Menus Done
After an intense battle, we’ve finally overcome one of the bigger hacking obstacles that’s been bothering us for months now. I’ll skip all the details, but I finished hacking a big thing on the to-do list:
Allow for item names that are at LEAST 18 letters long. We’re stuck at 8 or 9 letters right now and that’s absolutely unacceptable. This also affects PSI names and skill names, so this is pretty important overall anyway.
To be more precise, it wasn’t just item names, it was all non-sprite menu text. We spent weeks on the sprite text, this time we had to also hack the non-sprite text because the original programmer had way too many limitations set in place. Short story is that originally, the game only allowed for 160 non-sprite letters on a menu screen at any one time. That’s not a lot — if you had 16 items, they could only have 10 letters in their names. After hacking, it theoretically allows for 640 letters, way more than we’ll ever need.
Menus have always been a mess, so there’s been a lack of videos of the menus in action. But now that they’re pretty much done (minus tweaking and cosmetic and various tiny bug fixes), here’s a short video. Boring, but that’s how menus are.
More pics and info follow too.
Before 
After
Anyway, this means we can cross that item off of the to-do list, which means everything on the menu-hacking list is now crossed out 😯
There are actually a few little things here and there in the menus that will need attention later, but nothing major and can all be done in the polishing stage.
For fun, here’s an item screen from the Japanese version, the corresponding screen using Menu Patch 1.5, and how things look now.
Japanese 
Menu Patch 1.5 
Now
So much work had to be done to the menus, it’s insane. Practically had to hack every single thing there was, ugh. But the evil menu code has been vanquished, so time to rejoice and move on to the last few remaining hacks!
Working on this stuff has been hellish, and especially this last week it’s started to take its toll on real work, which is a big buzzing red flashing sign that I need to focus a tiny bit less on this stuff. But I’ll keep chipping away at various hacks when I get the chance. Anyway, gotta run. Happy MOTHER Series day!
Nice job guys, keep up the good work!
Another thing off the list! I’m so excited! Keep up the hard work, you guys are amazing!
WOOT! Here’s hoping it’s mostly downhill from here. We all greatly appreciate what you do, and I’m glad to see you’ve finally defeated that evil menu 😀
Yay!
Awesome! I love seeing stuff crossed off on the to-do list! Thanks for all the hard-work so far. Looks great.
I’ve been following this since the beginning, and I’m always extremely impressed. You make me feel good every time I come here. Thank you!
YAY! So Close!
Congrats on striking one more thing from the to-do list, Tomato! And thanks for all the hard work you guys are devoting to this. :<
And I just counted…16 things left to do!
Brilliant. I’ve been watching this for ages, and seeing things coming along so brilliantly is great.
Wow, you’ve really come a long way from august. I can’t wait to see all of your hard work myself. 🙂
Oh my god, it’s beautiful
I think you need to cross off the big “Menu Hacking” text on the to-do
You’ve come a long way. Hopefully, it won’t be much longer now.
I swear, that list looks puny now!
so… are you going to release menu hack 2.0 now that the menus are done?
Oh wow, finally done with the menus. Great job :P.
I’m so proud of you guys! Keep up the good work!
Awesome Job on the menus. it’s so good to see this coming along so well now.
Wow, only a few more things left, you guys should get the keys to T3H internet.Does anyone know that song in the menu video?
Awesome!
You’ve done an amazing amount in an incredibly short time. Not too long ago there were barely any items crossed off the to-do list. Now it’s almost finished. Great job Mato!
P.S. I know the project isn’t actually “almost finished”, but the hacking stuff looks damn close from here.
Great jorb!
Thanks for the hard work. Everything looks awesome.
Thank you Mato.
Thank you Jeff.
Thank you Ried.
Thank you Byuu.
Hears to hopeing its done soon.
it’s Reid, not Ried
My bad…
Thank you Reid.
also
Thank you Demi.
Great job guys. Even though this update is so exciting, Mato please don’t sacrifice your real life work. Your pace in this project is already staggering and we don’t want you to jeopardize your home life. But still, your skills are impressive, and your sacrifice for the EB community is too generous. My sincerest thanks to the all of translation team.
oh my GOSH
AWESOME!!!
It looks amazing compared to the menu patch screen. Thanks for all the hard work, guys.
*The hacking team hacks the evil menu code and makes insane changes to it.
The evil menu code got vanished!
BTW guys in the to-do list you didn´t strike theMenu Hacking
The music in Mother 3 sounds really nice.
