Long Names are Long

16 years ago by Mato

Another update 😯

Like I mentioned in the last update, sblur had already done some research into the max lengths of things you can name. Jeffman and I both wound up looking into that stuff at exactly the same time, though he wound up winning that race 😛

Making the fixes was really easy, it was just a bunch of single-byte changes, and it was amazing that it affected not only the name length check as you’re typing stuff in, but also the initial # of dots. Sometimes the game offers happy and easy surprises. Anyway, first, here are some pics.


  • She’s saying your fav thing
    and your fav food

So here’s the lowdown on the name length changes.

Original Length New Length
Playable Character Names 6 letters 8 letters
Favorite Food 9 letters 8 letters
Favorite Thing 6 letters 8 letters
Player Name 1 9 letters 8 letters
Player Name 2 16 letters 15 letters

I tried updating one of my recent hacks to allow for longer food and cool thing names, but it’ll just get all smelly and complicated because we’d need to hack a whole bunch of menu code too, for only one extra letter. I can *maybe* increase the player names to 9 and 16 like the original, though. But for now this is what we’re at.

Also, I should mention that you know how in EarthBound, Tony asks you your name at one point, and then later on the Tenda elder asks you to double-check it? In MOTHER 2, Tony asks you to spell your name using English letters only, and then the Tenda (Gumi) elder tries to take your Englishy name and convert it into Japanese kana, and then he asks you to rewrite it if necessary.

MOTHER 3 has something like that too, that’s why there are two player names listed up above. For now, I have one set to “Enter your nickname” and the other to “Enter your real name”, but Jeff’s thinking of making you just reconfirm your name like they do in EB. Hopefully it won’t be too hard. It could be a single byte hack, or it could be a huge ugly mess. He’s also contemplating combining the two names in memory, so that you could maybe have one 24-letter name. It theoretically shouldn’t be too hard to do, but we’ll see.

For now, we can cross this thing off the to-do list: “Allow for 8-letter names.” Another thing scratched off 😀

Posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 1:09 pm by Mato, filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comments and pings are currently closed.

37 Responses to “Long Names are Long”

  1. V-King said 16 years ago:

    Whoooo! Go Jeffman! Go Mato!

    *insert screms of joy here*

  2. V-King said 16 years ago:

    And by “screms” I mean “screams”.

    Also *crosses fingers for hacking being done in May* 🙂

  3. Coconut of Enlightenment said 16 years ago:

    Huh?

  4. p-drizzle said 16 years ago:

    you’re spoiling us with 3 updates in 24 hours Mato, now we gonna get all anxious when you go three weeks without updating.

  5. Tonto said 16 years ago:

    8-Letter Name Get!

  6. ty said 16 years ago:

    Update city! You guys deserve a large chocolate cake!

  7. UnknownVariable said 16 years ago:

    Hm, mother 3 has an “enter your name” spot in the game, eh? That makes me curious. 🙂

  8. Mato said 16 years ago:

    It also asks for your address and credit card #, I think it’s a scam.

  9. fael said 16 years ago:

    HAHA, love the reference for LONGCAT
    hehe, you guys are great, keep up the good job!
    (and perhaps, since Brawl is out, you could update the image warning above the comments form)

  10. Alezicars said 16 years ago:

    Wow! specatcular! another really annoying thing marked off!

  11. 7ucky said 16 years ago:

    Ooo, we get to enter the Player name again like EB? 😀

  12. Fran said 16 years ago:

    Fantastic work, really looking forward to Mother3.
    Been playing Brawl, and it’s not helping…

    Anyway, name related question.
    How do you pronounce Mato?

    Is it like: mah-tow
    or: may-toe

    I say tomato you say tomato… 😉

  13. mackincheese said 16 years ago:

    I’m just glad there won’t be anymore of this ‘Kumato’ business!

  14. TheReaper said 16 years ago:

    WOW my internet goes off for a day and 3 updates already.

