Names and Menus
A lot of little updates lately, huh?
A couple more things done since the last update. The biggest thing is probably that Jeffman finished hacking the in-battle name boxes so that the names will center properly. They now look kick-ass and professional 😀
Uh oh, Flint’s in trouble 
Even 4 names center correctly,
including 8-letter names
Trying to think of what else was done. I did finally realize why control codes in menus1 wasn’t working as it should, turns out we just had the control codes in the reverse order. So now even the in-menu text is looking nice. This text uses the sprite text VWF though, so at the moment, if there’s too much text, the game will vomit and drown to death in its own puke.
After this, I noticed that the game prints out numbers incorrectly here too, so I fixed that pretty quickly.
Before 
After
So everything there is looking much nicer. Besides the sprite text VWF limitation problem, there’s one other issue, and that’s that sometimes these menus don’t like the 8-bit item names, and sometimes it’s fine with it. And I’m not sure what makes the big space between “Eggs” and “Sell”, it’s most likely adding a hard-coded character between them, and we’ll have to track that down and put the correct value for a space there.
Not sure of the details yet, but this may require another hack to read the items in 8-bit format, but then again I’m not sure why it reads the 8-bit name correctly when selling. So more inquiry is needed.
Heh, and thanks to those last two screenshots, I just realized that those two instances of “Shop” need to be centered too. The game doesn’t like to re-use box titles for some reason.
Anyway, things are still looking and working better and better by the day. This is getting pretty cool 🙂
nice job! I’m really glad its going so well.
AMAZING! I did not know there was free cheesecake in there!
Once again, great job Tomato. Everything seems to be coming together, and looking great as well. Thank you.
Hehe, I like those little blobs of mess. XP
Wow, this post made me feel excited about everything again! Keep up the good work, all of you!
i just beat the menu hack version with a walkthrough (translation). THIS GAME IS FANTASTICAL!!!
good job! i have a feeling this is gonna be done soon….
sorry for the double post.
You guys are doing a great job, and i will definitly download the finished patch, and then replay the game.
amazing! the game looks awesome at this stage, i remember watching the screnshots with a lot of bugs not long ago.
also, it’s kinda hard to find rom hacking proyects with monthly updates, not saying weekly as you guys do, i hope this becomes a trend!
also, are you considering finishing the game before Brawl? i know it is quite a lot of work but the game looks pretty advanced for me, what do you think?
that’s why i’m your fan guys, you’re just awesome!
😯
God, I still remember the mess that was posted a while ago. You guys have done an amazing job. You’ve all got our support.
🙂
Shouldn’t the box that pop up after you choose to use an item say ‘On whom’ instead of ‘To whom’?
‘Use to’? Shouldn’t that be ‘Use on’? Or, is that too hard to program? I understand it’s supposed to be a generic window title for the use/give box, but y’know, it’s a little touch you could do.
Looking more and more professional every update!
There’s gotta be some way you guys could do this for a living…
You’d totally make a killing at it.
Keep up the awesome work, Mato and crew.
Rather, I mean ‘on whom’ rather than ‘to whom’
Yes, the Japanese text doesn’t need to differentiate between “on” and “to”, so there’s only one line of text for all cases. We can either go the easy way and say “On / to whom?” or do the harder way and try to hack code to make it say what it should for each case.
See, this is what I mean when I say little things will always pop up after fixing something 😛
Perhaps the use of a colloquialism would be more suted for that purpose
wow, 15 comments within 2 hours of the post. Ho often do people check this? :p
dude u guys r awesome keep up the good work 🙂
(just to let u guys know there’s a website of guys who are remaking Mother part 1 into Mother 2 graphics so is it okay to support those guys? and i havent played M1 yet so yea Mother rulez)
Heh okay, to keep people from constantly mentioning it, I managed to fix the to/on thing so now the game uses different lines of text for each header. I did a hack like this the other day, so it only took 5 minutes to do this this time.
GIANTSTEP: Are you talking about this? Cause, uh, that’s me 😛
I’ve been following this project for a long time now but keeping quiet when it came to commenting, but no more.