Yay! Show that evil menu programmer who’s boss! 🙂
“..so time to rejoice and move on to the last few remaining hacks!”
Reading this gave me the biggest grin I’ve had all day. To each and every person who made this possible, thank you all! And, I implore you, take your time! You’ve been progressing at such a steady pace, the least you deserve is a little break. 😀
You should strike through the “Menu Hacking” header on the To-Do List, like with the “Grey Name Box Hacking”. I think it gives it a sense of finality.
There aren’t many people who would go to all this trouble just for a game, most would have just left it at the Menu patch hack. It speaks a lot about who you guys are. The commitment and dedication are astounding. I hope you guys get all the credit you deserve. You guys have a lot of people on your side. In fact, I bet all the Mother fans in the world could probably band together and form a small army, or possibly even a little island Nation, with its own copyright laws and such. Then Nintendo could never stop the translation!
damn I really love eb series, its a shame nintendo didnt brought MOTHER 3 to america , but anyway you (all staff) are doing an amazing job in the translation, we hope to see it soon.
take care
lot of love from mexico EB community
😀 yay!
Congrats at finishing the menus and man the light at the end of the cave is shining so much that I need to put on sun glasses to protect my eyes.
That’s one bright exit if you ask me, then
that was fast. well it seemed like it. Good job!
So, how many experience points did you get for vanquishing the evil menu code? =)
I’ve been reading these updates for a while now and man this seems like it was a ton of work. Just want you know how much everybody appreciates your work. Can’t wait for the finished produt.
There is not much left now. So what is the next step? The dreaded battle text?
It looks beautiful. The release is approaching ever so rapidly.
it looks pretty much ready to be played at this point!
but i guess there’s still other “stuff” to be done.
>:/
Wow, wow, wow. This is all just amazing, I am honestly amazed at all the work that’s paying off in making this translation, and so many obstacles I never thought would happen yet you guys are overcoming them with apparent ease, to us anyways.
Thanks again for working on getting this game translated for Mother fans, I honestly can’t wait to play through this again and get a full understanding of the story.
The menu looks beautiful Mato.
Hopefully you can get rid of that one-frame text garbling while keeping the speed hacks when you guys start polishing it. That bugs me the most of anything.
I don’t seem to mind the flashing feathers though. Those seem to be natural actually!
Good work, this is looking better and better every time!
Ok I might get mugged by fans for this but since Mato and Jeffman have learned a lot from hacking Mother 3 would a translation of Mother 1+2 for the GBA be even remotely possible? Not right away of course but someday (like before the end of this century). I am glad to see the work that’s being done. I thought that the menu stuff was gonna take a week and about 2 days later, BAM, done (mostly). The only 2 things that might be a challenge for Mato and Jeffman will be the battle text and the Main text hacks. After that, it’s pretty much done. I look foward to the new things that will be shown to us as the project chugs along. Mato, Please DON’T sacrifice real life for this project. You can’t hack if you can’t pay the bills.
Take a vacation, Mato. For twelve whole hours.
I did some quick number crunching on the to-do list. The list contains 7 sub-categories: 5 hacking, 1 translating, and 1 testing. Adding and averaging out the completion percentages of the list i came up with the following numbers:
5 hacking groups – 78%
” plus translating – 69%
” plus testing – 64%
looking good.
Grats guys! So, what will you be hacking next? Main Script already or is something else on the way?
The new menus look absolutely great.
Wow, it’s really gone a long way since the 1.5 patch… Keep it up 😀
Fantastic, fantastic job. Absolutely marvelous work. Stupendous job and please, take AS MUCH time as you need to finish off everything else. Don’t let anybody rush you, and we’re all behind you 100%.
ah, playable non-crashy menus that can actually be read and navigated … yay! Happy Mother’s Day everybody.
Yeah, it looks like it is gettin’ thar. From what it seems, you guys are on 3rd, trying to hit home.
eddward said:
“Ok I might get mugged by fans for this but since Mato and Jeffman have learned a lot from hacking Mother 3 would a translation of Mother 1+2 for the GBA be even remotely possible?”
Err, you can play mother 1 and earthbound in english, why would you want mother 1+2 translated? seems like a waste of time for me..
Awesome job by the way!
menu patch reminded me of the old pokemon gold hack haha
You forgot to put a strike through Menu Hacking like you did Gray Name Box Hacking on the list. 😉
Mato And His Meth.. A Combination 🙂
Is this the last MAJOR hack on the list/or the hardest done?
