A FORENSIC ANALYSIS OF

EARTHBOUND’S DEEPEST SECRETS

EarthBound’s
EarthBound’s localization
localization source files were
deleted
deleted forever
forever 25
25 years ago…or were they?

By Clyde Mandelin <

https://gamehistory.org/author/cmandelin/>
· June 4, 2021 < https://gamehistory.org/6smt>
Hey, Frank Cifaldi from the VGHF here. Before we kick
things over to Clyde Mandelin for our main feature, I
wanted to talk briefly about not only how we managed
to recover development data from Nintendo’s
EarthBound, but how fickle and volatile this material
can be.
When we talk about video game source material, we’re
talking about many different types of objects, including
concept art, design documentation, letters of
correspondence, and of course the source code itself.
We feel that any surviving artifact that went into making
a game could be of historical interest to the right
person.
 In 2018, EarthBound localizer Marcus Lindblom re-
discovered fragments of his early 90s digital work
for Nintendo. Unfortunately, the files had long
since been deleted…or were they?

The artifact we’re talking about today is a great example

of this. Former Nintendo of America employee Marcus
Lindblom < https://twitter.com/CarriedAwayGame> was
the man mainly responsible for the English-language
script for EarthBound, a localization so revered that
there’s a book about it <
https://www.fangamer.com/products/legends-of-
localization-book-2-earthbound> . In 2018, Lindblom
and his wife re-discovered floppy disks from his time at
Nintendo, including the raw scripting files used during
the creation of the game!
After putting the disk in a floppy drive, Lindblom was
dismayed to find that he had deleted the EarthBound
files long ago, and had reused the disk for some
unrelated work. He ended up donating the disk to us,
the hope being that we could do some digital forensics
and possibly recover some EarthBound data from the
disk, and if not, well, at least we’d have a curious little
display piece with the disk itself.

Lindblom’s disk arrived safely at VGHF’s lab, but

was it salvageable?

Did you know that when you delete data from a disk, or
even your hard drive, it doesn’t automatically
disappear? The data sits in limbo, waiting to be
overwritten by new files. Until that happens, it’s all still
there, it’s just missing the reference info needed for
your computer to understand it.
In the case of Lindblom’s disk, the only new file he had
written after deleting the EarthBound files was a tiny
text document, barely a paragraph long. Miraculously,
since that new data was so miniscule, we were able to
forensically recover all of the deleted EarthBound data,
with high confidence that none of the data had been
compromised! It appears to be the entirety of
EarthBound’s scripting files, in the original scripting
language that was likely used by the game’s
development team, Ape, in Japan.

Hidden in the disk’s data were the complete

localization script files, unseen since 1995!

While it’s tempting to dismiss this data as not being

historically interesting (after all, if it’s just the script,
isn’t it all in the game?), a closer examination reveals
many things hidden to an EarthBound player, including
character names, unused dialogue and cutscenes, and
even developer notes!

EarthBound's Most Hidden Secrets …

We’re big believers at the VGHF that data in the right
historian’s hands can lift the veil on some amazing video
game development secrets. So we were thrilled when
Clyde Mandelin, who literally wrote the book on this
game’s localization <
https://www.fangamer.com/products/legends-of-
localization-book-2-earthbound> , agreed to look
through the files and share his findings with us!
The following is mirrored from Mandelin’s Legends of
Localization website <
https://legendsoflocalization.com/early-earthbound-
discoveries/> , with minor omissions. The scripting files
are hosted on The Internet Archive <
https://archive.org/details/earthbound-source> .

A brief interruption.
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New Discoveries About EarthBound’s Development

