Script Draft 2 Basically Done; What’s Next
NOTE! The pic to the right represents Draft 2 only. The actual entire project itself is more like 90%
It’s been 8 or so weeks, and finally, finally, Draft 2 of the main script is done. Actually, it’s not *exactly* done, but I’ll explain that in a second. The real work of Draft 2 is done, and all lines have been copied, revised, formatted, checked, etc. etc. It’s been a real killer getting this done, glad to have it over with. Jeff’s been real cool about updating the text editor program every time I need something new, which has been a real life-saver and helped speed this stuff up a good deal. Give him donuts if you see him.
Anyway, the last batch was from pretty much the last two hours of the game, so here are some random pics from elsewhere instead. Enjoy them like celebratory candy. Yum.
Alright, so I’ll jump right into the important stuff. It’s crazy early in the morning so I’ll save the detailed details for future updates, for now, here’s a basic outline of stuff.
What’s Next
Draft 2 is at 100%, but the entire project itself is probably in the 85-90% range. There are still other things that need to be done. Here is what they are.
Finish Draft 2
Although I finished doing all the lines in Draft 2 as you can see above, there are still plenty of context issues, and I’d like to fix them sooner rather than later. So later this week I’ll play through the game and fix whatever context issues/errors/whatevers I come across. There are also a few little things I need to go back and do, like change a joke here and there to new stuff that I thought up later on or that people suggested later on. I’m extremely busy most of the rest of the week though, so I might not finish this until sometime next week.
I want to redo the battle text from scratch; the current file is based off of really old m3.org stuff that’s really crazy and inaccurate everywhere. Don’t fret though, it’ll only take a few days or a weekend. Also, I need to finalize/decide on final names for items, characters, etc. Also need to get those enemy descriptions into the game. And then gotta make sure everything is formatted. This is all super-easy stuff, I eat it for breakfast.
Draft 3
Draft 3… People ask why this is necessary. There are many reasons. One, I’m not a writer. Two, all quality translations go through an editor to improve the writing, whether it’s a professional game translation or a fan translation. Three… blah blah blah 😛 The original idea from the very very start was that demi would be editing my translation. However, he’s busy with his new game company and his latest Trism game for the iPod, which is doing incredibly well from what I hear. Also, Draft 2 has turned out a bit better than I originally expected.
So what’s going to happen with Draft 3 is this. There isn’t going to be a Draft 3, at least not how we originally planned. There are a bunch of lines that I absolutely KNOW demi can write better than me, so I’ll ask him to work his magic on those specific ones. Other than that, there won’t be an actual Draft 3. Instead, I’ll have people do spot-suggestions/spot-editing during the testing/QA phase later on. I think that’ll do well. I should mention again that testing, when it happens, will be done internally, so we won’t need outside help.
Finish the Hacking
There are still a few things left to hack. The two biggest things are stuff with “Block 0” and making the menu text work better. There are other little things, but they’re minor and won’t take much time. But those two big things will be time-consuming. The Block 0 stuff, in its current form, will crash, freeze, glitch, or Moonside-ify your game, so it’ll probably be the first thing to get done. Jeff tried his hand at it a while back, but it got crazy fast. I haven’t hacked in almost two months though, so I’m a little out of practice.
I’ll explain what Block 0 is and other stuff when the time comes to work on them.
Final Stuff
First up will be testing. Gonna do lots of testing on all sorts of emulators and hardware. Gonna do this thoroughly so we get the final patch done right the first time. Also included in this will be the spot-editing that I mentioned above.
There’ll also be what I call “tool-assisted testing”, which probably isn’t even worth mentioning, since it won’t take very long. We’ll basically write some simple tools to make sure all combinations of text and stuff are correct.
Finally, gonna have to ready various things for when the patch is released, like the readme, how-to-use faq pages, figure out how we’ll distribute the files, etc. We’re getting close enough now that some of this stuff is already being done or planned.
——-
Right now, I’m going to stick with the vague “final patch is at least 3 months away” thing. It may take less, but it’ll most likely take that long or more. I can easily see the hacking taking at least another month, the testing a month, tack on the extra editing, unexpected bugs that need lots of attention, sudden busy work weeks like I’ve had lately, etc. and 3 months seems like a reasonable guess.
I wish I could take some kind of neat new video at this milestone, but there’s really nothing more to show, that’s how far things have come now. I guess the latest videos from a couple weeks ago should still suffice, for those who haven’t checked ’em out yet.
Alright, gonna hit the hay now before it’s suddenly light out again, heh 😛
first time poster, long time lurker. i need to change my shorts, it’s so close!
“Draft 2 is at 100%, but the entire project itself is probably in the 85-90% range.”
Maybe put that in bold at the top of this update. I can just see the gaming blogs going crazy over nothing.
And HOORAY FOR DRAFT 2 FINISHEDNESS!
I’m waiting at the line with the airhorn!
YAAAAAAY! On to draft 3!
Congrats on finishing Draft 2 🙂
Very nice – let me be one of the first to congratulate you on this outstanding milestone!
This has been a major project, and an important one to many folks. It’s been a major inspiration to me as a programmer and gamer.
Thanks a zillion.
Ryan Fenton
Awesome! Glad I was here for this. I’m also REALLY happy to hear that Draft 3 will be only-sorta-kinda like a full Draft. I always understood why it was planned, but I WAS thinking a good bit lately that Draft 2 is already fantastic from all I’ve seen.
Congratulations again!
Well, well.
I’m very glad at how dedicated you’ve been to the project.
Since you’re not really doing a 3rd draft… will that impact the projected release date?
It’s nice to come home to some nice, good news like this when I’ve been working most of the night due to someone flipping a breaker at work, which caused computer problems, which shut down the plant for a while, which caused me nasty evil headaches and woke a lot of people I’d prefer not to wake to worry and ask me when it will get fixed.
But now I’m done and Draft 2 is done, so all is well 🙂
Its kinda saddens me that there will be no draft 3…
Although this means that the patch will be released sooner, and I would love to play the game as written by Mato, after waiting for so long (more than a year now), getting so professional with 3rd draft and that sorts really got me waiting for it even more.
But I’m just ranting now, so I’ll stop this nonsense.
Congratulation on the completion of translation for all 7658 lines of the game (excluding needed revising as stated above).
This day shall now be known as `M3 Draft 2 Day` for all generations to come =)
YESSS
Well many people are saying that but, I watched the comments on the last post, 99.4 to 99.7% waiting for mato to say “IT’S DONE”
And now, At somewhere around 12:50 AM pacific, it is.
(Joy to the world, and all the mother 3 fans who stare at this blog all day)
Also, has draft 2 fixed some of the spacing issues with the EB font? Some of the screens/vids do have weird spacing and it doesn’t look natural in the game yet
WOOOOW…
What a progress!!! XD Eventhough I always follow your (or Jeff’s) entries, it’s always a good punch when it reaches 100%!
Congratulations, Mato! Congratulations, Jeff! Congratulations, demi!
I send you my ultra-hyper-super-duper-spirit charge beam!!!
(via PSI express ;D)
Outstanding.
fantastic work guys. I can wait for this all day, because in the end, the wait IS WORTH IT. Heck, a Christmas release would sorta be your gift to everyone. =D
Nice one guys, I can’t believe how far it’s come! I’ve never seen such dedication before, I love it.
The finish line is in sight, I’m sure you’ll manage it. I’ll be waiting with baited breath, and cookies.
*thumbs up*
Well done mate, not long to go now!
although its not the entire project, congratulations, you have finished the primary and main purpose of this project !
That Japanese Blues Bros clip was great.
First a long awaited game is released, then this update. Many, many thanks, my friends! My night feels complete, as I too will be asleep soon. Thank you so very much for all your hard work!
I’m glad to see it coming along nicely! Keep it up! (but sleeping is important too :P)
My gosh this is seriously exciting. I can’t wait for the finished /EVERYTHING/ Yaaay !
