First Playthrough Done, Report
Alright, finally finished the first full playthrough, the purpose being to find and fix context issues, polish stuff up in context, fix typos and grammar stuff, do a first sweep for any bugs and issues, etc. Fixing the context stuff was great, now things won’t seem bizarre or wrong. If you’ve ever played a translation and a line just seemed “off”, it was almost assuredly because of context issues. I’m sure you can think of many such cases. I can think of a few in EarthBound myself, some of which I even started to document here. The level of polish right now is pretty good too. I’ll have some of the guys on the team add in some of their own polish while they’re testing later too, but I’m happy with almost all of the script now 😀
As for the bugs and issues, I naturally came across a handful of them. I’ve already mentioned a couple in the last few updates. The other ones I’ve found since then will mostly involve spot fixes because individual lines were programmed differently from the others. What a pain. They’re not hard, just there’s a number of them. Nothing to worry about, though.
Anyway, I checked every line of text I possibly could in the game (except the few Block 0 ones that we know kill the game) and I clocked in at 29-30 hours when all was done. I managed to get all the way to the final battle of the game, and that’s where I finally encountered a game-ending bug. Just my luck. It was weird too. And, as to be expected, it’s also Block 0-related. I did an ugly workaround so I could just get past that part and finished the game then. Found and fixed a few issues after that, too. For obvious reasons, I’d rather not show pics or give details about these later-game bugs.
So, at long last, eeeeeeverything with Draft 2 is done now. So I will cross off that stuff on the to-do list. Next, I’ll go and finalize all the misc. text like items, enemies, descriptions, menu text, etc. Then I’ll get cracking on the battle text. Chewy is working on the enemy descriptions last I heard, so hopefully those will come in soon too.
Jeff’s been working on fixing things as I find them, though the big Block 0 stuff is such a tangled mess that it probably won’t get fixed until we can both try to untangle it.
I’m stupidly fond of stuff like this, so I just realized that yesterday was one year since this blog started. If you feel like a trip down nostalgia lane, check out the archives here.
murder that block 0 bug and hide the body!
First comment! I’m glad to see things are going well, keep up the good work!
Hoorah Mato and friends! Anxiously awaiting the death of Block 0 buggery!
Wow it’s been so long but felt so short!
Hide the body? More like display it as a trophy! Great work guys, excited that this is all coming along so well.
Woohoo! Awesome to see the progress. Hopefully you can sort out that dirty Block 0 closet soon enough =p
Happy blogiversary “translation team” lol, I know mato hates that name but I couldnt think of another one
Wow, this is the soonest I’ve ever checked this site after an update! 😛 It’s looking so close to being done!
coool
Well done sirs, well done.
My empathy with the annoying Map 0 stuff.
I’ve been working with the Lua scripting language recently – its got a quirk with its design, where all arrays start indexing at 1, instead of the usual 0. But you can still assign stuff to index 0, and retrieve values – which results in stupid kludges where people rely on index 0 as a temp space in some code, but which makes passing data conveniently between the scripting language and the C code that houses the scripts painful to write comprehensively.
It made me think of the referencing issues you guys must be facing cleaning up the last bits of things going wonky with Mother 3. Good luck to all of you!
Ryan Fenton
The soonest? Haha, I’m not sure if that is a word.
Great to see that you finished the 2nd draft Mato.
Oh ya:
*Generic Praises*
Good thing I check this three times a day.
We’re so close! Go Mother 3 Fan Translation team!!!
Terrifying Raw Oysters? Why does that not sound to scary?
As always, thanks for making this possible, and for this year of great updates.
I don’t understand the whole of the block 0 issue, but if it has taken all this time it must be really tough. I hope it doesn’t take much more effort.
Bye. 😉
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Earthbound Translation Project! and THANK YOU For the hard work of the Earthbound Translation Team!!!
Happy blogiversary!!
And good luck with the block 0! The bugs should fear you and jeffman now
I’ll give you a big hug as soon as this is done. You deserve it, you champ you.
Oh, I didn’t see that wordpress has these stats. Apparently, there’ve been 125 updates made, and 15,723 comments. My rule was always an update every 4 or 5 days, but 😯 Didn’t know it was under 3 per average.
Can’t wait until this is all over, more than anyone else here I think 😯
Wow, that’s an AWESOME amount of work for a year. 🙂
Congratulations for all you’ve accomplished in the year, and thanks again so much for your dedication towards keeping us up to date – it’s really made the wait enjoyable in itself. =D
I made a comic, but, this counts as my exercise for the day!
http://i34.tinypic.com/30vog9f.png
Huzzah, first playthrough.
It’s a major milestone,
that you’ve overcome.
thats really funny Mitch
Somehow I think the translation to English here is way more focused and polished than MANY translations of popular RPGs…That is a very good thing. 🙂
Mitch, I love that. Those faces remind me of “Dad’s Home”.
good job so far but srsly more misc stuff?!? cant u release this as a beta or somehting yet?
so this gonna be a GBA rom right? cuz i hacked my PSP just to be able play this game on it
srsly have you not been following the updates when I said it won’t be done for a while still? Or the to-do list? It’s not like this is new news. Go play Brawl to get your Lucas on.
Keep up your momentum. You’re so close to the end.
OK, finalized the PSI descriptions. That’s the easiest one to do though. No ambiguity there, heh. Just had to check, rephrase, and try it out in the menus in game to format it right.
