No hype for Sydney Hunter?

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tepples
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Re: No hype for Sydney Hunter?

Post by tepples »

Only if there's no level shifting. A 3 volt memory behind a level shifter will not damage a 5 volt console. I'm guessing those RAs are supposed to do at least some sort of limiting, even if they are just resistor arrays and not proper level shifters.

@gauauu
Thank you for the counterexample. But can any Igavania be adapted to the 1-button paradigm, or must the entire franchise be designed from the start to support 1-button play?
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TmEE
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Re: No hype for Sydney Hunter?

Post by TmEE »

These resistor array based current limits which make things easier for everyone involved, not ideal but will not be outright deadly as direct connection is.
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gauauu
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Re: No hype for Sydney Hunter?

Post by gauauu »

tepples wrote: @gauauu
Thank you for the counterexample. But can any Igavania be adapted to the 1-button paradigm, or must the entire franchise be designed from the start to support 1-button play?
Ah, if this is about adapting a pre-existing game, then you're correct. I can't imagine most existing games of this genre would adapt well.

But I'd also say that the vast majority of platforming games in general would fail to be a good candidate for a converstion to 1-button play. Sure, there's a few that are based mostly on running and jumping (Sonic, Mario, etc), but combat-based platformers (Contra, Mega Man, Ninja Gaiden) would be a big disappointment. Puzzle platformers (Lost Vikings, Eskimo Bob) would also fail.
d4s
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Re: No hype for Sydney Hunter?

Post by d4s »

dougeff wrote:This review pisses me off a little bit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/snes/comments/ ... r_and_the/

"Graphics-The graphics themselves are nothing to write home about. Aside from a few extra colors and an animation of the "boss" skeleton dying, it looks like stuff that could be done on the NES."

"Level Design...a lot of recycled screens...lazy"

I think the graphics look fine, probably better than I can do. There are lighting effects and smooth moving lava, far better than the NES can do.
koitsu wrote:This should give you some idea of what the current mindset is of people gaming today. Even folks "our" age (40s, or late 30s) who were around for the NES and SNES launches, and grew up with them, have trouble not comparing the quality of retro games (esp. homebrew) to "other stuff" out on the market.
I've played the game and from a players perspective, I'd have to say this is a harsh, yet honest review.

Around this place, we're acutely aware of the effort and knowledge required to get even the most basic of demos off the ground on these old systems, but I feel that because of that, we often get hung up on technical details and forget the most important thing:
That games are meant to played and that games should be a fun and interesting experience for the player.

The world has kept on spinning in the decades since our favorite systems have been released, with lots of game design lessons learned, lots of gameplay conventions cemented and lots of stellar commercial releases that upped the bar for what is considered a good game, plus players have a vastly increased amount of games available to them and a diminished timespan available for each individual game.

So yes, if you publically release a game in 2018, it will be compared to everything that came before it, be it the best on that system, current-gen games or retro-styled games on modern platforms.
And if you ignore what's happened since, release a buggy game, get sloppy with the level design or don't polish the gameplay, you will be called out for it.

Instead of lamenting this fact, I tried to embrace it with the latest released SNES game I've worked on and distinguish it by focussing on the following:
-polished gameplay first, no compromises
-zero-bug policy
-no filler, cherish the players time (no repetitious, tedious or overly difficult level design to pad out playing time)
-improved replayability (collectable secrets, unlockable simultaneous multiplayer mode)

It has its fair share of blemishes (SNES-CD-version not working on real hardware, uses intellectual property of others, very short total playtime), but I'm still content with the result.

Regarding Sydney Hunter, I applaud the effort:
Creating a complete game, manufacturing cartridges and packaging are a monumental accomplishment in itself, and the sprite animations do look great.
Still, the lack of polish feels a bit like a missed opportunity to me.

tl;dr: Don't let seemingly unfair/uninformed critique put you off. Instead, consider which valid points it makes, know where your audience is coming from, know what you're up against and polish, polish, polish. Just my 2 cents.
White Flame
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Re: No hype for Sydney Hunter?

Post by White Flame »

tepples wrote:Optional analog sticks I'm willing to forgive, as 8-bit arcade games were already using pot paddles (Pong), spinners (Arkanoid), trackballs (Missile Command), and the so-called "49-way joystick" (Sinistar) around that time.
Wait, "so-called"? It's genuinely a 49-way digital input device. Normal digital joysticks are a 9-way input (center and ±1 in each x/y direction makes a 3x3 grid), while the 49-way has 3 discrete intensities in each x/y direction, yielding a 7x7 grid of possible positions.
Last edited by White Flame on Tue Apr 24, 2018 1:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
Oziphantom
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Re: No hype for Sydney Hunter?

Post by Oziphantom »

The C64 Download link has gone live http://collectorvision.com/shop/commodo ... modore-64/ Maybe they need the Physical versions to sell out and ship before they will open a download for the SNES version?
Zonomi
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Re: No hype for Sydney Hunter?

Post by Zonomi »

d4s wrote: Instead of lamenting this fact, I tried to embrace it with the latest released SNES game I've worked on
BTW, I was very excited to see you at the head of Watermelon's project N. But from what I heard, the project was abandoned in 2015.
Do you intend on resuming your work on it one day, or make a «post mortem» ? I'm sure it would be interesting to read.
Oziphantom
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Re: No hype for Sydney Hunter?

Post by Oziphantom »

Preview of the NES version seems to a port of the SNES version?? http://www.indieretronews.com/2018/04/s ... .html#more
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tokumaru
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Re: No hype for Sydney Hunter?

Post by tokumaru »

They need to work on those screen transitions, because we can see the palette being updated and the screen being disabled/enabled outside of vblank, which causes the image to jump.
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Alp
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Re: No hype for Sydney Hunter?

Post by Alp »

Oziphantom wrote:Preview of the NES version seems to a port of the SNES version?? http://www.indieretronews.com/2018/04/s ... .html#more
It's goes deeper than that, all versions of Sydney Hunter: Caverns of Death, are ports of an old Flash game from 2011:
http://studiopinagames.com/sydney.html

But, you know, gotta support those KickStarter campaigns! :roll:
Oziphantom
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Re: No hype for Sydney Hunter?

Post by Oziphantom »

Well the C64 version is "The scared tribe" vs "The caverns of death" on the SNES. Porting the C64 version would seem to be faster (smarter?) path as its already in 6502.
Kickstarter? As far as I can tell the game is being dev'd and sold without one?
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rainwarrior
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Re: No hype for Sydney Hunter?

Post by rainwarrior »

It did have a Kickstarter campaign:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/43 ... rns-of-dea

(Though that was linked in the OP..)
Oziphantom
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Re: No hype for Sydney Hunter?

Post by Oziphantom »

Ahh the NES version is a stretch goal of the SNES version. I didn't look at it that closely. my bad.
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