Main Script Hacking, Part 1
Well, the battle against the big bad main script programming is on, and although it’s only been a little bit of progress, that last update exploded into hundreds of replies in only a few hours, so here it is for people who didn’t watch the mini-updates in real-time ๐
The main script hacking issue is actually like a huge collection of lots of different things, so it’s not something that will be suddenly done in a day. In a way, it really is kind of like the final boss of a game, what with all of the different forms you have to defeat. For now, I’ve been working on fixing one of the main issues — the game only has enough memory for 40 letters on the screen at once. Go over that and it’s glitchy crashland. So I’ve been working on a simple fix for that, which is to make it use RAM for only two letters and then just have it reuse that memory over and over.
It went surprisingly well right off the bat. But because of how the programmer implemented the various different text speed settings, things can mess up on Fast right now if there’s an odd # of letters on the first line of text and then a newline code is encountered.
Blah blah blah, anyway, regardless, things are going well, and the programming actually hasn’t been nearly as insane as the menu programming. It’s been pretty nice and straightforward. Here are some pics for your enjoyment.
Here’s a pic of what happens when text is set to Fast and there’s an odd # of text on a line. I know what the problem is, I just need to really think this through hard, it’s weird. And headachey.
But even though it works on Slow and Medium, it’s obvious there are other issues that will need to be taken care of too. Behold “Flint and the Mystery of the Missing Letters”.
Incidentally, that’s the same sparrow that used to glitch up video memory. As you can see, he’s tamer now. But I think he still causes battles to freak out after you talk to him, though not as badly as before.
Clearly the game was not intended to use more than 40 letters on the screen at once here, so some more big-time magic (perhaps from boob wizards) will be needed to make everything work.
Just for fun, here’s a line from the game (note it’s still only first draft though), you can see how I have it set to be formatted, and then a screen of it in action before and after this latest hack of mine.
Before 
After
(oops they’re not of the exact same part of the same line, oh well I think you get the idea)
There’s still a LOT of hacking left to do with the main script stuff, and it’ll be tough. But we’re on our way.
Yay, IM so excited! So close!
Yay First!!… I love you Mato good posting… I am still waiting for jeffman to reply to me though ๐
Wow, you are really fast.
Now, finally, we, the Mother fans who don’t know japanese will be able to play and understand Mother 3 ๐
I really hope that Flint can find those missing letters.
Keep up the good work!
All the pieces are coming together…excelent
/mrburns
So close…
@Mato – If you could talk to yourself a year ago, would you expect to be as far along as you are at this point? You guys are doing an AMAZING job.
Holy crap. I’m so impressed at how quickly all of you have been able to bang this thing out. Many, many thanks for doing this, and unless NoA decides to reverse their decision and localize Mother 3, I cannot wait until this is completed!
I’m sparrow certain that Flint and Mato can find them. Things are really shaping up here. Great job.
I want a pair of Salle Pants!
*Goes to some exotic region called Gai Fo.
Good luck on the Main Script hacking, guys! Not much further, now!
๐
Part 1 of…?
Hey, Mato. Uh…nice going! Sorry but I don’t know what to say…
I’m bored.
Yeah, missed some of the miniupdates cause of the size of the comment page.
But this is great. The first steps of the final boss, eh?
Wow, this is great.. it seems like you guys are so close to finishing! ๐
wouldn’t it be easier if you put all your efforts into the script now and left the last few hacking things for jeff
Salle pant at gai fo…
This means something… this is important.
Hey, great job Mato! Just a quick question here. Are the gray name boxes supposed to fit to the length of the name, or not? I know you’re finished with that gray name box stuff, but I don’t know if it’s supposed to or not. Thanks!
Devin: The name boxes have a minimum length they need to be… if a name is longer than that though, they grow to fit it ๐ I think Mato explained this one a month or so ago.
Mato: With the odd/even letters problem, is it possible to do a quick and dirty hack, in which the last group of letters, if there is only one left to add a space at the end? Should give you your two letters and will help it be consistant on full speed! Dunno how the game handles spaces though…
I like how your file for Mother 3 thing is called “Mother 3 Funland”. Ironic that you call it that for when it kicks your ass and then you yell and kick its ass when it comes to hacking. I guess its a love/hate relationship?
Nessie: What was your question? I can’t find any comments by you from the previous blog entry.
smitty: One of the major reasons why Mato can’t work on the next draft of the script is because of this huge hacking issue. He needs to be able to see things in-game with character and setting context, etc., without any of the current glitches and crashes. So he can’t really do that until the text is able to be displayed correctly. I’ve been trying to find a way to link each line of text to their corresponding speaker names to help him out a bit, but it’s surprisingly difficult and will require another half-dozen headaches + tax + gas money. And gas prices these days are augh
Mind you, I’m still hacking other stuff in the meantime. ๐ Mato is just on this power surge recently and he’s plowing through a bunch of major hacks uncontrollably, but I’ll still try to help out wherever I can, of course. We share our detailed hacking progress in our dev cave anyways so it’s easy for anybody on the team to contribute.
Hmm, it must sometimes use the ‘unused’ ones.
Maybe hack it to use only the first four, but loop back every time you get to the second one and deal with the weirdness.
In other words, use some extra glyph buffers as, well, a buffer against letting it goof up the rest of the stuff? ๐
Or does that not work for some reason?
You should add a mini-game to the rom called “Flint and The Missing Letters!” and you go around the forest looking for the letters.
Yo, been away in the UK for the past two weeks. I decided not to go to any of the internet cafes and just have a whole bunch of Mother 3 goodness stockpiled when I returned to the States. And oh boy, you guys have been busy! Congrats on all the progress; you guys never cease to amaze me!
quote PKH4X0R said 6 minutes ago:
You should add a mini-game to the rom called โFlint and The Missing Letters!โ and you go around the forest looking for the letters. end quote
wow that would be nice, i coud see that XD
LOl do you people hang around to wait for him to post something?
Thanks for working so hard!
YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
u guys rule
I can relate to the final boss reference. Bummer. I hope this goes better for you in the future. Take some Motrin (or some heavy-duty painkiller)! Sometimes, just lying down under a cold washcloth helps too. If it’s causing too much trouble, take a break. I think you deserve one (or a bunch!).
Nice job guys. I’ve been looking forward to this since the start, and it seems to really be coming along lately. Keep up the great work!
The final boss battle has begun! Good luck Team! Thanks again for your dedication.
I smell only a few months left, instead of almost half a year?
Better get this done either in the summer, or during christmas break or something, because my grades will be screwed if this is finished during school.
You guys have got this. Homestretch, thanks so much!
If I could send you it I’d bake you a cake of some sort.
Booga Booga Honk…
Sweet seems close to completion. Hopefully this gets done AFTER I finish EarthBound so I can jump straight into this.
You guys are an inspiration. Whenever I get tired of/stuck in my projects, I think about how you guys never give up, and there I go motivation!
Well, this time I’ll be sparrow sure!
Nothing wrong there. =P
Keep on truckin’! You rock my proverbial rocktron.
Are you going to keep the sparrow’s name “Sparrow”, or localize it to something else?
I saw someone calling it “Tutoriole”, and I think that’s rather clever…
……..I CANT WAIT NO MORE. MATO JUST SEND ME THE PATCH. I WILL USE SLOW OR MEDIUM TEXT. I JUST WANT TO UNDERSTAND THE GAME NOW!!!
Hey,
Maybe this algorithm will help you with your problem.
Have a check as of such:
if (#OfChars==Odd) && (Speed==Fast)
then text+=’ ‘
In other words, if there is an odd number of characters and the speed if fast, just throw in an extra space to make the number of characters even.
It’s a cheap fix but it may work…
I hope I can find my contacts before you finish the translation. I think they may have fallen out when I was in the desert… oh well, at least I have my black and white sesame seeds.
…
crap.
I admit, it’s looking better and better all the time! I hope you kill that Mega Boss of a error soon Mato.
I’m considering doing something I have never done; that is, I’m considering getting a flash cart so I can play this on my GBA SP (yes I have a working GBA SP) once this is done. Hopefully my RL will have fixed itself by then…Might also have a DS by then, but I’m stubborn; I’d just like to play it on the original system.
We’ll just have to see how it goes!
Hold the phone JeffMan. You said it cost you gas money to help figure out the problem? Does that mean you and Mato personally meet to help each other out? If so, thats really surprising since I thought you guys communicate and work with each other through the internet. Can you clarify what you mean?
Looks like it’s coming along nicely!
I just wanted to take a couple seconds to thank you guys for your hard work and also your consistency in keeping us fans up-to-date on the progress you’re making. For something being done in your free time, I think it’s amazing how professional and consistent you keep it.
So once again, thank you for your hard work! I’m quite excited to see the finished product! Keep up the good work!
So….*final boss music begins to blare* It has begun…
You know what…Mato needs some divine intervention or a Trombe interrupt that’ll make all of the main script problems be solved real quick like.
