Possible further proof that there is an EarthBound proto.

[Veepa]

I don't know if there is any doubt that there is a translated EarthBound (Mother) prototype,.. and I don't know if this little piece has been brough to the public's eye.. but I was looking through an old Nintendo Power (Issue 21, February 1991), and I came across this GPC profile...


So it must mean that the GPCs were given translated prototypes.. I doubt this guy understands Japanese. And he didn't call it "Mother", he called it Earth Bound.

If this has already been shown, just delete it quickly to spare me the embarassment.

[jajaja]

I havnt seen it before atleast. The ROM of earthbound that excist. Is that the offical translation or homemade?

[Veepa]

Like I said... it's from the February 1991 issue.. before the Super Nintendo was released..

[jajaja]

Ye, I edited my previous post. Saw you wrote it

[Qixmaster]

that's a pretty valid point right there, but maybe the guy DOES speak japanese. nice detective work though
-Josh

[Spawnmc]

So first thing, I'd like to say thanks for scanning my long-lost GPC profile from the Startropics issue of Nintendo Power... I've been bidding on copies of that for months on eBay to no avail...

Next up, a shout out to Qaotik for emailing me the request to join this thread.

Now if that information doesn't convince you that I am THE Shawn McGoldrick pictured above and possibly below. Well, um, ah, I don't know how else to convince you.

I was one of the last Game Play Counselors to achieve the internal ranking of Advanced Super Agent. My tenure at the great N in Redmond lasted from 1990 to 1994.

I tested Mother/Earthbound along with several other hand-picked GPC's and the on-site full time testers for over 6-months and about twice as many revisions.

The name changed from Mother (deemed to provocative by some enlightened suit) to Earthbound (most likely someone told them the game involved aliens coming to Earth).

The game was completely translated and since the boards had battery based backup memory, the game featured a cool way of rewarding players for completing it by including the players name in the end credits (extracted by a few inquisitive NPC's throughout the game).

I was allowed to seed the game name in my profile after long deliberations determined that the game would soon be released. 4-5 months later, however, some other suit who probably never even played ANY game on the NES decided the premise of Earthbound was too weird and that gamers wouldn't get it. They were totally wrong, but who will ever really know.

To this day, this game was probably the most engaging and fun game I ever played. Over the course of the test period I probably beat it about 100 times.

When I left Nintendo, well after the release of the SNES and Gameboy, (if my memory serves) I had a tally of about 600+ games under my belt, but some petty manager confiscated all of my hand drawn maps and notes on my last day of work (I had had enough and quit under what I thought was an amicable situation). I later worked for Sony during the role out of the PS doing demo's and presentations up and down the west coast.

I don't know if any of you care but:

As I look at that profile and cringe at the hair, Another interesting tidbit floats up in my feeble brain: I was the first GPC ever allowed to be photographed wearing an earring (I snuck it in to the photoshoot and put it back in when they weren't looking... I'm such a rebel!)

Anyway, I hope this clarifies any discussion on the matter. I had actually been given a prototype board with the Earthbound eprom for my personal collection when the testing had completed. I subsequently lent it to a close friend and fellow GPC to play and never saw it again... I will see if by any chance he still has it...

Hasta!

Shawn

I don't know if there is any doubt that there is a translated EarthBound (Mother) prototype,.. and I don't know if this little piece has been brough to the public's eye.. but I was looking through an old Nintendo Power (Issue 21, February 1991), and I came across this GPC profile...


So it must mean that the GPCs were given translated prototypes.. I doubt this guy understands Japanese. And he didn't call it "Mother", he called it Earth Bound.

If this has already been shown, just delete it quickly to spare me the embarassment.

[Spawnmc]

, I can barely pronounce the japanese names of sushi when I order it...

So, no I don't read japanese... The game was completely translated from the first version I played on... One of the things we were tasked with was proofing all of the "all your base" type of phrases out of the game.

Shawn...

that's a pretty valid point right there, but maybe the guy DOES speak japanese. nice detective work though
-Josh

[Veepa]

Wow, I never expected the actual GPC who was profiled to turn up in this thread. But thanks for all of the info.. I think it's pretty idiotic that they changed the name because they thought "Mother" suggested incest.. that's just weird. Good luck finding your prototype.. And I'm glad to see that I was right about it being translated...

By the way.. I loved the hair.

