months! :) The fact that I will be able to play this game without a translation walkthrough means a lot to me - this game is so unique and just plain fun. I wonder, can we send thank you cards/care packages to anybody? :,O

  168. Olive said 3 months ago:

    THANK
    YOU
    SO
    MUCH!

    :D I can wait playing with Lucas, and go to New Pork City ..!

  169. Mewz said 3 months ago:

    Way to go, Mato and Jeffman (And anyone else involved), great job getting this all done. You guys put a lot of work into it, and you did good. I’m looking forward to playing Mother3, and I can’t wait to see all the hard work you guys put into it. =D

  170. tibbs said 3 months ago:

    Waiting for this patch is such a sweet torture… Congrats to the team for all the hacking!

  171. Slaanash said 3 months ago:

    The end is near!

    Good job, to all of you!

    Know that you are appreciated by all of us for your meticulos work!

  172. kalbtrombone said 3 months ago:

    O_O

    YAY!

  173. Mattiac said 3 months ago:

    :D GREAT WORK! THANK YOU VERY MUCH! :D

    @iluvpudding4eva: I suggested donations in an earlier comment. I think it’s a great idea! What do you think, Mato-san?

  174. Trimalchio said 3 months ago:

    Where is Mitch?

  175. jellytack said 3 months ago:

    oh THANK YOU so very very much… i haven’t quite finished chapter 3 with the menu patch, so hopefully i won’t be able to get through the rest before the patch is finished! :)

    HOORAY FOR YOU GUYS!!! HOORAY FOR CAKE!!!

  176. MasterInsan0 said 3 months ago:

    This is amazing. I’ve been following the Mother 3 translation project for months now and to see it finally getting near completion…well, I think I’m getting misty-eyed. A world of win goes to Mato, Jeffman, and the entire team. =D

  177. Vagn said 3 months ago:

    Holy **** **** ******* ***!~*@*#$W.!!!!111~1!

    Mato I love you in the same kind of way I love drinking beer on the beach. I know; its a pretty strong statement to make. Watching that video brought back so much nostalgia from playing Earthbound for the first time, and this patch is my most anticipated video game release this fall.

    *VERY VERY SPECIFIC AND EXTREME PRAISES*

  178. billol25 said 3 months ago:

    Mi más sincera enhorabuena, “MOTHER 3 Fan Translation team”

    ————

    Congratulations, “MOTHER 3 Fan Translation team”

  179. Communitarian! said 3 months ago:

    I can not believe it. It is like magic before my eyes. No, it is not magic, or hope, or anything; it is the hard work of a dedicated team of individuals. Hard work that is not yet over… But you know the hopes of all of us who are watching this project bring this most cherished of games to availability for us are out there, cheering for you. We want you to be able to sit back and enjoy this, or just the freedom you have, after you complete such a difficult project. Don’t let the pain of testing ruin the fun you will have months after it is over… when you can play it again, and realize not only what a great game it is… But you translated it. Yourselves.

    Everything you have done, from making the game easy to translate and the love that is in the english localization is superb to most commercial projects. This means even foreign individuals like myself who love english or wish to translate the game into our own tongue(probably easier if they know english, ha ha!) will get to complete a wonderful story. I can’t say it enough… Thank you.

    Hey, everyone, let’s party! And send out the best wishes for this project, and all the sweat, blood, toil and tears that went into making! ;P

  180. Mr. Nosy said 3 months ago:

    Vague Rant-san: “Mato, I hate to be this guy, but I noticed a tiny bug in the video and wanted to make sure you were aware of it. I know you’ve spent hours and hours playing the game, so anything I notice, you’ve probably seen weeks ago, but what the hell, just in case:

    http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/3268/m3straypixelxv1.jpg

    At about 1:32-1:35 in the video there’s a stray pixel hanging about in the item description; as you can see in that picture, it appears to come from that first “e” in “Restores”. In the video, it appears to fix itself a moment later; maybe that’s your fix for it in action? I don’t know. Sorry for being this guy. Super excited for the release, my thanks to you and everyone else for your hard work.”
    You are not a party pooer, but rather really helpful. Mr. Mato definitely wants a perfect patch.

    ejgeorge-san: “kudos from the Dominican Republic”
    I go there almost every year!

    Tonto-san: “The cake is a lie, Mother 3 in English is not.”
    ____frenzy-san: “Now I know what I was celebrating when I boozed tonight”
    /evokerplz/

    Rawlandsabeast-san: “I’ve always HATED that sign…
    I tried cause every glitch I could think of to break into that building, even though I knew the coding didn’t include anything there.
    In just over a month I’ll be able to walk in through the front door.
    Thank you Mato.”
    You made that sound funny, even though that was actually frustrating.