Awesome work. Such dedication and attention to detail is something I could never replicate. I am eagerly looking forward to the final patch.
I’m bummed to hear that demi won’t be doing the final draft. I’d really been looking forward to it after playing Famicom Detective Club 2. That said, it’s good to hear that he’s successful in other ventures, and I’m sure it’ll be just fine without him.
You guys seem to be doing a great job, and I can’t wait to see the finished translation. 🙂
Keep up the good work Mato and the rest of the team! I’m so excited for the end result.
YEAH! So the end is near-ish. A little patience and the time will fly by. Good luck Mato.
Something tells me block 0 is even more of a serious problem than we’d all like to believe, but grats on getting one big step closer to finishing your project!
Cool! You’ve sorta finished Draft 2… Congrats, and good luck on the remaining hacks.
Yay! Congrats! It’s sorta lame, but that’s about all I have to say.
I’ll have to prepare a speech for when it is complete.
Yay!
Great work on getting to 100% Mato 🙂
Nice job Mr. Mato. Draft 2 is done. The community couldn’t have done it without you.
Nice! Thanks for all your work :-D.
I’m a bit jealous because when this is all done, you’ll have that amazing feeling of accomplishment. You guys are doing an amazing job! It’s hard to believe it’s nearly finished.
Have a good week! 😉
Everyone pour yourselves a glass of fine wine (or orange juice if you prefer, or like me were in ER the other day and can’t drink alcohol at the moment), and join the celebrations of this M3 Draft 2 Day !
Cheers.
I was clutching my cheeks in excitement until I read this:
“testing, when it happens, will be done internally, so we won’t need outside help.”
Now I’m not clutching my cheeks any more but still excited never-the-less 😀
Having this patch done by the holidays would certainly be very nice. Regardless, you’re going to make a lot of people very happy, guys. Keep up the hard work.
Goooood!!!!
Congratulations!!!
alltoug-my-keyboard-went-bananas-today,im-appy!-tanks!:p
dont forget to test gba emulators for the mac
Wow; I couldn’t fathom how hard you’re working to make this translation so awesome! Really looking forward to it, but I am glad (and appreciate) you’re prioritising quality over speed!
I think that it’s utterly amazing what you’ve done here. Do you know how SLAMMED for downloads you’re gonna be once it’s finished? O____o
Gotta agree with Poe here, alot of people are gonna see that 100% and throw a tweaker, I can think of at least 4 off the top of my head.
That said, this is my first post, but I’ve been lurking here since I can remember, 3 months is a deadly long wait, but we’ve come this far, what’s a little more for an absolutely AWESOME experience?
Greatly looking forward to the release! Thank you all so much for undertaking this massive project!
Wheeeee! I think I went to sleep, like, the second this was posted, as it was about 4 hours ago when I said nothings gonna happen. Doh! At least you got your Chirps in the right place =p. But anyway. Congrats on the 100%, NOW GO GET SOME SLEEP!!!!!1!11!11
~MidnightCeltic
(TheFakePsychic)
Mato is my idol
Dude, thank you so much for this
I could not understandf the Tonzura thing…
JUST GIVE IT SOME #$^@$#^% SUBTITLES WILL YA!?
Woo!
😀
You are absolute heroes! Heroes, I say!
I love you. I will take your hand in marriage and produce plentiful offspring.
Happy halloween, everybody!
Congrats Mato.
As far as Mile Stones go, this is a HUGE one 😀
Keep up the good work.
You all have probably thought of this already, but file distrobution would be made much easier through torrents… cuts down on site traffic big time. Still, not everyone uses torrents, though. I’m sure someone suggested this before…
Congrats on the finish Mato!
Lets hope that Demi can cooperate in terms of time so this can go super fast.
Anyways, good job Mato. Keep going.
This game is gonna rock! Or is it the bagel?
Awesome!!
I am not at all familiar with emulators, can you save a game and come back to it when using one?
Mato, would you list which emulator will work best when the patch is finally up and running?
OMG RELASER THE PATRCH NOWWW!!!
Haha just kidding.
*Generic Praises*
So you made it back alive.
You must have many stories to tell.
Let’s get together for a drink, when you have a chance so I can hear your stories.
…
I’m talking about drinking mineral water.
I’m still under age, you know.
Congrats, Mato!
Yay! So close…
Also, mentioned this like, a year ago, but any plans to release a trailer that follows the ’64 trailer as close as possible when the patch releases?
I ended up watching the different versions of でコンビニ(ブリトラ) [“Dekombini (Buritora)” am I right?] after watching the “unrelated but I like” video… +10 for the Runaway 5! 😛
YAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!
Three cheers!!
Congrats to you, Mato. 🙂 I’m sure you can breathe much easier now that this huge milestone is over with. Like you said, there are still quite a few more things to do, but this seems like it was one of the most time consuming ordeals that your team had to overcome. I still can’t get over the level of dedication you guys have on this project. Good luck to you guys on the revisions and hacks! I’ll be keeping an eye out!
omagawd congratulations
Congrats on finishing script draft 2 and getting a bit closer to a release.
Congrats, guys! Another milestone down, and even closer to completion. I can hardly wait!
As far as distribution goes, I’ve got some ideas that I’m sure you’ve already thought of:
1) Torrent the sucker, let the demand work for you
2) See if Starmen wouldn’t mind hosting the file along with you guys to split the demand.
3) Rapidshare may seem unprofessional, but they’ve got the bandwidth.
Any way you go, I’ll be right there with everyone else, elbows out, when you’ve got it up. Keep up the great work!
I would like to say just how absolutely thrilled I am at how far this translation has progressed. I am dying to get my hands on any one of the Mother games, and I can’t wait for the translation patch so that I can play this game and understand what’s going on, lol.
Rock on guys. Hope Draft 3 goes well, even if it isn’t the way the way you planned it.
Take that Nintendo, go ahead and waste your time with those damn casual hippies, while we enjoy our translated Mother 3
does no draft 3 mean earlier release?
The update still lists “at least 3 months” as the timeframe we should expect for any sort of release.
If you want to know what emulator to use, I recomend No$gba. It’s the same one that Mato and Jeffman used to test their hacks on. An emulator works like the system that it is acting like (or emulating). No$gba should allow you to play and save Mother 3 with out any drama.
Actually, we use the debugger version, which is only meant for people who know exactly what they’re doing, not to mention that it costs money. The sound on it isn’t too great actually, and its battery saves are all weird and compressed and will be incompatible with our eventual save file converter. VBA-M is a much better emulator if you’re just going to be playing, IMO. We’re going to cover all of the saving problems through guides and stuff when the patch is released.
I’ll give Jeff some donuts!
ANdonuts, that is!
Heh…heh…
(prepares for the onslaught of tomatoes)(wait, tomatoes?!?! toMATOes, that is!)(prepares to get shot at)
Yes, VBA-M is definitely the one I recommend. Its only slight drawback is that it *sometimes* plays the music in the main menu too quickly, which has something to do with our sprite text hacks and VBA-M’s own timing code, while real hardware and other emulators don’t have that problem.
But aside from that, VBA-M is the way to go, no doubt about it. Beats out every other GBA emu I’ve tried.
I know this gets old, but what flash carts would be recommended for Mother 3 and the final patch?
You should create a small tech demo (Doesn’t even have to be Mother 3) with your hacks implemented to test on hardware you don’t have. For instance, I could test it with an EZ 3-in-1.
SWEET! I’ve got the right one! But anyway, still “good job” from everyone crowded around my screen as I’m typing that weren’t here when I posted my first comment.
Thanks for the help!! 3 months cant come any faster
Dumb question…Why does Itoi have no plans at making a 4th? The graphics are not the best but that honestly doesnt matter with these games.
What if, in like 2015, the entire series is remade for whatever the new Nintendo console is? With…VOCALS!
The guy is 60 this year, he’s already super crazy busy running his company and doing allll his other stuff. Let the dude do what he wants. It sounded like M3 was already almost too much to handle at the same time as his normal stuff.
