×
Nintendo : Revive EarthBound 64 for Wii U VC
Piotr R.
started this petition to
Nintendo
The two-part and nine-year development of Mother 3, a role-playing
video game, took place between 1994 and 2006 with a three year gap
in-between, and spanned four consoles and multiple delays. Following the
commercial success of its predecessor, Mother 2 (EarthBound outside of
Japan), Mother series creator Shigesato Itoi was given the previous
game's development team. Inspired by Super Mario 64, the team set out to
create a 3D game that ultimately exceeded the capabilities of the
platform and changed their console focus from the Super Famicom to the
Nintendo 64 and its 64DD magneto-optical drive expansion peripheral, for
which it was expected to be a 1998 launch title. Upon the commercial
failure of the 64DD, it was converted to the cartridge-only format. Itoi
thought of the game's concept during Mother 2 's development and
built a 12-chapter story with player-characters that rotated between
chapters. Having been a producer during Mother 2, Itoi served as a
scriptwriter during Mother 3 's development. A North American
version was announced as EarthBound 64, but did not materialize when the
60 percent-complete Japanese release was cancelled in August 2000 in
reprioritization leading up to Project Dolphin (the code name of the
GameCube). At the time, the game was estimated to need another two years
of work.After multiple years and failed petitions, Mother 3 was
reannounced for the Game Boy Advance in 2003 within a Japanese
television commercial for Mother 1+2, a port of Mother and Mother 2 to
the Advance. The game kept its original story and received a graphical
overhaul in a pixelated style similar to Mother 2. The game's themes
included human physiology, renewal, and fungibility on the morality
spectrum. Its music was composed by Shogo Sakai, and retained the quirky
style of series composers Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka. Mother 3
was released on April 20, 2006 in Japan, whereupon it became a
bestseller. It did not receive a North American release.Mother 3
was originally developed for the Super Famicom (Super Nintendo
Entertainment System) beginning in 1994.[1] Shigeru Miyamoto, head of
Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development and Mother 3 producer,
said that Mother 3 was "a commercial decision", since Mother 2
(EarthBound outside of Japan) had sold well.[1] By this point, Mother
series creator Shigesato Itoi had worked on the series' earlier games
and Itoi Shigesato no Bass Tsuri No. 1 and was experienced at pitching
video games, so Miyamoto provided a team willingly. The Mother 2
development team carried over to the new game's development, though
several people left and the team grew in size. They forewent the usual
prototyping phase and went straight into development expecting to create
something unprecedented. Itoi said he wanted to make the game like a
Hollywood film.[1] In September 1994, he predicted that Mother 3 's
development would end around 1996 with a release on Nintendo's
then-upcoming console.[2] The team was inspired by Super Mario 64 and
felt that they too could creatively flourish by making a 3D world
without restrictions. Their early technical specifications exceeded the
capabilities and memory limits of the platform. About halfway through
development, the team attempted to scale back its large scope and
changed its development platform[1] to the 64DD, a Nintendo 64
magneto-optical drive expansion peripheral.[3] At E3 in June 1997,
Miyamoto speculated that Mother 3 would be one of the four titles for
the then-expected 1998 launch of the Japan-only peripheral,[4][5][6] but
the game was instead converted to a Nintendo 64 cartridge-only
format[7] upon the commercial failure of the repeatedly delayed 64DD.[3]The
EarthBound fan community anticipated a sequel, and a North American
release of Mother 3 was announced as EarthBound 64.[8] Nintendo
displayed a playable version of the game at their 1999 Space World trade
show, where IGN described the development's progress as "very far
along"[9] and half complete.[7] In April 2000, IGN estimated the game's
development as "safe to assume that the game is nearing its final stages
of completion".[9] The game struggled to find a firm release date,[10]
and was expected to release in Japan before a North American version
would be considered.[9] At the time, the 64DD was only released in
Japan.[3] Nintendo chose not to show the game at the 2000 Electronic
Entertainment Expo, though IGN expected to see a finished version of the
game at Nintendo's 2000 Space World.[9] After a period of silence,
Nintendo announced that the game would be a 256 megabit cartridge for