Jesus, the amount of A.D.D. on the internet is astonishing. Just freakin’ wait ’till it’s released people. I can’t believe how ungrateful some people are. If I were working on this project, I’d have slapped people like Man and Spankety silly by now. I’d like to see any of you put forth the effort that these guys have on this project. They could have stopped months ago and left us all with nothing.
I’m not going for an ass kissing award here or anything. I just really get pissed when people don’t appreciate when someone bends over backwards to offer something of professional-grade quality for FREE and that person gets a bunch of pissing and moaning in return. Granted, I know that these people who piss and moan are among the minority here. You guys do mainly get praise on this blog. Still…it’s just infuriating to see anyone complain at all.
>I’ll have some of the guys on the team add in some of their own polish
Just don’t add too much polish, I don’t speak polish…
… :3
Wow, I can’t believe how much progress has been made in such a short time! You guys have done an amazing job!
Cool.
Mato, do you have an estimate for the final patch yet?
I’ve already given lots of estimates. I’d say we’re still in the 3+ months estimate I said since last week. Mostly it depends on the remaining hacking and testing. Testing of course includes fixing any new bugs that are found, not just simply playing the game 😉
I still bet this game comes out at Christmas 🙂
If it does Mato, you owe me a cookie. Well maybe not, but I do like cookies.
Honestly, I think it’ll be out long before that. I can’t keep this up for too much longer, it’s really exhausting and I want my free time back to do other things.
Stinkbugs?
…
SPOILERZ BUZZBUZZ IS A STINKBUG
Also why is it that people in M3 just accept the presence of random frogs indoors?
Mitch your comic made me laugh really hard. Keep up the good work Mato and when are you releasing the beta?……………………….Just kidding of course!!! (Please don’t kill me…..)
…actually, that last bit was off-topic, wasn’t it? I’m sorry. If I could delete my posts, I would.
Mato, at least stuff from here on out isn’t TOO strenuous right? Not as bad as the super crazy hacking earlier?
Heh, and Mitch beat me to it with the comic, I was going to mention something similar.
You finish Mother 3, saying THANK GOD I’M DONE, and out of nowhere Mother 4 comes out, Nintendo refuses to handle it, and the masses demand a fan-translation.
Basically, something like this is what I was thinking: http://www.crispygamer.com/comics/ding/page0013.aspx
The “I’m not a stain. I’m a pick” line made me laugh out loud!
Things like that are making the game so much harder to wait for.
Thanks so much for the detail you are putting into this project.
To Mato,
What happens to this webpage when the translation’s over?
Just pics, archive, and the patch?
Also, I thought you said you were doing PK instead of PSI?
yesss I can taste it in my fingertips,
feels like I’m having a Cup of Coffee…
The old Block 0 text again, huh? My guess is that after weeks of combing through the code, you’ll find out that you only need to change one byte of data and then it’s done. Good luck with the battle text, too. About how much battle text is there, by the way? If it’s anything like EarthBound, it’s probably just a few lines that get reused over and over.
And Mitch, I gotta say your facial expressions are among the best I’ve ever seen in any comic or cartoon, professional or otherwise.
Oh! It’s a pick, as in a guitar pick? I’m sorry I didn’t get that one sooner.
The cake is a lie.
Mato, I noticed in one of the screens it mentioned “Kumatora’s attack!” in the battle text. Just out of curiosity, in the final version did you decide to go with this direct translation of Mother 3, or did you go with the Earthbound version of “*character* attacks!” Obviously not a big enough deal to complain over, just curious.
Thanks again, I’ve been waiting over a decade for this game and soon I’ll finally be able to play it thanks to you.
Hey Mitch, have you collected all of these comics in one place? I know you collected them all once and posted a link in the comments, but that’s long since disappeared.
And good job, Mato and Jeffman — congratulations getting done with Draft 2! Quality takes time, and we’re all just glad you’re so committed. Though you’re maybe numb from really feeling the compliments after you’ve been doing it for so long, your dedication and effort are really incredible. Thanks for doing this for the fans.
This is so exciting. I’m finding it hard to focus on games I am playing right now. I just want to play this one! Great job guys!
Jon, PK is just for attacks. Like PK fire, PK Freeze, etc. ‘Magic’ in general is PSI. For instance, PSI Magnet. It absorbs PSI.
Thank you everybody for your comments on my silly comic. 🙂 I love to do it just to keep things interesting here.
Anyway, to answer your question Pizzaman, I have everything (excluding today’s) up on my art website. Which is still under construction. God, I’m lazy with this here web.
http://mitch.donaberger.com/works.html
Great to hear. Can’t wait for the final.
But about that EB enemy list… A thousand percent exact? 😀
Love that commic, so funny. And the people really do look like they are from Dad’s Home.
WHEN WE DOWNLOAD IT?
?
Wouldn’t matter for you anyway, you still need to learn English 😛
what’s a pick?
Classic Mother talking inanimate objects. ^ o ^
One year? Wow. I say a toast to the “heroes of the awesome game that the bigwigs won’t translate so let these guys do it” is in order.
*toasts*
SWEEEEEET
Eir: it’s probably a guitar pick.
*faints*
This patch makes the game better in two ways. You know what they are saying and it stops the slow-downs of the actual game.
