EarthBound

EarthBound
Also known as: Mother 2: Maza Tsu Gigu no Gyakushu (JP) Developers: Ape, HAL Laboratory, Pax Softnica Publisher: Nintendo Platform: SNES Released in JP: August 27, 1994 Released in US: June 5, 1995 Released in EU: July 18, 2013 (Wii U Virtual Console) This game has unused enemies. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has unused music. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences. This game has anti-piracy features. This game has a development article This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article This game has a Data Crystal page

EarthBound is Shigesato Itoi's charming, cult-hit RPG about aliens, pre-pubescents, and psychic powers.

A hit success in Japan like its predecessor, EarthBound‍ '​s lackluster performance in the states (thanks in large part to an ill-conceived marketing campaign that hyper-focused on the game's toilet humor at the expense of its more appealing qualities) initially doomed it to a life of RPG obscurity in America...but was ultimately saved thanks to a dedicated collection of fans mounting for its increased awareness on fan-created websites like Starmen.net, eventually earning the game a rerelease on the Wii U Virtual Console in 2013. Topping the service's sales charts, EarthBound has retrospectively become one of the most influential and celebrated RPGs of all-time. Turns out the game didn't stink, after all.

To do: Various unused text, documented in Mato's Legends of Localization book; some is exclusive to the Japanese version. Unused map hotspots? Earthbound localization files

Sub-Pages

To do: Look for any differences between Mother 2 and Mother 1+2.

Development Info

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Regional Differences The amount of regional changes done for this game is quite a feat.

Using Game Genie codes, severe glitching, or an IPS patch, three debug menus can be found in the game:

In-Game Debug Menu TKSyZyUTI.

Boot-Up Debug Menu APPLE.

Battle Debug Menu Pretty nice, except there's no escape.

Unused Graphics

All of the other Chosen Four characters have this animation, but Poo is the only one who doesn't actually use it. Ness and Paula jump during their name entry screen animations, and Jeff jumps over the fence when he's escaping from his boarding school. The developers probably created the jumping sprites for all four, just in case.

Variations of the Chosen Four's normal ghost sprites, plus one for Everdred. The variations of the Chosen Four's ghost sprites are exactly like the regular jumping sprites except for the transparency, ghostly trail, and halo; they could just be jumping.

As for Everdred, the game leaves it unclear as to whether he died following your encounter in Fourside, but this sprite would indicate that he did. Alternatively, Everdred might have been scheduled to join your party at some point, as every other ghost sprite is based on a party member.

Four sprites of King climbing a rope or a ladder. This would suggest two things: either King was supposed to stay with you longer in the game, or Ness' original travels through Onett were supposed to include something to climb. However, it could be that these were created just in case they needed to be used...although even if you use the various debug menus to put King in your party and travel to places he shouldn't be, these graphics still won't show.

Since there are no "sleeping" sprites for the other characters, these were probably meant to be used in special sequences early in the game, possibly waking up from Paula's psychic calls. Alternately, Ness may have been intended to be asleep when he first arrived in Magicant, as he is completely naked except for his cap during the Magicant portion of Mother 2.

Found in the files of the Japanese version is this X in a rectangle outline. The American version replaced this with the sprite below.

Ness' mother sitting, a better (but unused) alternative to walking around in random directions. May have also been meant for the prayer sequence involving Ness' family.

Ness and Paula sitting with their eyes closed. According to Tomato's website, this is actually a leftover from a mostly deleted cutscene in Threed showing Ness and Paula being dragged to the underground prison present in development files of the game.

This sprite appears when you talk to Jackie from above, but since that is impossible during normal gameplay, it goes unused.

A capsule that looks exactly like the one containing Starman Jr. in EarthBound Beginnings. This is found among the enemy-out-of-battle sprites, so it was probably supposed to be used as an alternative to the odd octahedrons used to represent enemies in the last areas of the game, or as the out-of-battle sprite of Starman Jr. and/or Starman Deluxe.

Probably just an asset they put in there in case they needed one, and it turned out they didn't.

"Pu Pu" (fart noise) is the sound the Mr. Saturns make in Japanese, so this sprite was likely meant to appear in Saturn Valley while the Mr. Saturns were walking around.

A tiny Ness posing and a tiny photographer hanging around. Clearly meant for the Lost Underworld.

A tiny Escargo Express guy, also clearly meant for the Lost Underworld. In the game itself, calling Escargo Express in the Lost Underworld causes the delivery to fail with the "couldn't find you" message.

A flag, probably meant to be used as decoration somewhere, though it doesn't seem to fit anywhere in the game.