Im sure you said its not, but i wonder..Whats Jeffman’s progress? I know hes working on this too, does he have a status report?
Awesome job, i was eager for Nintendo to do something about this game but now i have all thanks to you and Jeff, its better done this way without any censoring.Thank you
Great job guys!!
Not even Final Starmen could touch that! Congrats on clearing another big part of the To-Do List!
Hey! That’s pretty cool and a great change! Especially the one comparing the 3 versions!
I had never knew about this project!
Nice to see you’re doing an awesome job and so much professional like! Thanks from all the MOTHER fans out there that really are waiting for this to come out! Thanks a lot!
Don’t you guys think it would be weird yet awesome if Nintendo used your patch for the release of the game on the Virtual Console?
Looking great guys! I appretiate your hard work.
more awesomeness 😀 looking forward to the obvious 😉
Nononononono, this is more important than your real life job. For serious.
…
Okay maybe not, but still, this is something you will definitely be remembered for. Will anyone remember you for your real life job? No, I think not.
Ignore me. I’ve just discovered something called “gin”.
Honestly, you are doing everyone such a huge favor. I can’t can’t can’t can’t wait for this game!!!!!!!!
Mato, you rock so effing hard, I can’t wait to play the sequel to my favorite game ever, ever.
INCREDIBLE
The hacking’s looking excellent so far. Reading this, it almost seems like it wouldn’t have been a whole lot harder to rewrite the game yourself, looking at how many weird things the programmers did.
woohoo!!! the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter and brighter!
Happy Mother(s) day everyone
Thank you so much for your hard work and dedication to this project. Seeing the inventory full of “bag of big city fries” looks like a bug itself though! xD I think, though, someone might have a bit of a homesickness status ailment, you’d better call home to your mom today!
Knowing of course that you’ve got some Real Life Stuff to take care of first, I’d like to request your next hacking business to focus on finishing up the battle text stuff. Seeing it at “80%” in the to-do list, when I know it’s basically the “You’re already carrying too much stuff, drop this item?” text and the mysterious “special text boxes” from late in the game makes me wish it could get a strike-out like the grey-name-box hacks and the Menu hacks.
Well, it’s not up to me, but that’s my vote. Great, awesome, amazing, fantastic work so far. Keep up the progress, and happy Mother’s Day!
It’s been said over and over, but you guys are incredible. Nintendo could learn a thing or two from your devotion and commititment to others. Bravo.
wow, “comititment”… I type with a stutter.
Happy Mother(‘s) day!
Amazing work Mato, and to think you thought of this in the shower 😛
It looks ass-kickingly sweet. Love your dedication to the high standard of what appears to be the classic aesthetic. Many thanks.
i just crapped my pants.
Thanks for working so hard on this! Terrific, cant wait until it’s done.
wooooooooooooooooooo…..
May I buy you a delicious microwave dinner, sir?
Aha! congrats on finishing this menu problem!
Indeed there is a massive difference between 1.5 and now. It will sound gay but “its soooo pretty!!!” ^^
Can’t wait for further updates
I’m sure I’m not the only one that would say this.
We’ll give you shiny gold coins if Mother 1+2 was finished up after Mother 3 and of course a vacation! =P
Also, very great work guys, you’re legends!
Naki: The only real reason for wanting Mother 1+2 for the GBA to be translated for me is so I don’t have to emulate it. I can already play the NES rom and the SNES rom on my DS but it’s nice to have a GBA game to play those games instead. Also, Mother 1 sounds a lot better on the GBA then the NES.
Hey Tomato, I know by now that you have to hate this question, but I must ask for I am very, very curious. because it looks so close to being done, Do you possibly have an estimated Release date?
I never thought the hacking would be over so quick! Thank You guys for all the time and hard work you put in to this. Oh and
Happy Mother(s) 3 Day!
Nice Job guys! I thought hacking the menus would be impossible but you managed in the end! Let me see what is left to hack on the to do list.
Congrats, you guys! Trout flavored yogurts all around. I’m buyin’!!
You guys are the best! About 3 or 4 months ago you guys had like a ton of work but now it seems like you hardely have 4 or 3 more months left! Nice job, guys!
Woohoo! Good job! That video made me so happy, seeing everything working like that. You guys are the greatest:D
You are leet hackers, I commend you on your quick process on the Mother 3 translation.
Couldn’t thank you enough for all your hard work. THIS TOTALLY ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU and thank you so much
This is really amazing stuff. When can you have another temporary patch?
