Pier Solar may be released soon?!?

[Arkhan Asylum]

Wukong was OK at best.  I agree about the quality of the clamshells (there are actually 1 or 2 people over at Sega-16 who seem to think they are better than the original Genesis clamshells... OK whatever).  Wukong (and Beggar Prince) had awful character dialog and the main characters came off as very immature and I hated them both.  Wukong started out crazy hard and got really easy at the end.  The final bost was the easiest boss fight in the game.  The first boss was the toughest.  Beggar Prince had bugs that wouldn't let it work properly with a Sega CD and/or a 32X attached.  They patched the game to resolve that issue, but left existing owners like myself high and dry.  They didn't even offer to reburn the ROM with the new version if I paid to send it back.  It had other bugs that were game breaking, such as boots needed to cross a certain part of the desert, you can only get the boots in a castle and once you exit the castle, you cannot re-enter if you did not get the boots.  Game over.  You have no choice to restart.  You simply can't be releasing games with bugs like that and charging people.

Yeah. I had me some Beggar Prince bugs and never touched the game again.  Its sitting on a shelf.  Waste of cash.

I liked Wukong because it was obnoxious, wonky, and cheesy.   Cheesy being the big selling point.

But overall, the buggy Beggar Prince, and brittle clamshell made me kind of meh about SFT...

Along with the pompous attitude.

Insanity may not be a visual masterpiece, or the most intense, elaborate game ever, but at least its bug free, fun to play, and the quality of the thing overall is nice.  I replace broken jewel cases if they show up broken for people.  For a first time project, I think I exceeded my own expectations of what I was going to accomplish.

SFT has been doing this for awhile.  There's no excuse.

[Duo_R]

Can't wait to try insanity out!

[OldRover]

I think it's great that Pier Solar was finally completed. Score +1 for homebrew.

But jumping in bed with SFT is a recipe for disaster. Every PCE developer knows it. It's just too bad that the Genesis scene doesn't know it, and are buying into Cobb's hype. I smelled the bullshit a mile away, so did Garner and so did Shadoff.

But hey, I don't tend to be concerned with build quality of this. If it's coming from China, you already know it's gonna suck. From a consumer point of view, I care more about the quality of the game itself. Pier Solar better not be another buggy POS, because SFT already has two Genesis failures to their credit. So for me, it's either going to be third time's a charm or three strikes you're out.

[Arkhan Asylum]

I think it's great that Pier Solar was finally completed. Score +1 for homebrew.

But jumping in bed with SFT is a recipe for disaster. Every PCE developer knows it. It's just too bad that the Genesis scene doesn't know it, and are buying into Cobb's hype. I smelled the bullshit a mile away, so did Garner and so did Shadoff.

But hey, I don't tend to be concerned with build quality of this. If it's coming from China, you already know it's gonna suck. From a consumer point of view, I care more about the quality of the game itself. Pier Solar better not be another buggy POS, because SFT already has two Genesis failures to their credit. So for me, it's either going to be third time's a charm or three strikes you're out.

true dat, but I really despise getting homebrew that costs a pretty penny, and having it come in shitty packaging.

An MSX game cart cost me 18$ or something (Caos Begins), and it came in a nice little high gloss cardboard box w/ a nice manual.  Sure its cardboard, but its damn fine cardboard.
The goonies one cost more (40$?) but it has an SCC in it, and it is an MSX2 game.  It came in similar quality packaging. 

Cobb is way too hype-like.   Full of himself even.  I'm glad he doesn't specialize in CD publications and never approached me about Insanity, probably because the whole thing was done and out before anyone expected it.  If he would have fed me the BS I've seen him feed to other people, I would have probably made fun of him.


I really hope for Pier Solar's designer's sakes, the game isn't a buggy disaster.  The games been put off/etc. for so long, if it finally comes out and doesn't deliver, its going to disappoint/anger alot of people.

[Duo_R]

I will repro a nice game case once I get my hands in one of these.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Yeah I used old sport game boxes.

[Mathius]

They spent about 3-4 months testing for bugs, so here's hoping. I haven't heard any connections between SFT and WaterMelon.

