Being Articulate
Spent a few hours tinkering with stuff from yesterday and improving things. Got pretty much most of the rest of the custom battle control code stuff done, but still need to do some grunt work and also implement a code for items. This item work will cross over and help out with stuff we’re gonna need to do with the main script, so that’ll be good.
Automatic “An” instead of “A” 
Automatic “a” here,
automatically lowercase, too
Anyway, those pics yesterday were nice and all, but immediately people started to point out that they wanted it to include the word “its” and such. I already had that planned all along though 😛
What I basically did today was first fix the problem from yesterday so the game would always know the correct # of enemies at the start of battle. This was easier than I thought it’d be luckily. Then, I went on to implement five other control codes. This required a bunch of stuff all coming together, it was pretty amazing to see everything working so perfectly right away. Had to write some new C code for our conversion tool, had to insert custom data blocks into the game, had to write a bunch of new assembly code to use various new tables to get the proper strings copied when necessary. It’s just really neat seeing stuff working so well, I dunno why.
Anyway, the way I did things, it’s actually a lot more customizable than just saying this enemy is this gender, this enemy is that, blah blah. It’s pretty wide open and easily customizable. It’s neat. What this means to the player is more natural-sounding text than would’ve been possible beforehand. It might seem kind of dumb to fuss over stuff like this when it’s just tiny details, but it’s my hope that people WON’T notice it. That’ll mean these hacks did their job of making the text flow nicely 🙂
I could almost cross the control code thing off of the to-do list now, but I still need to implement one last custom CC for item names — this will allow us to have item names that start with vowels (or vowel sounds). Simple things, like “Antidote” will be possible; without it, text like “Flint got a Antidote!” would happen. “Flint got a Nut Bread!” could also become “Flint got some Nut Bread!” It’ll be good stuff. I also need to do a bunch of boring work, basically assigning the gendery stuff to each and every enemy. All this should only take a few hours, but the results will be nice. And then we can cross that stuff off the list.
For now, once again I must slumber, but here are some pics of the new control codes in action. Some things still need tinkering, like for instance, I don’t know whether Mr. Batties should be referred to as “A Mr. Batty” or just “Mr. Batty”, and there are many other situations like this. Languages are interesting. Anyway, look and enjoy!
Man, I remember just a few weeks ago when battle text didn’t even work 😯
Very nice!, you guys are kicking some serious butt!
Keep up the fantastic work!
SECOND!
well done, mato
The updates this week are fantastic!
Mato, you’re a machine. Seriously.
Awesome work. Personally I like “Mr. Batty” over “A Mr. Batty.” It just sounds better.
Good luck and get some sleep. I’ll be here playing brawl!
Suggestion for Mr. Batty…instead of “A Mr. Batty” or “The Mr. Batty” how about just leaving it Mr. Batty?
I agree with Neurowore. However, it would probably be annoying to make exceptions for specific enemies.
I made it customizable enough that each enemy can use its own unique stuff. The problem with Mr. Batty is that there’s more than one, it’s just a generic enemy. Anyway, I’ll figure it all out later, zzzzzzz
Whoa! Another update!
Great job guys keep up the great work. I think this might be the most anticipated rom hack ever 😮 , Bravo!
If you think of Mr. Batty in the sense of it being an object or thing within the world of Mother, then “A Mr Batty” sounds correct. The “Mr Batty” is a single “item” in reference.
If you want it to sound more immersing and dialogue-like, I’d go with just Mr Batty, as if you were referring to it as Mister Batty.
Ie, You encountered Mr. Batty! vs You encountered a Mr. Batty!
It all depends on whether or not you want it to seem more story-like and immersing, or more strict game-like and refer to enemies as individual representative “objects” or “items” within the game.
I’m sure you’ll pick the decision you feel works best. Good luck, and thanks again. 🙂
Great stuff. Hopefully nothing big and evil jumps into the fray to slow down your progress.
Awww yeah! 🙂
Tomato, you know we only demand because we love.
I like not having the “a” in front of Mr. Batty, personally.
I also think that “The Zombie Dog” would be better, but that may just be me… and it sounds okay either way.