That thank you thank you guy’s message was huge but it totally applies.
Way to go Mato.
Ugh, Tarek, was that really necessary?
Maybe not, but I agree with him.
Nice one guys, it must feel great to think that you’re making progress. Keep it up, we’re all behind you!
Great work! 😀
I was downtrodden and believed this was hopeless for a while, but all these recent landmarks make me feel revitalized. Can’t wait for the finished patch! =D
I’d love to see what an item with a 640 name would look like. How many text boxes would it take just to display the name!?
Mato, you’d probably be internet famous if you lost your job over a fan translation. But with the economy as it is, you should probably put your job first. 🙂
This is fantastic! a second section done! however, to all of the people going crazy that hack is so close to done, the light at the end of the tunnel has been known to cause blindness if you catch my drift.
(/rant)
Wow! I totally wasn’t expecting this post for a while and yet here it is! Congratulations and great work my friend!
Those menus really look quite professional now, Mato!
Maroon500, that song is “Theme of DUSTER”. If you like it, you can purchase it on the iTunes store as part of the Mother 3i album. http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?i=204319577&id=204318843&s=143441
!!
Evil Japanese used PK limit!
576 Damage to ‘Mato!
472 Damage to Reidman!
Reidman used PSI Lifeup omega!
867 HP to ‘Mato!
876 HP to Reidman!
‘Mato used PSI Script Fix X! 9999 damage to Evil Japanese Script!
Evil Japanese Script stopped moving.
YOU WIN!
I’m with Tarek. 😀
Amaaazing job guys. ^_^
Grink said 6 minutes ago:
!!
Evil Japanese used PK limit!
576 Damage to ‘Mato!
472 Damage to Reidman!
Reidman used PSI Lifeup omega!
867 HP to ‘Mato!
876 HP to Reidman!
‘Mato used PSI Script Fix X! 9999 damage to Evil Japanese Script!
Evil Japanese Script stopped moving.
YOU WIN!
Mato gained 236491276 exp
Even though he was level 99, he kept going to lvl 100 because he hacked the crap out of the game!
*sniff* You guys are awesome… ;_;
Mini-update time. Late last night I played around with menus more, it’s crazy how it actually feels like a game now, not like some never-ending hacking nightmare. The key items menu (which I couldn’t show cause it would have various spoilers) even scrolls up and down 100% perfectly, possibly even better than the original game since I sped up the loading a bit 😯 It’s just like, whoa, there was a game hidden in all this crazy code.
Anyway, was left with that strange empty feeling you get after you’ve worked so long on something and suddenly it’s done. Kind of reminds me of an old cat I once had who would eat bugs and then wonder where the bugs went afterward, looking around for them. Actually, maybe the bugs analogy does well in the case of this game 😛 But anyway I did some light hacking to fix small cosmetic issues before bed, like the following.
I’m not sure what I’ll work on next. I could probably finish the sound clip hacking in just a few hours. Or maybe I’ll move on to the 80%-done battle thing. I know what needs to be done and already have looked into the code. And I think it’ll basically be the same thing as the main battle text hack. The programmers just LOVED to write a jillion routines that all do the same thing basically but are very slightly different. In this case, I think the “too many items” routine even uses a different font loading/erasing routine, wtf. Anyway.
That main script routine I think I’ll save for the last boss, it’s going to be crazy fixing that thing :X
I’ll try to get to people’s questions in a bit here.
I refreshed just in time to see that.
I’m so happy! This thing is actually going to get done! And soon!
Awesome.
Yay, thanks for the mini-update! We appreciate all your hard work!
I can’t figure out what is different in that second screenshot :O
*Face-Palm*
Anyway, Keep goin’ dudes! You’re so much closer0z.!!!!
hasone: No, no new patches will be released until the final patch.
Maroon500: Yeah, that’s the Theme of Duster from MOTHER3i. I recommend getting the whole album (you can get it on iTunes) at some point. The music’s nice and it’s a good way to support the series. Though maybe it’s best to get it after you’ve played the game 😛
Ryan and others: Yeah, I forgot to cross it off last night. It’s crossed out now. I was actually in a rush with this update, which is why it seems so odd. Even the video was rushed, as you can see. I just tossed a random song in there too, didn’t even have time to test the video, glad it didn’t mess up 😛
EToaster: 50000, but we also got Brainshocked 🙁
Neurovore: Yeah, will probably do some battle text stuff next. That or finish out the voice clip thing, which should be real easy.