and Localization
In 1994, Nintendo released the cult hit
MOTHER 2 in Japan. In 1995, the game
was localized into English and released
in North America as EarthBound.
During its jump from Japanese to
English, EarthBound changed in many
ways. I started documenting these
differences twenty years ago, and more
recently wrote a 400-page book <
https://www.fangamer.com/collections/l
egends-of-
localization/products/legends-of- < https://gamehistory.org/wp-
localization-book-2-earthbound> about content/uploads/2020/03/eb.jp
the game’s localization. g>
But just when I thought there was EarthBound Super NES
nothing left to write about, the Video cartridge
Game History Foundation somehow unearthed old
development files from about halfway through
EarthBound’s English localization.
Naturally, these pre-release files let us see how things
looked during EarthBound’s localization, which is
fascinating in itself. But, because the game’s script is
deeply intertwined with the game’s programming, these
files also provide glimpses of:
Unused scenes
Unused text
Early gameplay ideas that were scrapped
Game details never revealed before
Comments from the writers, developers, and translators
Basically, even after playing, documenting, and reverse
engineering EarthBound for 25 years, I was amazed by
what these files contained. The files contain so much
new information and so many answers to old questions
that I wasn’t really sure what to do with it all. So, for
now, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite discoveries
in this article, which covers maybe 15% of what I found.
These files are a genuinely fascinating piece of video
game history. Even if you’re not a big EarthBound fan, I
think you’ll find some of the stuff below interesting!
Gameplay Discoveries
Some of the EarthBound development files refer to story
events and gameplay mechanics that didn’t make it into
the final Japanese and English games. Below are some
good examples.
Fighting the Police
In the final version of the game, five police officers
attack you one after the other – but once you’ve
defeated the fourth one, the fifth one gets scared and
runs away. Developer notes su est that you would’ve
originally been able to fight all five police officers, and
in any order of your choosing.
Here’s what the fifth police officer would’ve said before
battle:
I covered this previously in my book, but these
development provide completely new details
Despite being an unused line from earlier in the
game’s development, this line was translated into
English and remains intact in the final game’s data

Japanese text Official translation

◆いくぞ いくぞ くいぞォ！ ·Let’s go, go og!
あっ まちがえた いくぞォ！ Oops! My mistake, go!

After you won the the battle, the officer would’ve said:
 Japanese text Official translation
◆どーも しつれいいたしやしたっ！ ·’scuse me!
ジャン ジャン。 Uuuuuh… yeah.

According to the development files, the encounter with

the police captain afterward would’ve progressed
slightly differently too. It sounds like you’d still have to
fight him, but much of the scene would happen
elsewhere in the police station and involve the secretary
in some way.
Fake Theater Tickets
At some point in the game’s development, there was a
character who called himself “the Weakest Man in All of
Twoson”. You’d have to fight him, and if you won, you’d
receive a ticket to the nearby Chaos Theater.
None of this is in the final game at all, so it’s not clear
how it fit into the game. For now, here’s all of the
relevant unused text from the developer files. Note that
none of this text was translated into English – the
translations below are mine.
I assume (pun intended) that this was originally the
Weakest Man in All of Twoson you had to fight
Defeating the Weakest Man of Twoson would earn you
theater tickets, but they’d turn out to be fake

When first meeting the character:

Japanese text Official translation

◆おっ おっ おっ
ツーソンでいちばん
よわいと ·Oh, what’s this, now?
いわれている おれ You wanna pick a fight with ME, the Weakest
さまに‥‥ Man in All of Twoson?
◆ケンカを うってくる ·But you’re just a kid, so this should be no sweat!
きだな。 Get ready!
◆こどもあいてなら
だいじょうぶだ！
いくぞ！
After defeating the character:

Japanese text Official translation

◆やっぱり まけたか。
◆まけて‥‥まけて‥‥にんげんは ·Huh. I lost after all.
おおきくなっていくのさ。 But losing again and again is how
◆かんしゃのきもちだ。 people grow.
カオスげきじょうの「ちけっ ·Take this as a token of my gratitude.
と」を It’s a “ticket” to the Chaos Theater.
あげよう。

At this point, you’d be given a key item. But if your

inventory was full, he’d say this:

Japanese text Official translation

◆きみは 「ちけっと」を
もつ
ゆとりがないね。 ·You don’t have room to carry the “ticket”.
◆いらないものを しまつ ·Come see me again after you get rid of stuff
してから you don’t need.
また おいで ·I promise I’ll give you the “ticket” then.
◆かならず「ちけっと」は
あげるからさ。

Upon taking the fake ticket to the theater, the ticket

person would say:
 Japanese text Official translation
◆あらら このチケットは
にせものよ。 ほら よく ·Oh, this ticket is a fake.
みると ·See? If you look closely, it’s missing the
スカシがはいってないでし watermark.
ょ。 ·You must be friends with bad people or
◆あなた わるいひとたちの something.
なかまなんじゃないの。

Then, if you went back to talk to the Weakest Man in

Twoson, he’d say:

Japanese text Official translation

◆まえに あげた「ちけっ
と」 Apparently, the “ticket” I gave you earlier was
にせチケットだったら ·actually fake.
しいな。 Sorry ’bout that.
もうしわけなかった
ね。

At one point in the development files, the character is

identified as a “lookout”. Based on this and other
unused text in the final game, it sounds like this
character would’ve been posted near the back entrance
into Burglin Park.
Zero information about this character exists in the final
releases of the game, so this is entirely new stuff I had
never seen before!
Lots of Junk
In the final Japanese game, there’s a bit of unused text
that su ests a specific vendor in Burglin Park used to
sell generic piles of junk. Unfortunately, there are no
other hidden details about this junk-buying gameplay
mechanic.
Luckily, thanks to these development files, we’ve
learned that this character with sunglasses did
originally sell piles of junk, and that he sold these piles
of junk by the kilogram and by the ton. It sounds like
you could spend up to $999 for the kilogram option, and
up to $9999 for the ton option.