Ah well…we’ll get a Trombe interrupt later or something in the form of the Runaway Byuu perhaps.
D: If they were hacking in C that might work but assembly looks very very different and it can be hard to junction a branch statement like that.
Man, it’s now the final footsetps towards the boss…..I feel like I should be helping out in some way….
I KNOW! I’ll give you some of my rare treasures for you to destroy the evil VIRYAS!
*gives Mato a Pwn Mallet, attack goes up 24,385,800,583*
*gives Jeffman a Multi-potato rocket launcher, attack goes up 20,331,450,294 *
*gives Mato a Omni Stone, Mato learned PK Hacking Omnega (it’s 5x’s better than Omega)*
*gives Jeffman the Holy Hand Grenade from Monty Python and the Holy Grail*
*gives both a Mr. Satrun cause they’re just so darn cute :3*
Good luck beating these last few hurtles
Mother 3 HERE WE COME!!!
Main Script appears!
You cannot grasp the missing letters of Main Script’s attack!
—
In all seriousness, good luck.
Alerek: One year ago we all thought the game would be pretty standard to hack. Turns out things had to be hacked much more than anyone expected. So I probably figured we’d be done or near done by now, heh. Never expected I’d be hacking the game’s code myself, though. I don’t think Jeff or I thought we’d be doing what we’re doing now.
Beck: Part 1 of… I dunno, but I’d like to know. If you get a chance, could you go into the future and find out and then come back and let us know? That’d rock. Some winning lottery numbers would be great too.
Devin: There’s a minimum size the box is, and if a name happens to be bigger than that, the game will expand the box a little bit, but it’s in like 16 or 32 pixel increments or something, so it’s not pixel-perfect in relation to the name’s length. That’s how the original game does it, and the English version does the same.
Bennysaurus-Rex: Of course that’s one of the first ideas I came up with, but that would also take a whole lot of complicated work, more than you might first think — one example is that main script control codes are a lot more complicated than anywhere else in the game and have variable lengths and variable #s of arguments and they’d all have to be taken into account. Besides, it wouldn’t be fixing the problem either, so might as well do the clean fix that will work always instead of a clunky workaround that could mess things up. Just need to destress and then think things over with a clear mind. I know what needs to be done, just gotta stare at the original code more.
smitty: There’s the stuff Jeff said, but until we know for sure the technical limitations of the final text system, it’s probably best not to do any major work on the script. As the translator and as a hacker, I’m in a unique position where I can say, “I want to be able to do this and this with the text” and then I can go and actually try to make it happen. So it’s pretty important that I also take part in the main script hacking. It also wouldn’t make sense to ditch the hardest hack of all, and I wouldn’t wish this main script problem on anyone. Let’s just get it done, done right, and then move on instead of rushing ahead hastily.
Dr. Meat: The M3 script is just like the Bible Code I guess ๐
Redliw: Personally, I don’t see it being done for at least 4 or 5 more months. And who knows what could happen between now and then, so until the major hacking is done I wouldn’t make any real estimates.
Z: Haven’t decided. There are ones that don’t act as instructional characters though.
Neo: OK, OK, since you asked so nicely, here you go. patch Let me know if you need help installing it.
D: Heh, so easy to treat it like that, but I doubt even if you had the source code it would work so easily. In theory that might work, and it was one of my first ideas for a workaround, but it’s not a fix. The problem is actually caused by my hack and not the game’s design, so I should fix my own problems rather than try to mend it with other hacks that might wind up not working in all cases too.
TheMetroidMan: Nah, I never met him before. I think he’s actually an internet robot trying to trick us into thinking he’s real, like a Turing Test. It’s the only thing that would explain how he can figure all this stuff out.
Mato: True if I figured it would be that easy then you would have done it yourself right off the (cracked) bat.
As for Jeffman – the guy is a machine at this sort of stuff, would explain a lot…
With the patch I’ll give you a couple of pre-emptive questions that newbie’s will ask in about… 2 seconds…
“I tried to install the patch but it keeps telling me I smell, what am I doing wrongggg?” (Translate into SMS speak)
“#%$% don’t trick us like that! rah rah rah” (Add more swearing and less spelling)
No offence intended to Neo
D: I see your huge post caught in moderation. It’s not like how you think it is, so I’ll leave it out to keep the place less cluttered. It’s not that big of a deal though, we’ll get it eventually. This weekend is real life work-a-thon, though ๐
This is great. I check this site daily, and I like how there’s new announcements every now and then(it always gives hope to see updates). Thank you for taking time to accomplish this feat. You guys are #1
Mato: No problem. I was responding to Lynn’s post during the time you responded to mine. Had I’d seen your post, my post would have been rather…short, if existent. I was looking hard for that ‘edit or delete’ button to no avail after seeing your reply to not avail…
*And suddenly, Mother 3 revealed the true form of its programing!
*Mato used PSI Super h4xorz Omega!
*999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 HP of damage to Mother 3’s Buggy Programing!
Everyone, lend your energy to the hacking team! Help them deal the final blow!
YEA! You guys can do it!! Its so inspiring seeing this actually happening. Every English reading MOTHER fan owes you such an awesome amount of props for taking the time out to do this for us! Thank you sooooo muuch <3
BTW, even though we all know the to-do list is kind of arbitrary in some ways and that the percentages for each thing are even more arbitrary and/or meaningless, I did bump up the % for this hack a tiny bit. There’s so much to do though.
i be a hoping that this be done by me birthday…at this rate it should hopefully…
Everything is looking excellent! Each update makes me even more excited! Curious, are the two ใฎ I spot near the end of the sentence used as a pronoun or are they just a colloquialism that I’m not aware of? Sorry, I’m still in the mood after my final, hehe.
Keep up the good work, guys! <3
This whole thing seems to be going much quicker than I originally thought it would. It’s pretty exciting to say the least.
When this is done, Mato, are you goping to translate the rest of Food Fight? Just wondering because I fell in love with that show.
you know what I love about you guys
is that you’ve thought about everything
anyways thank you for translating this game
everyday I thank god for hackers
and I love you all
and I’m drunk as hell right now
smitty’s a man after my own heart <3
anyway you guys are wonderful, I’ll echo everything I’ve said before just to say that you guys are great and the Mother fanbase would be null and void without you.
Man, checking for updates here everyday feels like the days of the Smash Bros Dojo….
That were not so long ago, but whatever.
wow a post everyday XD
good work guys, if weren’t you… i dont want to imagine..
I read ‘Boob wizards’ and forgot all about what happened in this update.
Salle pant at gai fo.
<3
Go speed racer, go!
“Flint and the Mystery of the Missing Letters”
Reminds me of that opening scene in Kingdom Hearts 2 where they didn’t just take all our ____ but the word “____” as well!
AHHH!! I am so excited!!! When this is released, JOY will fill the world and all the hatred and killing will stop for a good 3 hours as everyone downloads and starts playing Mother 3. ๐
WOW, thanks for the patch Mato.
You guys are doing great! This challenge will fall like all the others, it sounds like you’re already doing a great job at chipping away at what needs to be done.
I can’t wait for another update!
Woohoo BW2 will be out soon.
So beyond hyped at the moment.
Great job Mato and Jeff.
But seriously, take a break, and go play some mini golf of something. Don’t get burnt out when we’re closing in on the final stretch.
no FramerJ dont tell them that. We need them to finish the Mother 3 patch ๐
I agree they have been working hard and maybe they do deserve a break, but it’s really up to them, and I don’t think they want to stop till the Project is done
But mini golf of something would help them rest their minds!
Besides, it’s much harder to work with the pressure of getting the game out and everyone pushing for an exact date of the game release. We’ve waited this long, so why should they hurry and stress out over it? ๐
(Lothis said 2 hours, 28 minutes ago:
โFlint and the Mystery of the Missing Lettersโ
Reminds me of that opening scene in Kingdom Hearts 2 where they didnโt just take all our ____ but the word โ____โ as well!)
I was thinking of posting the same thing, but I was too tired.
Lothis. i used to think “_” was shit or something until the filled it in
You are absolutely amazing. I must say.
EVERYBODY SEND UNDERWEAR TO TOMATO LIKE HE SAID
*rummages to find where you said that*
It kind of reminds me more of the grind to the final boss – you’re doing the most tedious thing ever, right? Grinding through practically every single line of text in the game to make sure it appears correctly. I mean, wow, dedication much?
People like you make the international video game industry work.
I<3U.
jeez, things are really coming along… looks like you still have some major problems to overcome… good luck on that!
(I honestly would help if I could, but my hacking skills are mediocre at best)
Michelle: Here is a good explanation of “no” when used in that way.
Cubear: Yeah, I would like to. I’d also like to go and redo the old ones since I’m much better at translating now, but I’ll probably just pick up with ep. 10 sometime. There are like 2 more eps and then the two 90-minute specials.
Hey Mato, the patch you gave Neo is messed up. It says “You Smell” when I click on it. What’s up with that?