This definitely seems like a case-to-case (or battle-to-battle) basis. Good thing that you have lots of people to help go over the text and test play.
Keep up the awesome work, Mato.
I think it kind of needs to be Mr. Batty.
I get why you want A Mr. Batty—because there’s several. But there’s also lots of Mr. Smiths in the world, and you wouldn’t (often) say, “I talked to a Mr. Smith yesterday.” Using “A Mr. Batty” pretty much ruins everything fun about a bat with a formal name, á la Fred the Sock Puppet, PhD.
Also, does Mother 3 work like Earthbound where there’s Mr. Batties A, B, and C?
My vote goes to “Mr. Batty,” even if there are tons of them. It reads better and it’s kind of cute that Bats, for some weird reason, deserve this term of endearment of sorts.
It never bothered me in Mother 1.
I totally agree that “Languages are interesting”! I’ve always found the differences between indefinite and definite articles a fascinating slice of our language, as it’s often governed by the speaker and could “feel” different for each person.
I know we’re all just throwing out our opinions (possibly annoyingly) but I think that when you surprise an enemy it should be the definite article. I’m sure you have this all in mind since you are obviously a smart language guy (and you’re probably already planning on doing this like you were with “its”).
It should ideally be the indefinite article when you encounter an enemy or are surprised by an enemy (if it’s not unique), and then be the definite article as you’re in the battle since you are now focusing on THESE enemies. And it looks like you have done that, which is awesome because that’s how English works.
Therefore, my MINOR point is that in surprising an enemy, there already seems to be a definiteness about it since you’re consciously choosing to go after the enemy. I think that’s why that first Zombie Dog text seems wrong.
On the other hand, I can totally see that someone would still identify it as an indefinite type of enemy encounter.
Anyway, that was long and pointless, but “languages are interesting” and really I can’t sleep, so I decided to write an essay on the perceptions of article definiteness on a fan translation blog.
Well, we all accept Mr. Saturn as one entity, why not Mr. Batty? Besides, they all might have different first names. 😛
Yeah, I agree – not “A” or “The” Mr. Batty.
Keep up the good work. I’m glad that you’re paying attention to details like these.
Looking at it, I say, this, “The boss said some mean things” sounds a lot better then “A boss said some mean things.” “The” to me sounds like their is just one of that type of enemy. There is only one Starman Deluxe in Earthbound. So it says, I think, “The Starman Deluxe attacks.” I say if it’s a common enemy, IE: non-boss then make it A. Bosses are The. Though if it’s a singular non-boss foe, then make it The.
just curious about the mole cricket in the intro. wouldn’t it be referred to as “a” mole cricket as apposed to “the” mole cricket, assuming the characters and or player don’t know yet that it is “the” mole cricket? (sorry to nit pick.) great job with progress. i can’t wait to play it.
Awesome work guys! I’ve been working with many, different Game Engines, and I can say this is some hard work! Evenso in another Langauge! 😉
Putting in my vote for “mr.batty” sans article. Also agree with previous comment that you should encounter “an” enemy, and then once you are familiar with it (ie the battle has started) it becomes “the” enemy. Obvious exceptions like “the” boss, would apply of course. By the way, great work, it’s exciting to watch the progress. Earthbounders round the world salute you and the team!
There’s something about seeing the words “Mr. Batty and his cohort” that cracks me up! 😀
I like just plain old “Mr. Batty” instead of “A Mr. Batty.”
Like in the real world… Would you say “Look there, it’s a Mr. Tomato! I say, he’s a rather talented chap, wot wot!”
Excellent work thus far! It’s so exciting seeing all this work getting done in such a short period of time. My hat is off to you. So far off, in fact, that it’s probably somewhere in Singapore by now. I just hope it doesn’t make use of the gum I stored in it…
But all joking aside, Mato… You’re a machine. Seriously. You must have a robotic brain. Or maybe you’re a Terminator…
Whatever. Chicks must dig you, man. xD
Why aren’t you doing this for a livi- Oh wait.
Mr. Batty sounds much nicer.
You’re doing god’s work my friend. If you were a woman, I would make sweet love to you while buying you a pair of shoes.
