The next one from 8-bit Music Power crowd, looks to be more of game than KiraKira.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH08_RlsKsk
The graphics and music are nice as usual, but I'm worried the Space Invaders-type of limiting player movement to one axis will be too limiting for truly interesting gameplay to surface.
Looks amusing. Has the quality of their cartridges gotten any better since 8-Bit Music Power?
Got to wondering what's going on with this, and hey, they released a new video just a few weeks ago. Looks pretty good, lots of stuff on screen at once at times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0ZttoqRxV0
It kinda looks like the opposite of Kira Kira Star Night. Instead of collecting all the things, you have to dodge/destroy all the things.
Yeah they dodge the 8-sprites-per-scanline limitation very good.
And the title screen is hilarious. ;D
Hopefully they don't make faulty cartridges that destroys your Famicom this time.
Has anyone heard any updates on this project?
Also, I visited Riki's website, and gathered up some pictures of how his products are being marketed in Japan:
(https://obrazki.elektroda.pl/2845621300_1535113213_thumb.jpg) (https://obrazki.elektroda.pl/2845621300_1535113213.png)
Although on the few development pictures it appears his games were developed on original hardware, the games are being primarily marketed alongside the Columbus Circle clones in shops. Even a booklet / magazine shows an anime girl playing one of Riki's games on a Famiclone, a newspaper article did the same (game played on a clone).
What does this suggest? It suggests to me what I had mentioned in earlier posts, before being silenced by a vocal group with differing opinion: the games are being marketed for use with the clone machines that Columbus Circle produces. From a business stance, this makes sense, as casual people will get interested and purchase their products, both game and clone. A lot of collectors will also breakdown and purchase the games, despite said warnings, let's be honest about it. The anecdotal evidence I've seen personally also helps to substantiate such claims.
It's just marketing and part of their business plan. It might not be popular among hardware purists, but it doesn't make it wrong, faulty, or terrible.
Post Merge: August 24, 2018, 05:33:07 am
Furthermore, I want to add one more comment, as I personally feel the situation has gotten out-of-hand somewhat:
I am not saying whether I personally agree or disagree with these Columbus Circle carts and the 3.3 versus 5 volt scenario; what I am saying though, is that instead of letting emotions control one's feelings, it is better to try to analyse the situation from a logical perspective, and see both viewpoints, as I have done. As both a collector and a gamer, someone that has all of the *original* Famicom licensed software, as well as a vast majority of the unlicensed software, I can see where both sides are coming from, and that is the best way for controlling emotions.
Apparently Astro Ninja Man was finally released in May, it sold out in 4 minutes, no international orders were possible, and it cost USD ~120. There was discussion over at videogamesage.com (https://www.videogamesage.com/topic/3430-astro-ninja-man/)
The game's homepage has also been updated with images of the packaging and the PCB, so maybe the more technically-minded can confirm whether they're using killing boards or not. http://riki2riki.com/html/astro.html (http://riki2riki.com/html/astro.html)
There's new gameplay footage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBiCXcfZuoQ) and even some impressions from somebody who managed to get a copy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXBoB77si44).
A second run was made available at https://www.kadenken.com/view/item/000000001072?category_page_id=ct175 (https://www.kadenken.com/view/item/000000001072?category_page_id=ct175), but still no international shipping available and payment by bank transfer only. They really didn't make it easy for any gaijins to get their hands on it.
Running the page through Google Translate it says "It is a newly designed board to eliminate a little dissatisfaction with the cassette board surface of the three RIKI development products that were released nationwide in the past" but there's still the familiar disclaimer "We do not guarantee the operation of all FC genuine models and FC compatible models" as well.
I managed to place a pre-order for one the second time around - it was via a dodgy local proxy service, but the western-friendly proxies all failed me, and a good buddy of mine (who got one from the first batch) used the proxy that I used, so I think I'll get one come October.
It's incredibly frustrating though how hard they are making it for us foreigners to obtain these games though.
I can't tell anything from those pictures of the board, and I have no idea what those two square chips are. He also don't say what the dissatisfaction with the previous boards were, but we can hope that he's talking about the level translation hardware defect and that it's now fixed.
I lol'd that they used "AX5202P" chip :crazy:
Spoiler
I only hope that they didn't butcher a bunch of good old pirates and used some kind of "new" stock equivalent instead
So an MMC3 clone eh. I'd guess it's NIB.