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EarthBound fandom

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Mother series cosplayers
Mother series cosplayers

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.[1][2][3] 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.

The fandom also spun-out other enterprises. When Nintendo did not release a localized version of Mother 3, fans organized their own fan translation. The video game merchandising business Fangamer grew out of the Starmen.net community, and sells video game-related items online. A full-length documentary on Starmen.net and the fan community, EarthBound, USA, is in production. While series creator, Shigesato Itoi has stated that he is finished with the series, a fan-created spiritual sequel, Oddity, began development in 2010.

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EarthBound

EarthBound

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. 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.

Cult following

Cult following

A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. A film, book, musical artist, television series, or video game, among other things, is said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fanbase.

Fandom

Fandom

A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant portion of their time and energy involved with their interest, often as a part of a social network with particular practices, differentiating fandom-affiliated people from those with only a casual interest.

Fan art

Fan art

Fan art or fanart is artwork created by fans of a work of fiction and derived from a series character or other aspect of that work. They are usually done by amateur artists, semi-professionals or professionals. As fan labor, fan art refers to artworks that are neither created nor (normally) commissioned or endorsed by the creators of the work from which the fan art derives.

Nintendo

Nintendo

Nintendo Co., Ltd. is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops and releases both video games and video game consoles.

Fansite

Fansite

A fansite, fan site, fan blog or fan page is a website created and maintained by a fan or devotee about a celebrity, thing, or particular cultural phenomenon.

Mother (video game series)

Mother (video game series)

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.

Mother 3

Mother 3

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 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.

Mother 3 fan translation

Mother 3 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.

Shigesato Itoi

Shigesato Itoi

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.

Fangame

Fangame

A fangame is a video game that is created by fans of a certain topic or IP. They are usually based on one, or in some cases several, video game entries or franchises. Many fangames attempt to clone or remake the original game's design, gameplay, and characters, but it is equally common for fans to develop a unique game using another as a template. Though the quality of fangames has always varied, recent advances in computer technology and in available tools, e.g. through open source software, have made creating high-quality games easier. Fangames can be seen as user-generated content, as part of the retrogaming phenomena, and as expression of the remix culture.

Oddity (video game)

Oddity (video game)

Oddity is an upcoming role-playing video game. Its development was first announced in 2008 as Mother 4, an unofficial fan game in Nintendo's Mother series. Over the course of development, the game removed its ties to the series and rebranded as its own entity in early 2020. It has no set release date.

Fan base

EarthBound is known for having a cult following,[2][4][5][6][7][8] which developed over time well after its release.[9] Colin Campbell of Polygon wrote that "few gaming communities are as passionate and active" as EarthBound's,[10] and 1UP.com's Bob Mackey wrote that no game was as poised to have a cult following.[11] Wired described the amount of EarthBound "fan art, videos, and tributes on fan sites like EarthBound Central or Starmen.net" as mountainous.[9] IGN's Lucas M. Thomas wrote in 2006 that EarthBound's "persistent", "ambitious", and "religiously dedicated collective of hardcore fans" would be among the first groups to influence Nintendo's decision-making through their purchasing power on Virtual Console.[2] The Verge cited the two-year fan translation of Mother 3 as proof of the fanbase's dedication,[8] and Nintendo president Satoru Iwata credited the community response on their online Miiverse social platform as leading to EarthBound's eventual rerelease on their Virtual Console platform.[12] Notable members of the EarthBound fan base include video game developer Toby Fox, who had made various EarthBound ROM hacks in high school and whose game Undertale took inspiration from the Mother series,[13][14] and Let's Play YouTuber Emile Rosales, whose videos on EarthBound covered various aspects of the game including the sound, art design and various glitches.[15][16]

