NEW Earthbound 64 Footage!

[BetaGuy64]

We found some new footage from the Shoshinkai '96 demonstration of Earthbound 64! The game is in a fairly early state at this point, with vastly different stylistic choices than the final 2000 demo Itoi showed off on his blog. It's a short-ish clip, but it shows off early Club Titiboo and a jungle area. Thanks to OKeijiDragon for the YT video

 

[BetaGuy64]

Here's a separate video with a slightly less new, but still different trailer I uploaded that I posted on AG, but it's here just to keep it all in the same thread

 

[speedyink]

Wow, the '96 video sure shows a colorful and lively world. That would have made for an impressive N64 game.

 

[BetaGuy64]

Wow, the '96 video sure shows a colorful and lively world. That would have made for an impressive N64 game.

You can definitely see that "colorfulness" in the concept art sketches for the game.

 

[Awbacon]

Nice find

 

[Pinta77]

Obviously, I would have loved for this to come out, but I think I am happier with what we got on GBA. I always thought it would be fun if they made an earthbound/mother game in the windwaker cell shaded style

 

[ERROR]

What I would give to play this game!! To see a finished version...

 

[Doomtrain]

I honestly thought we'd never see more of this. Neat!

 

[Spaceman]

Wow, agreed with the others here, it's a real treat to see more EB64 footage after all this time. We still dream of what EB64 could have turned out to be, but M3 on GBA turned out to be quite the fantastic experience in the end.

Kudos to you and Keiji for preserving this lost footage of what could have been

 

[no1]

Oh cool there's more footage of this game.

 

[Awbacon]

Man I wish that had come out

 

[bisterddave]

This is so cool to see new footage for this, makes you wonder if there's more unseen footage out there somewhere that we'll see in the future. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Awbacon]

This is so cool to see new footage for this, makes you wonder if there's more unseen footage out there somewhere that we'll see in the future. Thanks for sharing!

I bet there is. It’s not like there’s a ton of stuff so I bet something is hiding somewhere

 

[BetaGuy64]

This is so cool to see new footage for this, makes you wonder if there's more unseen footage out there somewhere that we'll see in the future. Thanks for sharing!

I bet there is. It’s not like there’s a ton of stuff so I bet something is hiding somewhere

We actually know that there's ALOT more than we've seen. The thing is, most screenshots from the game come from video trailers, ergo, there's a bunch of stuff we HAVEN'T seen. It's just a matter of finding it

 

[speedyink]

There was a full on 'demo' of the game some people played, wasn't there? I remember reading about it ages ago, about how it functioned and what areas were explorable.

 

[BetaGuy64]

There was a full on 'demo' of the game some people played, wasn't there? I remember reading about it ages ago, about how it functioned and what areas were explorable.

Yep! That's the Spaceworld '99 demo, and the only demo that was publicly available. The build from this video is from '96. The '99 demo wasn't really taken from the actual game, however. It was pretty much compiled just for Spaceworld (although it used elements and settings from the real game, NPC dialogue and story elements were reworked or cut). Also, the '99 build isn't the final build. The pictures Itoi posted on his blog were from a separate, later build that was final and made in 2000.

 

[speedyink]

Yeah that's the one. Thanks for refreshing my memory!

Am I remembering correctly in thinking it being sorta based on the early town from the GBA game essentially? I remember them saying you'd go like north or something to the town, then you'd leave the town on the northern end and that's about all you were allowed. Like it wasn't a huge demo.

 

[BetaGuy64]

Yeah that's the one. Thanks for refreshing my memory!

Am I remembering correctly in thinking it being sorta based on the early town from the GBA game essentially? I remember them saying you'd go like north or something to the town, then you'd leave the town on the northern end and that's about all you were allowed. Like it wasn't a huge demo.

It wasn't big by any means, but yes, Tazmily Village was one of the few locations, and the main hub of the demo I believe. It's the same village as the GBA version. Fun fact, most of the GBA version is pretty much a condensed N64 version, there wasn't much in the way of revisions, just a good bit of cut content. The game was planned fairly early.
Anyway, the demo itself is pretty well documented on Starmen's site. http://starmen.net/eb64/spaceworld/
Here's some more documentation https://earthboundcentral.com/2009/03/playing-the-earthbound-64-demo/

 

[speedyink]

Awesome, thanks. It's good to have all the info in one place, those links are good to have.