A beating heart. Maybe some romance sequences were planned but didn't make it in.

A Sanchez brother cheering, meant for when you won something in the slot machine game.

(Source: Tomato, Starmen.net)

Partially unused. In Onett, Frank's steam-powered robot, the Frankystein Mark II, is partially obscured by a tree on the field. When you defeat it, it disappears on the spot it stood behind the tree, thus rendering about half of its overworld sprite unused.

Used, but difficult to see. The eels are almost never seen outside of the water in Deep Darkness, the only area in which they appear. They can be coaxed out of the water, but doing so is very difficult, can only be done in one or two places, and you have to be doing so intentionally.

King as a puppy is seen in the cutscene after obtaining the Eight Melodies at Fire Spring. The problem is, puppy King never moves up or down; he only moves sideways in a northeasterly direction and stops.

This small bird thing... is just never seen, ever. It looks like it could have served a use pretty much anywhere. It is similar to the sparrows found in Mother 3.

Venus has two additional strange animation frames she never uses in either of her performances. Possibly intended to be used for her performance with the Runaway Five.

The bus driver has an additional frame facing right/left, possibly intended for a stopped bus facing north/south which never happens.

Whatever this EarthBound Beginnings-esque box was intended for, it isn't used.

Poo's Master cannot be talked to from above at any point without hacking, as he never leaves his normal spot.

A sprite of Kirby, based on his appearance in Kirby's Dream Course (which was in development around the same time). Only used in the Boot-Up Debug Menu as its cursor. Interestingly, it differs slightly from the sprite used in that game.

Unused Enemy

The "Crooked Cop" or "ダーティコップ" (literally, "Dirty Cop") is identical to Captain Strong in every way but name. This may have been an earlier version of him.

There is also a "Magic Butterfly" enemy, accessible by using battle formation 480. It has no attacks or graphics.

Unused Items

Video Relaxant

The item with hex number CB goes unused. It does nothing when used, and the in-game description is an apt "What the hey is this?" The Japanese version calls it "Video Drug", but has basically the same description.

(Source: EarthBound Central (Japanese name))

Temporary Goods

Unlike the Video Relaxant, the Temporary Goods has a clear description: "A key given to you by a maid who works at the Monotoli building." This indicates that Electra was supposed to give you the "key" in exchange for the Yogurt Dispenser, and this would have unlocked the second elevator (which is inaccessible beforehand) to access the path that leads to Monotoli himself; in-game, however, the second elevator is unlocked once Electra takes the Yogurt Dispenser.

Putting the item in your inventory before going into the building does nothing, and no other unused text correlates to the item.

Unused Music

Entirely Unused

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Isn't this used once the melody finishes if you use the Sound Stone in the menu?

An unused version of the "No Sounds" variation of the completed Sound Stone, never played because the game exits the Sound Stone after the melody finishes. It can be heard by using Pro Action Replay codes C1F04ABD 80214090 at the File Select screen.

(Source: nensondubois)

A scary-sounding dungeon theme which, like some other tracks, is a remix of a theme used in Earthbound Beginnings (in areas such as Ninten's basement or the Underground Stream in Magicant).

A brief music cue for what sounds like Pokey traveling in a motorized vehicle of some sort. Whatever it is, it's not used.

A strange rumbling, then an electronic alert sound playing. It resembles the Sky Runner crashing sound (value 6E).

Partially Unused

To do: Supposedly, part of "the battle intro music" is unused.

In the game's intro, this plays before transitioning to a different track. This skips the last 15 seconds of the song.

The track used when Ness exits Magicant is cut off around the 23-second mark, leaving 15 seconds unheard in-game.

When Tessie leaves the map on the opposite side of the Winters bank, a few seconds get cut off (the later visit's version more so than the first one). The music then segues into a permanent loop of the standard Tessie travel section of the music with different instrumentation.

The Winters intro isn't intended to be played past a certain point, but if it does, all channels but one cut out at minimum volume and the music eventually loops regardless. Presumably, this intro is just a quick hack of the Snowman theme normally used in the boarding school.

Leftover Music Data

To do: There are more of these in the game's data. Specifically, in the music for a few battle themes.

Certain music tracks contain data that never gets played. Often, these unused portions are earlier drafts of the music in which they reside.

EarthBound	Mother 1+2

This would seem to indicate that the attract mode music was initially going to head in a different direction or have a different transitional section but was ultimately replaced. Surprisingly, this bit also went unused for the Mother 1+2 version of the same song with even more transitions starting at 1:10.

An unused section of "Battle Against a Weak Opponent" that makes use of the familiar "cave" motif. It doesn't initialize its own instruments, but they seem to match up when carried over from a used pattern, so this may have been part of a different progression that got scrapped.

