Very Important News
OK, time for another update. This one’s good, bad, and crazy. Depends on how you look at it. So here we go!
Make sure to read everything!
Our November goal is fast approaching, and Smash Bros. looms ever closer. So the discussion came up about whether or not we should release an unfinished patch if we don’t make it in time. The spoilers involved in SSBB can be very big, depending on the person. For that reason, I really wanted to release an unfinished patch — IF it was in a good enough state for it. But some points against releasing an unfinished patch were also made. In the end, we made a compromise, and that’s what this update is about.
So here’s the deal:
- Our project’s initial goal was to release a top-quality translation for MOTHER 3. That goal hasn’t changed.
- Another side goal was to hopefully finish before Smash Bros. Brawl comes out.
At this point, the two goals are leading in different directions now. Releasing an unfinished patch that can crash, freeze, erase your saves, etc. would not be something we’d want players to deal with. It’s also not polished enough to our liking. Plus, as it is, we’re still struggling with the hacking, which is harder than anyone ever expected it to be. There’s no telling when the major hacking breakthroughs could be made – it could be an hour from now, it could be next week, it could be months from now.
Rushing the current project could also ruin the experience for some people as much as spoilers might. I (and the rest of the team) want to make sure this is the best quality possible right out of the door. If we released a meh version of our patch in a few months, when we get around to releasing the final, fully awesome patch, only a fraction of the original people would play the new version. That’s not good. Plus there’s the personal side of things, and I’d really like to sleep more at nights. Having some extra time would be really nice ๐ All the other guys have busy lives that take precedence too.
So, it might sound like we’re throwing in the towel for the November release. Sort of. Depends on how you look at it. But after discussion with the team, we decided to do a compromise thusly:
- For those who don’t care about Smash Bros. spoilers and just want to play MOTHER 3 in English, please wait until our final, full translation. We don’t know when it will be done. Sorry.
- If you REALLY, REALLY don’t want Smash Bros. to spoil any of the game for you, I’ve created a mini-patch from scratch here that translates menus, items, descriptions, names, etc. Use this patch and a walkthrough to get through MOTHER 3 before Smash Bros. comes out.
- If you absolutely do not want to play through the game in Japanese, but REALLY don’t want to be spoiled by SSBB… then it’s up to you to avoid those SSBB spoilers when they come out. If you can somehow manage this until the full translation patch is complete, you win 90 awesome points.
So basically:
If you don’t want Smash Bros. Brawl to spoil MOTHER 3 for you, follow the link below!
NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT THE FINAL, FULL TRANSLATION PATCH!!!!! This is absolutely nothing like what the real patch will be like. Don’t get mixed up!
I know it’s not very great news. But you’ll just have to trust me — after all the work I’ve put into this, I want to make sure it winds up as good as it possibly can. I don’t want to half-ass it. And I’m 100% sure that’s what the other team members feel too. But I also feel responsible somehow for stuff, so that’s why I threw together the menu patch above. If that’s not enough to satisfy people, then all I can do is say I’m sorry.
But the full translation continues forward as normal.
(Random non-related thing: Tonight at 10:00 PM, the FUNimation dub of One Piece begins on Toonami. Check it out if you can. I was a translator for it, and it’s very cool stuff! None of that crazy 4Kids junk anymore! Yay! ๐ )
Just from playing the untranslated version of the game, I can see that you guys are working very hard. This patch seems like a very good step in the direction of finishing the translation. Thanks and keep up the good work.
Man, get some sleep already. I’ll take care of the translation, don’t worry.
…
‘desu’ means ‘farted’, right?
And what’s all these squiggly lines?
Nevermind, I’m gonna go watch One Piece.
Translating ‘One Piece’ must be fun, because you can basically make people sound as pirate-y as you want, savvy. A translation job like that gives you a lot of latitude, ใใใใ. ๐
Luckily for me, It is my opinion the entire Smash Bros series is an awful waste of time! That means I can wait and enjoy Mother 3 at its finest. Thanks for your hard work.
mmmmmmm!! i dont care a shit about smash and i really really want to play mother 3… but wiht the full translation, im happy that you are still working in it ๐ thats the good thing ๐ ok keep upo the good work guys :O
Spare time is for loosers!
Ah. I’ll try the patch, then play the full version. I love Mother 3. Even if I don’t understand it. Cant WAIT for the final version! Thanks, Mato!
Can’t wait for mother 3 and will wait as long as it takes you guys. Wish i could help. It must be mind numbing amounts of work.I’m in school and could not imagine taking on a project like this. I Wish NOA got the picture.
Well! I’m actually very glad of this, as I broke down and started playing with SpookyChee’s translation a week ago. I’ll give it a shot in a couple hours regardless, but does anybody know if this patch will break anything with my current save? Specifically, I’ve been naming the characters in English; has that font been changed in any way that’d garble their names into nonsense?
Anyway, thanks a bunch, Mato – the one thing I’ve found lacking so far from my playthrough is knowing exactly what certain items are during battle.
Really, thank you.
To tell what items im using in battle, i just memorized some characters and press select to see the little illustration of the item. PSI is harder but all you really need to do is memorize the placement of pp usage.
