The Disastrous History of Earthbound 64 | Gaming History

[@Themasktrooper]

You upload a Mother 3 video on Mother’s Day

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Hehehe

[@charlibiris]

Hee hee

[@Slenderquil]

Seeing a beta of this game resurface is my biggest lost media wish. There's just so much going on in this game and I'd love to get my hands on it.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

The big holy grail of the cancelled games at this point, especially with Zelda 1997 now out of the way

[@kevinlee7678]

@@TheObsessiveGamer That or Conker's Twelve Tails.

[@ari-fsa5468]

I heard that there is a guy in Brazil who has two cartridges with two different builds, one of them from the spaceworld, but he only keeps their gameplay videos for close friends and he's afraid of leaking the existence of these cartridges or something like that for fear of Nintendo coming after him since apparently he didn't get these cartridges in a very legal way. He even deleted all his social media accounts because of that.

[@athandog]

​@@ari-fsa5468so interesting. Where'd you hear of that?

[@Vulpas]

@@kevinlee7678 Resident Evil 0 (N64) and the original RE2 (N64) are high up there too, plus Mega Man Legends 3. Capcom has a LOT actually.

[@Clodd1]

I hate how the N64DD was responsible for the cancellation of so many games.

[@nadca2]

Real shame that after producing three cartridge based consoles before the N64, they weren't able to forecast the reduced cost of non-volatile memory during the lifespan of the console. Especially with extended development time for the breakthrough next-gen 3D games. I believe the largest addressable ROM is 256MB without memory bank switching. +$10 to a game is an easier sell than game+$200 accessory, but it was the accessory era..still was with the gamecube.

[@Clodd1]

@@nadca2 The max is 512Mb, which is 64MB, RE2 and Conker was the only ones to use it. Storage wasn't the only thing holding the N64 back though, at the time Nintendo wanted to control every single aspect of their business, which meant third parties were under their control. Sony came up with this idea of ''freedom for everyone'' so most of them migrated. But yes, if the cart was 64MB from day one the history could be a little different. The N64DD was a problem to fix a problem.

[@carlosmendoza1177]

I always hated how so many games were developed with the 64DD in mind knowing it was still in development, if it was so important and essential for the N64, then they should have waited a year more or so and develop the whole Disk Drive system as part of the console itself, and not as an accessory

[@Clodd1]

@@carlosmendoza1177 Totally agree.

[@MaxOakland]

Makes it seem like the 64DD should’ve BEEN the 64… or should’ve been a console in between 64 and GameCube

[@SonicTheCutehog]

That fact that the original version was supposed to be localized, but the final release wasn't...

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Makes it worse that a petition was even made by western fans for its release even back then.

[@nadca2]

Way too much western music was ripped off from popular artists, if they had only produced their own score for Mother 3, it would've been localized by now. They'd have to re-score the whole game to get it past the RIAA, drastically changing the game. I wonder why they didn't distort the samples like they did when they copied music for Earthbound?

[@thenightstar8312]

Actually it never was. His information is wrong. Nintendo NEVER planned to release the 64DD version in America in any way. He simply either made up that information, or included a fabricated rumor in the video without a source. Nintendo never ever ever announced such a thing.

[@thenightstar8312]

@@TheObsessiveGamer Actually you just included that in the video despite that it's fabricated, wrong information. Nintendo NEVER ever announced ANY plans to ever bring that version over. You basically included unsourced, made up fan rumors in your video and wrongly presented it as a fact.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

​ @thenightstar8312 It was shown at E3 1998. Nintendo shows off games at E3 that they plan to bring over. They showed this game, meaning they planned it. Also Nintendo called it even Earthbound at the event as seen here. They had clear plans: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJC0aISamrd0gLc

[@SleekGoose]

I saw the thumbnail and I thought the game got leaked and my heart skipped a beat, you can’t do this to me bro 😭

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Oh you better believe if it ever gets found that i'll write in big bold letters on the thumbnail as "EARTHBOUND 64 FOUND!" :P

[@MG64OdysseyProductions]

it's definitely a MASSIVE shame this version got canceled. i hope that it'll be found one day

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Still holding out!

