Given the sheer amount of Western pop culture references in MOTHER 2/EarthBound (reference 1, reference 2, reference 3) it doesn’t seem too farfetched. What do you guys think?

Thanks to yp95 for the tip!

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Here’s a sample:

Fassad’s English name has a surprisingly unexciting origin. The Japanese name Yokuba/ヨクバ is basically derived from the word for “ambition” or “greed” (“yokubari”/欲張り), and that just didn’t work in English. So I asked a friend of mine, one night, to help bounce ideas back and forth. I figured he was studying Arabic in college and coule help out, so I asked him what various words were when translated into Arabic. After a couple of nonstarters, I tried, “What’s ‘corruption’ in Arabic?” and his answer, “fassad,” sounded sufficiently Arabian-y (given the character’s appearance), as well as just being ever so perfect on multiple levels (given its Arabic meaning as well as the fact that it sounds a whole lot like “façade,” which is ridiculously appropriate on, itself, at least two different levels). And that’s why Ben Cocchiaro is credited under “Special Thanks.” Thanks, Ben.

I’m amazed he remembers so much, it’s been like what, four or five years since then? Man, time flies

As you might recall, I started to write a bunch of translation notes after the patch’s release (see here), but it wound up being so time-consuming that I died. I still think about it regularly though, so there’s still hope for it someday!

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A few years ago some skilled hackers dug into the ROM and found out a bunch of technical stuff, including how Lucky Sandwiches work. So here’s the deal with them:

When you buy a Lucky Sandwich (more precisely, immediately before the text “Lucky sandwich? Who is going to carry this?”), the game chooses from one of six Lucky Sandwich item entries to use. The recovery effect of a Lucky Sandwich is set in stone once bought, so it’s possible to stockpile certain types.

Determination Process:
Generate a random number 0-15. If less than 7, 60 HP sandwich.
Else generate a random number 0-8. If less than 4, 240 HP sandwich.
Else generate a random number 0-4. If less than 3, full HP sandwich.
Else generate a random number 0-1. If 0, 5 PP sandwich.
Else generate a random number 0-2. If nonzero, 20 PP sandwich.
Else full HP+PP sandwich.

Probabilities:

• 60 HP: 44% (21/48)
• 240 HP: 25% (12/48)
• full HP: 19% (9/48)
• 5 PP: 6% (3/48)
• 20 PP: 4% (2/48)
• full HP+PP: 2% (1/48)

So there you go! It looks like over 50% of the time it gives a “meh” result, so I guess that’s why I never buy them. I feel like I’m in the minority though – does anyone actually buy them often?

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Outside Debug Menu
This text data for this menu is in a peculiar isolated block of text. Given what the text says, it’s most likely this debug menu was accessible while walking around outside. It seems like you’d be able to test various things like collision detection, CPU load, and more.

• Reference file

Battle Debug Menu
The text for this menu is found in the same text block as all the battle text. It looks like it’s mostly about checking stats, modifying stats, and stuff like that. We never figured out how to get access to the menu, so it’s still a real mystery.

• Reference file

Since we never uncovered these menus, it’s possible that if someone ever DOES activate them, they won’t look/act right in the translation patch because we never fiddled with the font displaying stuff for them. But I thought I’d share the bare bones info anyway, since I’d completely forgotten about it until now.

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A little while back I was browsing Reddit when I came across a site that delves into some connections, references, and similarities found in MOTHER 3. The site is called Flint’s Doorknob.

Some of it might just be coincidence, but some of it definitely seems to be on the mark. Check it out if you’re a Twin Peaks fan, Evangelion fan, or just a fan of MOTHER series trivia!

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Of course, you still need to trigger it at some point to continue with the story, but if you find yourself in there sometime but want to leave for whatever reason (like reorganizing items or getting other stuff in order), now you can!

I actually think this might be old news to some folks (I seem to have a very vague memory of it myself, but that could just be old man stink) but it’s still nice to know nonetheless. Especially since that particular part of the game seems to be tough for newcomers.

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It was actually when I was writing an e-mail to him yesterday that I remembered that weird MOTHER 3 e-mail from 2008. I guess maybe he can add that to his next revision in a few years – or maybe Roo can update his EarthBound videos next

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Subject: Appeal from a member of the game industry

Hi Clyde,

I know you’re having a pretty busy (and significant!) week with the Mother 3 patch’s release right around the corner. As a member of the game industry, I have to say I’m REALLY impressed with the results. It looks every bit as good as some professional localizations, and way better than most. Congratulations on all your hard work!