the Nintendo 64 (similar to Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time) instead of
a 64DD game.[7][a] Mother producer Satoru Iwata cancelled the game
altogether prior to the 2000 Space World,[1] and Itoi announced the
cancellation in late August 2000.[11]
Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto, Mother 3 producers
Iwata
clarified that the franchise was not abandoned but that the game would
no longer be developed for the Nintendo 64, and Miyamoto added that it
was not due to project complications or development hell, but to
resources needed for Project Dolphin (the GameCube). Some of the artists
had been on the project for over three years. They estimated the
project to be about 60 percent complete at the time of cancellation—the
basics were complete and only programming was left. About 30 percent of
the final product was completed. Itoi felt that it would have taken an
additional two years to finish properly, and Iwata said that the game
might have been finished by 2000 had the scope been reduced two years
earlier. Miyamoto was involved in other work and spent little time
on-site with the project, and Iwata too was distracted by bankruptcy
concerns at HAL Labs and was off-site in 1999 due to circumstances that
required travel. Iwata was also hospitalized during production for
stress-related reasons. The team intended to have the game finished by
the end of 1999 and knew they had to reconsider their priorities when
they missed the milestone. They said that the Mother 3 supervisors had
wanted to cancel the project since 1999, but later changed sides and
said that cancellation would be wasteful. They discussed bringing the
game to their forthcoming GameCube, which Miyamoto felt would have
solved some of the Nintendo 64's hardware issues. Miyamoto and Iwata
also discussed releasing the game on the Game Boy Advance, but realized
that it would take "just as much time" with 40 to 50 staff members to
make such a game.[1] In retrospect, Iwata wondered out loud in an
interview why the game needed to be in 3D when Itoi's "greatest talent
lies in words" and thought that the energy poured into making a 3D game
might have been a poor choice.[1] He said he felt "genuinely ashamed",
and acknowledged that they were both "caught up in the 3D obsession and
felt obligated" at the time.[1] At the time of its cancellation, Itoi
predicted that Mother 3 would remain a story that only the game's staff
would know,[b] but Miyamoto was still interested in bringing the game to
fruition.Itoi thought of the concept behind Mother 3 towards the
end of Mother 2 's production. He called another person on the
project to describe a "detective story where the city was the main
character".[1] He thought of a hack, small-time, womanizing private
investigator who would become engrossed in a big murder case, and the
story would unfold from a young female clerk at a flower shop who would
slowly recall parts of a story consequential to the plot. Thus, the city
would appear to grow. This idea of a "single place changing over time"
was central to Mother 3.[1] He saw previous RPGs as "road movies" with
little reason for the hero to backtrack to previous areas, and instead
wanted the player to see the town gossip grow dynamically.[1] Miyamoto
and Itoi compared the this type of progression to the story of Legend of
Zelda: Majora's Mask. The game was enough of a departure from the
series that the development team questioned whether fans would consider
it part of the series.[1]Itoi originally intended the game to
have 12 chapters with varied game mechanics, e.g., one with classic
role-playing game mechanics and another as just cutscenes. He
conceptualized the process as designing 3D "puppets" that could then be
easily moved around the "stage".[1] In actuality, each custom scene
required special programming. The player-character changed between each
chapter—a concept they first attempted in their previous game—so as to
see multiple characters grow. As development wore on, Itoi offered to
compromise by replacing full chapters with sequences of still images and
text. They cut the total chapters to seven or nine by the time it was
canceled. Itoi described the story as "normal" for its first half,
leading up to a "triple-play twist".[1] One of the game's themes was the
reckless appearance and "uncomfortable beauty" of chimera—multiple
creatures fused into one—which was the idea behind the metallic and
wooden Mother 3 logo.[1][c] Itoi has said of his role in the Mother
series that he wanted to be more of a team member and scriptwriter and
less of a manager in Mother 3 's development. He saw himself as
simultaneously making the game he wanted to play and setting traps for
the player, and as making a game Nintendo could not.The game was