[@Seiyol]

It's probably for the best. The GBA game probably turned out a lot better than the N64 version ever had a shot at being.

[@kevinlee7678]

@@Seiyol The Pigmasks certainly looked a whole lot better.

[@MG64OdysseyProductions]

@@Seiyol eh idk. They do have the same overall story

[@MG64OdysseyProductions]

@@TheObsessiveGamer I'm actually a Playtester on the recreation project

[@PolishTamales]

Sadly, most of it was due to the quickly evolving hardware of the time. The 64 Drive sounded great, but with the N64 already being a year behind of launch, it did not help it's future. So many developers were actually developing games on the 64 drive, only to be told it wasn't going to be released outside of America. This caused so many games to be shelved or downgraded as a regular N64 title. Earthbound met the same fate as those developers, as the under-powered N64 could not handle the downsize of the game for regular N64 hardware.

[@TheAufziehvogel]

Of all the horrible mistakes Nintendo made starting from screwing around with Sony over the Virtual Boy and of course the Wii U, the 64DD story hurts especially. Nintendo knew they are bound to Cartridges with the N64. The 64DD was planned very early as an accessory for the N64 and a huge library of upcoming games was designed exclusively around the 64DD. Every planned game was either shifted over to normal Cartriedges or were cancelled. They miss-calculated to bizarrly with the 64DD it's unbelievable to this day what went wrong here.

[@mbii7667]

The Wii U was great

[@MaxOakland]

Wii U was a great console. I think the marketing was their mistake that generation

[@PH96Official]

It's important to tell the stories of both successful and failed games, in my opinion it is more important to talk about the failed development of games because that is important to learn for future game developers.

[@yarh79]

Happy Mother day! And of course Happy Mother day too, you beautiful franchise!

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Happy Mother Days to you and the Mother franchise

[@Dopamiin3]

I’ve just recently been learning more about earthbound 64 development. This video was perfect timing

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Alot of perfect timings with this video

[@iwaslego2505]

I remember thinking like 9 years ago that zelda 1997 would never be found. I still have hope of earthbound 64 being found.

[@STARSVeteran]

As a mere observer of the series over the years, I find it really crazy that Nintendo ported Mother/Beginnings to Wii U as well as Earthbound, a decade after Mother 3 released for GBA. And then that was basically it for the series, despite the demand for going on two decades now? Nintendo really changed after Iwata passed away, and the Switch sold incredibly well.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Yeah I mean demand never stopped and not even now. I'll never understand why Mother 3 just won't or can't be localized despite all the rational people try to make on why there

[@SnakebitSTI]

Mother 3 also got a Wii U VC port, but it was Japan exclusive.

[@crashman3281]

​@@SnakebitSTIsame happened a couple months back for the switch, Mother 1 and 2 made it to switch online service in America and Japan, then Mother 3 gets anounced to be included in the service but only in Japan. It's really sad at this point.

[@weston407]

they do a lot of weird stuff - it drives me nuts that they completely abandoned F-Zero (other than 99) with the stupid excuse that they've done all they can with it - that's fine, don't make another one, but at least release GX on a modern system - it's stuck on the Gamecube

[@fernandobanda5734]

​@@TheObsessiveGamerIt's not that hard to understand. The localization work would be insane and it's hard to market a GBA game on 2024.

[@JosephShemelewski]

Wow I didn't know development was THAT bad. I wish they'd get to retell the story on modern systems to see the original vision and so we can get a official release here

[@costby1105]

Every mother title had major development issues. Earthbound was in development for 5 years and needed Hal to Finish up. Final Fantasy VI was only In development for a little over a year. Even Pokemon Red and Green slightly longer development looks better as Gamefreak's time was split between Pokemon's development and the 5 other games they developed during Pokemon's development. One on the Super NES got cancelled due to the Publisher being Sony.

[@JosephShemelewski]

@@costby1105 That's interesting I didn't know alot of that

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Interesting. Any idea on Mother 1's development on the NES?