Im not saying you should release an unfinished patch (im against that, actually) but, IF you did and then, only a fraction of the people who WOULD have enjoyed this game in english download the complete patch, isn’t that THEIR OWN fault? I guess what im asking is, How does that come to effect you guys? If they cant wait, then how is this your fault? People will always figure out ways to ruin things for themselves…
About the SSBB spoilers…
Would it be possible for someone in the know to outline the general area of SSBB where you expect the spoiler will be, and how serious of a spoiler it is, so myself and others can weigh our decision about this temporary patch, and/or possibly play SSBB while sneaking around the spoiler-y parts?
BAH!!!! Super Smash blows anyway 1 get some sleep take a break it helps sometimes than how ever long it takes to finish it is how long it takes…youve taken on a big project…its like trying to get a game to work on a Mac its a pain in the ass ๐
I actually don’t think Smash Bros. is going to spoil Mother 3. Even so, I love Smash, and I would be spending most of my time playing it. I’m going to try this a bit on an emulator, but when the finished version comes out I’ll be playing it on my DS.
Thanks a lot, get some sleep, and good job.
Oh, nevermind. I thought the main text was translated. I’ll just wait, then.
Yes, Tomato, get some sleep! Actually… keep working! No wait, get sleep…
I’m probably like a lot of the hardcore followers, this mini-patch didn’t really phase me. I’m hanging on until the polished final product.
Oooh… it’s starting to settle in how awesome it will be. To finally as a grown man to be able to play the sequel to a childhood favorite. Pure awesomeness!
Alex: I’m fairly certain that your names will remain unaffected.
David Simon: We only know a little about what to expect from SSBB, there could (and probably will) be more stuff that we don’t know about. What consitutes a spoiler differs from person to person, though.
I’m reminded of how when Smash Bros. Melee came out, it spoiled the ending to Majora’s Mask, which had only been out like a year (maybe less) in the States. You could argue that it was obvious that the end of MM would have something like that, but others were still sort of “gah!” about it. This M3 stuff is on a simlar level.
evansucks: The whole thing is a weird. But we’d like to make sure the first real patch is top-quality.
I think it would have been better to wait and just release it in all it’s glory when everything is perfect. Doesn’t matter to me how long it takes for you guys to finish it since we all know you will get it done eventually.
“Iโm reminded of how when Smash Bros. Melee came out, it spoiled the ending to Majoraโs Mask, which had only been out like a year (maybe less) in the States. You could argue that it was obvious that the end of MM would have something like that, but others were still sort of โgah!โ about it. This M3 stuff is on a simlar level.”
Not to mention the whole Sheik/Zelda thing.
Well, you can always label it UNFINISHED BETA VERSION on the main title screen or something ๐
Then give a link to here, where we presume the final, 100% awesome patch will be within the game itself.
Quite a lot of reasonable folks enjoy Smash. So shut it, kids. It’s highly likely there’s going to be a Mother 3 stage and character in Brawl, let alone a handful of trophies/assist trophies, as well as trophies for that stage and playable. And remember, each trophy has a paragraph long description still. So there’ll be a lot of room for spoilers. Now, if you avoid looking at those trophies, then you’d supposedly only have to watch out for…maybe stage spoilers. Unless there’s something about it in the new story mode. Blast.
Thanks a million for working so hard and being so concerned for your fellow Earthbound fans, guys. Keep up the awesome work.
Well you have our support Mato. Myself, I’m gonna hold out until a full version is completed. When I enjoy this game I want to do so in all of it’s Mothery goodness.
As for SSBB.. I haven’t really played any of the others so I’ll probably skip out on this one too. But if I do decide I want to play it, I’d play Mother 3 first. It just means more to me.
But at any rate.. Take your time.. Rest.. And don’t stress out. Most of us are greatful that you’re even doing this for us. If you get it done next month or even a year from now.
Since people all over the internet have ruined the ending for me already, I’m going to just wait for the full patch… I do think I’ll play around with these new English menus just for fun, though.
sounds good to me, i am unsure if ill just refuse to buy ssbb or if ill use the menu patch but over all THANKS MATO FOR TRYING YOUR BEST FOR US!
I’m iffy about the whole spoiler thing.
From what I can tell you guys think there’s a huge spoiler for reasons you won’t tell us based on information you can’t reveal from an unknown source. It just seems strange.
You guys would have no reason to make up something like that only to inconvenience yourselves, I’m not accusing you of something suspicious, but I think the chances of a major Mother 3 spoiler occuring in SSBM is less than what you might assume.
On the one hand there are spoilers such as Zelda/Shiek and the ending of Majora’s Mask. However, to clear up an earlier misconception, Zelda: Majora’s Mask was released October 26th, 2000 for the Nintendo 64 in America. Smash Bros. Brawl was released a little over a year later in December of 2001. Despite this, the threat of spoilers is present should SSBB have a stage(s) or character(s) from Mother3.
On the other hand, how do you know there’s spoilers for Mother3 to begin with? SSBB is arguably the Nintendo Wii’s biggest game coming up, and the company has been incredibly tight lipped about the game. It seems very unlikely that you would know anyone with that level of connections within Nintendo (no offense,) not to mention wasn’t it Starmen.net that announced there was going to be a Mother3 translation last summer, and that they knew about it from some unknown source within Nintendo that they couldn’t reveal? I don’t want to defame you or Starmen.net, but it still feels suspicious.
