Starmen later rallied just over 10,000 gamers to their cause to see a North American release of Mother 3 on the Nintendo 64 in 2000, and roughly 31,000 for its Game Boy Advance incarnation in 2003. The community accompanied its petitions with letter-writing and phone campaigns meant to show Nintendo of America just how much they wanted Mother's return to the United States.

The outpouring ramped up with the Japanese release of Mother 3. Young and his cohorts knew that Nintendo of America's history of ignoring the series meant that the chances of seeing the title localized in North America were slim to none, but the challenge did little to stymie the efforts of the EarthBound fan community. In what might be considered the greatest gaming love letter ever created, Starmen created the EarthBound Anthology--a bound folk history of the community's efforts paired with fan-created artwork, media, and music spread across 263 pages and 4 DVDs.

I received a copy of the Anthology last year, along with several other journalists and developers, just prior to E3 2007. The aim of the Anthology, said Young, was to demonstrate the community's commitment to the series to members of the game industry's press and development circles in the hopes that contacted parties would join Starmen's campaign in demanding that Nintendo bring the series back to North America.

"We've already got the fans making personal contact with Nintendo to let them know what they want," wrote Young in an accompanying letter. "We're also working to get copies of this book into the hands of Nintendo's decision makers. We hope that a display of interest from the media will be the final straw which convinces [Nintendo] to give their position on the series a second look."

A big fan of the series myself, I had kept an eye on Starmen's activities since the site was young. But until that book was in my hands, I never really had a grasp of just how much blood, sweat and tears the community had dumped into what was, at that point, a fruitless endeavor. The Anthology was elegantly designed, professionally presented, and read more like a proposal than a fan art compilation.

The Anthology's proposal was simply stated. "With an established and devoted fanbase, media awareness, and a completed sequel begging to be translated, EarthBound is poised for a comeback." This wasn't just some lousy petitiononline.com campaign -- it was business. Starmen had grown up, and its ceaseless devotion matured in kind.

At the following E3, I ran into a Nintendo employee at a luncheon. Over soggy sandwiches and the common conversation exchanged at the show--"Don't these shuttles just suck?"-- I made a point to ask about the EarthBound Anthology, to which my new friend replied, "Oh yeah, I heard about that. Those guys don't know when to quit, do they?"

Apparently not.

The Last Straw
Mother 3's Japanese release and Starmen's massive campaign came and went without so much as a word from Nintendo of America. With Mother creator Shigesato Itoi declaring the series finished with the third title, there seemed little hope that EarthBound would ever reemerge overseas. The EarthBound Anthology had won Young and crew recognition from the company in the pages of Nintendo Power, but no official announcement one way or the other was ever made.

Once Mother 3 seemed irrevocably destined to be a Japan-only release, Starmen began organizing a fan translation of the title in November of 2006, promising to bring Mother 3 to English-speaking audiences for the first time. Progress has been steady, and while a release date for the translation patch has yet to be announced, the effort is much closer today than it was a year ago.

The translators assured fans that development would cease if and when Nintendo announced plans to bring the title to North America. To date, Nintendo has issued no official statements concerning the translation besides vague deflections by CEO Reggie Fils-Aime when questioned directly about the project.

"It certainly is a franchise near and dear to [Nintendo Co. President Satoru Iwata's] heart, and it's something I'm trying to get smart on to understand whether or not there is an opportunity here," Fils-Aime told MTV. "But certainly I've seen the success in Japan. That hasn't gone unnoticed. And it's certainly something we're looking at."

Next, more of Nintendo's internal view of the Mother series, Starmen's defeat, and a silver lining.