Just a small point: Japanese trade magazine Game Machine was digitised by Onion Software (related to Onion Games/LOVEdeLIC) on behalf of Amusement Press.
I know because I'm the one that disseminated them onto internet archive. I did so in two batches (in 2019 I uploaded issues 1977—1990, and in 2023 I uploaded the remaining issues 1991–2002) as they were digitising them at steady pace over multiple years.
Whoever has duplicated only up to 1996 must have grabbed them part way through.
@BulkSlash what's to stop save states being done the SD2SNES way in FPGA cores? IIRC it injects an in-game hook code into the running game to add the feature. So they'd be largely external and unrelated to the FPGA core.
Altron are famous for rebranding their Japanese games as additional titles and/or Western releases. I wonder if this matches up with any of their other games?
It's great that they now have the name of it on there only once (previous design had it twice) but this box with chamfered edges needs more curves! Both the MD and SNES were full of curves.
@BHPM how many and how frequently can they happen before they can no longer be classed as mistakes but rather deliberate can't give a damn about customers? For me this point passed years ago.
I once created some cheat codes to do this in a PS1 golf game that didn't support certain camera angles during putting. I mapped them to a button, effectively adding a feature to the game.
Also there's a game with this viewpoint in PlayStation, Rush Hour, by the developers Clockwork Games who went on to make Vanishing Point (DC/PS1). https://www.mobygames.com/game/3111/rush-hour/
@Damo I'm interested why you've only @'d me about this and not the first poster in this thread? Of course, I don't know, but I can take an educated guess. 😘
@Damo we know that the buyer doesn't want to say what he paid the guy for it, which is alarm bell number one, but he does say that it was the "DEAL OF A LIFETIME!!!!" which indicates that he paid far less for it than it's worth. Seems pretty clear cut.
Scoring a bargain is indeed a pleasure, but actively seeking a person out, exploiting them, and then boasting about it on social media is just ...not cool.
The main gist of my earlier message was to be excellent to each other. There's no shade or negative reaction. Just me saying "that's not cool" when we should be treating each other with respect.
@Poodlestargenerica my thoughts exactly. He wasn't happy enough scalping the faceless corporation, so he looked the guy up to scalp him in person. Not a great way to treat other humans. Pay the guy what you know it's worth! Be excellent to each other.
I think it's a bit soon to give them a break considering how recently their recent bad behaviour was, and how frequently they've done these things since they were founded. They're never doing to change. The problem is too deep rooted.
As of this morning, the game is playable using dpad and buttons.
Experiments being tried include using the crank to adjust heading.
Progress has been good so far, and there are some optimisations under way thanks to information provided by Gustavo Pezzi (of Pikuma.com computer graphics tutorials/courses)
I'm using it to play my favourite one button DS game, MaBoShi, and the whole screen is a button so the lack of physical controls isn't an issue. I made a custom skin with custom layout.
This is looking slick so far, even though most of the graphics are placeholder.
ps: Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge was already released for the Atari ST back in the day (I bought it with my pocket money) what this guy and his team did was optimise it for the emhanced Atari STE hardware (mostly smoother scrolling, improved sound) https://github.com/jonathanopalise/lotus-ste
@Sketcz i didn't mean buying the items they're selling off, as you say there are ways to do that.
What I meant it getting access to their collection and archive for research purposes. I've contacted Joseph in the past but due to Japanese laws he couldn't give me remote access to anything.
Also their archive seems to only be accessible in person, typical for Japan. They have a ton of stuff, but for anybody outside Japan it could as well be in another castle.
@XiaoShao regarding the economics, a game with a list price of $6 means the developer will see ~$3.75 after all deductions (store, payment processor, currency exchange). And they'll need to pay tax on those earnings.
On iPhone you might be able to make a living from a $0.99 game, especially if you also monetise the player. But with Playdate there aren't enough devices to go for quantity, and thankfully the platform is free from microtransactions and ads. Pure gaming in the old school sense.