[@Vulpas]

The SNES version of Mother 3 was half done on SNES? I wonder if they repurposed their work for GBA 🤔

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

I imagine they completley restarted from scratch with the GBA verison considering characters like Lucas were redesigned.

[@Vulpas]

@@TheObsessiveGamer So we've actually got at least two major versions to find now lol

[@Vulpas]

@EchoesN64 Hm, interesting...

[@5gods]

So Earthbound 2 was going to be the answer to Sony's Final Fantasy series... now I get it. Great vid!

[@Zrorro]

I feel like Nintendo needs to do a remaster of the whole earthbound series. Like remaster EarthBound zero and Earthbound for the SNES. Then make a brand new remaster for Earthbound 3 and release them 1 at a time. Give 3D character models and quality of life changes to all three games. They could do it on the Nintendo Switch successor.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

A simple 2D-HD for those would be perfect, but yeah at least Mother 3 i'd like in 3D to finish the original vision

[@glauciarochelle]

japan: mother 1 mother 2 and mother 3 america: earthbound beginnings earthbound 2 and earthbound 3

[@JohnSmith-zr3yz]

Great job with this video 👍 I appreciate that you didn't use a digital voice. You also read the material well and there are lots if great visuals. Definitely a good watch 👍

[@sigelsegal2297]

I wonder if we'll ever get to the point where AI can fully code a possible version of this game based on the bits of footage

[@bobafett4265]

I know that Ness was spotted or at least confirmed for Earthbound 64 and according the series creator it was going to be a lot darker, not to mention based on what was teased at the end of SNES Earthbound, Ness would've gone on this massive journey to track down Porky and bring him home, I think since Mother 3 ended with an end of the world plot, I think it would be more of an end to the dimension or something much more grand and depressing, maybe a little bitter sweet. Plus it would've been hype to any sort representation from the Previous Earthbound game to show up aside from Porky, I could've seen Ness being a mentor figure for Lucas with his powers and such. It feels like it could've been the N64's answer to FF7, maybe a late hardware release if they caught up with their ambitions and scope early as was said, it could've been one of the best N64 games given but always we at least got some released version of the infamously lost game so I'm happy for that at least. I guess we'll wait and see if someone from Nintendo leaks Earthbound 64 for all to enjoy. Also Mother 3 GBA getting translated officially by Nintendo, even if it gets a Teen Rating. Either way weirder things have happened at Nintendo.

[@crashman3281]

The ness 3d model seen in early stages of Mother 64 was actually meant to be Claus. In early concept art of the characters we can see similarities, but this is no surprise since all Mother protagonists share some features, specially in clothing. In the concept art we can see Claus uses a kerchief-bandana type on his head, which the "ness" 3d model appears to have since it looks a lot more like a red kerchief instead of a red cap. Also early 3d model of Lucas seems to be using a poncho.

[@bobafett4265]

@EchoesN64 Okay I didn't know, Earthbound isn't one of those series I'm super into so it isn't surprising I made an error. I'll take that L.

[@thehydrationman5500]

As interesting as EB 64 was, I definitely prefer the end result.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Yeah that's fair considering it looks more like Mother 2 in the end. Still would be neat to see EB64 in its original form

[@johntraun7398]

Im suprised there still isn't a recreation of Earthbound for modern systems already. Also it'd be neat if Toby Fox had a hand in the project, it just seems perfect for the guy to work on it.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Toby Fox would be perfect for it! and seeing as he has now actually worked on Nintendo owned IPs (Pokemon), I can see that happening if they ever went that route

[@ivythay4259]

I wonder how different or better Mother 3 would have been if it was restarted for the then new/upcoming DS instead of the GBA.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

If on DS, I bet it would have been in 3D then with assets even carried over and updated for the new hardware

[@ivythay4259]

@@TheObsessiveGamer And from that, it could have been even closer to the original vision.

[@papersonic9941]

I guess the reason is they didn't want to spend even more money on a sinking ship, but I'm surprised they didn't at least consider moving the game to the Gamecube. That console certainly could've used a High-profile RPG.