set to continue 10 years after the first Mother. The player-character,
Flint, was a cowboy in the vein of Clint Eastwood with two boys, Lucas
and Klaus, and a dog, Boney. The game was to include over 10 playable
characters and span 10 years in its story based around the Pig army,
which attempts to use "primitive machinery ... to enslave mankind".[7]
At the 1999 Space World, IGN sampled environments including a hovercraft
in a desert canyon, a snake dungeon, a cutscene with a bullet train, a
town with non-player characters, and a mine cart scene, through themes
including fantasy, the medieval, and science fiction. Physical contact
with an enemy in the overworld triggered a turn-based battle scene shown
in the first-person (similar to EarthBound). The battles had
psychedelic backgrounds and a circular menu that included a command to
"get up" if the player was knocked down in a real-time sequence.[7]
Attacks could be timed with the in-game music for stronger effects. The
developers also planned multiple routes for advancing through the game
and unforeseen complications from minor actions, such as a monster
finding food dropped in the forest. The game was set to include features
such as synching the game's time with the real time, but those features
would not have worked without the 64DD. Mother 3 was set to run between
40 and 60 hours in length.On September 13, 2000, the
EarthBound64 Petition was mailed to both NOA and NOJ. Though neither
organization has contacted us about them, the Starmen.Net staff feels
confident that more than a few eyes were opened to the demand for the
continuation of the Mother series. Some evidence has been shown to
reverse the probability that Itoi may dismantle the remains of EB64 to
use in another game. There are now rumors that a GameCube sequel is
possible, which we all look forward to.
Below are available for download the petition in text and HTML
formats, both in zipped and unzipped forms, as well as reidman's letter
to Nintendo explaining the petition, as well as the cover graphic he
created for it. We think you'll enjoy reading over the petition, there
are many comments which embody the spirit and personality of the
EarthBound community.You might be wondering what this petition was for and why. For those who
haven't heard, EarthBound 64 was anticipated to be the English translation of
Mother 3. Mother 3 is/was an upcoming Japanese RPG for the N64. EarthBound 64 (EB64)/
Mother 3 (M3) was slated to be the sequel to EarthBound, an SNES game released in 1995. Fans
of this highly addictive SNES game were told that they could possibly have a
sequel by 1997. However, in August of 2000, three years after the original
release date and after endless delays, Nintendo "officially" cancelled the Mother 3 project.
EarthBound fans all over the world had been expecting some kind of bad news concerning
the Mother 3 project. Starmen.Net, anticipating delays or possibly a cancellation,
started a petition early in the second quarter of 2000. The petition was meant
as a safeguard against the possibility of further delays or the dreaded cancellation.
The cancellation happened near the time that the petition reached its goal of 10,000 signatures.
The EarthBound 64 Petition had many goals. Some called them lofty goals; we
called them challenges to be accepted. As the fans of EarthBound and consumers
of Nintendo products, we held ourselves responsible for persuading Nintendo
that Mother 3/EB64 would/will have quite a large market in America. These
were our goals:
We went about sorting and preparing the petition with painstaking detail.
A CGI program was written to accept petition signatures. The
staff of Starmen.Net went through and read each petition signature. If the
signature was decent (no offensive/vulgar/inappropriate content)
and was not a duplicate or another signature from a single person, then it
was added to the final list. After all of the signatures have been gathered,
the petition was taken to a print shop and printed. 3 copies were made.
One copy we've kept for reference. One copy was mailed to
Nintendo of America, and another to Nintendo of Japan. Presentation is
everything, which is why we printed, bound, and priority-mailed
the petitions.Now computer technology is so highly advanced that there's no obstacle to re-work again on original 3D EarthBound 2 game.You re-released MOTHER 2 outside Japan,but Starmen.net society can't wait for MOTHER 1+2,MOTHER 1 for Wii U VC,MOTHER 3 GBA being outside Japan for 3DS VC and EarthBound 64 maybe HD for Nintendo Wii U successor aka Nintendo Fusion.You forget about many unused EarthBound Trilogy unused stuff.I hope MOTHER 3 maybe appears in 3D as EarthBound Forever fake rumour?