Nice one Mato lol
so, is there any idea if there will be issues emulating via a gba emulator on a psp?
im hoping not because i loved playing through earthbound again a few months ago on my psp 😀 its perfect for games like this 😀
good work 🙂
It will probably work, and I’m sure it’ll get tested on a PSP, since the author of a PSP GBA emu is on the team. Just try the Japanese version, and if it works, then you can rest a little easier 🙂
Menu patch version of Mother 3 works pretty well so far on gpSP (GBA emulator for the PSP). So far, it only froze once, and minor sound issues, but it’s really nothing. I’m on Chapter 8 already.
OMG It getting so close. I was hoping it would be out for my birthday lol, but if it takes another 3+ months, then so be it. Im gonna have to put it on the ipod I guess when it is released 😀
Good work Mato! Keep it up.
Oh Mato, please release it on Oct. 3rd please. Thatll make a REALLY good 18th b-day present!
Okay Mato, I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but how long can you expect the block 0 stuff to be fixed. I don’t mind if it’s too long, but I’d like to know your predictions. If you don’t know, it’s no big deal either. Thanks.
Nice, So we are so close to having this lovely thing, i’m playing through Mother 1 and 2 right now haha 😀
Hoepfully soon it will be done.
I’d find it pretty funny if you guys made it to a few days before the release, but then Nintendo sends a Cease-and-Desist
Any back-up plans encase this event happens?
I just saw the updates about a year ago and saw in one screenshot “Snake that might bite”??????? Creepy… You’ve come a long way from then, you and the rest of the gang. Keep up the good work!!!!
obviously.. I’m very pumped! good stuff.
I’m fond of nostalgia, too 8)
3+ months? Well, I know the feeling– when you’ve found a bug so ugly that its nebulousness makes you think, “I have no perfect concept of how long this could take.” .. So here’s to hoping that you or Jeffy jeff JeffMan make a few small fixes and see the rest fall in place!
Unlikely, but hoping.
PS: Mitch, that comic was HILARIOUS. “WHO WILL TRANSLATE MOTHER 4″… It’s like. brilliant… It also seems to fit into an RPG plot too 😛
Well, to be fair, that little black splotch *could* be a nose pick instead of a guitar pick.
…
What?
*cue Mr. Owl* The world may never know.
I have no idea how long Block 0 stuff might take. It’s really hard to guess things like that to begin with, plus my schedule’s a lot busier than it used to be. I’m also out of practice with ASM hacking. Probably on the order of weeks. I’ll guess 2+ (note the +) more months of hacking and misc. text finishing and then a month or so of testing/prepping stuff.
Thanks, Mitch!
Battle text? I thought you were all done with that stuff?
see here
So…it’s like done 100% right?
JK, this is great news! Except for the bugs. Can’t make complete sentences. Too exited!
will you guys have my babies?
No, because like you said, we’re guys.
You should start putting ETA: Christmas or something at the top of all your updates if you don’t want people to ask so often 🙂
In the mean time, I’m going to sit back and enjoy these melon gummies while I wait for M3. There’s a little Japanese mini-mart type thing near me that I only found a few weeks back and some of the food they have is crazy, but some of the snacks are really good 🙂
Japanese melon flavor sure beats cantaloupe, even if they’re both different “cultivars” of the same thing.
Great movie trailer 😛
yay, after this, we can finally wait and watch mato do EB0 on the snes!
right?
Hey Mato, I know this is really off-topic, but you seem to have a wealth of knowledge on things pertaining to Mother 2. What is your take on the final boss fight? I’m sure you’ve heard the “unborn fetus” theory, so what is your opinion on the whole thing? I know spoilers are to be avoided in this blog, so if you could post a link or something to some sort of explanation, that would be very helpful.
i <3 you in the gayest way possible.
Would you hurry up with all the b.s ! I’ve been waiting here in Hell with all the other losers.
Mato, by the way. Satan says “hi, can’t wait to see you soon”
Mato I wanted to tell you that Mother3 has trouble saving on VBA for Mac
lol Hitler.
And Mato, one question, Is PSI really being replaced with “Magic”?
just one thing to say Mato, take your time going through everything. people want you guys to hurry and get it done soon,i myself wouldn’t mind if it came out tomorrow or next week, but go as slowly a possible while still keeping up a good amount of progress being made. the faster you go, the more likely to miss something. i think people would like it to be perfect and come out in a few months then not perfect but come out sooner…or at least that’s what i think. ^_^ anyways, you’re doing a great job, and in only a year you’ve come so far; it’s amazing!! kudos to you guys ^_^
In russia, Mother 3 translates YOU!
oh and Japanese melon flavor candy is good ^_^
lol at Mother3Bound’s comment.
Helelos said 11 hours ago:
“I’d find it pretty funny if you guys made it to a few days before the release, but then Nintendo sends a Cease-and-Desist
Any back-up plans encase this event happens?”
Don’t you read the spillover board?
…He’s going to realase it in the form of a crop circle file
HOORAY FOR TRANSLATION!!!! The Mother of Mother fans, Mato is doing well.
Hey Mato, We all know that earthbound 64 became mother 3, but in wikipedia it says that there was supposed to be a mother 3.5 for the 64dd also. Whats that all about? is it even true?
Man, it must be great for you guys to be so close to the end. Kudos to you all for hanging in there this long.
Hmm… gotta get a slot-2 device. I must play this on my DS. <3
O_o Mother 3.5? Weird, never heard about that. also, Mato. Are you going to recreate EB0 after this? I know, it sounded rude. You take a big break after what you are doing.
