Early MOTHER 3 Translation on Actual Hardware
Things are still coming along well. I’ve been a little distracted these past few days but will be coming up to the 90%s of the first draft soon. My sleep schedule’s suddenly gone even more berserk lately too. Need to get that in proper order. It’s already 5:30 in the morning, yikes.
Anyway, I usually strive for 2 updates or so a week. Nothing too particularly new to show this time, though some hacking breakthroughs have been made already, and it looks like some of the hardest stuff is in the process of being hacked up excellently.
A lot of people have asked about what this project’s goal is — for some reason some people think it’s to create a text file translation. It’s not, it’s going to be a patch you can apply to a Japanese MOTHER 3 ROM to turn everything into English. You can then play this on your emulator… or if you have the right equipment, you can even play it on a real system! That includes the original Game Boy Advance, the GBA SP, a Nintendo DS, a DS Light, a GBA Micro, and even the Game Boy Player accessory you can attach to a GameCube, which lets you play GBA games on your TV. Lots of options there!
To sort of demonstrate this, I made a short video of a very early version of our translation running on a GB Player. The main script routine still hasn’t been 8-bit-ified yet, so all the main text in this video is still in Japanese. But as before, lots of battle / menu / items / music player stuff has been hacked somewhat. Again, it’s all very early. But anyway, this video shows stuff working on a real system.
(NOTE: This video is stuff from the very beginning of the first chapter of the game. There are no real big story spoilers, but view at your own discretion of course.)
Yeah, my living room is boring and full of nerd crap 😛
The translation looks doubly awesome on a DS, except I could barely manage to take the video above. No way I could try to get good footage of a DS running the translation. But trust me, it’s looking awesome. I personally like to play M3 on the big screen, but since I’m a busy guy I usually play it on my DS 10 or 15 minutes before zonking out for the night. It’s really awesome how you can take a GBA cart and play it in so many different systems like that. I wish more games were like that.
I’m no expert on flash carts or anything, so I’m not really the guy to explain how to get this stuff working. All I know for sure is that it’d cost people more money for this extra hardware than they’re probably willing to pay. Maybe at some point later on sblur can talk about that stuff more, he’s knows way more about GBA hardware than me. In any case, the patch will still work just fine in emulators, so you can play it on your computer if you want too. In fact I suspect 99% of all players will do just that.
Anyway, as you might’ve noticed in the videos, a lot of the menus are starting to look slightly better. That’s thanks to some real recent work by Jeffman and sblur. Jeffman got a basic VWF working for the main item menu, and it luckily turned out that many other menus use the same code to display text, so those other places got the VWF working too. Convenient 😀
For now I’m just gonna keep chugging away at the script. The hacking side is speeding up quick here too. Hitting the November release is definitely going to be tough, but we’re still trying for it!
Tomato, your room is fantastically nerdy. I approve.
It’s good to hear that it’s coming along so well. XD I wish cart dumping was a bit easier, but at least I own the original cart, so.. I guess it doesn’t matter so much.
Thanks for the update Tomato.
It was nice seeing some of the work on the GBA Player for the Game Cube.
As Jean said, there’s nothing wrong with having a nerdy living room. Lets see you top the Apple Kid’s living room. =P
Haha, Anyways. Thank you so much for all your hard work as well as everyone elses. It’s appreciated by many.
*applause*
Good to know that it’s proceeding well, the text in the battles really looks cool. And the Mr. Saturn on top of your TV is pure win.
And by the by, is that a Mother 3 poster on the wall? Cause it looks awesome.
Doesn’t a flash cart simply entail using a linker to connect the flash cartridge to your PC, then uploading the ROM to the cart using specialized software? I thought the process seemed pretty simple, but then I’ve never actually attempted to do it.
baxter: Yeah, that’s the basic idea, but apparently not all flash cartridges are equal. Some people on the team have had a hard time getting stuff to work, stuff like the game freezing/resetting at certain points, save games not working at all, etc. Though I think sblur might have fixed those issues now. That’s why I say he’s better suited to explain the details than I am 😛
coolkalle: Yeah, that’s a Mother 3 poster. I have way tons more M3 merchandise. I don’t think there are any major spoilers but here’s my stuff: 1 , 2
If you are interested in flashcarts – GBAtemp.net
is a good place to start off.
I hope this post is not considered spam; as I’m trying to help them out.
Please don’t post where do I get ROMs and what is a flashcart – there are plenty of guides already that can help you make that decision.
