Does Mega Man 9 run on a NES emulator?

[Zepper]

I've read the same type of thing, about the number of tiles and sprites in a screen. Well, you can bear the facts:

1. The old Rockmen for PlayStation (Rockman Complete Works) were emulated, but with graphics ported into PS format, plus the sound wasn't synthesis, but samples. The proof is the jump + shot sounds at same time, and multiple shots sounds overlapping. I already could copy the ROM portion from the CD and play it into my emu.

2. From the video, it looks like there's no sprite flickering or slowdowns, exactly like the PS version does. However, the sound seems synthesis, since there's no jump + shot sounds at same time.

3. I don't know how the Virtual Console works at all. Is emulation? By software? Hardware?

4. Let's say that Rockman 9 is Wii-native. It's the best chance.

[tepples]

1. The old Rockmen for PlayStation (Rockman Complete Works) were emulated, but with graphics ported into PS format, plus the sound wasn't synthesis, but samples. The proof is the jump + shot sounds at same time, and multiple shots sounds overlapping.

Unless some of the effects were synthesis, just with more channels than a NES can do. The PS1 sound chip has 24 channels.

3. I don't know how the Virtual Console works at all. Is emulation? By software? Hardware?

We've already got a topic going about Virtual Console.

[Mednafen]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YIis8GbgwM

Look at 1:13 and 1:17.

The previous platform appears to reset/disappear when a new platform begins moving, and the dragon isn't flexible(so it could be a BG boss).

[MottZilla]

Why would Capcom round up some of its developers and tell them to develop a NES game? That's just wishful thinking. The game is not an emulated NES game. And no it's not that hard to exactly replicate the physics. They should have the source code or game design documents on atleast one of the NES Rockman games. And even if you don't, fan projects like Zelda Classic managed to very accurately reproduce console games they didn't have any source from.

[bunnyboy]

I believe its likely all new, but given they have the source for something like MegaMan 3-6 in a usable form then it might be less work to add new level data and change enemies/weapons. All your drawing / scrolling / level decompression / game state / etc is already done, nothing Wii specific needs to be written if the NES emu from VS is available.

However using a newer (GBA?) MegaMan engine and just altering it with the older style graphics would probably be the same.

[Mednafen]

Why would Capcom round up some of its developers and tell them to develop a NES game? That's just wishful thinking. The game is not an emulated NES game.

Then, "Why would Capcom round up some of its developers and tell them to develop a game that looks and sounds and has the same restrictions and tricks as a NES game, but isn't a NES game, when most people wouldn't even notice or care about such subtle things."

I really don't follow your logic. You're essentially asking the question, "Why should party A have done action B?", criticizing the opinion of those who disagree with you, then stating that "party A didn't do action B". You can't even falsify that argument because it's not even an argument...you don't even provide any reasons or evidence for why party A did not do action B.


...err, sorry, I get irked when people follow up non-logic with an absolute statement. >_>

[strat]

From what Inafune says here, graphic design was a much bigger challenge than creating an old-style engine.

[Zepper]

- Well... the NES screen has 7.5 structures vertically speaking of MegaMan games, and the video misses the .5 struture part. I can't see left clipping or glitched tiles at right. From the IGN video, yes, there is a few sprite flickering, but nothing compared with Gradius 2 as example, by taking the Fire Dragon of MM9 and the group of rounded blue enemies that comes in G2.

- I would think this game isn't emulated, but a native port. Remember it's not printed anywhere that "this is a new N.E.S. game". What I have been read is that "this is pratically a new N.E.S. game", or "a 8-bit style".

[stalepie]

It really looks like an old NES Mega Man game. The design team will have to confirm how it was made, because of course they could have simply imitated the NES style very closely. But given that they are going back to the originals and at least one of the original designers is involved, it isn't a stretch to suppose that they actually designed this as a new Famicom game which ironically will be first released for emulation (on Wii, 360 and ps3), rather than as a cart. I think it's great, whatever the case. I really like to see top developers recognizing that some things work best in this primitive style. It's what made video games so distinctive in the first place.

[strat]

I'm pretty sure that's Wii software under the hood. Anyway, making a new gen game with 8-bit graphics is just too cool for words, especially when you've got classic Megaman design going.

[stalepie]

In that Games Radar interview, Keiji Inafune says:

"I particularly required meticulous and refined work skills from pixel graphic designers. The limited capabilities of the hardware of the time required pixel graphics to be simplest but refined at its maximum, and without this restriction, the design would not carry the same air. Yet, when we tried to realize this, the designs that came out of the artists were comprised of complicated shapes and colors. I had to ask them numerous times to redo the work to make the characters simpler and shed all the fancy elements as much as possible to make it resemble to the 8-bit games. The obsolete technique – to reproduce it was the most difficult, but there was no compromise allowed."

I think that answers it: it's a new game that's mimicking NES style, in particular the second MM game.

[blargg]

I had to ask them numerous times to redo the work to make the characters simpler and shed all the fancy elements as much as possible to make it resemble to the 8-bit games.

Perhaps this was his way of (summarizing) his communicating the limitations of the target system to the artists, as in, they can't convert the art to NES patterns unless it's simple? Does sound as if their target system was not NES-like, though. Has anyone here actually played it? That'd give it away very quickly if it weren't NES.

[tepples]

My best guess is that it's an abstraction layer over Wii's OpenGL-like system that presents a similar API to the one that MM2's graphics engine presented. As I understand it, that's how WarioWare for GameCube worked.

[Jagasian]

Many people find the old school graphic style a strange goal for a modern game, but it reminds me of similar techniques used in the movie industry, where modern movies are filmed in black and white... or filmed using some other technique to make them look more old fashion. Similarly, why use oil paints and a canvas made of fabric when you have something like Photoshop? There is something interesting about the medium becoming a part of the art.

Even if it is not running using NES emulation and even if the graphics are not respecting all of the NES's limitations, the game is just begging for a pirate release for the Famicom

[strat]

There's really no reason to make MM9 a genuine NES game. The only authenticity present will be the headache of coding it all in 6502.