[Duo_R]

So what is the history of SFT, I am out of the loop on the homebrew news.

[Mathius]

So what is the history of SFT, I am out of the loop on the homebrew news.

I am not too sure myself, but here is a link that may shed some light for you:

http://www.legendofwukong.com/

[Arkhan Asylum]

So what is the history of SFT, I am out of the loop on the homebrew news.

Basically, Brandon Cobb and SFT publishes other peoples work for them.

Cool.  Good service for people who want to get their games out there....

Except he does it in the most pretentious way possible.  Its alot of "we do it the best" and "noone else can do what we do", which lets be honest, we know thats not true at all.  look at the NES releases, or the C64 releases.  OR ALL THE MSX ONES.    It was done before SFT and will be done after SFT.  With, to be honest, better quality overall.  I've bought homebrew for tons of systems.  The SFT genesis releases are a disappointment.  Knight n' Grail for C64 is a better overall release, and again, I hates me some C64.     

Then you got this kind of shit:

Beggar Prince is proudly presented through the partnership of Super Fighter Team and C&E, Inc. Developed by C&E, the game was then localized, debugged, partially reprogrammed and otherwise prepared for official worldwide release by Super Fighter Team.

Except, its buggy.  So maybe it was partially reprogrammed in the sense that they didnt finish fixing bugs?  ... and this means it wasn't properly prepared for a release.

Beggar Prince ships complete with 32-megabit game cartridge, 27 page full color instruction manual and plastic clamshell case with color insert. All parts are brand new, custom produced by our factory for the highest possible quality.

Except, the case shattered like glass and looks all goony to begin with.  Actual sega cases are alot nicer.   They might as well just go buy a bunch of

And "our" factory?  Really?  I doubt its THEIR factory.  Its probably, given the quality, some chinese BS.

So I hope Pier Solar is great and knocks SFT off their defective high horse.   A nice Sega release needs to come out.

[Joe Redifer]

Announcement:  Pier Solar has nothing to do with Super Fighter Team.  There is an eBay auction or two, however, that says otherwise.  Watermelon is releasing the game themselves.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Oh.  I didn't even realize people thought SFT was doing Pier Solar.

I just thought we were on a whats so great about SFT anyway tangent. lol

[Joe Redifer]

SFT is great, shut up you!  Or face the wrath of the CobbWeb.

[Arkhan Asylum]

CobbWeb.

Holy fuck this is the best insult ever.

[Joe Redifer]

I know!  I had a staff of writers help me with that one.

[Arkhan Asylum]

I know!  I had a staff of writers help me with that one.

I picture a bunch of popped collar, visor wearing Chad McBroskies dropping down from the ceiling, throwing shards of their clamshell cases at me like ninja stars while shouting WE ARE THE COBBWEB.  WE FIGHT FOR SFT.

[Mathius]

Hahahaha! That was hilarious, you two.

[Arkhan Asylum]

/cobbweb.png

I just noticed something else.

Wukong and Beggar Prince's sites are like cookie cutter clones of each other.  Classic.

and at the top of Star Odyssey's page

"We're proud to bring yet another first to the classic gaming market: Japanese partnership!"
- Brandon Cobb
President, Super Fighter Team

Sorry, no you're not, putz.   That was done on the MSX w/ Bazix/Woomb already around like, 2004-2006.  Good job.  Did you think all the commercial translations of RPGs just fell out of the sky?

It should say "We're proud to bring yet another first to the classic gaming market: Ignorant Leadership!"

[OldRover]

Remember, kids... when you've got to push an agenda, facts don't matter.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Remember, kids... when you've got to push an agenda, facts don't matter.

CAREFUL WHAT YOU SAY.  THE COBBWEB HAS EARS EVERYWHERE.

not that they can hear us past them popped collars.

[Joe Redifer]

Arkhan, you should make a Cobbweb game.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Arkhan, you should make a Cobbweb game.

I think so too.

You will throw plastic shards of shattered clamshell cases at all the other publishers in a race to get to the Japanese market first.

Except when you get to the end, everyone else is already there laughing.

at Beggar Prince's bugs in particular.