The reason I’m writing, though, is to appeal to your professionalism and ask that you don’t release it. I’m a little scared of all the Furies of the Internet this will unleash, but this might be my last chance to express an unpopular opinion.

It’s true that no company has ever brought legal action against a fan translation–and I think so far, that’s been the right decision, since fan translations in the past generally haven’t posed any threat to an IP. This project sets a new precedent, though: never has there been a fan translation this good, and never has there been one this public. This time it doesn’t feel like a fan translation; you’ve taken your work to a professional level, and for that reason you’re suddenly stepping on people’s toes.

Yes, Nintendo of America has chosen not to bring Mother 3 to the US. Yes, lately they seem to be pretending the entire series doesn’t exist. But why are you putting an expiration date on their right to do so? Series like Kid Icarus and Punch Out!! were ignored for decades, and now they are coming back. The first installment of Fire Emblem is being released next year in English after 19 years in the vault. It was always possible that Mother would make a return. But if your patch comes out, there go all its chances.

A lot of fans on the Internet will be very happy because they’ll get their Mother 3 (and a superior translation of it, at that), but you will effectively be dealing a fatal blow to the IP’s future. Why would the publisher give Mother another thought when their largest target audience for the series would rather bombard their office with phone calls or tacitly condone what basically amounts to mass piracy than wait patiently for them to find a way to release the game in a way that’s profitable (part of those profits go back to the Mother creators and future development of the IP, by the way) whether they do it next year or 10 years down the line?

If you love the series as much as you say, why would you be a driving force behind killing it off for good?

I know you don’t see it that way. I know you mean well and that you adore the series, and that this patch is a labor of love. I also realize that among the people who download it, a very (very!) small percentage have actually bought the Japanese game legally and would otherwise never dream of downloading a ROM. These people deserve to get Mother 3 in English, as does the general public who have never heard about the title’s troubled history, or starmen.net, or your patch. I hope the publisher decides to deliver, and I believe that eventually they will…but that’s their call.

So please–be proud of the work you’ve put into the patch. Be proud of the fact that you have such a significant sway over the future of one of the best game series out there. But please, please, please, as a fellow professional who wants to see these games survive in the long run, I ask you: please don’t release the patch.

Anonymous Localization Producer
(Who Knows He Will Not Be Popular For Writing This)

(Note that all the italics were that way in the original e-mail)

We did indeed have a policy of, “If Nintendo announces anything or even just asks us, we’ll halt the project immediately.” This e-mail came from an anonymous source from what was clearly a throwaway Yahoo e-mail account, so even though I suspect someone at Nintendo sent it, it could very well have been any random person. The fact that they chose to send it right before the patch’s release (rather than the two years or so they had to say something) also made me a little doubtful.

Anyway, there are some excellent points in here, so I’m curious to know what other readers think. Some of them are debatable, like the fact that fan translations = dead IP; I released a Star Ocean translation in 2002/2003 yet an official release of the first game still happened years later on the PSP. Persona 2: Innocent Sin, Final Fantasy V, and Tales of Phantasia are other examples I can name off the top of my head. Still, the guy does make a good point.

So, what do you think? Was releasing the patch good, bad, both, neither, or something else?

Update: I forgot to mention, we checked the mail header info and it seemed to have originated from Japan, but that’s all we could figure out.

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I was just digging into the samples informing EB music – I knew they were there but hadn’t heard the sources until looking at your page. You sound like you’re the type who would know some of the below material, but as a lawyer, musician, and EB fan, some things about the music composition make more sense to me than they would to those in your comment thread.

My 2012-era question in the midst of the music’s sampledelic nature is, “How did the music get cleared for the US in the first place?” Certainly some of the differences in copyright use are Japan-US differences, but some of the samples are clearly recognized from Beatles songs – i.e. the least obscure band they could have used.

The trick is in the development period.

As you might know, affordable samplers hit the market around the same time as the Ultimate Breaks and Beats compilations (the latter of which has its own Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_Breaks_and_Beats). The series allowed DJs to sample the Amen Break, which has shown up in basically everything. The series + turntables + samplers meant that snippets of songs were suddenly new sources for instrumentation. This didn’t show up until the mid-’80s.

