Weekly Round-Up #25

July 5th, 2009 | Weekly Round-Up

Week 25 has been vanquished! Only 5301 more to go until _______ (fill in the blank)!

This past week has been ______, but _____ _____ the _____. Neat.

Also, EarthBound _______ have been especially ________, except for when _________. Insanity abounds.

Anyway, let’s have a look-see at whath has transpired over the course of this past seven day time period.

Site News

• Yesterday or so, the site got its 10,000th comment. I don’t know who got it or what it was, but the total passed over 10,000 at some point. For reference, the MOTHER 3 translation blog has 23,000 or so.
• I haven’t messed with it in a few months, but here’s this if you’re interested.
• Looks like this month’s theme is the Scaraba desert. Fits the season well for those who don’t wear hats on their feet and have to watch out for hungry hamburgers.

EarthBound News

• EarthBound Zero prototype cartridge sells for $1500
• Super Power Magazine’s 1995 review of EarthBound!
• 1UP article about EarthBound
• The Mr. Saturn popularity contest is split almost 50-50. Unexpected 😯
• Top 10 SNES RPG list includes EarthBound
• Twitter and EarthBound
• Gamasutra article on EarthBound
• EarthBound day care center!
• Giygas’s Devil Machine in Smash Bros. Brawl
• Humongous SNES RPG auction
• Report on EarthBound and feminism

Cool Auctions & Merchandise

The biggest news this week was of course the EarthBound Zero prototype cart that sold the other day. But here are a few other neat things that popped up this week.

Remember that you can check to see what EarthBound/MOTHER stuff is currently on eBay at any time here!

• EarthBound complete – great condition
• Really good deal on an EarthBound strategy guide!
• MOTHER 2 cart for very cheap
• MOTHER 1 cart for very cheap – this plus the above would be good to add to a collection
• MOTHER 3 Deluxe Box – includes a “Flanklin Badge” (heh) and free shipping
• Rare EarthBound display box – used in stores for display purposes, pretty hard to find
• Issue of Nintendo Power with EarthBound stuff in it for pretty cheap
• That giant Mr. Saturn’s price was lowered a tad

And here’s some cool stuff on Yahoo! Auctions Japan:

• Super-rare MOTHER 2 Slot Machine Bros. card game!
• MOTHER 1+2 poster!
• A 1994 issue of a magazine called Studio Voice – in it, Itoi talks about working on MOTHER 2 – anyone with money willing to get this so we can see what he has to say? Pretty please?

And some stuff on Amazon:

• There’s a relatively cheap copy of EarthBound on Amazon right now – it seems like most copies on Amazon are creeping up to the $100 mark, so $70-ish is a good deal

Community News

• Winters in Smash Bros. Brawl
• EarthBound Saga blog update
• Summer is almost like Summers in EarthBound
• Top 5 Video Game Vacations
• Fan-made EarthBound 3 video
• Ninten and Giegue hacked into Smash Bros. Brawl
• Say Fuzzy Pickles
• Heroes of MOTHER 3 forum game
• Pigmask Quest forum game
• Adventure of Pigmask forum game
• Harmony comic updated
• Of Pigs and Masks comic updated
• “Name” comic updated
• The Chosen Four comic updated
• Birdy & Chimera comic updated

_____, so I can’t keep up with every single thing that happens in the EarthBound community, so if you’ve done something cool or if you know of something cool that belongs here, let me know!

What’s Up With Itoi

• Itoi talked about how he used to always carry dice around with him so he could practice trying to get good rolls for when playing Monopoly. He thinks he’ll start carrying dice around again in his pocket, and even thinks about making Hobonichi dice sometime (Hobonichi is the shortened name of his site/company).
• He also talked about how the passage of three minutes seems to him, and how it differs a lot from other people. For instance, for boxers, entire fights and entire careers can go undergo drastic changes in just 3 minutes, while for him 3 minutes is how long it takes to make instant cup ramen. He also compared this three minutes thing to other things/occupations.
• Later on, he also talked about how one part of the enjoyment of trips/vacations is the actual act of going there. He thinks that if instant teleportation were possible, it would detract from the enjoyment of trips to places. This sort of made me think of the MOTHER games for some reason,
• He also talked about how when he used to work on games, programmers used to use the phrase “triggers an event flag”. He found this phrase really intriguing, and likes to use it sometimes. He thinks the image of flags going up and “triggering an event” is kind of funny. He also makes the distinction that events are “triggered” in games because the events are made ahead of time by programmers, and then he wonders about the idea that if there are gods or spirits out there, maybe they’ve set things up the same way, so that pre-created events are triggered as time goes on.

Upcoming Stuff

Still slowly going through the queue of old stuff people have sent me. Lots of videos to come I’m sure, plus a few music things I think. I think I might have another school report or something like that, but my memory is kind of fuzzy. I have no real concrete plans for this next week, it’ll be mostly by ear I guess.

End

Itoi mentioned in an interview that Mr. Saturns didn’t get that name until quite a ways into the game’s development. I wonder what they were referred to as before then…