    Millhouse-san: “@whoever wrote this:
    for (i=0;i<a gazillion;i++) print “THANK YOU, TOMATO.\n”;
    I lol’d, does that make me a geek?”
    No, that means that you are smarter than me in this area and are in par with Mr. Mato 9that is, if you know the coding language).

  181. Harry said 3 months ago:

    Guys, I really aprecciate the work you’ve done so far.
    You know you’re “heroes” for Mother series and Earthbound fans.
    I just have lost hope when I heard nintendo would not release an official translation for the game, then you all came and did THIS great…
    I’d like to thank you from the bottom of my heart.

  182. elpaulo said 3 months ago:

    This will be gr8 im gonna buy a Flash Cart next week NOW POUND THAT TESTING BABY KICK BUTT AND TAKE NAMES!!!

  183. GoAway0000 said 3 months ago:

    cant wait :D

    don’t stop now! if you do I’ll never forgive anyone that was associated in this Mother3 Project!

  184. beernutz said 3 months ago:

    Thanks guys, this is really really exciting and appreciated. Looking forward to hearing the final bit of good news!

  185. Slash said 3 months ago:

    HOORAY FOR PROGRESS!
    One a serious note though, how are you going to release the patch? Downloading from the site could take down the server, and torrents might be too much of a hassle for newbies.

  186. Chico said 3 months ago:

    freakin sweet, the video looks good, can’t wait till this is done. Big thank yous to everyone who’s worked on the project to get it this far!

  187. Belmont said 3 months ago:

    Suck on that Nintendo. You don’t give us what we want, we’ll just get it ourselves.

  188. Murmur95 said 3 months ago:

    The cake is a lie

  189. Geo said 3 months ago:

    PSP locked and loaded.

  190. tomma lomma said 3 months ago:

    wow mato, the funny thing is, if you actually took donations to this entire project, you would probably be caught up in the hugest legal battle with Nintendo right now.

    Everyone loves you for taking the time out of your hectic life to give a tried and true fan base the translation they deserve for a fantastic game.

    You honestly should be running some high up branch of Nintendo for doing this. The amount of money you could have made for technically doing this for free if you accepted donations if outrageous. Of course doing so would have drawn so much unwanted attention so I understand why you asked for no donations.

    But seriously, YOU WON!
    Thank you for showing this community and the Nintendo world the love we all have for the Mother series and the original creators (sans those damn dirty programmers and our friends who refused to localize this game in the first place).

    I am honestly going to be bummed out in a way after the final patch is released and I beat the game, knowing that this blog will die and I will not be able to follow your trials and tribulations over this game anymore.

    If you ever decide to translate any other games, please let this community know, I believe we all have found a passion in watching your work, as much as we are passionate about the Mother series.

    Great job my friend, and I wish many great things onto you as the future unfolds.

  191. Marco said 3 months ago:

    The winner is you!

  192. TheReaper08 said 3 months ago:

    Well congrats on completing all the hacking in the game and hopefully no bugs come out during testing,this is awsome news before my birthday.

  193. Sherwin said 3 months ago:

    Yesss! You guys rock! Soon.. very soon eh.. we will all be able to play Mother 3, in English! Thanks again guys!

  194. wtfitsed said 3 months ago:

    Thank you so much Mato!

  195. Ness Ness Ness said 3 months ago:

    I’ve been following this blog for a couple months now, and this is amazing! Good luck with the testing!

  196. Devon said 3 months ago:

    That means I’ll be expecting the “M3 Translation is finished!” email somewhere in October-November =D

    Great job guys!

  197. elpaulo said 3 months ago:

    Maybe Nintendo Didn’t bring it here BECAUSE OF how freaking hard the translation would be

  198. Головомозгий дешифратор said 3 months ago:

    Респект тебе…спасибо

  199. Matt said 3 months ago:

    <3

  200. Naraku2000 said 3 months ago:

    And at last starmen.net won the fight against Nintendo bringing MOTHER3 to all non-Japanese countries.

    You’re really great and I want to thank you from my deep heart. Without you all this could not be possible.

    I better leave the comment as it is before I add something gay, but anyway, keep it up, man.

  201. mechs revenge said 3 months ago:

    HELL YA *falls to the ground foaming at the mouth*

  202. nullstring said 3 months ago:

    Could we possibly get more documentation on how, why, what and by who are things being tested?

    I think it would satisfy us if you were to have each tested demonstrate progress more directly.

    maybe have a different person do an update every 3 days about what they’ve been doing and what they plan on doing

  203. Spac3G said 3 months ago:

    OH MY GOD!!!!, You’re just awesome

  204. Napoleon Solo said 3 months ago:

    Thank you for doing what Nintendo is to blind to do themselves.

