Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs

[Necromancer]

If all else fails, Arky can reskin Atlantean again.  Sherifflanteans!   

[elmer]

One of the problems is that at the point of the campaign when it could have the most benefit or harm, they announced that they'd partnered with Warermelon. Lots of people pulled their pledges and they, along with a bunch of people who hadn't yet pledged anything, were very vocal across forums with threads promoting this campaign that they would never support anything that Watermelon is associated with after their most recent (at the time) fundraising fiascos.

I generally don't follow this sort of stuff. I know that Watermelon became famous for Pier Solar, but what went wrong?

I can see that this new "engine" is from a brand new company founded by one of Watermelon's founders, and I know that it takes a crapload of man-hours to make a decent multi-platform engine that will pass standards-compliance on consoles, but Dreamcast/PC/Linux/etc don't care what old crap you manufacture.

I'm guessing that's one of the reasons why the 3DS (with actual quality standards) is now at the bottom of the support list.

[EmperorIng]

It strikes me as a huge red flag and warning sign when a team (seemingly undermanned and under-financed) makes a wild promise to, of all things, develop and port a game across wildly different hardware standards, programming quirks, resolutions, etc etc. I mean, did they really think it would just be simple to totally downgrade a game intended for the 3DS into several decades old hardware, each with their own limitations and specifications?

That should have been the first sign that the project is way, way, way too ambitious for its own good. Sucking money out of the retro crowd is only worth it if you can target one platform consistently. It makes no sense to waste all this time to promise all these extra downgrades unless they were looking on making cheap cash off of retro-crazed buyers. I mean, as a modern example: Inafune's Mighty No. 9 being absolutely crippled by its promise to be ported to everything, from PS4 to 3DS to Nvidia Shield.

[Dicer]

It strikes me as a huge red flag and warning sign when a team (seemingly undermanned and under-financed) makes a wild promise to, of all things, develop and port a game across wildly different hardware standards, programming quirks, resolutions, etc etc. I mean, did they really think it would just be simple to totally downgrade a game intended for the 3DS into several decades old hardware, each with their own limitations and specifications?

That should have been the first sign that the project is way, way, way too ambitious for its own good. Sucking money out of the retro crowd is only worth it if you can target one platform consistently. It makes no sense to waste all this time to promise all these extra downgrades unless they were looking on making cheap cash off of retro-crazed buyers. I mean, as a modern example: Inafune's Mighty No. 9 being absolutely crippled by its promise to be ported to everything, from PS4 to 3DS to Nvidia Shield[/i].

Poor example, this has been a shit show from the beginning and it's a game that should easily run everything it's on so far. It's an un-optimized clusterf*ck of a project...the 3DS version is nowhere to be seen and frankly probably never started real development. There is no excuse for MN9 to run poorly on any platform it's been released on.

Porting to the PCE/TG16 is a different case here, they are going to provide assets and an outside developer familiar with the hardware is going to do the grunt work...hopefully.


 

[EmperorIng]

That to me seems just as fantastical and amateurish as promising to do it themselves. Maybe slightly less. It's still essentially not accounting for the fact that you, uh, can't make a game on the Dreamcast in the same way you can make a game on the PC Engine. All the assets would likely have to be reworked. The coding re-done from the ground up. It just seems so unrealistic that I wonder why people weren't (or aren't) more suspicious of such soaring claims.

Hell, why not throw a Famicom version in there. A famicom disk version too.

No arguments about MN9 being a clusterf*ck though.

[Punch]

Well if Bob Pape managed to do R-Type on the ZX with his inexperience and several limitations, ArkhoSoft can, too.

I was saying that I'm expecting the peripheral ports to be done before the "main" game because at least the retro devs have a track record of actually releasing games and not overpromising or making kickstarter campaigns. Well, at least Arkhan does.