I think this project will become a reference one. Not just because of the obvious quality of the translation itself or the much deserving game it’s being applied to, but for the team and methodology as well.
These status updates rock, and it doesn’t matter if you’re a seasoned translator, rom hacker or complete newbie, you’ll still appreciate the scope and amount of work that goes into a translation such as this, not to mention pick up quite a few pointers along the way.
So in short, thank you for the effort you’re putting into this and keep up the great work. Mother3 is currently at the top of my list for most awaited games of 2008. Yes, that’s right, screw Brawl and MGS4 😀
Keep this up and it’ll be done before we know it!
YOU GUYS ROKK!
good work mato. you’ll be done with this before you know it!!! =)
It looks so close to completion…
And yet, it must be so far away….
Still, I’ll try and be a good boy. No play until the day.
Thanks for the update. It’s great to see the progress made after each update. I’m playing through Earthbound in preparation for this patch!
Excellent. Great job. I anxiously await the finished translation and appreciate all the work you’re doing for us lame asses that can’t take the time to learn a whole new language to play such an awesome game.
Brawl has been delayed again to march 9th, so maybe you got a chance to finish the patch before.
wow yea Mato i didnt think u were part of the project (M1) srry i didnt know that lol and tell me how far did u get on M1? i mean how do “U” think that M1 will be finished?
mato, you have made us feel like we can truly share in your journey. Sharing this whole process with us makes us feel like we are a part of it, and this whole waiting period is going to make Mother 3 one of the most fulfilling things ever. i cant describe how greatful we are for your long hours and dedication.
So Mato, what is [i]the[/i] big hurdle left right now? It’s proably something in the menus, right?
hey man your doing a great job. Everyone was mad that brawl was delayed but I just thought, more time for them to finish Mother 3. I know you said you were hoping it would get done this year so before march seems pretty impossible but you guys are doing a fantastic anyway, the screenshots looks great!
GAH! This blog uses HTML coding, doesn’t it?
Oh… It looks beautiful. The day I play this on my DS or TV… It’ll be great. Keep it up, and ofcourse everyone supports you.
Mato i already thought you were awesome but now i find out your making EB0 (mother 1) look like EB (mother 2) that is just WOW!!! i know its off topic but how is that gonna work is it gonna have to be in snes (.smc i think it is) format cause of the EB graphics or what…anywho i just want to say that even though the hard hacking and stuff is well hard…its that little stuff like the bestiary star and making it “on” and “to” instead of just “to” that shows your dedication to your work 🙂
As always great stuff Mato!
Quick question though – since most of the menues look like they’re nearing completion (outside of those danged item descriptions), do you see yourself starting the 2nd draft of the translation soon, or is there still too many small things for you to hack?
Awesome work, impressed with how often progress is made/posted!
“if there’s too much text, the game will vomit and drown to death in its own puke.”
This is a very masculine taunt
Keep up the good work. It actually seems as if this project will be finished this year.
Wow, so much had been accomplished in a month; I am very shocked (in a good way of course) and amazed! Keep up the good work!!
I’m curious as to how much is left to accomplish, myself. Just from looking at all of the hurdles that have been surpassed, it almost feels as if the rest of the translation is mostly going to involve dialogue with NPCs. I’m pretty sure I’m missing something big, though.
To be short about the M1 project, I’m looking forward to that, too. The YouTube videos I’ve seen were awesomeness in motion.
yes that project definatley is interesting. Hopefull you wont be too burnt out after finishing this one, anyway as always I wish the hole team best of luck in all aspects of life. Keep it up.
A Lucas with that many hit points shouldn’t be guarding from a Cattlesnake!
I love you guys.
This is starting to look really good now. Nice one for this, you guys should be knighted or summat.
This is pretty awesome what’s happened so far. Could you repost your list of things to do soon, both the original and the way it would look now for comparison? Also, what’s the website with Mother’s graphics being updated?
It’s amazing how slowly but surely this game is starting to look more and more like a finalized product. It looks really, really good! You guys rule. Other than this hacking stuff, how’s the script translation coming along anyway?
