GiS, I did the same exact thing in the Lost underworld. I got terrified that I had done something wrong and that I'd ruined my game. I even turned the game off and lost all my progress. :\

I also got scared when I said 'Yes' to the floating guy in dalaam when he asked if it was ok if he broke off Poo's arms. My sister hit me and said I had ruined the game.

Do you remember when the shark asks you if you want to join the sharks? Well me and my sister debated over what to say. I wanted to see what happened when I said yes, she didn't want to ruin the game. I said Yes anyway (mwahahaha) and then regretted doing so. Of course nothing happened but I was afraid something would.

Earthbound was full of suprises and I was sure I was ruining the game at every turn.

Hope you get lots of responses this week. I really enjoy mailbag. :D

--Pappycat

Congrats on writing a Letter of the Week!
No, PappyCat DIDN'T win because she said she liked Mailbag. Face it, you would've picked her letter too, wouldn't you have? But thanks for the kind words! ^_^

Heh, it sounds like your sister is both A) Really fun to play with and B) Very determined to ensure you beat EarthBound at all costs. I actually picked Yes when I first saw that Shark, not because I thought it was the right choice, but because I thought it'd be fun.

Come to think of it, I also had a decent pile of trouble with the Poo Mu training. I thought it was a test of endurance; you had to stop before Poo died. So I was a little confused as to why I failed for not letting the spirit rip my arms off.

So CONGRATULATIONS ON WRITING LETTER OF THE WEEK! ...didn't I already say that?

--GuyInSummers

DISCLAIMER: If you don't believe that PappyCat won fair and square, get this: I spend extra time copying every letter into Word so I can choose the Letter of the Week without any bias by name. So ha.

Yes...... many things..... for instance I thought I was traped forever when I was first in threed..... and when I first stood in fron of a car I thought I was dead. When I was in winters as only jeff when I crossed the lake and met my first cave boy he mutalated me and I'm thinking " Oh crap I whnt too far in! What did I miss?" ^_^. Also I thought I screwed up when I gave the wad of bills to the mansger of the thearter because I'm weird and thought I had to use it to buy that guy near the threed tunnal's sterio ^_^. Well I don't want to be made fun of so I won't reveal anymore of my stupidity. Good night ^_^.

--Super bionic starman

Heh, I was wondering who was going to bring up the Zombie Ambush. I remember jamming every button a million times a second when that happened, but I quickly realized they had to have been Super Sexy Suburban Zombies. I mean, how else could they have taken me down?

Uh...use the wad of bills to buy...what? Well, I can't blame you for wondering about the wad of bills. I spent forever trying to actually add the ten grand to my cash on hand. ~GiS

Hello! Excellent job on the mailbag ^_^

The one thing that really flipped me out, was the first time I played Master Belch... he wouldn't die! Everyone got hurt and collapsed.

I spent a few days just trying to beat him and realized something wasn't right. I got the fly honey some days later after giving up and deciding to humor myself by talking to the locals. Resentfully, I beat him within 10 min. of receiving the Fly Honey. Boo yah!

:D

--KindarSpirit

*blush* Thanks, Kindar. Hey, what about you? You were, like, the best EB Section Staffer EVER. And then you complained about technical difficulties and vanished. Come back KindarSpirit!

Being the kind of person who talks to everybody and then some, I would've had trouble NOT hearing about Fly Honey. So I looked for it and whupped Belch with it. I WILL admit that I tried to equip the Fly Honey before the battle. O_o

~GiS

No, not realy. The only thing that comes close is going to the sancuary locations out of sequence. But I do that almost every tiem anyway.

--Heero0m

Yup. Who doesn't like to have some fun with the Sanctuary order? The second time I played EarthBound, I actually forgot to do Milky Well. When I beat Fire Springs, for a minute I thought something was wrong with my game.

~GiS

In most video games I play, I'm really paranoid about dropping or getting rid of things. Especially things that come in your inventory as soon as you start the game. I always think, 'Even if it looks like a stupid piece of junk it HAS to be useful for SOMEthing, I mean, if it weren't, it wouldn't be in my inventory, right? Right?!'

Anyway, so I didn't get around to tossing Jeff's ruler and protractor till awhile after I had him. I should have gotten rid of them.. it would have been two more spaces.. oh well. Though it still confuses me WHY those items are there. WHY? I mean.. they're essentially useless.. unless you want to measure the mushroom on Ness's head or something.. uhh..

