SNES Central articles of note - Various prototypes

Post by **badinsults** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 4:57 am

I just posted an article on the Super StarFox Weekend cartridge, and the contest that went along with it. Feel free to comment:

http://www.snescentral.com/article.php?id=0942

Post by **badinsults** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 7:53 pm

Alright, I have a new article up, about a prototype of Final Fantasy III!

http://www.snescentral.com/article.php?id=0954

darkbenny · Post by **darkbenny** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 9:51 pm

thumbs up

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:09 pm

I wonder why they changed the line of the guy talking about the moogles (aside from sawr = saw). The original has more character to it IMO. Maybe it was because if the "hic!" referring to the guy being drunk? All other alcohol references were removed from the English version, right?

Post by **grinvader** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:22 pm

Remember guys, video games are for kids !

Post by **badinsults** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:31 pm

blackmyst wrote:I wonder why they changed the line of the guy talking about the moogles (aside from sawr = saw). The original has more character to it IMO. Maybe it was because if the "hic!" referring to the guy being drunk? All other alcohol references were removed from the English version, right?

That's probably why it was removed. Apparently the GBA version of the game had "sawr" in it.

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:41 pm

Weird, they should've just removed the "hic", don't see the need to get rid of "I did!", it makes it sound much better. Oh well. Kinda useless to worry about now I guess.

Post by **badinsults** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 11:36 pm

I've done a couple of articles on unreleased Batman games:

Batman: Revenge of the Joker

Batman (Software Creations) aka Real Shitty Batman!

henke37 · Post by **henke37** » Wed Nov 18, 2009 5:30 pm

It's a wonder that they have not been taken down yet. I suppose the copyright hunting department is on permanent unpaid vacation due to the finance crisis.

The articles themself are nice reading, good work.

Post by **badinsults** » Wed Nov 18, 2009 8:23 pm

henke37 wrote:It's a wonder that they have not been taken down yet. I suppose the copyright hunting department is on permanent unpaid vacation due to the finance crisis.
The articles themself are nice reading, good work.

What do you mean?

Johan_H · Post by **Johan_H** » Wed Nov 18, 2009 8:40 pm

Batman with a gun and shooter stages makes me think of that Game Boy Batman game, which turned out way better.
Interesting read, thanks!

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 12:31 am

badinsults wrote:
henke37 wrote:It's a wonder that they have not been taken down yet. I suppose the copyright hunting department is on permanent unpaid vacation due to the finance crisis.
The articles themself are nice reading, good work.
What do you mean?

Didn't you know? Even acknowledging the EXISTENCE of an unreleased beta is against the laws!11111

Post by **badinsults** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 2:30 am

I've been contacted by developers only twice. One of them did so to give me a bunch of information and screenshots for an unreleased game I didn't have an article on. The other one emailed me thanking me for having a page on an unreleased game that he worked on but didn't have a copy of.

So yeah, I don't think there is ever going to be any issues with this.

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 2:58 am

badinsults wrote:I've been contacted by developers only twice. One of them did so to give me a bunch of information and screenshots for an unreleased game I didn't have an article on. The other one emailed me thanking me for having a page on an unreleased game that he worked on but didn't have a copy of.

So yeah, I don't think there is ever going to be any issues with this.

That's actually pretty cool.

Post by **badinsults** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 4:22 am

Finished a new article on the unreleased game, Congo - The Secret of Zinj:

http://www.snescentral.com/article.php?id=0120

Post by **badinsults** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 2:36 am

Just put up a review of Holy Umbrella!

http://www.snescentral.com/article.php?id=0962

Fras · Post by **Fras** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 2:20 pm

Nice article.

article wrote:on the decent of jumps

Should be descent, i think.
Also, saw 'poision' and some hidden image text.

...now i almost feel bad pointing it out. :<

Post by **badinsults** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 5:35 pm

I fixed the "descent" error, but i have no idea what you are talking about with the "poison" thing, considering the word does not appear in the article.

Unless you are talking about how the layout is broken in Firefox for the pictures showing gameplay. I have no idea why it breaks in Firefox. I designed the site in Firefox years ago, so this must be a bug in that browser that has recently creeped in.

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 5:46 pm

Looks fine here, Firefox 3.6 beta 3.

poision is the word that is spelled wrong. "gameplay" 3rd paragraph, 6th line.

Post by **badinsults** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 8:01 pm

Fixed the "poision" error. Thanks for editing, I sometimes miss things (though I don't know how the spell checker missed that).

Good to know the layout issue is not in the latest version of Firefox. I guess it is an issue with Firefox 3.0.

Fras · Post by **Fras** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 12:48 am

I'm using version 3.5.5. The text that gets hidden is [blocked by the gorilla image]t characters to reach areas that the hero cannot! . But if it's fixed in 3.6, then it doesn't matter much, i guess.

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 1:08 am

Fras wrote:I'm using version 3.5.5. The text that gets hidden is [blocked by the gorilla image]t characters to reach areas that the hero cannot! . But if it's fixed in 3.6, then it doesn't matter much, i guess.

Is it this text that you speak of? "Switch between different characters to reach areas that the hero cannot! "? If so then that appears fine in the gray box under the pic.

Post by **badinsults** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 4:19 am

Unreleased game - Tinhead

Post by **grinvader** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 9:37 am

Your rules of platform games are seriously on the easy side, really. Respecting them makes a game everyone and their moms can clear without dying once (unless you make extremely cheap bosses/enemy AI or have a 1-hit-killed protagonist).
It's much better to have a progressive difficulty increase when it comes to "unseen threats", with little to no antagonism when you missjump early on but less and less forgiving as you go.

However, it's always been fine for some unique things to be surrounded with relatively prohibiting difficulties, such as:
- collectibles that are counted up for a 100% bonus
- extra lives or continues
- a major shortcut through the stage
- ultra rare (thus badass) powerups
If they weren't, anyone would be able to burn through the game the first time around.

Jumps such as the one illustrated in the article, with spikes on top and on bottom are commonplace in those games. Super Ghouls and Ghosts, 2nd half of stage 2 was basically a succession of ~15 of those. SGnG stage 3 also had a point where you had to jump down without knowing what was there (and usually missing the platform a couple times).
[edit: oh, almost forgot that one - Super Castlevania 4's stage 8]

Mastering those old platform games meant weeks of practice until every jump was engraved in your fingers.
The only part that can be blamed is the jumping engine - if it's too rigid (think early castlevania games), it can quickly turn any precise jump attempt into bloody hell. I remember in olde gaming magazines character maniability/responsivity was a big part of the end result.

Typos, typos...

Micropose

...all over the article.

Post by **badinsults** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 12:11 pm

Considering the subject matter, I would say this game was geared towards a younger audience. No doubt this game has some control issues (ie how rapidly you go up and down inclines, defying conventional physics). I'll fully admit that I am not the best gamer in the world, but I can get to the third stage in Super Ghouls N Ghosts, which is something I can not claim in Tinhead. I used a savestate to do that jump where there are spikes on the ceiling and floor, and I think it took about 50 tries before I did it without getting hit. Let's face it, jumping is too touchy, while in SG&G, the way you jump is predictable. There is no way around it, Tinhead is fucking hard and would take a pretty hardcore player to play through the whole game.