(sarcasm)
I recently read the update before this. I hate to be a bother, but will this patch work for “Extreme Flash Advance” carts (a.k.a. “EFA-Linker”)?
________________________________
You guys will go down in history ๐
oh man, i’m excited. keep up the great work guys, you guys rock
mato, though we hope that the psychic tomato has made progress, we know that he has much real life work.
I must ask: how did a psychic tomato ever get hired by a translation company?
This “You Smell” patch is giving me a whole new outlook on Mother 3, nay, the Mother series as a whole. Thank you for opening my eyes, true believer.
What can I say besides MOTHER 3? YEAH THIS GAME STINKS TOO
…*_*
*laughs* Win!
Alright, I’m going to be gone for a few days.. Stay sane!
Hey Mato ive been saving money , ihave like 120 bucks by now and i really want to buy a flash cart to play M3 as it deserves to. So i would really apreciate if you could tell me wich FC runs MOTHER 3 without a problem.
Thanks in advance
Lots of love from Mexico EB community. ๐
Just when the translation team sees the bright light at the end of the cave a final evil boss shows up called the main script programming,which is a boss that has many nasty different forms,which will take more than a day to defeat but don’t worry our hero’s Mato and his partner JeffMan have lots of experience and are attacking his different forms with their powerful weapons,anyway mother 3 fans lets continue to pray for our team to destroy this evil boss and continue their quest to get the great treasure at the end of the cave.
COULD U IMAGINE, that after waiting all this time for the game to be ready, we play it, and it sucks?
I think i’d kill myself o_0
I imagine Tomato and Jeffman (The versions seen in various Comics here of course) fighing large monsters fromed of many numbers and letter to Chrono Triggers Frog Theme.
Then, the sky darkens as the music Changes to Magus’s Theme as a large carniviouerous beast emerges from the horizon. (The Main Boss) and he shouts out lines of text that are missing letters and are sometimes jumbled.
THANK YOU FOR THE PATCH MATO, BUT I NOTICED AN SPELLING ERROR IN ONE OF THE ABOVE PICTURES. WHEN FLINT WAS TALKING TO THAT BIRD, IT LOOKS LIKE THE TEXT JUST THREW UP. I’M SURE YOU PROBABLY DIDN’T NOTICE THIS WHEN YOU UPLOADED THIS, SO I AM TAKING THE LIBERTY OF TELLING YOU. PLEASE SEND MY “THANK YOU FOR NOTICING THE THROW UP” CHECK BY MAIL IF YOU WOULD.
When this patch comes out I’m gonna crap my pants, haha. No seriously.
I’m still betting on a Christmas ’08 release.
Curious as in regards to cameos/sound clips; is there any chance of having Dark Force (of Dejap) making a brief appearance in someway?
๐
lol…”JUST GO FOR IT”!!!..u can do it… i cant wait for this to be done
Reusing only the RAM required for two letters over and over again… Why not four or five?
Probably cuz he wants as much RAM free as possible
I suppose that makes sense. But didn’t he say that originally the game used up to 40 slots? I wouldn’t think that’d be a problem.
I was just thinking that maybe reusing a larger chunk of memory less often would be a little less work for the poor GBA. Of course, he probably tried that already and has his reasons for going with two.
Good luck with the hack fellas! Take many breaks and drink plenty of water!
These posts make my day. It’s like being given an extra little reason to be happy about the world we live in.
Hey, looking forward to the game. Is it true that you guys estimated the hack won’t be done till about september? If that’s so, I can’t wait till september XD
Does anyone know a way to make Windows Media Player play .ogg files? Cuz I tried downloading some of the M3 music of starmen.net but it didn’t work
The Combined Community Codec Pack should enable WMP to play Vorbis (.ogg) files.
I also believe WinAmp will work with .ogg files.
Anyway, this is my first post on this blog, after lurking for a LONG while. Keep the hard work up and don’t give up for anything that stands in your way.
Mato & Jeffman received Gutsy Bat!
Use this to fight the main script. I know you can do it!
(Yes, I’m playing Earthbound right now, and for the first time as well, and it’s sweet!)
Quote:Hey, looking forward to the game. Is it true that you guys estimated the hack wonโt be done till about september?
Is it?
@BloodEagle:
I tried that, but I haven’t been able to get it to work. What exactly do I DO with it?
I’m loving all these updates!
Hey trans team,
I gotta say I’m impressed.
Thank god someone out there has a staunch dedication to their projects.. I honestly thought the project would peter out in the first year, and thank god you guys proved me wrong. You stand to be a blessing to the Earthbound community and a motivational inspiration to me personally in my own life. Whenever life seems hard, I just think about the trans team at Mother 3, look at my own problems, and suddenly they seem way more insignificant than hacking 282737389309838 lines of code. Talk about Think and Grow Rich.. or whatever that book’s called, its like it’s your internal bible. Your heart is the perfect quality it needs to be to make this world go round as it should. Bless you mofokaz, bless you ind33d
Long Pants: Changing it to 4 of 5 wouldn’t make a difference at all and would just be pointless hacking. The point of the hack is to make it keep reusing the same chunk of memory over and over and over; this way, it avoids the overflows that crash the game. Before the hack, the game would keep adding more chunks of memory until it eventually started glitching things.
There would only need to be one chunk of memory being reused, not two, but the fastest text speed setting draws two structs at a time, so there needs to be two buffer structs.
Everyone asking about the date: Stop asking, we don’t have any idea whatsoever of a release date. It’ll take as long as it takes. It’s pretty much impossible to gauge how long it’ll be exactly. Some hacking problems take an hour to solve, some take three weeks; this may take even longer. And then there’s everything else to do.
This bug sounds problematic.
When the text speed is set to FAST, the game tries to process two letters at a time right? So when you’re only using two glyph buffers at a time, that would make it so that odd numbered lines of text always end with one buffer filled and the other buffer empty, right? Whereas an even numbered line would leave both buffers full, and then they are immediately cleared to make room for the next two characters, right?
Well, if that’s the case, then maybe each control code (including [NEWLINE]s) uses up two buffers at a time. Or, in any case, they must use more than one. Otherwise, you wouldn’t encounter any problems. So when one buffer is full with a character, and the other is empty, you try to add a newline, which is two buffers long. You fill the second buffer, then both are cleared, and the second half of the [NEWLINE] gets put in the first buffer.
So, when the game reads the first buffer, it interprets it as jibberish, and voila, jumbled text appears on the screen.
Is this the problem that’s going on? If it’s not, then please correct me. I find this sort of stuff fascinating.
Long Pants: Because 4 or 5 wouldn’t matter. Only one would be necessary, except in the case of Fast text speed, where the game actually prints two letters at once.
Nessx2: We’ve given no months or dates like that, so no. Somebody either told you something random or misinterpreted or read too much into something.
I said this in an update, 2 updates back, just wondering if you saw it
“HOLY CRAP!!! This will probably be finished before this month or the end of the school year.
props to all the people who worked on hacking M3
P.S. and about that last comment Mato said โ Mato said โJC: Iโm not a very good hacker, and I donโt think Iโd be very useful. I actually never want to hack stuff like this ever again once Iโm through with it. If Hell had its own Hell, this would be it.โ, if that is so, what do you really do, if you donโt hack?
P.S.S. um i have dreams of working with games and I was hoping that you guys could maybe show me how to hack. If I knew how to hack beforehand I would have definitely lent my hacking skills to you guys”
Coconut of Enlightenment: If I knew the exact cause there wouldn’t be a problem. But it’s mostly just me not fully understanding the game’s system yet.
Eaze-C: I’m a translator, not a hacker. I pretty much learned how to hack assembly code just for this project.
See here for info on how to delve into the world of ROM hacking.
if this is the final battle, make sure u brought enough lifenoodles
Buy the best equipment for the Final Battle and be careful!:P
THANK YOU MATO!!! You shall recieve much suckage from me later on!
Umm…another thing do you translate Jap—>Eng or are you talking about computer language?
He translates Jap -> Eng
Uh, I don’t know what I should be expecting from you later on, but I think I’ll pass ๐ฏ
I’m a professional Japanese->English translator if that’s what you’re asking though.
O,lol!
I just assumed that since they have the dialogue translation on Gamefaqs, that there would be no need for a translator…
lol eaze c that sounded awful.
yeah no offense…………
Mato,
Do you speak Bocce? Also, I have some moisture vaporators that are acting up, if you’re not heading to Tosche to pick up some power converters could you talk to them for me?
Thanks,
Uncle Owen
Hi Mato, thanks for your work on this project – i just know i would love this game and to me it is far more interesting than
any other game or the offical nintendo-games related news.
i guess it is because of shigesato itois genius that this game
fascinates me so much – love his website, too, even though i sadly don’t understand any japanese.
My question to you is this : is there stuff in the game that
nintendo would never have translated into english because its to provocative/ a touchy issue for american consumers
( like they never show mammae on us – tv where that is totally normal in german tv, even advertisements )?
