Hello, Mr. Itoi!

My name is Melanie Slater and I am a mentor for a 12 year old boy named Julian Griffith, who is a student at Quincy Junior high School.

His literacy class required that a business letter be written to someone whom he didn’t know, but admired. He picked you (after some investigation), because he loves the game EARTHBOUND so much. Since we could not find an address for you, we opted to send his letter via e-mail, which was okayed by his teacher.

Thank you for taking the time to read the folowing letter, and, hopefully, you can find time to answer him. He needs all the positive reinforcement he can get! He comes from a near-poverty situation, with a single-parent mother who works two jobs.

Thanks again,
Melanie Slater

---

Dear Mr. Itoi:

My name is Julian and I really love the game you made, EARTHBOUND. I rented it from Frese’s Videos, and right now I have late charges on it, so I have to take it back. I like the characters like the Bubble Monkey, Alex, Holly, Rover, John and Kato. Hey, you’re really cool, too!

Are you coming out with a new game? If you are, I would like to buy it, but I would have to rent it because our Nintendo factory got burned down.

If you can, please e-mail Mrs. Slater, my mentor, and tell her about any new game you might be making.

Thank you for your help, I appreciate it.

Sincerely,
Julian Griffith

You can see the post here if you’re interested. Right after the post, the mailbag person is like (paraphrased), “Whoa, an all-English message. If anyone knows how we can contact whoever sent this, please let us know. It sounds like they’re calling Itoi cool!”

Anyway, I wonder whatever happened to Julian and if someone ever put them in contact with each other. I really hope so

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Last week I posted some neat MOTHER 2-related swag on eBay, and this week I’m listing something even more epic: a copy of MOTHER 1+2 signed by none other than MOTHER/EarthBound series creator Shigesato Itoi himself!

I’m also including a bunch of other really rare items from the official MOTHER 1+2 event held in 2003, check it all out here!

Here’s Itoi signing boxes prior to the event – as far as I know this is the only one that’s ever been made available outside of Japan.

The full listing includes everything here:

I also took more photos than even Mr. Fuzzy Pickles would have – see them and all the juicy details here!

If you’re not sure what the MOTHER 1+2 event was, a good Japanese write-up (with pics) about it is here. I also subtitled this short documentary video about it a few years ago:

That reminds me that someday I really need to sit down and subtitle the whole talk show portion of the event. Most of the cool info is in the video above, though.

Anyway, I have more interesting stuff (some from this event and some not) I’m going to auction off down the road, so keep your noses peeled! In the meantime, you can check out some of my other EarthBound/MOTHER goodies here!

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Japanese Signboard, signed by Shigesato Itoi

pk_stan is selling this Japanese “shikishi” signboard, signed by Itoi in 1985. It’s addressed to someone named Tomoyuki, or perhaps it’s the name of the thing in the picture, I’m not really sure.

Official Shigesato Itoi Bass Fishing Tournament Poster

An item I’m selling is this unused, like-new poster (I’d call it a flier or handbill, but I’m pretty sure they were meant to be displayed in stores) promoting a Nintendo-sanctioned, Famitsu-organized tournament for Shigesato Itoi’s No. 1 Bass Fishing (the N64 one).

MOTHER 1+2 In-Store Poster

I’ve had this up for a while now but I decided I’ll just auction it off to whoever wants it, so if you’re in the mood for a nice MOTHER series poster, here you go! I think I picked this up in 2005 when I went on a crazy Japanese auction buying binge. It’s been on my wall ever since, but now that I’ve seen it every day for the past seven years, I think I’m ready to pass it on

While I’m at it, here are some other things of mine I’ve had up for a little while now:

• Mr. Saturn + Master Belch plush set
• Super DX Mr. Saturn PVC Figure

And although not 100% EarthBound-related, Nintendo fans might get a kick out of this Nintendo game from 1970 I’m selling:

Just think, this predates EarthBound by 25 years

Anyway, if you find any cool stuff on eBay or if you’re selling any EarthBound stuff of interest, let me know and I’ll post about it in future updates!

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A little while back Shigesato Itoi, Shigeru Miyamoto, and Satoru Iwata had another one of their discussions about games, creativity, and all that stuff for another installment of “Iwata Asks”. This one is meant to be about the new Zelda Skyward Sword game, but it applies to stuff in general more than anything.

You can check out the discussion in English here.

Thanks to Gill for the tip!

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Operation Steal EarthBound 64 Prototype is a go! Alpha team in position!

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What’s neat about Itoi’s job and his company is that he meets so many types of people and get to experience so many types of things. In fact, making games was just another little diversion for him, which seems to surprise a lot of Western gamers.

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This time we’re treated to an interview in the January 31, 1997 issue of Famitsu. In it, Shigesato Itoi and Satoru Iwata discuss stuff from the ill-fated Nintendo 64 version of MOTHER 3. Here’s an excerpt:

Nagata Moving on, what’s the deal with the battles that Itoi’s always raving about like a madman?

Itoi How rude! (laughs) I’d like to talk about what it is, but I can’t yet.

Iwata It’s still in the testing stages. For example, MOTHER 2 had the monsters visibly walking around the field map. And when you touched one of the monsters, you entered the battle. So first and foremost we wanted to expand on that. In short, we’d like to allow strategies against the monsters right on the field. Not so battles become obligations, but so it becomes more fun.

Definitely check out the full thing here! And be sure to visit Chewy’s site and cheer her on

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The article discusses (among other things):

• Itoi’s aversion to assigning “themes” to video games
• Itoi’s original intent to make MOTHER 3 in 2-D
• The extent of completion of MOTHER 3 even by the fall of 1996
• Itoi’s inspiration for the story of MOTHER 3 and desire to make a detective novel in game form
• A Mr. Saturn spinoff game!?
• Itoi’s phone calls to his game designer about MOTHER 3 in the middle of the night–before MOTHER 2 was even done
• The origin of the name of the Nintendo 64
• Itoi’s personal relationship with Nintendo

You can check out Chewy’s article translation on her site here. Now give her all your Giygas cookies!

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Translator extraordinaire and resident 1101 expert Chewy has translated an old Shigesato Itoi interview from 1994 – 17 years ago yesterday, in fact.

This particular interview was in a magazine called Hippon Super!, which was a gaming magazine with a more mature twist than conventional gaming magazines at the time. That might be why this particular interview sounds so different from the rest – in fact in some parts it’s hard to even understand what’s being talked about.

But when it comes to hopeless poverty like that, I say live your life only alongside those who are poor. So to all the people who love the rainbow-colored games they’ve bought before, well… all I can do is apologize.

Even so, he covers a variety of topics, including MOTHER 2 design choices, Shigeru Miyamoto, Final Fantasy, beer, sushi, and more. Check out the interview here!

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So by now most big-time EarthBound fans know that Shigesato Itoi, creator of the series, is a renaissance man who does pretty much everything. He’s even well-known here for having been on Iron Chef episodes, but he actually used to be on TV all the time.

Apparently 1995-1996 saw a big “bass-fishing boom” in Japan, and since Itoi was really big into it at the time, he drew a lot of attention, and his fishing exploits were a topic on many Japanese comedy shows.

In particular, here’s a clip from an appearance he made on Gaki no Tsukai (most people here might know it as the “Silent Library” show) where he does a fishing competition with a bunch of comedians. It’s not subtitled in English, but you can check out the video here!

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