I think you’re worrying about nothing, and are possibly rushing the project along based on heresay. I don’t want SSBB to spoil Mother3 for me, but I doubt SSBB will contain any big spoilers for Mother3, even if it does have Flint or Lucas as a playable character (or any special stages.) Look at the Fire Emblem characters for example. They were included as hidden characters and didn’t have any spoilers. And Ness has been in SSB and SSBM with no spoilers at all, even from reading the trophies (which one could choose not to do.)
I think you should try to rationalize the spoiler situation, and explain where you got your information and the nature of the spoiler (Does it spoil the ending? Is it a possible stage or a character? Is it a stage or character that must be unlocked? etc.)
You bring up good points, but you’ll just have to trust us that we have contacts.
If you’d like a little more info, see here.
We only know a tiny bit of what to expect, there may be more. But what we do know is that it will most likely be in the form of a stage, a non-playable character, and logically deducing from that, there will likely be things in said stage and things said character might do.
As for announcing a translation last summer, I have no idea what you’re talking about. If there had been such an announcement, the whole site would have thrown huge parties and gotten drunk and played ping pong all night long.
Thanks guys, the menus work great and i can see that im actually using an antidote now! Works with normal saves and freeze states perfectly, now you’ve got me excited for the real thing all over again
Wondrous.
I don’t know if other Mac users have this problem, but the PPF-o-Matic version I got would crash unfailingly each time I injected the file. I used this app instead. Much better.
http://www.pure-mac.com/downloads/gumbydl.html
Thanks, I added it to the menu patch page.
I’ve heard that there aren’t any GBA emulators for the Mac that can handle MOTHER 3 well. I don’t use a Mac (uh oh here come the stones) so I don’t know if this is true or not. Could you let me know if you get the chance?
bah i don’t even have a wii so no worries. i’ll wait this one out and just keep playing the old games until the grand release. keep up the hard work guys, most people don’t mind the wait for a game as surefired epic as this one.
Great work as usual guys.
Too bad i already played the game in Japanese and its a bit late of a menu patch for me XD.
Mato, thanks so much for the work you’re putting into this. You are really a good example to me in work ethic.
But, go ahead and get some sleep. You’ll probably rest and find things a bit easier. I know that’s how it is for me after a long day of coding. I really think you owe it to yourself ๐
I’ll wait until the team’s final patch. I think it’s worth the wait. Keep it up guys.
To the whole team: Take care of yourselves! You truly owe us nothing, so providing a patch right now is incredibly nice of you!
Now that the November deadline pressure is off, give yourselves a break. Hell, play some Zelda next week when it comes out.
I just won’t buy Brawl until I play Mother 3 with the full, glorious translation. I’ve been laying off game news sites because most of the news is pointless anyway so I doubt I’ll get spoiled that way either.
“Hell, play some Zelda next week when it comes out”
rofl, I’ve been so busy that I’m still only in the third dungeon of Twilight Princess. Now the new Zelda is out aaaaaaaa
“Iโve heard that there arenโt any GBA emulators for the Mac that can handle MOTHER 3 well. I donโt use a Mac (uh oh here come the stones) so I donโt know if this is true or not. Could you let me know if you get the chance?”
I use VBA (newest version) and it works fine, rarely falling below 95% in speed. A frame skip of 2 usually fills the bill.
I had trouble with my ROM saving the game, which has mysteriously been healed by your patch, so thank you very much indeed sir.
I noticed only one weirdness in the patch, but it’s not a bug or anything. The names NPC townsfolk Nicole and Richie (I just realized the joke there) are switched.
First let me say thanks for releasing this patch,I will play around with it a bit,but I will wait until you guys finish the patch to play mother 3.
pauya: Really, they’re switched? Are you sure? It might’ve been just a brain fart on my part, but it still seems odd. I do remember there were in the list one right after the other though.
Before I forget, about OP… did they put back the original music in this version you translated? And I hope they undid some of the story butchery / editing.
I seem to remember it being bad enough that VG Cats even did a strip about how bad the changes were in the old version…
Yep, all the original music will be in there, a new cast of competent actors, good translations, good script, no puns, no intro rap song, etc. etc.
I love you guys!!! Keep up the good work. Even if I have to wait another year I will be here when the final Mother 3 patch is released.
This is a huge part of my child hood that I can play with again.
Thank you guys…
Awesomeness. I had figured said spoiler is in the game based on the look of certain enemies and conversations about Earthbound.
I haven’t beaten it yet, but thanks for that link, Tomato. All it did was confirm my theory about “it” being in the game for me.
I would play the menu translated patch if my amazing girlfriend hadn’t bought me mother 3 in japan :D:D
Tomato:
Yep. Richie is the little kid with glasses who hangs out with Nicole, the blonde girl, outside of Thomas’s Bazaar. I only noticed it because they’re right next to each other. I have no idea whether their dialogue is switched, but the names definitely are.
disappointing news. Such a wonderful committed teams and the deadline jumps again.
“Again?”
Also, it was a goal, not a guarantee or promise.
pauya: I just checked and they’re correct in the patch. Here’s pics as proof: http://tomato.fobby.net/junk/nr.zip
Hmm, disappointed that the translation won’t be out in November (I started following progress at the very start on the Mother3.org site), but it looks like you’ll actually finish the darn thing… so it’s certainly better then nothing. Also, even if the translation never makes it out (God forbid!) then at least there’s a translated menu patch.
And I’ll likely check out the good translation of One Piece – I kind of liked it even with the butchering, and I’m looking forward to the real thing.