EarthBound was hard to find before the rerelease.[17] In 2013, prices for the game's cartridge alone were more than twice its retail cost at its 1995 release.[9] IGN wrote that the game became a "cult classic" for its unique RPG and psychedelic elements alongside its reflection on American culture,[4] and Eurogamer credited EarthBound's "cute and funny modern-world styling of the Japanese RPG".[18] Kotaku hypothesized that fan favorite aspects of the game would include its "feeling of innocence, ... sense of whimsical adventure", "humor", "charm", "wonder", and "beautiful 2D maps".[6] Marcus Lindblom, the game's English localizer, cited its "cuteness, colors, and hallucinatory bits" as fan favorites.[9] Reid Young of Starmen.net and Fangamer credits EarthBound's popularity to its "labor of love" nature, with a "double-coat of thoughtfulness and care" across all aspects of the game by a development team that appeared to love their work.[11]

Digital Trends's Anthony John Agnello wrote that no video game fans have suffered as much as EarthBound fans, and cited Nintendo's reluctance to release Mother series games in North America.[3] IGN described the series as neglected by Nintendo in North America for similar reasons.[2] Aaron Linde of Shacknews felt that Nintendo's "historic passive-aggression towards EarthBound fans [seemed] somehow anachronistic" in response to the outcries from the game's fan community.[1] He added that while the company is known for providing "the most personal experiences in gaming's history", Nintendo lacks the "bedside manner" required of contemporary game companies, and that he could not think of a "more deserving fan base" than EarthBound's.[1]

Marcus Lindblom, who localized the Japanese Mother 2 into the English EarthBound, followed the fan community from afar and, in mid-2012, introduced himself at the Penny Arcade Expo Fangamer booth. When the game's Wii U re-release was announced, the press became interested in Lindblom's experience. Lindblom had planned a book about the game's development, release, and fandom as a Kickstarter project before a reply from Nintendo discouraged him from pursuing the idea. He plans to continue to communicate directly with the community about the game's history.[10] For instance, Lindblom struck down a popular ("infamous") "abortion theory" that the game's final sequence is a metaphor for an abortion,[6] with Giygas as the fetus.[17]

A film group known as 54&O Productions developed a fan-made documentary entitled Mother to Earth. The documentary focuses on the road to Mother's localization in North America, and includes interviews with key people behind the process.[19] It was released on August 31, 2020.[20]

The fan website Mother Forever hosts an annual "Mother Direct" live presentation of Mother-related fan projects.[21]

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Cult following

Cult following

A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. A film, book, musical artist, television series, or video game, among other things, is said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fanbase.

Polygon (website)

Polygon (website)

Polygon is an American entertainment website that publishes blogs, reviews, guides, videos, and news primarily covering video games, as well as movies, comics, television and books. At its October 2012 launch as Vox Media's third property, Polygon sought to distinguish itself from competitors by focusing on the stories of the people behind the games instead of the games themselves. It also produced long-form magazine-style feature articles, invested in video content, and chose to let their review scores be updated as the game changed.

The Verge

The Verge

The Verge is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts.

Fan translation of video games

Fan translation of video games

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

Mother 3

Mother 3

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 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.

Satoru Iwata

Satoru Iwata

Satoru Iwata was a Japanese businessman, video game programmer, video game designer, and producer. He was the fourth president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo from 2002 until his death in 2015. He was a major contributor in broadening the appeal of video games by focusing on novel and entertaining games rather than top-of-the-line hardware.

Miiverse

Miiverse

Miiverse was a social network for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, created by Nintendo System Development and Hatena, and powered by the Nintendo Network. Integrated into many games, Miiverse allowed players to interact and share their experiences by way of handwritten messages or drawings, text, screenshots, and sometimes game videos in dedicated communities. It was available via any web browser, and a dedicated app version originally planned for tablets and smartphones. All users who signed up for a Nintendo Network ID were automatically given a Miiverse profile per account, represented by the Mii avatar connected to said Nintendo Network ID.

