The Third Strongest Hacker
Hey everyone! It’s me, JeffMan, the not-so-legendary hacker, posting for the first time. The chain of posts by Tomato is finally coming to an end, and for a very good reason too:
The menu VWF has finally been implemented. TONS of things have been affected by this, including the dreaded item descriptions. Check out more before and after comparison pics after the break.
The hack was actually pretty simple. It was just a matter of finding it and testing it. The actual hack is only 24 teeny tiny lines of GBA code, yet it blows away a large portion of the remaining VWF hurdles. Anyways, here’s some more comparison pics:
This is only a fraction of what’s been affected, and it gets better. Fortunately and unfortunately at the same time, some of the mini 8×8 font stuff got messed up. The VWF is working for it now, but it’s reading the widths from the wrong table so all of the letters look squished together. This also happens with the enemy descriptions in the Battle Memory thing.
So there’s still a lot of work to do. Stay tuned for more super updates and stuff.
Thanks for all your hard work! This is great!
Wicked job guys, keep up the good work ^_^
Pretty awesome!
That looks awesome! Great work!
Great Success!
Keep up the great work, guys! Your dedication is truly amazing.
Wow. As impressive as ever. Little by little the opportunity to play M3 in english is getting nearer.
I have tested and found an effective answere to the out of sync aduio when captureing video problem tomato was haveing
http://www.fraps.com/
useing this tool with the video render methade set to direct3D in visualboy advance you can accuraeley capture properley synced sound and video
opps sorry I forgot the full version of the app cost money. its been a long time sence I installed it
Thank you, JeffMan!
2 updates in one 24 hour period?
Its a festivus miracle.
amazing!
I love seeing progress like that. I check this site at least once a day…Hahaha
Keep up the good work! I cant wait till this gets finished…
That’s awesome that you’re making progress. Why isn’t Tomato going to be posting updates anymore though, or do you just mean that you’ll interrupt his updates with some of your own? Just to let you know, I just watched the prologue video, and it seems that the speech is somewhat more formal than should be, especially for this game. Let Tomato know that it’s okay to use contractions. It’s not an essay, but a story. He’ll probably fix that in draft two of the script, but I just want that to be realized. Don’t be afraid of prose in writing, especially with a game in the Mother series. I have no idea if Tomato will read this, so please tell him this if he doesn’t.
I am so hot for you guys right now.
Sounds like a generic interruption to me. Mato was probably just not up to it or around at the time 😛
Still, it’s amazing to see the effect one seemingly simple change can have on the entire game.
Good job, as always!
It’s just an interrupt. I posted it because I did the hack myself. 😛 Tomato’s still gonna be posting stuff, no worries.
help me I don’t know where I am i think jeffman drugged me i’m in a dark place i don’t know where i am but i hear running water in the distance
where the ketchup man
i see it very good works be made
it is for now
sorry for bread english, my texan is no good
Mato:
You know you’re a geek because you made that joke.
We’re all geeks because YOU KNOW we all got that.
I applaud you.
Woah! Looking good.
Realize guys: this is HUGE. One of the biggest hurdles in any translation is the VWF. And they cleared it.
While not perfect and in need of refining, it’s done.
Great job guys! Keep it up.
I’m making a note here:
HUGE SUCCESS.
I love it!
Comments in older articles tend to get lost, but just so you know, Mato, I found some information on how to get VBA to have synched audio without spending money 🙂 Links are in the story about the prologue, right before this story.
In the mean time, glad to see that the third strongest mole^W hacker is on the case 😉
(Hmm, would a mole hacker be like a mole cricket? I wonder…)
In light of the translation from the Japanese language to the English language – and particularly since the music itself is being changed by Mato…shouldn’t the location names undergo the transition as well?
In particularly Mt. Orishimo – shouldn’t this become something more English sounding like “Mt. Orish?”
That’s good progress mate. Having settled the menu and the font, it seems the game is going to be pretty much a breeze, init?
Raj
Grammar: Is that name really more English? Orish doesn’t sound any better to me. And if you translated it fully, what strange thing would you end up with? Mt. Wholesale Seaweed?
Lest you think I’m kidding, look up orishi and mo in a Japanese dictionary 🙂 Yeah, I know that’s very, very unlikely to be even close to correct, those just happen to be the only two words I know that it can be divided into, though my knowledge of Japanese is very limited and I’m reasonably sure that, whatever it might mean, it doesn’t mean that… 🙂
help me I don’t know where I am i think jeffman drugged me i’m in a dark place i don’t know where i am but i hear running water in the distance
^someone explain the reference to me
Hey great job (again)
Also, to veer off topic, I saw a copy of Earthbound for NES?? Was like WTF!?!
