Topic: Mother 3 Fan Translation Groups Teaming Up

[WindyMan]

Key translators and code monkeys from Starmen.net and Mother3.org will join forces to make the game available in English, one way or another.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=13765

 Nintendo has seemingly abandoned the Game Boy Advance, which means that many good games released in Japan will likely never be released in other territories.  One of those games is Mother 3, the prize eyed by many an Earthbound fan.  (Mother 2 was released as Earthbound for the SNES in America.)  People have been asking Nintendo for an English release for quite some time, but as the months went on, it looked more and more likely that it wasn't going to happen.    

Within the past year, fansites have taken it upon themselves to hack the ROM and translate the game themselves.  Starmen.net and the Mother 3 fan translation project had previously been working independently on the task, but today have announced that they will be joining forces to bring the best possible translation to the masses as quickly as possible.    

Known now as simply the Mother 3 Fan Translation team, the group hopes to pick up the pace of the so-far relatively slow process and produce a "fan-slated" version of the game within a reasonable amount of time.  Interested parties can input their email address at Starmen.net's news story to be notified when the translation is complete.      

The group's overall goal, as it has always been, is to see some kind of English version release of Mother 3 to the fans that want to see it.  Whether it releases the fan translation, or by its actions it can convince Nintendo of America to finally conduct a proper localization, if Mother 3 (Earthbound 2) comes to America in English, it'll be mission accomplished.

[ShyGuy]

Didn't Bill learn Japanese and travel to Japan just for Mother3?

[vudu]

That and Phantom Hourglass.

[Kairon]

This is Bill. You think that's ALL he was going to Japan for?

[vudu]

Fine, he was going to pick up Doki Doki Majo Shinpan, too.  Happy?

[TheYoungerPlumber]

Amazing, I still don't care.

[that Baby guy]

You probably had a poor relationship with Mother as a child.  Sad.

[WuTangTurtle]

wait so are they gonna translate the whole game and give it to Nintendo to publish or are they just gonna do it and let ppl download and emulate it?

[sycomonkey]

I imagine they'll just release the ROM, though that would be illegal.  The smart thing to do would be to release a patch to the existing ROM, that way you could legally play it by buying the game from Japan, ripping the ROM off the cart yourself, and applying the patch, and playing it in an emulator.

[Smoke39]

From mother3.org:

Quote
Q: What exactly are you releasing?
A: We are creating a patch that will insert translated English text into the game. This patch (called an IPS file) can be applied to a copy of Mother 3 on your computer, which can then be placed onto a writable cartridge and played on your Gameboy.

You will need to purchase a copy of the game in order to do this legally.

Q: Where can I find the Mother 3 ROM?
A: The act of downloading a ROM copy of a game you do not own is illegal. We are unable to provide you with such information, and do not offer this file for download from our website.

However, if you do own your own legal copy of Mother 3, please refer to our tutorials page for information on how you can apply the translation patch.

[UncleBob]

It's a shame that 99.9% of the people who will use the patch will not be using the legal method of playing it...

[nitsu niflheim]

I just need the patch, and then I will be happy.  My Mother 3 is so lonely unplayed.  I hate that Nintendo put English Alphabet in game to name things at the beginning, but that's it.

[Smoke39]

Starmen.net is having another one of their EarthBound sieges.  They're encouraging fans to call Nintendo about EB, send a postcard about EB, or send EB fan art.

They've also made a huge 250+ page book full of fan art, articles about EB and its fate in the US, and music and videos that they're sending out to get media attention.

While reading through the forum thread for the news item about the anthology, I found this post by reidman in reply to someone asking about NWR:

Quote
I tried to contact Steven Rodriguez, but he never got back to me. If someone else can let him know that we'd love to get a copy of the books to him, that would be great, but unfortunately I've got tons of work to do so I can't backtrack.

Finally, the news item about the anthology also states this as the reason they've been rushing these out to people just before E3:

Quote
Because EarthBound is coming out on the Virtual Console soon, and its sales will be THE determining factor in whether MOTHER 3 is brought to America or not.

[LuigiHann]

Quote
Originally posted by: WuTangTurtle
wait so are they gonna translate the whole game and give it to Nintendo to publish or are they just gonna do it and let ppl download and emulate it?

It would actually be pretty awesome to mail a translated version of Mother 3 to NOA.

Quote
Dear Reggie,
 We translated this for you.
Now you have no excuse.

 Love,
  Your fans

[EasyCure]

Quote
Originally posted by: Smoke39
Starmen.net is having another one of their EarthBound sieges.  They're encouraging fans to call Nintendo about EB, send a postcard about EB, or send EB fan art.

They've also made a huge 250+ page book full of fan art, articles about EB and its fate in the US, and music and videos that they're sending out to get media attention.

While reading through the forum thread for the news item about the anthology, I found this post by reidman in reply to someone asking about NWR:

Quote
I tried to contact Steven Rodriguez, but he never got back to me. If someone else can let him know that we'd love to get a copy of the books to him, that would be great, but unfortunately I've got tons of work to do so I can't backtrack.

Finally, the news item about the anthology also states this as the reason they've been rushing these out to people just before E3:

Quote
Because EarthBound is coming out on the Virtual Console soon, and its sales will be THE determining factor in whether MOTHER 3 is brought to America or not.

About that last part.. When is it coming to vc cuz i've had this urge to play it but i'm way too damn lazy to bother disconnecting my wii just to set up my SNES. I'm starting to think thats the reason the wii a/v cables are different than the ones previously used, it used to be so easy to switch then from system to system but now its not.. Its making me consider buying games i already own just to have them all in one place.

back to earthbound for a second, i wonder if it'll still play comfortably in only my left hand using the classic controler. I don't own one yet so i'm not sure how the L (or R) triggers feel or if the - button is a comfortable reach

[UncleBob]

Quote
Originally posted by: LuigiHann

Quote
Originally posted by: WuTangTurtle
wait so are they gonna translate the whole game and give it to Nintendo to publish or are they just gonna do it and let ppl download and emulate it?

It would actually be pretty awesome to mail a translated version of Mother 3 to NOA.

Quote
Dear Reggie,
 We translated this for you.
Now you have no excuse.

 Love,
  Your fans

I like that idea.