Div03: Yeah, actually, I have plans for that. I think I may be able to eliminate that problem entirely. I just haven’t gotten around to writing the code for it. Besides that, I also need to find a better hash function, the current thing isn’t working out too well. Those are the little cosmetic things I said can be saved for later. Though maybe I’ll wind up doing them at some point soon too. The flashing feathers are like that in the original game though.
eddward: I haven’t looked at M1+2’s code, but I never want to ever have to do this again. After this I wanna get on with my life and do some things I’ve been working toward for a while. I can’t keep doing internet projects forever, or else one day I’ll wake up and be like, “Damn I’m 60 what did I do with my life???”
Morgil: I know the list has like 16 or something like that items, but the only things to really look at are everything above “misc hacking”. All that stuff is the hard stuff, after that it’s smooth sailing happy time.
Molo: Battle stuff or voice stuff probably.
rkotm: No, the main script display hack will be the hardest one most likely. This non-sprite hack was pretty tough though, harder than the main battle text even. Jeffman was working on some tool-related stuff a few days ago. I think he’s doing SSBB tourneys this weekend or something.
KKH3049: Nah, they’d never do that, not even I would accept a hacked game like this for an official release. Some of these fixes aren’t pretty from a programming design, that’s part of the problem with not having source code 😐 Even less likely that they’d take it and then put it on the VC.
G.Wicks: I’m not doing the project to be known though. I already sort of have a name made for myself, whether it’s good or bad I dunno 😛
Jeffrey: See the “mother 3’s birthday” update from a few weeks ago. It still looks like it’ll be the latter half of this year, if all goes well and nothing unexpected happens.
Thank you, Mato.
—–
Muchisimas gracias, Mato.
The Evil Menu Code became tame!
Mato and his friends gained 9461 experience!
Everyone leveled up! (too lazy to write stat gains, but they ARE there)
*walks around with everyone’s support*
Mato encountered the Japanese Sound Clips!
…here we go, and good luck finishing that foe off!
Hello,
I have been watching the progress of the translation since it started. I would be happy to be a tester for you. I am actually a professional QA Tester for a company called Absolute Quality. I am a HUGE Earthbound fan and would love the chance.
Send me an e-mail if you are interested.
Keep up the good work. You have the support of many!
Thanks Team Mato3(and everyone else who helped. you’re doing a great service to EB fans everywhere. ahem…
MAY THE SCWARTZ BE WITH YOU!
(sorry, I probably shouldn’t be quoting Spaceballs, even though it’s fitting for how epic this hack is, and it’s almost done :D)
http://www.vc-reviews.com/games/snes/earthbound
Everyone who was given MOTHER 3 spoilers through Super Smash Bros. Brawl, do not fret. I have compiled a list of reasons why you shouldn’t feel down.
-Thousands of other people have been spoiled as well.
-You can anticipate how a certain spoiler happens in MOTHER 3. You may already know about a spoiler, but do you know how it will happen in the game?
-The MOTHER 3 Fan Translation is nearing completion.
-EarthBound is coming to the Virtual Console soon. It’s true! True!
Ahem. Keep up the marvelous work!
HAPPY MOTHER(S) DAY!
I’d do the sound clip, just so that you can cross something else off the list after all that 🙂 Then the battle stuff, because it seems a lot like the code you’ve already done.
Finally, there’s what? The last boss and a little polish? This thing will get done yet! Just a little more!
Actually, maybe you should save one smallish hacking thing for the end. Otherwise, people will chomp at the bit wanting to play it, even if the translation hasn’t been polished yet… (“I don’t care how good it is, gimme the damn game!!11eleven!”)
Hmm… 🙂
(Therefore, I might *do* one of the last few hacks, but not cross it off the list, just because…)
Actually yeah, there is that ending stuff that will require more sprite welding or some sort of crazy workaround. I don’t look forward to that so I’ll save that for last 😛 It’s partly connected to some main script routine stuff though.
Great job on defeating probably your most formidable foe yet.
I’m curious — after all of this is said and done, can you see yourself ever doing another playthrough with the JP version again?
Slight Earthbound contextual spoiler:
http://i26.tinypic.com/2wedppf.png
Haha, that’s a good one, Mitch.
Lynn: For real?
Here’s hoping the main script goes a little easier for you then the menu did. Who knows? It may look big and bad from here, but you’ve sure leveled up a lot, Mato. LOL
hell yea!
Mitch that one is awesome! Keep it up!