EmpoleMew: Go to the spillover message board. There’s a topic dedicated solely to that stuff.
Gotcha. Im glad he even came out with a M3; Its just hard to see something successful and with such a strong following not continue.
What is the possibility that someone else designs and creates an earthbound 4? I know Nintendo and Itoi would probably need to give their “OK” in the matter.
“does no draft 3 mean earlier release?”
No. Not exactly.
As he already stated at length in the post, he already detailed exactly what is left to be done, how much time that will take, and that the release is still expected “At least 3 months from now. Maybe sooner, but probably a little bit later than that”
I don’t mind, tho. I would like the translation to be completly finished and FULLY bug tested. I don’t want to get 88% through the game just to have it crash due to a Block 0 bug that wasn’t caught. That would make me a sad panda.
Draft 2 got hacked and 100% finished
YOU WON!
Draft 2 left a present
Inside the present was a Gutsy Bat.
Mato took it. XD
Hall of Fame Bat: See here: http://tomato.fobby.net/?p=254
It’s got all the info on Mother 4 that I’ve been able to find. The whole site is full of EB/Mother/Itoi info most people don’t know, so check out the other stuff too.
Thanks Mato, sorry to take over the message board.
Wow, this is awesome!
While i was reading your description of what “finishing” draft 2 was gonna be like, i was slowly wondering “well, that’s all great but what the hell is there gonna be left for demi in draft 3?” and then, you explained.
You two are both excellent translators.
I’m glad that EITHER of you are a part of this, let alone both.
Oh, and i’d just stop answering release-related questions. People obviously aren’t reading the full posts anymore, just the tidbits of info that appeal to them (ie, “No third draft, draft 2 done, does this mean translation done!?!?”)<<< not worth anyone’s time.
By any chance, will you guys be release the music from the game for download? I’ve been eager for the chance to put some of it on my MP3 player, especially stuff like the naming screen, and the pig theme. ^_^;;
I tried Zophar, but there’s no GSF collection there. So, if you have a spare moment, please please please post some of the music? ^_^
The music is already downloadable from the Mother 3 section of starmen.net.
Long time watcher, first time poster here! I’ve been strongly impressed by how seriously everyone here has been treating the project! With the projected time estimate, it seems a lot of us may be greatly enjoying an early Christmas present this year.
: D
Well done, sir.
Well done indeed.
Mato said: “The music is already downloadable from the Mother 3 section of starmen.net.”
Will there be a better quality version (.mp3) available someday?
Ogg vorbis has no less quality than mp3 it is essentially an open source version of mp3 you can play it on itunes by installing a plugin
PS Heres the link: to the plugin
it also lets you convert them to itunes format
http://qtcomponents.sourceforge.net/
There’s nothing I can say that hasn’t been said before, but I’ll go for it anyways.
The dedication you guys are putting into this project is nothing short of astounding, even moreso considering you aren’t getting anything in return for it. It really shows how much you care about this game.
I have so many friends who I’ve convinced to play this game, and they never would have even given it a chance if it weren’t for this project. Please keep in mind that we all fully support you.
I apologize in advance for posting this here, but I don’t really know where else to post this.
Mato, have you thought of making iphone games? I don’t really know where to post about this. Given that your friend has made one and also seeing the dedication you guys have put into this translation, I’ve been inspired to make a small-ish iphone game. Preferably an RPG (simple RPG). I’m currently in the game industry as an artist, so I know what it takes to tackle an ambitious project like the one you guys are doing or what I’d like to do for the iphone.
I’m trying to convince some of my programming friends to join in on this. So far, it doesn’t seem like they’re horribly enthusiastic about it (maybe one of them could be counted on, but I’m not entirely sure). Let me know if you’re interested in talking more about it. I’m sure you’re swamped with other projects. If so, no sweat. Thought I’d at least bring it up and see if there was interest. If you are, I can show you samples of work I’ve done etc.
Like I’ve said before, keep up the good work. I can’t wait to play this game once your final patch is out!
man i may just win the 50 dollar bet against my freind if you finish by 09 PLEASE I DONT HAVE 50 BUCKS
I shall never eat another tomato again! No donuts for me! All of them go to jeff! I’m almost as excited as I was for brawl!!! I’m going to Explode! THIS GAME MADE BETTER WITH THE ESSENCE OF TOMATO!
Unlike with brawl I will not be angry if this comes out late
Hell yeah, Mato! Rock on! 😀
As for the Mother 4 thing, most people swear NEVER AGAIN after a big project. If Itoi gets the itch, there will be a Mother 4, but it probably won’t be for a while.
Cheers!
Make it really sure that it will work on mac 😉
“Snake” Plisskin: I’m really confused how to operate this OGG thing. Can you please PM me on SMnet?? I have no clue what to do.
Mato, will testing be done on PSP emulators as well?
lol watch as they announce a real US release in like a month or two.
I’d rather play this one instead 8)
Yeah, I bought Trism, it’s pretty awesome. My girlfriend takes my phone away and kills the battery playing it if I’m not careful.
Good work, as always. 😉
Yeah, gotta agree, I’d probably play the Fan Translation over a real localized one. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t buy Nintendo’s copy if it was translated — the point of this is just to make it accessible to a wider audience, not to steal sales. Still, the official translators have been caught on occasion with slip-ups, and fans like Tomato (with lots of experience in translating, mind you) know how to deliver without messups.
At least it seems like you’re taking every precaution to make sure it’s perfect, Mato. It sure looks that way! Rock on!
My friends are getting more excited to finally play this. I recognize it has been a damn tough way and I admire the ambition your project has taken. Good luck with the rest incoming.
no: That question has been asked like a million bazillion times. Mato has already stated that he would be testing the game on all platforms, from the Game Boy Player for the Gamecube, to PSP emulators as well.
Wow. Mother 3 by X-mas.
I’m giddy.
Snake” Plisskin: I’m really confused how to operate this OGG thing. Can you please PM me on SMnet?? I have no clue what to do.
I like that you’re doing everything internally and just going to release it all at once. It feels more official that way.
Dru: Just open them in Winamp.
It’s a plug in for iTunes though. I’d rather just be able to have all my songs on the same program that way. I’m a Mac fanboy who likes everything neat and tidy. And I don’t care for Winamp. I’d take this to the spillover boards. But I dunno who Snake is.
congratulations on finishing draft 2, mato. you guys are doing a bang-up job. make sure you get some sleep!
If Nintendo releases an official translation, I can envision the scenario. But, I’ll save that for another day.
The day this is complete, I will celebrate with omelettes. Unless its a school day. Then I’ll eat an omelette an the weekend. And I won’t play it until that omelette has been finished. Yeah, let’s Lucas it up that day!
Hmm, what to say, what to say… Really awesome that you’ve “finished” draft 2. I mean, it must be great for you to know that you’re finishing up this mess. 😛 Although, it definitely doesn’t look like a mess.
So, um. Coooooooooooooooooooooooool.
I’d be forever in your debt if you could test the patch on Vista as well. It’s given me some touble with the menu patch and I’d like to have all of my facts strait when the big day finally comes!
Great job Mato and Jeff! I can’t stand the wait for the patch! We can go into the bathrooms in M3!!!!
Hi, I know this should go in the forum but I desparately need a quick response – sorry 🙁
I downloaded the text translation patch for M3, but is it better to just be patient and wait for the full translation? If so I’ll play EarthBound Zero to keep me going, but as I just finished EB I’m kinda hyped about it all.
Personally, I would wait, but then I’m not you 😛
I hit a major weakpoint and tried playing through chapter 1 with the menu patch. It was an incredible experience. But I also have confidence that playing it again will ignite even more passion and tears from this girly-man, yours truly. 😉
So no draft 3, eh? I just hope that doesn’t make a big impact on the final product’s quality.
I too, am having moments of weakness.
There will be a draft 3, but it will be quicker than planned. and I still don’t see why people prefer the fan translation over the official one. They DON’T make mistakes, and they have better localization.