I just hope you guys are remembering to back this stuff up as you go 😐
Go! Go! Go!
And yes, back it up on DVD, CD, Flashdrive, and floppy disk. I remember when DeJap translations lost all their work on Star Ocean (I think it was Star Ocean) years and years ago. ;.; Let’s not play part 2 of that.
A Mr. Totally Impressed posted!
Mr. Totally Impressed gave words of praise!
YOU WON!
I was shocked when i came here, and you guys had at least twice as many updates as usual, and I’m delighted with your progress ^-^. I find myself getting more and more excited the closer you guys get! I’m even thinking about getting a cart and patching it, if that works. Thank you guys for all your hard work!
I’m stoked. Keep it up! 😀
I love tinkering with languages as well! 🙂
And this is my job, too… 😉
Great work so far! I hope that you can really appreciate how much everyone is cheering you on, sometimes praise can lose some significance if you hear it over and over again.
But I mean it!
GREAT JOB!
Thank you so much I thought I would never get to enjoy this game. You GUYS KICK ASS!!
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
It’s looking lush. I’m well excited!
Wow! It’s starting to look more and more like EB! In an excellent way, that is.
I again humbly tip my Mr. Baseball Cap to the Unified Translation Team.
“A Mr. Batty” sounds like Mario talk. “It’s a me, a Mario”. Now if Mario were proper and english, I think he’d say “It’s me, Mario”. 😉 Nevermind all that, just seeing the CCCs in action is making me wet with anticipation! I can’t wait to see what other awesome things you implement! 😀
I prefer Mr. Batty with the “a”, probably because it sounds more like Earthbound. Regarding the “the mole cricket”, shouldn’t it just be “a mole cricket?” Haven’t played M3 yet but it sounds like a common enemy me and deserves an “a” rather then a “the”. Unless its a boss and there’s only one of them.
Question: On screenshot number five, “You encountered the Mole Cricket!” Shouldn’t that be “a” instead of “the”? None the less, keep up the fantastic work! 😀
Brandon: Nope, there’s no A, B, and C’s in M3. Check out Mato’s reply to me here
Click
Jack Nortan: Well, the thing about the Mole Cricket is its the same one who you fight over and over… you meet him in the first few minutes of the game..and i guess he comes back a few times?… anywhoo I think there’s only one of them, so “the mole cricket” is best.
as for the Mr. Batty thing… why not just do it the way EB did it?
Absolutely amazing! Do you ever wake up in the morning and think to yourself, “MAN! I’m so awesome that I’m jealous of MYSELF!”
I actually pity your friends in real life.
“So how’s it going, man?”
“Oh, y’know… same old, same old. I cleaned the house, washed my car, and–OH YEAH!–created my own lines of battle text coding for the most anticipated RPG in North America single handedly.”
“…… Ah. So just another day, huh?”
Keep doing your thing, man. I’ll continue to watched with my mouth gaped in awe by sheer amazement of your amazing abilities.
… And “Mr. Batty” sounds cuter than “a Mr. Batty.” Here’s a scientific fact for you: cute names are better.
I’ve been following your updates since august and I continue to really really enjoy reading about your fun updates so regularly. It’s a real privilege to be able to hear about your behind the scenes work. Thanks so much for this.
Whoa, I wake up and already there’s 40+ comments. Used to be a post got that many in a week, heh.
Anyway, I was just thinking, Mr. Saturn exists in EB, but people will sometimes say, “Talk to the Mr. Saturn here” or “Look, a Mr. Saturn lives in Happy Happy Village!” At least I do that, because they’re actually individuals of a group. I see the Mr. Batties the same way. But I prefer it without “a” too, so I’ll go with that. Now to do this with a few hundred more enemies 😉
mazoboom: I agree, I was actually waiting for someone to say that about the snuck up on line. Seems more natural with a definite article there.
Adman: Yes, I back stuff up very regularly. Team members have access to all the files too, so they have stuff too, in case a meteor should hit one of our houses and wipe out backups and backups of backups.
