Weekly Round-Up #4

February 8th, 2009 | Weekly Round-Up

Geez, did this past week ever fly by fast. This past week was a little less busy than usual – I still need to finish some things up and then the old Music Talk and Let’s Chat will be back, along with some other stuff. Wound up that people liked those things more than I expected, so that’s cool 😀

BTW, as always, if you have something you want to let me know about or if you want something included in one of these round-up updates, let me know here! I like being able to introduce people to new EarthBound stuff 😀

Well, let’s get right to it!

Site News

• Readers overwhelmingly approve of EarthBound in anime form – if only one existed…
• We took a detailed look at some official MOTHER 2 manga – more translations someday!
• We took a quick look at beta video of MOTHER 2 – so awesome
• Took a look at the sales figures of EarthBound and the MOTHER games – interesting stuff
• I still say the Runaway Dog music sounds like Tequila!
• I dug up a few existing partial MOTHER 1+2 translation patches – for those who can’t wait 😉
• Beware this save frog in MOTHER 3, it could kill your game!
• Enhanced EarthBound music!
• Shigesato Itoi talks briefly about his adulthood struggles
• A supposed new copy of EarthBound goes on eBay, but is it really new?
• A few more goofy EarthBound banners are now up and running on this site:
  • EarthBound Dieting
  • Hey, Monkey!
  • She Married HIM?!
  • Which Female EarthBound Character are You?

  If you want to help make some, see here!

EarthBound News

• A new major glitch in EarthBound was discovered! – the ultimate in sequence breaking
• MOTHER 3 is also being translated into Malay now!
• And it’s being translated into Dutch!

Cool Auctions & Merchandise

Here’s just a few things out there right now. Don’t forget you can always check the latest listings in one easy spot here if you’re looking for deals on something!

• MOTHER 1+2 and MOTHER 3 together!
• MOTHER 3 Mr. Saturn Plushie – soon to be made obsolete by those giant MOTHER 2 ones 😉
• MOTHER 3 Deluxe Box Set – very reasonable Buy-It-Now price w/ free shipping even!
• EarthBound Retail Display Box – really rare but maybe a bit overpriced?
• MOTHER 3 Incognito Mr. Saturn phone strap
• Rare MOTHER 1+2 Mr. Saturn screen cleaner
• Old Nintendo Power featuring some EarthBound stuff
• A different issue of Nintendo Power, also with some EarthBound stuff in it
• A very rare doujinshi from the MOTHER 3 2 1 fan event (see here for details)

Here’s some neat stuff on Yahoo! Auctions Japan:

• Rare MOTHER 2 store flier
• MOTHER 3 T-Shirts (Franklin Badge shirt and red MOTHER 3 shirt)
• MOTHER 3 Masked Man Cosplay Outfit – apparently he’s so bad that he stole Lucas’ Power Glove 😯

Also, if you’re going to somehow try to order one of those giant MOTHER 2 Mr. Saturn plushies, you better figure out how you’re gonna do it and then actually do it within the next three weeks! I recommend Celga if you desperately need a middleman.

Community News

• Check out Lumine Hall sometime! – a more laid-back forum for EarthBound fans
• I’m not really sure what this is, but I’m intrigued – NOTE: avoid if you don’t like naughty potty words
• BrushGuy releases a bunch of cool live-action EarthBound videos!
• Cognitive Dissonance fan game is nearing release?
• zaxtur64 has been working on a patch that uncensors EarthBound
• Rufus started on a music editor for EarthBound that makes sense
• Darrow continues to update The Chosen Four like a non-stop Mad Taxi
• Fans draw their own unique versions of Giegue
• Birdy & Chimera is updated! – and it has a cheesy crossover!
• Sexy Grandpa Porky is still in the middle of a fight!
• Ninten Speaks gets another update
• Fans go CRAZY and create a crapload of EarthBound fonts – whoa 😯

What’s Up With Itoi

• Itoi talked about how the era of wanting to constantly make everything new is probably ending. It wasn’t so long ago that folk songs were sung over and over, but nowadays it’s turned that if something isn’t new on that very day, it’s old news and worthless. This goes not just for music, but clothes too – people’s bodies haven’t altered dramatically in the past few thousand years, so it’s weird to demand constant changes from clothing. Itoi thinks there’s probably no one out there who absolutely demands everything to be new.
• Itoi also discussed how a lot of things, like advertising and comedy, have changed and that they’re more about analysis lately than they are about the original nature and purpose of them. In comedy, it’s common now to think, “Oh, that was a good joke” instead of taking the joke as a joke and not something to be analyzed. Advertising is the same way.
• Itoi recently got a Roomba. He says it’s not bad at all and he talked about it a bit.
• Later on, Itoi talked again about how his younger self never would’ve been able to imagine how he is now, and that he can barely remember how his past self was. And of course he has no idea how his future self will be. He thinks the notion of “know thyself” is something he isn’t good at.

Upcoming Stuff

This next week we’ll probably see some more of my crazy EarthBound cart now that I got some time to play it some more. I’ll try to get some more MOTHER 1+2 translation time in, and if there’s anything useful to report, I’ll mention it on the site somewhere sometime. Music Talk and Let’s Chat might return in full form, but I’m not sure yet. I’m working on some other regular content too to go along with it, so that’s why I’ve turned it off for now. The music update the other day was me manually doing stuff 😉 I’m thinking we might also take a look at some more old magazine stuff too, possibly with beta/unused content.

End

I’m trying to streamline these round-ups, hopefully it’s noticeable. I also know I’m missing a ton of stuff in the community links section, so if I’ve forgotten anything or if you want your stuff added to next week’s list, let me know!

Also: you probably shouldn’t eat salt packets that goats drop. Something’s gotta be wrong with ’em.