Finds (Famicom/FDS)

[P]

Very cool finds!

The Everdrive N8 Pro is very interesting but at the moment the old Everdrive does almost everything I need it to so that will have to wait.

I've been looking for the DE-9 version of the XE-1 Pro for my MSX (and my PC-Engine if I buy or build the XHE-3 adapter) for a very long time, but it's just a bit too popular and expensive. I've decided to build my own universal arcade stick instead.
Getting this CIB is really cool though. Supposedly it has custom Seimitsu stick which is also used in the AES joystick.

[Ghegs]

It's been a costly good few months for NES/FC homebrews.

So glad I got my hands on F-Theta. And I'm surprised how addictive Honō no Rangerman is, it's just a really charming game, and I hadn't realized it has great potential for scoreplay. Really liking l'Abbaye des Morts as well, but that's originally a Locomalito title so it has a great pedigree.

[P]

Cool you got your hands on F-Theta! It doesn't seem to be available for download.
I tried the Honoo no Rangerman demo and it was great. Good use of the APU too, it sounds like a Rockman game.

[portnoyd]

Cool you got your hands on F-Theta! It doesn't seem to be available for download.

Is there a good place to get homebrew NES/FC ROMs as they come out? I know homebrew authors can be tightwads about releasing the ROM if they are trying to cash in with physical copies, so it falls on others to dump the carts they put out.

[P]

Enthusiasts generally avoid spreading the full version ROM for games that are still in business, but yeah they usually get dumped at some point. I think it's best to give it a chance to sell and wait with preserving it until many years later, or until the author decides to release the ROM to the public. Otherwise the homebrew business wouldn't work very well, considering building a cartridge is quite expensive even for a very simple game.

Some have limited releases though and are hard to buy. Others are put on badly engineered cartridge boards which can potentially damage both the Famicom and the cartridge itself.

[portnoyd]

That's my problem with the whole thing - business. Whatever happened to just making a game for the love of the hobby? Thanks to Kickstarter and the goobers of NA/VGS, everyone wants their paycheck now. They are more concerned with a profit than people playing their game. I really don't care about their business and if they are going into this on the pretext of making cash, they are doing it for the wrong reason.

[Ghegs]

You sound like someone who has never created anything worthwhile from scratch in their entire life, but wants entertainment handed to them for free, and preferably right now.

[portnoyd]

You sound like someone who has never created anything worthwhile from scratch in their entire life, but wants entertainment handed to them for free, and preferably right now.

I sound like someone who remembers when this was a hobby. You know, something people did for fun? And enjoyment? As opposed to needing a check every time they did anything?

How much did you pay for those 5 homebrews? You sound like someone who is getting defensive because you spent a lot on them.

And to answer your question, I wrote the SNES rarity list for Digital Press with D_N_G (check the printed guide, my name is on the foreword of the section). That list became the generally accepted SNES watermark and has influenced perceptions and values to this day. I did it completely free of charge. Because I, you know, love the hobby.

[Ghegs]

Good for you. If you want to do something for free, then that's your prerogative. If somebody else, who has put hundreds of hours into creating something, wants to charge something for it, then that's their prerogative. But here you are, asking for the roms, thinking these should be free despite the devs' own wishes on the subject:

Is there a good place to get homebrew NES/FC ROMs as they come out?

You are not entitled to play games for free, if the games haven't been released for free. That is not your prerogative.

I believe in paying people for their creative work. If the devs of these homebrews decide to put the games up on a digital storefront, or even give them out for free, I'm perfectly fine with it and even encourage it. I don't buy games as an investment. I buy them because I like the games, I like my games physical, and I like to show my support for the devs if possible. Maybe it'll help them to make more cool stuff.

The other day I managed to grab a physical copy of From Below, fully knowing that I could've just downloaded the game, for free and completely legally, since the dev has made it available. And I'll be doing the same thing for his next game.

I do hope F-Theta's and GGGG's devs decide to release the games digitally as well, because otherwise not many people will get to experience them (they aren't exactly making it easy for people outside Japan to get their games, either). But if they don't...well, then they don't. That's life. We don't always get what we want. Eventually someone will dump the roms and the games will be preserved. But it should certainly not be done while the devs are still planning to make more physical copies. That's just utterly rude and disrespectful to them, the games they've worked hard to create, and to the hobby in general.

[portnoyd]

That's just utterly rude and disrespectful to them, the games they've worked hard to create, and to the hobby in general.

Pot kettle black right there.