Mother 3 was initially going to come along with the 64DD >.< That 3.5 thing smells like a lie
Inu, if you meant EarthBound zero, it’s already fan translated.
No, I mean the EBO Remake. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDy70AUWt0o&feature=related
The EB0 translation is not a fan translation. It’s an official translation that was never officially released.
Great job, Mato-san! It’s too bad that I won’t be able to use the patch… Oh well, good for everyone else to play it! Btw, maybe if Nintendo really hates Mother fans (And this translation project) they might release Mother 3 just to spite us! Oh man, would that be ironic! Well, great job, Mato!
oh ok, i see, i remake of it that’s a lot better and professionally. that game is hard to get into because of how the game is set up at the beginning with how strong all the enemys are and everything, but farther into it it gets a lot better. that would be great to play that remake too. thanks for the understanding. (and if this posted a couple times, sorry my computers acting up)
Oh, and Mike K, this really isn’t the place to ask about Mother 3 on the 64DD. The short of it is that the massive save data storage possible with the DD would have allowed very involved and long-term interaction with the Mother 3 world (e.g. plant a seed somewhere in the past; have a tree in the future), but if you want to know more about it go ask on the forums.
ok
i understand now, thanks
*Facepalms*
Where do these people come from?
^_^ outer space ^_^
I was talking about you. 😛
Apparently TBird is too excited to spell correctly either. LOL. But you guys are great for working so hard to get this thing done and make it seem professional rather than half-assed like many other fan translations.
grink: At the moment, I have no desire to continue the EB0 project. Maybe I’ll finish it in 10 years or something, but after this project, I want to destroy the universe so I can relax and have lots of free time for myself.
ilovemother: It’s just a bunch of crappy nonsense and overanalyzing and grasping for straws. also this
mike k: Yes, a Mother 3.5 was announced like 10 years ago. Mother 3 had been moved from the 64DD to a normal cartridge, but they said there would be a 64DD expansion you could get called Mother 3.5 that would work with the cart.
———-
In general, I STILL can’t understand why many people claim/believe the EB0 translation is a fan translation, and then spread that false info around. It seems to be a recent thing too. It just puzzles me.
What’s stranger to me is not so much the fact that people claim that it’s a fan translation out of ignorance, but rather claim that it’s a fan translation and that the fact that it was an official translation is a hoax. Maybe people would have been less confused if the title screen hadn’t been tinkered with, but all the censorship and rather dry writing seem like a dead giveaway of an officially translated NES RPG. What would be the point of replicating those things in a fan translation?
Well, I’m sure this translation will be far better than most of the so called professional ones out there. I hope you guys enjoy a HUGE block of free time once this one is nipped and get all the awesome of the universe heaped upon you, etc. etc.
…Furthermore, yay.
When r u guys going to add customizable hats to the game?
@ the EB0 remake: You say that now, but i’ll be willing to bet that once you’ve had you’re much needed rest, you’ll come back to it sometime in the future. And i’ll be waiting when you do.
I’ve been trying to order a copy of the original Mother 3 cartridge, as of late, I cant find it anywhere. (want to support the original game, etc.)
Do you know somewhere I could get it for LESS than 40 bucks, Mato?
Sorry for being slightly off-topic.
The Great Morgil: No, I can see myself taking the project up again. It would actually be very easy to make, I already made most of the necessary tools, and as you can see, I had all of the enemies, the entire script, all the items, etc. etc. in. But the problem is the maps, and without a reliable map editor, it’s just not gonna happen. And EB’s map system is very very limited for what I need. So until a new map editor can be made (I don’t have time for it anymore, the years are slipping by) then it’ll be in limbo pretty much.
Schlupi: I’ve been looking lately myself, but you’re pretty much out of luck if you want one that cheap. I think starmen.net’ll be having some mother 3-related contests in the near future, with some copies of M3 and even some M3 Deluxe Boxes as prizes, though.
This eBay auction ends in a few hours; if you’re lucky you might be able to swing it under $40. That is, if you don’t mind a used copy (it might be hard to find anything else at this point). here
that translation differences link in the news post is really interesting, just saying
I got it for $40 2 weeks ago.
Thank you, Mato, for doing what Nintendon’t :p
Oh yeah, I almost forgot *generic praises*
BTW Schlupi: I recall seeing a copy of Mother 3 on eBay for $30
Woops, sorry Schulpi, I missed shipping X__X
It’s still below $40 though
Oh, Mato, I have a question:
Is there any chance you’ll be ripping the graphics for this game so they can be downloaded on Starmen.net, like you did with Mother 2? It’d be grand if you could; I’ve been plotting something with Mother 3 graphics on RMXP for awhile now…
If you already have and I missed something somewhere, I’m sorry. 😡
THANK YOU!!!! But also… Are you redy to release a patch for this?
Also I signed up for the “Wii are starmen” thing. Why havent I recieved a message back?
… I am soooo bored…
been a while and I can’t believe how much progress has been made, it’s actually starting to feel like I might get to play mother3 in english now, real tangible. this is gonna be mazin’ compared to translating the original for me.btw good call on the red entries Mato.
oh yea, why is starmen.net so annoying? it won’t take my password but now says my username is in use, never even got in once…is it because I’m using a wii not a pc?
keep up the good work, I can wait as long as you take. 🙂
Kiniest: Get a job.