Jack: The mole cricket is a recurring character in the game, and you’ve already been introduced to it/conversed with it before you fight it. It is kind of like a boss fight, though unlike most bosses, it doesn’t put up much of a fight 😛
Mato nice pics of the control codes in action and its great that you pretty much finished with all the control codes in no time and all thats left is to implement one last custom control code for item names,hopefully by tonight lol you will have a mini update saying you completed implementing the last custom control code for item names.
MMM..mmm, sorry I’m wiping the drool off my face..
This has to be my favourite website–consisting of the most intelligent/elite/well documented, independent hack project ever witnessed…
In a strange way, I almost won’t know what to do when it’s released…perhaps apply the patch, witness my beloved franchise in beautiful, articulated, smooth english characters and then promptly have a heart-failure X_x
I’m trying to think of a good term for that. Translatocide is all that comes to mind 😛
So close I can taste it. It’s so lovely to see all those items crossed off on the to-do list!
Yea, I agree, all Mr. Saturns are individuals, because they are beloved characters that we can throw at other players in SSB 😛
Mr. Batty does flow better without an article in front. I’m glad you decided to take the extra time to make everything perfect. Text is just as important as anything else!
GREAT job, guys! I can’t wait for this, seriously.
As for the “a”, “the” argument, why not keep it the same as Earthbound, and put ‘the’ instead?
THE PARENTAL KANGASHARK ATTACKED!
I think I’d be diagnosed with acute translatory syndrome. Or translatorism. I guess it depends on whether you blame the thing or the individual.
Keep up the good work Mato! We’re all rooting for you :3
thethirdman: EB doesn’t always put “the” there, there’s a flag the localizers included that tells if an enemy should have “the” printed or not. That’s pretty much the same thing we’re doing here, just with more options.
Amazing! Simply amazing! ^_^
Just marking my place. Love all the comments–love the pics even more ^_^
Okay, I think I’ve got all the enemy data stuff entered in. It’s neat seeing it in action. Even the few female enemies use “her” and such when needed. Looks nice 🙂 Might take some slight trickery in situations where a line could apply either to an enemy or a player character, but I’ll mess with that another time, if it’s even an issue. Now just gotta make items work.
so can we say we’re also crossing that out?
but immediately people started to point out that they wanted it to include the word “its” and such. I already had that planned all along though
haha, i didn’t doubt it a second. you’re such a great hacker and Mother fan to let go such a critical detail
you’re my hero! keep up the good job!
No, cause I’d still need to hack the main script to use the item stuff too.
You know what’s scary? The progress feels like it’s been taking a lifetime. Go back and look at the blog. It hasn’t been that long since you were showing us pictures of ugliness. Keep going!!!
Simply amazing…
Someone mentioned themed EB hacks in the last thread. Mato, I think you even mentioned called “Hat Quest”? Are those hacks like fan-made side quests or fan-fic-like appendages to the EB story? Or are they just challenges?
Once again, My work day is made better by having such awesome news! Thanks!
Wow, you guys are REALLY truckin’ along now!
Yay!!!
Goodness gracious me, this stuff is fancy lookin.
Even taking into account the time for testing, I stand by my previous statement:
You guys could very possibly have this finished by the end of June. And I REALLY hope that you do.
Awesome! =D I tried playing the Japanese version with a script open in another window last year but it just isn’t the same. I can’t wait for this!!!
It would be so awesome if they finished it on my birthday :3
It’d be the best weird factoid ever.
It’s only been a week since I last looked, and you guys are sure motoring. I am really impressed with how well this project is going! Keep up the good work!
Vyre, I’d love the same thing, but my birthday is in January so I’ll be okay if a translation patch hits sooner!
I guess I just have to settle for the first transcontinental telephone call ever made happening on my bday. 😀
Oh that’s weird, my B-day’s the next day, 7ucky!
7ucky, the hacks are… everything you stated. 🙂 Not one, or the other. Some of them are extra stories (which are, infact fanfics no matter how you look at it) which build off of the Mother series, some of them are remakes of the first Mother game (Tomato could tell you more about that) and some of them are unrelated to the EB universe altogether. However, they’re all hacks of EB. A lot of them feature new NPC interaction, new enemies, and new graphics. Some of them are just graphics changes with rewritten stories and new features. (JonBound, you have the ability to save via Cell Phone.)