Maybe you should read this. This is literally what happened to the classic and game collecting community.

https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths

Specifically relevant to the discussion at hand, from the article:

The sociopaths also work out how to monetize mops--which the fanatics were never good at.

Pushing homebrews on carts is literally monetizing the hobby and monetizing fans who would otherwise spend their money elsewhere on the hobby. The sociopaths on NintendoAge figured this out and figured it out well (that Khan dingus and bunnyboy are patient(s) zero). Add a splash of Kickstarter and now every last person coding a homebrew wants their cut. Do you think Memblers wanted royalties for Hot Seat Harry? Fuck no. He did it for the love of the hobby. The ironic part is, his Garage Cart, which is pretty much the first homebrew put on cart, and all the ROMs were freely available, is now worth thousands... because of the same NA sociopaths who created this monetization.

You also didn't answer how much you paid for those 5 homebrews.

Good for you. If you want to do something for free, then that's your prerogative. If somebody else, who has put hundreds of hours into creating something, wants to charge something for it, then that's their prerogative.

Excellent pivot, when I came out and said I had contributed to the community for free, which you weren't expecting, this is your backpedaling. If it's any consolation, I ate losses on having Airball, Star Trek 5 and AGCI Wally Bear dumped. Didn't care. Games are out there. They can be played by anyone who wants to with no barriers to the experience. That's what matters.

[Ghegs]

You seem to bring in things that are largely unrelated to my point (you helped dumped old games? Thank you for your service, not relevant here).

Here's what my point boils down to: If a creator creates a thing, whether it's a game, a story, music, poem, a painting, absolutely whatever - it is up to them alone to decide whether they want to charge money for it, and how much if so. It's then up to the people to decide whether the creation is worthy of the asking price (assuming it has a price), and buy it if they agree with the price, or not buy if they don't. "Everything should be available for free for the sake of the hobby" is a blanket statement I simply don't agree with.

I am under no obligation to tell you how much money I spent on those games. It's irrelevant anyway, since like I said, I'm perfectly fine with it if the devs release their games for free (which you ignored completely), they can do whatever they want with the products they create. Again, that's been my point this whole time. THEY decide how much money to charge for the things they create, if at all.

You also didn't comment on you asking for the roms of recently-released homebrew games, when the dev hasn't released them for free distribution, at least as of this moment. Do you honestly think that's fair to the creator? If you simply think they should've released the game for free to begin with, you're certainly allowed to have that opinion. But they didn't, and you don't get to make the decision for them.

[P]

There are many people making homebrew for free and for the love of the hobby, but games that are made to be sold for a profit are naturally developed into completion much more often, and tends to be larger and more polished than the freeware.
It kind of sounds like you are making light of other people's time when you criticize creators selling their work.

I personally think it's mostly good that the hobby has become large enough that selling your homebrew has become possible.

[TheUnlicensedGameNerd]

This  Mercari Japan Listing Is NOT  Being Sold By Me & Is NOT Being Bought By Me! However I Saw It Comes With A Unique Looking Cartridge That Should Get Dumped (If It Hasn't Been Dumped Already)

https://jp.mercari.com/item/m81057157241

[Jedi Master Baiter]

How is Jim Power, Ghegs? I was out of the loop on this one, when one day I was looking through Piko's store and found that game listed for NES and thought this game came out for the NES?

Now I wanna get it!

[Ghegs]

How is Jim Power, Ghegs? I was out of the loop on this one, when one day I was looking through Piko's store and found that game listed for NES and thought this game came out for the NES?

Now I wanna get it!

Out of those five, it's the weakest of the bunch, I think. It's not bad, but I'd be hard-pressed to call it good, either.

It certainly looks good and the main character has some awesome animation, but the gameplay isn't anything special. I've never actually played any of the original versions so I can't compare it to them. It's a very basic action platformer (which turns into a shmup in some stages) and it's difficult, but not entirely in a fun way. Memorization is also heavily rewarded. I think on my first try it took me ~40 minutes to reach the first shmup area, which should take less than 10 if you never have to continue. You can certainly tell it's originally a European-made game from the 90's.

Even small enemies take a lot of hits, and the best way to deal with them is with the charged shot and hitting them as soon as they come on the screen. The thing is, you can't walk while charging the shot, like in Mega Man. But you can jump and move while charging. So most of the time the best tactic is to bunnyhop your way forward while having a charged shot ready to go. And that's kind of silly.

On a different note, I got my From Below: