Mother 3 fan translation

Last updated
This disclaimer screen is the only original image added to the game in the fan translation. Mother 3 fan translation disclaimer screen.png
This disclaimer screen is the only original image added to the game in the fan translation.

The Mother 3 fan translation is a complete English-language localization of the 2006 Japanese video game Mother 3 by members of the EarthBound fan community led by Clyde "Tomato" Mandelin. The original game was released in Japan after a decade of development hell. When fan interest in an English localization went unanswered, members of the EarthBound fansite Starmen.net announced their own fan translation in November 2006.

Contents

The dozen fans who worked on the project had been vetted by Mandelin and had prior localization experience. Thousands of hours were put into the project between hacking the game data and translating the 1,000 pages of scripted dialogue. They built their own tools for the work. The completed version was released in October 2008 and issued as a patch. The patch was downloaded over 100,000 times in its first week. A fan-made, full-color, 200-page, professional-quality player's guide was released alongside the translation.

Fan community

After a decade of "delays, downgrades, and cancellations", Mother 3 was released in April 2006 for Japanese audiences. It is the Game Boy Advance sequel to the 1995 Super NES video game EarthBound, titled Mother 2 in Japan. [1] The American EarthBound fan community, in support of the series, had rallied support via events and petitions for the release. One such petition used custom petition software and hand-checked name verification, and the 819 pages of 31,000 signatures were sent to Nintendo's Japanese and American offices with fan art. Though receiving the backing of the wider gaming community, Nintendo did not respond. In turn, the new release became a "rallying point" for the community. [1] 1UP.com wrote that "no other game in the history of time garnered such a rabid demand for translation". [2]

The fan community did not expect an official English localization when Mother 3 was released in April 2006. Four months later, they received news that Nintendo was not interested, and in November, received confirmation in an interview with Nintendo of America's "Treehouse" localization group. Within days, the fan translation was announced at EarthBound community site Starmen.net. [1] Reid Young, a co-founder of the site, said that a fan translation "was as much about the fans as it was about the game". [1]

Development

The Mother 3 fan translation project was announced in November 2006. [1] [3] Led by Clyde "Tomato" Mandelin, a professional game translator whose previous work includes games such as Kingdom Hearts II and anime such as Dragon Ball , [4] a group of around a dozen individuals translated the game from Japanese to English in a process that took two years and thousands of work-hours. Those who worked on the localization were largely already known for their contributions to other fan translations, and Tomato's own experience in the fan translation community helped the project get the necessary resources. [1] Tomato worked on the project as "a second full-time job" in addition to his full-time job as a translator. [5] Young, who did public relations for the project and had little involvement in the process, [5] estimated Tomato to have put over 1,000 hours into the project, Jeffman to have nearly 1,000, and even the smallest contributors to have put between 50 and 100 hours into the project, though no one tracked hours. The team chose to not alter the game aside for adding a new intro screen, which meant not adding their names to the credits. The localization included two elements: hacking the game data (ROM) and translating the scripted dialogue. [1]

The ROM hacking entailed assembly-level changes to the game code. Young equated the process to teaching someone another language by slowly altering their DNA bit by bit, through trial and error. Some of the technical changes included proportional fonts, graphics hacks, and custom software. [1] The game was coded in such a way that there was not enough system memory available to display the requisite onscreen text. Since Japanese characters all occupy the same amount of space (monospaced), the team had to custom-code the new English characters to fit properly. Tomato said that "no text display routine wound up untouched", such that the fixes for variable width fonts were useless until the team manually made room for the characters. [1] Graphics hacks included the new intro screen and images imported from the English EarthBound, so as to preserve continuity of features. For example, an octopus statue pun from Mother 2 was converted to a pencil statue in the EarthBound English localization and was changed accordingly in the Mother 3 localization. The team also built custom software to aid in the translation, such as a cross-assembler and tools for handling the script and patching. [1] Members of the hacking team included Tomato, Jeffman, byuu, and sblur. [1] [5]

About 1,000 pages of text were translated, which Young described as large by most standards, including that of other RPGs. [1] They estimated the theoretical freelance cost of the translation at $30,000. Young described Tomato as a perfectionist, and said that he kept the translation team small so as not to bog down progress, though he did request group input for aspects such as pun translation, where more input was seen to be helpful. Translation decisions included renaming the character Yokuba (similar to the Japanese word for "greed") to Fassad (similar to the Arabic word فساد, "corruption", and to the English word "facade"), and changing mice characters from a Japanese dialect to a thick Cockney English dialect. [1]