Oh yeah. Anyway, another thing was the chickens. The first time that happened and I found a chicken in my inventory I was confused.. I thought I had done something wrong, for some reason. I didn't memorize my items or anything, so I forgot about the fresh egg. And then I figured it out later.

By the way, what do chickens do? I never want to experiment and use them in battle because they go for $110. That is a lot of money near the beginning of the game.

--Pancake

Heh, I can totally relate. Ever played JonBound? I kept the One Ring with me throughout the whole game. Why? 'cuz you got it in the same place you get the Insignificant Item in EarthBound, so I thought it had some special purpose.

In other news, the mushroom on Ness's head is one hand tall, and if the Chicken is in your inventory when you go back in time it becomes a Pteradactyl, which works like a Bag of Dragonite. ...or at least it should, in theory.

~GiS

The first thing I did, that I thought wasn't suppose to do, (and notice i said first) My mother had constantly told me in the begining of the game to change out of my pajamas. I tried constantly to keep her from saying this, looking all around my room for a change of clothes just so she wouldn't have to remind me to change. Why did i do this? simple! i figured if i found the clothes i would get some sort of a bonus, like in crono trigger, when you find your life savings under the bed, or talk to your mom twice to get your allowance. I had no such luck. Ness just doesn't seem to keep a spare pair of clothes in his room, which leaves the question begging to be asked. Where does he keep them?

--NessTheHero

Ness keeps his clothes in the Land of Insignificant Items, which is where millions of items and places from RPGs wind up. A majority of the Land of Insignificant Items is made up of bathrooms, since so few actually make it itno their respective games. Did you know that the bathroom from Secret of Mana is golden, has velvet seats, and a backup Mana Tree? You wouldn't, 'cuz the developers thought that a bathroom was too insignificant to put in the game. Stand up for the rights of bathrooms everywhere! Just jump into the bureau in the Threed Hotel and save a bathroom today! ~GiS

Yes. Several Times. The first was going to Twoson and getting to the Mondo Mole. I was convinced by the bears that I shouldn't go in there. So I skipped it completely and had to come all the way back from Fourside to do it. It was a very annoying moment, especially considering all the easy enemies I managed to bump into.

--Ness's Cousin

I thought the bear looked cute and stuff! So I ran up to it and all and was like HI BEAR! ...and then it SMAAASHed Paula down in one blow. So much for that mentality.

~GiS

Well being at the meager age of 12, I could be confused by almost anything thrown at me by Eb.

Now to recall of anything I did while thinking I've just made a very large mistake was an understatement. I got so worried about every little thing that happended. Examples follow as: When the popo came to tell me I needed to come down to the station because I just broke in and entered Giant's Step. I got scared thinking that if I didnt get to Paula fast enough when she was kidnapped, she would die. When the zombie chick and her zombie pals unleashed the smack down I thought I screwed up. When I put the zombie paper in the tent and went to sleep-when I saw all the zombies walking towards me I freaked out. When Paula got captured in the department store in Fourside I was worried like nothing else. When the girl went to tell Poo to go back to his master, and when I did and figured out that Giygas was trying to slow my progress-the whole thought of the girl being possesed freaked me out.

Yet after ALL that, everything else about the game didnt phase me much except of course, for the ending where it said "THE END...?". I swear, I must have kept the game on for at least 3 hours, waiting, FOR SOMETHING to happen. I didnt want the game to end, who did? --Psionic Brawler

Congrats on writing a Letter of the Week!
PSYCHE! LMAO. Uh...yeah. You almost won, though.

I pretty much took everything the game threw at me. Except when it came to Poo's Mu training. You see, I moved after the girl told me to. Except I suddenly realized it was a trick, so I stayed there in the Place of Emptiness and waited...

...and waited...
...and waited...
...and waited...

At the end of thirty minutes of staring at Poo, I gave up, and to my amazement the next time I tried it it worked.

Did I just say "thirty minutes of staring at Poo"? O_o

~GiS

Call me a loser. Please. I'm the guy who thought that I wasn't supposed t' fight the Policemen. I lost on purpose.

--PKMaster

Loser. Heh, actually I don't blame you. What kind of merciless kid would actually want to beat the carp out of a cop? ...don't answer that.

