Earthbound / Mother: English Final Version Prototype

[iiimegamaniii]

Hello!

I was going through my old NES stuff and came across one of my prototypes. My buddy posted a picture of it here: http://www.bspquakeeditor.com/users/sort/eb1.jpg

Essentially, this was one of two final copies--the last English translation I'm aware of. After that, Nintendo killed the U.S. release.

At any rate, just seeing if there might be some interest out there. (And yes, it works perfect as when I loaded the saved game my little Lv. 32 buddy was at the final save point before Giegue.)

Thanks!

[skaar]

Unleash the hounds!

[Superman]

Unleash the hounds!

Yes, but these stories are usually pretty interesting. At least for awhile.

[iiimegamaniii]

I'll take some more pictures after work and throw 'em up. I will have no problem proving myself / the cart is authentic--I just don't know if Nintendo still goes after ex-employees like they did (I've been out of the games industry for a while).

At any rate, "I'll be back..."

- Mega

[iiimegamaniii]

After a couple of PMs, people already figured-out who I am. LOL Gotta luv the Internet & people's smarts, eh?

So, is there a ballpark figure / interest in the cart? I'd even autograph it. I'll have to see if I have the NP mags in my garage and I would auto / include those as well. Any advice would be appreciated. eBay the thing?

- Mega

[Flibbith]

dang, I'd like to get my hands on that...

[Baloo]

Are you someone that worked on the game or something?

[iiimegamaniii]

Yes.

Just today, I have three people who have identified me / can vouch for me. Like I said, it doesn't take much investigation to figure out who I am. But still, would like to stay off of the "Big N's" radar.

- Mega

[iiimegamaniii]

More pics...

http://www.bspquakeeditor.com/users/sort/protos

- Mega

[Mayhem]

I can imagine some people are screaming "cover up those EPROM windows!" right now heh...

[eskobar]

I am a bit off from this thread because i don't know who you are .... can you please tell us ? :P

Great pictures :D

[TheRedEye]

More pics...

http://www.bspquakeeditor.com/users/sort/protos

- Mega

What are the other games toward the bottom there? I'm not interested in spending big bucks on EarthBound, but might be for some other titles.

[Flibbith]

What are the other games toward the bottom there? I'm not interested in spending big bucks on EarthBound, but might be for some other titles.

I too, would like to know what those other games are

[iiimegamaniii]

Dragon Warrior III & The Imortal.

Both are a little pixilated (unlike EB), and I am looking for my NES to see if it's due to my friend's NES / eliminate it as a possibility.

- Mega

[TheRedEye]

Dragon Warrior III & The Imortal.

Both are a little pixilated (unlike EB), and I am looking for my NES to see if it's due to my friend's NES / eliminate it as a possibility.

- Mega

Not interested personally, but those are both really cool titles that I'm sure someone here would be stoked to have. Let us/me know if you find anything else!

[mrmark0673]

I can imagine some people are screaming "cover up those EPROM windows!" right now heh...

Ha! That's the first thing that I thought. Very cool stuff you have there, especially the EB proto.

[iiimegamaniii]

Thanks guys for the PMs & advice.

It seems there is a consensus I try the "eBay waters" for my three titles. Yes / No?

I lost interest in games a few years ago because they didn't have the "soul" like the retro games had. To date, the NES and early SNES (along with a couple of Genesis titles) is where the gaming industry needs to get back to IMHO. The graphics of today are just stellar, but just don't have the heart of yester-year. Maybe it's turning out how people view music... what you grew up with will always have a special place and be able to relive some of your memories. <I'm still into 80's music.> LOL

- Mega

[Dr. Dib]

Well if you haven't contacted them yet, try making a post or e-mail the folks at Starmen.net about selling your prototype of Earthbound. You'll probably get a good amount of responses there. I'm sure there are also the equivalent Dragon Quest fan sites that may be interested in your copy of Dragon Warrior III too.

That being said, you'll probably be able to get the most amount of money on Ebay as that is how it usually works, but you may have to deal with fraudulent bidders. Worse, someone may purposely bid up the item for fun and then refuse to pay.

Probably the best route to go is post it on Ebay with a buy it now price and then also have a way to make an offer, similar to how the gold NWC cart was sold. That way you'll get the best deal and probably end up selling it to a person for the right price and the least amount of hassle.


Or if you are really nice you could send them to me and know you did a good thing for a goo... dece............ well I'd appreciate the offer and might even give you my own personal copy of ET for the Atari 2600.

Whatever you do, don't do Craigslist unless you want a bunch of e-mails asking if you'll sell them the game for $15 because they really want it and don't have a lot of money.

[iiimegamaniii]

Thanks for the advice my good Dr. :) Since I'm still local to the "Big N", here's to hoping I still stay under the radar.

- Mega

[iiimegamaniii]

For those of you who wrote to me in regards to the EPROMs being uncovered, rest assured they are being well taken care of and I haven't had anything wiped as of yet. ;) <But, they are being storedd in a dark place and will be covered shortly--just in case.>

- Mega

[iiimegamaniii]

The first is live / up on eBay (Earthbound / Mother):

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140342810646

- Mega

[delafro]

Gonna have to watch that one! Let the bidding begin.