This translation is glong so dang well! I’m loving the progress! People I know who’ve never really gotten into Earthbound are being swayed into trying the series out because I’ve told the accounts of projects such as these. It’s dedication like this that brings people into the community, and it really shows how much effort you all are putting into this. Thank you, and keep it up!
Ketchup: http://tomato.fobby.net/eb0/
waw Mato…….Waw……. thats all i can really say….
I tip my hat to you, good Sir..
you must lead a very fulfilling life… i bet you enjoy a lot of the little things in life… i bet you make the most out of every good thing, and i bet you look for solutions to problems in your life instead of just negatively reacting…
okay.. let me stop sounding like im hitting on you…
just gonna end it by saying…
Thanks for letting all of us come along this journey with you
You are inspirational…. indeed this whole team is
Thank you, team.. words cannot express our appreciation
Woo hoo! After a long day of doing nothing but Physics (and Final Fantasy Tactics =_=), this pops up. I think I suffered a healthy heart attack if that’s possible.
Seriously, Jeffman kicks all butt (no offense to the guy named butt) and you with your “on / to whom”-ness elevates you to kick-butt status as well.
Like others, though, I wonder what hurdles remain? Did anything break with these new hacks? Well, g’luck and may God bless you with a lot of time and miraculous help (so we can play M3 before Brawl XD which I know you’ll say that can probably not happen).
you guys are incredible!! the text in the screenshots even “sounds” like EB. you have no idea how much all your work means to so many people. If Nintendo shuts you down I’ll storm their HQ with a cracked bat and a red hat dragging a teddy bear. . .because I will have completely lost it.
I agree with several here. This hack will become one of legend. So many of the greatest internet ROM and emulator hackers coming together for one huge cause is a very cool thing.
As the project comes to a close, do you think you’ll be adding some sort of screen acknowledging whomever worked on this hack into the game? I’m thinking of something along the lines of the opening screens, when the game runs through the logos saying “Nintendo”, “Brownie Brown”, etc.. Because that would be a very nice thing to see, methinks. It gives you the warm and fuzzy feeling you might get from seeing the Starmen.net and Mato logos in the EB0 hack, y’know?
I think (but could be wrong) that the biggest hack left is probably the sprite-welding things so that the game doesn’t barf when there’s too much text. Probably have to, I don’t know, cram all the letters on a line into a single huge sprite or something like that, but I’m just guessing. Then there may still be line-lengthening hacks left? But if you can weld sprites, those should no longer crash things horribly like they used to when you run out of sprites.
Hopefully, the sprites are just something like bitmaps with a couple of bytes or so for the dimensions. Then you just have to update the size, and shuffle the lines around so they’re in order or something like that.
But knowing M3, something like that is far too simple and it requires something more evil than that so we should all try and arrange for harmony to get a few weeks of paid vacation where he has nothing better to do 🙂
I believe that, after all this progress, I finally understand what sex is suppose to feel like.
Yes, that is a compliment.
Everyone: This will NOT be done before Brawl. Please, believe me.
Aasimov: I already do make a living doing this 😉
GIANTSTEP: The EB0->EB hack is just a personal pet project of mine, it’s more like me tinkering with the EarthBound ROM because it’s fun and helps me de-stress. It may or may not get finished — I only work on it because it’s something I enjoy. I don’t know if that makes sense. Some guys like tinkering with cars, some guys like gardening, some guys like beer pong, I like messing around with EB’s code. So the EB0 thing is more for me than anyone I guess you could say.
Dr. Hobo: In general terms, there are two MAJOR hurdles left — getting the main script to not explode, and hacking the battle text stuff to work better and to allow for more than 42 letters at once. The battle problem I haven’t gone into much detail yet here on the blog, but basically, the battle text is HORRIBLY programmed, and if we were to try to expand things to let there be more letters at once, the game would quickly run out of memory. So all of the battle text programming might have to be redone from scratch. Oww 🙁 In the meantime, me and Jeffman (read: mostly Jeffman nowadays 😛 ) are hacking what stuff we can to get everything else out of the way.
