It likely won’t receive the attention that the Mother 3 fan translation enjoyed, but Tomato has put out an English patch for Mother 1+2, Nintendo’s Japan-only compilation released for the Game Boy Advance in 2003.

Though Mother 1 has an English NES prototype floating around, this version, this version features a retranslated script, bug fixes, and various tweaks, as well as some enhancements by Tomato. The Mother 2 script is still in Japanese (menus have been translated), but it’s not like you can’t already play it in English with Earthbound.

You’ll need a copy of Mother 1+2’s ROM (one you acquire through relatively legal methods, we hope) to install the patch before running it on a flashcart or emulator.

Import: Mother 1+2

Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more 

See also: More Mother/Earthbound posts

tags / mother / earthbound / imports / homebrew / translation / tomato / patch / gaming / ec

Good news for those of you who’ve waited over two years to play Mother 3 in English, despite Nintendo of America’s reluctancy to release the RPG stateside. The fan translation patch has been completed:

“The patch will be out at the end of this week. Testing’s pretty much over now. Some bugs did turn up over the last few days, but they were all minor and quickly remedied. Some really hard-to-spot typos were also found and fixed.”

What will you need to play Mother 3 once the patch comes out? Well, a backed up Japanese ROM for starters, which can be obtained either illegally online or somewhat legally with a slot-2 flashcart and certain software.

Once you’ve applied the patch to the ROM, you should be able to play it in a variety of GBA emulators for PC/Mac and other devices, including PSP and maybe iPhone. You can also load it on a GBA/DS, provided that you have a slot-2 flashcart.

And now, we wait.

tags / earthbound / ec / hal laboratory / mother / mother 3 / patch / starmen / starmen / tomato / translation / homebrew