@combywomby I'd like to make a game of this scope and varied structure, but it's just not possible to do it independently (without funding) at the moment.
The fairly low total number of Playdates (even lower if you only count those buying from Catalog) and average cost per game dictate the scope of most games. Even funded games like OOM and Pullfrog are highly polished but still bitesize experiences.
For example, my games: the highly rated Sparrow Solitaire took about a person year of dev time between two people, and we're yet to recoup our costs. The fairly quick (~300 hours) development time of YOYOZO and the accolades it has won have ensured that i should break even some 4 months after release. It would be much longer without the awards.
Lucas Pope is in a unique position in that his previous games enable him to take a chance on a game like this, and he spent multiple years on its development.
I can't find these guys or their company in any credits on Moby Games. Not their old games, like the Chicken Little one, or Hearthstone, or any of the recent conversions. Which is very weird.
Edit: their names are misspelled in the article. Should be Robin Lavallée and, to a lesser extent, Jake Stine. Those I can find in credits.
This is a great game, it's a take on QIX by MTJ (the creator of Bubble Bobble). The original arcade version was portrait (and it's portrait on the Taito Super Pocket, but quite blurry given that it has to fit into 240 pixels of height) so I'm looking forward to playing it on Switch in tate mode.
In fact he says Second Mission enhancement isn't very good, because it removes content from the original Operation Tiger (which is the version he enthuses about)
@GravyThief see my earlier reply. It's unfortunate wording from them, but what I believe is happening is they're modifying the original code, compiling it with modern tools to get more benefits, and building a new ROM. So, yes, would be emulation.
@Gravyc yikes. @damo any chance you can ask about this?
@-wc- right, but Glover was also released for PS1 and Windows so I'm assuming there was some non-analog (d-pad and perhaps even keyboard?) support somewhere.
Reading between the lines of the somewhat fuzzy answers, it seems they're compiling the original source code with modern tools and getting the benefits of 25 years of compiler technology improvements.
There are also likely some low hanging fruit tricks and optimisations that have been discovered since 1998 that can improve the game performance even further. So it's likely to be better/different in some regards, and worse/different in others. The lack of analog stick is surely the greatest and I'm not familiar enough with the game to know how much the gameplay was based on analog movement.
Finally, who is Maximilian Wedell? Name drop but no explanation of who he is.
Comments 308
Re: Chromatic Is A FPGA-Based Game Boy From Palmer Luckey
Technically great, especially the screen, but I'm not keen on the choice of colours or stripes. And the version of Tetris looks quite messy visually.
Re: 10 Forgotten Gaming Magazines That Are Worth Remembering
My top 3
Re: The Race Is On To Save A Valuable Resource Of Video Game History
Just a small point: Japanese trade magazine Game Machine was digitised by Onion Software (related to Onion Games/LOVEdeLIC) on behalf of Amusement Press.
https://onitama.tv/gamemachine/archive.html
I know because I'm the one that disseminated them onto internet archive. I did so in two batches (in 2019 I uploaded issues 1977—1990, and in 2023 I uploaded the remaining issues 1991–2002) as they were digitising them at steady pace over multiple years.
Whoever has duplicated only up to 1996 must have grabbed them part way through.
Re: History Of Games 2024 Offered An Embarrassment Of Riches, But Games Media Isn't Listening
I had no idea about this! I could have and would have gone.
Re: Soapbox: Here's Why I Can't Ditch Software Emulation Handhelds For The FPGA Analogue Pocket
@BulkSlash what's to stop save states being done the SD2SNES way in FPGA cores? IIRC it injects an in-game hook code into the running game to add the feature. So they'd be largely external and unrelated to the FPGA core.
Re: UK Museum Builds 3D-Printed Replica Of Computer Space, The First Ever Arcade Machine
Great approach!
Re: Unreleased WWE 3DS Game Shown For The First Time Ever, And It's A Bit Like Power Stone
@Poodlestargenerica the only other two 3DS games Altron did are Disney Infinity: Toy Box Challenge and Finding Nemo: Escape to the Big Blue.