Failedlegend: It would be in patch format, just as the MOTHER 3 translation will be in patch format.
Triple 10X: I’d still like to hack the little things that are left, as the hacking stuff needs as much attention as it can get right now, but there’s nothing inherently difficult about the script, it just needs time, really.
G.Wicks: I’ve been working on non-script translation, though I haven’t gotten far since yesterday or whenever. Right now I’m working on enemy descriptions. It’s very time-consuming due to screen space limitations, technical limitations, and making things look good. And making things sound close to the original in so few words. Probably takes me 20 minutes per enemy, and there’s about 200 enemies that have descriptions :X
Rod: I’m just a regular guy who’s maybe a bit too much of an EarthBound fan for his own good.
Moulinoski: Nothing’s really “broken” with all these new hacks, though during our testing we’re always finding other little things that need fixing/tweaking. Like the various things covered in this post and in the comments, for example.
Karuvitomsk: What I personally want for an extra intro screen would be something that gives the URL to here so people can get more info, and some sort of disclaimer saying this is a fan translation, not for sale, support the official version if one is ever made, etc. And then we’ll probably do some extra stuff so that it wouldn’t be smart for evil hackers to try to remove said screen.
A Fan: The sprite-welding thing is an important hack, but it’s also a pretty common hack for ROM translations. It’s not out of the realm of possibility for me and Jeffman to figure it out ourselves, and in fact, Jeffman already started to look into it earlier today. But the REAL evil problems are still script overflow errors and the battle text routine that I mentioned elsewhere in this giant reply. Once those two things are gone, everything else is probably smooth-sailing, aside from maybe item names, which I absolutely want to have expanded. So let’s say maybe 2.5 real big problems are holding things back. What sucks is that usually these problems AREN’T problems with ROM translations, at least not in the way they’re manifested in M3. The programming/programmers/compilers were just that insane.
(whew)
Words can not describe the appreciation that I have for everyone doing this project. for over 11 years i have awaited the sequel and felt so let down by a game co. I have trusted for many years , so in short thank you and I agree with the person who said you guys should be knighted. This is dedication and the true meaning of a fan.
the work youre all doing is so incredible and exciting
What a huge amount of work done lately. Not only have you been doing lots of hacking, but TONS of writing in your updates and in the comments. Maybe you, along with the Caribou, have been reconstructed in a more efficient way. 🙂
BREAKING NEWS!!!! Super Smash Bros Brawl is going to be delayed and going to be released in 9th March instead(check gamespot.com).
Everyone on the Mother 3 translation staff you get much more time to finish it before Brawl spoils the story!:D:D
PS: Maybe after you finish the translation can you fix those extras I mentioned on the last update?
That’s pretty old news already =P
that delay is old news
Damn, it sure seems like the project is advancing at a great pace; keep up the great job. I shall wait as long as it takes for it to be finished as you want it; as a programming student myself I know that as much as a project might seem to be advancing, any obstacle can appear at any moment and throw you back for some time. Still, I definitely trust your skills, so I’m sure it won’t be long before we’re playing this game; having such a capable team working on this is really reassuring.
Oh and about that EB0->EB thing… that sure looks interesting, I hadn’t heard of it previously, but it looks great too! Anyway, keep up the awesome job! We’ll all be waiting patiently (while we play Brawl, of course :D)
I can’t wait for this game. So if you could give us an estimated time, what would it be?
ah…
This translation seems to be closer and closer to it’s completion.
Well, seeing as Brawl has been delayed yet again I see no problem in finishing it before it arrives to the US.
But that doesn’t mean you should slow down, no sir.
Jeffery…. C’mon man……….
have you been reading this blog at all? — It must be So irritating to the translating team (especially Mato and Jeffman) to keep hearing people asking that question, and keep giving the SAME answer over and over again.
There’s NO possible way for them to answer such a question, because there is no telling how long certain problems will take to fix, and there is no telling how many other problems will come up in the process. They’re probably 70% done, and the remaining 30% could take anywhere from 3 months to a year.