Hehe, first we have people whining about there being 3 drafts, and now there are people who are worried about the quality since draft 3 isn’t happening like it was originally planned.
You really CAN’T please everyone. ;P
And Nobody: officially translations are never completely free from mistakes either. There are a few in EarthBound (keeping his name as “Balloon Monkey” in the gum description is the first thing that comes to mind).
“There will be a draft 3, but it will be quicker than planned. and I still don’t see why people prefer the fan translation over the official one. They DON’T make mistakes, and they have better localization.”
What official translation? 😛
And don’t even get me started on all the mistakes in the “official” EB guide.
keeping his name as “Balloon Monkey” in the gum description is the first thing that comes to mind
Wow, is that what the name was? You know, that game was so quirky and strange as it was I just learned to expect whatever came at me. I think the fire hydrants in Moonside were also called “Enraged fire plugs”, that doesn’t make any sense either. 😛
er, *accept
woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!
@Old West
yeah, some people actually call a fire hydrant a fire plug.
i guess we midwesterners werent well represented in the translation….
its fortunate that they didnt throw a “tree lawn” in there. or else everyone would be confused!
Man you stuck to this hard. Good work and thanks, Mato.
Good going ‘Mato 🙂
Can’t wait until we can all play it. At least we can all see the light at the end of the tunnel, tho there’s still some bug squishing to be done. *offers Tomato a flyswatter*
“They DON’T make mistakes, and they have better localization.”
Yes, they do. And no, they don’t.
I could tell you, but I’d have to kill you.
GREAT! This is like what I’m looking forward to in life at the moment! Damn this is gonna be AMAZING! THANK YOU! CONGRATS.
> I think the fire hydrants in Moonside were also called “Enraged fire plugs”, that doesn’t make any sense either. 😛
Fire plug is another name for a hydrant, just an unusual one, so that wasn’t a mistake. Incorrectly listing the Bubblegum Monkey’s name, however, certainly was. Those consistency checks are a pain in the ass, I’m sure 🙂
Those [b]Slimy Little Pigs[/b] are sure slimy.
Oops, used to BBcode…
congratulations, Mato! hooray! 😀
i can’t wait for the translation to be finished. i’ve already played through Mother 3 once, but it was hardly as fun as i know it will be to play it in my native language. i used spookychee’s gamefaq’s story guide to play, combined with my moderate understanding of Japanese. still, there were so many extra little things i didn’t understand. i can’t wait to be able to play through it and see all the interesting Mother-humor-type jokes that i missed. ^_^
hmm now to decide what to name Kumatora in the English one…? i named her Mato in the Japanese version (since, as you know, romaji “Kumatora” doesn’t fit), since i thought it was cool that it happens to be the middle 4 letters of her name and also, well, Mato’s name. i got so used to “Mato” in Mother 3 that i can’t decide if i should name her that in the English one or not… huh, well, i’ve got a few months to decide, haha. :]
Mato I type your name in Japanese characters in to babelfish is your name really mark
Its ‘WET YOUR PANTS’ GOOD!
Awesome to hear! Just a couple more months thankfully.
Hey! I just heard they had a big earthquake in Japan. Do you think they felt it in Itoi’s office, where they had the fishcam?
YOU HAVE WON TEH INTERNETZ
I would normally stage a complaint about a 3 month waiting period, but being stuck with a bunch of other side projects (and real life, of course) can be time-consuming.
So, I’ll just say this and leave: GO MATO! KEEP IT UP! 😀
You guys are magical. Someday I would like to show my thanks.
muffins are awesome but not as awesome as MATO
so you guys are going to make/come up with your own dialog and random jokes to put in the game, and the non main characters are going to have some different names?
Ha, I’m playing the game right now. 😀 You guys were too slow for me. D<
But yeah, happy day, generic congrats comment goes here.
My virginity belongs to you all
I LOVE YOU SO MUCH JEFF
I ADORE YOU SO MATO
TNX 4 ALL YOUr EFFORTS
n_n
YOU ARE MY HEROES MY………….MY…..DAMN, you´re so many things to me
keep it on 😉
That doesn’t mean a FAN translation doesn’t have any mistakes. Don’t get me started on how many mistakes I saw in fan translations. AND YOU CAN’T DENY THAT OFFICIAL TRANSLATIONS WILL ALWAYS HAVE THE BEST LOCALIZATION! Mato’s translation could also have a few mistakes, that’s why he’s running it by demi to fix it.
“ND YOU CAN’T DENY THAT OFFICIAL TRANSLATIONS WILL ALWAYS HAVE THE BEST LOCALIZATION!”
Have you never played FF7?
“All your base are belong to us.”
“A winner is you!”
“The truck have started to move.”
Yes, official translations will ALWAYS be the best.
I think if anyone expects the final writing to be as smooth as an official version, they’re crazy. Nintendo’s Treehouse has people who do nothing BUT edit and smooth text out for a living, have done so for years/decades, and get paid to do it as their main job.
I think as far as fan translations go, though, this will be up there at the very top.
There are some things that the fan translation would have better though, such as a lot of the little things like greatly-expanded item/enemy/character names, a/an/some/the/nothing articles in front of item and enemy names, and lots of other hacks we’ve done. Even EB didn’t go as far as we have.
There’s also the fact that I/we know all these tiny, tiny quotes and references from previous games that only crazy dedicated fans would be aware of. These things would be overlooked in an official version.
This is something I have been following for a LONG time, and it is REALLY exciting to see this be this close to being finished. Also, it’s truly amazing that you guys are doing this not only for yourselves, but for all of us fans out here. I’m glad you guys like us more 😀
I wish you guys had a donation section so I could personally thank you in some way for this when it’s done.
Thank you mato! I just finished Earthbound on SNES and I am anticipating the follow up from you guys. LONG LIVE THE TRANSLATOR
thanks jeffman, i didn’t know about vba-m until you said it and it’s really better than vba.
the colors are really better too:
http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/963/vbagy6.jpg
Guy: Actually the reason they look different there is because your normal VBA must have had a filter on.
On topic though, I’m really excited draft 2 is done! =) I’ve been playing through earthbound again just to be ready for this to get finished. Good luck on the rest of those bugs Mato / Jeffman! =)
I’m so exited I’m practically drooling!
So, is there a chance that it will be released before Sept 23? 😀
First off, I’m a long time lurker. I’ve been looking forward to this patch since the project started. Thank you for all the hard work.
Now for my selfish but serious question: why aren’t you going to have any kind of “public beta” at the same time as the testing phase? I suppose someone has to have asked this question before, but it doesn’t seem illogical to me to use the desperate fan-base, hovering over this site daily in hopes of the patch, as another level of testing. They’ll ravenously try it on every platform that exists, from PC to PSP to hacked XBox and more. They’ll send in bug reports if you give them a form, and you can update the form page with known issues every few days, no more or less than you update this blog.
While many public betas of things end up being viewed as a chance for people to try something like an MMORPG early you’re dealing with a more dedicated group of fans here. I’m sure there are dozens, possibly hundreds of people who would really be interested in helping you find all the issues that would hold you back from having an as-near-to-perfect-as-possible first final release.
I can see some downsides, such as getting too many bug reports on the same issues, or maybe having to deal with people who are frustrated that they’ll have to start over from the beginning again. On the former I’d say it’s better to know than to be told too many times, and, well, people would be testing at their own peril, so if something about it frustrated them then they can wait until the final comes out. If you’re worried about the unfinished version getting spread out on the Internet as the final product you could always start the game off with a splash screen saying something like, “This is a test version! Go to mother3.fobby.net and see if the final is out!”
Obviously the ball is totally in your court. I can’t imagine myself convincing you to change your plans so heavily that you would do this. As I mentioned above I have to admit that my reasons for bringing this up are more selfish than helpful; I would definitely submit bug reports and such but I really want to play the game before September or October. Badly. I can just see a way for you to help us desperate folks and for us desperate folks to help you in kind so I’m giving it my best shot.
if he releases a public beta patch, i won’t have the will power to wait for the official patch.