Well i just wanna say that i am thankful for all the work you guys are doing.
thank you so much! personally, i’ve been waiting for something like this since I’ve heard of a translation. i don’t really care how the font looks or whatever, i just want M3 in english! and with this patch i’ll finally get that…well, with this patch and spookychee’s translation. once again, thank you for releasing this patch!
Tomato, I use a Mac and I’m having big problems with Mother 3.
I don’t know why. My usual emulator, boycott advance, only gives me a black screen with no audio for M3, which I’ve never seen it do, and the Mac port of VBA runs horribly for me. It won’t save my file (not with the menu patch either, just says “can’t save”), and it freezes without warning often, and it doesn’t like save states. It can save other games I’ve tried it on, but it still has the other glitchiness. I’ve tried everything I can think of, including redownloading the emulator and the ROM, as well as using a BIOS file, and just plain tinkering with options, to no avail. I can’t get either emulator to run the game acceptably.
I don’t know how, but if you think you could help in any way, it’d mean so much to me. But I certainly don’t mean to pressure you or anything.
I asked pauyasfyla about it earlier in these comments. I’ve heard that Mother 3 doesn’t play well on Mac emulators, but apparently VBA works okay.
Are these non-saving problems with VBA or Boycott Advance? VBA should handle it fine, but if not, couldn’t you use save states instead of regular saves?
I think its still possible for a November release, its just highly unlikely. After all, they did say there could be a major hacking breakthrough. You just can’t rule things out before it happens, you know? That said, if it comes out in November, thats cool, and if it doesn’t, thats cool too. Luckily I played through the Japanese version when it came out last year, so I am not too concerned about SSBB spoilers, but I can see why some are. Even then, I think they would rather have a quality translation, rather than a rushed one.
Kevin: I don’t know where you heard that Starmen.net said a Mother 3 translation would be out last year. They never said anything of the sort.
I can barely even open the file with boycott. The saving/crashing problems are with VBA, and VBA save states worked for a bit, but now whenever I try to load one the program quits itself.
Doh, that’s not good. I don’t know anything about Macs so I don’t know what to tell you. I hope someone here can help you out, because otherwise you’ll have the same issues with the final patch whenever it comes out.
Could it be a bad ROM dump?
heh, the spoilers aren’t likely to be a problem here (Australia) for awhile, last i checked, WE weren’t seeing smash until next March! (we STILL haven’t seen MP:C yet… Nintendo Australia are good at fucking themselves up the ass)
AWESOME MATO.
AWESOME.
Also, out of curiosity, what will you call the big pig mask guy? I know he has multiple “names” in different translations, and I was just wondering.
(I personally like Scary Womanizer Pig Mask XD)
In the final patch? Not sure yet, since it’s too early to finalize stuff. But enemy names can only be so long (or else they leak outside windows and look ugly), so that might not fit anyway.
Hey, sincs you translated one piece and all…. can you tell me if your name is going to be in the credits??
If it is I can be like ‘MOM, DAD I MET THIS GUY ON THE INDERNET WHO TRANSLATED THIS, HE IS COMING OVER TOMMORROW!!11!’
On another note, I have two questions…
Now that I am learning Japenease at the age of twelve along with little spanish, germen, and french I know…. I think I may be along the way to bea translator… Can you tell me how exactly you GET that job… I mean… think about it.
I can totally see a half rotten ‘Mato’ sitting in front of a T.V. screen watching anime episodes for like 9 hours AND GETTING PAID FOR IT.
Question Numero Dos: Thanks for this little patch, I am loving it…. I just wish you guys released it at the very very very very very beginning, then I could have enjoyed mother3 way easier-ly 10 months ago.
P.S. I am still working on your present…. you just wait
P.P.S How do you ship animals?
waiting for full. spoiler schmoilers.
Anyone else watching One piece right now? Haha, it’s awesome.
While the most likely lack of November release kinda bums me out (only because it means I have to wait longer), this quick playability patch is awesome. I’m not entirely sure if I want to continue waiting or not, but knowing that this quick little patch is here if I need it is great. ๐
I think it’s cool to have an actual, concrete patch, just so we can say we have something. I will be waiting for the full version because for me, the dialogue and gameplay are more important than the storyline. Of course I’d rather not have anything spoiled, but the most important thing is to have the dialogue be easily accessible, because if I have to keep jumping to walkthroughs and taking guesses, it could make this smooth, humorous game into one that’s suddenly frustrating, which would be very unfortunate. If I’d wanted to do that, I’d have played this long ago. The English menus help, but if you’re reading a walkthrough anyway…
It doesn’t seem as though you’ve totally lost hope for the November goal. It still depends on how long it takes you to have some breakthroughs. Maybe you could have waited a little longer before coming up with this compromise. I would consider myself especially lucky if you did meet the November goal because it happens that I’m going to have extra free time then… but whenever you role out the finished game, I am going to be grateful.
Thank you all for your hard work on this.
About the Mac issues, Boycott Advance is pretty old. Any of the recent updates to it were just to make it compatible with newer versions of Richard’s graphic library.
VBA is pretty much required for Mother 3 to work. Some of the unofficial builds that other people have made are MUCH faster than the last official one (1.7.2) but I don’t know if any of those are available for Mac OS X. Either way, make sure you are using the latest version of VBA that you can find. That’s really the only suggestion I can give right now. I’m sure a better port will come around eventually.
Oh, you could also try the emulator called “Mednafen” if you can track down a compiled copy of the Mac OS X version. Supposedly it’s decent.
