Super Nintendo PlayStation SNES-CD Prototype Finally Revealed - [Retro Collect]

"Although it’s been a long wait, further details and photographs of the infamous Super Nintendo SNES-CD / PlayStation prototype hardware have finally been revealed. Having taken the unit to the Retro.HK Expo for display, its owner has not only shown off the system’s insides and inner workings, but also found time for a quick round of Street Fighter II on the console too.

The most interesting aspect of this big reveal is that the CD-Rom drive and firmware behind it appears to be intact. Upon booting up the console without a Super Nintendo cartridge inserted, you’ll be shown an equivalent to the Sega Mega CD’s ‘Please Insert Disc’ screen. That said, it has been reported that the accompanying cartridge which contains the CD-Rom BIOS is faulty. Whether this is down to a software or hardware fault is yet to be confirmed."

Via RetroCollect

Fascinating stuff!

Infinity, Beyond: A Small Japanese Studio Braces for the Future - [USGAMER]

How the developer behind 8-bit cult classic The Battle of Olympus has survived nearly 30 years of industry upheavals, and what's next for the company.

"You've probably never heard of Japanese developer Infinity. It's possible you've played some of their games—perhaps NES cult classic The Battle of Olympus?—but even then you most likely haven't touched a new Infinity creation in a couple of decades..."

Via USGAMER

(Another great Article by USGAMER's Jeremey Parish. Again, will probably transpose, but yeah, you should definitely be reading USGAMER.)

Cover Story: NES Creator Masayuki Uemura on the Birth of Nintendo's First Console - [US Gamer]

The man who designed Nintendo's revolutionary console recounts the system's birth and the challenges of building an international business.

"You wouldn't know by looking at Masayuki Uemura, mild-mannered engineer and professor, that he changed video games forever—or that his work set the standard for an industry that nearly died just as its was finding its legs.... "

Via USGamer

(Fantastic Retrospective on the birth of the NES, by Jeremy Parish. I'll probably transpose the rest of it here, later for archival purposes, but for now check it out over on USGAMER.)

(Archive) - Final Fantasy Time and Again - RM2k3 - GW/RMN

Mirror Download

Note: FFTA is one of the very few FF Fan games that has a really interesting, fully functional but incredibly cumbersome [Jump] mechanic worked out in RPGMAKER2003's Default Battle System. I'll probably add the save file that jumps you straight to this part. But for now I'm uploading it, simply because, I found out today that, it's no longer on RMN.

(Spotted) The Tenth Line - Unity - RMN

Via RMN
SungazerSoftware (Deltree)

Marche100 creator of Obama RPG confesses to creative burnout - RMN

I just stumbled upon this today, so I apologize if this is a bit late, I thought this was interesting nonetheless:

On 08/16/2013, Marche100, creator of the RMN cult classic "Obama RPG: Magical Quest 3 HD - Future Legend of Superhuman President Starring Barack Obama" provided a fascinating confession on creative burnout. It sounds very similar to Badluck's struggle with ARA FELL - my question is, how do we avoid this?

I'll probably add a couple of pictures to this and a download, later on, if I can find one.

Either way, he recites his particular ordeal below.

"...Back when I first started making Obama RPG, I had visions of grandeur, an RPG that would try to soar high, like Barkley Shut Up and Jam did. At first, the story was simple, but it expanded. And expanded. And expanded, until I had what I thought was a good game. Then, the first hiatus hit. I had lost the motivation to go on, and yet...I felt like I owed everyone. I felt like it was wrong of me to just up and leave it. Like it was my masterpiece and I needed to complete it. It gnawed at me. Day after day after day. Month after month. Yet, I still didn't want to make it.

(Spotted) Dark Sword - RM2k3 - RPG Atelier

Via RPG Atelier

(Spotted) Carnage - RM2k3 - Oniromancie

via Oniromancie

Badluck shares Ara Fell's development story with RMN - RMN

I'm posting this here, because in this blog post, Badluck briefly touches upon a couple of the pitfalls that comes with working with rpgmaker2003 and indie games overall - something I think everyone should eventually read and be made aware of while working on an independent game of any kind:

There are a lot of stories like this one, that we don't get to hear, that raise awareness of certain issues, that we really need to learn how to avoid, while developing games.

You can read the original post here on RMN.

"I've been asked this before by several people, so I thought I'd explain things. This is the story of how I got here. I'll make another post about the Ara Fell remake another time. This isn't about the remake. This is about why I'm remaking it.

Fair warning. It's a little sentimental.

Ten years ago (it seems crazy to even type that), I made Ara Fell. It was my third game, after Tarion Star and some unnamed but serious RPG Maker 95 project, and the first one that was any good. Ara Fell was a huge, complicated project, and far too ambitious for what I was capable of at the time. More than a few people warned me of this, but I enjoyed the challenge, and decided to just go with my first instinct, and let the chips fall where they may. I had planned for Ara Fell to be a 10 part series, with "The Legend of Dirisetsu Hollow" as the first installment, parts 1 and 2. That's a hell of a project. By the end of it, I was probably looking at something twice as big as Chrono Trigger, and Chrono Trigger is a big-ass game.

GamingCX: GameCenter CX - Episode 136 - Gradius

(A word of cautious - gamingcx.com is one of the last remaining fan websites, where you can actually watch gamecentercx episodes in their entirety - Most of the content found within these episodes, such as the arcade trips and developer interviews, will never make it to the official dvd release in the west, either due to copyright or licensing issues.  So I very graciously ask you to try to not spread these links around too much, as certain segments of the show - while invaluable - are becoming more and more difficult to find.)

An episode of GameCenter CX has recently been translated into english and uploaded onto Gamingcx.com!

(picture taken from http://gamecentercx.tumblr.com/)

GamingCX: GameCenter CX - Episode 136 - Gradius: In this episode, Arino closes off Season 15, with the strict but very talented Assistant Director Takahashi by attempting to beat the rather difficult Konami Shoot-em-up, Gradius.