~GiS

I thought I wasn't supposed to let Poo go with the Starmaster man. I stopped playing because I was afraid of my "mistake" ruining the game. Oh and I didn't put my name when Tony called because Nintendo would've eaten my brain. Yup...but eventually I did put my name. --Kappo

Heh, it's suprising how many people assumed that the Star Master was a minion of Giygas. Then again, at least it's better than SimonBob's assuming that the Star Master was Ness's dad. O_o

~GiS

I didn't think I was supposed to crash the Sky Runner.. I reset the game and tried to make it not crash. Then I decided to roll with it and I was pleasantly surprised when I fixed it later. Of course, then it gets totally demolished in Summers! You win some, you lose some.

--SimonBob

Well, speak of the devil. SimonBob comes with a reasonable possibility this time, however. I even used to pretend I could fly the Sky Runner.

~GiS

the first time i played earthbound i skipped the second your sanctuary location and played through the whole game till i had all the your santuary locations then nothing ever happened!my friend told me that after the you get your last sanctuary location your supposed to warp somewhere.but this didnt so i thought my game was broken and took it back to get a another copy then found out the problem!I should have just checked the darn sound stone!!No im such a crack babyyy!

oh by the way i play football for my junior high and in the quarterback and when we huddle instead of breaking i got the team to say EARTHBOUND!! even though only 2 people know what this is!! byebye!!!!

P.S. could "Letter of the Week:" be my leterr title:)

--crack babyyy jeff maxwell

Yeah! Of course it could! ...just not this week!

You got them to say EarthBound? Now that's just cool. In other news, congratulations on joining the ranks of Cool People Who Skip Sanctuary Locations.

~GiS

Well...one time I finished Giant Step, and thought that the cop thing was automatic death, and that you were supposed to get to Twoson by only beating up those cops....I spent a few hours using an incredibly ridiculous combination of "Talk to Captain Strong, say no...THREE times...then ask.....Alright, how bout four?"

...

And all this just because I wasn't levelled enough. I make sure to do so now. I'm level 10 before finding Picky!

--Banjooie

Heh, we've seen somebody who thought cops were too much of an absolute good to kill. Now here's somebody who thinks they were instant death. Cool.

...did you say level 10?!

~GiS

That festering nitwit SimonN00b didn't find my hat. I want it. One time I hit the Super Mantender or whatever with my cane and broke the Earthbound cart in half. I don't think I was supposed to do that. Wait, maybe I was. WHERE'S MY HAT >:|

--Grampa

I'd like to apologize to Wampa, whom I always thought was Grampa. Don't ask. O_o

~GiS

Mar 3, 2002: Do you still play EB?
Mar 10, 2002: What's your favorite EB tune? CO: SLing
Mar 31, 2002: Will M3 come out? Will FF come to GCN?
Apr 7, 2002: How well will the petition do? CO: Poo
Apr 14, 2002: What was your favorite game of all time?
May 12, 2002: What was the WORST game of all time?
Jun 23, 2002: Have you ever done something EarthBoundy?
Aug 23, 2002: What is your favorite enemy?
Aug 30, 2002: New features for an EarthBound Advance?
Sep 7, 2002: Mother 3 Opinion Shoutout
Sep 14, 2002: Is EarthBound still your favorite?
Sep 21, 2002: People that know about EB? CO: Starman Deluxe
Sep 28, 2002: Ever laughed cried while playing EB? CO: SimonBob
Oct 5, 2002: Done something you thought you weren't supposed to?
Oct 12, 2002: Connections: EB and EB0? CO: OmniPenguin
Oct 20, 2002: Fanart, fanmusic, or fanfiction?
Oct. 27, 2002: Would you be a staffer?
Nov. 2, 2002: Halloween Funfest
Nov. 9, 2002: reid for a day? CO: Arad
Nov. 17, 2002: Interactive Fictions?
Nov. 24, 2002: Disappointing EB?
Nov. 30, 2002: Play EB! How was it?
Dec. 8, 2002: Mailbag Opinions
Dec. 15, 2002: Is Jeff useless? Who should replace him?
Dec. 23, 2002: No topic! CO: godofcows/poik007
Dec. 31, 2002: Real-life things in EB?
Jan. 27, 2003: Holiday Funfest 2002? CO: SimonBob
Feb. 1, 2003: New staffers?
Feb. 17, 2003: How could phones be cooler?
March 4, 2003: Have you PK Hacked? CO: BlueAntoid


To view the old archive from the days of EBounding and diospadre, you can go here.