Most importantly, if you get a bunch of late ’80s or early ’90s rap or dance albums (particularly early ’90s house), there are two main things you pick up:

1) They’re obviously built off samplers; and
2) They’re never sourced in the liner notes.

A lot of that house era is defined by a transposed chord. “Everything” by Moby has a piano break in C minor-G minor-B flat minor; this is probably a sample he transposed. Similarly, the 808 State hit “Pacific” opens with a Fmaj7-Gmaj7-Cmaj7-Dmaj7 sequence. Samples with transposed pitch formed the chordal structure of tons of these works. It’s what the new technology could do.

That’s precisely the type of sample manipulation in EB. The Star-Spangled Banner insert in Jackie’s Cafe music is transposing the same chord at different pitches to approximate the melody, which is why it sounds creepy – nobody aiming for melodic music would play chords that way together – and also why it’s difficult to detect initially. The main point here is that making songs like that is very much a product of its era. The composers took their cues from contemporary devices and how other artists used them. That they managed to transcend the sameness of those influences is a testament to their skills as composers. Anyone can throw samples on a beat and make a dance song, but good composers shine because they use their technology to enhance original ideas.

At the same time, frenzied sampling was also very much of its time because the copyright laws simply hadn’t caught up to musicians yet. In technology-related areas of the law, the law takes a long time to get somewhere, because it has to go through these steps in essence every time:

1) Something happens.
2) It grows popular enough to get noticed.
3) The affected party notices it.
4) The affected party sues.
5) A judge hears everything and makes a decision.

The step from 1 to 2 usually never happens. Sampler-heavy genres – rap, jungle, house – stayed underground for long enough that it took years for artists and lawyers to figure everything out. Add those couple of years to the year(s) it can take to get through a case, and the thing that started it all might be 5 years past.

If step 2 and 3 are connected in the public, things accelerate, but that still can take time. The Orb, who used samples for everything, got in trouble for sampling Rickie Lee Jones’s interview in Reading Rainbow at the front of “Little Fluffy Clouds,” but not only was it unaltered, it was the backbone of a UK #10 hit, where everyone could find it easily. Enigma, a.k.a. Michael Cretu, had to reveal his real name because of a sample/royalty-based lawsuits, but again that was only because it came out from his worldwide hits such as “Sadeness (Part I)” and “Return to Innocence,” and the latter’s lawsuit didn’t happen until 5 years after its release.

My point is: Earthbound’s sample-heavy uncredited music couldn’t have been made in any other era due to technology on one end of the timeline and emerging copyright law on the other end. The samples they used probably weren’t strictly legal to U.S. copyright law, but it was an area of emerging law particularly during EB development and was only fully forming into what we’re used to around the time of EB’s U.S. release. While NOA lawyer teams might have been antsy enough to ask for a music change, that’s retrofitting 2012-era legal-ness onto 1994 lawyers. I can’t say for certain that 1994 NOA could have said, “oh, that samples the Beatles; that’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.” Music sampling copyright law hadn’t caught up to the technologies that brought about the lawsuits during EB’s music composition. It would catch up very soon afterward, but at the time it was still being worked on. Nowadays, every album cites its samples, the copyright information, and so on in its liner notes. When EB music was being written? Nobody did that; nobody thought they had to.

I guess that just makes Earthbound more unique in the end – it required cheap sampler technology, a game system capable of playing those samples, composers who had in-game reasons to use them (few games needed a soundtrack so wigged out), and a body of copyright law that hadn’t yet said no to it. That pretty much narrows it down to Earthbound, and it’s stunning how far ahead their music was given those constraints (compare to, e.g., Boards of Canada’s Geogaddi album, how important it was on its release, and how much that band is cut from the same cloth as Earthbound when it comes to composition).

@earthdyedred on Twitter and most everywhere else
soundcloud.com/earth-dyed-red

This actually makes sense to me – you can see this same thing happening with the Internet and technology too, where laws always seem to be several steps behind new technology. What do you folks think?

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It looks like chuggaaconroy’s ending FAQ is being used as the base here. I seem to recall when working on this Mother 2 / EarthBound comparison page that his FAQ was missing a handful of things, so there’s probably even more to check out. If you can think of anything that can be added, speak up now or forever hold your peas!

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