[Joe Redifer]

Yes, they through bugs (represented onscreen as gibberish symbols) at you, too.  Gotta dodge 'em all!

[Arkhan Asylum]

THis could be a sleeper hit for the Turbob

do you think SFT would publish it for us!?

[Joe Redifer]

LOL!

[Arkhan Asylum]

How hilarious would that shit be, seriously. 

it would be even funnier if he had no idea what we had just done.

[Emerald Rocker]

It's funny how certain crybabies whine so much about "homebrew never gets support" and "homebrew doesn't get love" -- as though it's a crime to show the least bit of pessimism -- and then go around insulting other homebrewers.

Arkhan: "Hey guys look at the Pier Solar preorder disaster hur hur hur.  By the way, you'd better not insult Mysterious Dong because that would be a deathblow to the entire Turbo homebrew industry.  Implode rulez, Genesis homebrew RPG droolz.  Homebrewers need our unconditional love and support!  Well, not that Cobb guy.  Noone.... NOONE"

Rover: "Those Genesis guys actually release games.  I hate them."

[Arkhan Asylum]

Yay Emerald, right on schedule.

You're putting words in my mouth.  Theres a difference between complaining that a pre-order thing was handled poorly but still having high hopes and expectations of the game.....    and bashing one just because you don't like the person involved and have some kind of irritating vendetta against the person.  The mysterious song ordeal went above and beyond plain complaining.

I like the Sega RPG homebrews.  Star Odyssey especially.  I'm actually jealous that the Genesis has gotten so many well put together games.  I've said that numerous times now.  It's even been published in a magazine now.

I'm looking forward to Pier Solar, and think it sucks that the game got hyped/delayed/repeat so many times that people kind of became leery about the whole thing... and as it stands now, there isn't enough for everybody, so people who didn't take the leap of faith will be missing out for the time being.  Lunar's one of my favorites, so a game obviously inspired by it is <3 for me.  Here's to hoping for a second run.  I am pretty sure Pier Solar is going to take the current bar for homebrew RPGs, and uppercut it to the moon.  Games going to kick more ass than Segal, Van Damme, and Norris combined.

ANYWAY

Beggar Prince has bugs that potentially ruin your playthrough.  That's fine.  Mistakes happen.  They fixed them eventually... but people who were pre-fix got hosed. 

Cobb isn't a homebrewer.  Hes a guy publishing peoples work and being a severe mook about it.  Thats my problem.  If you're going to wave your dick around like you're the king, you better have your shit together.  You can't go approaching homebrewers asking to publish their games, act like you're the messiah, and the best ever at it..... when you do things like:

Releasing games with bugs (despite saying they were debugged, reprogrammed and prepared for public release). It is bad mojo.  Fixing it is good mojo, unless of course you don't even offer some sort of discount/fix for people who already bought the buggy one.  Bad customer support, yeah?

Releasing games in crapass cases when you're saying they're of high quality.  High quality shouldn't crack/shatter as easily as the Wukong case.

...and

Making outlandish claims like "We're bringing another first! Japanese partnership!".  It's simply not true.  What was the other "first"?  Publishing a game?  I don't think they hold the claim to publishing the first homebrew.  That's just stupidity if that's what their "first" was.  Claiming stuff doesn't make it true.  Maybe he means they were the first to turn it into an overplayed mess.  Something as simple, and cool as releasing homebrew for old consoles has been turned into a popped collar affair over at SFT. 

Cobb's not a very humble guy, and seems to have convinced himself that hes 2legit2quit, etc. etc., basically implying in conversations that if SFT isn't the one doing it, it's not going to be done right. Except so far, the quality of his publications haven't been so great.   The games themselves are great.  It's like a gem shoved into a pile of shit though. 

Once you swap out the case for a real one, and ignore the fact that SFT was involved, it starts to get better.

BTW I dunno if Mysterious Dong was intentional, or a typo, but i LOLed either way.

[Mathius]

Maybe with WateMelon's publication/development of Pier Solar 'ol Cobbwebbie will be humbled a bit. It's easy to say you're the best at something in a nearly empty room, but when that room starts to fill up chances are someone there will 1-up you.