Think back: You’ve taken down the sprite welding(or most of it, I hear) AND the evil menu-menu text (Mani-Mani reference anyone?). The rest should be downhill from here!
There are people that are fans of the game, then there are fans of YOU and all that you have done. I, and many others, await your next great feat.
I remember someone posted an altered version of the Mr Saturn coffee break text a while ago, and I think now would be a perfect time to do the Tenda Tea-Time text…
Amazing. I just found out about Mother 3 and I’m glad to see you guys doing such great work on the translation.
Grats
@Mitch:
LOL
Mitch: Why does that remind me of Solid Snake sneaking around in cardboard boxes? I don’t recall Solid Snake ever having a plutonium headband, though… 🙂
where did you get the music thats from the most current video its from what i can tell its not from the game. is it from a cd of mother 3’s music? or would revealing the source be a spoilier O_o
zalmatra, Mato mentioned it above. It’s Duster’s theme.
Wow. Insane.
You guys are amazing.
Was it just me or was this website and starmen.net down for like hours? I thought Uncle Reggie had gotten to you guys. What relief!
“Slight Earthbound contextual spoiler:
http://i26.tinypic.com/2wedppf.png”
LOL! I know what you did thar!
Kinda cool to see the Japanese, Menu 1.5, and current screenshots side-by-side. Really shows the progress.
Tomato, I have a question that I’m not sure has been asked since I haven’t looked around much. Did you notice that some letters stay on screen a second before changing to what they should be? Or is that just me?
crap, i need to finish EB soon, you guys are speeding through
this like crazy
starmen.net is actually down, thought i was crazy, thanks for confirming. . .
Not crazy btw.
Moulinoski: Yes, it’s old news, we talked all about it during the sprite welding updates. I may be able to fix it at some point. It affects only 3 things, naming screens, file load menu, and when selecting someone to give an item to.
*clears throat*
.
.
.
YYYEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YIIIIIIIIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
That’s Magicant down. Time to find the Zexonyte and be off to meet Giygas.
You guys are truly amazing. Thank you so much.
Hey Mato, I was wondering if there’s any censorship in the game.
For example, could I name Lucas sh*tface if I really wanted to ?
Also: http://mother3.fobby.net/2008/02/06/trimming-the-list/#more-436
lol
Yeah, there isn’t a list of naughty potty words or anything that the game checks against. You can’t name yourself any of the non-playable characters’ names though. I think. And you can’t duplicate names.
WEEEEE SO CLOSE
Thank you guys so much
Hey, Mato, did you expect when you started this project to become one of the community’s master hackers? It looks like you’ll seriously be in the top 10 rom hackers of all time after this game.
THIS IS SO AWESOME! YOU GUYS RULE!!!
Almost works 100% perfectly, even the cursor stuff didn’t need hacking. Just gotta fix one or two things.
Daaaamn. That’s freaking quick. BTW on the non-sprite menu hack, did you end up having to rewrite the whole text system? Or did you figure something easier out to do?
sweet
as
HELL
Oh wow. This progress is amazing.
Also good to see no more Logo discussion going on…
Very impressive, guys!
Sweet Mato… I can almost taste the game… like… oscar meyer wieners…
*buys some sketchy hot dogs from a convenience store*
GoldyK: Don’t go to a store for hot dogs! If you sing about them, they will come, http://youtube.com/watch?v=GCPSh47gHz8
Very close, just it doesn’t want to print right after it hits the control codes that say “feather cursor goes here”. Except for the final letter after that. Old time readers may recognize this bug. It will probably be a one-byte change. But I may hide my gamepad for most of the week so I won’t get distracted from real work 😛 It’s too easy to think “ooh, I got an idea I should try this out real quick” and then spend an hour or two on something, heh.
Oh yeah, and I got an interesting bug to happen at one point — I got it to open the 3-line window. No idea how that happened.
Anyway, another big thing almost off the list!
Mato: I’m working on a video game at the moment. Are you interested in translating from English to Japanese?
Translating English to Japanese is different.
Seeing this is just absolutely mind blowing. I’ve been reading since the united project came together (i migrated from mother3.org) and I’m stunned! I really am! THANK YOU. From the bottom of my heart! This gives me goosebumps just thinking about playing it SOON!!
Happy Mother Day! I wish I could buy ya a beer!
english to japanese is weird and hard in a different way from translating japanese to english.
I think Mato is kinda busy as is…
Yes there are thousands of people NOT hacking this game that could translate for you. Ask the Pentagon.