Let's Play

Let's Play

A Let's Play (LP) is a video documenting the playthrough of a video game, often including commentary and/or a camera view of the gamer's face. A Let's Play differs from a video game walkthrough or strategy guide by focusing on an individual's subjective experience with the game, often with humorous, irreverent, or critical commentary from the player, rather than being an objective source of information on how to progress through the game. While Let's Plays and live streaming of game playthroughs are related, Let's Plays tend to be curated experiences that include editing and narration, and can be scripted, while streaming is an unedited experience performed on the fly.

Chuggaaconroy

Chuggaaconroy

Emiliano Rodolfo Rosales-Birou, also known as Emile Rosales and better known by his online alias Chuggaaconroy, is an American YouTuber, Internet personality and Let's Player. He is most notable for his comprehensive walkthrough videos on various video games released on Nintendo platforms, including titles from the EarthBound, Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Pikmin, Pokémon and Xenoblade Chronicles series.

Marcus Lindblom

Marcus Lindblom

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 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.

Digital Trends

Digital Trends

Digital Trends is a Portland, Oregon-based tech news, lifestyle, and information website that publishes news, reviews, guides, how-to articles, descriptive videos and podcasts about technology and consumer electronics products. With offices in Portland, Oregon, New York City, Chicago and other locations, Digital Trends is operated by Digital Trends Media Group, a media company that also publishes Digital Trends Español, focusing on Spanish speakers worldwide, and a men's lifestyle site The Manual.

Shacknews

Shacknews

Shacknews is a website that hosts news, features, editorial content and forums relating to computer games and console games. It is owned by a company called Gamerhub Content Network, which purchased the site in January 2014.

Starmen.net

Reid Young started an EarthBound fansite in 1997 while in middle school.[11] It was one of the first EarthBound fansites on the Internet. By 1999 and with co-founder Clyde "Tomato" Mandelin,[1] the site grew into Starmen.net,[11] named for the game's "most iconic villain, the Starman."[1] 1UP.com described the site as "the definitive fan community for EarthBound on the web"[11] and Shacknews called it the fan community's "one-stop" resource for a decade.[1] Though EarthBound was more obscure at the time, the site quickly grew in popularity and featured "constant updates" and a burgeoning community by 1999.[11] 1UP.com said the viewership growth was "almost inexplicable" when accounting for the game's unpopularity, but credited Super NES emulation, which let "thousands" of people experience the game who might not have otherwise.[11] Young credited the site's growth to the fan content generated by the community.[11] Shacknews described the site's collection of fan-made media as "absolutely massive".[1] It also provided a place to aggregate information on the Mother series and to coordinate fan actions.[1]

The EarthBound fan community at Starmen.net coalesced with the intent to have Nintendo of America acknowledge the Mother series. 1UP.com described their intent as reasonable given the company's "frequent dismissal" of the series alongside the community's "monumental efforts to increase American EarthBound awareness".[11] Young felt that their "underdog status" kept Starmen.net vigilant.[11] He also said that he views the community as "a big group of friends having fun together" and sometimes thinks that it is just happenstance that EarthBound was what brought them together, as opposed to another franchise like Pokémon.[11] As the site started in 1999, the community started a petition to have Nintendo release Mother for the Game Boy Color, and collected 1850 physical signatures to this end and bound it in a book for Nintendo. The final word from Nintendo was that the package was received. Other petitions include the 2000 10,000-person petition for a North American Mother 3 release on the Nintendo 64, the 2003 31,000-person petition for a North American Mother 1+2 Game Boy Advance release, and letter and phone campaigns. A source internal to Nintendo later told them that the 2003 campaign was almost successful, but fell out of consideration as the phone campaign ended after a week. The community resolved to never let up again.[1]

The community's massive pile of art, videos, music, and writing is a testament to the creativity of its fans.