  205. HellHammer said 3 months ago:

    Fan-tastic!!!!

    I love you Mato. Even if you don’t love me back.

    Keep up the boring testing and glitch catching. I need me some Mother…Besides the one that raised me.

  206. Human Being said 3 months ago:

    OMGOMGGG! This is just too awesome, and I love the robot’s battle theme. o_o

    Srsly, have my babies. XD

  207. m0olatte said 3 months ago:

    Dear Mato…

    If you would like to hide the link evilly, on a Windows computer, press Alt+0173 and apply the link to that. >:3

  208. Sconner said 3 months ago:

    FINALLY! I hope that didn’t sound like, “finally took ya long enough” but “sooooo close to playing it in english”

  209. Sconner said 3 months ago:

    Also, how long will the “spoilers” crap end after the release of the game?

  210. I-am-pancake said 3 months ago:

    Thanks Mato, Jeff and anyone else who worked on this.

  211. A Fan said 3 months ago:

    I wasn’t really looking for an ETA, more of a guideline on what you’re looking for before it’s done. But I guess what you said means that you intend to play things by ear :-)

  212. Ryan said 3 months ago:

    This is my first comment during my 3 or so months of following this blog. With this milestone update, it feels like an appropriate time to say something:

    Thank you so much, everyone who has worked on this project. This is a true testament to the MOTHER franchise and the love it has spread throughout the hearts of video gamers everywhere.

  213. Lei said 3 months ago:

    Maybe this really WILL be worth deleting my Japanese file ROM to play it in English. ;) Sweet!

    Any yes, I know how you feel, Mato–everyone thinks if they can test it, they can play the game before everyone else. It’s not that kind of freelance job at all, really. xD

  214. Adam said 3 months ago:

    Mato, Jeffman, everyone else involved:

    Give yourself SEVERAL pats on the back, heck you deserve it just a littttttttttttle bit ;) haha

    But seriously I’ve been following this blog everyday like many others here since day one and you can’t imagine how excited and grateful we all are, or maybe you can……WITCH!!!! lol

    Quick question though Mato, with improving your fix for the “the” battle text glitch, did it eliminate the problem completely or does it still happen on occasion? Just curious.

    And once again, THANK YOU!!

  215. Mato said 3 months ago:

    The “the” glitch hasn’t happened at all in the few hours of playing I’ve done since I made the fix yesterday. I’m hoping that we’ll find out more during testing. I’m much much happier with it now, at least.

  216. Lemmy Koopa said 3 months ago:

    This just totally made my day. And my day needing making. So, thanks!

    Please excuse me if I have missed this somewhere, but as you move into the final phase, have you determined how the final patch will actually be used? If the game is to be played on the computer, what emulator is recommended and what patching program should be used? Will it be possible to apply the patch to a physical copy of the game, and if so, how? If it can be done, I’m not opposed to buying the actual cartridge and whatever is needed to transfer the patch on to it; but I would prefer to have whatever I need by the time the patch is ready so I don’t have to go out and get it after the patch is already available.

    Thanks again!

  217. Jock said 3 months ago:

    Omg omg omg! The light at the end of the tunnel nearly burns my eyes out of my skull. So close now. SO CLOSE NOW!! You guys are blessed!! Thank you

  218. blahmoomoo said 3 months ago:

    Lemmy Koopa: a guide with all of those questions answered and more will be released after the patch is released. The patch is intended to work on both ROMs and actual cartridges (with an extra piece of hardware to do the patching, of course).

  219. apteryx said 3 months ago:

    sweet dude, keep it up!

  220. SmashBass said 3 months ago:

    you guys are awesome. you are the best thing that could have happened to mother 3 out of japan

  221. Demolisho said 3 months ago:

    I hope you get a medal made of pie.

  222. EBPlayer said 3 months ago:

    I love you guys. Did you know that?

    So close to the end!

  223. Kale said 3 months ago:

    This has got to be a record for replys/minute on this site. Glad to contribute
    Also, my loins are tingling with anticipation to play this game.

  224. MasterDS said 3 months ago:

    TASTE THE HAPPY!

  225. Arashi said 3 months ago:

    I went CRAZY when I saw this. I ran around the house, hugged my bro, jumped into the air, screamed like an idiot, and rolled on the floor like a doggie. THANK YOU MATO, YOU JUST MADE MY AWESOME SATURDAY EVEN BETTER

  226. Silver256 said 3 months ago:

    I’m still wondering about the weird artifact where part of the feather blacks out during where you buy items. I don’t want to upset anyone by actually pointing out a bug, but is that a real bug, or just a video compression artifact?

    Here’s a screenshot: http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/6127/63614281fh9.png

    I’m just saying this, because most of us want a perfect Mother 3 translation.