Looking forward to the patch – good as gold and will be THE game to play whenever its ready!
Thanks,
Florian
Here’s a picture. For you. And you.
http://i26.tinypic.com/10xbj2h.png
deepo: No, there’s nothing in the game on that level, though there are a few times when I can see people going, “Gah!”
I’d rather not discuss this stuff here though, I’d like many of the things in the game to remain surprises for people, so feel free to move the discussion over to the starmen.net forums.
Am I totally wrong or does it seem like the reason things aren’t printing is because they end up in the 3rd (or later) glyph buffers instead of the ones you’re using?
At least, such are the only explanations I can think of unless the menu programmer helped code this part… ๐
Oh, DAMNIT. I left my reference in that picture. I’m a dum-dum!
Hey, deepo what do you mean by “mammae”???
A Fan: No, I also checked that, but the third buffer is never touched.
It’s the middle of the afternoon, I should be working, and I’m so sleepy argh.
damn, i can’t believe how good things are looking, when did this whole thing begin, and where do i send this blank check to? i feel like i owe you something….
Thanks for the reply, Mato.
Anyway, I still think the control codes might be designed so they don’t fit in a single buffer. Or who knows? Maybe it’s something in the control code subroutines.
Very nice work. I’d like to see it finished as soon as possible or otherwise by next year (sorry, exams!). I’ll be playing it on my Sony PSP (gpSP).
I’d also like to see Mother 1+2 (at least 2) translated, but I read somewhere that it’s even more difficult to hack than Mother 3.
Anyway, I really appreciate all your hard work in this project.
Best of luck.
Well, now I have a better idea of what you have to do, so I guess that’s good! Anyways, as always, keep up the great work!!! ๐
Well RPGOne has a translation of the Mother 1 side of Mother1+2. My guess is the contrast between ease of hacking Mother 1 and hacking Mother 2 was too much, and they couldn’t get used to actually having to reprogram a game after so much time of being able to just change text.
And thier Mother text translation is incomplete. I mean, come on, it still uses Japanese text when you use Check in a place with random encounters (like in 80% of the game). It could very easily have said something like “It isn’t safe here…” or “You feel a presence”
> ( like they never show mammae on us – tv where that is totally normal in german tv, even advertisements )?
You mean breasts? No one uses the scientific term outside of medical literature ๐
Mato: Hrm, it’s CLEARLY printing every other letter sometimes. Whatever problem you have is a weird one ๐ Drink some Mt. Dew if you’re sleepy, or take a walk. Not moving around is the worst thing you can do when you’re tired; it always makes me fall asleep ๐
Besides, Mammae Wizards II just doesn’t sound as cool as Boob Wizards II…
Unless maybe she’s a nurse in that one. Hmm… I’ll have to see a cartoon from Mitch before deciding…
I’m going to lose a lot of mother3.fobby.net e-cred here, but I’ve uh, never actually played the original Boob Wizards.
Good work! All you have to do left is test it out and fight Kurata and his evil robots, then the final bosses minions, DIGIPWN: DIGITAL PWNSTERS and then the translation will be stolen by the ALMOST FINAL BOSS!! MaloMyotismon on Starmen.net who tries to replace everything Earthboundish with Digimon stuff with Kurata, Ness, Ninten and Lucas team up with you to stop him, But then he turns into his Final and most powerful form, ShigesatoItoimon, a Super Ultimate level Digimon that destroys the Earthbound Universe with a pen, Tomato and Jeffman fuse to form Omnimon and kick butt, saving the universe from those who hate Earthbound! That’s what it seems like you are doing right now!!
NO WAY! You’ve never played it?!
Dude, the suspense is killing me! Hurry up and finish the hack so I can play the game and watch Wes dance again!
awesome, keep up the good work. mother rocks
(sorry for the double post!)
nvm, I figured out the secret.
Itoi’s a genius for coming up with it too! ๐
Golden Eevee: Where the HELL did all that come from?! I got it, but it’s crazy, I tell you, crazy!
Lea e Flint alo e!
I m tired of p ople sayi g he is mi si g lett rs!
Wh ma e you th gram ar pol ce?! Huh?! H h?!
He’ a hum n be ng!
You wan na m ss with him y u got a go thr ugh me!
Well… an ways, I dunno wh’it to do, so I’m gonna tay in here again todp0y “””
> ye no?
huff…puff…im out of breath…from coming…all the way…down…here…WHEEZE!! HACKPTH! HACKPTH!
sorry, i wanted to get that in. i’m just amazed at how far you guys have come. i bet the localization department at nintendo is drooling over what you guys have done.
I have a gba Extreme Flash Advance Linker with 256MB of memory. I’ve been trying to download the MOTHER 3 ROM with it, but it keeps saying “not enough space for this ROM”. How much memory does my flash cart have to be able to hold in order to download the MOTHER 3 ROM?
Oh my god, you guys are so dumb. Of course this is never gonna get completed, it’s just fake. I mean, every update is just some dumb text box fixed, or something. And they only got reknown fan hackers and translators working on it, no way it’s real. And for the videos, they’re just parts they actually DID translate. So Mato, you think I wouldn’t catch on?
Anyway, awesome work like always. And like always, Mother 3 looks great in English, and I’m sure all of us will just feel the appreciation and effort put into this fan localization.
Also, if my computer doesn’t blow up(it’s really, really, really bad) in the meantime, I’m gonna try my best to draw a picture. Since it’s about the only way I can contribute, even if it’s ugly. And if it’s ugly, please ignore and don’t let it discourage you… That would suck… ๐
But yeah, again, great work!
hey coolioman, I have an EFA as well, and it’s 256 mbits, and it holds M3 just fine. Maybe its a bad ROM. Try another one and it might work.
Make sure you get that “Everyday” changed to “Every day.” “Everyday” is no adverb. Can’t have script errors ingame, can we?
[Please don’t ask where to obtain the ROM. See the FAQ section. — Ed.]
Hey, Mato.
sorry if I spoiled anything in that post that didn’t make it through the filter.
btw, I now regret finishing M3 with the menu patch. Good luck, and I hope things are going good for you in real life. I mean it.
Mato!
JeffMan!
(the team as a whole)
The enemy M3 cart is fighting just as hard against you. Don’t let Giygas have his way!
This may be the very first pictorial reply on this blog:
http://i28.tinypic.com/wivn03.png
lol, fast picture Mitch
This might be slightly off subject, but I was interested in actually buying a flash cart for this translation, and I wanted to know what the current recomendation is.
If Mato would suggest one, I’d definitely try to get that one. My first concern is playing this game, with a pretty strong second concern of where I could get it.
In stores would be ideal, but unlikely, so reputable websites would work too, since I have to go through my parents.
Thanks for any replies I might get!
http://tomato.fobby.net/junk/patch/ Im working on a mother 4 and anyone who wants to give me ideas please click link
LOL mitch very nice one. i love the smiley dude next to the well haha.
although i hate “everyday” too… i swear nobody wrote it as one word before WalMart took over the planet
oh yeah and go go Mato awesome woot yay etc
end of moronic post
I wrote a huge thing with some hardware recommendations but Mato didn’t like that I suggested where to get said hardware ; ;
But basically I got a CycloDS and an EZ-Flash 3-in-1 and it works wonderfully; you’ll have to use NOR mode to load up a 32 MB ROM, but in NOR mode that means you could pop your 3-in-1 into anything and it works just like a normal GBA cartridge. Only caveat is if you want to use it on something with a larger slot than the DS lite, tracking down the larger 3-in-1 might be hard.
Hmm. Well, that makes sense. I’m assuming, then, that just clearing out the RAM every fortieth character and having it start over from the beginning of the memory again… wouldn’t work?
Sorry if I’m asking dumb or irrelevant questions. I’m just really curious as to how this all works.
Mitch: Where’s Lassie when you need him? Or was it ‘her’? I seem to remember them replacing Lassie a few times.
Dammit, I KNEW I should’ve asked “little” Timmy something when I met him a few months back. Except for the gray hair, he looks a lot like he used to, only bigger… (true story, BTW).
Mitch, your sketches are,
Mato’s Brain Food Lunch Updates:
Jar of Delisauce
http://nutsjesmoar.googlepages.com/wizardry.png
Nutsjesmoar helped!
ps that’s a boob wizard
woo!!! just feel the excitement in the air!! makes me want to _____ a ______ in your honor!!!!
thank god for hackers, oh my god, lets all _____ right now!!
I love _____’s.
KEEP ROCKING
Just as planned!
Just don’t say “boku no katsu!”, Light ๐
Neo, you know that the message in there was intended for YOU, right? We ALL know what it says. And don’t be so impatient.
hahaha mitch, I just love your art, donยดt ever leave this nest of nerdyness,I would go crazy with all this accurate technical terms
I believe in the Force and I believe it’s strong with Mato. May he never use his powers for the Dark Side.
