Pier Solar discussion (that Genny/MD indie RPG)

[Barry the Nomad]

Okay, so it ain't a SEGA game, but it is the latest indie game to hit the Genesis/Mega Drive. Find out all about it here: http://www.segabits.com/?p=6788

I know I pre-ordered it, as did Sybnios and nuckles87. Thoughts? Expectations?

Pre-orders are set to ship February 15th, game is sold out!

[CrazyT]

The game looks like something i'd like to play, but I don't know.. is it me or does the color look a bit off in that game. It's like they didn't make good use of the color palettes. Many games on the genesis don't even show a sign of the limitations.

It's just a minor thing though. Anyway, I don't think i'd wanna spend money on this. I know the games are rare and the fact that new genesis games are scarse makes them more pricey, it's just that it's hard for me to lay down that money.

Edit: Wait, is this a sega/mega cd game?

[Barry the Nomad]

The game is on a 64 meg Mega Drive/Genny cart, but you can use a CD in the SEGA CD to play CD quality music. The original release of the game included this CD, and the rerelease does not, however they have the CD to download on their forums.

It's a very cool concept that Genesis games never really took advantage of. I would have killed for Sonic 2 to be rereleased with a SEGA CD enhanced soundtrack.

[Sega Uranus]

@CrazyTails: The Genesis is capable of 256 colors, but only a very small fraction of those at the same time. Most games would average around 25-35 colors at any one time though, with some of the better looking games on the console like Vectorman, Ecco the Dolphin: The Tides of Time and Eternal Champions going past 60, sometimes up to 70.

SEGA CD is much more capable of holding more colors at the same time. WaterMelon knew this, so it is weird they never just moved to SEGA CD development instead, like all other indie developers.


@Barry: The amount of resources needed in the cart to work with the SEGA CD at the same time is phenomenally high. It would have been extremely pricey to do that, plus they would have had to make new cartridges for the hardware to "Know" what to do. Would have been a waste of time and money.

The idea existed at the time, but it was considered much smarter overall to just remake the game to play on SEGA CD, like the Ecco games were. They could have just made a version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on there and it would have sold great. I think I heard rumors about it being considered back in the day, but I would not know where to look for that.

The SEGA Collection games on SEGA CD that came bundled with the SEGA CD had slightly better versions of stuff like Streets of Rage and Golden Axe, but just to improve *some* sounds.

[Barry the Nomad]

I completely forgot about this piece of Sonic CD info (found on Sonic Retro):

Early in the game's development, the gaming press and even Sega's former head of marketing Al Nilsen stated the game was going to be a port of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and often referred to it as Sonic the Hedgehog 2 CD. It was then decided to release this as a totally new game, and all ideas of ports were scrapped.

@Sanderz Yer Anderz
Yeah, I figured it would cost a hella lot of cash to do. I would have definitely preferred a CD version of the Genesis games with CD quality music. Which brings me to Sonic Jam: They should have had that! Would have been an awesome extra!

With the rererereleased Genesis games hitting XBLA and PSN, it would rule to have that done. I'm not bothered about HD remixes, but a soundtrack remix would be cool. It's possible with custom soundtracks, but would be great to have the music change automatically.

[Barry the Nomad]

My copy is being prepped to ship! Should be seeing it in 20 days.

[Barry the Nomad]

The game is starting to show up in people's mailboxes! I'm thinking mine will come this week.

There were a few surprises, which I'll spoil here:

-Manual is full color, not black and white as advertised
-Stickers and poster are included
-Hard plastic clamshell box is awesome.

[crackdude]

epic. I didn't know there were dev teams making MD games!

[Barry the Nomad]

Yeah, yo! Check out their site, I believe the reprint edition is still up for order.
http://piersolar.com

Looking forward to playing it! It is sure to blow a few official SEGA developed RPGs out of the water.

unpacking!
[youtube:2u24mo30]xnOiwKkTE7c[/youtube:2u24mo30]

[CrazyT]

That box looks so slick. Actually the whole thing does. The whole care they've putten into it has sorta got me interested

[Barry the Nomad]

+ Pier Solar awaits me at the post office!
- I have to get blood drawn tomorrow
+ I get the morning off
+ I can drive to the post office before work
- I'll probably pass out on the way to the post office due to blood loss

The positives outweigh the negatives!

[CrazyT]

Cannot wait to read your impressions in a review of some sort.

[Barry the Nomad]

Yeah dude, it's gonna be weird to play an indie game that ISN'T on the Dreamcast.

To prepare for the release, I burned a (hopefully) working copy of the enhanced soundtrack and printed out the two different CD case and DVD case designs made by fans on the game's forums:



Hopefully, if I have time this morning, I'll get some photos and have a gallery up on the main page by this afternoon. I want to do a video unboxing too, and try and show it off on the Nomad, the standard Genny and the cheap FIrecore Genesis that I won in a SEGA Nerds karma points contest.

[Barry the Nomad]

UPDATE: Video unboxing on the main page!

[cube_b3]

It almost looks rehearsed (I mean that in a good way).

Did you practice, write an outline maybe?