JackGYarwood

@Norintha A lot of folks who worked on Bubsy 3D worked on great games after. Richard worked on Fable: Lost Chapters and Fable II, as well as versions of The Sims and Tony Hawk 3. Eidetic (the studio who made Bubsy 3D) also became Sony Bend.

@blueyezboi I've added an additional paragraph to clarify. I was tempted to mention Casino Night Zone in the original piece, but opted not to in the end. That was probably a mistake, as I can see how it reads that way.

At least from what I can tell, the reason this game is novel is it seems to be a bit more subtle in how the pinball mechanics are added throughout (at least from a level design perspective). So it's also pretty much the reverse of those Sonic games as well.

It looks to be more of a linear platformer, with mastering the moveset being important to progressing quickly through the level without touching the ground, as opposed to having a more open approach like Sonic that is more of a 1:1 pinball experience.

@mariteaux Nope, we never do paid for articles. My editor spotted it and submitted it to our news tips. It seemed interesting enough to me - a new Game Boy homebrew title with the promise of more physical homebrew titles on the way for classic consoles.

It's also pretty fascinating to see someone make the jump from retro content creator to retro game developer, as it'll no doubt be worth following along to see how well they actually do with the studio side of things.

@Robocod I'm guessing Damo was referring to the Mega Drive soundtrack

@President_Leever Could you be more specific? If you're talking about the fruit, it's not the same sprite and doesn't appear to be traced either. Just similar.

Edit: Ah, I saw you meant SMW2, not 1. Again, I think it's more a case of a young developer wearing their influences a bit too prominently, rather than deliberately ripping sprites. I can't spot anything 1:1, but if people have examples, I'm happy to hear them and I'll reach out to the dev.

@slider1983 There was probably a magazine listing for Dreamcast at some point.

I remember Sanity: Aiken's Artifact got a listing for a Dreamcast port back in the day. I asked Matt about this and he said he had doubts that it was ever real as he couldn't remember ever having a Dreamcast development kit. It was likely just the publisher announcing things prematurely.

@Tom_Gamer Yep, Matthew Allen, the art lead, namechecked Diablo. But Gauntlet has also came up too in conversations with the other devs on the project.

The folks at Monolith really loved Gauntlet, and had previously made their own Gauntlet-style game called 'Get Medieval'.

@Trmn8r That's a bit conspiratorial. We still link to Twitter/X regularly. We have accounts on both and typically just post the first site we source the info from. Or, in the case of videos, we go for Twitter/X, because they don't require you to open another site to play embeds.

Also, just clear things up, IGN and its parent company Ziff Davis never purchased Time Extension or any of the other sites under Hookshot Media. That was misinformation.

It's just an ad sales partner, like Gamer Network was before it, and they also have a minority shareholding, I believe. It's still the same old owners as before.

@NoirConceit Thanks for the comment. I've added the in-game name if that makes you happier.

Mr. X was what I personally grew up hearing/seeing the character referred to as, as a Resident Evil fan in the 90s, in official merchandise/magazines. I knew of its other name, but I just assumed most people had accepted the other moniker as an official alternative at this point. I can see I'm wrong, so I'll just include both.

@Daniel36 Fixed! Cheers for flagging. Bizarrely, in all my emails to Graeme I got it right, so I must have had a brain fade moment here.

@romanista Nope, different projects. I've been meaning to give that one a proper go

@MysticWangForce It's calling out for something like a Digital Eclipse collection. That way you could have the ports too.

@Zeebor15 They rebranded to Amazon Games Orange County and did the online game New World. Tony worked on that a bit, I believe, before going independent.

@slider1983 Yeah, I thought that when it was announced. It's a strange decision. I imagine there is going to probably be some time/memory stuff going on to tie it all together. Either that, or they are just going to retcon the original to make it fit.

@Guru_Larry As far as I know, Rockstar had the license locked down in the early 2000s, which is the only time it would have really made sense to do one.

They were working with Climax and n-space on Austin Powers console projects and had Tarantula on some handheld titles, but only the Game Boy ones came out.

@Futureshark That one is a bit strange. It was originally announced for modern platforms and PC last November.

But then when Damien wrote the piece about the game potentially using AI for the key art, we reached out to Mark Cale at System 3 for comment and he never responded (he'd been pretty active talking to us prior to that for other things).

Next thing we knew the Steam page all of a sudden mysteriously disappeared.

I was half-expecting them to re-reveal the project with some non-AI key art, but I've just noticed it apparently did release on Switch (quietly) last December, but seemingly not anywhere else.

@Mrsunnybones Those games are already coming to Switch later this year as part of the Last Ninja Collection from System 3, so they're already on the way.

@Mayhem Thanks for your comment. Just to double-check, do you have the dates before correcting? Critters Vol. 1 seems to be dated June 1986, whereas I've seen Usagi Yojimbo #1 from Fantagraphics Books dated July 1987.

There was an earlier one-off called Usagi Yojimbo: Summer Special from 1986. Is that what you're referring to?

@slider1983 They're on Battle Net again. https://eu.shop.battle.net/en-us/product/blizzard-arcade-collection

@Daggot Yeah, Shogo has got some rough spots, but it's super charming (to me, at least). I heard from one of the designers, they started work on a sequel of some kind to essentially address all the feedback, but that eventually ended up changing and evolving so much during talks with publishers until it ended up becoming what was eventually released as No One Lives Forever.

@KingMike Yep, 100%. It was the Washington-based Monolith.

@N64-ROX I've been meaning to get in touch with some of the preservation teams within these studios, but that will undoubtedly require jumping through some hoops (some Japanese companies just outright seem to blank inquiries from foreign press).