  227. Mato said 3 months ago:

    It’s a video artifact.

  228. lemon pie said 3 months ago:

    Lemmy Koopa:

    How you should get ready for now is by download yourself a working Mother 3 ROM. It shouldn’t be too hard to find. It should be around 32 MB (but the file will probably be compressed). I THINK applying the patch is extremely easy to do, and doesn’t require additional software.

    But yeah, I recommend you do that. :)

  229. lemon pie said 3 months ago:

    And also, I think it’s NOT recommended that you apply it into a GBA cartridge ’cause the hardware you need is expensive and I remember it was mentioned that it may or may not work… I don’t recall very well, maybe someone else can confirm.

  230. TBird said 3 months ago:

    I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Mato does what Nintendon’t.

  231. elpaulo said 3 months ago:

    Man Mato you deserve a 100000000000000 foot tall Nobel Peace Prize

  232. Jay said 3 months ago:

    Can you give us a rough estimate on how long you and your team will be testing out the game before releasing the patch mainstream? few weeks? few months?

    Thanks :-D

  233. Karuvitomsk said 3 months ago:

    @Jay: A few weeks. Roughly a month, at most.

  234. Jupiter-x said 3 months ago:

    Lemmy:

    From the FAQ:
    “I own a Japanese MOTHER 3 cartridge. Will I be able to put the final translation on it?

    No, there is no way to delete or replace the data on a cartridge. If you want to play the translation on a real system, you’ll need what’s called a “flash cart” or “flash card”.”

    Flash Cart discourse is really more suited for the spillover board, though.

  235. Happy Lee said 3 months ago:

    Hee hee, Nintendon’t.

    Uh, Lemmy, as for the type of emulator: I don’t know how this would go with the patch, but for just the ROM I had difficulty with Boycott Advance. It crashed before it even reached the title screen. VisualBoy Advance seemed to run smoothly, though.

  236. N-Dawg said 3 months ago:

    @ arashi
    same here but it was after i came home from my soccer game so i didnt hug ne1

  237. That Cray Guy said 3 months ago:

    HIP HIP HOORAY!
    HIP HIP HOORAY!

    The way the post are coming in on this board makes me think about Earthbound so much. It’s like Mato Just defeated Giygas and he’s on his journey home, with all the characters appearing to congratulate him on his job and to get in a few last lines. The games not quite over, but the boss is defeated, and the rest of the game becomes a scenic walk, reminding you of all the hardships you went thru on your epic journey. Now I’m so excited I may just have to go back and play Earthbound again. Dang, this will be the third time since I’ve started keeping track of the Mother3 translation process. My thanks go out to you Mato and crew.

  238. ZPE said 3 months ago:

    Wow…this is great! :)

  239. RamblinGirl said 3 months ago:

    :DDDD I’m so excited, as we all are.

    Thank you.

  240. raiderx said 3 months ago:

    I just exploded in my pants.

  241. Sconner said 3 months ago:

    I am glad that a certain someone is no longer here posting. Starmen.net, please accept my friend invite on youtube!
    You should make a “petition movie” and have as many people as possible respond to your video just showing a thumbs-up or say I want Mother 3!

  242. seedvt said 3 months ago:

    I concur with raiderx.

  243. oddly said 3 months ago:

    The translation will be ready before Christmas. What a great gift, guys!

  244. Zaxtur said 3 months ago:

    Test away, Matosan.

  245. Bat Fax said 3 months ago:

    I remember asking this long ago, but any plans to try to parody the original EB64 trailer when the game gets released?

  246. theqat said 3 months ago:

    Oh. Man. So excited.

  247. Kiniest said 3 months ago:

    :D Finally! And rigt on my Birthday!

  248. gBev said 3 months ago:

    Seriously I now feel this video fits even more:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSvpqRPu3OU

  249. I have to contain my girlish shreeks.... said 3 months ago:

    Bob
    *SCREAAAAAAAAAAMS!!!!!*

  250. FranzKafka said 3 months ago:

    can i beta test
    Just kidding! Congrats, guys!

  251. Zeldarocks said 3 months ago:

    Mato, In one of your earlier videos you said that you were going to upload all the videos and stuff that happened throughout the hacking period, any estimates on when you’ll be able to do it?

  252. Edrees said 3 months ago:

    WOWWWWWW. I CAN FEEL IT COMING :) Good luck on the testing!!!!!!!!!!!!! IM EXCITED :D

  253. bananaman said 3 months ago:

    OMG. My head just exploded.