video game, took place between 1994 and 2006 with a three year gap
in-between, and spanned four consoles and multiple delays. Following the
commercial success of its predecessor, Mother 2 (EarthBound outside of
Japan), Mother series creator Shigesato Itoi was given the previous
game's development team. Inspired by Super Mario 64, the team set out to
create a 3D game that ultimately exceeded the capabilities of the
platform and changed their console focus from the Super Famicom to the
Nintendo 64 and its 64DD magneto-optical drive expansion peripheral, for
which it was expected to be a 1998 launch title. Upon the commercial
failure of the 64DD, it was converted to the cartridge-only format. Itoi
thought of the game's concept during Mother 2 's development and
built a 12-chapter story with player-characters that rotated between
chapters. Having been a producer during Mother 2, Itoi served as a
scriptwriter during Mother 3 's development. A North American
version was announced as EarthBound 64, but did not materialize when the
60 percent-complete Japanese release was cancelled in August 2000 in
reprioritization leading up to Project Dolphin (the code name of the
GameCube). At the time, the game was estimated to need another two years
of work.After multiple years and failed petitions, Mother 3 was
reannounced for the Game Boy Advance in 2003 within a Japanese
television commercial for Mother 1+2, a port of Mother and Mother 2 to
the Advance. The game kept its original story and received a graphical
overhaul in a pixelated style similar to Mother 2. The game's themes
included human physiology, renewal, and fungibility on the morality
spectrum. Its music was composed by Shogo Sakai, and retained the quirky
style of series composers Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka. Mother 3
was released on April 20, 2006 in Japan, whereupon it became a
bestseller. It did not receive a North American release.Mother 3
was originally developed for the Super Famicom (Super Nintendo
Entertainment System) beginning in 1994.[1] Shigeru Miyamoto, head of
Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development and Mother 3 producer,
said that Mother 3 was "a commercial decision", since Mother 2
(EarthBound outside of Japan) had sold well.[1] By this point, Mother
series creator Shigesato Itoi had worked on the series' earlier games
and Itoi Shigesato no Bass Tsuri No. 1 and was experienced at pitching
video games, so Miyamoto provided a team willingly. The Mother 2
development team carried over to the new game's development, though
several people left and the team grew in size. They forewent the usual
prototyping phase and went straight into development expecting to create
something unprecedented. Itoi said he wanted to make the game like a
Hollywood film.[1] In September 1994, he predicted that Mother 3 's
development would end around 1996 with a release on Nintendo's
then-upcoming console.[2] The team was inspired by Super Mario 64 and
felt that they too could creatively flourish by making a 3D world
without restrictions. Their early technical specifications exceeded the
capabilities and memory limits of the platform. About halfway through
development, the team attempted to scale back its large scope and
changed its development platform[1] to the 64DD, a Nintendo 64
magneto-optical drive expansion peripheral.[3] At E3 in June 1997,
Miyamoto speculated that Mother 3 would be one of the four titles for
the then-expected 1998 launch of the Japan-only peripheral,[4][5][6] but
the game was instead converted to a Nintendo 64 cartridge-only
format[7] upon the commercial failure of the repeatedly delayed 64DD.[3]The
EarthBound fan community anticipated a sequel, and a North American
release of Mother 3 was announced as EarthBound 64.[8] Nintendo
displayed a playable version of the game at their 1999 Space World trade
show, where IGN described the development's progress as "very far
along"[9] and half complete.[7] In April 2000, IGN estimated the game's
development as "safe to assume that the game is nearing its final stages
of completion".[9] The game struggled to find a firm release date,[10]
and was expected to release in Japan before a North American version
would be considered.[9] At the time, the 64DD was only released in
Japan.[3] Nintendo chose not to show the game at the 2000 Electronic
Entertainment Expo, though IGN expected to see a finished version of the
game at Nintendo's 2000 Space World.[9] After a period of silence,
Nintendo announced that the game would be a 256 megabit cartridge for
the Nintendo 64 (similar to Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time) instead of
a 64DD game.[7][a] Mother producer Satoru Iwata cancelled the game
altogether prior to the 2000 Space World,[1] and Itoi announced the