An unused section of the Belch battle music, probably an idea for an alternate transition into the repeat. Note that it sounds a lot like the main theme from Super Mario Bros.

A fast set of drums found in the file for Threed's "happy" music. It's slightly different from the fast drums used in the bridge of this song, so this may have been temporary.

A small beat meant for Fourside which seems to indicate it was to have a simpler bridge at some point before getting replaced with a better one.

Seems to be a higher-pitched early draft of the Deep Darkness music, later replaced by the lower-pitched version.

A more complete idea that was never used in-game was this section of music from Magicant. It has the same quirky sound and feel of the final track, but a completely different melody.

This sounds like a potential ending for the music "Good Friends Bad Friends", the pre-credits sequence where the cast of the game appears. It was likely not used due to it being very brief and unsatisfying, and hence requiring the final version's ending to be rewritten.

This outro was actually used in the version of "Runaway Five on the Move!" present in the Super Famicom Magazine Volume 22: New Game Sound Museum compilation CD released in 1994.

The end credits music has an unused section that initializes all the instruments, indicating that it was used at the beginning, and plays the first three notes of the melody leading into the music. In the final, this was replaced with a more anticipatory section that fades in and builds up musically to match the cinematic of the scene.

Also in the credits music is an unused section that seems to be nothing more than the string section of a portion of the music, however, the chord progression used is slightly different from the final. This would indicate that the music may have been slightly different there as the composer was trying different ideas.

Copy Protection

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Is any of this in the Virtual Console, SNES Classic Edition, or Switch Online rereleases?

EarthBound is surprisingly heavy on anti-piracy measures, some of which are quite fiendish. None of this affects modern-day emulator users, both because the protection was targeted at cartridge copier devices (see here) and because SNES emulators have since improved so much in the accuracy department that they don't trip these checks at all.

Layer One - Region Protection

The first layer is pretty simple: it checks the console's PPU to make sure you're not running a PAL (Europe, Australia) SNES. If you are, it throws up this error message and freezes.

Layer Two - SRAM Check

Mother 2	EarthBound

This is the first real barrier against pirates. A subroutine at $C0A11C, called at startup, checks that there's only 8KB of SRAM (cartridge copiers, by their nature, tend to have more). If there's more than 8KB, then the game gives you this stern warning and freezes.

In addition, Movement Script 1 calls a subroutine at $C1FFD3 which takes a checksum of the code at $C0A11C-$C0A150. If there are any alterations to that memory range, a non-zero value is stored to $7EB539, bringing up another copyright infringement screen.

Layer Three - Increased Encounters

A third, far more subtle layer of protection is activated if the game detects that the previous layers have been disabled. There's a check at $C0281A to see if $7EB539 is 0. If it isn't, enemy presence is ramped up to absurd levels to make the game borderline unplayable. Some areas even have enemies that aren't supposed to be in those locations, like Spiteful Crows in the Scaraba Pyramid.

• 

  Enemies in the usually enemy-free Saturn Valley. (Mad Duck appears in this location in a normal game as well, though it usually can't be fought.)

• 

  Dense enemy presence in Scaraba

• 

  Much more mushrooms and sprouts than usual

• 

  A few too many sprouts

• 

  Eight enemies visible in Magicant

• 

  ...Crows in the Pyramid?

In addition, there are a few locations that try to spawn so many enemies that the game outright crashes. These areas are usually locations which are freed from evil (such as Threed and the Threed tunnel), but may also include unexpected places such as the Topolla Theater main office. If the game doesn't crash, there's a high chance that extremely unusual enemies will spawn, such as enemies which appear as NPCs or player characters and use garbage values for items and Experience Points (giving things like Backstage Passes and 3,000,000+ Exp.), common enemies like Ramblin' Evil Mushrooms and Black Antoids which act like bosses, and even blank NPCs which can't be interacted with in any way! The glitched enemies usually can't be fought and will crash the game in a number of ways if confronted, but this can be avoided by using an "auto-win every fight" code.

Layer Four - Unknown

There's another SRAM checker at $C08391. It's currently not certain what it does, but it's called six times during the game.

Layer Five - The Grand Finale

And finally, should you brave everything else, there's one final, devious checksum routine at $C3FDC5, checking $C0A11C-$C0A150 to see if all the previous layers had been defeated, which is triggered after Pokey turns off the Devil's Machine and insults Giygas. If the game detects anything awry, it hangs and deletes your save files.

Notes

For those who'd like to see the effects in action, here are some cheat codes to activate the anti-piracy effects without having to delve into a hex editor.