[Flibbith]

oh damn, already at $900.00

[Dungeon Master]

Dang, auction's been pulled. Any idea what happened? :(

[Flibbith]

aww :(

[iiimegamaniii]

Ya, apparently someone reported me as a "hacker" and eBay locked me out of my account and pulled the auction. Once I spent nearly an hour with them, they gave me my account back and said they wouldn't pull the auction again if I decided to relist it. (Oh, and the apology for the hassle they put me through, of course.)

Going to sleep on things right now as I don't know exactly what I'm going to do. Will be back tomorrow. Thanks for checking in / following the drama. <It seems no matter how old you get, you just can't escape it.>

- Mega

[LucasTizma]

Yeah, I heavily suspect some idiot at SM.net reported the auction. Sorry about all that! Again, it was great to meet/talk with you, Mega. I wish I had the disposable capital at the moment to trump your highest bidder, but it was still awesome that one of the elusive EB0 prototypes was discovered. Hopefully the new owner will stay in touch with the Interwebz community so it doesn't get lost again. ;)

[LucasTizma]

Thanks guys for the PMs & advice.

It seems there is a consensus I try the "eBay waters" for my three titles. Yes / No?

I lost interest in games a few years ago because they didn't have the "soul" like the retro games had. To date, the NES and early SNES (along with a couple of Genesis titles) is where the gaming industry needs to get back to IMHO. The graphics of today are just stellar, but just don't have the heart of yester-year. Maybe it's turning out how people view music... what you grew up with will always have a special place and be able to relive some of your memories. <I'm still into 80's music.> LOL

- Mega

Ha ha. We were born to the RIGHT generation of gaming, as I COMPLETELY agree with you. NES/SNES era was definitely the prime of gaming. Gaming is so mainstream and Hollywoodized these days, with several notable exceptions throughout the last several years. In any case, I think a resurgence of old school would be sweet!

[TheRedEye]

Yeah, I heavily suspect some idiot at SM.net reported the auction.

Maybe, but it very easily could have been someone who assumed the cart was a bootleg. There have been so many bootleg EarthBound auctions that some people probably forget that there are legitimate copies out there.

[iiimegamaniii]

Nice To Meet You Too LT.

I tried to go about this the most proper and trustworthy way I knew how, but it only takes one to bring things to an end. At any rate, whoever "wins" will be asked how much info they want divulged--along with me providing enough proof so they don't run into the same issues in the future if they decide to part with the cart. That's why I offered to show you and the mod over at Starmen.net my website (http://www.mattalderman.com).

Thanks again for all of you who took me up on the offer to answer any question via PM to verify who I am and what I have. I was trying to be open from the get-go.

For the record, Phil's job was pretty big and we as GPCs routinely had "special projects" which got us off of the phones (prior to me doing other things in the future). Phil was in charge of verifying / correcting the translation, and since the game was so large, farmed-out checking chunks of the game. This is how I contributed and had access to the title. Prior to Final Fantasy III getting stolen (a 3rd-party title), it was special to be trusted to play and take a prototype (ROM) game home to play. After which, it was nearly impossible to get your hands on one. <"Losing" a 3rd-party prototype game was definitely not a good thing to do.>

So there we are, I'll stay in touch and let you know what I'm allowed to.

- Matt

[iiimegamaniii]

NES / SNES / Genesis = The "Golden Age Of Gaming" :)

- Matt

[Flibbith]

NES / SNES / Genesis = The "Golden Age Of Gaming" :)

- Matt

Amen to that :hail:

[LucasTizma]

NES / SNES / Genesis = The "Golden Age Of Gaming" :)

- Matt

Kids these days don't know what they're missin'! 8-)

[Jorpho]

By some remarkable coincidence, the Mother 1+2 GBA translation [of Mother 1] seems to finally perhaps be said to resemble something that could be construed as maybe approaching a release date.

[Dr. Dib]

By some remarkable coincidence, the Mother 1+2 GBA translation [of Mother 1] seems to finally perhaps be said to resemble something that could be construed as maybe approaching a release date.

[if you are referring to a fan translation, this paragraph is irrelevant]
Source please? Last i heard Earthbound was tangled up in problems with rights. As a post on Earthbound noticed, a rerelease of Earthbound (SNES version) was cancelled due to problems with legalities. Basically, many songs were created by sampling other copyrighted song. This is a common practice, but usually requires some acknowledgement of the copyright holder. There are some other stuff involved that can be summed up here (http://earthboundcentral.com/2009/02/earthbound-legal-issues/). That does it better than I can.

Anyway, its glad to know people have become more trusting of you. It was probably a good idea to provide a picture on your My Ebay. By looking at a NP picture, it is fairly easy to see it is the same person, just a little aged. And without the early 90s hairdo...

[Jorpho]

[if you are referring to a fan translation, this paragraph is irrelevant]Yeah, that.