This release is intended for older Intel-based Macs! If your computer has Apple silicon in it, it’s recommended you download the ARM-based Macs release!

Ever wanted to play MOTHER 3 without so much noise? Love hearing its soundtrack crystal clear on YouTube? Now you can experience the game with much cleaner audio! This hack mixes every individual channel at 16-bit audio before downsampling everything to 8-bit audio as opposed to the default m4a mixer which mixes every channel at 8-bit audio (blame the GBA’s DAC!)

• This greatly reduces the number of quantization/rounding errors that pop up during the mixing process, making the classic GBA “background hiss” much quieter while making Shogo Sakai’s music sound crispier than ever! Results seem even better when played back on actual hardware. Enjoy!!

DISCLAIMERS

FOR EVERYONE:

• You may hear occasional popping in-game after patching your ROM, for example while saving your game. Throughout 100+ hours of testing, these same pops were heard while playing the original Japanese release, making the hack authors fairly confident this hack isn’t the cause. It’s possible these audio glitches were covered up by the original mixer’s background noise and are now easier to hear with clearer audio. Please don’t hesitate to report any bugs, but just keep in mind there’s only so much you can do with the GBA’s limitations!

FOR SPEEDRUNNERS:

• If your ROM is a Fan Translation, this patch does modify the RNG used by MOTHER 3 and will most likely give you unexpected results! Because of that, any TAS recordings of MOTHER 3 will be broken by this hack. You have been warned!!

PATCHER FEATURES

• 100% compatibility with ALL Fan Translations! [versions 1.2 and below will cause occasional slowdowns with this hack, regardless of the language]
• Compatible with the original Japanese release of MOTHER 3
• Compatible with other ROM hacks, such as Claus’ Journey [this is an EXPERIMENTAL feature; be aware of potential bugs!!]
• Customize your game’s sample rate for higher-quality sound effects, including Lucas’ clean electric guitar during battles
• Save backup copies of your game before patching
• Easily undo/remove the HQ sound patch from your game
• Read the source code behind this patch
• Windows and macOS support (64-bit only)

HOW TO PATCH YOUR GAME:

Download the patcher and either load your ROM with the “Open” button or drag-and-drop your ROM into the patcher. After you indicate whether your copy of MOTHER 3 is an original Japanese release or a Fan Translation, you’ll be able to apply the hack to your game. Simple as!

FUTURE GOALS

• Having the patcher translated to languages other than English
• Support for Linux distros

CREDITS:

• Mixer preparation, ROM hacking, and patcher written by Summer Dragonfly (xkas format by Near/byuu: https://wiki.superfamicom.org/xkas)
• HQ sound mixer ingeniously programmed by ipatix (https://github.com/ipatix), inspired by “Golden Sun”: https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=324673
• Original HQ sound mixing code written by Haruki “Bon” Kodera for Camelot Software Planning: https://www.camelot.co.jp/gimon/gimon21.html
• Mother 3 decompilation and technical support: Kurausukun and theo3 (https://github.com/Kurausukun/mother3)
• Extra technical support: phoenixbound, Lorenzooone, and Yosuke
• French translations and Intel-based Mac version packaged by JumpmanFR
• Special thanks to the Mother 1+2 Fan Translation/Sound Restoration project and the PRET Discord community!