A sound of thunder: time-traveling in Animal Crossing DS

by Ross Miller { Jan 11th 2006 at 4:30PM }

Here's a funny story from the fellas over at Red Assed Babboon: someone thought it'd be funny to change his DS' internal clock to the year 2010 and see how his Animal Crossing game changed. In his own words, "when he went to his town the place was covered in weeds and dead flowers, and all the residents were angry with him for letting the town go downhill."

So the future is rather bleak, we should return to our own time and enjoy, right? Not so fast - upon switching his clock back to present-day, his town was still f.u.b.a.r. Only in video games can the future affect life in the past - let this be a warning to you (or a great way to piss off your buddy or sibling).

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

nyc @ Jan 11th 2006 4:40PM

HOW IS THIS NEWS?!

Christ its like reporting on someone using U U D D L R L R BA Start.

Changing the clock in Animal Crossing is as old as when everyone did it on the original cube version. The effects were the same.

Jeff @ Jan 11th 2006 4:42PM

Er, this is a carryover from the original Animal Crossing, which did the same thing. The idea is you couldn't just set your GameCube's clock ahead to get to some arbitrary date where you knew you'd be rewarded with something, or to reset all the items in the shop or whatever. You'd be punished if you did.

So, it'd almost be disappointing if the DS version *didn't* have this feature. But this guy certainly didn't discover anything; this is a well-known feature of the original game.

PvpMan22 @ Jan 11th 2006 4:43PM

woah, is that a semi-muddy puddle that formed? Jeez thats pretty downhill with all the weeds, clovers, puddles, and other weird stuff. Thats a lot more detail they put into the degrading of a town than the Gamecube Animal crossing which just creates a ton of weeds.

Wish this never happpens to my game when I get back on 10 years from now...

Ross Miller @ Jan 11th 2006 4:47PM

It's not news. We're a gaming blog, and part of the fun of that is posting silly culture-related items like this and silly movies like college kids dressed up like Pac-Man and Blinky the Ghost running through the halls of a library (oh, the memories...). I thought it was a funny story, and did a write-up on it for anyone who might get a kick out of the occurence. We do get through a lot of news each day and have had plenty of newsworthy posts today to whet your appetite (and more on the way, too).

And yeah, it was in the GameCube version, but some new adaptors to the game may not have been aware (or even aware that there existed a GCN Animal Crossing).

spoo @ Jan 11th 2006 4:58PM

Yea I messed up my GCN AC game by messing with the clock and had to start over with a new town loosing my NES games that came on the memory card. I will not make that mistake twice.

Elpea @ Jan 11th 2006 4:58PM

Ditto to the above comment.

Pip @ Jan 11th 2006 4:58PM

Dont worry, most of us appreciate stories like these. Dont hold back just because you have one twit that spends too much time posting on slashdot complaining.

Daniel D @ Jan 11th 2006 5:03PM

Damn right ross you tell em, im fed up of people coming on here and complaining that stuff isnt news, DO THEY EVEN KNOW WHAT A BLOG IS!? nyc you jackass

Rappateng @ Jan 11th 2006 5:12PM

I thought it was a funny story... Especially when I was at my buddy's town helping him clean the place up.

For anyone who cares, it took him HOURS to get the place back to normal. In addition to the weeds, his house was full of bugs...

Hey, I didn't play AC for the Gamecube, so it was all news to me mr & mrs fancy pants nay-sayers!

unreal mccoy @ Jan 11th 2006 5:16PM

thank you Ross! (re:#4)

people don't seem to get the purpose of a blog. Its not just to report news, but discussion topics as well.

If you want only news go to IGN, and sign up as an Insider. Also, bend over and take on in the ass while your at it.

Babu @ Jan 11th 2006 5:23PM

I actually did not know about this, so for me, this post was 100% worthy of my time. Thanks Ross!

Silver @ Jan 11th 2006 5:31PM

If you just time travel one or two days at a time and run around each day picking the few weeds, you don't have that problem, including the bugs. Of course you can't travel 10 years doing it but it's good if you want your fruit to grow or something. And when you travel back all in one jump nothing changes.

Osiris @ Jan 11th 2006 5:33PM

Animal Crossing DS is a big disappointment for me, it was almost identical to the GC version with a few exceptions.

There is still very little to do, and the player always is struggling to find an aim in the game.

Nintendo could have done SO much better, instead they insult us be releasing a remake of a game that isnt up to standard.

What a waste of money.

Rappateng @ Jan 11th 2006 5:37PM

By the way, more pics of the 'event' are on my Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/popkid/82531122/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/popkid/82531121/in/photostream/

enjoy...

Rappateng @ Jan 11th 2006 5:41PM

Ooops, try that again:

http://static.flickr.com/41/82531121_9afef073f8_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/37/82531122_62b71c3540_o.jpg

TeddyN @ Jan 11th 2006 5:57PM

Actually, I just bought animal crossing on DS. I don't have a gamecube but had been intrigued by the game so I'm perfectly happy playing the same game as came out on gamecube. Plus, the fact that it's playable in the car/plane/whatever is a huge advantage.

In terms of the gameplay, perhaps it's personal preference (just like some people don't enjoy the sims) but I've been having fun with finding all the hidden detail to the game, and just letting my curiosity lead the way. I was so pleased when I accidentally made a snowman from rolling snowballs around! And catching a repertoire of fish, insects and fossils is cool too. The satisfaction you get from decorating a house is the same feeling as when you do it in 'the sims' only scaled down slightly from the PC's power.

Basically, a great game :)

And thanks for this post btw, funny and love the screenshot :)

Superzapper2000 @ Jan 11th 2006 6:40PM

Actually on the Gamecube you can just change the game clock.I did it a few times to go back and get stuff i missed and to go forward.I was out on the 4th of july so i reset the game to watch the fireworks then set it back after .It does not effect the game if you save then change the game clock.I never tried the Gamecube clock because there's no need to.

Toast @ Jan 11th 2006 9:18PM

Yikes, those temporal mechanics are worse than in T2!

Goomba @ Jan 12th 2006 12:35PM

>>"Changing the clock in Animal Crossing is as old as when everyone did it on the original cube version. "

>>"And yeah, it was in the GameCube version, but some new adaptors to the game may not have been aware (or even aware that there existed a GCN Animal Crossing)."

Well, the original version was on the N64, not the Gamecube. They later ported the N64 version of "Dobutsu no Mori"(Animal Forest) to the GC, which folks in the US lovingly remember as Animal Crossing. The GC version was called "Animal Forest e+" in Japan. Ironically, since Animal Crossing for GC was never released in Europe, the DS version would be the first.

http://animalcrossing.planets.gamespy.com/games.shtml

Case @ Jan 12th 2006 1:17PM

They should have made it so when you went back to present time, Mr. Resetti comes and says something like "Well, well, well, look who thought s/he could go back and forth in time. Enjoy your ruined town!"

lain @ Jan 13th 2006 12:22PM

while this was not news to me, since i was also a big fan of the gcn version of ac, i still love seeing ac(ww) stuff here on joystiq. there is one thing to mention, though, that is new to time travelling in ac:ww. i have heard from various folks over at www.animalcrossingcommunity.com that when your town gets horribly filled up w/ weeds (similar to those screenshots), apparently some giant red flower/weed will appear somewhere in the town (it's called rafflesia). you can't remove it yourself. you have to get rid of all (or some?) of the weed infestation before it'll go away.