Use this code to increase the encounter rate:

Action Replay	C0281D80
Game Genie	6D4F-7704

If the above code freezes the game, use this code as well:

Action Replay	C0281E1A
Game Genie	FC4F-7764

This code activates the final save wipe at the end of the game:

Action Replay	C3FDDAD0
Game Genie	2DE2-546E

Naturally, you should back up your SRAM first when attempting this.

(Source: Starmen.net and EarthBound Central for copy protection info and the "crazy enemies" code)

Unused Event

Normally when battling the Clumsy Robot, you have already helped out the Runaway Five with their debt. At the end of the Clumsy Robot battle, they appear, thus ending the fight. With the assistance of a walk-through-walls cheat, you can bypass the required event of helping the Runaway Five and see an alternate ending: the Clumsy Robot spews out smoke, causing the party to end up being overcome by the smoke. The game then teleports them outside the Monotoli building.

Revisional Differences

Japanese Text Changes

To do: Get the original Japanese text.

From Mother 1+2 onward, Mother 2 received minor text changes across various revisions. Most of these changes were made to comply with CERO.

Changes in all revisions

• Pokey's mom originally refers to Buzz Buzz as a "pesky toilet fly". The word "toilet" was removed in future releases.
• A sign in Onett's hospital originally advertises a Gravestone Burial Sale for people that pass away in the hospital. In future releases, the sign states that the hospital is not holding a Gravestone Burial Sale.
• After Paula is rescued, a boy in Twoson originally states that Paula kicked her kidnapper in the balls. "Balls" was changed to "vital spot" in Mother 1+2 and the Super Smash Bros. Brawl demo, and was changed to "crotch" in the Virtual Console releases.
• A sign in Threed originally states that players should take a break every two hours. In future releases, this was changed to one hour. However, Ness' father calls every two hours in all releases.
• When the announcer introduces Venus in Fourside's theater, he originally says "Sing and kill me!" In future releases, this was changed to "Sing and love me!"
• When Tony asks for the player's name, he originally refers to "the one holding the controller." In future releases, he refers to "the one playing this game" instead.
• A man in Scaraba originally states that Pokey "crapped on the ground." In future releases, this was changed to "did his business". A similar change was made in EarthBound.
• When Master Barf challenges the party, he originally says, "Get covered in puke and die!" In Mother 1+2 and the Super Smash Bros. Brawl demo, this was changed to "Suffer until you vomit!" (the latter being changed is rather strange, as the demo {as with all Brawl demos} has a very short time limit, thus not allowing you to get anywhere near close to Master Barf). The Virtual Console releases changed this to "Get covered in me and suffer!"
• Originally, the hint man in Summers accidentally refers to the Stoic Club as a strip club. In future releases, "strip" was changed to "stri--".

Changes in most revisions

• A mole in Onett originally explains that the TV screen will change colors when you touch an enemy. In Mother 1+2, the word "TV" is removed, while the Virtual Console releases also modify the line.
• After Ness defeats the punks in Onett, the mayor originally states that Ness spit on the bullies and made them wet their pants. This part of the mayor's dialogue was removed in Mother 1+2, and the line was further modified in the Virtual Console releases.
• A vendor in Twoson's park originally states that flies swarm on his goods, giving them a nice flavor. In Mother 1+2, he simply states that his food attracts flies, while the Virtual Console releases state that his goods' flavor attracts flies.

Changes only in Mother 1+2

• A librarian in Onett originally explains that the Town Map can be pulled up with the X button. In Mother 1+2, she vaguely references the Start button instead.
• Two typos were corrected.
• Originally, a newspaper headline in Threed mistakenly says that the zombies have left Twoson instead of Threed. This was fixed in Mother 1+2.

(Source: Legends of Localization Book 2: EarthBound)

PSI Animations

To do: Get gif versions.

Both the Wii U Virtual Console and SNES Classic re-releases of Mother 2 and EarthBound add a blur effect to several of the flashier PSI animations, such as PSI Rockin'. This is standard policy for Virtual Console games, with the idea being to reduce the risk of causing seizures. Because the blur effect is applied in real-time, it does, however, have the peculiar side effect of the game blurring whenever any rapid full-screen animations occur (such as when taking mortal damage or using PSI Teleport), or not appearing when it reasonably should.

(Source: EarthBound Central)

Instead of using a blur effect, the Switch Online re-release modifies the colors of some of the flashier PSI animations.

Cutscene Changes

In the SNES Classic version, the flashes before the Carpainter battle and during the robot surgery were toned down.

(Source: EarthBound Central)