  15. cale said 16 years ago:

    btw sorry if I offended you 7ucky, I guess I’m just more used to old fashioned americana then all this new-fashioned computer-talk. thanks for the link……….?

    ya know playing it in japanese is a lot easier than i thought, i just wish they had item descriptions in-battle…..at least you guys are blazing through this thing….

  16. MentallyAbstract said 16 years ago:

    I’m loving all these updates 😀

  17. ArashiSai said 16 years ago:

    Fran : I asked that same question, he says he doesn’t care.

    But wow, you’re really meant it when you said one thing off the list a week, eh? 🙂

  18. 7ucky said 16 years ago:

    cale: dude, no worries at all – I was pretty sure you didn’t mean anything by it and I didn’t take offense, but I’d hate for you to be in an uncomfortable situation because of something like that. And I know you’re not a bad guy at all because you’re here on this board (my logic is that people who are into EB/Mother are just nicer people). 😀

  19. neo said 16 years ago:

    Awesome, tow more letters! Really, no sarcasm, that’s cool stuff

  20. ^_^ said 16 years ago:

    does jeffman speak japanese?

  21. JeffMan said 16 years ago:

  22. cale said 16 years ago:

    that’s what I was hoping. I hate when ppl just want to one-up you to make themselves look smart. plus, obviously nobody is coming to this site to argue race-issues like this. the original game is practically a celebration of the differences between east/west, and while I’m sure I’d still love it if i were born japanese, I have a feeling part of my love(and mothers cult status anywhere other then japan) is due to it’s extremely bizarre portrayal of the USA. kinda like a japanese version of the states.

    see I can type much more now that I’m at work and not using a wii remote to type

  23. computerkefka said 16 years ago:

    i hear he speaks engrish

  24. Rod. said 16 years ago:

    …..OMFG!!!!!11111oneoneone

    So many updates! I’m saving these for tonight when im done my day, and can sit down and enjoy the good read 😀

  25. Dr. Meat said 16 years ago:

    Now my dream of putting even longer, more hilarious words as my favorite thing/food will be fulfilled!

    AhahahahhahHAHAHHAHAHAHA

  26. Tyler said 16 years ago:

    Thank you for keeping my dreams alive!

  27. Gastrodon said 16 years ago:

    I… Feel… Haaaaaaappyyyy…

  28. GIANTSTEP said 16 years ago:

    Awesome… and Upset…
    The reason that Im upset that because of the SSBB not having the Earthbound Demo thing in the American Version 🙁 . That stinks but I guess Im going to have to live with it.

  29. Unsavory Maggot said 16 years ago:

    I know. It would’ve been interesting to play EarthBound as much as possible in 3 minutes. ;D I wonder if that particular section that’s a trial would’ve been Grapefruit Falls. “Wait 3 minutes” ;D That’d be the whole trial!

  30. Can0fMean said 16 years ago:

    Wow, one thing left uncrossed at Gray Name Box Hacking 😀 So wicked! 😀

  31. Mato said 16 years ago:

    I’m actually almost done with that now I think. Need more time for testing it etc.

  32. Rozgabound said 16 years ago:

    Mato and Jeffman you make a over stressed college kid very happy.

    /cry

  33. G.Wicks said 16 years ago:

    Wow, 8 letter names. That’s new territory for EarthBound games. I love naming characters in games so this has gotten me pretty geeked up.

    You guys rule.

  34. Kumatora said 16 years ago:

    YOU PEOPLE ROCK!!! Keep up the good work!

  35. VGC said 16 years ago:

    I love u guys…

  36. makemetihnk said 16 years ago:

    VC good Progress Mato my Boy…. the meth Works Wonders I cAN See..
    Please Release in the Decade of 200X !! For Good ness

  37. makemetihnk said 16 years ago:

    Will The Game Of Earthbound Make Traverse to The Virtual Game of Nintendo Service “Virtual Console”?/ I hear Many Rumours and Many involve Smash Brothers but What is thE Facts my Fellow Mother Fans