[@ShadowTraitYT]

I like the Earthbound/Mother games, but seeing this is torture to me lol

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

It's always painful looking at Earthbound 64 footage

[@xxhobocatxx2869]

Don't get me wrong. I'm very happy with the version of Mother 3 that we got in the end, but I still would kill to see what this version would have been like. Especially considering this version of Mother 3 would have been 4 chapters longer originally that what we ended up with. I pray that that a build of this game gets found someday.

[@SylvesterAshcroft88]

I'm surprised the space world demo hasn't leaked, considering all the others that have come out over the years, maybe one day we will see it in the flesh.

[@retrobution1262]

Fantastic channel mate and great work researching these obscure topics. Imagine if fans one day manage to recreate this game from lost assets the way BS Zelda ancient stone tablets has been through MSU emulation? The results would be spectacular. Who knows? Crazier stuff has happened (Conkers Hyrule Tail I'm lookin at you)

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Thanks! :) Hopefully that happens. I know some fan project already exists. Taking that and doing it in combination with Mother 3's story could make for some really nice results

[@retrobution1262]

@@TheObsessiveGamer I just had a look, that's incredible. Fingers crossed this comes to pass and you can cover it here haha. Keep up the great work!

[@Michael.Hunt.14-52]

If you mash rewind at the beginning, you unlock the remix version

[@MoonSarito]

Gosh, I still hope Mother 64/EarthBound 64 leaks someday, like Dinosaur Planet did. I mean... Mother 64 was shown at several events between 1996 ~ 2000 and was even playable at some of them (1999's Spaceworld featured a playable demo with Flint and Lucas), so a cartridge containing a beta or prototype should be lost out there, right ? After the Dinosaur Planet beta (which I honestly still think the original concept for the N64 is much better than Star Fox Adventures turned out to be), Mother 64 is the beta I most hope will leak one day.

[@TheInkPitOx]

Some games were reworked entirely Dinosaur Planet- Star Fox Adventures Conker's Twelve Tales- Conker's Bad Fur Day Please release Twelve Tales Rare, even if it's on the Xbox.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Indeed. I do wish to look into those titles eventually myself. They look very fascinating to cover

[@dynaman7329]

6:18 That doesn't make sense, no one can copyright the word Chimera. That name belongs to a mythological creature that any one can use in any form of media.

[@fusionfall84]

Awesome video! Could you make one on dinosaur planet?

[@InazumaDash]

I'd like the demo to be released one day but what we got on GBA was probably miles better. I'm not a fan of the 64 designs. I understand what they were going for, being on a new 3D console they probably wanted the game to look more mature and realistic. Or what was realistic in the 90's at least. lol

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

I imagine the reason was cause Itoi wanted it to be more cinematic and that's also the reason i'd have wanted to see it in 3D. I do hope a remake happens one day that does just that

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

@EchoesN64 now that's interesting to hear. If it has a Disney influence, a modern remake could truly make that come true with cel-shading now at our disposal

[@buster5661]

If sony didn't make the PlayStation and stayed with N64, we'd have earthbound 64

[@therealjaystone2344]

The development for n64 games were harder than what being realized. No wonder why there was no Metroid 64 (the original creator died in 97) nor Fire Emblem 64 (the creator once took interest but went on controversial decision for the super Famicom game in 99)

[@EH3DTV]

Imagine if Nintendo decided to pick up development right where they left off to create exactly what was intended back then but now. I would love a retro n64 style rpg on modern hardware.

[@MaxOakland]

I think mother 3 is better as a GBA game. It looks amazing

[@MaxOakland]

It’s NUTS that after 6 years, only 30% of the game was done

[@br0neh]

Really good video but please check your spelling. There were so many mistakes distracting from the overall message and quality of the video

[@MasIndie]

Man, I wonder what the SNES version of Mother 3 would look like with DKC graphics🤔

[@Wizardsleave69]

I'll take "games they should finish anyway" for 100 Alex

[@BeeBN]

this wouldve been the game to dethrone oot had it come out, i'm so sure of it

[@Justin-Hill-1987]

Come on, Nintendo! Give us Mother 3/EarthBound 2 already!

