Earthbound 2 Emulator
Edco Haglund
A tip for everyone (like me) who loved Earthbound and does the whole emulator thing: Earthbound is actually a prequel to a game called Mother in japan. I just call it Earthbound 2. If you look hard enough you can find a version fully translated into english, and the battle system has been improved by adding a bit of a musical flare. Every enemy (or group of enemies) has a different melody playing in the background, and if you hit the button repeatedly on the beat, you get in multiple hits. All in all, great game, highly recommended.
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I think many people want a new version of Earthbound to play (not me, the SNES english version was great), but it seems like it would be a lot easier for someone to re-translate Mother2 and just play Earthbound or Mother2 while reading the translated script.
Guys, I am trying my best to get a team together to work on this translation of MOTHER 2. If any rom hackers read this check out my web URL attached, and if anybody here is a MOTHER fan (WHICH THEY ARE OBVIOUSLY) please spread the word! I need all the help possible with this job.
Now, if somebody made something similar to the Supercard DSTWO for the GBA, which contains a co-processor much more powerful than the internal DS processor, then it might be possible. But I doubt there would be enough demand to even attempt this.
Not to mention the audio hardware is completely different, so the music (which is made in a similar manner to programming during this era) could not be directly ported. Hence the horrible replication attempt by Mother 1+2.
@TheZunar123: as Schlupi said, the DSTwo and its hardware-powered SNES emulator is the best bet to play EarthBound on a DS: no bugs with the layering (compared to SNEmulDS), fullspeed, better sound than the GBA version.
Now what struck me is he almost immediately commented that the only reason he could imagine them using such a complex and fairly convoluted scripting language to make the game like this was if they were trying to salvage and convert code from some sort of earlier version of the project.
To be honest, in the long run for Earthbound hacking, it might be easier to pull a Zelda Classic like port creation, minus all of the problems that community faces, for the series to the PC, i.e. Windows, GNU/Linux, and Mac, than it would be to bother hacking away at the games themselves. Then again, that of course is another can of worms that could possibly be a pain to deal with as well.
If using a more advanced tool or if trying to take the EarthBound script and stick it into Mother 2, then all bets are off as it gets a lot more complicated as you have to recompute every address and every pointer.
Also, while the MOTHER 1+2 versions of MOTHER and MOTHER 2 are no doubt inferior, the main selling point is that you now play the whole MOTHER series on the go! Why did you think they made MOTHER 1+2 in the first place?
i was thinking of making mother 1+2+3 a port of all mother games for pc and i was going to have a 3d mode on it and i was gonna port it to 3ds wale keeping the original graphics did you need the source code to port mother 3
I see why the text scripting is so complicated! They added delays into the text to add imersion to the game when reading the text. For example: Mr Saturn: Use hot spring to wash off exauhtion, dakota. VS. Mr Saturn: Use hot spring to was off exauhtion, [DELAY] dakota.
I'm about to take a trip soon, and I'll only have my less powered laptop to play on for a couple months. Earthbound (Mother 2) for the Super Nintendo is one of my all time favorite games, and I'm looking for some other similar RPG's that I can play. If you haven't played Earthbound yet, do yourself a favor and get a SNES emulator and give it a go. I'm probably due for a replay pretty soon myself.
Games like EB
Mother 3 - The long awaited sequel to Earthbound, and it did not disappoint. You'll need the Mother 3 ROM, a GBA Emulator, and the Mother 3 Fan Translation to play. Do it!
Undertale - I didn't buy into the hype train, but when I finally played oh man was I a happy camper; the praise is not undeserved.
LISA - A darker sort of RPG with adult themes, but still an emotionally charged and powerful game.
Boot Hill Heroes - Basically Earthbound in the wild west. The story dragged a little at some parts, but still a great game and awesome soundtrack.
Citizens of Earth - I followed this one eagerly before its release, but upon playing for a few hours it didn't really draw me in. Will pick it back up again at some point.
Why Am I Dead At Sea - Murder mystery in the Earthbound style, haven't played it yet but it's on my list.
Fan Games / RPG Maker and other inspired stuff. Haven't played any of these yet.
