The Video Game History Foundation does a lot of good work tracking down, preserving and archiving significant video game artifacts, and their most recent find is a big one: the original script files used in the process of translating Nintendo’s EarthBound to English. The files were on a floppy drive owned by Marcus Lindblom, the man responsible for the translation.
EarthBound turns 25 years old this summer. Overlooked on its initial release in 1995, the quirky RPG soon gained a following that increased exponentially year after year. It now boasts fans in the millions and may be THE most popular “cult classic” game of all time. We’re still waiting for the needle to move on Mother 3, however.
Perhaps no other video game has such a devoted cult following as EarthBound. People love the quirky RPG from Japanese humorist Shigesato Itoi, itself the second of three games released in Japan. To this day, there are still loud cries for an official translated release of the final game in the trilogy, known as Mother 3.
More stuff coming to Super Mario Maker, just in time for Christmas! Nintendo has announced in Japan that Mr. Saturn and Master Belch sprites, from EarthBound, will be added to the Mystery Mushroom roster, distributed by the usual method (beating an Event Course). Right now that announcement has been made only for Japan, but we can safely assume we’re also getting these sprites, given the heavily Japanese ones we’ve been receiving over the past two months. These two Mario skins will be added to the game tomorrow in Japan.