Poo: Is that a bad thing? While trying out a test patch you would be helping to make the final better for everyone. In a few months or years you may want to play the game again, and then you can play the final version.
You can consider the final patch as a public beta if you want, since there will certainly be things that turn up. Happens with every ROM translation project.
But I (and the team) want the patch released to be as good as we can possibly make it, so that people can enjoy the game all the way through, as a game. Not as a project to help with.
Whether we want it or not, whatever gets released first WILL be what’s played the most, and it will be that patch that acts as the first impression and determines how people feel about the game.
There isn’t much else to discuss, this is something we decided on since Day 1 or earlier.
Robble: Yeah, in a perfect world, there would be dozens or even hundreds of dedicated fans with the sole purpose of cracking down on finding bugs and reporting them to us. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. There’s probably also a significant amount of people who would take the beta and just run off, not to be seen for the final version. Putting a different splash screen on wouldn’t really stop anyone from doing this. There’s also a loooot of other hacking stuff that would need to take place before anything is presentable to the public.
Getting the public involved with testing simply isn’t necessary. All it takes to find bugs is a handful of dedicated people who can search out every inch of the game, and you can find their names on the About page. 🙂 You can trust the team that everything will be taken care of.
So no, there isn’t going to be a public beta, and we definitely don’t need any more people to help out.
In a perfect world there would have been no need for this project. ;0
I was thinking about it– are you going to release a ‘Walk through Walls’ code, like how there was for EB?
It’d probably help your betatesting.
Keep up the good work. 8)
Well, well, well. I’m gone for a couple weeks, and look! Mad Progress!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Wfm3_BMinhg
Just thought I’d throw that out there.
As for the Official Release being the Beta at the same time: Pure genious. I asure you I will test this game to my fullest ability upon my beautiful PSP emulator.
Go, mato!
I’ve never seen that movie. I really should someday though.
That movie sucks.
Killer Tomatoes? o.o’
When you said movies, for some reason, my mind went straight to this quote:
“We have top men working on it. Top men”
Except that we really *do* have top men working on this. At least so long as Tomato doesn’t get salmonella poisoning and then then locked in a government warehouse 🙂
Wait, you mean… It’s almost done? … (Starts hyperventilating in joy)
I just peed a little.
The Killer Tomatoes movie reminds me of UrineTown for some reason. It’s most likely the exposition.
Just a thought, perhaps a fresh pair of eyes will help. Fix the text issues you noticed, then have somebody who wasn’t involved in writing any of the script thus far play through it for you and make sure it still makes sense (other people are always better at proof reading than the writer. The writer knows what they are trying to say, but an uninvolved person would have know idea what’s going on unless the writer did a good job.) It would likely help if they DIDN’T speak Japanese and had never played the Japanese Mother 3, just so that they would not be familiar with the story.
I suppose you will also want a different set of fresh eyes to test your final patch before it comes out.
THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL IS GETTING BRIGHTER!
Keep on truckin’, Mother 3 Fan Translation Team. 😀
mato, do you think nintendo and itoi are aware of this translation? If so do you think they would be impressed? Personally if i was them i would be considering all the coding and computer stuff youve put into it.
Hank: I’m pretty sure we know Nintendo is aware of it. Itoi is hardly aware of America in general.
I am going to put myself into cryogenic sleep. When I receive the “finished” e-mail my systems will automatically revive me!
P.S. Don’t forget to bring a towel
Monsuco: Actually, that was the plan initially; Mato was going to let Demi do a playthrough after draft 2 and make edits to the script. But now that’s kind of unfeasible since Demi is busy with his new iPhone game.
Awesome. Thanks For Doing This.
Holy cow! Great job man! Congrats and thanks so much for your hard work! I can’t say it enough.
Congratulations on finishing draft 2! I have been visiting this site every other day for the past year or so but never posted. I am sure there are many more like me and we all cant wait for the translation of Mother 3. I will be the happiest I have been since I first beat Earthbound all those years ago. Keep up the good work!
the horrible, horrible things i would gladly do to play this game….
you are an angel.
You can’t run from the Killer Tomatoes, they’ll always ketchup. ^_~
Yeeahh… I never said it was a GOOD joke… ^_^;;
Anyway, yes, eagerly anticipating the patch, don’t burn yourself out, etc etc. If I was more mean-spirited, I would attempt to compose the “Ultimate Over-asked Question Post”. *grins*
I’m really glad you guys are working so diligently on this. Congrats on finishing the second draft, and keep up the good work. I’m really exited to read that possibly within a few short months we’ll be enjoying the fruits of your labor.
@ omfggggggggggg
You wouldn’t happen to be the poster formally known as “I Won’t Pee Till Mother 3” would you?
I watched the Part Two video, and I realized…
“Flint took the Nut Bread!”
There only needs to be a period there, a simple “Nut Bread” isn’t all too special 😛
…Am I too late, or does this fall under the wacky battle text? XD
Probably not. There are an plenty of RPGs that have exclamation points when you receive items, and they aren’t generally considered wacky.
I don’t know about you, but I would be pretty excited about some Nut Bread.
Let’s not get nitpicky about that sort of punctuation. Nut Bread is special in its own way.
Take Final Fantasy for example.
“Got Hermes’s Shoes!”
I’m sure Nut Bread is more wacky or special than shoes that belong to a guy named Hermes…
By “a guy named Hermes” you mean the Greek God / Messenger that wears the WINGED SHOES, right?
Um, Hermes is the Greek Messenger god.
Owie, post collision!
😀
Wooooooo!!!
No Draft 3!
I feel the same about it as DeadNight, but if Draft 2 was good enough to pretty much cover it, I think I can celebrate.
thanks for unbanning me Mato, and Godspeed…
[…] per Wii è Captain Rainbow, il gioco dell’anno in generale (per me, almeno) è Mother3! La traduzione è arrivata al 90% del suo percorso, rimane da fare dell’hacking e qualche ritocco qua e là, ma la seconda […]
when this is done… i’m so donating 100+ USD to them. great work, looking forward to it.
I hope the Watchmen’s conversion to film is handled as lovingly as the Mother 3 translation has been 🙂
GO TEAM MOTHER!
Man, you guys are something else. I’m sure I’m in somewhat of a majority here in wishing I could assist in some way to this breakthrough in the series, but alas, I must reserve myself to watch. It’s quite a thrill to watch the project evolve, especially in the last few checkpoints. Keep at it when you guys can (as I’m sure you’re super-motivated to do at this point), and don’t kill yourselves!
“Draft 3… People ask why this is necessary. There are many reasons. One, I’m not a writer.”
But I am! *Sigh*
Anyway, keep up the good work. Really looking forward to the finished game! And Nintendo’s reaction.
Yeah, I can understand there being writers out there, but I would need someone who I can absolutely trust, someone whose skills I already know for sure are what I’m looking for, someone who’s as detail-oriented as me, someone with LOTS of free time, someone who I know won’t be dramay, etc. etc. Very few fit that bill, demi being the highest on that list.
I would wager that if a full script-wide Draft 3 took place, it’d be 6 months to a year. Draft 2 only took 2 months-ish because I’m a crazy man who can sacrifice stuff. It’d take a loooooot longer for pretty much most anyone I think.
Anyway, my context checks have begun now. Already picked up a typo or two too.
Amazing job guys! Very close, I hope some day I will be able to be a game programmer. This has really inspired me!
Ryan Strobach
Mato, I was wondering, will the translation contain any cussing, and if so, how many instances?
That’s already been discussed on the message boards.
There will be 8.3897987 swear words per caterpillar slurpees.
All those examples you gave me WERE NOT examples of LOCALIZATION they are examples of BAD TRANSLATION. and no, I have not played ff7, but I don’t think it is because of bad localization that the story doesn’t make sense.