This was a generous move you guys. But I’ll wait for the full patch.
The big problem is going to be avoiding dumb blogs like Joystiq and Kotaku which will probably feature the spoiler in an obnoxiously huge headline complete with pictures that your brain won’t be able to interpret until it’s already soaked in the spoiler info.
Thanks for the patch guys, but I’ll wait for the full release. Keep up the good work! And get some sleep ๐
If part of the hacking problem is to do with making the text longer why not just make certain common words smaller to fit in the smaller text boxes? I know it would be kinda like reading a text msg but it would be better then reading a translated script. I dont think people woudl mind crashes too much if the game was still playable all the way through and they learned how to use save states.
Also if the majority of people ended up playing it this not true finished way maybe it would still be a better experience then having to read the script on the side.
Anyways im sure you guys have thought of this but maybe you havent so just throwing it out there : )
Have you guys considered releasing the patch in NINJA (http://ninja.cinnamonpirate.com/) format? I hear it works pretty well for larger files.
Throughout life I have come to grips with the fact that 99% of the time the best things do require patience. However in this situation I feel sincerely blessed that there is a clear line of communication between the expectant fanbase and yourselves.
Awesome….
Keep up the good work were all very thankful for your time and efforts.
Peace!
This looks awesome! I LOVE that menu screenshot.
Your making great progress, congrats.
With the line limit problem if its just a memory problem couldnโt you change the location the current text is stored to somewhere with more space in ram so it doesnt corrupt any other data around it if you exceed that limit?
Hrm, that’s odd. I didn’t see One Piece anywhere on the CN schedule last night ๐ Too bad, I’d have liked to see it done properly, because I’ve only ever seen the bad dubs, though I’ve heard better things about the original.
Elements604/Normmatt: The issue with the main text hacking comes in several forms, I’ll probably talk about it in more detail another time, but it’s not as simple as using other parts of memory. The code is an ugly mess and if you can believe it, this is an example of GOOD-looking text in the current build. Right now, letters right after auto-newlines often don’t get displayed.
It’s gonna take a while to figure out this insane programming.
Jeff: byuu has an idea for a final patch system that’s either based off of NINJA or *is* NINJA or something like that. He was probably even part of its inception. I can’t remember the details though, so hopefully he’ll say something about it himself.
By the by, it worked beautifully with my save in progress. And honestly, I really like that you had to fit all of the item names into 16-bit fonts; it makes it feel like a no-budget localization of a Gameboy game from the early nineties.
So thanks, Mato!
I’m completely okay with this. And, even moreso now, I’m proud of this team that’s been assembled. Quality does indeed trump a deadline, and I don’t mind waiting. I’ve already played through M3 and gotten the gist of it, so I’m not especially worried about Brawl’s spoilers.
hm, I tried playing this in conjunction with spookychee’s walkthrough, but he/she didn’t translate everything. i like talking to npcs and reading signs i don’t have to! oh well, guess I’ll just wait for the full patch and just ignore the SSBB spoilers.
Jeeves: These are my preferences for the VBA if you want to compare them, otherwise, I don’t know what to tell you.
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff135/pauyasfyla/vbaprefs.jpg
Tomato: You’re right about those names. I jumped the gun and didn’t look at the original kana. Silly me. But it is kind of odd that they’d name the boy Nicole and the girl Richie. Oh well, there are bigger things to worry about, I suppose.
This isn’t that important, but (not using the patch) at a certain point in the game (if I said it here it would spoil the game) the walkthrough differs from what happens. I try to get a certain item from brozon when I’m supposed to but he simply won’t give it to me, and when I try to go to where the walkthrough send me brozon stops me and won’t let me pass
You might never get it perfect. Nintendo put effort into making their code hard to understand. I personally want to play what you’ve been playing. I don’t care that it might crash and burn on me. For I have something called save states.
Roan: Your inventory is full. Get rid of something and then talk to him.
Smitty: I doubt Nintendo tried to make the code hard to understand. From previous posts, it seems that the original code was probably in C or some high-level language and then somehow compiled to assembly-level code. I’m sure that assembly-level code isn’t is logically laid out as it would be if it was written from scratch so that makes it much harder for them to hack it.
I hope I got this right. Mato & Co. can confirm this. ๐
Pauyasfyla, what version of VBA are you running? My prefences look nothing like that and are much more limited.
I’m running VBA 1.7.4, which I thought was the latest version…? Also, are you on an Intel or PPC-based Mac? I’m on an Intel and my version isn’t a universal binary, which I think may be contributing to some of the problems.
This is really fantastic, Tomato. I’d just gotten the game in the mail from the Play-Asia sale, and I was debating playing through it with just the story walkthrough on GameFAQs, but it’s much easier with this. But I’ll certainly want to play through the full-blown translation patch, too, whenever that becomes available (this makes it much easier to wait, at least).
I think I encountered a very tiny bug on the naming screens: Some of the Don’t Care choices are longer than the space provided (off the top of my head, “Mt. Fuji” for favorite thing, for example) and if you try to backspace with that name in, it instead sends you to the next screen. I don’t think it’s really worth fixing, but you may as well know.
Can Brawl real spoil Mother 3 THAT much? I hope not- either way I’ll wait for the final patch whenever it does get done. I probably won’t actually buy Brawl since I’ll have at least 5 friends who get it.