I was wondering if you would be able to release a patch once the final boss bug gets fixed? i know im being kinda picky but i’ve been wanting to play for the story for a while now. asides from my begging. keep up the good work and dont forget to get some sleep
How about they just release a patch when they’re finished?
Crazy to think of what’s happened in just a year.
Especially considering the years and years other translation projects take.
You guys are awesome, all of you. And I completely understand if you need a break 😉
cale this isn’t the place to talk about this sent an email to Reid, Mato is to busy
Yeah, I’ve been reading through it. all “insert date word here” of it. But it doesn’t help that I’m reading all this hex/Code/madness stuff with strep throat…
Whether I’m asking the obvious question or if I just haven’t been paying attention, what is this damned “Block-0” crap doing in the game anyway?
While I’m waiting for this translation, I’ve been playing Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls. It’s enjoyable once you get past Final Fantasy II’s level up system.
Oh, I almost forgot.
*generic praises*
i think the main thing that draws people to the EB0 fan-translation idea is that it doesn’t make sense to them that Nintendo would translate it and forget about it.
Congrats! I’ve just completed Mother 1 for the second time!
WOOT! GO MOTHER!!!
I CANT WAIT!!!
Not to mention the unlikely circumstances that led to it’s resurfacing. Still more work’s been done proving Earth Bound (zero) was real than the moon landing! Lost Levels Online even interviewed one of the guys who localized the game.
Also to anyone who is looking for a copy of Mother 3. If you go on Ebay and send a message to one of the buy it now sellers they may drop the price for you if you say they are overcharging. I just ordered a copy that was supposed to be 59 dollars with shipping down to 45 just after sending a kind email. Try doing it, the sellers are just trying to get money and if you wave an offer in their face they will most likely want to take you money, even though it isn’t exactly what they wanted. Everyone is happy! BOING!
Block Bleck Black Za Ze Zi Zo Zu
It hurts Mato…
*Comes in decekd out n Gladitor Armor.*
Where is the Block Zero? I must fight it in Pitch battle.
Yay thanks Mato and crew u guys rock so hard!!
mato after he finish projecvt gonna kick back shove the pipe in his mouth and say “fuk ttha haters im done with those sorry ass****” then just puff puff on his meth all niht long..
and he deserve it.. mato is most taletned hacker this communtiy will ever have the ggrace of seeing in actrion.
thank you for your hard work.. toke up!!!
Almost 1 year… My, you’re faster than the team who translated Super Robot Taisen : Original Generation.
I wish I could help.
I’d like to nominate “ok” (who posted three comments above this one) for “most annoying comment ever”.
That having been said, thank you Mato. You and everyone working on this patch are awesome. We respect and thank you for your hard work and dedication.
I’d like to nominate Dizzerp’s generic “please release the patch soon” comment as most annoying for lack of originality. I love how people think they’re the first ones to ask for an early release 😉
Keep up the great work guys. And don’t release it until you are satisfied fully with the hard work the entire team has put in.
Quick Earthbound on VC fact (If you already knew then who cares): I called NoA yesterday and they said that they are trying to release it on the VC but they are having trouble with licensing issues
@Dru: Sorry, I guess you have a point. I guess its not out. Keep up the good work! Thanks.
I dont really know how the comments work here because it stays the same til I post something…
This page isn’t self-updating. You have to refresh it to see new comments.
Mato or someone should rig up a thing that detects certain phrases, and pops up a window with a link or something instead of posting the comment. Like, “what is block 0” links to the blog post. And “can you release the patch early” and such gives a link to a gigantic flashing pic with the text “IT WILL BE DONE WHEN IT’S DONE” or something.
Too bad reconfiguring their monitor to become a death ray laser has been unreliable in newer versions of windows. (Along with security patches that make it harder to do stuff like this: http://i31.tinypic.com/18m8h1.jpg ) ^_~
I do refresh it. Mabye people dont talk after I say something. Ok then.
MMMMM…..Toasty.
Keep going, you can do it.
If all else fails: “GET TO DA CHOPPAH!”
Block 0 is a block of text that’s only used for misc., special routines most of which use special code (that has to be found and hacked). It’s basically the last boss and home of all the crazy evil stuff that can crash the game if not hacked. All the other blocks contained normal text that Mato already translated.
So Mato has to hunt down every line of it and destroy it. Also, they may need to update their hacking tool so that it can deal with really, really long strings like the entire ending, which is, apparently, one “line” to the game.
Also, he made a really long blog post about it a long time ago, but I don’t remember where that is 🙂
Dang Mato. That’s a lot of hacking to do O_O
Keep up the good work though!
If Block 0 thinks it can stop you, it’s dead wrong.
Either way, it’s lookin’ great what everybody’s seen so far.
=P
first: I vote for “ok” to be the most annoying poster ever.
then, thanks a LOT, Mato, for linking to a comment where you explain what Block 0 is. I’ve been wondering since the first day I’ve heard of the translation. also thanks to “a fan”, who explained it again, just above my comment. now that that’s cleared up a bit, generic praises. I’m glad you like what you see, Mato, because you’ve proven to be one of the pickiest translators I’ve ever heard of, when it comes to quality, and if you like it, then we’ll like it. this game is in good hands. BOING!
Ok’s comments are some of the most ridiculous things ever written in this blog. They always make me laugh so I don’t mind them. Why so serious?
😀
I think that Mato is going to end up being deified after this project is complete.
Mato was born deified. Such is the way of the starmen.
For those of you asking about block 0… here is mato’s explanation of it. It’s linked from the to-do list.
Anyway, general praises and all that…
Let’s see… estimated patch release is 3+ months, right? That puts it somewhere around the start of November… Maybe as early as Halloween.
Kiniest, I’m sorry for being a little rude.
Mato > 3 Block 0
Mato you da man (or at least, you da little red fruit)
I know a tomato is a fruit, but why then will you never find it in a fruit salad.
I think tomatos are vegetables
Tomatoes are FRUIT
I think that Pinky and the Brain would easily say this:
Brain: Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?
Pinky: I think so, Brain, but how can a Tomato be capable of translating a game as amazing as Mother 3?
(Brain uses No. 2 Pencil on Pinky) SMAAAASH!!!! TOTAL DAMAGE: 183 HP!! Pinky’s Stupidity became Tame.
BRAIN WINS!
Tomato’s a fruit. it’s a fact
yeah… since it has the seeds in it, it’s a fruit… parts of plants that we eat, which dont contain the seeds, are veggies
Drü: apologies are refreshing, good job
I ain’t talkin to you, Triangle!!
lol, i know dude! just saying.. …. i like to see that sort of thing!
>:\
I was just being rude again for craps and chuckles.
OHY MG OD i wanna play this game!!!
Years ago I was involved in a fan-made Earthbound 2 project… It had a new story, items, characters, monsters, locales, you name it. I wrote a bunch of original music for it, and I tried to emulate the EB style perfectly, with mixed success. I love Earthbound / Mother. If anyone wants to hear what the music sounded like … here it is:
Link:
http://rogerlevy.net/mp3/Earthbound2Fan/
Even though that game will obviously never be released, at least the (unfinished) soundtrack can live on, maybe.
Ta!
^Above
That music Is not that bad…
I guess when I 100% FF4 For the DS you guys will be done and I can finally sacrifice ten goats to you so you have free time!
And what do you mean Mother 3 has a hard time saving on the VBA for the MAC?! That’s the only way I can play…
Wow, some of those songs are really quite good.
@ROGER LEVY
I listened to all of it, and it’s great! Although I wasn’t particularly fond of the boss music…
I’m just wondering, what is that strange instrument that plays during the later portion of the Victory song? It’s so EarthBoundy…
ROGER: Use this music for MOTHER 4 PLEASE
Hey Roger, I really liked your songs, you did a pretty good job overall, is there a way to get a vst plugin or a soundfont of that vibrato weird-eartboundish organ?
oh and about the blog, I already gave my generic praises in the seventh post
this really makes me want to see a game with this music in it. it’s great!!
Roger Levy: Holy crap, you’re rather talented at music. If you still would like to see your work used in a game, hop on over to starmen.net’s fan game section in the forums, I’m sure people there would appreciate your work, myself included, seeing as I’m working on a game of my own 😀
@Dru: Nah. You had a point. I was being an idiot with the rushing.
Is there anything we, as fellow fans, can give you in return for the immense amount of time and effort you put into this project? Fanart? Songs of praise? 😛
Roger: sign up for an account at Starmen.net and post your music in the fan forum. It would be on topic there and more people would be able to praise you. ;P
Just beat pikmin.
Mato hasn’t said anything in two days. He must be busy working on something.
or maybe he’s dead from working too much. He OD’d on translating.
@nintendope:
how about a “smashing song of praise”? it’s still better than an “unfounded revenge”, right? hint hint.
*humm humm*
sh*t, I have to keep myself together, I’m already playing Mother 3 in japanese. I’m not actually understanding any of it, but it’s still too fun to stop!! help me!!
Mato ROCKS
in the to-do list you mention testing on multiple emulators. will you test it on the psp gba emulators? because that is how i wanna play it, hand held, playing it on a computer with the keyboard just wont be the same
Most VBA based emulators should be fine (though for some reason, sound was REALLY off on my Linux PC).
I also know that no$gba works (on wine no less).
There really is little point to testing VBA on everything it has been ported to (Windows, Mac, Linux, BeOS, PSP, Xbox, Gamecube, Wii, and I think there is one for GameGear.) since it will at least RUN on all of those.
Not true, for example, some (not all, which is even worse) Mac VBA users can’t seem to save their games, even when they change the save settings. Others have other problems. It’s a big pain and consider it from our perspective – when this patch is out, do we want tons of annoying emails/comments whining about stuff that we could’ve figured out/avoided with some testing? I don’t, at least 😉
Just keep on going with what you’re doing. A little more time and effort now means a lot less answering of questions and complaints later, you’re absolutely right.
For a pretty public site that allows unregistered comments I think the ratio of people whining to people thanking and cheering for you is pretty incredible.
I’m in Maryland, away from my games!
@Triangle: Tomatoes are fruit, and they have seeds. What about cucumbers? They are vegetables, but they have seeds! And bananas don’t have seeds but they are fruit!
Ok Ok, I know tomatoes are fruit, but you should provide valid evidence.
And the bananas without seeds are clones of mutated bananas, they all have the same exact genetic code.
Ness probably said “PK clone!”
Alright, I know he is supposed to say “Pk flash” but sometimes it sounds like that, or Pk flosss, cross, fross, moss and ross.
