Tuesday, December 14, 2010

EarthBound - Guest Post

Have you ever been playing Super Smash Bros., and found yourself wondering, "Ness?  Who's Ness?  What game does he come from?  I've never heard of him before."  Actually, Ness comes from a game called EarthBound, which was released in 1995 for the Super Nintendo (SNES).  EarthBound is definitely one of the best role-playing games ever made, with a really cool storyline that takes a very long time to get through.

EarthBound may also be referred to as Mother 2.  This took a while for me to understand.  In 1989, a Japan-only game was released for the Famicom (NES), and this game was called Mother (Unofficially, in America, it is known as EarthBound Zero).  Mother is like a prequel to EarthBound.  Later, in 2006, another game was made for the Game Boy Advance.  This game was called Mother 3, and this is the game that Lucas in Super Smash Bros. Brawl came from.  Mother 3 is the sequel to EarthBound, except none of the characters are even the same.

EarthBound was very successful in Japan, but not so much in the United States.  I'm not exactly sure why, since most of EarthBound is references to old pop-culture and other American things.  Since EarthBound is old and on the Super Nintendo, it is actually pretty coveted now and costs a lot of money if you actually wanted to buy it.  That's why emulators were created.  You can download an emulator for free and also download the game to play in the emulator (an emulator is like a virtual console, allowing a person to play a game from another system on their computer).

IMPORTANT NOTE: Emulators themselves are not illegal, but downloading ROMs for them is, especially if you do not own the game.  If you happen to own the game, then you’re in the gray area; some say it’s illegal, some argue that it’s legal.  I’m pretty sure that nobody will really get busted or see the cops at their door for playing these games, but if you have a moral issue with doing things of questionable legality, it’s best you turn back now!

The link to get the Super Nintendo emulator is here:


I would download the first one, ZSNES.  It works well. Also, you will need the game in order to play it (duh). Here is a link to download the game:


 Also, if you wanted to play that Japan-only game, Mother 3, there has been a fan translation for that game so you can actually play it!  You will need a Game Boy Advance emulator found here:


You should probably download the latest version.  This Game Boy Advance Emulator is special because it is capable of linking for multiplayer games!  Also, here is the game so you can actually play it:


Click the yellow "Download" button. This game is in Japanese, so you need the patch so the game will run in English (unless you are fluent in Japanese, because that's cool, too). The patch can be found here:


It's the thing that says "Download MOTHER 3 fan translation."  After it is unzipped, read the instructions in the folder.  The patching DOES in fact work on most operating systems, although Windows is the best!  But it does work even on Windows 7, so if you are having trouble, try again.  Personally, I would say you're good with EarthBound, but if you beat it, and want the next, then download those things.

So that's basically all you need to know.  The only other thing would be that in the emulator you need to map out controls in the options menu, and choose open ROM from the menu and open the un-zipped portion of the game, be it the .SMC file or .GBA file.  You may need WinRar or 7-Zip to unzip it, so here is the link to download 7-Zip:


To unzip, open 7-Zip, find your file, and click extract. You cannot run the "zipped" folder as your game in the emulator.

Well, that is all I have to say about EarthBound. It is a great game, and you should stick with it to the end, even if you are frustrated at points.  Thanks, and see you later!

CREDIT GOES TO ALEX VARGAS

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