Speaking of hacks, I miss hoodie Ness. What happened to Blue Antoid, and his magnificent EB follow-up hack?! They both appear to have left without a trace. 🙁
Great job Mato! I’m really impressed as to how much detail you’re putting into this project. Thanks so much!
My birthday is a bit more likely to be home to the day they release the translation project- July 16th!
It also happens to be the day the first nuclear bomb ever exploded. Yay for factoids!
This may sound stupid Mato, but what would happen if you just released the pack now. Not suggesting it, just curious
patch* sorry
Long time lurker, first time poster.
Just wanted to say I appreciate the effort of everyone involved in the translation, and it’s been fun being able to walk along with you guys through the progress being made.
Earthbound is my younger brother’s favorite RPG of all time, and while I liked it a lot, it’ll be fun to be able to surprise him with the news when this is completed. I just can’t wait to see his face really, heh.
Anyhow just wanted to drop by to say thanks, and I hope that all major problems prove to be less frustrating and tedious than they otherwise could be. In the meantime I can be patient and get excited with each and every update. 😛
Mato, shouldn’t, “You encountered the mole cricket,” be: “You encountered A mole cricket.”
The phrase “parental kangashark” never fails to amuse me.
This is looking better all the time, I’m always watching! The project is just taking constant leaps forward. Refreshing to see so much English text now. Keep up the good work! =)
Mato, I say cross out the title “Gray Name Box Hacking:”
In the to-do list.
It would look sweet, and show pure domination over all things gray/grey boxed.
Marking my place again.
I, also, love the name “Parental Kangashark”. Don’t you dare change it!!!
You have no idea how much I need this game. My imagination is always running wild with what it’s like. And I can only make vague guesses based on the pics and videos you put up. It makes me furious sometimes.
Just thought I’d let you know you’re the only ones keeping me sane right now.
Oh wow, you got Control Codes down already! Who said you needed Super Hackers? XD
Juan, as Tomato said earlier in the blog. The Mole Cricket is a recurring character in the game. You fight it multiple times but it is always the same Mole Cricket which means it should use “The” instead of “A”.
There are more than one Mole Cricket; who cares if he’s the only one you fight? Stating “The” when there are multiple almost sounds ignorant to the possibility that others exist. Mole Crickets aren’t going extinct, you know.
@ Unsavory Maggot: true, true….. but when you say “The Mole Cricket”, it makes it more of a personal thing between them and that mole cricket…
Isn’t it amazing how us, the fans of this translation…. love to take a little thing like “a mole cricket” vs “the mole cricket”…. and turn it into this bigg issue? lol 🙂
“A” Mr. Batty if he has cohorts, Just “Mr. Batty” without them, I think.
Miht be harder though :s
LoL, i totally agree with Arsenis
Sorry about being unrelated, but;
If I were to play the game with the menu patch, then later updated to the full translation, would I be able to use the same save on a flash cart? I’m very excited to play through it. Mother 1 translation just doesn’t do it for me, and my Earthbound SNES cartridge battery died. 🙁
I also do Agree with “the zombie dog” even if it is just a normal enemy..
whatever…… Mato’s the Professional at this stuff…no? So he’d know exactly how to word it.. we need not worry folks 🙂
“Anyway, those pics yesterday were nice and all, but immediately people started to point out that they wanted it to include the word “its” and such. I already had that planned all along though :P”
I just got back from military processing, so I haven’t been able to respond to the last few entries. I saw that Sexy Beam link and… holy crap, other people have played Arcana o__o; There’s another game that could use a good translation.
Mato, awesome work. Whats even more awesome is you don’t act all stuck-up when you have definitely earned the right to do so.
Also, I tried those hacks you suggested. I liked the Earthbound Battler from ROFISH the best, but it was to buggy. Has anyone tried finishing it?
I dont know why, and I know this is off topic, but I thought that the sexy beam thing was the funniest thing ever. Seeing sexy beam put into all those games made it hilarious to me, I guess cuz ive played them all. First post ever for me also, BOOYA!
