We're Getting Married!

SER BWW

“The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in, a mutual consent that robs one party or both parties of their fullest freedom and development. But once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side-by-side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky.”
- Rainer Maria Rilke

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EarthBound is a very special game. Arriving late in the lifespan of the SNES, it flew under the radar of many gamers in the United States or was just too danged odd to stir their attentions. While it did not sell poorly, it was not the runaway success that Nintendo had envisioned and failed to justify the advertising they had spent—or misspent—on its behalf. Despite its lukewarm financial reception, or possibly because of it, EarthBound has become a fiercely beloved cult classic.

The game we got as EarthBound is actually the second game in a series. The Japanese title is Mother 2. If you paid attention to emulation back in the mid-to-late 1990’s you may remember the discovery of the first game—??Mother?? or EarthBound Zero—in a fully translated state which was dumped and spread throughout the then nascent Internet. It was a pretty big deal at the time.

So what sort of game is EarthBound? In terms of gameplay and mechanics it’s quite similar to Dragon Warrior (or Dragon Quest if you prefer). It’s an RPG in which the heroes and monsters take turns thumping on each other. There are hit points that must be maintained. There are items to collect. There are weapons to be equipped. In mechanics it’s scarcely different than the games that preceded it.

In setting though EarthBound is a fair shake different than a Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest. There are no swords nor potions. In their place there are baseball bats and hamburgers. Saving the game’s progress is accomplished by ringing the lead character’s dad on the phone—he’s perpetually away on business—and filling him in on everything that’s happened. He’ll also give you an allowance based on the number and strength of the enemies vanquished. It’s thoroughly modern… mostly.

False nostalgia

Despite being wholly developed in Japan, EarthBound is set in an idealized America. Director Shigesato Itoi has said that his goal with the series was to cultivate a feeling of nostalgia in gamers which makes the choice of location puzzling, at least to a Japanese audience. Strangely enough, it might just make perfect sense.

Asked to describe EarthBound gamers will alternatively use two terms: surreal and normal. Much like the choice of setting this seems contradictory. Those are two wholly different states of being, right? That’s like saying it’s both spicy and bland.

And yet…

Well, it is surreal. You fight parking signs and abstract art. You catch a bunch of zombies on a giant piece of zombie paper—it’s like fly paper, but for zombies. Said zombies are controlled by a giant pile of vomit that has a thing for “fly honey.” But it’s also normal. Money comes from ATMs. Pizza delivery guys bring a hot pie when you call them. A bicycle is a great way to get around.

I tell you, the nostalgia bit really rings true with me. Back in the heyday of the NES I would spend hours plotting out my fantasy games on notebook paper1. Typically they’d be a hodge-podge of stuff from real life and stuff I made up (or stole from other video games). Saving progress with a telephone call and eating cookies to gain health would be exactly the sorts of things I’d include in my dream games. Playing EarthBound I’m filled with a sense of nostalgia not for my own personal life but for the made up life of my imagined video game heroes.

1 Lord! What I wouldn’t give to have those notebooks back. Sadly they’re long gone.

My name is Benjamin. I’ve been running a site under this name since 2003. The original homebrewed version is dead, but is hardly worth lamenting. It was rubbish. Even worse rubbish than it is today.

At the outset I had high hopes of becoming an interesting writer. Sadly, the number of posts I’ve made in all these years that I’m proud of today is distressingly few. In time, I added a photo section—despite causing some redundancy with my Flickr account—and a link section because I didn’t think they warranted a full-on article.

Yet I feel that I never really found a purpose until the holiday season of 2006 when I re-discovered cross stitch. Yes, re-discovered. As a youth in semi-rural West Virginia I passed the time bent over a hoop stitching idyllic farm scenes and what not. My mother still proudly displays one of my creations.

I found a whole new way to cross stitch with the release of Subversive Cross Stitch and put my efforts into writing dirty words with thread. Staring at all those grid-like charts one thing came glaringly to mind: NES sprites. The rigid structure of cross stitch was just perfect for the 2D characters of the 8-bit era. Since then, I’ve been ensnared.