Mato: so u mean u do it 4 fun huh? k i got it but will u be giving it out or something when ur done? i mean it looks fancy 🙂
wow it looks great!
go here http://wii.ign.com/articles/846/846426p1.html there is a link to this under Claus… I guess IGN is following your progress.
Hey, regular visitors here:
If people ask any of those questions that get asked 900 times, could you link them to the appropriate things? Here are some links.
http://mother3.fobby.net/faqs/#done
http://mother3.fobby.net/faqs/#percent
http://mother3.fobby.net/faqs/#ssbb
It is getting kind of tiring having to answer those questions, especially when I’ve answered them only a reply or two above.
I don’t see why you keep saying ” a small update”, cuz to us this is all freakin’ incredible
Can’t you add a “BEFORE REPLYING:” notice near the replying box with those links? Maybe that way people will stop asking, or at least reduce the constant comments with that kind of questions? I think everyone here finds them annoying too. It’s not a very effective method either (the fact that they won’t realize the answer’s a few posts above their own post is proof) but as I said, it could reduce the stupid comments…
Really, if someone’s actually interested on the project, then they’d keep up with the updates and learn to wait for it to be done; asking isn’t going to get it finished any faster; makes them look like spambots =/
I cant belive Captan N is going to be in the next smash brothers
Here it is folks, the unofficial official release date of the Mother 3 translation patch:
April 26, 2017
..Or it could be released sooner. Nonetheless, here is your release date. Covet it!
DISCLAIMER: I’m not part of the translation team, but those who keep asking about the release date have long stopped reading to post the above release date on your favorite gaming forum. How sad…
OK, I made some changes down at the part where you type in your reply. It looks ugly, but I dunno how to make it look nicer AND be noticeable.
Nice, hopefully this will make the annoying questions go away, and it doesn’t really look that bad, IMO. You can always delete the Brawl question once it’s released and it will be a shorter notice.
I’d try to align the links with the rest of the text/reply box, but really, I couldn’t care less about how it looks as long as it keeps the discussion clean of stupid questions, good job :p
Hey this is gonna sound strange, but would it be possible to make a custom Mother 1+2 cart since they are both already translated and working.
Because it would be cool to use the various things they added to their version, and it would be cool to have all 3 games together for personal enjoyment.
at the risk of being a pest I feel like adding SBB might be delayed a few more times so who knows might happen
@Ryan there are NES and SNES emulators working for the GBA, DS and PSP so you could play those titles on one of those if you would like.
as said meny times before the offical jap version of the 2 games for the GBA would be difficult to hack and there are no current plans for doing so
Butt… Captain N isn’t going to be in Smash bros. that is a “this would be a good idea” type of article. they do it alot.
also, butt the GBA version of Mother1&2 is already being hacked by someone else… according to them its 77% complete.
well, I´ve been following the process for a long time and its my first time commenting, well, I visit this blog like 3 times a week, nice work you guys, and well, for all you frequent visitors, give the new visitors a break, dont tell them they´re asking stupid questions, thats the question we all have in our heads, take it easy you guys
did you guys see the Mother 3 mention in February’s Nintendo Power?…I just got mine today…oh and definately keep up the good work guys!!!
Jeffrey
oops…I spelt your username wrong.. sorry, no disrespect or anything.. and i forgot to add this at the end of that post: Yeah we’re all just aching to play this game, but we gotta be patient dude…. it’ll be done some time, and then we can play the sequel to Earthbound 😀
Fireblend
Hey was a brilliant idea dude… nice 🙂
Adolfo
Yeah i totally agree with you.. but those questions shoulddd stop now thanks to Fireblend’s idea
Can you guys post a new video of your stuff? That’d be very cool to see.
I will wait for the patch because I wait for a great end item and they haran that it well so that they like earthbound
Wow…I only made a post a few days ago about the patch’s completion, and I didn’t see that “(Before posting a reply, PLEASE NOTE!)…” message there. Hehe, I guess my previous comment was the straw that broke the camel’s back, huh? :3
kalbtrombone: I dunno, menus are menus, there’s really no need to see them in video form, is there?