I should have a page for all my questions. XP Does the ROM and patch work on Macs? Seriously, though, I ask too many questions. It’s a bad habit.
*Yawn* I’m bored. And tired. And waiting for EB on the VC. *Sigh*
BOOB WIZARS? WHERE?
on a more serious note, good job and good luck
I wonder when Boob Wizards II is coming out ๐
Maybe Mato can make it as a side-project after this is done
This is sick and awesome.
I seem to have a problem with my EFA linker. I have a MOTHER 3 ROM, I click search to find the card. Next, I click add ROM. I type in my MOTHER 3 ROM, then it goes into the unwritten ROM list. I click write ROM. It starts to write the ROM, but when it says “now reading card”, the ROM disappears from the list. And it’s not just the MOTHER 3 ROM, I have 5 other gba ROMs I’m trying to write, & they all don’t work, & I highly doubt that they’re all just bad ROMs. I have EFA simple card client 1.0 for windows vista. If anyone might have a fix for my problem, let me know.
Coolioman: Maybe it’s because you have Vista. I think I’ve heard of problems arising from the use of Vista. I use XP for mine, so maybe that’s why it works. If not, it may be that your driver is outdated. Try this site: http://gbatemp.net/index.php?download=2078
I’m pretty sure the problem is Vista, though. I’ve heard the drivers work for XP only. Good luck!
Wow, this news is fantastic, I have only just got into Mother 2 and it is amazing.
It’s great to know someone is already working of the seaquel, you guys are truly amazing!
Well, watched the code a little bit and I see why some of the letters disappear like that, but still not sure what the cause behind it is. Won’t have much time to look into it though.
i’m serious now,Mato dont try too hard. Earthbound is suppose to be coming to VC soon but nintendo is acting like bitches. While we wait try going to this video game chat room. it will give us all something to do. http//www.chat-avenue.com
Devin: The thing is, I got a different ROM (not MOTHER 3) to work, but that was only a test (I already had the official game). I erased the ROM & tried to rewrite it, but it disappeared from the list again. So I’m pretty sure it works, but I may have messed something up in the settings. Any ideas on what I may or may not have done?
OMG! I can’t wait my sister loves this series and we both are excited to hear that some fans are taking the task to translate and patch it. Many thanks!
I’ve found a new way to pass time. I’m drawing a bunch of 1 page SSBB comics, revolving around Ness and Lucas, of course.
Anna: It shouldn’t be too hard to get a large version. I mean, all you would need to do is a bit of searching on Google. Maybe Google something like, “EZ Flash 3in1 GBA”.
I also suggest the EZ Flash 3-in-1 with a Slot 1 DS Flash card. Works perfectly for me. Can’t wait.
yay! im very excited about this
Hey Mato, do you like what your name means in Kanji?
Great job. Your devotion and hard work is amazing me.
Oh! So the sparrow is like that OLD MAN who catches a WEEDLE everytime you speak with him in Pokรฉmon Red/Blue?
OMG! We’ll have MISSINGNO. in MOTHER 3!!! O_O
Has there been much progress on the translation of the actual script itself?
You’re getting closer Mato. Don’t lose sight of your goal now! We’re all rooting for you!
Also, I think I’ll be going ahead and writing up the second Coffee Break post once I have some material to work with, and most importantly, when you guys are in the script drafting phase.
What can I say, I had a LOT of fun writing that coffee break post.
For you people looking for flash carts, if you live near one check out the video game stores in your local chinatown. They usually carry a couple brands, although not as cheap as an online store. My M3 lite plays the m3 with the menu patch well, but I’m note sure if its still in production. If your gonna buy a flash cart online find a site that is based here or in canada. They’re less prone to rip you off. And always buy the original game first and use the carts for the benefit of having all your legally owned games on one cart.
Finally got byuu’s patcher to compile, but then I realized that the menu patch still had no .ups patch. I got someone to make me one using the original M3 ROM and the .ppf patched ROM, and then I tried that patch. It worked fine, so obviously byuu’s patcher seems to work well! In any case, I now have a .ups patch for people who can’t use the .ppf patch, and I can probably make a guide for people on how to compile and use byuu’s patcher. I’ll probably throw a short how-to on the forum later tonight.
Coolioman: I’m really not sure how to fix your problem. I only just got my EFA Linker on Wednesday, so I don’t know much about it. My only suggestion would be to e-mail the folks that made the EFA. Otherwise, I’m clueless. Good luck!
what flash carts will this technique work on? I want to be prepared the second the patch is ready
Um, I just want to make sure. Are you a criminal by any chance Mato? We can’t have Kira killing you. Because I’d sob everyday (lol).
Oh boy! Tenda Teatime! Thanks Forte! I loved the first coffee break post! ๐
200th comment!
Mato, by any chance do you know how to hack the secret boss in?
Ummm… I guess I didn’t post loud enough. XP Do ROMs (And the translation patches) work on Macs?
MotherEarth
roms with applied patches DO work on macs you just have to get vba or whatever for mac to play it on
MotherEarth: Yes, if you have a working emulator. IIRC, someone posted something about getting an emulator (VBA?) working on a mac, but that was a long time ago.
All you need is a patched ROM (you can make your own) and a working GBA emulator.
Earthbound has been rated by the ESRB. That means it has a high chance of getting in to the virtual console. That still doesn’t mean that it will for sure happen. I’m not getting my hopes up that much. You people might not believe me and that’s fine but I’m just saying that it has a high chance of getting into the virtual console but might not. I am happy that earthbound has a high chance of getting to the console and I am happy that Mato is translating Mother 3 for all to enjoy
sunzo speaks the truth. while there is a high chance of Earthbound coming to the virtual console, there is still no proof that it DEFINITLY will.
to mato: thee hasn’t been a mini-update in a while, has progress been made?
I’m doing real life work, don’t expect mini-updates for a while/days.
Actually, I should mention real quick that while I’m busy doing this stuff, Jeff’s been busy hacking stuff, he made it so we don’t need a hash function anymore for sprite text, he implemented the gold star thing, found a bug in one of my hacks, and probably many other things I’ve forgotten. Give him some Fruity Pebbles.
I also think I have another possible idea on how to make the sprite text not do the annoying flashing thing, but I’m gonna save it for later, this main script stuff needs to die die die.
So very sleepy but must work zzzzz
Good luck sirs.
wait, the gold star thing or the silver star thing on the to do list? can we (you, who am I kidding?) cross that off the to do list? or is that a different matter entirely?
Get some sleep, Mato. You deserve it.
And Jeff deserves some Fruity Pebbles, too.
And Trix. Because Jeff’s a kid.
hey mato what is your real life work?
Reanzet: No, that thing probably won’t be crossed off for a good while, because it’s so open-ended.
Eaze-C: I’m a porn star. Actually I translate games/anime/movies/etc. into English for a living.
OOOOOOOO! So does that mean you get paid to translate in fansubs?
No, he does actual translations for companies like Funimation or other stuff. Right, Mato?
Just be sure to write your idea down somewhere. It would suck to forget it due to being so tired ๐
Being a porn star is kind of like translating games and movies, except you’re translating innocence and self-esteem into cold hard cash and drugs.
I’m ever so excited about this… at each turn, this seems further and further away from realization, until I read an update, and I get all yappy again. I think my friends are sick and tired of hearing about Mother 3 at this point.
Keep up the good work; I eagerly await completion.
outdated resume is here
Been relying on coffee too much lately, I should cut back. It’s not even good coffee, just instant junk.
Anyway, I have lots of ideas for stuff for the project, just no time right now. I hate when that happens, heh.
you did work on baki the grappler?
you’re now my double hero
Ha, awesome. It’s not too often I hear that from people, usually it’s Shin-chan or One Piece or something people mention ๐ Baki kicks ass, I wish they’d make some more seasons of it, I hear stuff past the tournament gets especially awesome.
I don’t watch anime much but that is quite an impressive resume nonetheless. Gives me a lot of faith in the quality of the translation we’ll be getting for this thing… not that I doubted it in the first place.
That’s a big no-no.
It’s okay, I took care of it. Yeesh.
Sweet, you did some work with KH2? Never seen that resume before, good schtuff. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you, but keep your real life work first; we’re just a bunch of self-centered greedy piggies who want their mother 3.
Hey Mato do you think you doing fan translations for roms has helped you at all in your career? Just curious.
You did work on Lupin stuff? Awesome.
Vagn: No, not career-wise. Experience-wise, sure. I did tons of ROM translations and fansubs before hitting the real world, I did it specifically to gain experience. So it’s kind of interesting to be going back to the less-than-legal world for this project after years of pro experience.
Hey i was curious, but what games have you played that you enjoyed that are only in japan?
Mainly i was curious if you played policenaughts… from the looks of it, i’ll never get to play that in english
That KH2 is amazing. But I don’t really understand what he did, care to elaborate (mato or anybody)?