Wow, someone ELSE who has played Arcana. Too bad I never finished it out of spite for bees. ;-;
Was busy today, so nothing done this afternoon. Ah well. Anyway.
7ucky: Yeah, the EB hacks are actual patches you apply to the ROM. Check http://starmen.net/pkhack and http://pkhack.fobby.net/download.php for stuff. You can also check my eb0 remake hack page on my personal site for beta versions of that patch.
SAM-E-BOI: I’m tellin’ ya, it’s not gonna happen 😛
Unsavory Maggot: He got a girlfriend, got super busy at college, disappeared for a good while, reappeared for a short time, and is now missing again. Somehow even in the real world, we geeks wind up with lives somehow.
Whats Kraken: The game would be ugly but work for the first 5-10 minutes and then crash and be nearly completely unreadable all the time after that.
Juan: Like I mentioned before, this is a recurring character in the game. Before you fight it each time, you interact with it a lot. Since it’s a specific enemy, it works best in context to have “the”. You’ll just have to trust me.
Arsenis: Good idea 🙂
Coconut of Enlightenment: It’s probably safe to say that anything you think up will be pretty far off. It’s actually quite a bit different from EarthBound in many ways. But it also does stuff EarthBound never did, and does it well. Just don’t go expecting EB and you’ll definitely love it 🙂
Max2021: It should work in theory, but because we’ve changed the character mapping in the real patch, any of your characters’ names or stuff you’ve named will wind up being printed as garbage and possibly mess things up/make things look ugly. I’m hoping Jeffman’ll be able to cook up a quick app that people in your situation can use to convert their save files. It’s not a big deal though, and if things don’t work out, you can give me your save file and I’ll do some magic and fix it manually for and give you back a proper save file. But all of this won’t be for a long while of course.
You can has cookie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–Vaz9jW054
Hey pauyasfyla, I just noticed your comment was #6000 on this blog. You win a free hello!
Yay! New car!
Rod: It’s nothing personal or a big issue. It’s just if you read my prior posts, you will see that I’m a nitpicky fan. As such, I will go off on a nitpicky tangent to explain in detail why I choose “a”. Not because it’s a big issue, but because I like making blueprints, drawing maps, and giving detailed explanations.
I can understand using “the” if his name were “Fiesty Mole Cricket”, because he’s the only one who even cares to get in your face. If you consider that there’s more than just a single Mole Cricket in the entire game, (including the friendlier ones) then “a” sounds good. Even if it’s something personal between that particular mole cricket and your party, “the” makes it sound as though he’s the only one you’ll ever meet. I don’t deny however that “the” makes any sense. People use it all the time to describe animals. “the cat”, yeah. Insects on the other hand, such as “a fly”, “an ant”, “a beetle”, and so on and so forth, are less commonly referred to as “the” in any case. That is, unless of course, you happen to be watching the Discovery Channel. “The beetle is a nasty bug” — but in such a case, “the” is used to refer to beetles in general, fewer cases use “the” to refer to an insect as a singular entity. “The Mole Cricket is doing something profound” sounds more correct than “You encountered the Mole Cricket.” — we are talking about a single entity of a mass. Again, “the” just makes it sound like there’s only one in the whole wide world. When you kill “the Mole Cricket”, it can be assumed that they will become extinct. When you kill “a Mole Cricket”, it can be assumed that there are others left. It doesn’t matter which he decides to choose, because it’s not like a simple case of “the” and “a” are going to make a serious impact on anyone here. If I remember correctly, we’re all here because we just want to see how it’s going to turn out. Most of us come because we want the game in English.
Now if you want to talk about a big deal, here’s one for you: the fact that most people disregard the Legend of Heroes series as a whole. They are all very decent games, the official translations themselves aren’t so bad that you won’t know what to do, where to go next, or how to solve simple puzzles.
If the Mother 3 translation turns out to be anything like Breath of Fire I & II though, it WILL be a big deal. 😉 I strongly doubt that will happen, though. (For shame, Capcom! You can take your Bilzzard Buffalos elsewhere!)
Haha.
I just equipped my BoyDR and ate a LifeBL to get some HP back. No clue what they were, though.