Reid Young of Starmen.net, March 2010[11]

In time, the fan community's requests shifted from specific demands to no demand at all, wanting only their interest to be recognized by Nintendo.[22] The Starmen.net community launched several campaigns to bring attention to the series. In their 2007 "The EB Siege" project to have Mother 3 receive an official North American localization, community members sent letters and made phone calls to Nintendo. They ultimately created a full-color, 270-page art book, The EarthBound Anthology, to send to Nintendo and press outlets as demonstration of their interest.[23] They also hoped the volume would mobilize established industry professionals to take up their cause in advance of the 2007 Electronic Entertainment Expo. Shacknews wrote that the "folk history" was more of a proposal than a collection of fan art—"the greatest gaming love letter ever created".[1] Wired's Chris Kohler used the Anthology's occasion to explain how Nintendo's upper management has heard the fan community.[24] The Anthology additionally received mention in Nintendo Power.[1] Upon "little" response from Nintendo, they decided to localize the game themselves.[23] Starmen.net co-founder Tomato led the project, and the complete fan translation was finished in October 2008. They then printed a "professional quality strategy guide" through Fangamer, a site that spun off from Starmen.net.[23]

Other oblique strategies included an attempt to license Mother 3 for North America from Nintendo through a small video game development studio, but Nintendo replied that the property was theirs and would never be developed externally.[1] In 2008, the site hosted a YouTube contest for videos that raised the visibility for the series in a final effort to get the game on the Wii Virtual Console, but Young found community spirit to be atrophied.[1] A week later, the game appeared on the ESRB website, which signaled success after many years of work.[1] It was finally rereleased for the Wii U Virtual Console in 2013 via a Nintendo Direct announcement.[25] The game was a "top-seller" on the platform, and Kotaku users and first-time EarthBound players had an "overwhelmingly positive" response to the game.[6]

Mother 3 fan translation

After a decade of development hell, the Japanese video game Mother 3 was released in April 2006. When fan interest in an English localization went unanswered by Nintendo, Starmen.net announced their own fan translation in November.[22] The project was led by the fansite's Clyde "Tomato" Mandelin, a professional game translator whose previous work includes games such as Kingdom Hearts II and anime such as Dragon Ball.[26]

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.[22] The final version was released in October 2008 and issued as a patch to be used with an emulator, a process of murky legality.[27] The patch was downloaded over 100,000 times in its first week.[26] A fan-made, full-color, 200-page, professional-quality player's guide was released alongside the fan translation.[28] 1UP.com wrote that "no other game in the history of time garnered such a rabid demand for translation",[29] and The Verge cited the effort as proof of the fan base's dedication.[8]

Fangamer

Fangamer is a video game merchandising business spun out from Starmen.net. The online store sells items including hats, pins, and T-shirts branded with video game-related designs from games such as EarthBound, Chrono Trigger, and Metal Gear Solid. 1UP.com described their fare as "much less tacky than your typical mall-bought video game apparel".[23] The site began in part due to Young's experience with targeted fan communities. In October 2008, he was attempting to get the site officially licensed.[28] Later that month, they released the Mother 3 Handbook, a full-color, 200-page player's guide akin to a professional strategy guide. Wired reported its quality to be "on par with ... Prima and BradyGames".[30] In 2014, Fangamer crowdfunded a box set of media celebrating EarthBound, with $230,000 raised—over twice its goal. The box set includes a travel zine for the game's fictional settings EarthBound, an album of music, and the documentary EarthBound, USA. Since exceeding the campaign's goal, the business hosted Camp Fangamer, an event in Tucson, Arizona, for 450 fans.[31]

EarthBound, USA

Just finished an interview with some American MOTHER 2 fans who came to see me. Some of them were in elementary school when they played it but are now married with children, and still have a love for the game to this day. I’ve had all sorts of projects in my time, but this game is definitely in a league of its own.

Tweet from Shigesato Itoi, preempting the documentary's announcement, March 2014[32]

In April 2014, siblings Jazzy and Robbie Benson announced the production of their documentary "about how EarthBound fans have fought to popularize the Mother series in North America since the 1990s", EarthBound, USA.[32] The Bensons had been conducting interviews with EarthBound fans and Starmen.net members for a year prior to the announcement.[32] They had previously begun a feature-length film about the events of EarthBound.[33][34] Starmen.net "inspired" the documentary, which seeks to explain how the site's members convened via online message board and the consequent "re-emergence of a cult classic" and birth of Fangamer.[32] The filmmakers had been planning to wait longer before making the announcement, but were preempted in part by interest following a tweet from series creator Shigesato Itoi, which mentioned their interview.