    BANANAMAN CANNOT COMPREHEND THE AWESOMENESS OF THE MOTHER 3 FAN TRANSLATION

    For(i=0,<9000!,i=i+1) {
    cout << “GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MATO!!!!!” + \n;
    cout << “YOUUUU ROOOOOCK!” + \n;
    cout << “YOU GET 999 COOKIES AND OVER 1,000,000 EXPERIENCE POINTS! THE NUMBER IS SO HIGH THAT YOU GO TO MEGA-AWESOME-SUPER-RANK!” + \n;
    }

  254. Kinda said 3 months ago:

    Wow. The time is almost here! Great job Mato and everyone, seriously. This update just made my day, thank you. ^^

  255. Leafeon said 3 months ago:

    Mato, you’re the only tomato I don’t hate :D

  256. NeoXCS said 3 months ago:

    This is amazing, it feels like forever since the hacking began, and now it’s done! I bet it felt much longer to you though. I wouldn’t want to have to hack something like this myself. But I’m so excited that this is finally on the testing phase! My friends will be freaking out when I tell them just how “potentially” close M3 is now! =) You’re one crazy M3 fan, but aren’t we all here? =P

  257. Sharkgod999 said 3 months ago:

    Mato and company,

    You’ve traveled very far from home…

    Do you remember how your journey began with someone pounding at your door? It was a Japanese Mother 3 ROM, the worst game to hack in your neighborhood, who knocked on your door that fateful night.

    On your way you have hacked, thought, and fought. Yet, through all this you have not lost your courage. You have grown steadily stronger, though you have experienced the pain of hacking many times.

    You are no longer alone in your adventure. Reidman,who is steadfast, kind, and even pretty, is always at your side. Jeffman is with you as well. Though he is timid, he came from a distant land to help you. Mato, as you certainly know by now, you are not a regular tomato. You have an awesome destiny to fulfill.

    The journey from this point will be long, and it will be more difficult than anything you have undergone to this point. Yet I know you will be alright. When fans battle Nintendo, which side do you believe wins? Do you have faith that fans are triumphant?

    One thing you must never lose is courage. If you believe in the goal you are striving for, you will be courageous. There are many difficult times ahead, but you must keep your sense of humor, work through the tough situations and enjoy yourself. When you have finished your cup of coffee, your adventure will begin again. Next, you must pass through a vast desert of play-testing and proceed to the big Final Release.

    Mato,
    Reidman,
    Jeffman,
    and Friends…

    I wish you luck…

    P.S. Man, how many people were born in September? Almost every 4th post has had something about a b-day release.

  258. The Super Elated Bubble-Gum Monkey said 3 months ago:

    YESH! YESH! THIS IS DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OUR ROUND RED HERO OF HACKING HAS DONE IT!

    THANK YOU MATO!!!! THANK YOU TEAM! THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO HELPED DEFEAT THE EVIL LORD BLOCK ZERO! My heart skipped a beat as soon as I saw my dream of a playable Mother 3 come true on the blog. Speaking of which, I’ve prepared a special Epilogue for Mato’s “return journey” after the final boss…

    ♪Background song- Pollyanna(I Believe in You)♪

    Narrator: And so, Mato and co. safely made the journey home. On their way back, everyone thought of how far they had come, and Mato smiled to himself as he thought “job well done, now to take care of the testing”…
    Along the way back to his house to celebrate with a party and a long deserved good night’s rest, Mato mused on all the places he had been, the people he met, and most importantly on never giving up no matter how hard the struggle. The Legend of Mato will live on!

    Until Next Time Mother fans!

    *Credits*
    END. . . ?

  259. The Super Elated Bubble-Gum Monkey said 3 months ago:

    Sorry for double posting, but I don’t think me saying something can describe how excited I am that you did this. You have now earned the status of a legendary game hacker. In your honor, I will read every bit of English text when this patch comes out, without skipping ANY of it. I don’t think anyone’s done what your team has with this game. The doubters and the critics should be feeling pretty ashamed of theirselves by now. again, wonderful job! :D

  260. Light Wolf said 3 months ago:

    OMG, that’s freaking awesome!!!!

    Congrats, and thanks yet again for making this possible.

    :)

  261. Sconner said 3 months ago:

    As awesome as reidman is, this is where Tomato and Jeff deserve their fair share of credit.

    What if they made a tomato assist trophy or character in the next Smash Bros. game…?

  262. Mato said 3 months ago:

    zeldarocks: I’ll probably do that after the patch is out. Some interesting stuff in here though. I also recently zipped up all the random image files I’ve made/collected during the project which I’ll put up for people to look through someday.

  263. popolord said 3 months ago:

    is it going to be tested on a vbag emulator?

