Some progress + a look at menus
The hacking side of things is still looking to be pretty tough, but possibly not for too much longer. More info in a bit.
First though is this. sblur 8-bit-ified the [ITEM] control code that’s used in the main script, meaning that item names now appear properly when you open gift boxes and in other situations where item names are displayed in the main script. That might not sound like much, but it definitely helps a lot when going around trying to test/play the game 😛 Here’s a before and after!
Uh, what? 
Ah, much better!
Sometimes the littlest of things can have such a big impact.
Now as I mentioned before, we’ve run into some major hacking issues and went looking for really qualified help. We netted us two new hacking guys, Kevin and Exophase. Kevin’s actually a staffer at starmen.net and has lots of ARM/THUMB assembly experience, and most importantly, experience at looking at assembly written by C compilers and then going back and fixing up the crappy job done by the compilers. Apparently the C compiler used to develop MOTHER 3 really sucks and that’s one big reason for our major hacking headaches. Hopefully he’ll be able to figure out this really weird problem with the game’s main script parser that as of right now causes horrible crashes, glitches, and insanity.
Exophase is pretty famous for his GBA emulator for the PSP, gbSP. He’s already jumped deep into the game’s coding and has documented so much. The guy’s a genius, plain and simple. Right now he’s focusing on the font/text routine in battle, which is one of THE biggest obstacles of all in the project.
So the team is even bigger now, and I’m not even sure I can recall any ROM translation projects in the past that had this many members who actively did stuff all at once. It’s really crazy. And possibly unprecedented. This whole project has this real “epic” vibe to it, trying to make it happen has been like an adventure. In a way, for me it feels like this adventure is MOTHER 4 itself 😛 No doubt that this project’s gonna go down in the history books. This collection of incredible talent from all around the emulation, ROM translation, and EarthBound scenes… wow.
Anyway, enough blabbering about us, I thought that since we’re still having a lot of issues with hacking that I might take a look at other parts of the hacking side of things that most people probably don’t think about: the various menus, which all need to be hacked one by one. Lots of work there.
File loading menu.
Jeffman’s VWF hack a couple weeks ago on the inventory item names surprisingly made it so the names here have a VWF too. I’m not sure if the other text on these screens has a VWF yet or not though. Stuff still needs to be 8-bit-ified here I think too.
File loading option menu.
Not sure if this has a VWF or not, but once the text is inserted we’ll find out. I’m fairly certain this text routine hasn’t been 8-bit-ified yet though, so inserting the current translated file would still crash the game anyway.
File saving menu.
Uh oh. There’s no VWF working here! That means this menu uses completely different code from the loading menu. What a pain 🙁 🙁
Outside inventory screen.
Jeffman and sblur did the early VWF work on this, but it’s still in need of more work obviously. The item descriptions are as evil as the battle text though. Also, if a description is over 42 characters right now, the game will crash HORRIBLY. Meaning the inventory menu is really dangerous to use. Or in other words, it’s not in usable form right now.
Outside inventory screen – using an item.
WTF where’d the text go??? This should say something like, “Eat, Use, Give, Throw Away” and such stuff. But for some reason this is blank right now 🙁
File loading option menu.
Well, there’s the text there now for some reason. The names obviously need a VWF working for them. So many variable width fonts to implement, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Equipment screen.
Jeffman & sblur’s inventory VWF affected the equipment names here, neat! It looks like the stats on the left side are using a VWF too. Looks like the translated file of those stats hasn’t been inserted yet, or maybe that routine is still in 16-bit format, not sure. Names need a VWF still too.
Status screen.
Much like the equipment screen.
Battle record screen.
Just getting to this screen is impossible right now due to item description crashes. So I wasn’t sure what to expect 😛 Looks like the enemy names are 8-bit-ified but otherwise this whole thing needs tons of work 🙁
Buying screen.
Never mind Lucas’ Japanese name, it should work fine normally. Anyway, looks like Jeffman and sblur’s inventory VWF affected these items too! Item descriptions are still a problem and if a description is too long the game WILL crash (or most likely reset itself).
Selling screen.
Again, never mind Lucas’ Japanese name or that Japanese item. That’s your “favorite food”.That inventory VWF affected these items too. And as usual, item descriptions are the devil.
Money withdraw screen.
This is pretty much all done graphically, so it wasn’t too hard to get this working.
Money deposit screen.
Same here.
So anyway, there you have it! That was a neat look at how the various menus are working right now. I’d include PSI/PK menus, but I forgot. Also I think they crash anyway right now.
As always, wish the hackers luck! As you can see, there’s a LOT that needs to be hacked, tested, and refined in only like 10 or 11 weeks. And what you see above is really just one portion of the stuff that needs fixing. So give them your moral support 😀
Glad to see so much care and effort going into this project!
Dear God, the roster for this project is starting to become staggering. Best of luck to all of you guys – we’re keeping a close eye of your work from back here!
Its good that you guys got two new hacking guys, Kevin and Exophase,the more help the faster problems can be solved,I wish them the best of luck and the rest of the team.
What a group effort! This has to be the most amazing project I’ve ever followed!
I… I just feel as if I should give you guys something for your effort, that shows how much I’m supporting you. Still singing Pollyanna for you guys.