This junk vendor used to sell piles of junk by the

kilo and ton, but when this gameplay mechanic
changed, his text still remained basically the same
Originally, you were probably supposed to buy piles
of junk from this guy and give them to the local
inventors, Orange Kid and Apple Kid

In the final version of the game, this vendor still sells

junk, but as individual items that a future party member
can repair. The weird thing is that you don’t actually
meet this junk-fixing character until much later, in a
different area of the game. Maybe this design change is
why this vendor always felt strangely out of place to me.
Graveyard Goodies
In early versions of the game, you could check
tombstones. Most of the time, nothing would happen if
you checked one, but sometimes you’d find an item:
You could check tombstones at some point in the
game’s development – most of the time you’d get this
message, though
Checking certain tombstones would net you an item
(probably not hamburgers though, that’s just a
random guess)

There are actually a few different tombstone-related

lines, all of which were translated into English despite
being old, unused text. Here’s the default line again:

Japanese text Official translation

◆はかいしの もじをよ ·Nothing happened even though you read the
んでも tombstone.
なにもない。

And here’s the text when you would get an item from a
tombstone:

Japanese text Official translation

◆はかいしの もじをよ ·Nothing happened even though you read the
んでも tombstone.
なにもない‥‥ ·At least that’s what I thought…
◆と おもったら ·But…
___を ひろった。 actually you picked up a ___.
But, if your inventory was full, it’d say this:

Japanese text Official translation

◆しかし ざんね
ん。 ·How unfortunate!
にもつがいっぱ ·You can’t carry anything else because your back-pak
いで is full.
もてない。

It sounds like there was one last line for the more
curious players:

Japanese text Official translation

◆はかいしの もじをよ
んでも ·Nothing happened even though you read the
なにもない。 tombstone.
◆しかし むだなことで ·But you might want to try doing useless things.
も ·…That’s all I wanna say.
してみるもんだ。
‥‥ただ それだけ。

The second sentence in the translation above is actually

a little off – it’s more like “doing pointless stuff (like
this) sure can pay off”.
Summers Massage
In the final version of the game, a woman in Summers
makes something called “Magic Cake”. As soon as you
eat it, the screen start distorting, and you fall
unconscious. You then have a vivid dream about a
stranger named Poo in a distant land.
In the final version of the game, this woman offers
you Magic Cake after you help her out
But the Magic Cake turns out to be a mind-altering
substance

Naturally, fans love to make drug jokes about Magic

Cake, but it turns out that Magic Cake wasn’t in the
game originally. Instead, the woman was going to give
you a special oil massage on the beach, during which
you would fall asleep and have the crazy dream.
Originally, the Magic Cake lady was named “Jill” and
she gave special, mind-altering oil massages

Based on info in the development files, it sounds

like the massage woman would’ve been located down
here in the beach area

There’s a lot of information about this scattered across

the development files, but here’s a summary of the most
interesting stuff.
First, here’s an example line from a woman in the Stoic
Club that seems to have been written early in the
game’s development:
 Original Japanese text English meaning
◆カリヨンビーチには
ねぇ キミ
なかなかおもしろい
マッサージをしてく
れる ·On the Carillion Beach is a lady named Jill who
◆ジルって じょせい gives really interesting massages.
が いてね‥‥ ·Apparently, they even make you have nice
◆いいゆめを みせて dreams. REALLY nice dreams, you know?
くれるらしい。 Doesn’t that sound great?
いいゆめ‥‥だよ‥‥キ
ミ。
すてきじゃないか‥‥
ねぇ。

At some point after this line was written, Jill was

renamed “Martha” in the development files, presumably
as a play on the name マーサ (māsa, “Martha”) and the
word マッサージ (massāji, “massage”).
 Original Japanese text English meaning
;オイルマッサージの⼥
（マーサ）
◆とろけるような ゆ ;Oil Massage Woman (Martha)
めごこち。 ·How about an oil massage that will leave you
オイルマッサージは feeling like you’re in a meltingly wonderful dream?
いかが。 ·Will you try it?
◆ためしてみる？ Yes No
<はい> <いい
え>
If you answer “yes”
◆じゃ こっちのひか ·Then come over here into the shade.
げでね。
If you answer “no”
◆じゃ また こんど ·Oh, some other time, then. Bye!
ね。バーイ