Incredible? These are Earthbound/Mother fanatical obsessive fans/geeks/fan-geeks.
In short, those type of people are like opposites to what we normally do.
And a lot of comments are not posted or modded.
Most of the people who complain have just found the website, and don’t understand why the patch is not complete. The people who cheer Mato on are the people who have been following the project and are seeing the progress. And that group of people (those following the project) is growing by the minute… hence the generally positive posts.
What about cucumbers? They are vegetables, but they have seeds! And bananas don’t have seeds but they are fruit!
Interesting point. Well, guess what?
Cucumber seeds grow a plant.
A cucumber plant may produce several cucumbers (I think).
There is water full of nutrients in it. In other words, it has juice.
All these qualities describe fruit!
Hmmm… why are people everywhere wondering how to classify tomatoes when the biggest possible misclassification might be cucumbers!
Bananas have seeds, they are tiny and brown.
But why the hell are we discussing that here? We should all shut up.
Let the Holy War over the title of fruit and vegetable begin!!!
On a more relevant note, I just recently finished hyperbound, and I highly recommend it. Are there any other hacks on par with it?
This is so great!!. I know that was weird, but this “project” is so… great. That Block 0 thing will not stop Mato. He rocks!!
This thing of Mother 3 translation is the best thing i’ve seen ever, good work, its perfect.
I wanted to play Mother 3 in english cause I don’t understand Japanese, and actually I’m from a country that speaks spanish.
When i played for 1st time “Earthbound” I was trembling with excitement. (I’m lying a bit) xD!
I’m just too excited thinking about playing the game…in english.
Keep up the good work!
(I try to type english the best I can)
I bought a flash card just so I can play this on my SP. Can’t wait. Also, I was completely ignorant of the EB0 Remake, but I’ve watched the vids and downloaded the demo patch, and I gotta say it looks sweet. I really hope that project can be finished someday. I’d love to play it.
I know that my post was non-sense with bananas and tomatos discussion, but i had to post that, xD!
Happy aniversary or I must say “blogiversary” (I know that its too late, but i don’t care :D)
I think that is a weird discussion too.
Go for it!!
Heh, I just got done reading EVERY BLOG POST in 2 days, total. And all of the Hack/hex stuff. Ironically, I started feeling better reading through it. THE HEALING POWER OF MOTHER! Sorry, that needed to be said. Out of curiosity, hey Mato, have you got any of the new battle text done? Just a little curious.
I just noticed that picture of the Mole Cricket in the Battle Memory has been updated to include the recently added completion star feature!
Do you often update the existing pictures like that, Mato?
One thing I’m wondering about is when you changed the font and moved up all the hooks that went below. Some screenshots have a mix of new and old characters. Why is that?
> Some screenshots have a mix of new and old characters. Why is that?
Clearly the Sprite Fairy accidentally dereferenced a pointer that lead to the evil Block 0 whereupon the phase inverters overloaded and they had to reverse polarity and channel the phasers through the deflector dish while running the Heisenberg compensators at maximum. The stored energy then deleted a Borg cube and gave the fairy enough magical anti-squark particle power to cast ‘create screenshot’, which created enough leptons to make the XCAS assembler.
Does that clarify things any? 🙂
Just out of curoisty when might it be done?
@Wolfytails – I hope you’re just talking about the next blog post…:D
I suppose the real question is Mato, how MANY annoying emails do you want to receive after the release. You could check this on every emulator and flash cart in existence and still get a bunch of emails from people who didn’t follow direction/ran into a unique bug.
I guess what I’m saying is, you guys shouldn’t have to drive yourselves crazy(ier?) trying to make sure it works on everything.
I’m going to go brush the dust off of my old “Extreme Flash Advance.” I hope I can still find drivers for it, as I think the company that made it might have gone out of business…^_^;;
Exp HP: Actually, if you look at the URL for that pic, you’ll see it’s from early February. The pic has always looked like that. We have the gold star now working, and the silver star actually looks slightly different from what you see there, so that pic is quite outdated.
When you read all of Mato’s updates.
I am trying to figure out exactly what people mean when they say that EB0 needed to be translated why i have a copy of it translated on my pc right now? I thought that got translated along time ago just the translation sucked cause some of the stuff people say in there is just crazy.
When people are talking about me and EB0, they’re probably talking about this. Not a ROM translation.
Alright i have never seen the other one just the one for the NES wow that makes a whole lot more sense.
Tomato prays! 20000 damage to Block-0! 😀
I am so happy that this project has gotten this far. I only just started playing earthbound on an emulator, and it is the one of the best. Now I have to beat earthbound before this comes out…
Hmmm… DARN THAT BLOCK 0!
Okay, just to clear up this fruit vegetable stuff, a tomato is a fruit. it has seeds on the inside, it has a woody stem, it grows on a vine, and the plant it comes from has flowers. those are te characteristics of a fruit. Someone said a banand doesn’t have a seed. it does. peel all the peel off a bannana, and there will be a little black thing no the end. That is the seed.
That is all
Hey I’ve never posted here before but I just wanted to let you know that all your hard work and frequent updates to the website are more than appreciated. Its refreshing to see a dedicated group with such a professional attitude toward their project. Thanks again and I can’t wait to play this game.
tomato, are you aware that you are the greatest thing ever? MR.T would be PROUD to see his legacy of awesomeness continued.
keep up the awesome.