What will happen when the enemies will have many types of monsters? Will it be like “You met Pork Soldier and his cohorts.” or “You encountered Pork Soldier, a slime and its cohorts and a fly.”
You get what I mean?
It’ll just say cohort or cohorts, regardless of what the other enemies are. You can only fight 3 enemies at a time, anyway.
Mato, your hacking skills are an inspiration to all.
Out of curiosity, where did you learn your GBA ROM hacking skills? I’m not really much for it myself, but you’re doing things to this game that I didn’t think were possible in hacks. That makes me intensely curious =P.
I learned it by paying attention to the other hackers on the team and looking at their code and learning on my own. I hadn’t really done any assembly language hacks until last November or so, so it doesn’t take long to learn. I have experience with data hacking and programming in general though, so that made it a bit easier.
I bet you could learn to be an awesome GBA hacker by the time the patch is done. Why not give it a shot?
I understand you intend to test the patched ROM on different platforms once all the hacks are in place and all that’s left is stabililty testing/debugging. I suppose the more obvious platforms are actual GBA consoles, GameCube Gameboy Players and Nintendo DS consoles through the use of Flashcards, and also popular PC emulators such as no$GBA or VisualBoyAdvance… Are there any plans of testing the patched ROM on a PSP GBA emulator like gpSP (I believe Exophase’s behind that one)? Has anyone tried playing the original Japanese Mother 3 on gpSP?
Played the whole thing on gPSP, plays flawlessly. No timing issues, so it’s easy to combo. Of course, nothing beats playing with the actual cartridge. 😀
@Unsavory Maggot: That’s good to hear! Let’s hope all these hacks don’t render it unplayable on gpSP, because that’s how I’m hoping to play it 😛
On a different note, I just looked at very early posts on the blog, and wow, this project is really coming along well! There’s some really freaky stuff in there… I was following work on Mother 3 translation from the DIYD site, and sort of forgot about it, until I came back one day and found out there’d been a project unification and that this blog appeared and work was apparently moving quite fast… I missed the first 2 months or so here and seeing those first few posts now is really a “wha?” moment, in the good sense 🙂
Hey Mato, completely off topic question, but…
I’m considering (very maybe kinda thing) retranslating two games. They are the Mega Man Battle Network 6 games.
Now, if you have played them, or are familiar with them, you might know that the games could be connected to Boktai 3, a game unreleased in the US but being fan translated. Because of it’s unrelease, Capcom decided to heavily edit the MMBN6 games – they took out complete areas of the game, boss fights, sidequests, and pretty much anything Boktai 3 related. This situation has upset and frustrated fans of both series for quite some time now.
So, in a sort of “response” to the Boktai 3 translation, I am thinking about retranslating the games, so fans could finally play both games as they were meant to be played.
What I plan on doing is dumping the text from the US games, reinserting it into the JP ROM (with a possible few modifications, i.e. engrish), and then getting help translating what’s left.
But, I am rather new to rom hacking and translating, and I’m completely in the dark when it comes to GBA hacking…so, may I ask you, what are some good utilities for the above mentioned plan, what would be the most helpful and efficent tools to rip the text, and reinsert it?
I hope you don’t mind this question, and thanks for so much for the hard work you are doing. I am very much looking forward to the finished project.
Cheers!
keep up the good work
Hey Mato, has your team ever thought about ROM expansion? It would give you much more to work with, and isn’t that hard to do on a normal GBA game.
It can’t be expanded. Anyway, there aren’t any space problems anymore now that we’ve made the main script 8-bit and moved all the other text around into unused areas of the ROM.
imdebomb2: First, no$gba is what you’ll want to use if you do assembly level hacks. If you want to extract the script, then you’ll probably want to write your own script dumper for the game, and then write an insertor, too. Of course, you’ll need to alter the Japanese font and stuff if it doesn’t have English letters already. You’ll want a tile editor for that, assuming the font isn’t compressed. So you already got a lot of work cut out for you 😛 There aren’t any magical do-it-all utilities for ROM hacking, sadly.
I just wanted to respond to the Mole Cricket thing for the sake of healthy discussion.