The team reported that "the highest levels" of Nintendo of America knew about their project, though they did not intervene. [1] In February 2007, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé said that he had heard about the translation project. [6] Young said that their localization team transparently stated that they would curb the project if the company were to make an announcement about the future of the game. [1] Though the team acknowledged that the legality of the localization was unclear, [7] [5] Young said that it would not be reasonable to call the fan translation "impetuous or unfair". [5] The team added that they were against software piracy. They directed others to import the game from Japan or otherwise purchase official merchandise when the game left publication, with the ultimate aim to help the franchise. [1] Tomato received encouragement from a Square Enix employee who anticipated the translation. [5] At the end of the project, the team said that the fan translation would lead to more protection against fan translations rather than more encouragement, so as to maximize the underserved audience. Tomato said that he was unable to appreciate his work since it was so familiar to him, with every original and translated line memorized. He expected that would change in five years. [1] The project gave Tomato a greater respect for the craft of writing. [2]

Release

The localization patch was finished in October 2008. [8] [9] Though Tomato predicted the game to have "a couple dozen thousand downloads total", it was downloaded more than 100,000 times in its first week, not including downloads from other locations. [4] The patch requires a ROM image file of the game to be used. [9] Along with the translation, the team announced the Mother 3 Handbook, an English player's guide for the game that had been in development since June 2008. [5] Wired reported the full-color, 200-page player's guide to be akin to a professional strategy guide, with quality "on par with ... Prima Games and BradyGames". [10] Tomato released updated versions of the patch in 2009, 2014 and 2021. The patch is undergoing translation into languages including French, Italian, and Spanish, [11] with translation tools released in 2014.

Reception

Frank Caron of Ars Technica wrote that the "massive undertaking ... stands as a massive success" and that the fan translation realized the dreams of many gamers including his own. [8] He added that "one cannot even begin to fathom" why Nintendo would not release their own English localization. [8] Kotaku's Mike Fahey wrote that the translators were wrong to suggest purchasing official merchandise where players were unable to find an import copy. [9] The Verge cited the two-year fan translation of Mother 3 as proof of the fanbase's dedication. [12]

Related Research Articles

<i>EarthBound</i> 1994 video game

EarthBound, released in Japan as Mother 2: Gīgu no Gyakushū, is a role-playing video game developed by Ape Inc. and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The second entry in the Mother series, it was first released in Japan in August 1994, and in North America in June 1995. A port for the Game Boy Advance developed by Pax Softnica, bundled with Mother (1989) as Mother 1+2, was released only in Japan in 2003. As Ness and his party of Paula, Jeff and Poo, the player travels the world to collect melodies from eight Sanctuaries in order to defeat the universal cosmic destroyer Giygas.

Mother is a video game series that consists of three role-playing video games: Mother (1989), known as EarthBound Beginnings outside Japan, for the Family Computer; Mother 2 (1994), known as EarthBound outside Japan, for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System; and Mother 3 (2006) for the Game Boy Advance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fan translation of video games</span> Unofficially translated media

In video gaming, a fan translation is an unofficial translation of a video game made by fans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ROM image</span> Data dump from a ROM chip

A ROM image, or ROM file, is a computer file which contains a copy of the data from a read-only memory chip, often from a video game cartridge, or used to contain a computer's firmware, or from an arcade game's main board. The term is frequently used in the context of emulation, whereby older games or firmware are copied to ROM files on modern computers and can, using a piece of software known as an emulator, be run on a different device than which they were designed for. ROM burners are used to copy ROM images to hardware, such as ROM cartridges, or ROM chips, for debugging and QA testing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shigesato Itoi</span> Japanese game designer and copywriter

Shigesato Itoi is a Japanese copywriter, essayist, lyricist, game designer, and actor. Itoi is the editor-in-chief of his website and company Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun. He is best known outside Japan for his work on Nintendo's Mother/EarthBound series of games, as well as his self-titled bass fishing video game.

