Sam's Journey · For Your NES And Famicom!

[tokumaru]

On the other hand, lots of really awesome games have really crappy box art, so if that's the final art, it will be in excellent company on the shelf!

That's true. It's not like the box or a screen you see for a couple of seconds before playing will affect an otherwise awesome game in any significant way. But still, consistency is something I'm obsessed with, so I figured I'd point it out. Sam doesn't have eyelashes, irises, nostrils, ear lobes, ear canals... so why the hell does he have tendons, finger joints and fingernails? It's like the artist tried too hard because he wasn't comfortable drawing hands, when IMO even Powerpuff Girls-like stumps would've fit the style better.

Just to be clear, I do not mean to bring any negativity to the topic, this is intended as a bit of constructive criticism. I'm constantly blown away by the quality of the game itself whenever a new video is shared!

[Knights of Bytes]

Hi there, NesDev community.

What if two different 8-bit systems played the same song? Just for the fun of it, we took the Forest tune of Sam's Journey and put the C64's SID output on the left channel and the NES' APU output on the right. The unique characteristics of both chips complement each other really well.
Enjoy our little symphony! Just click to play:



Sam's Journey (C64/NES) · "Two Chips - One Song!" · C64's SID and NES' APU playing a tune together

Stay tuned for more updates!

Chester
Knights of Bytes

[Knights of Bytes]

Hi there, NesDev community.

It's been a while since our last update on Sam, but that doesn't mean we've been idle! The game took a huge step towards its release and we are very happy to present you another video.

This time, some fiery creatures await Disco Sam in the sky, but thanks to his signature twist, he can delay his fall gently and stomp them precisely!

Please click the preview picture below to watch the video on YouTube:



Sam's Journey (NES) · Sneak Peek #5 · "A Twist In The Sky"

We intend to post more frequently in the future. And in addition to screenshots and videos, we really hope to get a bit more physical soon!

Chester
Knights of Bytes

[GoogieToons]

Now that's gangsta, this one will be on my radar.

[Oziphantom]

This is now open for pre order
Standard Edition with add ons here https://www.polyplay.xyz/Sams-Journey-N ... rd-Edition
Ultimate Edition https://www.polyplay.xyz/Sams-Journey-N ... te-Edition
Famicom Edition https://www.polyplay.xyz/Sams-Journey-N ... om-Edition

[dink]

Wow congrats on the release!!
Will you, at some point, be offering a digital version?

[Knights of Bytes]

Hello NesDev community,

we were just about to post the news, but it looks like Oziphantom was faster!

Yes, it's true:

We are very happy to announce that Sam's Journey on the NES is now open for pre-order!

Choose between the cool Standard Edition or the even cooler, but limited Ultimate Edition! There's also a Famicom Edition, so you can play Sam's Journey on your Famicom without an adapter!

1.jpg

Sam's Journey Standard Edition Box

2.jpg

Sam's Journey Standard Edition Content

The game will be distributed by retro publisher poly.play who are based in the EU, but ship internationally.
You can visit their online shop and browse the editions. The soundtrack of the game is available as well, on CD, MC, and LP!

Why a pre-order?

We decided against a Kickstarter because the game has already been developed. But we need a rough idea about the amount of units to be produced. The first batch, however, is already in the making, so the early bird catches the worm!

Wow congrats on the release!!
Will you, at some point, be offering a digital version?

Thank you vey much! Yes, we're going to offer a digital download as well. We intend to make it available when the first physical editions are ready to ship.

If you have any further questions about Sam's Journey on the NES, please don't hesitate to ask.

Chester
Knights of Bytes

[Svambo]

They offer a digital download as well now...
... and there is a release trailer on youtube

(how do i embed youtube videos here?)

[grobi]

Hello,

i am quite new to this forum and i have a technical question regarding Sam's journey.

I´ve bought both the physical NES pal copy and the digital downloads (PAL/NTSC).
It is a great game, i really enjoy it on my NES.

Recently I tried to use the NTSC rom on my famicom using a HVC-TNROM cartridge as a donor
because i thought that this should work.

The game starts but there a lot of glitches.

It works fine using a flashcard.

Is there any thing special about the rom or the PCB design the game uses that causes the glitches?

I am just curious if it would be possible to get it to work.



regards

grobi

[Dwedit]

I don't know about this specific game, but if there are glitches on hardware and not emulators, it could be because a game isn't fully initializing every MMC3 register.

[Oziphantom]

their carts and rom work fine, so its going to be something between their board and this board. maybe its a MMC3 version issue? A vs B vs C ?

[grobi]

i tried 2 different HVC-TNROM boards, Shuffle Fight with a MMC3C and Mahjong Club: Nagatachou with a MMC3B.
Both version show the same issue, e.g the effect with the blue half circle is missing when the Knight of Bytes logo is displayed.

Probably it has something to do with CHR RAM.

[Dwedit]

If the cartridge has CHR-RAM, it's really easy to make a mistake and assume that the 8K of CHR-RAM will already be mapped into the right place, then forget to do the bank switching writes necessary to make that so. If you have a ROM, you can use a debugger to write down all the CHR bank switch writes that the game does before the title screen appears.

[Knights of Bytes]

Hey grobi,

thank you for supporting us by purchasing our game. We're glad you like it!

Sam's Journey uses a TNROM board with 512 KiB of PRG-ROM, 8 KiB of CHR-RAM and 8 KiB of battery-backed WRAM.

If your donor cartridge matches the above configuration and its MMC3 implementation works according to spec, the NTSC version of Sam's Journey should indeed work from it on your Famicom.

The game does initialize the MMC3 CHR-RAM banks at startup. May I ask what kind of glitches you encounter?

Kind regards

Chester Kollschen
Knights of Bytes

[grobi]

Hello,

Thank you for answer , i have also bought the C64 Version when it was released.

Regarding the glitches:

When the game starts, the Screen with PolyPlay is displayed .
But on the following screen, when the the Knights of Bytes logo is displayed, the blue part with the knight is missing.
The swipe effect is not displayed.

Also when the game starts and the story is shown, the pictures are messed up and some white lines appear above the text.
When the real game starts, the picture is flickering a lot.

I have tried two different donor cards, but they show the same result.
At least there are no obvious differences.


I used Mahjong Club: Nagatachou and Shuffle Fight, because i think the cartridges should fit.

The PAL cartridge is working with an adaptor in the famicom.

Regards

Markus