JackGYarwood

@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.

@TheBigK I've altered it to just the "US" after a quick look on the retro store locator with some Canadian postcodes. I can't seem to find any participating stores in Canada, so you're right. This seems to just be a US thing.

@Daggot You can type "slow", "slower", "slowest" to slow things down if you're having trouble typing fast enough. The commands also work the other way too ("fast", "faster", "fastest"), if you're tired of retreading an area and want to get it over and done with quicker.

There's a clock on the top right of the screen, to encourage you to go quicker. I'm not sure yet whether it has any real consequences beyond making you feel bad for taking your time.

@RootsGenoa Last week's seems to be out on the UK & US stores for Switch and out on the US PlayStation store. Seems to only be the UK PlayStation store that's the problem. I'll try to find out more.

@LowDefAl Yeah, it's sort of ridiculous now. Shmups make sense, and some of the RPGs are sort of playable, but I can't imagine this will sell anything though, as it will require the absolute patience of a saint to get through.

I've been reaching out to D4E to ask them if they can provide any sales data or anything for this stuff in this West, and a bunch of other questions about their plans for EGGCONSOLE (in English and Japanese), but so far have been ignored.

@Milk_ It seems to be an enhanced version.

@N64-ROX It does. When they altered the other languages, they also altered the English text to bring the European versions closer to each other.

@boatie They weren't the source this time around. I saw the Project Egg tweet about announcing a new piece of software and checked the Japanese Nintendo store. We credit gosokkyu every time we find news through them.

@Lofoten They're little memo pads. You open them up and there's basically a bunch of paper inside with Mario-themed drawings and a space to write.

@TransmitHim I wonder whether it has something to do with the St. Giga side because it's a Soundlink title and therefore a co-production. I kind of feel the same thing may be blocking 64DD rereleases on modern platforms, as the agreement between Recruit & Nintendo seemed to give Randnet exclusive rights to distribute those games. I'd have to do some more digging into the situation around Doshin's rerelease on Gamecube to find out for sure, though.

@romanista Yep! It was my interview with Jim.

@XiaoShao Yeah, I can't find the tweet now, but the guides editor basically gave everyone a heads up that some of their work might be deleted. It's basically because Fanbyte was gutted all except for the the guides team and this stuff no longer fits the site's current direction. I luckily created a backup of everything before it happened.

@NinChocolate The tutorial is surprisingly long and goes over a lot, but it's a really good fangame from what I've played of it so far.

@Diogmites Cheers for flagging! I switched the image and forgot to change the caption. Fixed now.

@HammerGalladeBro That'll be before my morning coffee kicked in. Thanks for flagging! I've fixed it now.

@-wc- I just meant in the context of this interview, not in terms of Nintendo's strategy as a whole. I've added a small adjustment to clarify.

Even with what you're saying, it is interesting! It's a previously untranslated comment from a fairly candid conversation about Nintendo's failure with software developers with the manager of R&D3. I feel like that one section from me has been blown a bit out of proportion in your comment. I'm also not sure about the need to get a dig in about my knowledge/run down future work just because I said the equivalent of 'this is neat'.