Hey Mato – any chance we can hear the translated clips soon, or are you saving that for another update?
What’s the name of the menu programmer? Presumably the various programmers are listed in the credits. Someone needs to draw a picture of the menu programmer, since he has been one of the main villains in this drama since day one!
Arsenis: with his interest in Japanese, I just thought he’d be interested. 😉 I was kind of joking, being as how the game won’t be done for another 2 years at least… kind of like Cave Story.
I… I love you.
Negi: I already explained the details, but basically the programmer would divide the # of total letters into four chunks, and then send each chunk to be worked on at a time. It only looped four times, and the max # of letters per chunk was 40, so 160 was the max # of letters you could have before bugland. It wasn’t straightforward at all, but I basically made it do 40 letters for every loop, and I had it loop as long as necessary, for up to 16 times. Doing the max for each loop sped things up nicely, to my surprise.
I never want to have to do that hack again though.
EDIT: I’ll get to other questions later in the day. Busy working.
Thank heavens for EarthBound and thank heavens for you folks. Can’t wait to play this game.
This is an amazing effort, and I thank you for it. Are you backing up your data regularly? I’ve seen so many projects where something disastrous happens, and they didn’t have recent stuff backed up.
Holy crap great job! xkas seems to have turned you into a super hacker, Mato! 😀
You keep posting pictures with the item “Bag of Big City Fries”, and I don’t know if it’s because I’ve seen it so much now or what, but it seems awkward, or even redundant. Would “Big City Fries” suffice? Or can you buy a “Box of Big City Fries” too, and you need to be able to tell the difference?
@ Dr. Hobo:
It’s a language issue. When you get the item, it would say “You got a Big City Fries”, but with the item named thusly, it now says “You got a Bag of Big City Fries” which looks much nicer in english.
Dr. Hobo:
It’s just a name. It’s part of the novelty of MOTHER games to have thorough titles for items and such.
Remember “Bag of Fries” and “Can of Fruit Juice” from EarthBound? They could just name those items “Fries” and “Juice,” but it’s much more interesting (in my opinion) to have battle text that says:
“Ness took out the Skip Sandwich DX and Paula ate it . . . Paula’s HP are maxed out!”
-Just be happy they didn’t go overboard and do:
“Ness unzipped his backpack and reached his hand in to pull out the Calorie Stick, then handed it to Jeff in his right hand . . . Then Jeff replaced his weapon in the other hand so he could peel off the rapper and insert the Calorie Stick in his mouth. Jeff chewed his food 12 times and recovered 59.836 HP.”
Dr. Hobo: Yes, like they mention, it’s how they handled things in EB. They used to be just “Big City Fries”, but then I won some from an enemy and noticed there was a verb tense problem. Hacking in verbs would be even more painful and complicated, so I took the EB route and turned certain plurals into singular, like how “Life Noodles” became “Cup of Lifenoodles”, “Dragonite” became “Bag of Dragonite”, etc. There was also a “Bag of Fries” in EB.
Besides, I prefer the slightly-wordy names like that, that’s what I liked about EB, no crappy short/abbreviated names.
I personally would prefer “You got a Fry Bag” because it is both shorter and sounds vaguely offensive. I kid. I kid. Keep up the great work, Mato.
It’s looking great, guys! O_O Keep up the great work!
Wooooooo! I’m so pumped! You guys are amazing!
Awesome, mitch
Mato, are you sure your not a professional translator
❓ Not sure what the question there is.
I’m pretty sure Tomato IS a professional translator.
Tomato is a professional translator. He worked on the show Shin-Chan and has visited Japan previously(and I think lived there for a while, I don’t remember where I read that story).
My god this is getting pretty exciting. Seeing the list getting trimmed down as it is pretty amazing. You guys have come so far. You guys deserve a Picnic Lunch or 2 from everyone for this.
Tomato’s a professional translator. However, he’s not a professional rom-hacker. He’s getting there though.
Mato, how close are you done with the sprite-texty stuff on the credits? I remember hearing about them a few weeks ago, but they haven’t been spoken of for a while. Are you avoiding them for now?
SorenAK47: Is there such a thing as a pro rom-hacker?
Sandman: I do not look forward to it at all. It’ll probably be less hurty than the main sprite text routine, but I’m gonna save it for last because I’m so sick of it already. We may come up with a workaround before then too, who knows.
When I think of having to do sprite VWFs, I want to hide in bed and sleep.
I concur. And I don’t even know what VWFs are!
awesome job! the list is getting smaller and smaller, but this is the best “Mother’s” Day gift ever! Keep it upp, can’t WAIT for it to be done!!