[@aramsong126]

hope we get this game one day

[@jellyboy123]

i bet its nearly complete they might bring it out with the n64 mini

[@G.L.999]

The N64DD should've bundled with the console itself at launch, double the storage from 64MGBytes to 128MGBytes, and maybe have a peripheral akinned to that of the Super Gameboy for SNES backwards compatibility!

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

realistically the magnetic disk should have just been the default way to make games for the system. It's a travesty

[@G.L.999]

@@TheObsessiveGamer Indeed. And since the N64 would've been compatible with the internet, an N64 modem cartridge would've been in order for gamers to access online gaming for the first time. They would've a headstart on Sega before Dreamcast came to the market! Fun fact: what I said actually was planned had the DD come out and/or been bundled with the N64 at launch and/or had zip disks(with at least double the storage from 64MBytes to 128MBytes) been the default way to go at launch! Nintendo intended to launch a cartridge modem to allow gamers to access the internet via RandNet and allowed gamers to download NES and turbographic 16 hu-card games!

[@spiderplant]

Honestly Mother 3 ended up being amazing anyway, so it all worked out ❤

[@PolyGarrett]

I don't know about some of the info in this video. Maybe consider re checking your sources. Also, consider putting a disclaimer of the image of my models you used.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Heya! I didn't know your models were used? I found these via Google which appears on several sites. May I ask which one specifically? If you mean the fan-remake of it? I found that via another KZbinr who didn't credit you. If so, i'll definitely give credit in the credits section of my description as usual. Also I don't see what may be wrong here. Everything is sourced and check. If you can let me know and with a source, I can update in a pinned comment on an inaccuracy.

[@PolyGarrett]

@@TheObsessiveGamer The image you used to make the fake cart images is a image of my models not a real image. here were some of the things that you got wrong. the game was cancelled with "ever being reverted to a regular Nintendo 64 game" couldn't fit the original vision of the concept art and had to downscale. various 1999 renders used as examples of what was shown off at SW 96. the move to GBA and skips over the 2002/2003 era

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

@@PolyGarrett ah yeah that image is pretty widespread so when I punched in images into Google it had no credit on it. I can add you no problem as the creator of that. Anyways I see no reason to cover 2002-2003 since that is Mother 3 for GBA development not not Earthbound 64. Actual Mother 3 GBA would need its own video, which I can do in the future no problem. Regardless, thanks for informing me. I'll add you on now

[@jonasskjtt5542]

Honestly you are not even the original creator of that artwork, Nintendo is. The work you have done to recreate that artwork is very good, but your attitude is not.

[@Riz2336]

I still need to beat the english translation of mother 3. I enjoyed earthbound when I beat that a long time ago

[@jbk19xx57]

Nintendo really FUMBLED by NEVER releasing that game.

[@SpongicX]

Too bad they couldn't just move development over to Gamecube.

[@VRlegs]

i know the footage is laggy but PLEASE do not interpolate the footage, it just makes it look a million times worse'

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

I didn't interpolate anything. Whatever I got was how it looked. Nothing was altered on my end outside of a slowdown at one point

[@shanerulez79]

I guess switching it to the GameCube was too expensive and it was too late to implement

[@joeyasaperson]

imagine an earthbound game for the switch

[@byzantineroman2407]

Mother makes me sad...

[@hippaman2435]

YAAAAAAAAAAY

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

eyy!

[@GodlikeOCD]

Final fantasy 7 wasn't designed for the n64 disk drive you are wrong. It was designed for the snes disk drive totally wrong console generation. Thumbs down for misinformation.

[@hotlikewow]

im sure the released version of m3 is infinitely better than what the n64 version wouldve been but i still wanna see what itd be like so bad, it looks so interesting and i love the aesthetic that the game had. also really wanna know what the story was originally like considering itoi said it was much darker than the final version

[@SylvesterAshcroft88]

They did the same thing with Starfox 2, as it finished development so late in the snes's lifecycle, they never released it even though it was finished, at least until the snes mini came out, which tbh made it worth buying just for that, as it's the only way to legally play it, as i doubt nintendo will release the rom again.

