Comparing the 16-bit Homebrew...

[KingDrool]

Honest question: out of the big 16-bit rivals (Genesis, SNES, TG16), is it fair to say that the Turbo has the most active and prolific homebrew scene? Granted, I don't pay much attention to what the other communities have going on. But I was thinking that over the past couple years we've seen a fair number of independent games that have resulted in actual manufactured releases, and there are a bunch more in the making.

Yay/Nay?

If so, I think it's pretty cool that the console that was the unquestioned loser in the console wars (sales-wise), is the one with the longest legs.

PS: Thanks to you guys for continuing development. As long as you keep making 'em, I'll keep buying 'em.

[Nando]

It's all about the OBEY!!

[Arkhan]

Yes.

At one point I would've said Genesis, even though most of the stuff is just unreleased stuff that is finally published.


But, we've got the most productive scene. 

Sure, people may call Insanity shovelware, but for what it set out to do, I say, Mission Accomplished.

[nodtveidt]

I only know of a couple of physical homebrew releases for the Genesis... everyone knows Pier Solar, and there's also Frog Feast. Beggar Prince does not really count as a homebrew release, since it's just a translation that Brandon Cobb rubbed his nutsack all over. Repros are pretty common in Genesisland but they don't really count either.

I know of absolutely zero SNES homebrew releases on actual carts aside from the compilation that Piko Interactive is doing (and even then, is it homebrew? I'm not sure). I'm sure there's at least one other... somewhere... that isn't a repro...

Both of those consoles have homebrew releases, but very few of them seem to have been released on nicely-made physical media.

[touko]

I think genesis scene is more active, 1985alternativo, a spanish team released 2 commercial games, oh mummy ,and uwol, and a new shmup to come (antarex) .
Some 8bit pc adaptation was made in basic(crazy cars,and babarian) ..
The genesis scene is also more active in term of developpement tools and tech doc,demo .

[Arkhan]

I think genesis scene is more active, 1985alternativo, a spanish team released 2 commercial games, oh mummy ,and uwol, and a new shmup to come (antarex) .
Some 8bit pc adaptation was made in basic(crazy cars,and babarian) ..
The genesis scene is also more active in term of developpement tools and tech doc,demo .

Aetherbyte released two commercial games, a free game, and has more games on the way.... and that's just one group.   There are other PCE groups, lol.

All they have on us is better devtools.

[touko]

yes in a commercial games point of view, pce scene is better (not by far), but genesis scene is more active in general, many guys have worked on the genesis technical aspects, like fm chip, quality samples with and without z80, 3d rendering etc, or very accurate emulator for devs .

The Pce technical doc, is not as good as genesis one IMO.

[Arkhan]

Yeah we don't have as good of tech docs/etc.  for sure.

The PCE's "tech demo" phase seems to have died off a few years ago.   I'd prefer to see real games come out instead of tech demos, anyway.

[Black Tiger]

There are more demos, hacks and misc pirate games for Genesis, plus stuff like Rick Dangerous and the upcoming Wolfenstein 3D game. PCE is definitely tops for new complete games, if you don't count all those Rusian MD games.

[touko]

You'r right arkhan, but tech demos are a good way to make more impressive games .

It is through the demos that SGDK, the genesis C dev kit,allows you to play up to 4 samples at same time with good quality, or direct color dma for 512 colors on screen, etc ...

I don't want to minimize the pce effort, but it's mathematical, more devs you have,more chances to have games 

@black tiger: there is also the port of wolfenstein 3d .

[Tatsujin]

adding the NG in, i think it would win in terms of highest production and developement cost, as well commercial releases. altough it's only one team really doing for it.

[Bonknuts]

The Genesis/Megadrive scene is very active (I even coded for a bit on the Genesis). There have been a number of free releases and such for the sega 16-bitter. And as far as released games on cart/cd/etc, there are a handful that touko mentioned. Sik is supposedly finished up his platformer: Project MD (everything was done, he was just tweaking the level layouts and enemy AI, etc). He teamed up with another coder/musician they released that Overdrive sega demo:

 I'd also consider ports part of the homebrew scene and that SMB1 port to the Gen/MD in that category.

 There are numerous other coders/dabblers that have contributed to the dev scene too. ~Overall~, (as of the moment) - I'd say the sega 16bitter homebrew/dev scene is bigger than the PCE. But that's kind of to be expected; Sega 16bit machine has a huge following. Once Arkhan and the Old Rover release some games, PCE will be in the lead IMO.

 SNES dev scene seems to have died off. Even then, most of the dev scene for SNES was in relation to translations and hacks. I can think of only one homebrew game that got released on cart for the SNES.

[Xak]

Thank you for  Pier Solar my Russian friends!

It was last years Christmas gift. Waiting for a larger HDTV to enjoy it on since the graphics are rather small.

[Black Tiger]

Thank you for  Pier Solar my Russian friends!

It was last years Christmas gift. Waiting for a larger HDTV to enjoy it on since the graphics are rather small.

You bought a bootleg?

[fragmare]

That Titan demo is ah-f*cking-mazing... Wish there was some flashy, eye-catching stuff like that on the PCE  :/