A woman in the Summers drugstore also used to

mention this massage stuff:
Pre-final line
Final line

Japanese text English meaning

◆ちかごろ かたがこっ
て‥‥。 ·My shoulders have been so stiff lately…
うでのいいマッサージ There was a really good masseuse here, but
しが now I can’t find them.
いたんだけど みつか
らなくて。

And a character in the hotel used to talk about

massages too:
 Japanese text English meaning
◆ビーチにいた マッサージ
さん ·The masseuse on the beach was just
すっごく じょうずだった wonderful.
わ。 It felt like I was in a dream.
ゆめごこちよ。

At some point in time, the developers changed things

around and made Martha offer Magic Cake instead of a
massage. But even though they changed her character,
a separate pre-final line su ests she was still located
on the beach:

Original Japanese text English meaning

◆マジックケーキうり が
はまべに いるらしい ·Apparently there someone selling Magic Cake
よ。 on the beach.
◆おじさんも しごとさえ ·I’d go and have some, if I didn’t have work to
なけりゃ do.
たべにいくのになあ。

For the final release, however, the woman was moved to

the city’s sidewalk.
As we can see, this character underwent many changes
during development. In fact, the above line was replaced
with the final line on a date marked “7/18”. If this is
referring July 18, 1994, then this Martha character was
still being changed up until weeks before the game’s
release!
On a side note, even though this woman’s name never
appears named in the actual game, the official Japanese
guide refers to her as “Jill”. This su ests that either the
guide writers didn’t get informed about her new
“Martha” name, or her name was changed back to “Jill”
before the game’s release. The former seems more likely
to me.
Things about Poo
During the game’s development, many changes were
made involving Poo, the fourth party member. Here are
some highlights:

Poo’s special skill was originally called “Mantra”,

and it would make enemies ignore him more often in
battle. I’m not sure if he could use it on other
party members or not, but the skill was later
replaced with his enemy-copying “Mirror” skill
Originally, you could have the Poo dream in two
different places: the Summers beach or the Scaraba
hotel
Originally, the Star Master would stop you outside
the pyramid and prevent you from continuing until
you completed the Rainy Circle and Pink Cloud
dungeons. He’d conveniently teleport the entire
party (including Poo) back to the Scaraba town so
you could go visit those dungeons
With this new information in mind, this mostly
forgettable line in Scaraba suddenly makes a lot
more sense

Also, Poo originally used the Japanese pronoun oira <

https://legendsoflocalization.com/personal-pronouns-
in-japanese/#oira> , which came as a surprise to me. In
the final version, he instead uses the more fitting ore <
https://legendsoflocalization.com/personal-pronouns-
in-japanese/#ore>  pronoun.
Unused Scene Animations
The developer/translator data files also su ested that
certain story scenes had extra bits that were cut for the
final release. Using these clues, fellow EarthBound ROM
hackers were able to locate the unused content and
reactivate it.
There were several of these discoveries – below are two
of the more interesting ones.
After the Zombie Attack
In the final version of the game, Ness and Paula get
caught by a zombie lady’s minions. The screen fades to
darkness, and then the two characters wake up in a
cave beneath a graveyard.
It turns out there was originally a short scene that
bridged these two events. In it, the zombie lady can be
seen directing her minions as they drag Ness and Paula
to their underground prison:

bikini zombie extra scene

Bikini Zombie scene w/ unused parts restored

All the data for this zombie scene still exists in the final
Japanese and English releases – only the scripting code
intended to activate it was commented out.
After the Gold Mine
A similar short animation was removed in the Dusty
Dunes Desert section of the game. In the final version of
the game, you’re tasked with clearing out a monster-
infested gold mine. The miner is grateful afterward, but
remains where he stands.
Originally, the miner was supposed to thank you, drive
his vehicle off the screen, and then enter the gold mine
to continue his work. This animation was cut from the
final release, but still exists in the game data:

gold miner eb

Restored gold miner animation

In the final release, this vehicle never moves. But in a

rare 1992 preview video, we can see that it did move at
some point:
< https://gamehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/desert-yumbo-
beta.gif>
From a 1992 preview video <
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr6pth9Ddbc> , a
couple years before the game’s final release