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Fansite

Fansite

A fansite, fan site, fan blog or fan page is a website created and maintained by a fan or devotee about a celebrity, thing, or particular cultural phenomenon.

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Europe and Oceania, and 1993 in South America. In Japan, it is called the Super Famicom (SFC). In South Korea, it is called the Super Comboy and was distributed by Hyundai Electronics. The system was released in Brazil on August 30, 1993, by Playtronic. Although each version is essentially the same, several forms of regional lockout prevent cartridges for one version from being used in other versions.

Pokémon

Pokémon

Pokémon is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures. The franchise was created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996, and is centered around fictional creatures called "Pokémon". In Pokémon, Pokémon Trainers are people who catch, train, care for, and battle with Pokémon. The English slogan for the franchise is "Gotta Catch ‘Em All!". There are currently 1015 Pokémon species.

Game Boy Color

Game Boy Color

The Game Boy Color is a handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on October 21, 1998 and to international markets that November. It is the successor to the Game Boy and is part of its product line. Critics like IGN consider it more akin to a hardware revision than a next generation product.

Game Boy Advance

Game Boy Advance

The Game Boy Advance (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2001, and in mainland China as iQue Game Boy Advance on June 8, 2004. The GBA is part of the sixth generation of video game consoles. The original model does not have an illuminated screen; Nintendo addressed that with the release of a redesigned model with a frontlit screen, the Game Boy Advance SP, in 2003. A newer revision of the redesign was released in 2005, with a backlit screen. Around the same time, the final redesign, the Game Boy Micro, was released in September 2005.

Nintendo Power

Nintendo Power

Nintendo Power was a video game news and strategy magazine from Nintendo of America, first published in July/August 1988 as Nintendo's official print magazine for North America. The magazine's publication was initially done monthly by Nintendo of America, then independently, and in December 2007 contracted to Future US, the American subsidiary of British publisher Future. Its 24–year production run is one of the longest of all video game magazines in the United States and Canada.

Mother 3 fan translation

Mother 3 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.

Development hell

Development hell

Development hell, also known as development purgatory or development limbo, is media and software industry jargon for a project, concept, or idea that remains in a stage of early development for a long time, because the project is stuck in legal, technical, or artistic challenges. A work may move between many sets of artistic leadership, crews, scripts, game engines, or studios. Many projects which end up in development hell never progress into production, and are gradually abandoned by the involved parties.

Kingdom Hearts II

Kingdom Hearts II

Kingdom Hearts II is a 2005 action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix in collaboration with Buena Vista Games for the PlayStation 2 video game console. The game is a sequel to Kingdom Hearts, and like the original game, combines characters and settings from Disney films with those of Square Enix's Final Fantasy series. An expanded re-release of the game featuring new and additional content, Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, was released exclusively in Japan in March 2007. The Final Mix version of the game was later remastered in high definition and released globally as a part of the Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix collection for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows, and Nintendo Switch.

Dragon Ball

Dragon Ball

Dragon Ball is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The initial manga, written and illustrated by Toriyama, was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995, with the 519 individual chapters collected into 42 tankōbon volumes by its publisher Shueisha. Dragon Ball was originally inspired by the classical 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, combined with elements of Hong Kong martial arts films. The series follows the adventures of protagonist Son Goku from his childhood through adulthood as he trains in martial arts. He spends his childhood far from civilization until he meets a teen girl named Bulma, who encourages him to join her quest in exploring the world in search of the seven orbs known as the Dragon Balls, which summon a wish-granting dragon when gathered. Along his journey, Goku makes several other friends, becomes a family man, discovers his alien heritage, and battles a wide variety of villains, many of whom also seek the Dragon Balls.

