Jun 07, 2021 11:30:00

A floppy disk that sleeps valuable data of the masterpiece RPG 'MOTHER2 Gig's Counterattack' is discovered for more than 26 years

The

RPG 'MOTHER2 Gig's Counterattack ' released for Super Nintendo in 1994, known for its copywriter Shigesato Itoi 's game design and scenario, is very popular not only in Japan but also overseas. A floppy disk containing the data of 'MOTHER2 Gig's Counterattack' was discovered after a quarter of a century.

A Forensic Analysis of EarthBound's Deepest Secrets | Video Game History Foundation
https://gamehistory.org/earthbound-script-files/

“Deleted” Nintendo floppy recovered 26 years later, full of Earthbound secrets | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/06/earthbounds-original-translator-parses-new-game-secrets-found-26-years-later/

'MOTHER2 Gig's Counterattack' is a sequel to the RPG 'MOTHER ' for Family Computers, but the content is similar to the remake of the previous work. The first work has not been released overseas, and 'MOTHER2 Gig's Counterattack' has been released under the name 'Earthbound'. Many overseas games, such as 'UNDERTALE ', profess to have been influenced by 'MOTHER2 Gig's Counterattack', which shows their popularity.

According to indie game developer Marcus Lindblom, aka Carried Away Games, in 2018 he found two floppy disks in an old box that his wife told him to clean up. thing. One sheet has the 'Nintendo' logo and Mario printed on the label. The Ape logo is drawn on the other floppy disk, and 'Earth Bound Message File 03/25 version' is handwritten on the label.

So my wife hands me an old box of stuff to clean out, I find these ... crazy. The second looks like it was at the time I was working on EB. But of course, I have no floppy drive anymore ... I'Ll Hold Onto I Them Until I Have A Chance To Read Them Somehow. Pic.Twitter.Com/2B2lmRy2PY

— Carried Away Games (@CarriedAwayGame) February 27, 2018

Lindblom was in charge of the localization of 'MOTHER2 Gig's Counterattack'. Therefore, it was thought that this floppy disk contained the dialogue data of 'MOTHER2 Gig's Counterattack'. However, when the Video Game History Foundation , a historically valuable game conservation activity, prepared a floppy drive and read this floppy, the floppy with 'Earth Bound' was already deleted and the contents were deleted. It turns out that irrelevant work content was saved.

Nevertheless, the Video Game History Foundation thought that salvaging the deleted data would make it possible to see the data, and analyzed the floppy disk. Lindblom wrote only a very short text document after erasing the 'MOTHER2 Gig's Counterattack' data, so the deleted 'MOTHER2 Gig's Counterattack' data could be salvaged almost perfectly. It was.

The following is a part of the script file of the game prepared for localization, and it seems that it is written in the script language originally developed by Ape. The contents included Japanese and English files of conversations and cutscenes, as well as memos for developers.

In addition, the data included was not the completed version released on the market. Therefore, it turned out that some lines were changed during development.

For example, in the Japanese version, the line '◆ This road leads to Shelin .... does it say so?' Was initially translated as '・ This road leads to Shelin .... does it say so?' I did. However, this 'Shirin' is a story that misreads the katakana notation of the town name 'Tucson'. Translated as 'Shelin' as it is would be out of place, so it has been changed to a different line in the final version.

Also, it turned out that the dialogue that appeared when examining the signboard in the town of Sleek was different from the completed version (right image), and it was a message with a stronger meta color of Mr. Shigesato Itoi.

In addition, 'MOTHER2 Gig's Counterattack' is known to have been

stalled many times and once rebuilt from scratch. In 'MOTHER2 Gig's Counterattack', there are some lines that made a story about the repeated delays in development, but since the overseas version of 'Earthbound' was released as planned, the element of masochism was reduced. It turned out that.

With many other new discoveries, the Video Game History Foundation rated Lindblom's floppy disks as invaluable, saying, 'It was a 25-year-old game, and there are still so many. I can't believe that will be discovered. '

The salvaged script file is published on the Internet Archive.

EarthBound SNES Source Code Scripting Files: Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming: Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/earthbound-source