Elsewhere on the web I can be found on Flickr, on Twitter, and on Etsy

Sorry Town, USA huh?

Regarding the name of the site, as it elicits a more powerful response than I had intended when I share my email address, I have a brief story. Back in winter 2003 I was attending school in Huntington, WV. I had just received my very first digital camera as a Christmas gift and so enamored was I with my new ability to snap photos and access them immediately I carried it everywhere. This would prove to be fortuitous. En route to a movie I caught a glimpse of a memorable sign in a pawn shop near my tiny studio apartment.

The next time I walked down that street it was gone, but I’d always have photographic evidence of the ephemeral sign. Shortly thereafter I found a deal on registering a .us TLD. Well, it just seemed like a perfect fit.

Feeds

The feed for Sorry Town, USA is available in 5 different flavors:

A Slime approaches!

In January of 2008 I embarked on a quest to recreate each of the 40 monsters in the NES game Dragon Warrior in cross stitch. At first I was just going to make a Slime. This did not take me very long to complete — the stitches being few in number. Having cut a piece of fabric in quarters, I still had three more sections of fabric to work with. So, I thought I might make a Drakee, or some other such mascot creature. Somehow — honestly I don’t remember the chain of logic that I followed — I decided not to just make 2 or 4 monsters, but 40.

Dragon Warrior has always occupied a special place in my gaming heart. I’ve only ever finished the first one, and that was almost 20 years ago (20 years!). I think I was aware of the second game in that vague, nebulous sense that 11 year olds were aware of game releases by way of Nintendo Power. My love for the series, however, is in no way proportional to the time I’ve spent playing the games. And it’s all the Slime’s fault.

I don’t remember what I thought of the Slime when I first played Dragon Warrior back in the day. He’s an underwhelming first foe — which only makes your would-be hero seem all that more pathetic in the start of his adventure — but oh so charming. He stuck with me and I’ve remembered him fondly all these years.

Courage and wit have served thee well

Each of these monsters has been stitched on 11 count Aida fabric. They average 3 to 3 1/2 inches in size. While the original sprites don’t have black borders I decided to add them to my stitching. As I’m using white fabric several of the monsters wouldn’t show up at all (the Skeletons) or just be difficult to pick out details (the Magician’s hands). I’m also stitching the white bits in white thread, even though the fabric would show through just fine. It adds a bit of shimmer, particularly to the aforementioned Skeleton.

Dost thou wish to continue thy quest?

As I post each monster you will find it here on this page. How long will it take me to finish off the Dragonlord?

Have something you’re dying to say? Please feel free to send it my way.

I’m at something of a crossroads as to the preferred method of email on websites. With the increased popularity of web-based email clients I get the feeling, perhaps unjustified, that most folks would prefer a web form like you see below. However, my preference is to use my actual email client. I suppose the best option is to offer both.

So, if you can’t stand the idea of a web form go ahead and email me using your favorite email client. If you can’t be bothered to open or don’t use a desktop email application, well the form is right down there.

We are fortunate that we do have the option for our relationship to be legally recognized. Some of our friends and loved ones, however, are not so lucky. Discrimination sadly still exists in our country and we must all do our part to put an end to it. Please join us in signing the Million for Marriage petition, and add your voice to the millions of others who support the right of all Americans, gay or straight, to marry.

Million for Marriage dot org

Sadly, the majority of the citizenry of our current state of residence disappointed us by supporting an even more restrictive ban on gay marriages that will be added to the Commonwealth’s state constitution. On November 7, 2006, the Marshall-Newman Amendment was approved. Now in VA, all domestic partnerships, civil unions and any other legal agreements between any unmarried couples in Virginia (gay or straight) are illegal. We are sickened and shamed by this. The people of VA should be as well. Shame on you, Virginians. (But thanks to those of you who fought the good fight!)