I have to say I sort of disagree with GPS on this one being a “fabrication” (I wasn't the one to update this article and have requested changes be made to state this was their opinion, not fact). I based the initial article on slideshows written in English (you can view them on gamemakers.jp’s website) so they couldn’t be garbled by mistranslation as John suggests in the accompanying feature, and I imagine other sites like GI Biz also did the same.

I will concede, however, that they could be missing some key context regarding the limitations of these projects from not being there in person to hear the accompanying talk, and have seen them being misinterpreted elsewhere online as a collaborative effort (which simply isn't the case).

Something I’m still trying to get my head around is it is pretty self-evident from the examples given in the original slides, and from things like Taito's appearances on Arcade Archives weekly streams and Capcom's art shows, that these companies ARE doing some work to preserve their game dev materials, but with the intention to eventually turn them into assets they can use for commercial and promotional projects. 

That’s what I was implying with the original article, and it seems that’s also what Redon is saying too. So the idea that part is a “complete fabrication” is honestly confusing to me and seems to contradict his own claim.

@Hastor Thanks for flagging. I've tweaked that line to avoid further confusion.

@slider1983 I agree! And ooft! That's autocorrect messing me up. Cheers for flagging.

@bkd777 Definitely. I'm hoping this is just a timed exclusivity thing. Same with pretty much anything that comes to Apple Arcade.

@RootsGenoa Thanks for flagging. The Switch version will be later this year, Steam is the next few days. I've updated.

@dconstantine It's still accepting submissions, but the difference now is you have to host the files yourself basically. This one links to a Google Drive folder, but others link to GitHub pages, etc.

@845H Yikes! Just fixed that.

@-wc- I'm not really sure where you're getting the hostility from. I'm just saying the audience for this one is probably a lot smaller, considering it's an extremely old, unlocalized game and will likely cost the same as the regular Arcade Archives releases by default.

The reason we covered it is we acknowledge there are people who like other games to us, and might want to pick it up. It's just pretty obvious that the market for this is likely incredibly niche, given the countless other ways you can play this game.

@Slobbert Fingers crossed for Snake Vs. Pikmin

@XiaoShao Yep, it should be included. I'd say it's worth playing, but I'm a bit biased as I played this a ton as a kid.

@KingMike I imagine he's referring to what became Digital Pinball: Last Gladiators. This: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Pinball:_Last_Gladiators

@gingerbeardman Fixed! Thanks for the correction.

@Legoguy515 I've amended the article to mention TheSeventhForce was the person to discover this.

I wasn't aware of his tweet thread or video, as the Eventhubs post didn't mention it. It seems they credited him in an initial article a while ago and then stopped crediting him in subsequent stories. I still mention Eventhubs as that's how I discovered the story, and I still quote their translation.

@Guru_Larry I've interviewed a few people who worked on it. If I can't answer, I could maybe point you in the direction of someone who can.

@Daniel36 Fixed! Thanks for flagging

@Razieluigi Performers don't need to acquire any specific rights to cover a song in a concert or a gig. If they release a cover for money via a streaming service or on CD, that's when obtaining permission would usually come into play. So he can likely perform the song live with that in mind.

As for the Paramount question, Sega Sammy is one of the production companies behind the new film, so they were likely part of that agreement he mentioned or had already agreed to let Paramount use their copyrighted materials (along with its characters, etc).

@-wc- Thanks for the feedback. I've done a pass and softened the language a bit based on your note.

@jesse_dylan Nope, there's no mode to play with the original graphics. It's not really a straightforward remake anyway. There's an expanded story, so it would have required them to remake the new scenes in a retro style and make it consistent. As for language options, the game basically has English text, but Japanese voiceover.

@KGRAMR Fixed! Thanks for the correction

@MontyCircus Fixed! Thanks for pointing that out.

@obijuankanoobie It was a bit hidden in the original article, so I've added a clearer link at the bottom

@Guru_Larry Yep, it probably seemed really unfair to Capcom at the time, but I think it worked out for the best. They're both great platformers and have a ton of variety between them. As for the animation, Dudley actually said he was "a little ticked" Virgin had access to Disney's own animators. Apparently, that wasn't even a conversation on the Capcom side.

@Ristar24 Yeah, I was playing it again after I heard this story, and it's surprisingly solid. Especially those first three levels.

@GravyThief That's the hope, according to the devs. I think it would be a perfect fit for Switch too. I'd probably even double-dip.

I'm not sure how well this is doing though, and I'm guessing it would have to sell a certain amount of copies on Steam/GOG before they put the money into porting it.

@GravyThief Working on it! The issue I've had is he is the CEO of a major IT company now called Faith Inc. So to ask him for an interview basically means navigating various chains of command in a foreign business setting I'm not particularly familiar with.

I've employed some help to try and give me a leg up, but, so far, all the emails I have sent have pretty much been met with silence. I'm going to keep trying though, and if worse comes to worst, it might be worth doing a profile with insight from those who worked alongside him. I think I chatted to Giles and Dylan about him. There may be others I could rope in too.

@Bonggon5 She is older in that image. The remake adds an intro and an ending not included in the original that bookends things. It takes place sometime in the future. The Easter Egg was basically moved to this future section.

@PZT Thanks for the comment! I've updated the article. Were you responsible at all for the recovery? Or did you just happen to play it?

@dmcc0 Thanks for the correction. The Nintendo websites hadn't been updated when I originally checked.

@N00BiSH I saw that there was a fan mod, which is why I didn't bring it up. It's one of those things where I just expected it was all water under the bridge for everyone.