@krutonium calling your dad in earthbound allows you to see the allowance he's given you, but also to save your game.

when you save the game, you are given the option to continue playing, or end right there. however, the super nintendo cant just turn itself off. so the game tells you to shut the console off yourself, and then the game "freezes"

some people who play this game on an emulator/virtual console seemingly dont know that they can just press the reset button, or close the game.