The scene in this preview clip is a little different from

what was uncovered in the final game’s data, so it looks
like we might have two separate snapshots of this
unused scene now.
Character Names Revealed
According to the developers’ data files, many of the
unnamed characters in MOTHER 2/EarthBound actually
have names. Some of these names did get listed in
official Japanese guides, but most of these have never
revealed before:
Lier X. Agerate was originally referred to by the
developers as “Mizuno-san”, but I’m not sure if this
is a reference to anyone in real life
One (or both?) of the traveling entertainers in
Onett is referred to as “Pretz”
The helpful mole in Onett is named “Holly”
The Onett librarian is named “Lucy”
The Onett mayor’s secretary is named “Donna”
The unnamed bakery in Onett actually went by two
different names during the game’s development:
“Akanbakery” (a pun on akanbe <
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akanbe> ) and “Smile
Bakery”
Twoson’s tourism committee-ish lady is known as
“Sherry”
The bicycle shop owner is named “Charlie”, which is
a bicycle pun in Japanese
Paula’s mother is named “Isabella”

Paula’s father is named “Paul Jones”

The egg vendor in Burglin Park is known as “Eggman”
The guy who wants the For Sale sign in Burglin Park
doesn’t have a name, but his sprite is identified as
“Snake Salesman Pancho”
The zombie lady in Threed is named “Bikini Zombie”,
and there’s actually quite a lot that changed about
her during the game’s development and the game’s
localization
The lady who sells Jeff the Bubble Monkey is named
“Nancy”
The zombie sympathizer in Threed is named “Batchy”,
which is a play on a Japanese word for “stinky” – a
good English equivalent would be something like
“P.U.”

The highway bus driver is named “Hurry”, but was

probably intended to be “Harry” (more info here <
https://legendsoflocalization.com/the-problem-with-
l-r-and-other-letters-in-japanese-translation/#u-
and-a> )
This character already has an in-game name (Shо̄ji in
Japanese, George in English), but the developers
refer to his sprite as “Shige-chan”. I’m not sure
why, though
Many characters in the bar/cafe have names – for
example, the owner is named “Jack”, which is
probably how the bar became “Jackie’s Cafe” in the
English version
The bad pun guy is named Jimmy, a play on the word
jimi (“plain, simple, bland”)
The drunk guy who accidentally knocked on the wall
is named “Knock”
The woman by the counter is named “Betty”

The Fourside Museum receptionist is named

“Catherine”
The Fourside Museum research was named “Komorita-
san” early on
This character’s sprite is called “Spaniard”

The Summers Museum receptionist is named “Audrey”

The Summers Museum researcher might not have had a
name at first, and/or might’ve been named “Komorita-
san” too – the old details are a bit messy here
The man guarding the upstairs room in the Summers
Museum is named “Omar”

As we’ve seen already, the Magic Cake lady is named

“Martha” and is wordplay on the Japanese word for
“massage”

The owner of the Stoic Club is named either “R.C.”

or “Earthy”
The Stoic Club waitress is named “Josie”
This vendor in Scaraba’s bazaar is named “Gozar”, a
reference to the famous Japanese bazāru de gozāru <
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=ipT3zIR_UOs&list=PLBToOuDYzM-
TP9HPpGC9QmdafTCc_DdqY>  commercial catchphrase
The guy sitting on the rope in Scaraba is named
“Pupuka”
The underwater ATM guy in Deep Darkness is/was named
“D. Spencer”

Of course, there are so many files and so many

developer comments to wade through that I’m sure I
missed a bunch more.
Pre-Release Text Discoveries
These game development files also offer some
surprising bits of text that eventually changed before
the game’s final release. Most of these finds are
completely new and never seen before. Below are a few
examples.
Twoson’s Name
In the first town of Onett, there’s a little girl who stands
in front of a billboard and has a line of text related to
billboards. Early in the game’s development, her line
involved two jokes: Japanese wordplay and the fact that
a little kid is testing an older kid’s reading skills:
Pre-final line
Final line

Japanese text Official translation

◆このみち シーリンに つづく。 ·This road leads to Shelin.
‥‥って かいてあるんでしょ？
<はい> <いいえ> …does it say so?
If you say “yes”
·Don’t confuse your p’s and q’s.
◆「ツ」と「シ」‥‥それから Also, don’t mix up d and
‥‥「ソ」と「リ」は b.
よみまちがえない ようにね。 It’s easy to make mistakes
when reading.
If you say “no”
◆ちゃんと よめたね。 ·Could you read it OK?