cancellation in late August 2000.[11]
Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto, Mother 3 producers
Iwata
clarified that the franchise was not abandoned but that the game would
no longer be developed for the Nintendo 64, and Miyamoto added that it
was not due to project complications or development hell, but to
resources needed for Project Dolphin (the GameCube). Some of the artists
had been on the project for over three years. They estimated the
project to be about 60 percent complete at the time of cancellation—the
basics were complete and only programming was left. About 30 percent of
the final product was completed. Itoi felt that it would have taken an
additional two years to finish properly, and Iwata said that the game
might have been finished by 2000 had the scope been reduced two years
earlier. Miyamoto was involved in other work and spent little time
on-site with the project, and Iwata too was distracted by bankruptcy
concerns at HAL Labs and was off-site in 1999 due to circumstances that
required travel. Iwata was also hospitalized during production for
stress-related reasons. The team intended to have the game finished by
the end of 1999 and knew they had to reconsider their priorities when
they missed the milestone. They said that the Mother 3 supervisors had
wanted to cancel the project since 1999, but later changed sides and
said that cancellation would be wasteful. They discussed bringing the
game to their forthcoming GameCube, which Miyamoto felt would have
solved some of the Nintendo 64's hardware issues. Miyamoto and Iwata
also discussed releasing the game on the Game Boy Advance, but realized
that it would take "just as much time" with 40 to 50 staff members to
make such a game.[1] In retrospect, Iwata wondered out loud in an
interview why the game needed to be in 3D when Itoi's "greatest talent
lies in words" and thought that the energy poured into making a 3D game
might have been a poor choice.[1] He said he felt "genuinely ashamed",
and acknowledged that they were both "caught up in the 3D obsession and
felt obligated" at the time.[1] At the time of its cancellation, Itoi
predicted that Mother 3 would remain a story that only the game's staff
would know,[b] but Miyamoto was still interested in bringing the game to
fruition.Itoi thought of the concept behind Mother 3 towards the
end of Mother 2 's production. He called another person on the
project to describe a "detective story where the city was the main
character".[1] He thought of a hack, small-time, womanizing private
investigator who would become engrossed in a big murder case, and the
story would unfold from a young female clerk at a flower shop who would
slowly recall parts of a story consequential to the plot. Thus, the city
would appear to grow. This idea of a "single place changing over time"
was central to Mother 3.[1] He saw previous RPGs as "road movies" with
little reason for the hero to backtrack to previous areas, and instead
wanted the player to see the town gossip grow dynamically.[1] Miyamoto
and Itoi compared the this type of progression to the story of Legend of
Zelda: Majora's Mask. The game was enough of a departure from the
series that the development team questioned whether fans would consider
it part of the series.[1]Itoi originally intended the game to
have 12 chapters with varied game mechanics, e.g., one with classic
role-playing game mechanics and another as just cutscenes. He
conceptualized the process as designing 3D "puppets" that could then be
easily moved around the "stage".[1] In actuality, each custom scene
required special programming. The player-character changed between each
chapter—a concept they first attempted in their previous game—so as to
see multiple characters grow. As development wore on, Itoi offered to
compromise by replacing full chapters with sequences of still images and
text. They cut the total chapters to seven or nine by the time it was
canceled. Itoi described the story as "normal" for its first half,
leading up to a "triple-play twist".[1] One of the game's themes was the
reckless appearance and "uncomfortable beauty" of chimera—multiple
creatures fused into one—which was the idea behind the metallic and
wooden Mother 3 logo.[1][c] Itoi has said of his role in the Mother
series that he wanted to be more of a team member and scriptwriter and
less of a manager in Mother 3 's development. He saw himself as
simultaneously making the game he wanted to play and setting traps for
the player, and as making a game Nintendo could not.The game was
set to continue 10 years after the first Mother. The player-character,
Flint, was a cowboy in the vein of Clint Eastwood with two boys, Lucas
and Klaus, and a dog, Boney. The game was to include over 10 playable
characters and span 10 years in its story based around the Pig army,