[@fernandobanda5734]

It's available in the Nintendo Switch Online SNES app.

[@jellyboy123]

why don’t nintendo make a new earthbound

[@thenightstar8312]

You made a huge mistake in your video. the 64DD version of Mother 3 was NEVER going to be released or localized in the west and no official Nintendo source or announcement was EVER made of them ever having plans to do that. Earthbound 64 was a fan-made title created by magazines and fan websites and Nintendo NEVER announced the game under the Earthbound 64 or Earthbound 2 titles. Magazins speculated that they might, but did so with no sources, and websites online also only ever speculated despite there being no announcement ever made from Nintendo that they would. Only that a Japanese trade show showed footage of 64DD Mother 3 for Japan and that's all they ever did. Even the logo you presented on screen is just a fan-made hack of the title screen from the GBA version. Please make an update clarafying your inaccurate research, because you're giving people the impression that Mother 3 was going to come to America and that was NEVER the case. The last thing we need is more people being given false hope by having illegitimate misinformation spread about it that was never true.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

​ @thenightstar8312 It was shown at E3 1998. Nintendo shows off games at E3 that they plan to bring over. They showed this game, meaning they planned it. Also Nintendo called it even Earthbound at the event as seen here. They had clear plans: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJC0aISamrd0gLc

[@scottaw1981]

Well you can compile N64 to PC now so who knows

[@SaintMecha]

Iwata 😢

[@massgrave8x]

*disastrous :)

[@prezidenttrump5171]

Thank you for not being a negative turd lol.

[@mrtesticlease4638]

its astounding to me how disrespectful nintendo and the creators of mother 3 can be to the biggest part of their fanbase and still be kindly praised for not localizing the game. regardless of the reason for a refusal to localize the game officially, theres simply no excuse.

[@fernandobanda5734]

It's disrespectful for them not to do extra work for a game that will be very hard to market, and you will not accept any excuse because you think it should be done? This is some tremendous entitlement.

[@thenightstar8312]

I find it hilarious how everyone STILL calls this game Earthbound 64 despite the fact that title is completely wrong and was never once officially associated with the game in any way. Nintendo never called it that, Shigesato Itoi never called it that, no official source ever called it that. "Earthbound 64" was and is nothing more than a fan-invented title that showed up in early magazines not associated with Nintendo, because early talk of people online who knew of it's existence realized it was a part of the Mother series and only knew it as Earthbound, so they invented that localization of the title and slapped a 64 on the end because.... everyone did that at the time. But no, this game has always been officially titled "Mother 3" and nothing but "Mother 3". It was re-made in finished form for the GBA as Mother 3 as it exists today, but the 64DD version was only ever called Mother 3, as well. EDIT: Also I notice in the video itself, you mention some inaccurate information as well. Nintendo of America NEVER had ANY plans to release the 64DD version of Mother 3 and was NEVER going to call it Earthbound 2, either. That is completely fabricated and made-up information. From the very beginning Nintendo was never going to bring this game overseas, and never even remotely announced any plan to. I don't know where you got the idea that they were going to do this from or that Earthbound 2 title, but it's simply wrong. Even the "logo" you used for "Earthbound 2" came from a fan made title hack of the GBA game, so that wasn't even real, either.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

​ @thenightstar8312 It was shown at E3 1998. Nintendo shows off games at E3 that they plan to bring over. They showed this game, meaning they planned it. Also Nintendo called it even Earthbound at the event as seen here. They had clear plans: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJC0aISamrd0gLc

[@RetroHorrorInk]

Wow this person is sooooooo cool! 😂

[@MacMiller253]

Oh nice video! What’s the name of tropical music at the last chapter of this video?

[@nirblukee4350]

@macmiller253 koopa troopa beach from Mario kart 64 :)

[@johneygd]

They should,ve moved it to the gamecube instead🥲