Hello Starmen.netters! The holidays are coming, and to start them off right, here's a quick news roundup of everything happening on Starmen.net:

Forum user gdnspk performed a remarkable feat, successfully completing a NO-HIT RUN of EarthBound! You read that right: this wasn't just an ordinary challenge run; the name of the game was to not get hit even once! This incredible achievement naturally merits a well-earned reward. Check out the details of the run in the forum.

Bound to the Dark World, the much anticipated hack from Chromadeline and her team, has formally released! As stated in the original post, this hack is "[a]n Earthbound romhack that recreates Deltarune Chapter 1 in its entirety!" A true labor of love, this hack has been two years in the making and is now available to play. Give it a look!

The pumpkin carving contest has concluded, with our winning gourd belonging to KTPDREEMURR! Congratulations! Judge U-G had this to say: "Oh wow! Not only is the design VERY clean but I absolutely love the use of the scrap in the eyes and the strings hanging out of the mouth. Gives it a very striking look. Very creative; not something typically seen in an ordinary pumpkin carving." See the prizewinning pumpkin for yourself (and all of the other wonderful entries) in the thread.

And last, but certainly not least... the god of baseball steps up to the plate once more to challenge the good people of Starmen.net. Brush off your Mr. Baseball caps and equip your Casey bats as you face off against one of the most torturous trials we have to offer... an Adobe Flash game from the late aughts! Baseball is back, so give it your best--and perhaps win a prize. Be sure to post your progress in the thread!

_{Do not be fooled by the bright colors and beloved characters. Pooh's Home Run Derby is NOT for the faint of heart.}

See you all soon, and keep your eyes peeled for more events happening on Starmen.net!

2025 Starmen.net Carving Contest!

Hello Trick or Treat Kids and Smilin’ Sams alike! We’re proud to announce the 2025 Starmen.net Carving Contest!

Pick up a pumpkin (or another festive gourd of your choice; maybe a turnip if you wanna be traditional!) and show us your carving skills. Your design can be whatever you like, MOTHER-related or otherwise!

You can send in your pumpkin pictures either in the forum thread or in our discord server. We’ll pick the best pumpkin of the patch, and the winner will receive a badge of YOUR prize pumpkin! Send in those glamour shots by NOVEMBER 4th at 11:59 PM EST. Can’t wait to see your gorgeous gourds!

Hey sm.netters, the mods and staff have some bittersweet news concerning recent changes we have had to make to the forum.

If you've been using the forum lately you are probably already aware of the problem; overwhelming numbers of AI bots & web scrapers have been rendering our forum practically unusable, DDOS'ing us in slow motion as they vacuum up 20+ years of posting history...

In order to keep the site at least somewhat stable, we have unfortunately had to take drastic measures to protect the web server from these bots and have been forced to restrict forum access to members-only for an indefinite period of time. This was no one's preferred outcome, but the overwhelming deluge of bots slowed our server response times to a crawl; just posting a single comment was taking upwards of 1.5 minutes, and that's if the web servers didn't overload and prevent you from reading a thread entirely...

Our hope is to find a solution in the future that lets us reverse this change, and allows members and lurkers alike to read our forum just like the good old days of internet past. For the time being though, we apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for understanding.

AAAaAAAAAaaaaAAAAAAA

Is it true??? Have we returned????? We haven't had an outage like this in quite some time... I sincerely apologize if any of you were forced to postpone events, go outside, visit not-20-year-old-websites, or otherwise not hang around here for 3-4 days.

MOST IMPORTANTLY THOUGH

SOUND OFF IF YOU'RE STILL ALIVE!

Hey folks! It's me, Rhyselinn, your local head admin, here with some cool forum news!

First, the housekeeping: all of our mods have some new beefed up privileges that let them transfer topics into their specialized boards and deal with any spambots they might see. But their areas of focus haven't changed! If you ever wonder who to ask about a board-specific question, check the sidebar on the right to see who your friendly neighborhood mods are.

Second, it's my honor to announce that three of our super mods have been promoted to admins.

Boots has been a member of the site since 2011. A talented musician and creative visionary, he has worked in visible roles spearheading site events (Weezerfest, a certain ARG, and many a funfest) as well as on site policy and governance behind the scenes. He brings vivacity and joy to the community as well as sound counsel and judgment, and our community is livelier for his involvement.

broomweed has been a member of the site since 2012. A talented programmer and game developer, broomweed brought Porcotrade to life for last year's EBFGPS funfest, and she consistently offers sound judgment on moderating matters behind the scenes. In both moderating and event planning, broomweed has a talent for identifying problems before they become problems so they can be addressed, and our community runs much smoother because of her involvement.

LadyTe has been a member of the site since 2014. A talented writer, LadyTe has helped organize and run all kinds of site activities, from monthly riddles to funfests to Mafia games. Many of our site communications have benefited from her keen eye for clear communication and stray commas. She's a powerful voice for ensuring our community upholds our principles, and our community is kinder and more welcoming because of her influence.

I can't overstate the contributions these three folks have brought to the community, and I can't overstate my gratitude for their effort and passion. The magic of Starmen.net comes from the people in it, and I'm proud to work alongside our admins, our mods, and the community at large to keep the spirit of this wonderful community burning bright!