Dude, Earthbound
Yes, I know it's 3:00 am. Yes, I know tomorrow is a school day. What? I can't go to bed; I'm not done programming yet. No, this is important, it's the Earthbound Encyclopedia. I'll be done in a minute...
Oh, sorry about that. I must have been hallucinating again. I've just played the entire game of Earthbound, from start to finish, in 12 hours. I don't think it's possible to do that normally; I was playing at 15x clockspeed. But in the course of my game I've discovered some interesting things, and I thought you all should know.
First off, I found another bug. As soon as Paula joins your party, kill Ness. The best way to do this is to give him a cold in Peaceful Rest Valley, and then walk around for a while until he is unconscious. Then go back to Paula's house and talk to her dad. Now try talking to her mom. A BLANK dialog box! Isn't that cool?! The game programmers forgot to program dialog for Paula's mom if Ness is dead. Go ahead, try it! It's really cool.
Secondly, go back to Onett sometime in midgame. Talk to Liar X. Agerate. Notice his dialog carefully. Have you ever realized that the most lines of text anyone ever says at a time is three? Someone will say one line of text at a time, two lines, or three, but then there will be a pause and you will have to press a button to see more. It is done this way so that slow readers don't miss any dialog. However, look at what Liar says. FOUR CONSECUTAVE LINES of dialog! Without a pause! This might not matter to you that much, but it's very important to me. In the Earthbound Encyclopedia, text isn't displayed character-by-character; it's all displayed at once until the next "pause." This means that you would miss a line of text. I'll have to rethink my coding somehow to get around this...
Thirdly, the game designers did something very interesting with one of the items: the Diamond Band. In Summers, the Diamond Band costs $9998. Yet in Deep Darkness, it costs a measely $5198 (I'm doing this from memory, so I might be off by a couple hundred dollars). You're probably saying, "So what? Everything is overpriced in Summers." The thing is, each item has exactly one price and no more. I went and bought a Diamond Band from both locations, then went to a neutral store in Onett and tried to sell them. The one I bought in Deep Darkness sold of $2599, yet the one I bought in Summers sold for $4999! Do you realize what this means? They are two different items. Two completely separate items, sold in different locations, for different prices, that have the same name and do the same thing. Cool, huh?
And last, but in no way least... Remember my last (and, ironically, first) article? Remember me talking about how you don't have to get the Sound Stone? Well, I didn't get the Sound Stone. I played through the entire game. I beat Fire Spring. I went to Magicant. I beat Magicant. It displayed the message "The Sound Stone Ness used to have is now gone." Then I went back to my house, talked to Tracy, and received the Sound Stone. It sounded great. The entire song, and I could listen to it as often as I liked. But wait.... What if Ness had too much to carry? I stocked up on some items, and when I talked to Tracy, it said "Jeff got the Sound Stone." And when I used it, it displayed the message "Jeff touched the Sound Stone to his forehead and gathered his thoughts." And it wouldn't let me give it to anyone else! "Jeff is the only one who should have the Sound Stone." (Again, this is from memory, sorry that the wording isn't accurate." And then I thought, wait a second, how much hard-coding is really in this? So I reloaded and let Paula receive the sound stone.
"Paula touched the Sound Stone to his forehead and gathered his thoughts."
It's at times like this when I just sit and stare at amazement. The only thoughts that cross my mind go something like this: Dude, Earthbound. Oh man, Earthbound. Isn't it great?
Yes, I know it's 3:00 am. Yes, I know tomorrow is a school day. What? I can't go to bed; I'm not done programming yet. No, this is important, it's the Earthbound Encyclopedia. I'll be done in a minute...
Oh, sorry about that. I must have been hallucinating again. I've just played the entire game of Earthbound, from start to finish, in 12 hours. I don't think it's possible to do that normally; I was playing at 15x clockspeed. But in the course of my game I've discovered some interesting things, and I thought you all should know.
First off, I found another bug. As soon as Paula joins your party, kill Ness. The best way to do this is to give him a cold in Peaceful Rest Valley, and then walk around for a while until he is unconscious. Then go back to Paula's house and talk to her dad. Now try talking to her mom. A BLANK dialog box! Isn't that cool?! The game programmers forgot to program dialog for Paula's mom if Ness is dead. Go ahead, try it! It's really cool.
Secondly, go back to Onett sometime in midgame. Talk to Liar X. Agerate. Notice his dialog carefully. Have you ever realized that the most lines of text anyone ever says at a time is three? Someone will say one line of text at a time, two lines, or three, but then there will be a pause and you will have to press a button to see more. It is done this way so that slow readers don't miss any dialog. However, look at what Liar says. FOUR CONSECUTAVE LINES of dialog! Without a pause! This might not matter to you that much, but it's very important to me. In the Earthbound Encyclopedia, text isn't displayed character-by-character; it's all displayed at once until the next "pause." This means that you would miss a line of text. I'll have to rethink my coding somehow to get around this...
Thirdly, the game designers did something very interesting with one of the items: the Diamond Band. In Summers, the Diamond Band costs $9998. Yet in Deep Darkness, it costs a measely $5198 (I'm doing this from memory, so I might be off by a couple hundred dollars). You're probably saying, "So what? Everything is overpriced in Summers." The thing is, each item has exactly one price and no more. I went and bought a Diamond Band from both locations, then went to a neutral store in Onett and tried to sell them. The one I bought in Deep Darkness sold of $2599, yet the one I bought in Summers sold for $4999! Do you realize what this means? They are two different items. Two completely separate items, sold in different locations, for different prices, that have the same name and do the same thing. Cool, huh?
And last, but in no way least... Remember my last (and, ironically, first) article? Remember me talking about how you don't have to get the Sound Stone? Well, I didn't get the Sound Stone. I played through the entire game. I beat Fire Spring. I went to Magicant. I beat Magicant. It displayed the message "The Sound Stone Ness used to have is now gone." Then I went back to my house, talked to Tracy, and received the Sound Stone. It sounded great. The entire song, and I could listen to it as often as I liked. But wait.... What if Ness had too much to carry? I stocked up on some items, and when I talked to Tracy, it said "Jeff got the Sound Stone." And when I used it, it displayed the message "Jeff touched the Sound Stone to his forehead and gathered his thoughts." And it wouldn't let me give it to anyone else! "Jeff is the only one who should have the Sound Stone." (Again, this is from memory, sorry that the wording isn't accurate." And then I thought, wait a second, how much hard-coding is really in this? So I reloaded and let Paula receive the sound stone.
"Paula touched the Sound Stone to his forehead and gathered his thoughts."
It's at times like this when I just sit and stare at amazement. The only thoughts that cross my mind go something like this: Dude, Earthbound. Oh man, Earthbound. Isn't it great?