VWF is variable width font. Because you don’t want the W to be as wide as an l 🙂 It’s in the FAQ.
Now, we just need to help Mato find the Axe of Sprite Hacking +5 and get this show on the road…
Hmm, why does that 42 letter thing listed under battle hacking on the to-do list remind me of this weird 40 letter swapping routine you just did? Are they similar?
In honor of you when this game comes out I am naming one Character “Mato”
I started a new game in Earthbound and I named Ness, Mato. And Paula,Jeff and Poo was the rest of the Starmen.net team. 😛
Mato, you have to stop this whole project right now!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3kQVKMOPGo
I thought you already did a sprite variable width font? Or is that just what is so painful here? 🙂 I feel like I’m missing something!
Also Mato if you have a moment, I really really want to know: is Shin Chan doing well? I learned a lot of Korean from the Korean version of the manga so it is very near and dear to my heart, and I savor every episode not knowing if the plug is going to be suddenly pulled due to lack of interest in the show and it falling dead. You’re also a Mother fan so you know how that feels! XD Also where Shin Chan is near and dear to my heart, it is near and dear to your wallet, so you must know if it’s doing well! 😀
Also the translation and localization of Shin Chan is top notch, as the jokes in the original simply do NOT translate directly, and you guys have done an amazing job at making it funny for Western audiences. Between that and this project Mato you are my personal hero. <3
@Mato: If you were doing it as part of an official localization team for a company like Nintendo of America, then yes.
I don’t think Nintendo localization teams “hack” games into English as much as they use the provided source code to make adjustments. The difference here is Mato has no source code.
Awesome job Mato! I nearly lost my stylus while reading this update! I guess that’s what I get for reading from my DS…
mato: if thinking of sprite vwf makes you wanna hole up in bed, perhaps it’s time to take a break from the project? Come back to it when it’s not so scary. Unlike work, you have the choice.
Then again, you may want to get it over with.
Up to you.
Right about now is when we need a super-hacker to do the credits in VWF… And since the only super-hackers I know that are willing to do this project are Mato, Jeff, and anyone else on the team, I guess it’s up to you guys.
Since you guys are still sick from the menu sprite text, I’d say take a week or 2 off from sprite text, and keep working on other things. Or not. Totally your choice.
Awesome work so far yall!! It’s friggin amazing to see how far yall have come! Keep it up!
Also I thought yall might like to see the new Mother tattoo I got =D
http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/9343/tattoozh4.jpg
look kinda familiar? ;] It’s less than a day old so I’ll try to up a picture when it’s fully healed too
intrik
thats so brutal
im jelous
A professional rom- hacker… wouldn’t that be pretty much a programmer?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUJGMiDCWeE
so awesome piano
Hahahaha no WAY, I know those guys! The guy playing the piano is a friend of one of my friends! Her brother and the guy are pretty awesome, they both live near me! I didn’t think anyone else seen their music before. The guy who plays the piano, Ben, can pretty much play anything if he just listens to a song for a little bit. Pretty awesome stuff!
By THOSE guys I meant my friends brother was presumably the one that recorded the video. He can also play a lot of music on the piano too, but not as good as Ben.
This is good. You translate game. I like this. I like you. Mato you come to Russia and I marry you my daughter.
Busy most of the day. Will read things later on.
Paige(Halfmetal Alchemist): I saw your post. Yes, it’s taken care of and it’s been working perfectly for months.
Like a great tapestry, vertical and horizontal threads have met and become intertwined, creating a huge, beautiful image.
You may have cursed this never-ending hacking project. You have known fatigue and frustration, but you have struggled on to complete this much.
Your in-born intelligence and courage have helped bring you here. You have believed in your friends, and as a group, you have supported each other.
Have you ever stopped to consider how much your hacking skill has grown? Now, you could hack bugs from just three months ago in no time at all.
As you certainly know, you cannot turn back. The Main Script, the final hacking hurdle, is growing frightened of you and your power. It is searching for ways to end your progress.
From here, the challenge grows and your adventure will take you beyond anything you ever imagined. You are drawing near to The Main Script.
Remember when you are suffering hardships, your enemy is also struggling.
By the way, do you know where the sound clips went?
When this nostalgic message is finished, your hacking will continue.
Your destiny pulls you in the right direction. Believe in yourself and press forward.
Mato!
JeffMan!
Sblur!
Chewy!
I wish you luck…