which attempts to use "primitive machinery ... to enslave mankind".[7]
At the 1999 Space World, IGN sampled environments including a hovercraft
in a desert canyon, a snake dungeon, a cutscene with a bullet train, a
town with non-player characters, and a mine cart scene, through themes
including fantasy, the medieval, and science fiction. Physical contact
with an enemy in the overworld triggered a turn-based battle scene shown
in the first-person (similar to EarthBound). The battles had
psychedelic backgrounds and a circular menu that included a command to
"get up" if the player was knocked down in a real-time sequence.[7]
Attacks could be timed with the in-game music for stronger effects. The
developers also planned multiple routes for advancing through the game
and unforeseen complications from minor actions, such as a monster
finding food dropped in the forest. The game was set to include features
such as synching the game's time with the real time, but those features
would not have worked without the 64DD. Mother 3 was set to run between
40 and 60 hours in length.On September 13, 2000, the
EarthBound64 Petition was mailed to both NOA and NOJ. Though neither
organization has contacted us about them, the Starmen.Net staff feels
confident that more than a few eyes were opened to the demand for the
continuation of the Mother series. Some evidence has been shown to
reverse the probability that Itoi may dismantle the remains of EB64 to
use in another game. There are now rumors that a GameCube sequel is
possible, which we all look forward to.
Below are available for download the petition in text and HTML
formats, both in zipped and unzipped forms, as well as reidman's letter
to Nintendo explaining the petition, as well as the cover graphic he
created for it. We think you'll enjoy reading over the petition, there
are many comments which embody the spirit and personality of the
EarthBound community.You might be wondering what this petition was for and why. For those who
haven't heard, EarthBound 64 was anticipated to be the English translation of
Mother 3. Mother 3 is/was an upcoming Japanese RPG for the N64. EarthBound 64 (EB64)/
Mother 3 (M3) was slated to be the sequel to EarthBound, an SNES game released in 1995. Fans
of this highly addictive SNES game were told that they could possibly have a
sequel by 1997. However, in August of 2000, three years after the original
release date and after endless delays, Nintendo "officially" cancelled the Mother 3 project.
EarthBound fans all over the world had been expecting some kind of bad news concerning
the Mother 3 project. Starmen.Net, anticipating delays or possibly a cancellation,
started a petition early in the second quarter of 2000. The petition was meant
as a safeguard against the possibility of further delays or the dreaded cancellation.
The cancellation happened near the time that the petition reached its goal of 10,000 signatures.
The EarthBound 64 Petition had many goals. Some called them lofty goals; we
called them challenges to be accepted. As the fans of EarthBound and consumers
of Nintendo products, we held ourselves responsible for persuading Nintendo
that Mother 3/EB64 would/will have quite a large market in America. These
were our goals:
-
Spread word across the internet (and the US) of the petition
-
Accept signatures until the flow slows down (we expect to accept signatures for 1-2 months).
-
Reach ~10,000 unique signatures
-
Send copies of the printed petition to Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Japan
-
Get EarthBound 64 released in the states!
We went about sorting and preparing the petition with painstaking detail.
A CGI program was written to accept petition signatures. The
staff of Starmen.Net went through and read each petition signature. If the
signature was decent (no offensive/vulgar/inappropriate content)
and was not a duplicate or another signature from a single person, then it
was added to the final list. After all of the signatures have been gathered,
the petition was taken to a print shop and printed. 3 copies were made.
One copy we've kept for reference. One copy was mailed to
Nintendo of America, and another to Nintendo of Japan. Presentation is
everything, which is why we printed, bound, and priority-mailed
the petitions.Now computer technology is so highly advanced that there's no obstacle to re-work again on original 3D EarthBound 2 game.You re-released MOTHER 2 outside Japan,but Starmen.net society can't wait for MOTHER 1+2,MOTHER 1 for Wii U VC,MOTHER 3 GBA being outside Japan for 3DS VC and EarthBound 64 maybe HD for Nintendo Wii U successor aka Nintendo Fusion.You forget about many unused EarthBound Trilogy unused stuff.I hope MOTHER 3 maybe appears in 3D as EarthBound Forever fake rumour?
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