If you do however want my opinion you can PM me – JPeezy on Starmen.net or JPH11200 on GBAtemp.net
Awesome room man.
Oh, nice translation work too 😉
TOMATO: Where did you get that lamp?
Hey, thanks for the Vid Tomato. Oh, and I was looking at your Nerd stuff. Pretty sweet. As for that Mother 3 GBA Micro, You can mail that to me. Y’know, Incase you get tired of looking at it. I will gladly take it from your hands.
Keep up the great work
Dusty: I got it at a place called Cost Plus World Market many years ago. Their web site doesn’t have too much stuff on it, but if you can find one of their actual stores, there’s so much awesome cool stuff to be had. I’m not really sure, but you could *possibly* find similar stuff at places like Ikea, Pier 1, and such.
Truly fantastic.
I may have to break into your house and steal your Super Plush Saturn, though.
Keep the doors locked.
*dooDOOdoo*
I own EZ-Flash IV, which uses a miniSD card (sold separately) to store the ROMs. It comes with a miniSD USB adapter which allows you to copy ROMs from your Windows computer to the card using their specialized software. I paid around $30 for the flash cart kit and about $27 for a 2 GB miniSD card from Newegg (you don’t need one that big, but be sure to get a compatible size!). Most mini or microSD cards come with a regular SD card adapter, so you can also use it to back up your Wii saves! Here is some more info on the flash cart. Read it carefully before deciding to purchase anything.
EZ-Flash IV Basic Usage and FAQ:
http://ezflash.sosuke.com/wiki/index.php?title=EZFlash_4
EZ-Flash IV Tutorial:
http://ezflash.sosuke.com/wiki/index.php?title=EZFlash_IV_Tutorial
I dumped the Mother 3 ROM using the “Flash 2 Advance” USB-to-GBA link cable and the FlashManager software (http://gbfan.web.infoseek.co.jp/USB_Linker_Advance/FlashManager_install.html). I paid about $20 for this cable, but you don’t need it if you can find the ROM online (but please go purchase the import game too!)
Once you get Mother 3 on the card, boot the cart up in your GBA/DS, select the ROM, and hit SELECT to transfer it into the NOR memory. It will take up all of it, so if these guys are forced to expand the ROM size, this cart will not work!
Once this is done, you just have to select Mother 3 in the cart’s menu system and it’ll boot up the game normally. In my short time of playing it on the cart, it seemed to play identically to the original version.
If you don’t count the link cable, which you don’t need if you can get the ROM elsewhere, I paid about $50 for the capability to play Mother 3 on my DS. I’m sure there are other options out there, but I wanted to post about this one since I know for a fact it’ll work for Mother 3.
I saw VodkaSan and TomatoSan plushes!
How di dyou make those? :O
I’m actually getting a flash card for, among other things, this when it’s released. I like playing on actual hardware more than computers anyway.
Yeah, me too, charade.
Also, um… is there some way to put it on a DS flashcard? (as in one for the ds slot) because that would be endless awesome.
Steve: We can’t expand the ROM, it’s already at its limit. That’s why we have to 8-bit-ify the main script and stuff, and even then hopefully we’ll have enough room.
doseisan: they’re actually ceramic, not plushes.
The Mother 3 english rom be 256Mb(32MB) like japanese version or bigger?
It will still be 256Mb. We can’t expand it due to technical limitations.
Mato: Thanks for the clarification. Shows how much I know about GBA programming! Oh and sorry for the huge comment earlier…I went a little nuts there.
No Steve, it’s useful info. Thanks 🙂
Mato: As per your recommendation, I went out to World Market and bought a lovely set of plates and bowls for $10. 🙂
Steve, Would it be possible to put an Earthbound rom onto a Gba cartrige using EZ Flash IV
You can’t run SNES ROMs directly off a GBA flash cart, so you would need an emulator such as SNESadvance; I’ve actually tried it and it doesn’t work too well with EarthBound.
SNEmulDS for DS flashcarts, though, works beautifully.
Everyone’s already said exactly how I feel which is basically that I can’t describe how happy this makes me. I haven’t really been following the translation projects since the release, but all this progress is so amazing I had to run out and get Mother 1+2 and Mother 3!
Keep up the great work and let me know if you guys need anything to help this process. Money, food, drinks, etc. Please, just let me know if I can help in any way.
Fantastic! Always great to hear more good news.
Also, your room is sweet!
I’m trying to understand this, Would it work if i got a mother 2 GBA rom and use a GBA flash cart to play it on my DS?