Whilst the Disney game does creature some scenes of similar scope to the WWE Brawl game it would be a stretch to suspect they share anything.
Re: Unreleased WWE 3DS Game Shown For The First Time Ever, And It's A Bit Like Power Stone
Altron are famous for rebranding their Japanese games as additional titles and/or Western releases. I wonder if this matches up with any of their other games?
Re: MARS FPGA Will Let You Use Your Original Carts And Support Legacy AV Connections
It's great that they now have the name of it on there only once (previous design had it twice) but this box with chamfered edges needs more curves! Both the MD and SNES were full of curves.
Re: Limited Run Under Fire For "Horrible" Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vinyl Release
@BHPM how many and how frequently can they happen before they can no longer be classed as mistakes but rather deliberate can't give a damn about customers? For me this point passed years ago.
Re: Random: Top-Down Ridge Racer Looks As Cool As It Sounds
I once created some cheat codes to do this in a PS1 golf game that didn't support certain camera angles during putting. I mapped them to a button, effectively adding a feature to the game.
Also there's a game with this viewpoint in PlayStation, Rush Hour, by the developers Clockwork Games who went on to make Vanishing Point (DC/PS1). https://www.mobygames.com/game/3111/rush-hour/
Re: YouTuber Scores $2000 Sega Saturn Mother Lode For 500 Bucks At GameStop
@Damo I'm interested why you've only @'d me about this and not the first poster in this thread? Of course, I don't know, but I can take an educated guess. 😘
Re: YouTuber Scores $2000 Sega Saturn Mother Lode For 500 Bucks At GameStop
@Damo we know that the buyer doesn't want to say what he paid the guy for it, which is alarm bell number one, but he does say that it was the "DEAL OF A LIFETIME!!!!" which indicates that he paid far less for it than it's worth. Seems pretty clear cut.
Scoring a bargain is indeed a pleasure, but actively seeking a person out, exploiting them, and then boasting about it on social media is just ...not cool.
The main gist of my earlier message was to be excellent to each other. There's no shade or negative reaction. Just me saying "that's not cool" when we should be treating each other with respect.
Re: YouTuber Scores $2000 Sega Saturn Mother Lode For 500 Bucks At GameStop
@Poodlestargenerica my thoughts exactly. He wasn't happy enough scalping the faceless corporation, so he looked the guy up to scalp him in person. Not a great way to treat other humans. Pay the guy what you know it's worth! Be excellent to each other.
Re: Soapbox: The Trouble With Limited Run Games, And How To Fix It
I think it's a bit soon to give them a break considering how recently their recent bad behaviour was, and how frequently they've done these things since they were founded. They're never doing to change. The problem is too deep rooted.
Re: Arcade1Up "Surprised" To See Its Cabinet Crushed In Apple's Controversial iPad Pro Ad
I love that this guy's surname is McIntosh (Macintosh)
Re: Multiple Copies Of Delayed Mega Drive Game Paprium Discovered In French Warehouse
Fonzie trolling for sure. That crazy cat.
Re: The Truth About Retro Game Hunting In A Post-Pandemic Japan
I'm also seeing the stock isn't a problem
https://twitter.com/alexfkraus/status/1784954628007682204
Re: Multi-Console Emulator Provenance Coming The iPhone App Store, Nintendo Be Damned
What others are there then Delta?
Re: The Original Version Of Columns For The HP-UX Has Just Been Found
It's a shame they don't disclose where or how they found this.
Re: Limited Run Games Apologises For Shipping 3DO Games On CD-Rs
What a non-apology. This company is such a bad example, yet for some reason (FOMO?) people keep lining their pockets with money.
Re: Retro Gaming Takes Over The BBC's Breakfast Show
“People are still interested in old stuff” 🤦♂️
I liked the found Game Boy story.
