OK, so I was cruising through a few of my old Nintendo Power Magazines, and I was reading issue 21 which was released in February of 1991, 

I got to the Game Play Counselors section where they show all the Awesome Nerds that answer your questions when you would call the 800-NINTENDO hotline back in the day.... (I love this section because of the Hobbies and Accomplishments they list are awesome!)

Anyway... I was reading Shawn McGoldrick's info, and noticed that his favorite game was none other than "Earth Bound".... 

I thought, wait a minute... this is in Feb of 1991 ??  So the SNES wasn't even released... not to mention the 1995 US release of "Earthbound" was 4 years away... 

I have read before that Mother #1 was being translated in 1990 by Phil Sandhop and his crew... but I never thought that these Game Play Counselors would get to play thru unreleased games... 

I thought maybe our boy Shawn here got his hand on a Japanese version of Mother (since it was released in 1989), but he didn't call it Mother... he referred to it as "Earth Bound".... the same title that they planned on releasing it as before they canceled the release in the Fall of 1991... 

Apparently Mr. McGoldrick, must have been Beta Testing the translated Game before it was scheduled to release... and was allowed to speak about it in his Info... 

What do you guys think?  Just thought this seemed a bit Curious??  Also Shawn McGoldrick... if you are still out there, maybe you could shed some light on the old Earth Bound translation?

Thanks Folks,

Zwario

Heh! Now that is awesome. Can't believe I never noticed that before. History is far stranger than the history books let on. I am very curious to hear more about this.

He is an alien time traveler, no person on Earth could have been cool enough to rock that haircut and turtleneck/sweater combo. Plus his favorite game is "Earth Bound".
That was too easy.
/END THREAD

It really wouldn't surprise me if Nintendo Power employees had access to protos like the NES Earthbound. We all know it was already fully translated.

It makes sense that the GPC's would have to play the games long before release. That way they're familiar enough with the game to properly field questions on day 1.

Real life "Grandma's Boy"

It's like one big tease to gamers when they read his favorite game was Earthbound but it was never released yet lol. Really neat find.

If Shawn McGoldrick does show up here, he needs an extra special icon.

Is it possible it was his "favorite game" even though he had never played it? I probably would have said Ocarina of Time was my favorite game while I was anticipating its release. I had a 3-ring binder full of printouts of previews and whatever info I could find. Though I guess it isn't entirely impossible that he could have played it. If so that could make you wonder how many there actually are still hidden somewhere. Interesting article though, thanks for sharing

Lots of possibilities, it's not that surprising. He could have been playtesting it for feedback (as I think game counselors did), he might have been moved from QA to game counselor, he might have played Mother on the Famicom and was referring to it by its American name (which had just recently been announced)...

90's fashion was fantastic.

Yeah, Phil farmed out a lot of his playtesting to game counselors during localization so I wouldn't be surprised if he got to test some stuff out. Makes me wonder if he's got a proto lying around like Alderman did... Super cool though!

The game counselors were the same people taking phone calls on the hotline. Quite obviously in my eyes Nintendo gave these employees prototypes to play so they would have the game mastered by the time it was released. Nintendo Power was never the same once they stopped doing those little counselor bios at the bottom of the page. Literally every photo was pure gold.

As to why he called it Earth Bound, that is no mystery at all. The game was already previewed in Issue 18, which I have. Right below is the cancelled SimCity.

Maybe this is him and Redmond Washington "Nintendo's Headquarters" is pretty close to Bothell just up the 405

Funny it says "1 possible Criminal Offense"


www.pantsdonkey.com/shawn.jpg...


Would he be about 45 years old?

Already located the guy, sent him a message on Facebook and waiting for a response.

Evan, you realize I have an account on here, right? I'm his go-to tracking people down guy. I'll let you guys know if I get a response.

Hahahaha!! You guys are hilarious / awesome! 4 hours later, and this guy has already been contacted, most of the puzzle pieces in place!!! Love it!

This thread shall now be known as Exhibit A in the Nintendo Power consoler stalking case

I wonder if Shawn McGoldrick even remembers that Earth Bound was his favorite game in 1991.

This is a fun thread.

"Shawn McGoldrick once showed me a video of him making love to my wife, and it was the most beautiful thing I ever saw!"

Shut up Josh, I'm tryin' to look cool for all the internet jocks.

I remember seeing this. Nintendo Power covered 30 NES games that weren't released, so this wasn't too uncommon for them. Most notably Super Turrican, Beauty and the Beast, Eon Man, Hit the Ice, and Over Horizon, which all received multiple pages worth of coverage.

Any updates on this?