Level up. Kudos, guys. Thanks for working so hard.
Translation is a part of localization, Nobody.
The best video games are the ones where they go directly from Japanese to English without translating anything.
THEN NOBODY CAN COMPLAIN
Nobody: Had there been decent localization with FF7, they would’ve picked up on the bad translation. That’s what I think they’re trying to say, anyway.
Also, EB had its own translation mistakes too. But I’m pretty sure that Nintendo’s much much better at its translation/localization work since those old days.
—-
These context fixes are pretty fun to do, and the polish that results from them is very delicious, and this is coming from Mr. Pickyman.
Oh, baby!
Caught typos went up by 3!
Sweet!
Maximum readability went up by 14!
That rocks!
Maximum Progress went up by 10!
Mato realized the power of PSI Proofread &945;!
(And if the little alpha doesn’t work, I’ll be sad. ^_^;; )
…I am sad. ~_~
It’s unbelievable. Maybe to honor the Completion of the translation, I oughta make Custom clothing for my Yakko, Wakko, and Dot plushes, and dress them up as Duster, Lucas, and Kumatora, respectively.
If you want a version without swearing, midna will release one after the translation tool is completed.
But then OOP!
I still say we should all dress up in Pig Mask outfits and storm the NoA office after release. Blaring the theme, too. *grins* And releasing evil Sparrows to introduce all sorts of strange bugs and glitches into their other games, maybe? I dunno, I’m kinda rambling.
“But then OOP!” indeed.
Personally, I think games with bad translation can be funny when they’re in Engrish. Unless its that Pokemon Jade game. If you value your sanity, DON’T PLAY THAT GAME!
I have published research in academic journals, poetry, and have a book in the pipeline.
Unfortunately, I also am only free 6 hours out of the day. If you needed some lines looked at, which you won’t, I’d be more than willing to take a look… as long as it didn’t spoil anything. In addition, I would also require donuts.
I realize that you won’t need the proofing help, but know that I am cheering for you and am offering said cheers instead!
Long post warning. You know, sometimes I just type a post, and other times I write a friggin’ essay. Clearly, this is my essay for today.
Anyways, Nobody is actually right about the localization. I believe that an official game would not have as good of a translation, but the localization would be better.
Here’s what I mean by Mother 3 would have better localization if done officially: For example, look at the Picnic Lunch description in EB. I forget what EB says, so I’ll take a stab at it and say that it said “It even has a slice of your favorite cake!” If Mato did the translation, he would’ve left it as “octopus weiners.” He also would’ve left in the old statues.
But you shouldn’t worry too much. First of all, yes, an official translation would be better localized; sure, an official translation would have that guy from the last batch say “Well, it turns out this wasn’t a fast food joint.” Mato left it in as a Ramen shop because he wants to keep it consistent with the Japanese text; that’s what many of the fans here would want. And, besides, I think “Ramen shop” is funnier.
But you know he won’t leave in anything that half of us wouldn’t understand. We all know what Ramen is, so he kept it in. But remember when he asked us about movies? Since most of us probably didn’t know about those Japanese movies that were referenced in the original script, he asked us for suggestions on how to localize it. So he is making an effort to localize it.
And he has also made sure that cameos from EarthBound fit in with EB localization (like the pencil statues).
Sure, Nintendo of America would do much more to make the game look less like it takes place in Japan and more like it takes place in America. But, quite frankly, being the devoted fans that we are, is that really a problem? In fact, I enjoy references to Japanese culture.
@Typhin: I don’t know why, but I just love reading those replies ^_^
@Typhin
The syntax for a html entity written in decimal form is an ampersand &, followed by a hash (#), then the number and a semicolon. So this should work.
α
And, if that doesn’t work, maybe a leading zero or the hexadecimal form (which also needs a lowercase x after the #) will.
α (leading zero)
α (hexadecimal)
Success x3 😉
Also, another thing you can do is just simply type it in Word and copy and paste it here. That way you don’t have to look up the html entities.
Exp HP: There you go again, saying stuff that’s wrong. I’m pretty sure I would’ve localized the Picnic Lunch too. Please don’t talk for me or the project, you keep messing things up :X
Well, you can’t say I’m wrong about what you would’ve done.
But, yeah, I guess that’s yet another screw-up. Darn, disintegrating into a gaseous compound did nothing to help, so I might as well blow up.
*Bom*
Although, actually, Mato, I think you might be reading my posts with prejudice. You’ve noticed a few of my messups in the past, and so now you read my posts expecting me to say something incorrect.
It would help if I didn’t make such large posts when trying to make a small point, though.
Sometimes you’re right, but it seems like especially lately you’ve been giving people incorrect explanations based on incorrect assumptions.
I can assure you though that you can’t claim to know what I would’ve done in that situation. So you shouldn’t be telling people otherwise.
Please don’t fight. I love Mother/EB, you love Mother/EB, we all love Mother/EB.
Blue.
Blue.
Blue.
Blue.
GREEN
Um… okay…
Well, that cult page is definitely nothing short of creepy.
I cant contain my excrement any longer!
I think I speak for Tomato and the whole Mother 3 Translation project when I say that this patch was actually done last september but the higher-ups in General Electric and Westinghouse have been postponing it indefinitely in order to support the Zionist agenda and supplying Al Sharpton with nuclear missiles capable of threatening the transcontinental peace across our entire nation and they are acting directly in line with Nintendo because did you know that nintendo owns seattle’s basbeall team because its true and through the team are laundered many many translated games that nintendo does not want the public to know about on account that it will cause mass hysteria in the stock market and drive president bush out of office which he is keeping under his bonnet in order to drive arms sales for Halliburton
HOW MUCH TRUTH DO YOU NEED??????? WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!!!! TOMATO IS WATCHING US THROUGH A CAMERA
I require further truth
And the Happy Mask Cultists are the driving force behind this act… all being controlled ultimately by the evil statue, (I forgot the name of it)
who the hell made that cult page? that is one stop short of crazy!
(even crazier than my neighbors star trek-themed bathroom)
Thanks for this, Mato. You guys are almost done. 🙂
Also, Trism is a must have if you have an iPhone/iPod Touch.
I know most fans want a localization of mother 3 even I,but I disagree with your statement Exp HP about a localization of mother 3 would be better than a translation done by a professional translator/mother series hardcore fan like Mato.If you think about it if mother 3 were to have a official release expect it to be heavily censored and expect some things getting removed from the game,while Mato wont be censoring or removing anything from the game at all and he is trying his very best for his translation to be as original and great as possible.
^
I agree with TheReaper08, and I might add that no official translation/localization will ever treat the translation with the amount of love and care that we have seen in the last year.
And this is exactly what makes this fan translation oh so much better than an official one.
@Mato: this crazy cult thingy… I think they worship you =O
“Honor your Czar and Mato”
That’s kinda creepy…
TheReaper08: I was saying that Nobody was probably right about an official translaion having more localization. For instance, you mentioned how an official translation would be more censored…
Well, you’re proving my point! Isn’t censorship a form of localization? I mean, if it is suggestive in one version but not in another, then that’s localization!
All I’m saying is that NoA would probably do more localization, because they have to please the entire gaming audience, not just the diehard Mother fans. Believe me, I would play Mato’s translation over NoA’s any day!
Okay, let me remind you what Nobody said.
All those examples you gave me WERE NOT examples of LOCALIZATION they are examples of BAD TRANSLATION.
“I would play Mato’s translation over NoA’s any day!”
I believe we can all agree with that =)
*trying to change the subject before Mato tells you to take it to the spillover board.
Mato I was about to make a human sacrifice in your honor.
Should I do this by fire or lightning
We should all group in pairs and take shifts guarding Mato’s house.
Those crazy cultists are creepy, don’t you think ? (refer to my last post concerning that)
Indeed. Our veggie(fruity?) overlord needs about 20,000 bodyguards
I’m all for human sacrifices.