Re: Random: This Bulk Slash FAQ Has Been Puzzling Fans For Almost 20 Years
I found some period FAQs and Japanese coverage:
These all say extra chats, bonus wallpapers, and additional ending for each MISS as your level/score increases. @Sketcz
Re: Random: This Bulk Slash FAQ Has Been Puzzling Fans For Almost 20 Years
@MSaturn I'm still creating written FAQs and translation guides in 2024. My first FAQs were for WipEout 2097 and Motor Toon Grand Prix in 1996 https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/community/msephton/contributions/faqs
Re: WipEOut Is Getting An (Unofficial) Playdate Port
As of this morning, the game is playable using dpad and buttons.
Experiments being tried include using the crank to adjust heading.
Progress has been good so far, and there are some optimisations under way thanks to information provided by Gustavo Pezzi (of Pikuma.com computer graphics tutorials/courses)
Re: Dean Evan's Spectacular Waterworld SNES OST Is Being Released On Vinyl
Not cool to publish somebody else's work without permission.
Re: Delta Emulator Brings NES, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, GBA, DS, & N64 Emulation To The iPhone App Store
I'm using it to play my favourite one button DS game, MaBoShi, and the whole screen is a button so the lack of physical controls isn't an issue. I made a custom skin with custom layout.
https://blog.gingerbeardman.com/2024/04/18/per-game-skins-in-the-delta-classic-video-game-emulator-for-ios/
Re: Meet Short Stack, The World's Smallest Nintendo Wii
Really Great.
Re: Missing 'History Of Nintendo' Books Finally Being Published In English
Wow I'm sitting on a fortune with my copies of the first two books.
Re: FPGA Developer Wizzo Leaves MARS Team "On Good Terms"
No console needs to have its name printed on it twice. That tells me all I need to know about this project.
Re: This New Atari ST Racer Is Looking Seriously Smooth
This is looking slick so far, even though most of the graphics are placeholder.
ps: Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge was already released for the Atari ST back in the day (I bought it with my pocket money) what this guy and his team did was optimise it for the emhanced Atari STE hardware (mostly smoother scrolling, improved sound) https://github.com/jonathanopalise/lotus-ste
Re: Star Fox Level Viewer Pulled From Source Code
It's only the level/map data that is extracted from the source code, not the viewer. The viewer app (actually, apps) are totally new and custom.
https://github.com/JDrocks450/StarfoxView
Re: Louloudi Asteri Is A New Sidescroller Shoot 'Em Up With A 3D Twist
Would be a perfect fit for Playdate. Crank to rotate.
Re: The Japanese Game Preservation Society Is Selling Off Rare Items To Fund Its Vital Work
@Sketcz i didn't mean buying the items they're selling off, as you say there are ways to do that.
What I meant it getting access to their collection and archive for research purposes. I've contacted Joseph in the past but due to Japanese laws he couldn't give me remote access to anything.
Re: The Japanese Game Preservation Society Is Selling Off Rare Items To Fund Its Vital Work
Interesting.
Also their archive seems to only be accessible in person, typical for Japan. They have a ton of stuff, but for anybody outside Japan it could as well be in another castle.
Re: Without Ghouls ‘n Ghosts We Wouldn't Have Sonic, Says Yuji Naka
Without Flicky (Sega, 1984) there'd certainly be no Sonic.
Re: Review: Mars After Midnight (Playdate) - A Wonderfully Weird Work Sim From Lucas Pope
@XiaoShao regarding the economics, a game with a list price of $6 means the developer will see ~$3.75 after all deductions (store, payment processor, currency exchange). And they'll need to pay tax on those earnings.
On iPhone you might be able to make a living from a $0.99 game, especially if you also monetise the player. But with Playdate there aren't enough devices to go for quantity, and thankfully the platform is free from microtransactions and ads. Pure gaming in the old school sense.
Re: Review: Mars After Midnight (Playdate) - A Wonderfully Weird Work Sim From Lucas Pope
@romanista I also bought the Tetris type game, I read it's the version that adheres most closely to the guidelines. That's enough for me tbh.