And so it begins…Lucas was just announced for Brawl…
As of a few minutes ago Lucas was just confirmed as a playable character for Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
LUCAS IN BRAWL
LUCAS IN BRAWL
LUCAS IN BRAWL
LUCAS IN BRAWL
LUCAS IN BRAWL
LUCAS IN BRAWL
Thank you so much. What are the most reliable translation sources to use? I will definitely be playing through both versions when I have the time, It has been over 10 years, and I salute you.
Thank you guys for all your effort. I downloaded the patch and decided to give it a go with the the translation walkthrough text to assist with the jap parts.
It was nice to actually play around with a new earthbound game and navigate the menus and stuff, but ultimately, I stopped playing after the first battle because I reaaaaallly want to play this game fully patched in English. I think it’s very important to the overall enjoyment of the experience.
Please continue to do your best and get this game fully translated as soon as possible.
I appreciate this release, but I will continue to wait resolutely until a more complete patch is released in the future.
You released this on sunday beacuse of the SSBB update on monday, didn’t you?
Thank you for your community hacking services >_
I’m one of the people that will try to avoid SSBB until the full patch. Wish me luck… :\
Abadd: Wait, there’s a way to know beforehand what’ll be revealed when? :0
If it’s not intentional, it’s certainly a nice coincidence; Mato got a partial patch out before the first big spoiler.
Of course, those saving themselves for the patch should probably just steer clear of the Dojo until its release. Otherwise it’s kinda like working in an animal shelter when you’re violently allergic to cats. XD
Me, I think I’ve spoiled the game enough for myself that it doesn’t matter (sidenote: the second-last boss’ theme is AWESOME.) I’ll get Brawl first thing I can. : D
And then, after the patch is out (and it still might pre-empt Brawl; “just don’t get your hopes up” would be the main bullet point of this news post, I guess,) I’ll get off my lazy tail and finally register at the forums. :’D
Then get said tail kicked in Wi-Fi.
But by my fellow Mother nerds, so it’s fine.
Take your time.
Hurry up.
*Stupefied* u guys aren’t using VB for doing this right??? O_o
If so well let me you propose u Delphi instend of VBasic since VB is a dump of trouble. I’vent programmed since 2001, but still I know some people who did the switch, and they never got back by now. Some are even sort of cheatin’ with this for their job. ( They are working for the gov. and they obligate them to use microshit prod. ) C + prog is also improve in many ways… anyways good work so far guys, keep up the good work!
For my part BTW i’m french and I waiting like the other for this patch since they’ve release the game in japanese. Greedy Nintendo…
Seriously guys, great work. I’m not gonna play this, I’m waitin’ for the finished patch, but it’s awesome that you’re offering up this solution. Keep up the rockin’ work, can’t wait for the finished product. ๐
Oh man, the one night I don’t stay up until super late and Lucas finally gets updated :O
Miek: We knew of the Franklin Badge update beforehand, but didn’t want to shoot our mouths off in the case our info was off/wrong.
D-Chap: It can, depending on the person. People have already been spoiled via other ways (poorly constructed walkthroughs, people not using spoiler tags on forums, etc.) and they’ve been pretty mad. But on the other hand some people have tough skin and spoilers don’t mean crap. So the term “spoiler” is subjective.
Abadd: Nah, this time around we hadn’t heard anything, so it was just coincidence. Lucas isn’t spoilertastic anyway, he was featured plenty in Itoi’s MOTHER 3 World months prior to the game’s release. Stuff that was used there we consider non-spoiler.
Jeeves:
It’s the OSX version found on the following website:
http://vba.ngemu.com/downloads.shtml
And no, I don’t have an Intel processor. That may be contributing to your problems.
Fultos: Huh? What makes you think we’re using VB? For the most part it’s C and C# and Java we’ve been using. Does it really even matter to the end user, though?
I’ve already played the full japanese version, and I think I picked the story up pretty well, even without reading the text. And I’m going to play it in full english and probably more time with it in japanese (I think it would be good practice for my japanese lessons) and many more times before I get tired of it, because the mother series rox-my-sox. No spoilers are going to change that. Hell, I’m playing EarthBound for the hundred-millionth time but on the GBA; I’m sort of waiting for a translation to that one too. But it’s in japanese and I’m still playing it. Just keep on truckin’. I’ll wait patiently until it’s done.
Wow! guys, you are the best!
I wish you luck!…you’ll need it!
Hey, hey, hey, it’s totally okay that this has happened. There are many problems to publishing a full patch, and just having to go with life does not mean you would lose support of the Mother-loving community. We are always behind you a hundred and twenty %! Now, make sure everyone gets enough sleep and eats right, and then when have time, you can finish it, and we’ll love it. Thank you all, guys! We’re pulling for you!
Hey, no need to apologize for not being able to meet the deadline. You guys are the ones working hard on this project, so take it easy. You deserve some time off.
On a side note, nice job on the One Piece translation, Mato. I’m a huge OP fan, and it’s great to finally have a good dub.
I’d like to ask…would it be possible to at least get a partial patch in a week or so that includes battle text as well? Just battle text? I can deal with no dialogue but the battle text is such a cherished part of Mother.
I dunno, that’s probably more work than I have time for, to be honest. All the battle text is much more difficult to hack (and test), plus there’s probably a couple hundred lines that I’d need to somehow shave down to fit in the space allotted.