[OldRover]

Announcement:  Pier Solar has nothing to do with Super Fighter Team.  There is an eBay auction or two, however, that says otherwise.  Watermelon is releasing the game themselves.

Awesome. Who'd they get to manufacture the carts?

[Arkhan Asylum]

Maybe with WateMelon's publication/development of Pier Solar 'ol Cobbwebbie will be humbled a bit. It's easy to say you're the best at something in a nearly empty room, but when that room starts to fill up chances are someone there will 1-up you.

True dat.  I don't think any of the other publishers have much interest in turning things into a business-style thing.  Everyone else, including myself, seems comfortable with it being a casual/laidback/fuckyeah sort of thing.

[OldRover]

Though there's nothing wrong with approaching it from a business point of view... some companies are just plain arrogant and proud of it. I hope SFT chokes on their own vomit.

Well, now that I know that Pier Solar has nothing to do with SFT, I'll be looking forward to snagging a copy of my own. Now, someone sell me a Genesis.

[Arkhan Asylum]

arrogant.  Thats the word I couldnt think of.

i hope Pier Solar's launch de-thrones the cobbweb for sure though.   Maybe it will give them the message that they're not the only frigging people publishing homebrew.  Cause apparently they've never seen any MSX, NES or 2600 releases.

Or C64..... 

if they dont look, it doesnt exist, maybe?

[OldRover]

Yes, the old monsters-in-the-closet defense.

[Joe Redifer]

According to someone on the Pier Solar forum who has received his copy, the game is packaged like this:





Interesting.  The box is supposedly high quality cardboard (better than Sega's cardboard used for the late US games).  I guess it also comes with an apology letter.  Not an apology for the game sucking, but for being so ridiculously delayed.

[Arkhan Asylum]

And thus, the cobbweb begins to fall wither away.


<3  Fuck yeah.   Vacuum sealed box, sweet looking case and shit, and a were sorry we done goofed letter.    Sweet

[OldRover]

Ooh, looks nice, all official-looking and whatnot. 64 MEGA POWA!

[NecroPhile]

Man, that does look nice.  Almost makes me wish I had a Genny.

[Emerald Rocker]

Theres a difference between complaining that a pre-order thing was handled poorly but still having high hopes and expectations of the game.....    and bashing one just because you don't like the person involved and have some kind of irritating vendetta against the person.  The mysterious song ordeal went above and beyond plain complaining.

Pick your favorite response from the below -- they're all applicable!

* Did it?  Most of my comments were about missing preorder dates or failing to provide promised refunds. 30% of people said I had "gone too far" and 70% said I had a good point.  Those odds are in my favor.
* Did it?  I don't recall insulting Frozen Utopia's other works-in-progress -- after all, I know nothing about them.  If Mysterious Song looked like it would actually be a good game, then there would be no "ordeal".  Regardless of how I feel about one particular individual, my "irritating vendetta" has always revolved around Mysterious Song.
* Did it?  The "ordeal" started on GameFAQs.  It was brought here by a member of Frozen Utopia, not by me.

My point is that a couple people who claim to be "pro-homebrew" and decried my complaints as "anti-homebrew" and "this is why people just give up"... are bashing someone because they don't like him (shock!), and they're even bashing other projects under the assumption that said unlikable person is connected.  And then, when they find out Cobb isn't connected to Pier Solar, they suddenly support the project?  What's up with that?  If it were revealed tomorrow that superman rockstar Stan Bush is the true secret programmer behind Mysterious Song and Rover has nothing to do with it, then I'd still think that particular game looks bad.

The problem that can come from preording is, people do the preorder hype/dick waving before they're ready, and make a giant disaster because the hype reaches its peak, and then falls down... with no game in sight still.  Its like getting a blowjob and having the chick walk away 10 seconds before launch.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Uh, I have been pro Pier Solar the whole time?  I knew it wasn't SFT's publication.  I thought that was clear from the DigitPress days when they were showing their cartridges in use.  Its even more apparent since SFT makes no mention of the game on their site.

I was pro-pier solar like 2 years ago too when people were bitching on IRC that it wasn't going to be downloadable.  That doesn't change the fact that I think they dicked up the pre-order stuff.  They themselves must agree, as they were legit enough to include apology letters.  So, *shrug*.

