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EarthBound series - Mother

EarthBound series - Mother: Encyclopedia II - EarthBound series - Mother

Translation of opening text: In the early 1900s, a dark shadow covered a small county town in rural America. At that time, a young married couple vanished mysteriously from their home. The man's name was George, the woman's name was Maria. Two years later, as suddenly as he left, George returned. He never told anyone where he had been or what he had done. But, he began an odd study all by himself. As for Maria, his wife... she never returned. ...

EarthBound series: Encyclopedia II - EarthBound series - Mother

EarthBound series - Mother

Translation of opening text:

In the early 1900s, a dark shadow covered a small county town in rural America. At that time, a young married couple vanished mysteriously from their home. The man's name was George, the woman's name was Maria. Two years later, as suddenly as he left, George returned. He never told anyone where he had been or what he had done. But, he began an odd study all by himself. As for Maria, his wife... she never returned. The year is 1988, in the outskirts of Mother's Day.

Mother told the story of a young boy who had to journey around the world to save the planet from an evil race of mind-controlling aliens. Along the way he was joined by several friends, and met many unusual characters and visited strange settings before ultimately confronting the leader of the aliens. The game was a smash hit in Japan, and gamers appreciated its unorthodox and refreshing take on the often formulaic role-playing game genre.

Nintendo of America planned to translate and release the first Mother game in the United States under the title EarthBound. The game was ultimately deemed unprofitable for a US release, however, and the project was cancelled after the game had already been translated and all packaging and advertising was ready. It was confirmed by former Nintendo employee Phil Sandhop, that Nintendo refused to release EarthBound (Zero) in America because the Super Nintendo had already been released in America and they thought that no one would notice a new NES game because a large number of gamers had already shelved their Nintendo Entertainment Systems for their new Super Nintendo. Simply put, it was due to marketing.

In recent years, one of the auctioned beta cartridges of the game was made into a ROM and circulated for download on the Internet. To avoid confusion, the game was dubbed EarthBound 0 by fan translation group Neo Demiforce, as Nintendo had since released the Super Nintendo sequel to Mother in America under the title EarthBound.

Fans of the series and other video game enthusiasts still debate today as to the origin of the original development cartridge. Some people claim that the original beta cartridge is just an elaborate hoax in which a translated rom of the original Mother was burned to a blank EPROM chip and passed off as a prototype. Other less skeptical fans contest that the original prototype is a legitimate relic that managed to be saved from destruction.