This is a crazy awesome thing going on right now, probably the biggest fan translation ever done. Tomato, if we’re ever in the same bar, I’ll buy you a drink. I know I couldn’t handle the sheer amount of work and dedication required for something like this, and I don’t think anybody else on this board could. How you put up with the work and the people is beyond me. This is like an online reality show translation duel to the death factor.
I keep waiting for you to lose it on some smartass fan boy for saying something annoying for the thousandth time. You have the patience and discipline of a Great Buddha. I salute you.
TOMATOES ARE FRUITS!!!!!!!!
This is awesome!
Thank you for making this for us. ^^
Oh yeah. One question. Did you Translate the Debug Room?
See the FAQs page.
Mato is the right hand of odin
I love tomato
I was going to make a joke about the reproductive anatomy of octopuses after the ‘octopus wieners’ comment, but that would have involved Googling, which might have involved pictures people don’t want to see.
Which reminds me. Did anyone else realize that you can find information on how to correctly neuter a pig online? I wish I didn’t know.
99% of pig neuters are done over the internet anyways
Exp HP: Blargh, I forgot the hash! That’s what I get for posting from work anyways. ^_^;; Plus, I later realized it should be at least Beta anyway, since he’s already USING Proofread. (Now if only I could learn it, you have no idea how many times I have to correct Proffread.)
…Proofread. Gah. I think that proves my point. ~_~
Oh, and I actually like the cult page. Considering I follow nearly all the commandments anyway. Just about the only one I don’t is the “not fear the photographer” one. That guy gives me the CREEPS!
…Serious, he does nothing but follow around a bunch of prepubescent kids, to stop them and take their photograph at (for me) very inopportune times. No, creepy old dude, I don’t want to see your fuzzy pickles! *shudder shudder*
Green we should send that to nintendo to show our seriousnessnessness
it hurts ness
ohhh. this looks GREAT!
DId you ever fix the Brad typo
Just wondering, will the translation stop with just the game.
It’d be awesome if the original manual and box were translated as well. I don’t mean to sound selfish but I think it would be something a lot of fans would be interested in.
sexy tasty.
They should leave an official translation to intelligent systems. they are one of the best and more consistent translators.
oops. how did that happen?
Sorry for always going off topic. Don’t mod me please.
I know this isn’t a great question, but I’ve been a little bit impatient.
Mato, have you done any work on the project in the past day or so? Just want to know, I won’t hate you if you didn’t do anything.
Dude, please don’t bug pester him about that. He’s made it pretty clear as far as whats going on. Real life takes priority, as it does with most of us who have bills to pay 🙂
Hey Exp HP
No offense but I don’t think Mato reads your posts with prejudice. It just seems like you make assumptions about things; then act like you know what you’re talking about.
I write my own short stories.
I am a stickler for grammar.
I’ve been proof-reading family/co-workers papers since i could read almost (proof-read my mom’s 80-page master’s thesis when I was 7).
Every paper I’ve ever written for a class was done in one night (even wrote 40+ pages in one night on several occasions) and I’ve never been marked lower than a B+ so I think I’m at least as crazy as you, mato, if not more so when it comes to being dedicated towards one’s goals.
I’m not even drama if I keep my mouth shut (which i would do from this point forward if I was utilized) and NO, I DONT CARE ABOUT SPOILERS IF I CAN HELP (the whole working towards the greater good/self-sacrifice thing going on there).
Hit up my email if you want some help with the third draft.
I agree with Zeph101. I’d love to have a translated copy of the M3 booklet. But I guess including it with the patch would violate copyright laws. Would still be cool to have. Anyone know if there is a players guide for M3 out there?
Itoi’s love child: What Mato and Jeffman are doing is illegal. They had to make/get an illegal copy of Mother 3 (rom) and then reverse engineer (hack) it. I would love to the see the box and manual in english but some fans would go crazy if the game is not the first priority. It’s up to Mato.
On something to correct Jeffman and Mato: No$gba is actually freeware too. You have to donate $2.50 for the latest version but that’s for DS emulation stuff. The version that the team is using is costly (could go up $5,000!) but the freeware version should work with Mother 3. However, if the team says use VBA-M then use VBA-M.
Hope it doesn’t come out after school starts. I won’t have any time to play it.
Okay, thats a lie, but whatever.
More time spent = Better translation.
Can somebody send me the authors download page please? Thanks in advance.
I’m about halfway through Chapter 2 if that means anything to anyone. This context fixing/polishing is fun, though it’s time-consuming too. I wonder what my final time will be, since I have to go and explore everywhere and talk to everything multiple times, since people often say two or more things in each situation.
EDIT: I should also note that I’ve encountered one game-killing bug and another strange thing. All Block 0 related, naturally. That FOISDJFLSDJF stupid block.
The other day it hit me that Mother 3 was released almost two years ago now. (Was it really in 2006? Yikes!) That said, waiting for a fan translation is better than being left with the original Japanese version and a big huge “Sorry!” from Nintendo.
I’m happy that the devoted individuals who are working on the fanslation project decided to take up such a formidable task. The screenshots and videos already look like they’ve been handled so well, so I’m really not depressed about the briefness of Draft 3. With workers as dedicated as you guys are, there is no doubt in my mind that the quality of the patch will be superb, enhancing the English-speaking gamer’s M3 experience. The fact that you guys broke ground for French, Spanish and German translations too shows just how much you want to spread the love for Itoi’s creation with the world.
Thanks.
…Alright, it’s time. This far into the project, I think it’s time I wrote another one of these.
Like a great wallpaper, vertical and horizontal pixels have met and become intertwined, creating a high resolution, beautiful image.
You may have cursed this never ending journey. You have known sleepless nights and defeat, but you have struggled on to reach this point. Your in-born hacking and translation skills have helped bring you here. You have believed in your friends, and as a group, you have supported each other.
Have you ever stopped and considered how much your skill has improved? Now, you could fell hacks like sprite welding and variable width fonts in a matter of minutes.
As you certainly know, you cannot turn back. The Mother 3 rom is growing frightened of you, and your power. It is searching for ways to end your translation.
From here, the challenge grows and your adventure will take you beyond anything you have ever imagined. You’re drawing near the end of this long road. Remember, when you are suffering hardships, the rom is also struggling.
By the way, do you know where the Moonside glitch went? When this cup of tea is finished, your translation project will continue. Your fans encourage you in the right direction. Believe in yourself and press forward!
Mato!
Jeffman!
Demi!
I wish you luck…
…And I find out someone else already did a coffee break on progress report 10. CURSES!
Seriously though Mato, I know it’s been said more times than anyone would ever want to count, but…
Yeah, you guys rock.
Yeahhh!! That FOISDJFLSDJF stupid block….
hell, damn, ass…. crap, boobs, crap..
It would suck if this whole think got canceled because no would could figure out how to fix the Block 0 bugs. Is this a possibility Mato?
Poo, you FOOL! HAVE FAITH!
They were able to do impossibilities like Sprite Welding Text, and even managed to redo the entire game’s text drawing routine to optimize it and prevent slowdown, an issue the original Mother 3 was notorious for.
If they can do all that, I think Block 0 can be tackled.
Poo, it’s absolutely impossible.
You know what would be hilarious. If, in another two months or so when everyone is expecting the project to be done, the team suddenly announces “Hah! We haven’t been translating enough but a few random screenshots! Tricked you!”
…Okay, it wouldn’t be that funny.
I have to talk to mato…
Uh, I got my elink 1G, 1 gigabit that is, and my software only supports the 256mbit. This is the most recent update. And you say you have your own 1G… Is it possible to use this with the recent software. Anyone know if you can do this?(Use elink 1g on this software?) If you try to add more than 256mb onto the program, it says you’ve gone over the limit, when I would be able to add twice as much as 256mbits(Or whatever many mbits the software’s limit is).
Any solutions?
I have no idea what a 1G is, so I’m pretty sure I didn’t say anything of the sort. But I’m assuming it’s a flash cart or some sort, if so, then go here.