You should re-read what I said about SFT.  Its nothing personal.  I don't know the guy on a personal level.  It's all complaints about actual things that have occurred.  It could be ANY person in his position acting like that.  Maybe the guy is alright when hes not pushing his SFT nonsense the way he does.  Like I said already: releasing buggy games with crappy cases, and making incorrect claims with a "my shit dont stink" attitude the entire time, is pretty decent grounds for complaint.  His track record doesn't match his arrogant claims at being the best.

I never directly bashed the Sega games either.  Yeah the Beggar Prince bug sucked ass, but the games still good.  So is Wukong, and Star Odyssey.  Its not the Beggar Prince teams fault the bugfix was handled poorly.  I myself, if I were the one doing the rom burning, would have totally offered for people to send theirs in to get fixed.  Kinda like how C64 cartridge people usually let you send in for updates, or offer discounts on the updated roms.

In that big mess about MSR, you did at one point admit/imply you had a problem with rover, and you do make obvious attempts to troll him on here.  Also, the ordeal on Gamefaqs was still you.  So it sure seems like most of the time you're just razzing Rover because its Rover.  You even made comments about other games before.  I believe you ended up deleting them.   FU dicked up the preorder stuff too, and received a hard time for it for the wrong reasons.  It went beyond the normal realm of complaint.  Don't forget, most of the complainers didn't realize you could see updates on FU's site.  There are sites for homebrew people.  It doesn't all go down on forums. . 

What I want to know is why you didn't ride the Pier Solar teams ass like you did with MSR.  I don't recall you bashing demos of Pier Solar that had stand-in artwork, or making lame attempts to troll whenever you possibly could.

[OldRover]

Like many others, I assumed that Pier Solar was in the grips of SFT for two reasons: the obsession with cartridge security, which SFT hails as their holy grail, and the fact that they were doing carts as opposed to strictly CDs, which is SFT policy. Cobb has convinced the world that he and he alone is capable of having cartridges made, so anyone who makes a Genesis cart is going to be associated with SFT by default since Cobb has created this image for himself.

Now that I know that SFT doesn't have their filthy hands anywhere near Pier Solar, it's a lot easier to appreciate it. One minor fact really CAN change one's opinion of something.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Yeah, Commodore groups sit and solder together cartridges and distribute them, atari and NES games are produced.......

its not really rocket science, especially if you programmed a game.

Its just a bunch of bitchwork, really.

burn roms, shove in carts, put cart in shell, etc. etc.


Personally, I'd much rather be able to say I'm the one that sat and assembled the carts and sent them out.  If I'm going to sit and do all that work programming a game I don't want some putz throwing his copyright crap on my title screen and making an arrogant mess of things.

[nikdog]

As far as a second run:

You originally offered both a Standard and Posterity edition of the game, for PAL, NTSC and JP gamers. How many copies of the game exist for each region and has a second print run been planned for those that missed out?

Zebbe: The number of copies is currently confidential. Perhaps it will be revealed in the future. Regarding a second print run, we have a surprise coming in January...

[Arkhan Asylum]

As far as a second run:

You originally offered both a Standard and Posterity edition of the game, for PAL, NTSC and JP gamers. How many copies of the game exist for each region and has a second print run been planned for those that missed out?

Zebbe: The number of copies is currently confidential. Perhaps it will be revealed in the future. Regarding a second print run, we have a surprise coming in January...

Surprise: digital download!

[nikdog]

That would be hillarious

[Joe Redifer]

Here's what the Japanese packaging version looks like:

[Arkhan Asylum]

So Japanese that it has mostly English on it!

nice.

[OldRover]

I noticed that too... they probably should have translated the backside too, but no matter, it still looks cool.

[Arkhan Asylum]

I noticed that too... they probably should have translated the backside too, but no matter, it still looks cool.

yeah... but its not like were not all used to buying japanese RPGs and having squiggledoodles all over it.  Maybe this is their way of taking revenge!

[nikdog]

Here's what the Japanese packaging version looks like:

Can't wait for the 2nd batch.