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Golden Axe Port - Dev log

hatmoose said:
One thing I didn’t realise is that pretty much every modern GA release is emulating the Genesis port. Even as late as 2007 (Xbox arcade) when a “perfect” arcade original port would have easily been possible under emulation, still reheating the Genesis version. At first this was just lazy product development but it might also be a rights issue, maybe music? One of the reasons Shinobi never got a really accurate home release was depictions of Marilyn Munroe and likeness of Spider-Man. Maybe something similar?
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I think in big companies many decisions are made by a PHB (Pointy Haired Boss), i.e. someone who doesn't really understand the product, doesn't really understand the development process, and doesn't really understand the advantages and disadvantages of different strategies, but is somehow in a position of making all decisions. The process could be "Xbox is a console, we have a console version, let's use that."
I think most of us could patch out the Andy Warhol or Spiderman references in an afternoon, but somehow things like this are considered a deal breaker. :shrug: Play it in Mame or Mister, and Sega doesn't get our money.

Edit: If they are even aware that the arcade version of GA exists.
 
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h0ffman said:
So chaps.. today I discovered that the PC engine cd version exists!!

This got me thinking about maybe a couple of features.

1. Cd audio soundtrack
Potentially add this to cd and / or cart version? CD having it's own soundtrack feels like a very 90s thing to Di.

2. That anime intro!
Worth including?
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The option for people to have the original or "Arranged" / CD soundtrack would be nice.
Yeah, very of its time :)
 
Watched the intros again and on reflection I think they might look a little out of place. Also it's probably a ton of work to do when I could be doing another game instead.

CD Audio soundtrack however I think is fair game. Don't worry, it won't be forced upon anyone. Most likely I'll do separate builds and you can pick which one, depends on the rom / cdda sizes
 
I've had scope creep like this and it's the reason Hangtime Plus isn't released yet. All of the home versions had something extra, some chars, features, animation in the background..
I ran out of free time and there was always something extra to implement, or do better ;)
 
h0ffman said:
Watched the intros again and on reflection I think they might look a little out of place. Also it's probably a ton of work to do when I could be doing another game instead.

CD Audio soundtrack however I think is fair game. Don't worry, it won't be forced upon anyone. Most likely I'll do separate builds and you can pick which one, depends on the rom / cdda sizes
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Just a thought (I couldn’t code to save my life!!), is it possible to make it a soft dip in a similar fashion to FFAE with the options regarding OST and character names?

As for your earlier comment regarding AES or MVS, the UniBIOS allows you to play as either AES or MVS regardless of hardware. Could differences simply be tied to each version of the BIOS?

Apologies if these are ridiculous suggestions, my coding stopped in the 80s at :-

10 PRINT “Chris is a N00B”
20 go to 10
Run
 
ChrisBEANS said:
Just a thought (I couldn’t code to save my life!!), is it possible to make it a soft dip in a similar fashion to FFAE with the options regarding OST and character names?

As for your earlier comment regarding AES or MVS, the UniBIOS allows you to play as either AES or MVS regardless of hardware. Could differences simply be tied to each version of the BIOS?

Apologies if these are ridiculous suggestions, my coding stopped in the 80s at :-

10 PRINT “Chris is a N00B”
20 go to 10
Run
Click to expand...

MVS - Two things here. Firstly you're aiming for an arcade experience, so menus accessible from the title screen is really a no no. If I detect an MVS system then I will manage options via the SoftDIP settings as these are accessible on MVS regardless of what Bios you have installed.

AES - Having a title menu options screen on AES games is fine as it's a console experience. But if you are running a stock bios then you cannot access the SoftDIP settings. So when I detect AES I simply display the options menu on the title screen and allow you to set what you want there. Now this "can" cause a little confusion because most of you will be running UniBIOS. You can access the SoftDIP settings from there but the will do nothing.

CD - Just do the same as the AES above.

As for selectable soundtracks in one ROM or CD, that remains to be seen. Music will be LARGE as it's ADPCM or CDDA streams. All depends on how long these tracks are. If it's too much then I'll have to build two sets of files, original and PCE CD soundtrack editions. Not very difficult, just a bit fiddly to setup.
 
h0ffman said:
when I could be doing another game instead.
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Is this the go ahead for port begging?
If you want to stay on system 16 obviously: Cotton.
Ridiculous expensive Arcade game that would greatly benefit from an additional Arcade port: Valkyrie No Densetsu (English version?)
Also 68000 based but maybe more challenging Mystic Warriors (Konami stuff in general but the big one without a decent port is Mystic Warriors)
 
Mageta the Lion said:
Is this the go ahead for port begging?
If you want to stay on system 16 obviously: Cotton.
Ridiculous expensive Arcade game that would greatly benefit from an additional Arcade port: Valkyrie No Densetsu (English version?)
Also 68000 based but maybe more challenging Mystic Warriors (Konami stuff in general but the big one without a decent port is Mystic Warriors)
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Cotton..I'll be honest,just don't like it.