Jorge: For KH2 I only did a few days worth of work, which I did through an agency. I had to translate the script direction, you know, the boring stuff that’s not dialogue. Stuff like “blah blah walks wistfully toward blah blah then exits stage right”. Except I had no context and they had weird mistakes in there. Seeing the entire script (with dialogue) kinda killed my desire to play the game though, I bought it when it came out and haven’t gotten past the part where you gotta stick stickers on everything in town, heh. Same with the other games I’ve done actually, I play a little bit and then it just gets meh. Weird how that happens.
Since you worked on One Piece, you must be able to answer a question I’ve been wanting to ask for a very long while. Where in the world did they find such a talented team to handle the voice-overs for the English dub?
Mato: I have an idea of how to fix the bug.
It reminds me of a racing game we made in openGL. Basically, if any of the CPU players reached the finish line first, the game crashed. One of my team mates replied, “Well, if you lose, everybody loses.” Quite an interesting idea, no? Now, granted, we DID fix that bug but…that doesn’t mean you have to…
๐
You did Speed Grapher? Awesome, i’ve got to say. I’ve been watching each episode via iTunes and it’s been great. Great to see someone with a resume like that doing Mother 3.
Mato sit At Computer Chair.. he Look at Monitor.. Go.. “Huh…”.. stare at the Code.. Very Confused!.. But not becaues He Not Understand.. No.. Mato Too Brilliant For that.. he Confues as to Where to Apply his Mind.. so Mato Snort some Meth off His Desk and Go “Ahhhhh”.. then It Become Clear.. He must hack the Main Script !
Ahahaha.
‘ok’ is my favorite commenter.
You did Negima!
I ordered the set last week.
You are a hero
I, too, love ok. He is as much the part of a good update as anything Mato or Jeff do.
Not really. But he’s like the extra pennies in the pocket when you go to buy something with exact change and forgot to add tax in your head.
mato, when you translate anime, do you have to match the wording up to the mouth movements in the animation, or do you just translate the meaning and other writers make it fit?
uh, or is that what “timing” means on your resume
Wow Mato, you were involved with Kingdom Hearts 2’s translation? That’s awesome… I love that game.
I thought kingdom hearts 2 sucked. First one was much better, in my opinion. Of course, I had no issues with the translation.
HOLY Mother F*%@ing sh*t. You did Dragonball !!!!
OMG Mother 3 and Dragonball damn Mato you rock!!!
YOU HELPED TRANSLATE DB? AWESOME! Anyways, just wanted to say this’ll probably be my last post for now.
As for NOA, they’re taking a while with EB for VC. I sense a disturbance in the force…
Rather than fixing the garbled text, you could try filling the holes with “smurf” or “smurfing” or “smurfed”, I’m sure it would produce pretty satisfactory amusement…
This year we celebrate the Smurfs’ 50th anniversary.
Sorry for the late post, but if it’s not the thing on the list, then what IS the gold star thing?
and the kingdom hearts series is epic awesome. it makes me even happier that you were a part of it
oh mans One Piece: Unlimited Adventure too? Fun fun game
You mentioned that it would take several months before you expect to be done. I think you said something like 4 or 5 months. Is that including the multiple drafts, extra hacks, playing through the game looking for bugs, main script hack, etc…? Or is it just basically the main script hack?
Duffman247: I don’t really have time to play games anymore (kind of ironic, huh) so I can’t think of any such games off the top of my head. And usually the Super Famicom games I wish had come out here I’ve done fan translations for or have had a helping hand in. Haven’t played Policenauts.
Long Pants: I’m only the translator, so none of that is in my scope of knowledge. But I know they did tons of casting work and even asked the Japanese creator and the Japanese company for approval a bunch of times in terms of casting. Also, they’re not 4Kids, so that’s a big plus already ๐
dave: My work is used as the subtitles and as the basis for dub scripts. But it’s the writers who have to rewrite everything to sound better for the dub, and one of the things that includes is the lip-flap matching. Luckily that’s not important when doing subs. “Timing” is making it so subtitles appear at certain times. You gotta write down a time code for each line, it’s tedious.
Reanzet: The last thing on the hacking list is a general “add/polish stuff as we see fit”. So it’s not something that will be crossed out until near the very end. The star stuff was just one example.
Hamster: Careful now, don’t misread things — I said that in my opinion it’d take at *least* 4 or 5 months more. That’s the entire process, not just the main script hacking. If I can find some free time (getting hard, the real life work is piling up daily) then I can see that being done sometime in June.
mato: has there been any progress on the main script hack?
I’m afraid you’ll be defeated by the final boss. Say it ain’t so! Say you’ll be able to fix it eventually!
hasone: No new breakthroughs yet, if that’s what you’re asking.
4 or 5 months – that will be near election time – i’m probably going to forget to vote because of this game… oh well!
PK FORGET TO VOTE ฮฉ!!!
Gomer3a:
Dude man be careful. Stuff like that shouldn’t be posted here. Thats treading on spoiler land. Most of us here HAVN’T played the game yet because we are waiting for the translation.
Vagn: It’s okay, I got it. People need to be more considerate of others. And they need to read more.
ugh… i saw it… i didn’t need to know that. mother 3 is completely ruined… ๐
Thanks Mato, I suppose it could have been worse.
I’m so pleased with how you’re all pulling this together. It’s simply amazing. Most unofficial translation teams just change the text to get the main points across, but you’re keeping the real Earthbound feeling; the humour is still fully intact.
I… can’t…. wait!
“Tomato Genetically Modified to be More Expensive”
http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/tomato_genetically_modified
Noooo! Where will we get more translators now? ๐
oy, so what’s the difference between what Jeffman did(the “gold star thing”) and whats on the list(silver star thing)?
Whether the team says the hack may take a certain amount of time, we should be optimistic about it. The hack’s one of the biggest in the game, but we should have faith in ’em, right? ;D
Also. After seeing these new shots, I’ve gotten a localization craving. ;3;
Uh… I think gold stars are gold and silver stars are silver.
Reanzet: Come on now, it’s not THAT hard. The “add things/polish things as we see fit” list item is just that — we add things and polish things as we feel it’s necessary. The recent gold star thing is just one of those things. The gold star shows up if you get all the backwards enemy entries. The silver star shows up if you get all enemies in your log book.
Mato, your outdated resume is impressive! I had no clue that you were a bad enough dude to save the president!
Either way, know that your prayers won’t be absorbed into the darkness. While you’re battling in that snazzy robo-mato suit, we’re all sending our prayers TO THE MOON. (or some crap like that.)
Take all the time you need. I can wait until 2056 for this if I have to. Though by then, i would have most likely mastered Japanese and played it some 40 years before that
The missing text appears to happen 34 letters after each time the text needs to scroll up, and lasts for 11 letters. Very weird stuff. I can see what’s happening but I can’t tell the root cause yet.
How exactly do you uncover the problems so quickly?
Wow, so many strike outs in the To-Do List. We’re all cheering for you Tomato and JeffMan! …and anyone else whom I don’t know about.
buttfrenzy: Bad Dudes is such an awesome game.
I certainly hope you’re not hacking the main script until June. Instead, I hope all the tangles in the programming come undone and the perfect way to display the main script in English with a VWF falls into your lap.
Good things sometimes do happen, after all ๐
Wow. I forgot you translated Burst Angel. That’s the reason I haven’t finished it yet. I was watching it fansubed, but then I saw FUNimation lisenced it and you were doing the translating. I still haven’t gotten around to getting it though.
Tomato, did you translate the first 13 episodes of Dragon Ball too?
A lot happened in the past 15 days. 2 weeks ago I thought that there was still like 3 months more, but when I think now, 2 months remains at most! ๐
I also envy you, your RL is translating and ur PC life is also translating from Japaneese. But you should really take a rest once in a while and shouldn’t drink that much coffee. Really unhealthy if used a lot :/
Well done sir’s. Well done.
linkdude: You should get it, there’s already like been a box set release, and then a re-release with the extra OVA, which I think is probably a pretty good deal altogether. Plus it all has tons of extras.
And yeah, I did the first 13 eps of DB too, man, that was like what, 5 or 6 years ago. So long ago now. Too bad they haven’t been released here, but I think they were released in Australia a good while back.
lol seriously, this is so amazing what you guys are doing. i give you the up-most respect for sacrificing all this time so that we can all enjoy the greatest game/story of all-time.
This is superb work. I’m really looking forward to the completed project!
I always kinda of imagined you kicking back and playing those games that get rave reviews but never come over here. Afterwards you laugh and say how great it was, and tell everyone they have to play it. How well where you in Japanese before entering it as a major in college?
I heard that the plot of Mother 3 will make people cry. Not to be spoiling or anything, I heard that it was sad.
Mato and Jeffman, this is looking great.
Also, Mato, do you work or did you used to work at BabelMedia?
I mean, according to their site they translate for Nintendo and Sony (Well, their Europe routes.). So, do you still work there, or no?
