User:NintenBOUND/EarthBound fan community: Difference between revisions

[[File:EarthBound.Net.png|thumb|right|375px|The main page for EarthBound.Net/Starmen.Net, which lasted from 1997-2005 before the site was moved.]]

The ''EarthBound'' fan community consists of the fanbase surrounding the ''EarthBound''/''Mother'' franchise created by [[Shigesato Itoi]] and produced by [[Nintendo]], [[Ape Inc.]], [[HAL Laboratory]], and [[Brownie Brown]], specifically its main three titles; ''[[EarthBound Beginnings|EarthBound Beginnings''/''Mother]]'', ''[[EarthBound|EarthBound''/''Mother 2]]'', and the Japanese-exclusive ''[[Mother 3]]''. The franchises's fanbase began in the late 90s, as multiple fan websites started appearing soon after the release of ''EarthBound'' in {{wp|North America}} in 1995, the most prominent one being Starmen.Net (originally EarthBound.Net) in 1997. The fanbase only grew stronger upon [[Ness]], the protagonist of ''EarthBound'', receiving representation by being a fighter in the popular [[Nintendo 64]] fighting title ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' in 1999 (with the main protagonist of ''Mother 3'', [[Lucas]], becoming a fighter in ''[[Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'' in 2008), with multiple petitions and campaigns being organized by Starmen.Net and other fan sites for the release of the [[EarthBound Beginnings|first game]] on the [[Game Boy Color]] in 1998 <ref>http://classic.fobby.net/petition/eb0/</ref>, the release of ''[[EarthBound 64]]'' in the U.S. before the game's August 2000 cancellation <ref>http://classic.fobby.net/petition/eb64/</ref>, among other forms of representation and awareness by Nintendo since the fanbase's germination. Despite Nintendo showing a seemingly cavalier and nonchalant attitude towards the franchise and its fanbase, the ''EarthBound'' fan community has still advocated the series' growing awareness and attention, in particular the official english localization of ''Mother 3'' which has persisted to this day; now-defunct gaming website ''{{wp|1UP.com}}'' wrote that "no other game in the history of time garnered such a rabid demand for translation". <ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20151010093619/http://www.1up.com/features/translation-noble-art-rom-hacking</ref> In response to Nintendo's unwillingness to create the desired localization, despite ''EarthBound'' fans launching a massive campaign named EB Siege championing the creation of the localization (including a 270-page tome, the ''EarthBound Anthology''), a Starmen.Net team headed by [[Clyde Mandelin|Clyde "Tomato" Mandelin]] localized the game in english themselves over a two-year period, releasing [[Mother 3 fan translation|the fan translation]] in August of 2008-which garnered over 100,000 downloads within its first week. While the fan community's efforts have done little to raise interest of the series within Nintendo, the fanbase's passion and innumerable petitions and campaigns to raise the awareness and overall interest in the ''EarthBound'' franchise have been noted by Nintendo, with ''[[mariowiki:Mario (series)|Mario]]'' and ''[[zeldapedia:The Legend of Zelda (Series)|Zelda]]'' series creator [[Shigeru Miyamoto]] describing ''EarthBound''{{'}}s fanbase as being "really solid" after the "''Mother 3'' petition" (a campaign for Nintendo to create ''Mother 3'') received 30,000 American signatures alone in 2003. <ref>https://starmen.net/devotion/</ref>

The '''''Mother 3 fan translation''''' is a fan-made translation patch of ''[[Mother 3]]'', created by Clyde "Tomato" Mandelin and the fan translation team and released on August 17th, 2008. After Nintendo stated their  non-interest in localizing the third game in the ''EarthBound''/''Mother'' franchise, ''Mother 3'', the team spent two years painstakingly translating the entire game into a readable english form for the english-speaking audience. Text boxes and dialogue were hacked and altered significantly in order to accommodate the english vocabulary and the spacing of the english language, with great difficulty involved in the process of doing so. Several names were also stylistically altered from their original Japanese translation, such as the character Yokuba taking on the name of "[[Fassad]]" and Tatsumari Village acquiring the english name of "[[Tazmily Village]]". Upon the completion and release of the patch in 2008 (which was released alongside [[EarthBound fan community#Mother 3 Handbook|a fan-made guidebook for the translation]]), the patch garnered over 100,000 downloads within its first week alone. The team also publicly offered the patch for free to Nintendo, for use as an official release of a ''Mother 3'' localization; however, the company has not taken the team up on its offer. <ref> </ref> Nevertheless, the fan translation has gone down as one of the most devoted pieces of fan work in entertainment history, with calling it .

====''You Are Now EarthBound'' Fangamer Bundle====

The '''''Mother 3 Handbook''''' is a fan-produced 272-page guidebook to [[Mother 3 fan translation|the fan-made english translation of ''Mother 3'']], which was released along with the patch's release on August 17th, 2008. Manufactured by Fangamer, and designed by Jon Kay (with additional NPC and enemy illustrations by Emilio Orsi and Marty Elmer and item illustrations by Sebastian Hardy), the book follows a style similar to that of the [[Encyclopedia Mother|''Encyclopedia Mother'']] and [[EarthBound Player's Guide|''EarthBound'' Player's Guide]] guidebooks, describing each event and area of the game in detail in an 8-chapter format similar to the actual game itself (with accompanying fan-made clay figures of each main character and enemy in the game, sculpted by artist Camille Young, which are shown along with the guide like the ''Encyclopedia Mother'' and ''EarthBound Player's Guide'' handbooks). The book is available in both a digital and physical form, with the hardcover version having a slipcase depicting the book as a [[Pigmask Army]] survival training guide (which also doubles as a poster). <ref> </ref>