[ubersaurus]

Theredeye did an article on lostlevels about Earthbound's proto where he proved pretty conclusively that it was legit.

Just throwing that out there.

[Mia D]

I was one of the last Game Play Counselors to achieve the worthless internal ranking of Advanced Super Agent. My tenure at the great N in Redmond lasted from 1990 to 1994.

Shawn, have you played the rom that's been floating around? If so, how does it compare to the one you tested?

[rbudrick]

Anyway, I hope this clarifies any discussion on the matter. I had actually been given a prototype board with the Earthbound eprom for my personal collection when the testing had completed. I subsequently lent it to a close friend and fellow GPC to play and never saw it again... I will see if by any chance he still has it...

ChaCHING if you do have it...seriously...big bucks right there.

Shawn, you are the second NOA GPC related thread this week. Check out this, if you'd like:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/view...=743688#743688

And welcome to the boards. Hope you stick around! I don't doubt I called you several times back in the early 90s.

-Rob

[yuppicide]

Man, all the talk over this game is making me drool and I've never seen the game. They're right. If you can find this proto you'd have some very big bucks on your hands.

Man that hair is totally Saved By The Bell like.. 90210 rejected.

[Lady Jaye]

Welcome aboard Shawn! And it's cool to have confirmation that the Earthbound NES proto did exist.

(and good luck in recuperating it)

BTW, the hair is sooo early 90s! Then again, don't we all have older pictures of us wearing clothes or styles that make us cringe nowadays? I sure do when I look at my high school pictures from the late 80s/early 90s...

[stuffedmonkey]

Not the actual proto itself - but you can buy the game from nesreproductions.com.... For those of you who have never seen the site - the guy will burn roms onto an eeprom - then swap the chip with the rom from a real NES game. He does artwork for the carts too.

I haven't bought from him yet - but one of these days I am going to get around to getting an Earthbound off of him.

[mills]

wow, this thread is amazing. This and the other GPC involved one were fantastic reads.

[Spawnmc]

Man, all the talk over this game is making me drool and I've never seen the game. They're right. If you can find this proto you'd have some very big bucks on your hands.

Man that hair is totally Saved By The Bell like.. 90210 rejected.

Ease up on the hair guys! Nirvanna hadn't ruined it for me and my Duran Duran inspired "do" yet in seattle, so my coif was a real crowd pleaser with tha' ladies!

If you've read Ben Smiths' article (I was a writer on his ELMO team for about a year) you'll be tickled to learn that Paul Lange and I were in a band for short time called "Genetic Pedestrian". Two great mullets that played great together or something...

.s

[Spawnmc]

[quote="Mia D"]

Shawn, have you played the rom that's been floating around? If so, how does it compare to the one you tested?

No I haven't. I would be curious to try it out but I really haven't looked back at the NES/SNES stuff since I departed the company.

More worthless info about my run at Nintendo: I contributed screen shots for Nintendo Power magazine and was a Priniciple artist for the Mario Paint guide. My biggest claim to fame came when I was tapped to do the in game graphics for Super Play Action Football. It started out as my creating illustrations for the initial pitch, but with the programmers in Japan not having a clue about american football, the just started scanning my stuff and using it create the sprites...

I'll shut up now... lol...

.s

[sirhansirhan]

Not the actual proto itself - but you can buy the game from nesreproductions.com.... For those of you who have never seen the site - the guy will burn roms onto an eeprom - then swap the chip with the rom from a real NES game. He does artwork for the carts too.

I haven't bought from him yet - but one of these days I am going to get around to getting an Earthbound off of him.

Yeah, actually, a little over a week ago I just ordered two copies of his repro of Earthbound (one for me, one for a friend), and I had been anticipating their arrival greatly. Now that this thread has popped up, I am drooling and staying up at night waiting for them. I've checked the mail like five times already today (no kidding; the mail hasn't been delivered yet, and I'm going crazy).

[TheRedEye]

So did you manage to walk away with any other EPROM carts?

[Skrybe]

I had actually been given a prototype board with the Earthbound eprom for my personal collection when the testing had completed.

Wow, was Nintendo usually that quick to give out prototypes? I'd always heard that they were very careful about letting anything like that leak out.

And if you've got any other stories, related to Earthbound or not, please share! It's always interesting to hear insider kind of stuff like this.