Sparrows are bad bad people.
i love you. i can’t believe how much progress this is making in such short time, i remember following the early attempts at translating this and i’m so SO glad that you’re so close to completion. such regular updates, such a professional website, i can’t imagine how you find the time. i’d love to donate or help in any other way i can, and i know you guys say buying the japanese version is the best way to help, but it’s out of stock and i really feel you deserve something for all your hard work, let me know how i can help ๐
-loren
> The missing text appears to happen 34 letters after each time the text needs to scroll up, and lasts for 11 letters. Very weird stuff. I can see whatโs happening but I canโt tell the root cause yet.
Weird, because the Japanese script seems to have 14-character lines (not counting any line breaks or control codes) from your translation tool screenshot, but those aren’t quite even multiples.
It still feels like some errant newline code, but… hmmm…
hey Mato, if you weren’t going for such awesome quality ( and make no mistake, I’m glad you are), would this patch maybe be done already?
sunzo: this is not the place
Arashi: That’s a very vague question and I can only see it leading to people complaining one way or another.
edracon: Yeah, but I haven’t done anything with them in a long long long time.
Oh, sorry for asking then
Pretty sweet that you posted your (however old) resume. I was wondering how many years you had taken Japanese. Compared to my dad who has taken four years you are certainly much more skilled. 2000 kanji memorized? Very commendable.
I love how the mother series can make such a strong connection with the players that it can make them cry. Only the truly best games do that, and I have no doubt that Mother 3/EB2 will do the same thing to players. I absolutely cannot wait for this translation to be finished.
Blargh. The main script programmer’s problem is that 1. his code is spread out allll over the place and 2. he uses too many bit flags for everything, and that’s the kind of stuff you REALLY need documentation for or else it takes 5000 years to figure out what each bit of every special byte does.
I’ve at least followed things further back to where the game determines if text needs to scroll up or not. But so little free time ๐
Ouch. Weird bit flags set wrongly == massive pain … ๐
Why can’t people be more organized, am I right?
Anyway, keep up the graet work!!
Oh come now, do you really expect the crazy Japanese dudes who make a psychotic mixed-up game like Mother to be organized?
Can someone help me? I downloaded the EB0 ROM, made a copy and patched that one, but none of them work on any NES emulator. What’s the best Emulator for Windows XP 03? NesTopia, FCE Ultra, and NESticle all didn’t work…
I can see his see code
/*global*/ int this = 1;
int that =0;
int theOther = 1;
int theThird = 1;
…
…
int theFiftyThird = 0;
And the main script programmer mis-set number 38.
This is the type of situation when you need well-written functions. seriously.
*face-palms at self-stupidity and ignorance*
(ok… apparently this wasn’t my last post.)
also:
naruto132: No, it’s not really that sad. There’s a secret. Play and see for yourself ๐
mato: oh man. I hope it’s nothing too serious. Bugs are annoying. I’m starting to think that nintendo made this glitchy on purpose so no one could localize it. Or maybe they didn’t care and just threw everything together. My Web1 teacher would always take off points if she saw any glitches. I wonder what grade these guys would get? All those errors in the jp m3: O_O
Majora: I’m just trying to mark the feeling of the game.
Bubble_gum monkey: I’m not trying to convince other people it’s sad but I heard that the plot was sad.
Oh geez. That sounds like hell, Mato. ๐ Just start keeping lots and lots of copious notes any time you figure out anything about any of the flags. I’m sure you do that already though, but if it helps, let me be the nagging voice in the back of your head that says that no, you will not remember what bit 3 of #FC0F:AAC7 set 5 minutes from now, nevermind a week or more, and that you had best jot down that revelation right now before the velociraptors get you for bad practice:
http://xkcd.com/292/
Arashi: You probably have a bad dump. IIRC, there are several bad ones and I do not know the hash of the good one ๐
That’s one of the reasons the new patching system is so nice, because it checks to make sure the game it’s patching is the one it thinks it should be.
And if that wasn’t clear, the fix is to find a new copy of the ROM and try to patch it. I use Nesticle mostly, FCE Ultra is good, too. If those don’t play it, it’s bad.
Mowhawk man’s line is so dramatic.. I never realized how powerful even the NPC’s texts were.
I’m glad you’re doing this. Spookychee’s text is great, but not 100%.
I wonder if it’s possible for you to pay that guy’s hotel bill?
*ponder*
I’ll have to try it in game… once it’s translated, that is ๐
Tomato, if you don’t mind me asking, how old were you when you first started studying Japanese?
hmmm xkcd… the possibilities open! I found a couple…
hmm http://xkcd.com/303/
http://xkcd.com/323/
and wierdly enough, http://xkcd.com/349/
oh noes! http://xkcd.com/388/
just a few comics to brighten you up ๐
Duffman: I studied Japanese at college during summer breaks during high school. Then I went into college and majored in Computer Science, dropped that about 2 years later, spent a year in Japan, came back and majored in Japanese. So it’s hard to answer your question.
A Fan: You still use Nesticle? ๐ฏ ๐ฏ Also, NPCs have their own little changes throughout the game, so you can see what happens to him over time. It’s neat stuff. Even tiny inanimate objects have their own stories by the end of the game.
NecrosaroIII: At 16 or 17, somewhere around there.
Hey Mato are we gonna get a picture of you punching your computer or keyboard when the patch is complete? You know, to show dominance over the one thing that not even a whole corporation could do; translate Mother 3! Also it would be the icing on the cake to see the one hero to all of us Mother fans! Do it for us!!!
I confused Nesticle with Nestopia, my bad. I use Nestopia, not Nesticle ๐
It’s cool to know that even the inanimate objects have a story, but that’s got to be something of a pain in the ass for the translator…
Speaking of translating, how long did it take you to get to where the JLPT level 1 was doable? I’ve heard of reasonably fluent foreigners having trouble because they’ve neglected their kanji study a little and get thrown by kanji for things like ‘indigo’ (err, I don’t know that one, either).
On the plus side, I finally got something that has stroke orders for more than just the kana. God help me if I have to look up what tone each mota of some word is supposed to be in, though. I don’t have any of those damn $500 dictionaries ๐
And I still have to practice saying them properly without sounding like that guy with the afro in Hayate the Combat Butler (even I can hear how WRONG it sounds, it’s almost painful to listen to). Not to mention weird uses of tsu. How can you have a glottal stop (small tsu) at the *start* of a word o_0 … At least I think I’ve managed to slur my R/Ls correctly, but still. And I probably need to listen more carefully, because I honestly though uso would be written muso until I saw it in writing, and that’s not the only syllable I’ve misheard by any means… Maybe it would help if I watched more dramas so I could see the lips of actual people moving? Hmm…
Just an idea for the even/odd character issue. Why don’t you try mapping a blank, and even maybe not a blank letter in at the end or beginning of the text boxes to stay having even numbers of letters. Just remake an unused character as blank or something. I’m not a programmer, it was just an idea that I thought of when I saw the problem.
OK, finally think I got a good lead on the missing letters problem. Except now there’s another problem, it’s negative 5000 o’clock in the morning. Someone win the lottery so I can take off work for a few months ๐
Just use Dr. Andonut’s instant revitalization machine and you’ll be fine within seconds… ๐
Thats cool, i hate carrying a conversation in such an open environment, but why did you leave for japan.
I mean, after college it was a big thing for me to leave my parents house and move 3 hours away. How did you come to moving to another country?
Sorry for the spill your guts life story stuff, its just so fascinating, if you want we can trade crazy stories.
wow, I leave for 3 days and you’ve done a LOT!
You know, the June issue of PiQ magazine ran an article on the subject of game-translating, and it immediately reminded me of the work going in right here. They even commented on how long fans of Mother 3 have been trying to translate the game, with “little” to show for it, though every time I turn around, I see the blogs you leave behind about the difficulties coming through, not necessarily in the translation itself, but in the process of coding the translation into the game (something that wasn’t touched on in the article). I may be new here, and longwinded, but I’m watching your efforts with appreciation for your dedication to the project, keep up the good fight!
Little to show for it seems a bit harsh :3 Like 97% of the work has to be done before there’s anything to “show”, especially when it’s a stated goal to have ONE patch to avoid complaints and issues for people confused by the existence of more than one patch. ๐ The script has been through a good first draft afaik, and almost all of the “auxillary” text works great and even as-is it sounds like the main script is even playable at times! There is quite a lot to “show” it’s just that this project is chosing to release it all at once instead of something like trying to get a few chapters working at a time or some such.
hey mato. i downloaded your earthbound zero hack and applied it with both SNESTL12 and Lunar IPS but it didnt do anything. im using the FCEUltra emulator and the Demiforce hack rom. please help!
love vinnie
NEVER MIND IM AN IDIOT!!!!
@ possibility of a working full english M3: YES! YES! THIS IS DELICIOUS! One by one the glitches are dissappearing. This is just like playing a Pokรฉmon game. And it’s only a matter of time before the team becomes the M3 Glitch Finding Masters!
