Mother 1 for NES

[Pezcore343]

Does anyone know how rare and the cost of the English cartridge of Mother (Earthbound Zero)? I know there were only beta cartridges made, but I don't know how many there are in existence or how much it would cost to acquire one.

[Moo Cow]

I believe only one has been found, and considering complete copies of the SNES one go for over 200 hundred dollars, you'd definitely pay a lot if you want it. I doubt they would sell it though.

[Pezcore343]

I didn't think anyone would sell, I was just wondering if it was the kind of situation where only the developers had a copy.

[shoes23]

If you wanted a copy (reproduction), you could check out nesreproductions.com. You have to supply $25 and a donor cart, but you can play it on the original hardware. Haven't personally tried them, although many people on this board have vouched for them in the past.

[Pezcore343]

So it's like sticking a rom on a blank NES cart? Where would I procure such a cart?

[Family Computer]

you don't need a blank cart, you send them a cart with a similar chipset required by "Earthbound Zero". They replace the ROM chip with the one for the translated Mother ROM and switch the artwork with their custom made label.

[mydjsobad]

yeah, getting a repro is the way to go.

Regarding the proto itself, IIRC a second one was located last year along with one of the campus challenge carts and several star fox super weekend carts and sold for a few grand online. The guy who found it bought it off of a former NOA employee, and snagged a bunch of internal library SNES carts and stuff with it.

[Pezcore343]

Why can't I have connections like that? The best I can do is going through the back rooms in my gamestop for any hidden goodies.

[mydjsobad]

In the thread, the buyer said he found them as part of like a moving or garage sale. It wasn't like he knew the guy previously.

[smokehouse]

I have the reproduction Earthbound 0 and it plays flawlessly. If you’re really interested in it, I say go for it.

It’s really a neat thing to have in your collection.

[kainemaxwell]

But how's the game itself?

Dunno how I'd mark it on my collection list though, lol

[Gamingking]

I have Earthbound on SNES. Had a guy wanting to sell a copy of Earthbound on NES awhile back, it appeared to be the same as Earthbound snes.

[ubersaurus]

NES and SNES Earthbound games are different. SNES one is a sequel. We've been over this to death.

Anyway it plays like a primitive version of the SNES one. Random battles, crazy hard enemies who outclass you at every turn...it's not an easy game. But if you know how to get through it, it's not that long.

It reminds me of Phantasy Star in that regard.

[Jorpho]

I seem to recall that the original proto carts had a few complications of their own which had to be hacked in order to make the "Earthbound Zero" ROM out there today.

Anyway, if you really want to play the game on a console, you might as well use the Mother 1+2 translation patch for the GBA release. Put it on a GBA flashcart, and you can even use it in a Game Boy Player!
http://www.romhacking.net/trans/868/

[ubersaurus]

I seem to recall that the original proto carts had a few complications of their own which had to be hacked in order to make the "Earthbound Zero" ROM out there today.

Anyway, if you really want to play the game on a console, you might as well use the Mother 1+2 translation patch for the GBA release. Put it on a GBA flashcart, and you can even use it in a Game Boy Player!
http://www.romhacking.net/trans/868/

What the problem was that the early emulators weren't good enough and would trigger the game's anti-piracy programming. Current emulators, as I understand, will play the original ROM just fine.

[rbudrick]

Two official prototypes have been found, iirc.

-Rob

[coreycorey2000]

I'm pretty sure there are three original protos now. I think two were found last year.

[rbudrick]

Corey, I was thinking of you when I said it, but I think I was confusing your M3 disks with an EB0 proto when I thought it.

(BTW, update on the M3 disks? The suspense has been slowly torturing me!)

I know the guy that found the Campus Challenge and Powerfest '94 carts found one. Who was the other?

-Rob