Is this a famed beta version or something like the sort or just a fake? Been playing EB/Mother for a long time and never seen this? Mato or anybody?
Forgive double post. Didn’t know if posting a link like that was against forum rules or whatever. Just seemed interesting.
Vaan: That is a custom burned cart with the hacked up version of Mother 1. It is quite illegal to sell. I have a copy that I made myself and love playing the game on a real system, but i woudln’t recommend buying something like that from eBay.
Vaan: It is probaly not the original cart but instead a nice fan created cart. That aside, Earthbound zero is REAL hard compared to Earthbound.
Since the VWF is now working, does that mean the problems with the prologue are fixed, like the letter that was read at the end?
heck yeahhhh!!!!!!!
I had a feeling.
Yeah, I agree the difficulty is up there for earthbound 0. I remebering leveling up so much right after you leave Ninten’s house in the beginning. Still fun though.
@Mato: That’s what happens when you mess with the third strongest hacker. Where are the other ones, I wonder… Just avoid the physical attacks, since their power shield is pretty mean.
Now, I’m sorry to ask this. I really am. Christmas break is here, and I’m very tempted to spend a good part of it playing Mother 3. However, I don’t want to do that if we’re going to get another patch or a beta version or something like that any time soon, and I’d rather be able to read the story myself in the game the first time through. My impatience is getting the best of me, but I’m afraid that if Christmas break comes and goes, I won’t get a chance to play until the summer or even later.
Mato, Jeffman, and Co., what do you recommend?
Way to go, man. It’s awesome to see so much of the text formatting to be done at once; it’s truly commendable.
Man every time there’s an update everything looks a bit cooler… I hope you guys know how much we all appreciate your dedication.
I’ve been checking this site religiously since it has come up and lately you guys have been really bustin’ ass and making great progress, I’m impressed.
Thanks to all you working on this for us.
NICE!!!!
Oh me,oh my. This is AWESOME! These new improved screens look vastly better than the old stuff! Great work!
I only have one question…is Eggs going to eventually be changed to Omelette as Lucas’s favorite food? I dunno, this just kinda bothers me, as I’m used to him loving omelettes..
there are enough spaces to enter that in yourself favorite food is something you can enter yourself
Wow, that is a pretty big leap in progress.
Redlandsman87: “Omelettes” doesn’t fit, and the game will be like Earthbound in that it the script will use the word “some” before the food. “Scoot up to bed while I make you some Omelette” is what would result. So most likely Omelette won’t be a default. You’re free to enter it yourself if you want.
best..first….post….ever….starting to look good guys, keep it up
*drool* OH, I BELIEVE THE MORNING SUN, ALWAYS GONNA SHINE AGAIN, AND I BELIEVE A POT OF GOLD WAITS AT EVERY RAINBOW’S END, I BELIEVE IN ROSES KISSED WITH DEW, WHY SHOULDN’T I BELIEVE THE SAME IN YOU?
Sorry, it’s jusy what I think of when I see this, all your efforts coming to fruition. I’ll have to resist singing the whole thing and posting it in tandem once you’re through.
Oooh, better go finish EarthBund Zero and then get cracking on EarthBound if I want to play your translation right away!
Jason: I wouldn’t expect any more patches. I was actually considering for a very short while doing a patch for Christmas that would be an extension of the menu patch but would include script translation to the end of Chapter 1. Including battle text. But this is way too much work and there’s not enough room in the battle text area for me to do stuff the menu patch way. I’m also way too busy with work and other stuff. So basically, I don’t anticipate there being any more patches until the final one, unless there are glaring problems with menu patch 1.5.
YOU WON!
Tomato and his friends gained 9000 exp. points each!
Tomato realized the power of PSI Awesome(Omega)!
This game’s hacking progress is off the charts O_O. This is probably THE BEST hacking progress i’ve ever seen, and it’s less glitchy than trying to IPS patch a Japanese SNES game. If this keeps up, we’ll be able to play EB2(Mother 3) in no time. It sure as heck probably won’t be 2 years like some negative people have been thinking, lol.
Good job JeffMan adding vwf on the menu,now the menu item descriptions are no longer cut off.