ROM image

ROM image

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.

Patch (computing)

Patch (computing)

A patch is a set of changes to a computer program or its supporting data designed to update, fix, or improve it. This includes fixing security vulnerabilities and other bugs, with such patches usually being called bugfixes or bug fixes. Patches are often written to improve the functionality, usability, or performance of a program. The majority of patches are provided by software vendors for operating system and application updates.

Fangames

After Mother 3, Shigesato Itoi declared that he was done with the series.[35] In response to Nintendo's seeming indifference to another Mother sequel, fans began to develop their own entry, Mother 4, in October 2010.[36] As of September 2016,[37] the Mother 4 development team had not received a cease and desist letter from Nintendo.[35] In a preview of the game, Jason Schreier of Kotaku said Mother 4 looked "stunning", as "everything you could possibly want out of a new Mother game", from the music to the environment design.[35] The fan-made game was planned for release in 2014 but has been delayed twice. No future release date has been set.[38] Mother 4 was to be playable as a standalone game, without need for an emulator.[39] In March 2017, however, the team decided that as a preventative measure from getting taken down, the game was rebranded, with 'Mother 4' no longer being the title of the game, and all direct references to the Mother series, like Mr. Saturn, were removed. The decision came after many recent fan games received a DMCA notice.[40] The developers later rebranded the game as Oddity. There have been no development updates since December 2020.[41]

The game takes place in a parody of contemporary America, as a boy named Travis leaves his town of Belring to join three others in a fight against the "mysterious" Modern Men.[39] The game is expected to associate with the stories of the previous series games, and be similar in length. Its music and visuals are similar in style to the rest of the series. Oddity features a new soundtrack. Its creators are currently working on a voluntary basis without compensation.[39]

Another Mother 4 fangame is in development, as of late 2021, and includes elements like rolling hit point counters, rhythm-based attacks, and an art style derivative of the series.[41]

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Oddity (video game)

Oddity (video game)

Oddity is an upcoming role-playing video game. Its development was first announced in 2008 as Mother 4, an unofficial fan game in Nintendo's Mother series. Over the course of development, the game removed its ties to the series and rebranded as its own entity in early 2020. It has no set release date.

Fangame

Fangame

A fangame is a video game that is created by fans of a certain topic or IP. They are usually based on one, or in some cases several, video game entries or franchises. Many fangames attempt to clone or remake the original game's design, gameplay, and characters, but it is equally common for fans to develop a unique game using another as a template. Though the quality of fangames has always varied, recent advances in computer technology and in available tools, e.g. through open source software, have made creating high-quality games easier. Fangames can be seen as user-generated content, as part of the retrogaming phenomena, and as expression of the remix culture.

Cease and desist

Cease and desist

A cease and desist letter is a document sent to an individual or business to stop alleged illegal activity. The phrase "cease and desist" is a legal doublet, made up of two near-synonyms. The letter may warn that, if the recipient does not discontinue specified conduct, or take certain actions, by deadlines set in the letter, that party, i.e. the letter's recipient, may be sued. When issued by a public authority, a cease and desist letter, being "a warning of impending judicial enforcement", is most appropriately called a "cease and desist order".

Jason Schreier

Jason Schreier

Jason Schreier is a journalist and author who primarily covers the video game industry. He worked as a news reporter for Kotaku from 2011 to 2020 and was recognized for several investigative stories, particularly on the crunch culture within the industry. In April 2020, Schreier joined the technology focus team at Bloomberg News.

Kotaku

Kotaku

Kotaku is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to copyrighted works. It also criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself. In addition, the DMCA heightens the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet. Passed on October 12, 1998, by a unanimous vote in the United States Senate and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on October 28, 1998, the DMCA amended Title 17 of the United States Code to extend the reach of copyright, while limiting the liability of the providers of online services for copyright infringement by their users.

Source: "EarthBound fandom", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2022, November 7th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EarthBound_fandom.

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References
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Further reading

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