Huh, I think I’ve heard of Exophase before, and not in regards to the GBA emulator for PSP. At least, that is if it’s the same Exophase also responsible for porting the old DOS program MegaZeux to Windows. I have a lot of fond memories of MegaZeux from when I was much younger. Don’t think I ever finished making a game, but I did have two I was working on back then, I probably still have them floating around on my old computer.
Hmm, y’know what? Did a little searching, and it seems that it IS the same Exophase. I don’t really keep track now, but when I first got wind of the MZX Windows port, I was keeping track for a while, and just from what I saw there, I have to say he’s a machine. Considering the size of the task, it had gotten completed pretty quickly.
You guys definitely have a great collection of skilled people going on now. I’m starting to get more and more excited for Mother 3 now, almost like the original excitement when it was nearing its Japanese release. Except now, I know it’ll be in English. =D
This may be odd… You know me being an average Mother fan giving translation advice, but shouldn’t it say “Flint got some Nut Bread”? Maybe you can make the setence have either Some or The depending on the object if you feel that adding the code is worth that extra little bit of translation effort.
Gah I knew people would say something about that.
Don’t worry, stuff will be fixed in time. I’m surprised nobody’s pointed out the “Dragon Fang” thing yet 😛
Bic’s Timber… That’s a play on Bic lighters, right?
That’s actually a remnant of old OLD m3.org stuff. Stuff so old even they were planning to get rid of it 😛 It should be Lighter not Bic.
Seriously, you guys…THANK YOU, for all your hard work. I am very, very excited for the release. Keep it up, and remember: it’s all worth it in the end.
Oh my god, Megazeux? It all comes full-circle. We might as well have Greg Janson here too. : P
rock ON. i have been closely following the development of the translation ever since its inception, and i have to admit for a while there i thought the project was going to dissolve. thank you mato for your disclipined posting, letting us all know bout the progress, your actions make 1000s of words man. props.
i wish i could help but i know nothing about programming so i can only wave my metaphoric earthbound flag with me wherever i go..
or else…. mebbe i can get an EB flag that would be awesome!
anyways this rant has run its course, lol thanks translation crew yet again!
Thank you guys so much for your hard work. As much as we’d like them too, it seems nintendo will never take gamers’ ideas, requests, or pleas. Your doing a great service to the EB community and we greatly appreciate it. I can still remember the day i brought home that giant box with all those funny looking screenshots on it….
Everything looks good… but i think that the things that are bothering me the most…. are the little things
Like in the ” Buying ” Screen of the ” Outside Item ” screen.
Names for items seem to be cut off, are you guys just going to leave it like that, or are you going to hack your way to some more room?
If you can’t hack it you can always just come up with aternatives to the name but are shorter and mean the same thing…. Here are a few examples
“Cattle Br”
123456789
“Cow Band ”
“Fish Brac”
“Fish Band”
“Goat Brac”
“Goat Band”
“Ordinary ”
“Brown Hat”
“Dragon Fa”
“Dino Fang”
I think you guys get the point, I think this would be a good alternative to extreme hacking…. and since everything is just synomins (sp major) you are really not changing the way it is meant to be.
Fishing for ways to help…
~Nessie~
Of course we’re not going to leave them cut off. These are shots of the game’s development in-progress. If we had everything working right and looking right, you’d be playing the patch by now 😛
Trust us, the team is like THE ultimate dream team ever cooked up for a project like this.
w00t w00t! This is lookin’ pretty sweet 🙂 Thank you guys for all your hard work, I’m so excited!
Don’t believe in yourself. Believe in me who believes in you guys.
interesting…
These updates are getting my hopes up on the planned November release.
(^|+)
This project is going to be awesome because you have all the awesome guys doing it!
Since Exophase is helping can we assume this will work with his emulator?
Not unless he updates it. Mother 3 is JUST big enough that it’s too big too be run.
That’s odd, Mother 3 works fine on my PSP emulator (exophase’s)
Amazing. All your hard work is so great. All involved are heroes to me. I wish you all luck. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!THANK YOU!THANK YOU!THANK YOU!THANK YOU!THANK YOU!THANK YOU!THANK YOU!THANK YOU!THANK YOU!
THANK YOU! You guys are doing such hard but great work. It’s amazing how talented you guys can be and the way you are able to fix such pain in the butt problems. Good job!
I think some things should be left cut off… I want some Edible Mu, for example.
Keep the good work up guys!
It’s very much appreciated.
Can’t wait for this one guys, keep it up.
SimonBob(?): Wait, wait, wouldn’t that tear out your stomach or something once you ate it?
Of course, it’d ask permission. Always fun to have polite food.
Anyway, keep up the awesomeness. : D
keep up the good work.
awesome as always Mato!
With each update, I just want the patch to be completed sooner. You guys are doing a great job!
Part of me feels I should preface the following comment with some witty banter and what not, just so I don’t sound so strange, but frankly, none comes to mind. So……
Water Bra?
😛
@LordNecros:
It’s “Water Bracelet”, I’m pretty sure.
I can’t help laughing at the Buying Screen.
“Kid’s Shi”
“Water Bra” is pretty good too. XD
I really hope that the “Snake that -” thing isn’t the snake enemy’s name in the final version of the patch. It’s.. not exactly as colourful as “New Age Retro Hippie”. In terms of names, onviously a rainbow lover is going to be more colourful then a snake literally.