As we can see, someone actually translated this

unused, pre-final line into English. Interestingly, it was
also half-localized.
When you first start to learn how to read Japanese
writing, ツ (tsu)and シ (shi) are easy to mix up, as are ソ
(so) and リ (ri). So the joke here is that ツーソン (tsūson,
“Twoson”) looks just like シーリン (shīrin, “Shelin”) if
you’re not good at reading.
We can see that the English translation leaves the
“Shelin” name unchanged, but it doesn’t make as much
sense for a poor English reader to mistake “Twoson” for
“Shelin”. Yet the following sentence has been localized
to talk about mixing up similar-looking English letters.
Incidentally, the official English translation says “Could
you read it OK?”, but this is a bit off. The little girl’s line
is more like “Oh, you actually managed to read it.”, as if
surprised. Even though this line didn’t make it into the
final release, the final script does include “don’t you
even know how to read?” jokes, just in other places in
the game.
Sign Changes
According to the developers’ notes, the sign early in
Peaceful Rest Valley is actually a fake placed there by
Pokey, the game’s most annoying antagonist. What’s
more, the sign used to say something different:
Original, pre-final line
Final line

Japanese text Official translation

◆ひだり ·Left
ちかみちでございませ。 Short cut.
◆（なにやら ずいぶん ·(It appears to be very bad hand writing.)
ヘタクソな もじだ）

There are two signs later in the game with similar jerk-
ish messages from Pokey, so it sounds like it was meant
to be a clear running gag, and that your first encounter
with these messages was planned for much earlier in
the game.
Speaking of which, a similar message in the town of
Threed changed during the game’s development:
Pre-final line
Final English line

Japanese text English meaning

◆（４５さいを すぎ
ても
ゲームをつくってい
る ·(There’s someone who makes games even after
ひとがいます。 the age of 45.
◆なまえは いいませ ·But I won’t say who.)
ん） ·The sign has graffiti on it.
◆かんばんには
らくがきが されて
いた。

The original graffiti message is referring to the series’

creator, Shigesato Itoi, who had just turned 45. In the
final Japanese release, this was changed to the game’s
Japanese slogan, “Grownups, kids, and even your
sister”. In the final English release, this was changed to
“Just play it!”.
References to Previous Game
The final script in MOTHER 2/EarthBound contains few
(if any) direct references to the previous game in the
series. But according to the development text files,
there were some clear callbacks at some point. Below
are two examples.
First, at one point in the game, a character named
Orange Kid calls and asks if you know where Apple Kid
is. Originally, Orange Kid wanted his copy of MOTHER
1/EarthBound Beginnings back:

Pre-final line
Final line

Japanese text English meaning

◆むかしの「マザ
ー」っていう
ゲームソフトを
かしてたんで
かえしてもらおう ·A lent him a game called Mother a long while ago,
と おもって‥‥ and I was hoping to get it back from him…
◆じゃ そこには ·But I guess he’s not there, huh? Sorry to bother you.
いないんですね。 ·Click beep-beep-beep…
しつれいしまし
た。
◆ガチャン ツーツ
ーツー

In the final version of the script, Orange Kid instead

wants to borrow a copy of the “Overcoming Shyness”
book. In fact, according to the development files, it
sounds like this whole “Overcoming Shyness” book
event changed several times during the game’s
development.
Next, at the end of the game, just before the final boss
battle, Pokey originally made an indirect reference to
the previous game:
In the previous game in the series, the final boss
was defeated by a song
Early versions of this game’s Japanese script made
allusions to that final battle

Japanese text English meaning

◆そんな うたなんか ·Is this really the time for you to be singing a
うたってるばあい dumb song like that? Ha ha ha ha.
か？ ハハハハ。

In MOTHER 2/EarthBound, you collect fragments of a

melody in an item called the Sound Stone. I assume that
that’s the song being referred to here, but at no point in
the final game do the characters ever sing, so I’m not
sure how singing would’ve been accomplished in this
scene. Perhaps your party could originally use the
Sound Stone before the final battle?
Alternate Ending Text
At the very end of the game, there’s a surprise scene
that sets up a potential sequel. In the final release, a
letter from Pokey mysteriously shows up in the mailbox,
even though it’s the middle of the night and even though
there isn’t even a stamp on the envelope.
According to the development files, this final scene had
some slightly different text:
Pre-final line
Final line

Japanese text English meaning

◆とつぜん トカゲが
たずねてきて
◆ポーキーにいちゃんの ·A lizard suddenly stopped by and left a letter
てがみを おいてったん from Pokey.
だ。 ·It says, “Come and get me! Spankety-
◆「ここまで おいで！ spankety!”
おしりペンペーン」‥‥だ ·I wonder where he could be…?
って。
◆‥‥どこにいるんだろう？

Who or what is this lizard? I don’t really know, but

perhaps the series creator had something in mind that
never made it into the sequel released a decade later.
English Text Discoveries
Because these files are from when EarthBound’s
English localization was still underway, we can see that
many of the English lines are still in an unfinished state.
Below are some noteworthy in-progress lines, side-by-
side with their final counterparts.
Delayed Release
MOTHER 2 was notoriously stuck in development hell
and was almost cancelled at one point. The game
suffered major setbacks and delays, and a character in
the Japanese script even mentions this.
This character’s line, including the part about the delay,
was fully translated for the English version at one point.