Mt.T would be ashamed of himself, yes, he would be PITYFUL (wink wink) for himself if he say what dedication you guys put into the project. also, the ridiculous comments to praise ratio really is incredible… I never even noticed that…
Mato,
Have you released the final patch for the remake of EB0. This is really interrsting. And another question, is the patch work for Earthbound of snes or for the nes ?
Thanks in advance!
no dude.. its not done, its not nearly done… it might not even get done…. do a search on this page for ” EB0″ and read Mato’s comment that include those words
OK alright,
I’ve ask this only to be sure..
Thanks
yeah, check this out too… http://tomato.fobby.net/eb0/
a lot of us badly want to play it, but i dunno :S
@Nobody:
Do you own a black shirt with a Starman DX, the chosen four, and a Mr. Saturn on it? If so, cool.
Going off of what Andrew said above, I think the best part of this is that you’ve been posting updates of the project on the blog 2-3 times a week. Besides the reassurance that stuff is actively getting hacked, I found it fascinating to hear about all the individual steps involved in this hacking and translation, especially because I don’t know much about coding and how video games work.
Nice to get the occasional insider perspective of a translator in the industry.
Just out of curiosity Mato, when you talk to other translators who you work with, have they done a lot of internet fan translation too? I have met someone who does translation for a manga company, and she said she started out by working on scanalations online.
On another note though, besides the personal practice, is there any benefit in the industry to having done some casual work like that? Is that something that someone doing professional translation can’t safely admit to, out of concern for their job security?
i Agree with “Cecil777 said 12 hours ago” Mato is like the (thats old) Populous Game Shield Bearer that leads us all to armaggedon..now the fan translations will spread all around the world..
keep up the good work
you guys rule
236 messages in 4 days.
Not a record, but still awesome.
So Mato, those particular lines you were talking about, have you sent them to Demi, or only after the hacking is done?
boo
so,is he gonna like test stuff and correct stuff at all? Or will his playthrough only be even there to show him the progress that you made? If he’s gonna do his own revisions, then why not call that the draft 3 and say it’s being handled “internally”, like the beta testing?
Boy, I’m having a bit of trouble getting a post through the filter. I keep on changing it, it keeps on getting rejected, and I don’t know why!
Hopefully, I’ll remove the right word eventually…
[I’m running out of ways to edit this!]
I think Draft 3 should be handled externally. Except, instead of giving us a text document, you should put it all in context together with all the rest of the content, conveniently strung together in a game.
>_>
<__>
<_.<
I’M KIDDING!
So it finally gets through, but HALF OF IT DISAPPEARS!!!!
I had another set of shifty eyes and another short paragraph before those shifty eyes!
Now I’m trying to figure out what could possibly be blocked in that sentence I removed…
I wish I had found this site earlier so I could see the progress this project has made v_v (yes, there’s archives, but that’s different). Anywho, it’s looking awesome! I can’t say how thankful I am about it. We need more fans like you 😛
Heh, cheezy talk aside, that block 0 sounds like a pain. Also, happy blogversary (however you want to call it >_>)
i think i read somewhere that even Reggie is looking foreward to this! woah dude that must feel awesome!
I don’t think Reggie even likes Earthbound.
Xanth: Every translator I know/work with has done fan stuff in the past, even if it was fansubs like 15 years ago. In skill-based jobs like this, it”s probably rare for people NOT to have done stuff before they actually made it into a career. Artists, writers, translators, musicians, etc. Generally, if you go into a career because you love it, you probably did a lot before going into the career. In translators’ cases, what else is there to do but translate stuff unofficially? Even if it’s just for yourself or for people around you (like my old sexy beam translations group), translators will be translators. Not a single fellow translator I know hasn’t done fan stuff/stuff for fun before getting into the business.
I’m fairly certain that some of the skills that came with my fan stuff (such as subtitle timing) is what got me where I am today. Had I not mentioned that stuff in my old old resume, I probably would be selling hot dogs on the street today.
I know two guys in two different cities in strategic areas that make $1500-$2000 dollars a day selling hotdogs from a cart. No lie.
But, I get your point.
Of course Reggie is looking forward to this. this site was visited by NOA! They know about it! They might even buy or steal the patch from Mato! and release it with there earthbound trilogy for the NDS!
@Mato: Be prepared for Nintendo stealing the patch. The reason they would steal is because it makes the game less slow. also, I saw a screen shot from the naming screen. Why doesn’t the font include the symbols for the PSI powers? In the Japanese version, I wrote my name using a few of the symbols. I’m afraid I can’t do that here! And, will you translate the rest of the Don’t Care names?
I also saw a shot that said “Scoot upstairs and change clothes.” wouldn’t it be “scoot upstairs and change your clothes.”?
That’s really just grammatical nitpicking, both are valid sentences.
Good job. Everyone’s efforts are incredibly appreciated. 🙂
Wow. One year already? I remember the last update from Mother3.org back in the day… the blueberry muffin recipe on the main page kicks ass, btw.
@Nobody: I believe Reggie would do that. That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking.
I meant to ask this before, but it kept slipping my mind.
The sound on Mother 3 is very quiet, compared to other games. Will you include some sort of way to turn it up, or just have it turned up in your patch? The low volume of the game combined with the low power of the Micro’s speaker makes it really hard to hear anything. ^_^;;
You should get some headphones!