By the way, that’s an awful lot of data to keep track of. Just how do you do it?! How are you sure that some terrible computer-related tradgedy won’t happen that’ll lose all your work? Yes, you can threaten me for speaking such blasphemy, but I know what that kind of pain feels like (I make computer games for a hobby; nothing to brag about). I wish you guys the best of luck that that won’t happen (fingers crossed!).
Man, lately people keep asking the same questions 😯
To answer your question: boo
Whoa… Mato just posted 5 minutes ago when I did. Are you still on there?! Hi! I’m just another fan of your work!(Reply if necessary).
Oh, I see…well, that’s reassuring (phew!). So, I understand that you break the game down bit-by-bit and translate each part. Will putting it all back together be easy, once all the translating is done?
I dunno what you mean, I think you have a wrong idea about how things work. Putting the translated text in is very easy, and we’ve had that working for months and months.
I think you’re right…I have no idea how this stuff works. Anyway, I read your FAQ a while back, and I was wondering where I could (legally) buy what’s called a “flast card” that’ll let me play the game on my GBA. Do they come with instruction books that tell you how to use them?
Oops, I meant “flash card”. 🙁
sence GBA has no protection it is perfectley legal to own a backup device for the GBA. flash carts are pretty easy to come by have a look around
also you m,ight want to cut back on the questions a bit your going overboard there is plenty of time to learn everything you want to know over the next few months
For all of us who wait, there are things that I do that help keep me from going crazy, and bug Mato and Jeffman about the translation. Try these things; Read a book, think about how you can make the world a better place, learn a new language (not nessaraly Japanese), Write a letter, find the meaning of our existance, Play animal crossing, Play a Pen and Paper RPG, try a new phislophical view, find a new Anime, Read every post on a large fourm, Do a speedrun for your favorite game speeddemosarchive.com If that is not enough, try this also, make a list of things you want to do before you die, then try to get some items on that list done.
Also, ask yourself this: If you were to die right now, what would you regret not doing? I know what I would regret, and it’s not being unable to play Mother 3/Earthbound 2 in english. 🙂 Then try and acomplish that thing if it isn’t illegal. If it’s illegal, then it’s your mess when you do it.
Don’t come crying to me about going to jail.
Mato: About the Mother 1 to Mother 2 enigine hack, you mentioned you needed a way to get PNG to raw, have you tried IrfanView? Also, there is a nice orchestra music CD for Mother 1. Maby that would be a nice idea for the improved music from the NES music. Good job hacking and making the game in proper english instead of engrish. I always get a kick out of having 1 lives left in professional games.
Flash carts themselves are technically legal to use however, roms, such as the one everyone who wants to play mother 3 in english needs, is illegal. Every Nintendo game has a “This game is not allowed to be archived” warning in the manual.
That being said, Nintendo isn’t going to bust down your door because you made an illegal copy of mother 3. That would be overkill. If you had a lot (10,000+) of roms then Nintendo would be more likely to come after you, but still unlikely.
There ARE legal roms, Check out MAME’s legal roms at: http://mamedev.org/roms/ Those roms are legal and NO one can say “That’s illegal to own it” You can’t redistribute the roms but they are legal to get. Enjoy!
Nintendo dose not make the laws its perfectley leagal to make your own backup copy as long as the orginal has no copy protection
you use to be able to defeat copy protections for the purpose of backing up and useing personal data but due to an unfair Bush law that is no longer the case
“This text uses the sprite text VWF though, so at the moment, if there’s too much text, the game will vomit and drown to death in its own puke.”
And THAT’S why I love you guys!
Oh btw, just a q but why do both Mother 2 and 3 say
“Blank’s HP is maxed out!”
shouldn’t it be
“Blank’s HP are maxed out!”
?
Does SSBB spoil Mother 3 THAT badly?
Noboady will know till its out but I would seiousley dout it.
probubley Flint one player from the game who is introduced when it is first start the game and everyboady already knows about. One round modeled after mother3 probubley an earley town
Rawlandsabeast: Mother 2 says ‘are’
Things are getting closer now!
Artek-
Does it?
My mistake.