You know, Megaman and other NES games that I've done aren't exactly a secret. I've posted about it on multiple forums over the years and it really didn't generate much interest from what I could tell outside of small handful of people. But I continued to work on tweaking the emulation such on Megaman... because that's my baby. I did it for myself. I play and have played the crap out of MM on my PCE/SGX/Duo system. I mean, all this originally started out as 'hey, look what you can do on the PCE' sort of thing. But it turned into something for myself. I.e. it became a real project instead of just a 'demo' per se. Megaman 1 holds a special place in my memories because besides SMB, it was the first game I had when I bought the NES for myself. I spent that whole summer non stop playing MM, SMB, and Zelda 1.
Anyway, so this MM 'project' has been around for a couple of years. I don't know why it's getting more attention now. Is it because people thought it was a real unreleased beta for the SCD (my blog is getting a lot of traffic for it. Forums, google, etc)? I have Megaman 2 in the works, all prep'd up, and could probably have it up and running within a week (with probably some minor glitches that would have to be worked out in the emulation core. It always works that way. A new game, more emulation support on the back end). I guess I'm subconsciously holding it for ransom or whatever >_>. I dunno. It does irritate me that a lot of the past responses about MM 1 have been, 'mm1 is ok, but mm2 would be great' - etc. I actually do want to upgrade Megaman 1. If I did do Megaman 2, I don't think it needs any upgrading. And, like nat said, other than novelty - what's the point of playing it on the PCE when you can just play it on NES or the Megaman collection for whatever system? I think that holds true for a lot of people (myself excluded though).
I think there are a bunch of factors that determine the extent to which a project gains an audience. I will admit that, until recently, I generally did not spend much time examining emulation/homebrew topics. I read about "NES on PCE", but I never did anything beyond reading/commenting. Simply put, due to limited time, I prioritized the games immediately (physically) in front of me and I didn't have time to consider anything else. I said to myself, "Later, in the future, I'll check out the NES on PCE stuff."
Without sustained support (folks playing and commenting and actively promoting), I can see awareness of a project fade away into the ether.
Next, we have the general lack of love for Mega Man (relative to, say, MM2). Sad, but true. I say, "Do not release MM2 until later!" because you (we) need to foster and nurture some love for MM1.
For the record, the prospect of "upgrading" MM1 with enhanced graphics and music is thrilling.