Yeah, that’d work, but you’d be playing Mother 1+2, not EarthBound. Which is probably okay if you don’t mind playing the game in Japanese.
It’s too bad that there isn’t a Mother 1+2 translation in the works somewhere else. Having the Mother Series on My GBA flashcart in my GBA Micro would be sweet.
What is the most reliable flash cart that i could get my hands on for a relativly cheap price?
jake:
there IS an mother 1 + 2 Translation out there. Its not complete but there are some people working on it,
http://www.rpgone.net , , ,, i think this is the site. (its not a link to any roms, but to an translation, wich we all know is legal.)
Enjoi
Thanks for information. I have one Ez Flash II with 256MB. Thanks for your friendship!!!
Napoleon Solo:
If I remember correctly, they just finished most of part 1, just to prove it could be done, then left it to see if it would be picked up by anyone.
Jake: Not even part 1 is completely done. You can still find some Japanese text present if you talk to some townspeople. I did some hacking in the Mother 1+2 ROM and Mother 1 is pretty straight-forward. All you need to do is transfer over the Earthbound Zero script plus make some minor changes or gather a couple people to localize from scratch (there was some censoring). Then, it’s just a matter of inserting it and expanding some of the text boxes. The tricky part is Mother 2. There isn’t even a lowercase alphabet and there’s certainly no variable width font. I imagine many of the hack jobs being done to Mother 3 would need to be done to Mother 2. I would love to be a part of the project, but it needs a more experienced hacker than I!
Still, having Mother 1, 2, and 3 fan translated or at least with the scripts transfered over would be great for handheld gaming!
hmm, i didnt notice that. it says its on hold, so maybe it they will pick it up again. it looks like they stopped at the VWF problem that the team here seems to be having.
maybe aim a little EB Seige in their directon to get them back on the project… jk jk
napoleon solo: The trick would be convincing the Mother 3 hacking/translation team to pick up Mother 1+2 after they are done (you guys hear me? :P). That is the best way to get the most consistent localization and hacking work done.
I hope they would consider doing this after taking a nice long break once Mother 3 is done, of course.
Is there any way to put this on a DS flashcart and have it work? Because that would be cooler than a GBA flashcart…
Dosei San:
No, there’s currently no emulators for GBA on the DS. Sad. But, they’re might be a way in the future.
Steve:
It has been my dream that the Mother 3 translation team would tranlate Mother 1+2 after they are finished. I say, about six months or so after they’re done, we should ask. I don’t want to ask now because it’s waaaay to early to even ask now, and I do not want to pester them about it. That would be the last thing I would want to do.
Jake: Having Mother 1, 2, and 3 in English on GBA would be outstanding. Mother 1 doesn’t have the flickering sprite issue like so many NES games and it has all of the improvements introduced in Earthbound Zero. It also has the censorship, but perhaps Itoi agreed with the changes since they were put into the GBA remake in Japan? The biggest reason for Mother 1 being portable is that it’s a little bit of a level grind and that would be perfect on the go.
The sound of Mother 2 isn’t as good, but they did fix some bugs in the game. It’s Mother fricken 2, though so I wouldn’t care too much.
Finally, it would be nice to finally call them Mother 1 and 2. Earthbound is a fine name, but if you think about it, it makes as much sense as “Mother”!
This is awesome, you guys are awesome.xxx
OMG, please tell me where i can get that MrSaturn plush.
Steve: we’ve talked about it very briefly. It’d be nice, but there’s really not even any time to think about it right now. EarthBound’s a complicated game, and the amount of hacking to make it as flexible as the SNES version would be intense. But we can cross that bridge some other time. I’d rather try to get an official release though. It’d save me/us lots of work and time that we can spend sleeping and doing other stuff 😛
Incidentally, the RPGONE project was more just a proof of concept thing. I really, really, really don’t expect any more to come of it. Not to mention that the group hasn’t been that active for years now.
mr. saturn: check the merchandise section of starmen.net. Most reliable way is to get them from Japanese auctions nowadays.
Also Mato I was wondering ifyou thought the supercard for ds (flash cart) was very reliable, or if not what your favorite flash cart was?
I don’t know much about flash carts at all so I’m not the guy to ask. Your best bet is to ask around at GBA tech sites or I think someone in one of the comments on this site had some suggestions.
Hey, does anyone know if I can dump this Rom onto an actual GBA cartridge using Games n’ music for DS by Datel? Some help would be appreciated 🙂