Not having the battle text doesn’t affect the actual playability though, since all attacks are animated in one way or another. Though enjoyability *is* reduced.
I really won’t have the time until the end of this month for something like that, and I don’t know how busy I’ll be then yet. So right now I don’t think it’ll happen ๐
Can we expect any new patches around the beginning of November at this point, or should I really just start playing now?
And thanks anyway, Tomato. I’ve been a fan of your work since day 1. When I heard you, Demi, AND Ghideon were all collaborating on this it was an instant stamp of approval. I have fond memories of growing up in the heyday of SNES rom translation and hacking and you 3 were (hell, still are) THE names in it…it’s like a dream teamup.
Just want you to know your work is very much appreciated.
Pauyasfyla, I decided to try version 1.7.2 as opposed to 1.7.4. The preference pannel in that version looks like yours. After playing with the preferences, I got it to save!
Looks like the flash size was the culprit, which I couldn’t adjust in the other version. Once I adjusted it to 64k, it would save. Though it appears to’ve reverted back to 128k now, but it still saves…so I’m not really sure what’s up with that. But the important thing is it works now. Whether this version is more stable for me remains to be seen, but hopefully it is.
Tomato, or anyone working on this, if any Mac user tells you they’re having trouble, tell them to use VBA 1.7.2 and not 1.7.4.
Such a simple solution…thank you, everyone who responded.
Yeah, I’d say don’t expect anything more from that patch at this point in time.
Jeeves: Thanks, I’ll be sure to add that to the patch page later on. That helps a lot.
….. well uhh…. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! auuuuuuuuugh!!!!!!
There are a couple missed translations in the menus, such as the beginning where you select the color of your menus when you name your characters. I’m guessing they weren’t able to be translated at the moment. Oh well, it’s not that big of a deal. The translated menus makes things easier to navigate.
Keep up the good work.
“Looks like the flash size was the culprit, which I couldnโt adjust in the other version. Once I adjusted it to 64k, it would save. Though it appears toโve reverted back to 128k now, but it still savesโฆso Iโm not really sure whatโs up with that.”
I actually couldn’t save the game either. But I could after applying the patch. I doubt that the patch corrected the flaw; I’m not even sure if that’s possible. I’m thinking that I had the save file folders nested in some weird way, but I’m not sure.
Glad it turned out okay.
LUIGI074: Looks like you didn’t read the menu patch page ๐
Biggups to you dudes, goddamn living legends. I love you all.xxx
I’ve already played the game through in Japanese when it first came out, but I can’t wait to be able to play it, and understand it fully…also…I agree with the whole Lucas thing in Brawl…if it weren’t for Ness being in the original SSB, I would have never even know what Earthbound was, I wouldn’t never searched relentlesly for it at flea markets and found it for 10$ (haha!!!) and it definately wouldn’t have grown to be my favorite game of all time…I think I’ll wait for the final version, since when I care about understanding most is the story text…so…FULL SPEED AHEAD, and I can’t wait for the final version…
ps…imports on Wii virtual console…maybe we can see Mother 1 there since it’s already translated….
Thanks, Jeeves; as a Mac user, that’s been baffling me, too. Now, if I could get a faster computer so the lag wouldn’t mess me up on the sound battles, I’d be set.
That’s just an excuse, really. I have as much rhythm as anything else that has no rhythm.
Which is odd, because I pride myself on my rhythm. : D
…
D:
I was going to mention that, too. Set the sound quality to 11 MHz. The ROM will rarely fall below 95% speed. It’ll sound like it’s coming out of a tin can, but I find the skips in the music at higher quality to be way more annoying.
For VBA, you should be able to create a file called vba-over.ini and store it in the same folder as the VBA program itself. That file has a bunch of text entries like the following, which can configure things like the flash size, save type, etc. without you have to set that every single time you play one of the games that needs that. Here are a couple of example entries from mine:
Pokemon Ruby (U) & Pokemon Ruby (E)
[AXVE]
rtcEnabled=1
flashSize=131072
Dragon Ball Z – The Legacy of Goku II (E)
[ALFP]
saveType=1
I originally got the file from somewhere online, though, so I don’t know everything about it, but a bit of googling should help.
Thanks for the menu / names patch. To put it frankly, it rocks! I can’t wait to play the english version of the game, but I’m going to download a Translation FAQ and play it once before SSBB. Keep up the awesome work!!
Somehow, I lost my hard-earned save states that were up to chapter 7. I did backup my saves before I patched, but they’re all gone. The translation works very nice — and I’m not blaming it in any way — but would anyone be able to help me out and send me a save from chapter 7? I really, really don’t want to start all over, even if I do like the game.
Patching it definitely wouldn’t delete your saves. All I can suggest is look around and see if your save game (if you’re using VBA, the save files end in .sav) matches the new ROM name or not. Otherwise, hopefully someone here can help you out.
I can not express how happy I am for the temporary patch. I bought the game about three weeks ago and this has helped me get though the game. I love the fact that Lucas appears in SSBB because it gives me the best excuse to call Nintendo and ask if they plan for a Mother 3 release in the US. Keep up the good work! And I think Ness’s dad just called me saying you guys should take a break and relax for awhile.
Hm, odd. I’ve been trying to download the Gumby program, as it indeed unfailingly crashes whenever I have the gall to use it. But whenever I try to download Gumby, I get a broken link. Anyone else have this problem, or should I clear my cache or something?