Re: Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story Is An Expertly-Crafted Look Into A Video Game Legend
It's a shame about the omissions and changes. But understandable.
Llamatron is great. I play the Atari ST version regularly, overclocked to make it faster and feel more modern.
Re: Review: Mars After Midnight (Playdate) - A Wonderfully Weird Work Sim From Lucas Pope
@combywomby I'd like to make a game of this scope and varied structure, but it's just not possible to do it independently (without funding) at the moment.
The fairly low total number of Playdates (even lower if you only count those buying from Catalog) and average cost per game dictate the scope of most games. Even funded games like OOM and Pullfrog are highly polished but still bitesize experiences.
For example, my games: the highly rated Sparrow Solitaire took about a person year of dev time between two people, and we're yet to recoup our costs. The fairly quick (~300 hours) development time of YOYOZO and the accolades it has won have ensured that i should break even some 4 months after release. It would be much longer without the awards.
Lucas Pope is in a unique position in that his previous games enable him to take a chance on a game like this, and he spent multiple years on its development.
Re: Meet The Company Bringing Classic Games To Switch, PS5 And Xbox "By Mistake"
I can't find these guys or their company in any credits on Moby Games. Not their old games, like the Chicken Little one, or Hearthstone, or any of the recent conversions. Which is very weird.
Edit: their names are misspelled in the article. Should be Robin Lavallée and, to a lesser extent, Jake Stine. Those I can find in credits.
Re: Upcoming Jeff Minter Collection Will Resurrect A Cancelled '90s Console
Dylan Cuthbert might have an unfinished game for this
Re: World's First Museum Of Video Game Art Is Being Built In Japan
The museum is the little white building that sort of looks like an ice cream.
Re: Qix Successor 'Volfied' Heading To Arcade Archives This March
This is a great game, it's a take on QIX by MTJ (the creator of Bubble Bobble). The original arcade version was portrait (and it's portrait on the Taito Super Pocket, but quite blurry given that it has to fit into 240 pixels of height) so I'm looking forward to playing it on Switch in tate mode.
Re: Lost Operation Wolf Sequel 'Operation Tiger: Second Mission' Has Been Preserved
In fact he says Second Mission enhancement isn't very good, because it removes content from the original Operation Tiger (which is the version he enthuses about)
Re: Review: Pullfrog Playdate Deluxe (Playdate) - Tetris Meets Mr. Driller In This Essential Puzzle Platformer
it might not be the trad "puzzle platformer", but i think it's hard to argue against it as it contains both puzzle and platforming.
great game, too.
Re: N64 Comes To Evercade - Is Dreamcast Next? "Never Say Never"
@GravyThief see my earlier reply. It's unfortunate wording from them, but what I believe is happening is they're modifying the original code, compiling it with modern tools to get more benefits, and building a new ROM. So, yes, would be emulation.
@Gravyc yikes. @damo any chance you can ask about this?
Re: N64 Comes To Evercade - Is Dreamcast Next? "Never Say Never"
@-wc- right, but Glover was also released for PS1 and Windows so I'm assuming there was some non-analog (d-pad and perhaps even keyboard?) support somewhere.
Re: N64 Comes To Evercade - Is Dreamcast Next? "Never Say Never"
Reading between the lines of the somewhat fuzzy answers, it seems they're compiling the original source code with modern tools and getting the benefits of 25 years of compiler technology improvements.
There are also likely some low hanging fruit tricks and optimisations that have been discovered since 1998 that can improve the game performance even further. So it's likely to be better/different in some regards, and worse/different in others. The lack of analog stick is surely the greatest and I'm not familiar enough with the game to know how much the gameplay was based on analog movement.
Finally, who is Maximilian Wedell? Name drop but no explanation of who he is.
Re: Review: Under The Castle (Playdate) - An Essential Roguelike Adventure
@Sketcz they are. Indeed it has been mentioned that it's is a love letter to Cave Noire! https://dani-diez.itch.io/under-the-castle