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EarthBound Fans Take Matters Into Their Own Hands
Reid Young writes "EarthBound fans have waited 11 years for Nintendo to release the game's sequel, Mother 3, which came out in Japan in April 2006. However, following a recent announcement by a Nintendo employee that it almost certainly won't happen, the fans are taking it upon themselves to get the job done by organizing a fan translation with some of the finest names in ROM hacking. Is it ethical? Does Nintendo even care?"
It probably isn't legal by a strict definition, but you'd have to have a pretty twisted sense of ethics to have an ethical problem with this. Nintendo hasn't released it in the US in over a decade and has indicated that they probably never will, so who could the fans possibly be hurting by translating it themselves? One might argue that everyone who wanted to try it out would be _more_ ethical if they imported a japanese copy of the cart before playing the translated ROM, but given that Nintendo has taken steps to try and prevent imported games from working (though admitedly pretty lame attempts for the NES and SNES) and that any carts you could get ahold of at this point would almost certainly be used so no money would be going back the original creators anyways, i think that argument doesn't hold much water.
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Don't misunderstand me, the people behind this patch are GOOD at what they do. I have NO doubt that they will come out with a high-quality translation, but I also know that there's at least one other group already translating it, and I believe they're really close to finishing it. I wish them both the best of luck, I can't wait to play the game.
They can be found here.
I mean... localisation is basicaly a "throw more money at it" type job. It doesn't take an incredible amoun of internal ressources: you just need a few internal people to make sure the job is correct, but it is a job that DEFINATELY can be outsourced, and is often better off that way. Outsourced here not meaning china/india/whatever, but meaning external companies.
When a game is as popular as Earthbound, or SD3 (the sequel of Secret of Mana, I just can't spell the name), I don't quite understand why game companies resist localisation so much
Its literally a matter of spend X amount of money, and return a nearly garenteed profit.
So why the bloody hell not?
I hope the Virtual console brings some never before seen in north america games, because we missed out on a lot, and playing hacked up ROMs, even if it was legal, often doesn't cut it. Dejap does good stuff, but there's just so much they can do.
In response to the post asking if people would enjoy the original Earthbound today, I have to give an emphatic yes. The graphics are old, yes, and the inventory management is a tad clunky, but other than that, it's still a great game. Just one piece of advice: read everything. There are TONS of great jokes hidden throughout the series.
If you have an old SNES, you might be able to get an Earthbound cart on eBay (try to get one with the player's guide still intact, if you can!). Otherwise, the zSNES emulator and an Earthbound ROM (it's easy to find with Google... ROMnation or someone will probably have a copy) are your best bets.
Man, I still remember when I first played that game. I read Nintendo Power slavishly, waiting eagerly for any hints of when we'd see the game (same for FF II and III). A local video store did me a personal favor and pre-ordered the game for me so that I could get it ASAP. It wasn't more than a few months after mom was killed that I got to play it, and its quirky humour really gave me some much-needed cheering up.
"When a game is as popular as Earthbound, or SD3 (the sequel of Secret of Mana, I just can't spell the name), I don't quite understand why game companies resist localisation so much"
Well, I can. ^_^
You have many more additional costs besides just paying the translators:
1. QA time to test new localised builds.
2. Marketing costs to sell new product. Both print costs, additional costs associated with art changes for your new market, and the payroll costs of your marketing department.
3. Sales people have to actually go out there and sell it when they could be selling something else.
4. The cost of the physical product. (This is usually non-trivial.)
5. That you're spending money that you could have spent on another product that you think would be more successful (ie, opportunity costs.)
6. Customer service/tech support additional hours.
7. Cash payouts to get better reviews (well, okay, maybe not this one... ^_^ )