ivanbeavkov
Deep Blooper
Posts: 39
Fave PCE Shooter: Lords of Thunder
Fave PCE Platformer: Bonk's Revenge
Fave PCE RPG: Ys Book I & II
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Post by ivanbeavkov on Feb 6, 2020 15:08:07 GMT
So I just found that Piko Interactive has a Kickstarter for Jim Power. and I thought it might be interesting to some here.
Apparently that have acquired the full right to Jim Power as of late last year. Originally there were going to create a licensed NES version of the game, and they were working with the original creator. Unfortunately the creator passed in 2016 which put everything on hold till now. (You can read the full story on the Kickstarter.)
The thing that caught my interest was now that they have the full rights they are reprinting the released versions of the game, including the PC Engine version. So you can pick one or all of the various versions of the game:
NES - New version they created SNES - They made some changes compared to the original release Genesis - A finished version base on the source code they got from the original creator Amega CD32 - This is a port of the Amega version but this version is given the PC Engine CD's soundtrack PC Engine CD - This look like just a straight up reprint.
I get the impression that all of the development is done and they are just Kickstarting for manufacturing.
I backed for the PC Engine version because it is cheaper then eBay and technically it is an official reprint not a repro.
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Post by SignOfZeta on Feb 6, 2020 16:43:00 GMT
At most it is half official, assuming NEC hasn’t restarted their PC Engine licensing program. The last official PCE game is still Dead of the Brain 1&2, right?
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Post by spenoza on Feb 6, 2020 19:49:53 GMT
Why would a PC Engine re-release be required to be licensed?
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Post by SignOfZeta on Feb 6, 2020 21:06:49 GMT
Nothing is required, ethically, legally. It’s an Old Game nobody cares about anymore.
But there are official PC Engine games and unofficial ones. The creator of Out of This World can port the game to Dreamcast himself and you may have an official Out of This World but you don’t have an official Dreamcast game because Sega didn’t have any hand it it and never collected a fee.
The official channels don’t exist anymore and never will again so there will almost certainly never again be official PCE games that legally use all the logos and branding. Even if it was already released, even if the code is identical, this is no more official than a PCETWERKS game or Insanity. There’s nobody to approve the game, to take the check for the license fee they aren’t paying. I’m not saying it matters one bit, I’m just saying it’s over. There’s Dead of the Brain 1&2 and then nothing official ever again.
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Post by spenoza on Feb 6, 2020 21:48:33 GMT
IMO, that really seems kind of irrelevant.
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ivanbeavkov
Deep Blooper
Posts: 39
Fave PCE Shooter: Lords of Thunder
Fave PCE Platformer: Bonk's Revenge
Fave PCE RPG: Ys Book I & II
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Post by ivanbeavkov on Feb 6, 2020 22:06:37 GMT
Well I meant official in reference to the Jim Power IP not the console licensing or trademarks. If you look at Piko's website the previous released games avoid all console trademarks but they work with the original IP owners of the games themselves. That is all I meant as opposed to straight up pirated reproductions.
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Post by SignOfZeta on Feb 7, 2020 22:33:28 GMT
IMO, that really seems kind of irrelevant. I agree, but it’s these kinds of distinctions that noobs don’t understand which leads them to spending real money on fake stuff having no idea what the difference is. “What do you mean by ‘fake’?” If an official PCE game were ever released again it would be a huge deal. These kind of initiatives are great, of course. I have to confess something. Until this post I didn’t realize that Jim Power was a game. I thought everyone was just using some weird 80s colloquialism for Jinmu Denshou. When I saw it was side view and on a CD I had to learn about it. Well, kinda learn about it. As soon as I saw it being compared to Turican’t I knew it wasn’t for me.
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Post by paranoiadragon on Feb 8, 2020 2:25:37 GMT
Kind of a surprise, but I don't think I'll bother with backing it. maybe if they actually went in and tweak the game since they have the ability to do that with you original assets. They did that with other versions and even built an NES version from scratch not to mention might build a Neo Geo version from scratch!
**MODERATOR NOTE** Combined these 2 threads.
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Post by SignOfZeta on Feb 8, 2020 3:14:18 GMT
I already dumped on this in another thread!
A Neo one would be interesting. It takes a lot of smarts and hard work to make a Neo game that doesn’t look pretty much exactly like a Genesis game but since Jim Power is very parallax focused in theory the Neo could work wonders for the it.
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Post by ndiddy on Feb 8, 2020 6:13:32 GMT
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Post by paranoiadragon on Feb 8, 2020 7:31:44 GMT
Yeah the game's already in English, I've beaten it in the past with cheats, game is damn hard. Since they have the assets going I'd appreciate it if it would actually tweak the game and make it fun and beatable compared to the original. But yeah it's just a straight re-release with maybe a little bit different artwork?
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Post by tanooki on Feb 13, 2020 3:21:10 GMT
I know Piko pretty well, talked online with him fairly regularly over the years even before it went legit. I could bring up your concern and see if that's in the cards. Knowing me I'll probably forget to check back on this post.
I asked him, he says that the game isn't that hard if you take your time, but if you run and gun it it's a whole lot harder. Is that your issue or are there some really nasty bits that stand out in contrast to the rest. He said they could recompile the game and change things as it's possible they have all the source code material.
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Post by paranoiadragon on Feb 13, 2020 5:54:35 GMT
I'm watching a video of it right now:
I'd say the platforms that move back and forth are way too fast. Pretty much any kind of moving platform seems just a bit on the fast side of things.
Something seems off about his jumping that I can't quite put my finger on, maybe his jump is too floaty? Whenever I jump, especially onto a platform, I feel very unsure of myself.
The weapon definitely needs to be more powerful in the shmup stages as it feels like it does barely anything at all, it is almost useless.
Those seem like the main things. Something that would be awesome is if they could somehow find ways to upgrade the parallax in the platformer stages. There's obviously a lack of parallax compared to the Genesis and Super NES versions thanks to their only being 1 BG layer. But if there's some way they can find little ways to add more parallax &/or animation in the bg in those levels, that would be great! It's what I call pocket o' parallax. The only example I can think of right now would be level six of rondo of blood where there's a little bit of parallax in those doorways, maybe something like that? If that's even possible?
By the way, I have got to wonder. I have Impossamole for the Jaguar. I believe they handled that. Do they have the rights to the TG version? Now there's a game that would be great to tweak both in gameplay and graphics! I'd even consider remaking the music for a CD version if they were interested in doing that! That game is really rough around the edges, but it really grew on me and has a great soundtrack and some pretty nice graphics in my opinion.
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Post by SignOfZeta on Feb 13, 2020 8:24:23 GMT
Impossamole...for Jaguar. Words fail me. I fear we may have hit peak Retro.
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Post by tanooki on Feb 13, 2020 16:33:33 GMT
I'll pass your critiques on. Maybe I'll have to burn a copy and throw it into my PCE Duo and see what it does for me.
Edit: I got to talking to Eli he was on. He feels the same as you about the jump mechanics he words 'hate it' feeling floaty and said he intended to try and get that addressed.
Parallax may be hard to pull off, but I think he was thinking full screen, so I mentioned the DracX window trick line up there as a choice which became a maybe.
All of it in the end is a maybe, will have to talk with a coder or two (original or other), maybe someone who developed it or developed in the era that has a good understanding to see if various changes can be done. Jumping is one thing, but the other is a bit more complex.
Mind you this is all in the air, but it seems the jump problem was a personal interest. Maybe you'll get some of your wishes, but as I said I'd pass it along.
He does own Impossimole, but doesn't have the source code for it, so making any new version or fixes I think is just not going to be possible.
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