Pre-final translation
Final translation

The full original English translation was:

·I wonder if “EarthBound” has been released yet.
·It’s been delayed for a long time.
As we can see, the part about the delay was removed
from the line before EarthBound’s release, presumably
because EarthBound never suffered from the same
major delays that MOTHER 2 did.
Wrong Directions
A character in Onett explains where the local hotel is
located. But this explanation originally had a mistake in
it: “west” was mistranslated as “east”.
Pre-final translation
Final translation

The full original line was:

·The hotel is located in the East.
·I’m sad ’cause I only got this short message.
I think this mistake was only caught because of the
obvious factual error. I feel it probably slipped through
the initial translation stage but was luckily caught
during a play-testing session later on.
Pencil Problems
Throughout the Japanese game, several metal octopus
statues block your way. In the English version, these
octopus statues were famously changed into metal
pencil statues:
 Final Japanese release

Final English release

This change required the English script to be updated

too, and based on these development files, it looks like
the translators did a simple search-and-replace at first.
This led to some grammar and logic problems, however:
Pre-final translation
Final translation

The full, pre-final English line was:

·This machine will eradicate all pencil-shaped figures
in just one second.
·It’s incredibly powerful. Just don’t use it near a
shop that serves pencil.
Some similar octopus-to-pencil issues included:
·It makes something blocking your way
·that looks like an pencil disappear in just a second.
·(For some weird reason,
·an pencil-shaped iron statue is blocking the path.)
All in all, this is a great example of how changing one
thing in a localization can make unexpected issues pop
elsewhere, kind of like a game of whack-a-mole.
Attractive Zombie
A man in Threed comments on a strange-looking woman
standing in front of the hotel. Long ago, I wrote about
how this changed between the Japanese and English
scripts, but now we can see that English line was the
same as the Japanese line at one point:
Pre-final translation
Final translation

For comparison, here are the full lines from the pre-final
and final English scripts:

Pre-final translation Final translation

·Take a look at that chick in
front of the hotel.
·Except for the complexion,
she is one hot babe!
———
•Take a look at that chick in front of the
hotel.
•Regardless of some of the people I’ve
seen her hanging out with,
•I think I’d like to spend some time with
her!

I can only assume the English line was changed due to

Nintendo of America’s content policies <
https://legendsoflocalization.com/game-localization-
and-nintendo-of-americas-content-policies-in-the-
1990s/> at the time. Maybe someone felt the “hot babe”
thing was inappropriate here?
Booze Talk
Nintendo of America’s content policies in the 1990s
disallowed references to drugs, smoking, and alcohol <
https://legendsoflocalization.com/game-localization-
and-nintendo-of-americas-content-policies-in-the-
1990s/> , so many localized games from the era had
alcohol replaced with coffee, soda, and the like.
EarthBound was heavily affected by these policies, but I
did find one drinking reference intact in the pre-final
script.
In this scene, an important character is found on the the
ground in a back alley. Onlookers comment on the
situation, including this one:

Pre-final translation
Final translation

Notes from Developers & Translators

The development files contain the game’s script and
related event coding, but that’s not all. The files also
contain comments between staff members, as well as
information that answers questions that fans have had
for decades. I’ve listed a few interesting examples
below.
Localization Notes
First, here are some notes from the game’s Japanese
staff, explaining various things about the text to the
staff at Nintendo of America:
We say “pank <
https://legendsoflocalization.com/earthbound/twoson/
#acu-punk-sure> ” for “flat tire.”
”U fufufu…” is laugh …
 ”take a shower” is better for American teeens? Also, is it
better to say “I’m a little stink.”?
I’m not sure about spelling of groopy. Also, groopy may
be slightly different in the US. and Japan. Let’s discuss.
Do you know Paul Mouria? He’s famous in Japan, who
makes easy-listening music.
He’s hip. He mixes English and Japanese when he talks.
Just ask me.
Most of these notes are about things I’ve already
documented long ago, but it’s cool seeing the original
localization process at work like this.
Translation Troubles
Japanese-to-English game translation can be tough, and
even nearly impossible in some cases. A few difficult
lines in EarthBound resulted in these short translation
notes:
*(no verb. cannot translate.yuka)
(*-cannot translate.too short:yuka)
*kun(no translation:yuka)
If you know Japanese, imagine trying to translate
something like “を” by itself. Game translation is full of
such challenges.
Polite Apologies
One developer left an in-game apology note as a
placeholder line for some Escargo Express stuff:

Beverage Narrator
There are two unusual scenes in MOTHER
2/EarthBound in which some unstated person or
character recaps the heroes’ journey, explains what’s
next in the game, and then offers the heroes
encouragement.
Fans always wondered who was speaking during this
iconic coffee break scene
A similarly puzzling scene happens much later in the
game, but is a tea break instead of coffee

Fans have always wondered who’s talking during these

scenes. Is it the Mr. Saturn and the Tenda elder? Is it
Ness from the future?
Here’s what the developer notes have to say about it:

Japanese dev note English meaning

★⽷井さんからプレイヤーに向けてのねぎらいの⾔葉。  

So there it is – mystery solved. Shigesato Itoi is the

person talking in the coffee and tea scenes.
Bubble Monkey Walk
At one point in the game, a gum-chewing monkey
follows you around. But occasionally it’ll stop, look
around, and then hurry back to you:
< https://gamehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/bubblemonkey-
walk-1.gif>
In the final version of the game, the Bubble Monkey
sometimes gets distracted and stops following for a
moment

According to some early developer notes, the monkey

was going to behave slightly differently. Here’s a
translation:
★ Whenever there’s a banana or an apple on the ground
nearby, the Balloon Monkey will go over to it (is this
possible?) and eat it.
My guess is that the final distracted animation was an
easier-to-implement compromise of sorts, or maybe it
just didn’t make sense for apples and bananas to be
lying on the ground in such a wintry location.
Finding a Workaround
Throughout much of the game, a researcher in a big
museum blocks a door for no apparent reason. Once you
finally get through the door, you find a room that’s
completely empty, except – for some reason – an open
manhole that leads into the sewers. It turns out this odd
layout was a solution to an art or graphics problem:
Moving the manhole cover move will be difficult to do
graphically, so (after talking with Ōyama) we’ve
currently changed it so a door in front of the manhole is
what opens instead.

In the final game the manhole cover is located in a

separate, blocked room
Having the manhole in a different room solved the
problem of having to animate it being opened

Winter CES 1995 Demo

For years, I thought that EarthBound first debuted at
the E3 event in 1995. Magazines mentioned it at E3
1995, and we even have some rare photos of it being
shown at E3 1995. But it turns out that it actually
debuted many months earlier, at the Winter CES in
January of 1995.
< https://gamehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/ces-1995-
nintendo-area.jpg>
Nintendo showed off many games at Winter CES 1995,
including an early demo of EarthBound

This was half a year before EarthBound’s release, so

there wasn’t much to show off yet. From what I’ve
heard, EarthBound was mostly in a broken, barely
playable state until weeks before the game’s release in
June 1995. Even so, a demo version of EarthBound was
apparently playable at this CES event.
Details are still very sparse about the CES demo, but
luckily these old development files still contained some
text and information about it:
Actual text from the CES 1995 demo version
of EarthBound
Actual text from CES 1995 demo version of EarthBound
 – note that this skill description was
mistranslated as a “skill was just used” message
In the CES demo, this woman’s text was replaced with
instructions on how to use the Bicycle item, but in
the actual game you don’t get this item until later
in the game

During this scene halfway through the full game,

this message would appear and then the game would
reset. EarthBound
 wouldn’t be released until the summer of 1995

Oh, how I’d love to see this demo in action someday! It

could lead to even more fascinating discoveries, and I’d
be interested to see what all the characters, enemies,
and items were called at that early point in the
localization’s development.
Final Thoughts
 Again, everything here is just a fraction of the stuff
that’s been uncovered in these old EarthBound
development/localization files. Of course, there’s lots of
mundane information to wade through, but there are
many other discoveries just as interested as what I’ve
listed here. I bet I could fill an entire new book with
stuff I’ve found in these files.
Anyway, when I think about it now, I’ve been running
EarthBound sites and working on EarthBound projects
for the past twenty years. Yet, even after all this time,
there’s one thought I keep returning to: I can’t believe
we’re still discovering so much about this old game from
25 years ago!

< https://gamehistory.org/ep-34-the-crpg-book/>
Ep. 34: The CRPG Book
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