There is a flash cart topic on the spill over board I think you will get more helpful (and less hostile) responses from there.
Being post number 5233, this probably won’t be read, but would it really annoy you if after all of this excellent work and such, nintendo decides to go ahead and release it stateside?
No, because the point is to get the game in English one way or another. It’d really only suck if they did a poor job, I guess.
I think it would still be great if NOA brought us Mother3 (EB2?). Then we could compare the teams translation to the official 🙂
Mato can we send you on a vacation or something when this is done?
…That’s kinda weird… Did my post just not show up on my end, or did something happen to it…?
Ah, okay, cache issue. Sorry for double/triple post. *grumbles and mutters* Feel free to wipe this one and the other, I guess.
Sorry if you have answerd this question in the past but what would happen If nintendo did release mother 3 and did a horrible job with the translation would you still release your mother 3 english patch ?
It’s been stated several times that, if an official translation comes out, this patch will not. In fact, if Nintendo even just says that they will translate it, this project comes to a stop (unless afterwards Nintendo decides not to translate after all).
If we released the patch when there is an official translation, Nintendo will lose money from those of us who would rather play the patch! And wouldn’t we want the official Mother 3, if released, to be a financial success?
Now, of course, there’s going to be some small thing wrong with that post…
I’m pretty sure that if I posted under another name, Mato wouldn’t even pay attention to any mistakes I make. Other people make mistakes, but he only seems to notice mine.
Heh, not true, I just told a guy he was wrong a few posts above 😛
I don’t reply as actively as I used to before, 1. because we now get 300+ replies per blog post regularly now 😯 and 2. because I’m busier than before. If I could, I’d probably be responding more and correcting more people. You just happen to post more often than the regular blog passerby.
I’m not singling you out, in fact I think it’s awesome that the blog has gained faithful followers like yourself. I thought the blog would be blah blah boring for most everybody with all the technical jargon, etc. Before the blog started I expected it to be 90% “you suck you need to release the patch now or I’m telling Nintendo on you”
jaja good one
bot don’t be a baby
Other people make mistakes, sure, but they’re more general than how you presume to speak for Tomato an awful lot. You’re even sort of doing it now by saying that you’re the only one he notices making mistakes. You need to take a step back.
Well, to be fair, Mato, who ever imagined that this blog would contain not only discussions over whether the logo could (and should) be “localized,” but also its own random cartoon from Mitch, discussions of pig neutering, random treatises on copyright law as applied to derivative works (and the 3 year or so statute of limitations on copyright violations), not to mention various random discussions about foreign languages? 🙂
you suck you need to release the patch now or I’m telling Nintendo on you
…(kidding)
banned
Say, what will the updates be from now on?
Great progress Mato, Jeffman and whoever else was involved. I’m mostly a lurker here, but I have a question concerning the final patch. Sorry if this has been asked already, if it has; I’ll jump in the lake. 😛
Ok, so in the final patch; will memory addresses (like for HP, PP, that sort of stuff) change? I know most multi-region games have different addresses for each region. I’m a code hacker for NDS/GCN mostly, but I hacked a lot of PAR codes for Mother 2 as well (184 of them, using EB as a reference); and I wanted to hack M3 when this patch came out.
Thanks for any attention towards this.
I hope you’re kidding mato
hawkeye: Nope, RAM addresses will remain the same. The reason multi-region games have different addresses is because they are actual recompiled versions with modified source code, where the source code could affect how the compiled version allocates memory. It won’t change for us because we’re working with what’s already there and we don’t have any source code to recompile.
Almost there, huh? You’ve made so much progress, its always so fun to drop in and see how close this awesome project is to completion.
Alright, about 7.5 hours of playtime through the context check. Things are looking real good so far, fixing things a lot to be even better. Finding little bugs/issues here and there too, which is good.
JeffMan: Ok, cool; thanks. I’ll see if there’s any codes I can hack for this once the patch is released.
Great job,
You get tons of MOTHERly love from
my friend and I.
d=(^-^)=b
~thumbs up~
Mato it seems to me that this would be the fun part, actually playing the game.
Awesome that you’re having fun doing this part, especially after working so long and hard at the second draft. :Db
So tell us, Mato, what is playing the game like? I know you wrote all the lines in there but maybe you still feel that Earthbound nostalgia whenever you run into a profoundly well written line?
So, instead of finding ‘Mato hard at work, I find him sitting around playing? Figures.
Ah, well. This project’s really come a long way. This kind of dedication in a fan translation project is really moving. Or some such thing.
Technical jargon is fun for the whole family!
keep up the good work mato! in the mean time ill play phantasy star portable for the psp =DD
Yeah so far this part has been fun, but don’t misunderstand, it’s also been a ton of work. This is the same feeling I get whenever I’m close to finishing professional work too, so that’s a good sign.
I know I wrote all the lines and rewrote and have seen them hundreds of times, but usually I never got to see them in full context or going one after the other. I’m finding myself amazed at how nicely everything is turning out. I’m also excited, but I don’t know why, since I’ll never have that feeling of “everything is so fresh and new” that many of you guys’ll have. Maybe I’m excited thinking about people feeling that way though, maybe that’s what it is 😛
I’m glad you’re sort of enjoying the work for once. 😉
I just finished terranigma gawd that was sad
Mato… you’re drinking the juices of the fruits that you’ve reaped from all the hard work that you’ve done…. that’s great
but dude,… as you just mentioned.. the sweetest juice of all will come when you release this to the English-speaking world, and know what great gift you have given them……. know what joys they will experience
I mean……. waw….. to do such a thing!!!!
(i wonder if it has FULLY hit you yet,.. the realization of exactly how extensive what you’re doing, is)
Mato: It is because of you and Jeff and the rest of the crew that all of us guys and gals will get to feel the “everything is so fresh and new” feeling. So even though you can’t feel the excitement of a fresh game, just know that we are all so appreciative that we get to feel that way. I am pretty sure I can speak for everyone when I say THANK YOU so much for dedicating such a huge part of your life, just so us little guys that Nintendo forgot about, can enjoy a game we spent so damned long waiting for.
I’m also excited, but I don’t know why, since I’ll never have that feeling of “everything is so fresh and new” that many of you guys’ll have.
I feel both enjoyment and sadness at the same time regarding that statement. ;_;
We could knock ‘Mato around the head a bit after this whole thing is done. Then he’d get that ‘everything is fresh and new’ that the rest of us will have.
nicejob we cheer for you men!!!wooooooTTT!!!!
i think you’re excited because you’re creating something that will fascinate and entertain 10’s of thousands of people
Um, about the “Nintendo can do it better” thing… I was playing Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and saw a typo- The description for “light box” was “A Slight box”…
…Yeaaah, Nintendo can do it “better” than you people; I haven’t seen a single error in spelling in the screenshots…
i really think Itoi would be impressed and flattered if he were aware of what Mato and Jeffman are doing.
Yeah…i think Itoi IS aware of what Mato and Jeffman are doing. Mato mentioned in an earlier post that Starmen.Net as well as this site was visited by some translator only used by large Japanese corporations.
That’s awesome news!!
Great to know how good this is coming along.
(Nothing substancial to say, but haven’t posted in a while).
🙂
I actually just came across this site not too long ago. I’ve wanted to play Mother 3 for a long time, but I kinda gave up after a while, when I realized it wasn’t gonna come to the US. But I just wanna say thank you so so much for doing this, I can’t imagine the work this much take, and its great that you guys are taking this much time to do this for the many fans! I’m really excited and will always be checking for updates!
And people STILL want Mato to see these comments instead of working on this project. Oh yeah, I think a while back this site was visited by NOA. They’ll probably steal your translation and release it as an official one. No, I’m just kidding, but this site was visited by the NOA.
I can imagine Mato’s reaction if we gave him amniesia(sp?) and he played Mother 3.
“Hmm, I wonder who did this translation. Its the most amazing thing I’ve seen in my life!”
“Umm, you did it?”
“O_0”