WE’RE GOING FOR THE WORLD RECORD (cause we gotta catch ’em all before Team Roc- er…
Nintendo releases their ULTIMATZ WEPONZ: the cease and desist order.)
TO CATCH THEM IS OUR REAL TEST…
Good work, Mato. I can’t wait for this to be finished.
I really comend you for all your team’s work on this translation.
I wanted to ask, though- what is the order in which you are doing the “script drafts” and “implementing the text into the game”?
Because it’s confusing to me how the 2,3, & final drafts arent complete yet but the game is already translated (and you’re putting the text into the game).
are you going to put it into the game and then edit it according to script changes?
-Schlupi
The current screens and videos use the first draft text file. The text file will be polished and fixed over time, these are the revisions/drafts. Your last question doesn’t seem to make much sense though. I’m guessing your idea of how the process works is a little off.
Anyway, if that PiQ magazine did say that, then screw them for not understanding the process or doing any research.
Nessie = NOT FIRST :3
Anyway, very nice work guys. Keep it up. After you’re finished.. I’ll give you a cookie… really, if you want one, I’ll mail it.
Any magazine,
Says there is no work to show,
Can kiss Mato’s ass.
nice Haiku, GoldyK ^^
Thank you very much,
This is now how I reply.
Well… most of the time.
You guys who can’t play EB0 probably have broken ROMs. There are lots of bad versions out there, find a new, better one.
Lunar IPS + Nestopia always worked fine for me. If you’re using both of those and it won’t work, the ROM you have is a bad dump.
Make sure to read the patch notes, too. I don’t remember if it applies to NES games as well as SNES games, but sometimes I’ve had to remove the header on SNES games. It’s been a long time since I’ve tried to patch a NES game.
I love you all
I really dig what you’re doing here. Keep up the good work!
It seems like the end’s in sight!
Hey where can i download the Battle Translation Patch At? Please Msg Me when everything is done too ty
Now that you mention it…
The EB0 ROM said NES file, but the patch said SNES game patch file. Is that supposed to happen?
I’ll try NEStopia again with a new EB0 dump anyway
Umm…why do you need software to apply the patch to the NES rom? With all the NES roms I’ve ever used, including Nestopia, I just drag the patch onto Nestopia, and when it asks me which file to use it with, I select the ROM file. It always works.
Yeah, I got it to work, thx
wtf @ so many responses, I hadn’t even noticed the #.
Haven’t had time to look into stuff today, I’ll try to sneak in a few hours. Like I mentioned before, last night I finally found a good lead that eventually results in the mystery of the disappearing letters. I gotta follow it back now. Not sure why it’s doing what it does, but it should only be a matter of time until the cause is found now.
Hey Mato, why don’t you delete the first 135+ responses? make it easier for everyone
Mostly I wish people wouldn’t use the blog as a question forum on how to use patches for other games, etc. ๐
Holy shit Mato!!! I just looked at your resume…YOU ARE THE SHIT!!!
are you trying to make me feel guilty? ๐
Mostly teasing ๐ But in general I think most non-related posts are best suited for the starmen.net boards.
BTW mato, today at school someone had graffitied the words in romanji “Boku ga kido da” on one of my friends’ locker. What does that mean?
I know it means “I something” …I assume its something like I suck since it IS school.
Heh I dunno, maybe it’s someone’s name? Or someone is trying to say, “I am the gate”? “I am the respiratory tract”? “I am the orbit”? Hard to say if it’s just romaji, the fact it was in romaji probably means they didn’t know what they were saying anyway. Maybe they were going for ใญใใ, or “kid”. I dunno.
Unless maybe his NAME was Kido? anythings possible…
Anyway, Mato, I’ve discovered your greatest fear! Anything that eats tomatos! Rabbits! rats! How do you feel when you see tomato paste at the supermarket?
“I am the gate”
badass
OOO yea seeing as how everyone at my school is into anime, knowing basic Japanese must have made them eager enough to write that “I am a kid” on someone’s locker.
I’m a little rusty with my Japanese since I stopped studying. BTW do you watch fansubs Mato? Also I didn’t see your name in the back of the Kingdom Hearts 2 instruction manual what’s up with that?
O, lol then it would probably have been “I am the gate” since it was written on a locker.
I think this blog has blown up because of others (like myself) who picked up SSBB and were intrigued by the Lucas character. I loved Earthbound and followed the N64 release with some anticipation. We all know what happened next. I am just so happy that I’ll get the chance to finally play this installment (which I have heard is a modified version of what was to be on the 64). Counting on you, Mato! (No pressure… okay, some pressure).
Stuff I do through agencies usually means I don’t get in credits. Even with FUNimation, I rarely get in credits — if I do, it’s in the end credits of the DVD, not the normal credits of a show. It’s a curse.
I don’t watch fansubs, there’s kind of no reason to ๐ Plus I have no time. I used to fansub shows here and there that I liked, that’s what this is all about. here’s a recent fansub, actually
Yeah, I hope that lead you found helps clear this mystery.
The only reason I watch fansubs is because I like to have accurate translations of dialogue in my anime. I don’t like having edited footage and I would actually buy dvds if I had a job, but I don’t. (I am 17 in High School)
Also I don’t get what sexybeam is for…and is the second link subbed by you?
I think Mato meant that he doesn’t watch fansubs because he can understand the language ๐
*Looks at time since last update*
3…3 days…
*sweats*
I’m…getting…a…little…anxious…
Just kidding. Take as long as you want, Mato. As long as you want…just make sure it’s by tomorrow morning. ๐
Lol get a job then Eaze-C; you’re 17 and in high school!
Sometimes, the thing that surprises me is not that this game is getting an English translation, but the fact that it exists at all. I mean, back around the time EarthBound 64 got cancelled, I used to dream about it getting released and me finally being able to play it. How am I supposed to know that I’m not going to wake up right after submitting this message to discover that it’s ten years ago and the 64DD has been cancelled and EarthBound 64 is a lost cause?
Somebody pinch CoE
O…….yeah I forgot Mato can understand Japanese…I am so jealous. Well I guess then I’d have to change the question to “Do you watch anime RAWS?”…
Maybe someone was trying to write the sentence from Death Note (“Boku ga Kira da”) and heard it wrong? It doesn’t sound like they know what the hell they’re doing, or they’d have at least managed a simple sentence like that. Hell, even I understand it (except for the ‘kido’ part). Boku is the mail pronoun, used by young men. Ga is the ‘identifier’ particle, so they’re identifying themselves as ‘kido’. Da is the informal present tense version of the verb ‘desu’, which is one of the three ways to say ‘is’ in Japanese (all three mean different things). This is the is in the sense of “He is a doctor” (vs. “He is in Japan” [which would use iru] or “It is in Japan” [which uses aru]) so you can think of it like an equals sign (you can’t say he == Japan, so you know to use iru). The difference between aru and iru, BTW, is that iru is only used for living things and aru is used for objects. You can speak of a person as an object, but it’s incredibly insulting and haughty. Imagine a princess or someone saying ‘Get that THING away from me.’ about a person to understand the feeling.
Anyhow, based on the recent news I’ve seen of Kira-related nonsense (people getting suspended for notebooks with names in them because it’s now a “threat” or something), I have to believe it’s something like that, but they suck at Japanese, even more than I do ๐
That or they really want to say that they’re the kid for some reason (what kid?) or are horribly confused by some other Japanese word they heard very, very wrong. But who am I to talk? I would’ve sworn that uso (‘no way!’ when used as an interjection, lit. ‘lie’) was pronounced muso from the way people were saying it for a very long time ๐ And that even extended to thinking usotsuki (liar, lit. ‘lie user’) was pronounced musotsuki. Good thing I looked it up ๐
—–
Oh, and for the patch people, IPS patches can patch both SNES games and NES games (depending on what the IPS is *supposed* to patch). Heck, you could probably use it to ‘patch’ any other random small file, whether it was a game or something else.
You almost certainly have bad ROM dumps. It happens. Look for more ๐ You can try the GoodNES tool to verify them, too. Anything with [b1], [b2] (etc.) on the end is a bad dump, anything with [o1] or [o2] (etc.) is an overdump, and [h1], [h2] (etc.) is a hacked version. You want a nice [!] on the end for known good dump, unless the patch notes in the TXT file that probably came with the patch specify something else ๐
What’s with the blue, Mato?
> O yeah I forgot Mato can understand Japanese…
Now this is just crazy. Remember when you were ‘just’ the translator (and not the main hacker), Mato? ๐
Uhh, if I remember correctly, he prefers J-Dramas now. I downloaded one on the hopes of picking up more Japanese from it, but I haven’t watched it yet. Somehow, they’re just not as interesting to me so I didn’t get much beyond some lady asking a local granny to predict her future and tell her if there was any romance in it. Japanese TV is weird ๐
Lol so true A Fan.