Excellent work. And if Gemini can find a way to make the main script not mess up the GBA’s RAM, then I will be even more happy. If he or anyone makes any progress–any progress at all with that problem, make a post right away, please.
Heeey, the game’s lookin’ good!
Funny how such a small section of code does so much. Ha ha.
Rock ON. Good job, people. And thanks, Jeffman and sblur, for taking some of that recent burden of the Mule’s — er, Mato’s shoulders. Wait. Come to think of it.. Where IS Mato?
Tomato! Tomaaatoooo… We have pie!!
I love waking up to read this stuff I dont really understand why nintendo dosent plan to release mother 3 in north america I mean it would sell like hot cakes(HOT CAKES YUM)oh well stuffs lookin good
WOWWWZERRrrrrsssssss….!!!!!
this is SUCH AWESOME NEWS!!
everything is pretty much near completion then, isn’t it? There’s nothing left to do but to stop those game crashes that happen at some (specific?) points, if that even happens anymore.
Waw……. I know nothing at all about ROM hacking.. but I always had a feeling that you guys would do 1 small thing and have it remove a whole bunch of complications. I always knew it!
Well, once again thank you so much, team.
A Fan: Also, ori=to fold, shimo=frost
…that’s what i gather from google anyways
so it would be like “Mt. Foldedfrost” or something..
but Orishimo sounds wayyyyy better, I disagree about it being changed. It’s fine the way it is. Whatever Mato decides will be fine, I’m sure.
It’s very encouraging to see the progress you guys are making, thanks for all the hard work!
About name changes and stuff, there may be a few here and there, but I haven’t even started to think about that stuff yet. Way too busy doing other stuff, obviously 😛 FWIW, M2 had tons of name changes when it became EarthBound. Peaceful Rest Valley, Everdred, Deep Darkness, Lost Underworld, Scaraba, Dalaam… Hell, even the Tendas, the Sky Runner, and even Giygas himself don’t have their original names.
EDIT: btw, orishimo could mean 9000 different things if you try to analyze it that way. Also note that there is absolutely no frost on this mountain, it’s the mountain where the prologue takes place 😛
Well, to be fair, there aren’t that many common words that do NOT have homophones in Japanese, or at least it seems like that 🙂 Now, homophones that make sense in context is another matter, but, well…
Let’s just say that, from now on, that will be Mt. Wholesale Seaweed to me 🙂 But as for choosing how to translate those names, well, I think we’d better defer to the opinion of the professional translator on that…
Wow! Keep up the good work guys
Some things get fixed, some things break. O_O Still, progress… (everyone, join in!) IS PROGRESS! 😀
And man… I got here late… >_>
Beutiful!!
more and more I think you guys are machines
Awesome work
How did Mato manage to escape from that abduction!?
All these updates have me hyped! And the menu patch is awesome! Thanks yous! :3
tsimehC: Some guy named Tess from Europe came and saved me.
i have a quik q…..i know that b4 u said that u didnt have much of a timeline since the date or somthing wasn’t going to happen *excuse me if i have my facts wrong* but do u think ull be done b4 March? That’s be great…thats my b’day!
i dont think i’d ever have the patience to hack something like this.. and probably never will. This is ridiculous tho…i see the posts from the begginning and u took shit to well…. amazingness. Keep up the good work
I wouldn’t expect it before March. March starts in like 2 and a half months 😯 That also rocks that you have a birthday a whole month long 😉
Thank you so much for your efforts. This is all very impressive and I’m jazzed to see how far it’s come. Can’t wait for the finished version.
Heya, Mato… I know this shouldn’t go here but seeing as I can’t find a way to e-mail Reid or whoever is responsible for the Starmen.net forums, and seeing as that the people in another forum seem to not care… My sister and I have been trying to register for the Starmen.net forums but it gives us an “Invalid URL” problem. D: Could you, y’know, tell Reid about the problem? Thanks!
Uh… Let me write something on topic… Did the VWF mess up a lot more things than is just shown up there?
Keep up the great work, guys!
Moulinoski: You should still get your confirmation e-mail even if it gives you that invalid URL page. Give me your account name and I can manually confirm your account(s).
EDIT: I should also answer your other question 😉 The new VWF is nice, but like all things with MOTHER 3 hacking, it’s not without some downsides. This text applies to text that’s rendered using sprites. You can only have so many sprites on screen at a time, so at some point we’re going to have to remove this VWF code and write a bunch more code that’s a lot more complicated 🙁 This is why long item descriptions crash the game — there aren’t any more sprites available for text, and the game goes crashy crashy.