Mystic warriors, well fuck, that looks and sounds amazing. However within the first minute of gameplay I'm already seeing stuff which would need to be cut that just wouldn't work on neo geo. Interesting challenge though.
 
OK small update.. I did the between level map drawing thing today and fixed the scroll routine for stage two. No pics or videos but will be soon.

If you're wondering what the game logic looks like.. here it is. I've no idea what this does.

20250120_223625.jpg
 
If you want an interesting challenge, you can go for Fantasy Zone 2, it's the M2 created S16 game that needs extra RAM to run, so a home-brew effort was made to create a S16 C board so this game could run.

Also, it had some bugs that @Hatsune Mike was fixing at one time, but never finished. You can read about those here and maybe implement them for a port?

https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=63836
 
h0ffman said:
Cotton..I'll be honest,just don't like it.
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I feel you on this. Generally not a fan of the item "juggle" gameplay ala Parodius/Twin Bee/Cotton fame.

But I'll give Cotton one thing, I love the sound of when you put in a credit and Cotton says "Coinnnnn!"
 
Not one for begging, but for me the holy trinity of S16 has always been Shinobi, Golden Axe, and Altered Beast.
Even though i don't really like Altered Beast as the gameplay felt too sluggish.
It's from the same team though:

1737448895242.png


Then there's S18 - Alien Storm That these guys also did, even the attract mode shows the holy trinity if you wait long enough, game ending does it as well.

View: https://youtu.be/RWxt1cFf2R4?t=90


I guess it all depends on how much spare time you have :)
 
Honest question, is there anybody that really "likes" Altered Beast (not talking about "played it as a kid a bunch")?
Sure having the "Trifecta" on you're shelf sounds nice but i can't really imagine that the dud Altered Beast would "really" be played.
Sorry this isn't the place for this discussion but i was itchy to throw game names around because i knew someone would ask for Altered Beast out of convention… even though and i stand by this altered beast isn't a good game.
Obvious is obvious: h0ffmans work is great, his time is his own and he may spend it on what or anyway he wants.
 
Mageta the Lion said:
Honest question, is there anybody that really "likes" Altered Beast (not talking about "played it as a kid a bunch")?
Sure having the "Trifecta" on you're shelf sounds nice but i can't really imagine that the dud Altered Beast would "really" be played.
Sorry this isn't the place for this discussion but i was itchy to throw game names around because i knew someone would ask for Altered Beast out of convention… even though and i stand by this altered beast isn't a good game.
Obvious is obvious: h0ffmans work is great, his time is his own and he may spend it on what or anyway he wants.
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I like it, I want it
 
Asure said:
Not one for begging, but for me the holy trinity of S16 has always been Shinobi, Golden Axe, and Altered Beast.
Even though i don't really like Altered Beast as the gameplay felt too sluggish.
It's from the same team though:

1737448895242.png


Then there's S18 - Alien Storm That these guys also did, even the attract mode shows the holy trinity if you wait long enough, game ending does it as well.
Click to expand...
Alien Storm was absolutely amazing, so many brilliant ideas, all executed well. A brawler and a railshooter and a run-n-gun combined. Sega had a tonne of dev talent for sure.

Trashing the convenience store with plasma-guns… pure brilliance!
 
h0ffman said:
Cotton..I'll be honest,just don't like it.
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🥲
Instead of Cotton, would you consider the original Fantasy Zone?

I feel that’s a universally accepted cute em up that would fit nicely alongside Twinkle Star Sprites and Captain Tomaday.
 
Mageta the Lion said:
Honest question, is there anybody that really "likes" Altered Beast (not talking about "played it as a kid a bunch")?
Sure having the "Trifecta" on you're shelf sounds nice but i can't really imagine that the dud Altered Beast would "really" be played.
Sorry this isn't the place for this discussion but i was itchy to throw game names around because i knew someone would ask for Altered Beast out of convention… even though and i stand by this altered beast isn't a good game.
Obvious is obvious: h0ffmans work is great, his time is his own and he may spend it on what or anyway he wants.
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I love Altered Beast.

I think it's a lot of fun.

It's got simple gameplay. Good graphics. And it's a short game.
 
NeoRocker said:
I played Altered Beast on my Amiga back in the days. It was not really my all time favorite... ;) I loved Golden Axe but it was also not really perfect on this
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Altered beast was bloody awful on the Amiga, as was the case with most rushed amiha arcade ports. However I seem to remember golden axe being one of the rare cases where it wasn't shit.
 
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