Imagine a sitcom (nothing better off the top of my head, sorry). Apart from the usual slew of jokes, someone buys a beetle. After the beetle makes the characters experience hell on earth multiple times, it’ll start to be referred to as “the” beetle. There’s a bond between the beetle and the characters… and I think the same applies with the Mole Cricket in this case.
You can take this example to all sorts of contexts, like the new kid in school, or the hole in the wall, or the irregularly placed cabbage on my fridge. While respectively killing, filling up, or moving these subjects, they still won’t be the last of their kind. But the fact that they have an impact on my daily life make them special, and so they ascend from “a” status to “the” status. I think that’s the kind of issue we’re talking about here.
Even a Mole Crickets might become important in our lives.
Please ignore the spelling mistake on my deep philosophical message XD.
Thanks so much!
To think, we would have to pay about 40$(which I would happily do) to buy an official english copy of Mother 3 or Earthbound 2. And you’re giving us this for free. You really are awesome. And this probably has more attention than the official copy would get(Especially with the little star thing and all).
I actually played an hour through Mother 3 on my DS yesterday, and around the end of the first chapter, I just couldn’t imagine how good this translation is going to be. Simply great.
Also, I was wondering if you play Brawl, Mato? I was playing a ‘Matos’ online from Starmen.net.
I play Brawl once in a while, but I haven’t played online. Mostly I just play a quick match against the CPU here or there during a work break.
when the project is finished, i will send a dozen roses to my mom. that is the REAL mother’s day.
mom: you know, yesterday was mother’s day.
me: STFU! NO TRANSLATION, NO HOLIDAY OBSERVATION!
mom: *cries*
Here’s some info from an old post by Mato for everyone who wants to learn ROM hacking (I thought he put it in the FAQ, too?) —
VBA http://vba.ngemu.com/downloads.shtml
VBA-SDLH http://www.romhacking.net/utils/297/
GBA tech doc http://nocash.emubase.de/gbatek.htm
GoldRoad ARM/THUMB assembler http://www.gbadev.org/tools.php?showinfo=192
THUMB reference http://www.gbadev.org/docs.php?showinfo=19
ARM/THUMB tech reference (very good) http://www.gbadev.org/docs.php?showinfo=16
I have a question I just HAVE to ask.
Suppose that when the translation was finished, Nintendo took your translation and released it.
How would you feel?
Would you be Honored, Disgusted, or just happy that Mother3 would finally be released in America?
Please answer this, it’s something I must know!
I meant, how would you feel if nintendo released your translation as an official translation and did not give you any credit and claimed that they translated it?
Although I don’t think Nintendo would do something like that.
I have a feeling that you’re alot further along then you are telling us, anyway it’s great that your even doing this!
unsavory maggot, vyre is right. You’re correct in saying it should be “You encountered a Mole Cricket” at the beginning of the battle. But for the rest of the entire battle, including “You defeated…” I absolutely contend that it should be “THE Mole Cricket”. Once the battle begins and you’ve established that it is “A” mole cricket, your characters are now battling ONLY that one Mole Cricket, they’re not battling every mole cricket in the entire world, it is now a personal battle between you and that one Mole Cricket.
If you encountered a beetle out in your backyard right now maybe you’d start off by saying, “Hey look, it’s a fucking beetle”. Your little sister screams and says “EEWWW SQUASH IT”, so you stomp on it.
After that experience you wouldn’t say to her “It’s okay, I squashed a beetle”, you’d say, “It’s okay, I squashed THE beetle”.
It’s not a matter of opinion, it’s just correct grammar. You’re just straight up wrong man.
About the Mole Cricket.
Instead of “You Encountered the Mole Cricket”,
it should be something like “The Mole Cricket Attacked” or something like that.
You should still keep “The”
After all consider this:
You see a bug on the wall,
you don’t say “I’ll squish a bug”,
you say “I’ll squish the bug”
I agree with FERNANDO PANDO.
keep up the awesome work Mato and Jeffman!
Guys lets stop being so picky about little details like what should be the message of the mole cricket when it appears,Mato has way more important things to do that can take time and lots of work.