Er, I mean the other one crashes.
“Er, I mean the other one crashes”
Other what? I’m not sure what you’re trying to say. It’d also help if you list what kind of computer you’re on and other such details.
One small glitch I encountered in Chapter 1 —
(snip) The glitch occurs with the flames, as they’re already large before he runs through them. No a huge problem in the least, but just something I noticed.
Miek’s talking about PPF-o-matic. Same thing happened to me, minus the broken link business. If you’d like me to send you mine, Miek, feel free to PM your email address to my forum account. If you’d rather not, that’s fine too, of course.
Nice! I’m sort of used to playing games with scripts off to the side (Various Megaten games…) and this menu patch makes actually playing this a breeze (scripts exist at gamefaqs, I guess). This was a really good idea. I wish other translation groups would do this.
Karuvitomsk: Are you sure that’s caused by the patch? That kind of data has nothing to do with text data, and if somehow my text insertion routine was messing up map graphics/map events/map stuff somehow, it’d probably corrupt it beyond recognition rather than make flames bigger. Where you maybe using the debug menu at one point or another? Are you 100.0% sure about it?
Jeeves: The Mac version of PPF-o-matic you mean? If neither that nor gumby can help, I dunno what to say. You might wanna look for the gumby patcher using a search engine if that link is down.
Sorry, Mato; I wrote that in sort of a hurry, but I’ll try to be less vague next time around.
And thanks, Jeeves; I’ll be sure to do that. : D
Gumby works fine, it’s just ppf-o-matic that’s given me trouble.
Mato: I’m 100% sure I was NOT using debug at any point in time. And by larger flames, I mean the larger flame sprites, not a small flame enlarged graphically. It may just be the way I’m using it (I.E. Renamed ROM, on a flash cart, not inserted regularly), but I’d make sure about it.
If anyone’s trying to download Gumby: sorry, but the link I posted earlier lead you to a 404 message. The mirror was working at the time and it has since gone down. And it appears to be the only damn place to find it on the Internet, which is sad, because it’s ridiculously friggin awesome. You’ll have to go elsewhere for your PPF-patching needs.
any chance of releasing a glitchy incomplete version around november if thats what it comes to? i’d rather take the risks then go back and forth with a translation guide
No, we don’t want to release a crappy, glitchy, unfinished version, which is what this whole blog entry was about ๐
By the by, the text that you get when you heal a character’s confusion(? – the cloud) status is all gibberish with the patch.
Other than that, it’s served me beautifully through chapters four, five, and six. Thanks again!
Mato, I read all of that update :P. Some things just got left out, but I don’t really care about it. It’s nothing too major like a game-killing bug or a game-critical character like that. If they left out minor stuff, I really don’t care. Besides, it IS a mini patch. I expected no more than that at the moment until the full patch :P.
thx you guys rock.!!
Good luck with the translation!! ^_^
Actualy, I dont know if you guys noticed this or not but SSBB’s release date was changed yesterday to TBD and I dont think its comming out untill sometime in january. So it should give you guys another month or two to finish it before or get farther in finishing the game. Also thanks alot for all your hard work guys im really looking forward to this
Yeah I installed the patch, but it isn’t working on my emulator is there anyway around this or am I missing something?
Will need some more info and details first. What system are you on? What emulator or you trying to use? Did you get a valid MOTHER 3 ROM? Did you make sure you applied the patch correctly? What patching program did you use? How does it not work on your emulator? Etc. etc. I can’t read minds, so I need details ๐
I am using VBA, I used the program from what I read the PPF-o-Matic, and I believe it is a valid ROM, and I believe it is patched correctly. It is saying it can’t read the patched ROM, but can read the normal ROM.
What operating system are you using? If you’re on a Mac, you might want to try Gumby instead, some people here said that the Mac version of PPF-O-Matic doesn’t work right.
Also, what is the size in bytes of your M3 rom?
Never Mind, Got it working thanks anyways
Thanks for the patch, Tomato!
Hey. I’ve got a ROM of Mother 3 which works fine on the Visual Boy Advance and I’ve downloaded the Menu patch. I’ve tried using the PPF to implement the patch on a copy of the original ROM, I put the ISO file as the zipped folder which I use for the Visual Boy Advance which is called (DGEmu[1].com)2376 – Mother 3 (J)(WRG) and I put the Patch as mother3_menupatch_15.ppf When I press apply it comes up with ‘Patch successfully applied, burn image to CD now’ When I then load the visual boy advance and open the zipped folder (DGEmu[1].com)2376 – Mother 3 (J)(WRG) however it says it cannot open it and that it’s an unsupported file type. Also trying to open the zipped folder brings up the ‘invalid/corrupted’ message. I’ve backed up the file luckily and I can still play the original version, but I cannot get the Patch to work. Do you have any ideas of what I’m doing wrong? I’ve followed the instructions you gave fully and I have no clue of whether there’s something I’m missing. Sorry if you’ve explained this elsewhere, I’ve had a look but I can’t find this problem anywhere else.
Here are instructions on how to apply it: http://tomato.fobby.net/junk/applyingmenupatch/
You shouldn’t apply the patch to the zip file though. You need to apply the patch to the uncompressed ROM file. The instructions above should explain everything hopefully.
Woah. Thanks for the quick reply man. Just got it loaded and working. Thanks a lot. Nice work with it and I hope the full translation’s not giving you all a big headache at the moment. Thanks then!