The existence of the prequel spread rapidly, and many wanted to play it. That was when reidman and Tomato decided to create a petition for Mother on Game Boy Color. Knowing the odds were against them, they set out to spread the word about the petition. The word went around FAST. Within a day, 70+ individuals had signed the petition because they had heard about it from someone else. Once the petition was publicized on various websites, the petition grew exponentially. Below is the logo and banner which were used so that webmasters could show their support for the petition by linking back to it:

The high point of the entire campaign came when a letter concerning the petition was posted in IGN64's mailbag. The moment it was posted, the mailbag letter began generating signatures; they poured in for days, even after the mailbag was archived. It is estimated that the single letter in the IGN Mailbag generated around 1,000 signatures.

Tomato, reidman, and Loco-san (who helped out by combing thru and posting the massive amounts of signatures received) let the petition continue through February of 1999 before stopping it. At the time it was terminated, the petition had easily surpassed the expectations of everyone involved, getting 1,850 legitimate signatures. The signatures were legitimate because every had been combed through, looking carefully for doubles or people who attempted to sign the petition multiple times.

After the petition was printed out in its entirety (which was a LOT of pages), a front and back cover was designed so the petition could go off in style. It was then bound up, along with two letters, written by Tomato and reidman.

Tomato's letter to NOA

reidman's letter to NOA

Curious as to what the petition actually looked like? Yes, there's even a picture of the beloved petition.

Spiffy, huh? Well, even though it didn't have a golden glow to it, the petition was still the product of months of painstaking attention to detail. The Mother on Game Boy Color petition was sent to Nintendo of America in May of 1999. Click here to see the final copy of the petition which was printed.

As could be expected...Nintendo never said much about it.

Many months later, reidman organized a letter-writing campaign called 'Project: Ruffini the Dog'. The purpose of P:RtD was to let Nintendo know that EarthBound fans are alive and kicking. As opposed to bombarding NOA with poorly-written e-mails, P:RtD persuaded participants to type up well-written and organized letters and snail-mail them to Nintendo. The letter-writing campaign went beautifully. The number of letters NOA received is uncertain, but was estimated to be above 50 or 60. Nintendo seemed to remain unphased. However, a few weeks later, P:RtD participants began receiving snail-mailed responses from NOA. Of course, the responses were all essentially the same.

reidman, however, sent Nintendo this letter. They replied a few weeks later with this interesting letter. Its good reading, really. It not only addresses (and evades) a few of the questions we had, it also lets us know that they got AND ignored our petition. For a good laugh, check out the 'shameless game plug'. You'll never laugh so hard in your life :)

I hope this little tribute to the Mother on Game Boy Color Petition and Project: Ruffini shall serve to show that, even though we might feel dwarfed by Nintendo, individuals can make a difference if they team up and work for a common goal. This was achieved in both the MoGBC Petition and P:RtD. The impact made was not measured by whether or not Nintendo changed or complied, but whether or not Nintendo listened and paid attention. In both cases, they did. Together, we have proven that the online EarthBound community is small, but very tightly knit and powerful. Without doubt, EarthBound.Net will be sponsoring many more projects such as these. Please continue to support EarthBound.Net and the community it leads into the future, as we await the release of EarthBound 64.