Frédérick Raynal, the creator of games such as Alone in the Dark and Little Big Adventure, is returning to his roots with a new release for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive.
The game in question is a remake of Raynal's 1988 PC title PopCorn, and it will be funded via a Kickstarter campaign which kicks off today.
Speaking to Time Extension about the remake, Raynal explains how losing a dear friend inspired him to make this new project even grander than he initially planned:
"A little over a year ago, a friend of mine, David Mekersa (from the site GameCodeur.fr), who writes books on learning how to program, contacted me. He wanted to create a C programming course for the Mega Drive using SGDK and asked if I had an old game that would be a good fit for it.
I immediately thought of Popcorn, a brick-breaker I created in 1988, which was perfect for a console released the same year! This game is very well known to (older) gamers worldwide, and I have a special affection for that era and the time spent with Christophe Lacaze when we made it. I loved David's idea; I had never made a game for this console before, at the time I worked on PC, but it didn't intimidate me. I’m used to 'small' machines (and I love them!).
So, I started working on the adaptation with very didactic code and progressive steps: first just a paddle and a ball, then bonuses, monsters, and so on. Unfortunately, and this is the sad part of the story, David fell very ill and passed away. The adaptation was almost finished, and I decided to complete it as a tribute to him."
This release will include a brand-new two-player 'Duel' mode, and the game will be accompanied by the PopCorn Spinner, a new Genesis/Mega Drive peripheral specifically designed for this game.
Raynal tells us why he decided to create his own controller:
"So there I was with the 1988 version of Popcorn on Mega Drive, but I didn't know what to do with it. Brick-breakers aren't very fun to play with a joypad, which is why there was only ever one on the Mega Drive. I realized it needed a spinner to be played properly, but I discovered there weren't any for this console, and mice are very rare.
I decided to try and build one myself. I designed the electronic circuit, the 3D-printed case, and a firmware compatible with the MD mouse protocol. Suddenly, the gameplay became incredibly fun! In the heat of the moment, I figured I should take advantage of the Mega Drive's two ports. Since Popcorn 1988 is a remake of a brick-breaker, I invented a new game: Popcorn DUEL, a remake of Pong! I had some friends test it, and they started asking me to make spinners for them."
Raynal says that demand for spinners from his friends is what convinced him that this could become a larger, crowdfunded project.
He's very pleased with the end result, it's fair to say:
"There has never been a controller of this type for the Mega Drive, and those that exist for arcade cabinets are expensive and bulky. I didn't want to use a potentiometer like the Paddle found on the Atari 2600; those don't offer infinite rotation, as they are limited to a 270° range before the movement locks. Even if that might have been enough for a brick-breaker, I wanted the same experience as on arcade machines.
Being compatible with SGDK opens the door to very different types of games that could benefit from this infinite rotation—for example, an Asteroids-style game (which I'm very eager to create...).
In modern electronic components, there are Hall effect sensors which, thanks to a magnet, allow for extremely precise and frictionless rotation detection, with a resolution of 4096 steps per turn. The hardest part was finding information on the Mega Drive mouse protocol and tracking down an actual mouse to test it all. I am very happy with the result!"
Raynal began his career with 1979's Laser on the Sinclair ZX81. His other notable credits include Toy Commander, Time Commando, Toy Racer, 2Dark and Soul Bubbles.
His most recent project was Skew for the PlayDate handheld.