  264. Skyla Doragono said 3 months ago:

    Congratulations, guys. Finally near the end of the long, dark road. :3

  265. Spedav said 3 months ago:

    Hi, I’ve been lurking and watching this project since almost the beginning and now that it’s almost here I just had to thank you guys for all the hard work you’ve been doing. Earthbound was one of my favorite games as a kid and I’m so glad that I get to play Mother 3 in English even though Nintendo let me/us down and didn’t translate it. Good job.

  266. paper_otavio said 3 months ago:

    Good job,Mato.First time I`ve posted here and all I can say is,like everyone else,your work has been wonderful to every Mother 3 fan who does not understand Japanese.I have great gratitude for you and the other hackers who have gone on the sole purpose to create a translation for all of us.Good job hackers,I hope you all get good rests for I know all who download this translation will be in great gratitude of your work.

    ~gamefaqs member.

  267. iOTA said 3 months ago:

    About time! I can’t wait to play this.

    Hopefully nothing crazy happens, like Nintendo shutting the project down.

  268. powerfox said 3 months ago:

    First i would like to say: WOOOOOOOOOOOO IT”S ALMOST DONE! WOOOOOOO
    second: are you going to test the hack on wii homebrew? like the GBA emulator for it?

  269. Avaeccus said 3 months ago:

    When the patch does come out, I promise to play it as thoroughly as possible, to fully take in the glory of the game, and the toil of this translation.

  270. zyboser said 3 months ago:

    ^ Amen to that!

  271. 8BitWalugi said 3 months ago:

    If you call the EBA’s now, Pollyana will play.
    Who’s played EBA, Ouendan or Osu!? Just imagine Pollyana as a beatmap and there you go! Oh, wait… THE BEATMAP EXISTS! If only i could play Osu!… damn…
    GOOD LUCK! May no errors show up and ruin the suspence!

  272. zero to hero said 3 months ago:

    Bodlongs everywhere will dance with joy when we have our Mother 3. Cheers Mato!!

  273. Frostshock said 3 months ago:

    Alright! I suppose I should go…find Mother 3 now.

  274. Dorkus1218 said 3 months ago:

    YES. im so pumped to play this. i guess i should really finish earthbound now….. *hides in shame*

  275. Weth said 3 months ago:

    Wow, Time to start playing Earthbound, so I can start Mother 3 when I’m done.

    I say we get together and form a cheer squad for Mato and Jeffman.

  276. Richarbro said 3 months ago:

    Still amazed at what you guys have done and how hard you guys have worked.

    Thankyou!

  277. Mewz said 3 months ago:

    So, random question for you Mato.

    Are you going to supply us with a guide on how to patch the ROM, or are you just going to give us a nice little autopatcher. And, thanks again for all your hard work. =3 (And to everyone else who worked on this)

  278. That Random Guy Down The Street said 3 months ago:

    OK, thanks for the correction. We hope for a timely and relatively glitch-free testing period. Go beet the shit out of those glitches. (Haha, get it? Beet? Cause a beet is a vegetable and Tomato’s a…fruit. Dammit.)

    One more thing: Will you be doing a slow leak of information all the way up to the release date? (Similar to what Shigesato Itoi did with his Mother 3 site, just some nostalgia/mockery/good old slapstick irony)

  279. Vagn said 3 months ago:

    RTFF: Read the ****ing Faq

  280. Kaleidoskull said 3 months ago:

    Absolutely fantastic job, Mato! Though, I’m surprised… Looking at the video, this translation really DOES look professional. Amazing work! Can’t wait for the release! :D

  281. Sconner said 3 months ago:

    I had to post one more time today:
    When the final patch comes out and the spoilers are over, we should try to figure out the similiarities and differences between EB 64! I recognized an important scene where they’re hanging on to a plane, but it’s supposed to be with Kumatora and not flint. Something tells me that Flint would have been in brawl if EB 64 came out.

  282. Kamion said 3 months ago:

    I love you.

    Really, I do. This is so awesome, I can finally play the game again, soon :] and this time it won’t take ages because my Japanese sucks.

  283. Mattiac said 3 months ago:

    Dear Mato-san, I’m from Sweden I have therefore the authority to give you and your team the Nobel Prize in translation! ;) :) Congratulations and thank you for all the hard, professional and beautiful work!

  284. Mattiac said 3 months ago:

    Dear Mato-san (again), we’re gonna need you and your fantastic team once again one day when aliens land here for the first time. Only you can tell them “Do you come in peace? If you don’t; we have Chuck Norris! But if you do come in peace; we also have Martha Stewart.” Or maybe we should mention Martha first so we don’t sound hostile?? Please give Sweden your feedback before the landing. Thanks in advance! :D Then would you be given your second Nobel Prize in translation. ;)

  285. Reg teh Yoshi said 3 months ago:

    When the patch comes out, I will first play through the game talking to every NPC and fight every enemy at least 2 times. And then do the same thing 5 times.