Nintendo Space World, formerly named Shoshinkai and Famicom Space World, was an annual video game trade show hosted by Nintendo from 1989 to 2001. Its three days of high-energy party atmosphere was the primary venue for Nintendo and its licensees to announce and demonstrate new consoles, accessories, and games. Anticipated and dissected each year with hype and exclusivity, it was a destination for the international video game press, with detailed developer interviews and technology demos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giygas</span> Mother series antagonist

Giygas, also known as Giegue, and Gyiyg in Japan, is a character in the Mother video game series by Nintendo, created by Shigesato Itoi. The character serves as the main antagonist and final boss of Mother and its sequel, Mother 2/EarthBound. In the series, he invades Earth in an attempt to wipe out humanity in Mother, and returns in EarthBound where he conquers the world and sends his forces into the past to prevent protagonist Ness from defeating him. The battle against Giygas, which depicts him in turmoil, drew inspiration from a Japanese film which traumatized Itoi as a child. He has received positive reception with critics referring to his battle as one of the creepiest in video games, and considered one of the greatest and most iconic video game antagonists of all time.

<i>Mother 3</i> 2006 video game

Mother 3 is a 2006 role-playing video game developed by Brownie Brown and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It is the third and final entry in the Mother series. The game follows Lucas, a young boy with psychic abilities, and a party of characters as they attempt to prevent a mysterious invading army from corrupting and destroying the world.

<i>Trials of Mana</i> 1995 video game

Trials of Mana, also known by its Japanese title Seiken Densetsu 3, is a 1995 action role-playing game developed and published by Square for the Super Famicom. It is the sequel to the 1993 game Secret of Mana, and is the third installment in the Mana series. Set in a high fantasy world, the game follows three heroes as they attempt to claim the legendary Mana Sword and prevent the Benevodons from being unleashed and destroying the world. It features three main plotlines and six different possible main characters, each with their own storylines, and allows two players to play simultaneously. Trials of Mana builds on the gameplay of its predecessor with multiple enhancements, including the use of a time progression system with transitions from day to night and weekday to weekday in game time, and a wide range of character classes to choose from, which provides each character with an exclusive set of skills and status progression.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ted Woolsey</span> American video game translator

Ted Woolsey is an American video game translator and producer. He had the primary role in the North American production and localization of Square's role-playing video games released for the Super NES between 1991 and 1996. He is best known for translating Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger during his time at Square. Limitations on text length and strict content guidelines forced Woolsey to make many script changes in his translation work, which became known as "Woolseyisms" in popular culture and were both praised and criticized.

<i>Mother</i> (video game) 1989 video game

Mother, officially known outside of Japan as EarthBound Beginnings, is a 1989 role-playing video game developed by Ape and Pax Softnica and published by Nintendo for the Famicom. It is the first entry in the Mother series. It is modeled on the gameplay of the Dragon Quest series, but is set in the late 20th-century United States, unlike its fantasy genre contemporaries. Mother follows the young Ninten as he uses his great-grandfather's studies on psychic powers to put an end to the paranormal phenomena that recently spiraled the country into disarray. The game uses random encounters to enter a menu-based, first-person perspective battle system.

<i>Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers</i> 1997 role-playing video game

Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers is a 1997 role-playing video game developed by Atlus. The game is the second installment in the Devil Summoner series, itself a part of the larger Megami Tensei franchise. Originally published by Atlus for the Sega Saturn, it was later ported to the PlayStation in 1999 and Nintendo 3DS in 2012.

<i>Contact</i> (video game) 2006 video game

Contact is a role-playing video game developed by Grasshopper Manufacture for the Nintendo DS handheld game console. It was published by Marvelous Entertainment in Japan on March 30, 2006, by Atlus USA in North America on October 18, and by Rising Star Games in Australia, Asia and Europe on January 25, 2007 and February 2, respectively.

Video game localization, is the process of preparing a video game for a market outside of where it was originally published. The game's name, art assets, packaging, manuals, and cultural and legal differences are typically altered.

<i>Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse</i> 2008 video game

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is a survival horror video game developed by Tecmo, Nintendo SPD and Grasshopper Manufacture. The fourth installment in the Fatal Frame series, it is a prequel to Fatal Frame and the first on a Nintendo console, it was released in 2008 by Nintendo for the Wii in Japan. A remaster for eighth and ninth generation consoles and Windows published by Koei Tecmo was released worldwide in 2023.

Fan translation refers to the unofficial translation of various forms of written or multimedia products made by fans, often into a language in which an official translated version is not yet available. Generally, fans do not have formal training as translators but they volunteer to participate in translation projects based on interest in a specific audiovisual genre, TV series, movie, etc.