Mato: I haven’t even been able to enter any information in at all! Once I press the “Register” button, it gives me the error! D: Still, thanks for answering to this off-topic question! 😀
And what do you mean there’s not enough sprites? The game counts how many sprites are on-screen and limits how many sprites are shown? Good luck with the complicated code, by the way, although a lot of this already seems complicated enough! O_O
Weird, I’ll ask around and see what’s up.
The problem with the sprite text is that the GBA is only able to display 128 sprites on screen per once. If you try to go over that, the game will crash/die/freak out. This poses problems to many things, like the naming confirmation screen — all the letters are individual sprites. So if you name everybody long names and name all your other stuff long names, bad stuff will happen when you get to that screen. Likewise with the file screens. And the equip screen. And the status screen. There’s no way to anticipate with 100% accuracy how many sprites will be used every time. So the trick will be to make each sprite be comprised of letters + fractions of following letters. harmony managed it easily enough… but he’s harmony. He could hack the Earth’s core to taste like jellybeans if he wanted.
@Mato: Hmmm this does make me think a bit honestly. I’ve know a descent amount of good hackers in my time, and honestly I do wonder how much of a background this harmony has. I do assume that in the future, if he is a student, he would have more time during the break to function. Which in turn would allow time to sit with the new code and mess around with the values.
Hell, I will say that wonder how the hell they programed this game with it’s code such a jumbled mess. Seems to me they could have done better with more communication or something.
“harmony managed it easily enough… but he’s harmony. He could hack the Earth’s core to taste like jellybeans if he wanted.”
Quote of the year.
Oooh! I remember reading something about displaying so many sprites and colors in a Nintendo Power Gameboy Advance Edition magazine I got from a friend. I understand now and suppose I was sorta close, except that its a hardware thing, not a software thing. 😛 I see now.
Good job, Jeffman. Keep up the great work. 😉
“harmony managed it easily enough… but he’s harmony. He could hack the Earth’s core to taste like jellybeans if he wanted.”that might just be the best thing ive ever read
now if only the gba could handle the amount of sprites the DS can eh.
No way to render letters without sprites? Pity.
As for the rest, all I can picture is Homer Simpson going “mmmm, jellybeans.”
“harmony managed it easily enough… but he’s harmony. He could hack the Earth’s core to taste like jellybeans if he wanted.”
Now you’re just making me hungry.
Wow, pretty big jump in progress there! Nice! 😀
Orion-J: He’s not a student. He lives in Japan and works like 60-70 hours per week, and even on weekends. So he doesn’t get much free time, and hacking a smelly demon game is (quite naturally) one of the least appealing things to do when you have such little free time 😛 But what stuff he’s helped us with so far has proved helpful beyond belief, and even now we’re still finding little things in his documentation that still move things along 😯
so the current VWF code wich makes soo meny things look so nice and pretty is actually useless due to sprite limitations?
thats quite a shame
Not being a hacker, I can’t think of anything that could help that somehow. Well, that wouldn’t have been thought of before. I can think of perhaps creating and using sprites for several commonly used words and placing them in place of letters forming said word sometimes, but I’m sure that and a lot of other workarounds just don’t work out.
If anyone is curious, tonight’s Super Smash Brothers Brawl update has a slight spoiler of Mother 3, so if you’re still trying to keep from being spoiled, avoid it for a day, and just don’t scroll down! It is awesome, though.
Cool nice progress alsoive just beaten earthboundformy 37th timethe other day =D and started again this morning My M3 is waiting Patiently for this translation lol…
Also Harmonyseemsliek a cool person i know how it is workign all the time :(, it sucks, Jeffman/Mato/Harmony and the rest of the hacking team good luck with this 🙂
I heard that only 128 sprites can be rendered at once? That souns a lot like an integer value from C/C++. Is that a hardware set limit or can the game be hacked to use a diffrent variable type?
It’s a hardware limitation. See here
Whoah. You guys are mega awesome. What a great jorb you did. :O Does this fix a LOT from Tomato’s list earlier posted? 😀
Hey Jeffman!
I love Mato’s updates, but it’s nice to hear from someone else who’s part of the team, too! Keep it up guys!
Wait, isn’t this the first time someone besides Mato posted?
It doesn’t sound very normal to have text rendered via sprites. What do normal games do & can Mother 3 be modified to do that without severe pain?
