Phase Distorter Puts EarthBound on PC With Widescreen Views and CRT Filters

Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo can now walk Onett on a desktop, and the program that takes them there shares a name with the time machine Dr. Andonuts built for the end of the game. Phase Distorter, written by a developer going by TheRunaway5, is an unofficial native port of the 1994 Super Nintendo role-playing game EarthBound and its Japanese release, Mother 2. Version 0.2.1 went out on October 4, 2026, as a development build for Windows and Linux, and write-ups followed within a couple of days.

The original game code and sound program were compiled into C++20 and organized into layers to handle rendering, sound, control, and asset import. SDL2 and OpenGL are sitting under the window, forming the basis. The first time it launches, it prompts the player to input a game ROM that they already own. Phase Distorter then verifies the file by comparing it to known hashes for the US English cart and the Japanese Mother 2 cart. It collects the necessary assets and stores them in a cache known as an ebpak, leaving the original ROM completely intact. After that, subsequent sessions can run just fine on the cache alone. Any modified carts, fan translations, or prototypes will be booted.

Wider screens are likely to be the most noticeable change right away. You can change the aspect ratio from the basic 4:3 to 16:10, 16:9, 21:9, and 32:9, as well as a custom choice and a mode that corresponds to the window size. All that extra horizontal real estate simply allows you to see more of the map while the pixel graphics remains lovely and true to the original scale. Actors who are not on screen are loaded early, so they do not appear as the camera moves over the map. If you like a more retro look, you may use an optional CRT filter.

It builds on the public domain crt-lottes Fast shader, adding scanlines, an aperture grille, and phosphor glow. A photosensitivity filter builds on the SNES technique by reducing the brightness to roughly 80% and adding a small amount of time feedback on PSI flashes and the Giygas sequence. In terms of frame rate, it can be kept constant, increased to 90 to 300 frames per second, or completely uncapped. There is also an original time flag for those who prefer to stick with the previous CPU budget.

Both keyboards and controllers function well, and you can remap whatever button you want, including a configuration that mimics the SNES switch online pad. Save files are created in-game and stored in a user data folder outside of the application directory, with separate files for each game version. A options window controls the display, fullscreen, filters, and allows you to switch between Earthbound and Mother 2. For those who really want to dive in, there are some other debug tools off to the side, like infinite health and PSI, noclip, max damage, party edits, save states, and a teleport list that includes 385 map places. Just keep in mind that those tools have the potential to disrupt a save, so you might want to avoid using them.

Phase Distorter is released under an MIT license and explicitly states that it has no affiliation with Nintendo. The file contains no game data; the player must supply their own ROM dump. And, just to reiterate, local copyright laws still apply. There are pre-built zips for Windows and Linux, and if you’re feeling brave, you can create your own source build, which requires a C++20 compiler, CMake, SDL2, and OpenGL. Some early posts imply the possibility of getting it to operate on a Mac, however the packaged releases only support the two desktop systems.
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