<i>Ace Attorney Investigations 2</i> 2011 video game

Gyakuten Kenji 2, also known as Ace Attorney Investigations 2, is an adventure video game developed by Capcom. It was released in Japan for the Nintendo DS in 2011 and for Android and iOS in 2017. It is the sixth entry in the Ace Attorney series, and a sequel to Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (2009).

Marcus Lindblom is an American video game developer known for his English localization of the 1994 video game EarthBound. Lindblom spent his youth in the United States, and dropped out of college to move to Japan with his wife. After four years, he returned to college in the United States and began to work at Nintendo of America's call center. He eventually worked on Japanese-to-English game localization projects such as Wario's Woods and, most notably, EarthBound. Lindblom worked with a translator and a writer to accurately translate the game for a Western audience. He sought to stay true to Shigesato Itoi's script, but was given latitude to make the script as weird as he wanted, and so added in American cultural allusions. Lindblom considers the localization his highest achievement.

The development of Mother 3, a role-playing video game from Nintendo, spanned a total of twelve years between 1994 and 2006 with a three year gap in between, and spanned four consoles and multiple delays. Following the commercial success of its predecessor, Mother 2, Mother series creator Shigesato Itoi was given the previous game's development team.

<i>EarthBound</i> fandom Fan community

The 1994 video game EarthBound is known for its cult following and fan community. Multiple video game journalists have written about the dedication of the game's fans in producing fan art and lobbying Nintendo for further releases in the series. The company has been largely unresponsive to their efforts. Prominent fansites include Starmen.net and EarthBound Central. The former was started in 1999 and became the definitive community website. Their members organized petitions and campaigns to bring English-localized games from the Mother series to North America. One such effort included a full-color, 270-page EarthBound Anthology as a demonstration of consumer demand for further releases. After nearly a decade, EarthBound was rereleased for the Wii U Virtual Console in 2013, whereupon it became a bestseller.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Caron, Frank (October 28, 2008). "Mama's boys: the epic story of the Mother 3 fan translation". Ars Technica . Archived from the original on March 5, 2014. Retrieved June 28, 2014.
  2. 1 2 Mackey, Bob (July 2010). "Found in Translation". 1UP.com . p. 1. Archived from the original on October 10, 2015. Retrieved June 28, 2014.
  3. ↑ Arendt, Susan (November 9, 2006). "Fans Get Crackin' on Mother 3 Translation". 1UP.com . Archived from the original on June 29, 2014. Retrieved June 28, 2014.
  4. 1 2 Parkin, Simon (December 28, 2008). "You Say Tomato: A Pro on Fan-Translating Nintendo's Mother 3". Gamasutra . p. 1. Archived from the original on May 11, 2014. Retrieved June 28, 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Plante, Chris (October 17, 2008). "Mother 3 in English! an Interview with Reid Young, co-founder of Starmen.Net!". UGO Networks . Archived from the original on September 15, 2011. Retrieved June 28, 2014.
  6. ↑ Totilo, Stephen (February 15, 2007). "Where Are All The Wiis, DS Lites? Nintendo Exec Has The Answer". MTV. Archived from the original on May 19, 2014. Retrieved June 28, 2014.
  7. ↑ Parkin, Simon (December 28, 2008). "You Say Tomato: A Pro on Fan-Translating Nintendo's Mother 3". Gamasutra . p. 2. Archived from the original on May 13, 2014. Retrieved June 28, 2014.
  8. 1 2 3 Caron, Frank (October 20, 2008). "Remember Earthbound? Play the sequel now, in English". Ars Technica . Archived from the original on September 8, 2014. Retrieved June 28, 2014.
  9. 1 2 3 Fahey, Mike (October 17, 2008). "Mother 3 Fan Translation Completed". Kotaku . Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved June 28, 2014.
  10. ↑ Cavalli, Earnest (October 20, 2008). "Fans Release Gorgeous Mother 3 Companion Book". Wired . Archived from the original on September 8, 2014. Retrieved June 29, 2014.
  11. ↑ Lada, Jenni (March 5, 2010). "Important Importables: Notable fan translation projects". TechnologyTell. Archived from the original on July 29, 2014. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
  12. ↑ Webster, Andrew (July 18, 2013). "Cult classic 'Earthbound' launches today on Wii U". The Verge . Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved June 15, 2014.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.