    Oh yes, I am set :3

  286. Mattiac said 3 months ago:

    @Sharkgod999: I was born 30 September 1980.

  287. hank said 3 months ago:

    Hey Mato i have a question! I know this might sound silly but here goes. Have you ever had any dreams(or nightmares!) about this hack or lucas or anything mother related during your sleep?

    i would be surprised if you havnt =P

  288. david said 3 months ago:

    thank you so much i have nothing but respect for you guys because yall dont start a translation and stop like some other people we all appreciate you guys work

  289. Negi said 3 months ago:

    Mato, could you explain how you fixed the morphing thing?

  290. blueflare said 3 months ago:

    Mother 3 Fan Translation Team=Heroes.

    Anyone who disagrees will be chastised on sight.

  291. Arifan said 3 months ago:

    Incredible! I didn’t think it would be done so soon. You guys deserve a round of applause for your hard work. I can’t wait to get my hands on this.

  292. XYZ said 3 months ago:

    I LOVE YOU GUYS.

  293. Max said 3 months ago:

    Great!
    I want Mother 3 to come out already!
    Would someone pass me the controls for this game on emulator?
    I am a little confused.
    Please help me on this, I am a little confused.

  294. me said 3 months ago:

    A and B are z and x respectively.
    a is eqivilant to L and the same with s and R.
    space is to accelerate time.
    backspace is select.
    And, of course, arrow keys are the control pad.
    Hope that helped! :)

  295. Arashi said 3 months ago:

    You can alter the controls however you want

  296. John H. said 3 months ago:

    I am the third happiest of all of us.

  297. Acacia Sgt said 3 months ago:

    No! I am the third happiest!

  298. Acacia Sgt said 3 months ago:

    Wait, it should be ‘most happy’ not ‘happiest’. Doesn’t matter, I’m still third!

  299. ForteMP3 said 3 months ago:

    The light at the end of the tunnel has turned from a distant dim glow into a shining radiance.

    Mato, I salute you. I look forward to the release once the weeks of testing have gone by! Best of luck to you guys! It’s all down to this final push! Give it everything you’ve got! We’re cheering for you! And…

    …To heck with you all, I AM THE THIRD HAPPIEST. KNOW THE TRUE POWER OF BEING NUMBER 3!

  300. InvaderKED said 3 months ago:

    I’ve never really liked tomatoes, but this website has changed my opinion on them :P
    it feels kinda weird to just register to this website when the projects almost over but, i still wanna wish luck to all of the people who are working to translate this awesome game :D

    im really looking forward to playing this game ^_^

  301. Unsavory Maggot said 3 months ago:

    This is cool. You did a great job.

  302. mothersushi88 said 3 months ago:

    An excellent job well done and a tremendous undertaking by you and all the members of your team, Mato. As a mother fan for years, I’ve always been excited to take 10 minutes out of my day and check the site for any progress on the translation project. The hard work that has been done over months and months now will affect thousands of people once the final patch is released. I think I can safely say that the excitement right now is unreal. Thanks for the memories and bringing one of the greatest games ever to the fans.

  303. Jigga Brown said 3 months ago:

    Mato, or anyone, will i be able to use the patch on a mac?

  304. rawlandsabeast@hotmail.com said 3 months ago:

    AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
    I screamed.
    Cause I didn’t know what else to do.

  305. mother3isgood said 3 months ago:

    Ready to scream “YAY IT’S ALMOST DONE!!!!1!!!one”?

  306. Biiaru said 3 months ago:

    Not that my opinion means that much, but I definitely think that you guys should do as much of the minor hacking as possible. People are going to expect this game to be perfect, you know…

    Not that I’m not thankful that you guys have gotten all the major stuff done! It was one hell of a lot of work you guys did, and you should feel very good about yourselves! You’ve attained awesome. :D

    I absolutely can’t wait to play this. Congratulations!

  307. Sam said 3 months ago:

    This has probably been answered before, but with all the reprogramming and translation, will the patch increase the size of the original .gba file above 32MB? If so, by approximately how much?

    The reason why I ask is because my flash cart, like a good deal of old GBA flash carts, has a maximum storage of 32MB (256 Megabits), and I need to know if I need to find and purchase a new one to compensate.

  308. EarthboundFanatic said 3 months ago:

    Finally the long wait is almost over. I’ve been waiting countless years to play this game.I appreciate this more than can be put into words.Thank you everyone who helped make it possible.I love you guys.

  309. kevinchai said 3 months ago:

    “This has probably been answered before, but with all the reprogramming and translation, will the patch increase the size of the original .gba file above 32MB? If so, by approximately how much?”

    No, 256Mb is the max size possible for GBA games. Somehow Mato has found a way to put in all the new info without increasing the file size. I don’t know anything about ROM hacking.