Mother 4 Fan Game - This is the one I'm really looking forward to. Been in development for several years now, but when it's finally released it should be great.
Mother: Cognitive Dissonance - Another fan game set in the Earthbound universe
OFF - Highly regarded French surreal adventure RPG that has been translated into English. Want to play soon.
Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden - RPG starring basketball star Charles Barkley. Heard good things about this one.
Space Funeral - Interesting art style, looks kind of darker & bloodier like LISA.
Yume Nikki - Heard this was pretty creepy & surreal
Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass - Don't know much about this one, definitely looks Earthboundy
IB - Another creepy one, looks similar to OFF
Patty and Mr Piles - Someone recommended this one, don't know much about it either
Upcoming Games
Knuckle Sandwich - After Mother 4 Fan, the game I'm most anticipating
Crossing Souls - More of the "new 16bit" style that is popular these days. Government conspiracy plot reminiscent of Stranger Things (not a bad thing!)
Omori - I can't say I love the black-and-white palate but the story looks interesting.
Ikenfell - Like the art style here, kinda draws from Zelda and Earthbound
GLITCHED - Yep, looks very much like Mother 3. Don't know much about it.
If you like Point and Click Adventures you can't go wrong with Wadjet Eye Games. I also recently played Sheltered and The Escapists and enjoyed both of them a lot but they are definitely not games for everyone because the gameplay gets a bit repetetive. (with Sheltered mostly after you have a decent stash of food, petrol and other equiment and have several expeditions going and with The Escapists right from the beginning because as they already tell you in the Tutorial "Prison life is about routine.")
Less EarthBoundy, but may appeal to similar tastes:
Creepy Castle - Cute adventure game that isn't afraid to switch between silly and unnerving at the drop of a hat. I noticed Mato (the guy responsible for the Mother 3 fan translation) in the backer credits.
I played OFF, Barkley, Space Funeral, Yume Nikki, Ib and I heartily recommend all of these (although Space Funeral is more weird than dark / bloody and Ib is closer in atmosphere to Yume Nikki than OFF).
Two Brothers is currently removed from Steam but you might find a key for it somewhere. Weird setting where people live in houses carved in living animals and where you're hunted by an enemy who can glitch the game (this is intended, though the game has more unrelated bugs and crashes than a Bethesda game).
I started Anodyne but didn't get very far. The game itself was fine, but as far as I saw there wasn't much of a story. Void Pyramid looks cool, will definitely try that one out. And the VGperson stuff should keep me busy for quite awhile, thanks!
It was late, my girlfriend was asleep in my bed, and all I wanted to do was play a little Earthbound. I looked around my room and saw my retro collection of games boxed away under my desk. To get them out would make a lot of noise and honestly, would be a hassle. I then looked towards my Wii. Earthbound is of course a Nintendo game, so naturally Nintendo of America would release one of the SNES' most unique games on their Virtual Console service, right? No, they didn't. Okay, I thought to myself, that's fine. I'm sure they have a date set for its release, or at least mentioned it at some point. No, they have not. Well fuck me.
This brought me to my last resort; Emulators. Yeah I'll admit, emulators are cool and convenient, but there's just something missing when playing emulator versions of games. I want an official version that I can throw money at and enjoy until the end of time. I sit in front of my computer enough already. I don't want to do it as I play my classic games.
I suppose my biggest grip with this situation is based on two things. First of all, why does Nintendo ignore the Earthbound series so much? Based on the fact that it's such a unique experience, it would seem right that a company like Nintendo would love to continue a series with a cool take on RPGs. The offense does not just lay in their refusal to release Earthbound to current gamers, but also in the fact that Mother 3, the sequel to Earthbound, never actually made it stateside, nor did the original Earthbound game on NES. I remember being on Tumblr, the greatest blog site ever, and seeing people blog screen caps of those games with some random dude's translation. Again, why can't I have an official version I can throw my money at?
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You see both of these issues could be solved by one awesome solution. Release the collection on the DS with all three games. Rather than giving us Ocarina of Time for the 20th time, revamp the Earthbound series for a new generation. That game's humor, writing, and music is still fresh to this day. But I doubt that will happen anytime soon.
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