The firm grew out of a dedicated community of EarthBound fans. Reid Young runs a company called Fangamer that sells game-related geek-chic clothing and memorabilia. Not everyone is quite so understanding of the company's desire to squash a piece of warm nostalgia. But I have no desire to rock the boat with Nintendo at all.' I wanted to just write about the fun bits in the game that I think the fans would enjoy. I don't want to do anything that makes them seem bad. 'They gave me my start in the game business. 'I owe a lot to Nintendo,' he told Polygon. In agreeing to talk to Polygon, Lindblom is keen to stress that, even though he is disappointed, he doesn't want to come off as someone who is angry with Nintendo. Reluctantly, he acceded to Nintendo's request. Legally, a book about his time at the company might be unwelcome. Nintendo did not want this book published.Īlthough no reason was given for Nintendo's lack of enthusiasm for the project, Lindblom was gently reminded that, as a former employee of the company, he had signed an NDA. He sent a note to an old pal at Nintendo, 'as a professional courtesy' just to let the company know about his plans, just to check in and make sure there would be no problem. Lindblom planned to return the favor by writing a book and launching a Kickstarter that might just about cover production costs.

This interest has intensified with the re-release of EarthBound on Wii U, which has sold well in the console's download store. In recent years, Lindblom has been welcomed by the still-active EarthBound fan-base, as he has come forward to share stories about his time working on the game.

When Marcus Lindblom decided to write a book about his old memories of translating a much-loved game from Nintendo, he figured it would be something that the fans would appreciate.Īfter all, few gaming communities are as passionate and active as those who follow EarthBound, the game that Lindblom translated from Shigesato Itoi's Japanese original, produced by current Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata, almost 20 years ago.

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