Also, how do we convince harmony’s company to give him a nice, long paid vacation? 🙂
I do have to wonder, how did that busy guy ever find time to do this in the first place lol.
Well, that’s what happens in the real world, sadly. Just like I was swamped with work early this year. How I wish I could be a college student again, things were so carefree back then. And I could spend tons and tons of time on non-school crap.
Moral of the story is: if you’re in school, don’t do your schoolwork.
OK, that’s not a very good moral I guess.
^ I hear ya, Mato. I’m a pinky’s width deep into a book I’ve been trying to get through for a year, but it’s hard to find the time to do even those little things….
Tried that, actually. The late-night cram sessions get REALLY hard at the end. Still (barely) possible, but HARD. There’s also the weird experience of knowing the subject for exactly one day, after which you completely forget what on earth that Bolzano-Weierstrass thing was except for something about bounded sequences and convergent subsequences? 🙂
What I really think I need to find is some way to become independently wealthy so I can slack off on fun things all the time. Alas, my degree did drive home the futility of gambling, so I have to settle for a low-paying job with nice benefits and some free time during work when none of the computers are dead 🙂
I never wanna grow up. :[ Well, any more so than I already am, that is. 😡 Thanks for putting in some of your free time into this project, though
A Fan,
yeah man… I hate those late night crams…
Every time I do it.. I always promise myself that I will never let it get to that point again,… but somehow it always ends up happening,
That “slight spoiler,” is the most outright spoilery the dojo has posted!
Quite. And I want to say, Mato, it’s awesome to be able to actually talk with someone in your position. Someone working on something amazing, doing work that is just awesome. Funimation Translation of One Piece? Holy crap awesome. Thanks for this website and opportunity to watch you work and just get at least some what close to the life of someone that is awesome. Same goes for you Jeffman, and everyone else working on the project!
Another weight out of the back.
Great news!!
Heh i remember his older works in th fan translation scene, always did seem to be a perfectionist when it came the quality of the work. As always, quite impressive work, and considering all the code I’ve stared at this weekend I can say you have more patience then I do.
Orion-J, have you seen Tomato’s Bahamut Lagoon translation? I would’ve mistaken it for an official translation! :O
I noticed something in the screencaps… the mythical word “whom.” While it is technically grammatically correct, I don’t think it’s a common enough word in the modern millennium to use in a video game translation… ;P
Wow, i’m dying for another update now. You guys spoiled us 😉
Don’t worry, we (read: mostly Jeff) have gotten a lot of stuff done since the last update. Since he did pretty much all the really hard work, I’m leaving the next update to him. There’s just so much that I hope he hasn’t forgotten all of what’s been done 😛
I think other than the menu patch update, this update has the most comments of all 😯
WOW! You guys received some editorial love from the guys at Destructoid.
http://www.destructoid.com/to-dream-the-impossible-dream-the-first-ten-minutes-of-mother-3-now-in-english-59878.phtml
jay pea: That article rocks. :O
lots more stuff done?
cant wait to read about it
Not common enough? Bah! It’s quite common among educated speakers. Like Mato, apparently 🙂
The difference between “who” and “whom” is the very same difference between “he” and “him.” I hope you don’t suggest that we can use those two words interchangeably! Actually, that’s the easiest way to separate the two: if you can replace the unknown word with “him”, you wanted “whom”, otherwise you should use “who.” Except for the places you get those wrong, that is.
Besides, “for who the bell tolls” just sounds wrong, anyhow 🙂
What’s with these handful of people who seem to only want to nitpick over small words witch don’t even really matter
Tomato studied the language for 6 years in collage and has been working professionally as a media translator since the year he graduated(2002)I do not know much about the outher script editors but I am sure they are good also
I have no dout there final script will be more accurate that what Nintendo would come up with because they care so much. Lets let them deside and end the nonsence
well said
To those in the newest debate over gnats:
Play EarthBound. Stand next to nothing and nobody.
Press Select. Press L. Press L.
(Alternatively: Press A. Press A.)
“Who are you talking to?”
I use the word “whom” in my day-to-day speech. It’s the object form of the pronoun. However, slang chops up the language into all kinds of neato riffs. The Unified MOTHER 3 Fan Translation Team surely understands standard speech (strict and liberal) vs. specialized speech (jargon, colloquialisms, dialect, etc.). For those who skip out on proper work in school/job/etc., a “first draft” is version 0.x — not version 1.x — of a final product. The sketch before the composition. Although I’m avoiding spoilers like crazy, I’m VERY happy to see the team figure out how to hack the daunting code via inserting a *pleasant placeholder* known as the “first draft.”