  310. kevinchai said 3 months ago:

    When I say Mato, I mean it could be anybody.

  311. Kajin said 3 months ago:

    Holy shit, I have been waiting to hear this news since my freshman year of college. Godspeed!
    Any suggestion on what kind of flash cart to get?

  312. ryuzaki said 3 months ago:

    this line looks pretty funny:

    it means playing stuff over and over… it’s NOT FUN

    LoL

  313. 8675309 said 3 months ago:

    way to go guys! now lets blow this sucker and go home!

  314. ujgujgj said 3 months ago:

    *Gives Mato skip sandwich XD*

  315. nick henry said 3 months ago:

    Ive been around since the mother3.org forums and im just really happy yall are almost done

  316. Harveyjames said 3 months ago:

    Congratulations from Korea! Hold Tight!~

  317. Millhouse said 3 months ago:

    @Sharkgod999: you’re villainous wrench! I was about to make that joke!

    ah, I guess first come, first served…

    ALL HAIL TO THE MATO-MATO

  318. Tenniru said 3 months ago:

    You know, after all this, Mother 3 had better be a darn good game. Anything less than the bar set by EB would be undeserving of all this work.

    This was probably answered already, but in the translation, is this referred to as Mother 3 or EarthBound 2?

  319. 8BitWalugi said 3 months ago:

    # Weth said 9 hours ago:

    Wow, Time to start playing Earthbound, so I can start Mother 3 when I’m done.

    I say we get together and form a cheer squad for Mato and Jeffman.

    Amen to that.
    Can I be Agent J? Or Ryuta Ippongi?

  320. Vinnie said 3 months ago:

    HOORAY ALMOST THERE THANKS SO MUCH MATO AND CREW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  321. Sleepy, Staring said 3 months ago:

    *Squeals*

    Oh God, THIS is the best thing I’ve yet to read on this blog. It just keeps getting better and better.

    I estimate that I’m not quite as happy as the first and second happiest poster, but definitely happier than the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth happiest.

  322. Foffano said 3 months ago:

    Oooooh… =O

  323. Nobody’s off the hook. » And that’s how we found out who the princess was. said 3 months ago:

    […] other news… the MOTHER 3 fan translation is almost complete, which is great news for those of us who have been waiting forever and ever to […]

  324. Happy Lee said 3 months ago:

    Oh, MAN…the music to Mother 3 is so righteous! That sound player is TIGHT! And so…tantalizing!

    I don’t think I’ve properly thanked Mato enough for his labor. I’d seriously kill a cow in your honor.

    (Whoops…maybe I’m reading TOO MUCH Homer…)

  325. Vagn said 3 months ago:

    ALL HAIL KING MATO!

  326. Cieno said 3 months ago:

    Gratz and thanks for all the hard work you guys.

    Also just wanted to say that, IMHO, I think it would make more sense to recruit some extra people to help with the testing. Especially since it’s just testing over and over again, would make more sense to have more people playing it, on several different compy systems than just that same few people on the same few systems. But as I said thats my own humble opinion.

    THANKS AGAIN!! ^_^

  327. Mikey said 3 months ago:

    Good Job Mato after this you go on a long vacation lol :P

  328. Sconner said 3 months ago:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apK7UDH8XK0

    Tribute to Ness. If I get 500 views, I’ll make one for Lucas and if I get 1,000 views, I’ll also make one for Ninten.

  329. Sconner said 3 months ago:

    Oh did anyone see the new DS by the way? It’s gonna have a camera and Music player in it as well!
    AND the press conference is gonna be 10/2! It would be painfully ironic if Nintendo announced Mother 3 in the US XD

  330. Mato said 3 months ago:

    Somehow I doubt they’re going to announce a US release at a Japanese conference. The only kick in the butt that could happen is if they announce a compilation or something. No way would I ever hack this game all over again. I really really doubt it’ll ever happen though.

  331. Crocket said 3 months ago:

    Yay! Gratz guys. good luck testing :)

  332. glemmstengal said 3 months ago:

    damn Mato, that Rhinocerocket kicked your ass!

    anyway, on a more serious note there is nothing I can say that hasn’t been said, so a simple thanks will suffice

    actually, re: all the people saying “fix the little things”

    this guy has put a ridiculous amount of time into doing this with no pay, so be happy with what you’re getting (which looks perfect to me anyway, when I watch the youtube video I feel like I’m watching an official Nintendo translation)

  333. Mato said 3 months ago:

    By “miniscule things”, I really do mean miniscule. There’s a bug in the original game, for example. To see it for yourself, go to the naming screen at the start of the game. Put the cursor at the very top-right. Press up. Then press right. Instead of going to the “don