Yes, they need to swat the gnats. But before they take care of so many gnats (text nuances), let us please encourage them unto the more difficult task at hand: driving out the big, hairy camel (hacking) that’s in their way. After all, remove the camel, and a whole bunch of gnats are gonna go with it.
“P.S.” or something — whoa, jay.pea, awesome link, thanks for sharing with the rest of us li’l ol’ fans!
And just in case anyone doesn’t understand by now, an example:
“Who are you talking to?”
“To whom are you talking?”
great job guys! going through withdrawal symptoms of sorts with no updates for near a week, but that just means you are going through a lot of coding stuff, or sorting out one big problem, or being with family for the holiday season; all of which I’m fine with.
also Mato: it may only go up from here in comments, as the video seems to have brought in a bit of newcomers, as well as the re-found hope of others for the fan translation.
Mato speaks extremely highly of your work, and, indeed, this update shows a small portion of what you’re capable of. All the hackers involved in this project are extremely talented, and I look forward to the finished product.
Amazing job.
FWIW, the original Japanese line for “Who are you talking to?” is written in a colloquial, non-standard/proper way in M2 and M3, as if an actual person is asking. Possibly even the first game too. So of course having “whom” in that case would seem out of place. But a menu is different.
It doesn’t really matter anyway, since there’s a bigger problem in that when you Use an item and when you Give an item, it will use the same line of text, so “To whom?” wouldn’t make sense in the context of “Use”. I’m not sure what to do about that yet. Easiest way might be to make the line say “To/On whom?” or something like that. But dunno.
Jeff’s made a lot of progress this last week, don’t worry!
I have to say, I’m glad you’re taking a break for a bit Mato. I hope you (and all of the hackers) have a relaxing, restful holiday!
Heh, I wish I was taking a break. Instead, I’ve been doing real life work x 200% 🙁 I’ll probably do some hacking this weekend though.
Well, take a break in there somewhere when you have a chance, you deserve one!
We won’t explode if we end up waiting a tiny bit longer for the translation patch. Except maybe that one guy… 🙂
hey I may be ust one guy but the world would not be as good without me
whom cares?
you can just leave it as who, it sounds more earthbound-like. but that’s just my unprofessional opinion.
and yeah, also thanks to jay pea, was a good read — anything related to this is a good read, as you obviously already know 🙂
I love this project. the team is cool, the people on this forum are cool,
— yep… i just drank a bit and im filled with Christmas cheer
What happened to the constant flow of updates? JK,JK. Seriously you guys are doing good work, keep it up, I can’t wait to play Mother 3 -ALX
Gr8 job guyz!!!
Take a well deserved break and keep it up!
I can’t wait to play M3 in english!:)
I call update. An update… to at least there’s nothing new. XD BTW, I put up a link to this site on mine, that cool, Mato?
Yeah, dunno what Jeff’s got planned so your guess is as good as mine. And yeah, linking is fine 🙂
I hate skipping words when I type… >_> I should get into the habit of reading my posts more than once…
Again, update withdrawl… Damn you Mato, what have you done to me!
Jeff’s leaving for an overseas trip today so I’ll probably make a small update for him later today. He did a lot of awesome work. I just gotta gather up screens and such for it all now.
Rock on. I hate to admit that we’ve -all- gotten spoiled to such frequent, frequent updates, that now we’re a bit thirsty for another! heehee
And hey, Mr. Mato, since you’re practically asking, I’ll think out loud on the menu thing: “Unto whom?” would work even for Use, but -man- it seems rather formal (in the sense that many people might not even understand, sadly) but it works reall well otherwise. Just “Whom?” without any preposition might avoid the awkwardness of “to”/”on”/”unto” but it has the new awkwardness of .. no preposition. Going by what you said, I guess the code is too hackneyed to use a variable to say “Give to:” and “Use on:” ?
Merry Christmas, anyone-reading-this! And Happy Chaunnukah! Joyous Kwanzaa! Happy Greedy Atheists’ Presents Day! Enjoy your Winter Solstice with friends, family, etc. in whatever nonharmful way you traditionally do so! Wait, when’s Ramadan? … And specifically to the team here, yeah, make sure you take a state-sanctioned *break*! All work and no play, y’know.