[Trenton_net]

One of the problems is that at the point of the campaign when it could have the most benefit or harm, they announced that they'd partnered with Warermelon. Lots of people pulled their pledges and they, along with a bunch of people who hadn't yet pledged anything, were very vocal across forums with threads promoting this campaign that they would never support anything that Watermelon is associated with after their most recent (at the time) fundraising fiascos.

I generally don't follow this sort of stuff. I know that Watermelon became famous for Pier Solar, but what went wrong?

I also don't know what happened. How did Watermelon make a mess of things to get everyone to hate them so much? I suspect it has to do with how they released Pier Solar, in that some people got screwed over (ie. defective versions, canceling orders, not shipping, etc)?

[esteban]

One of the problems is that at the point of the campaign when it could have the most benefit or harm, they announced that they'd partnered with Warermelon. Lots of people pulled their pledges and they, along with a bunch of people who hadn't yet pledged anything, were very vocal across forums with threads promoting this campaign that they would never support anything that Watermelon is associated with after their most recent (at the time) fundraising fiascos.

I generally don't follow this sort of stuff. I know that Watermelon became famous for Pier Solar, but what went wrong?

I also don't know what happened. How did Watermelon make a mess of things to get everyone to hate them so much? I suspect it has to do with how they released Pier Solar, in that some people got screwed over (ie. defective versions, canceling orders, not shipping, etc)?

There are old threads here about it...I'm not too well-versed in it, myself.

Black_Tiger wrote about it.

[Arkhan]

I generally don't follow this sort of stuff. I know that Watermelon became famous for Pier Solar, but what went wrong?

Ah, where do we begin.　　　

First, they took forever to finish Pier Solar.  I remember when it was some goobery little novelty idea.  Fair enough.  I wish it stayed that way. 

They took tons of pre-order money.  Tons.  They "sold out" of the game before it even launched.  So, the only people able to get the first print of the game were people who ponied up cash early, on good faith that the game would get done.   Anyone who was skeptical got f*cked.

That sucks. 

Then, they announced a "Reprint" edition, and this is where I officially decided I hate Watermelon for all they're worth.

The reprint edition came in a new package, with a tacky REPRINT EDITION slapped on it.   It was lesser production quality, had no enhanced CD.

AND IT COST MORE THAN THE ORIGINAL, BETTER LOOKING VERSION.

They came up with tons of excuses.   They insulted their paying supporters, and future potential buyers.   It was a giant a$$hole-fest.  They said people didn't deserve the CD because they didn't support them early.   Then they said the CD doesn't fit in the clamshell (it does. I checked.).

Turns out, there was no CD this time because the CD didn't work right.  People had to rip the CD, dump it to PC, and reburn it for the SegaCD to read it.   Watermelon told people to do that, and then said wait nevermind don't do that.       The ISO got spread around.   Good.

the price went up because they mis-calculated costs of things, and basically should've charged more for the initial version.   The second-wavers all got hosed and had to pay more, for less, all because they suck at math.

I think they did a 3rd, and maybe 4th print of Pier Solar.  All with tacky LOLREPRINT editions.

then, they began whoring the game out to anywhere they could with those HD re-releases, etc.


The game itself is a trite Lunar clone.   It looks and sounds nice.  The combat is unbalanced.  The story is whatever.

It's not worth the hype-train.   People who praise it are very shallow, and duped by the visuals.


So, it really pisses me off that they are the reason this shit got funded, as they'll likely do something stupid over the course of the project.


Watermelon is a large part of why I am skeptical and apprehensive of basically anyone showing up to do anything anymore.   



They said the ROM wasn't dumpable, and the audio wasn't decodable.

IIRC, the ROM was dumped. 

and, Rover + Gravis decoded their audio tracks.

So, f*ck Watermelon.

they're about as bad as Super Fighter Team.

[Trenton_net]

I generally don't follow this sort of stuff. I know that Watermelon became famous for Pier Solar, but what went wrong?

So, f*ck Watermelon.

they're about as bad as Super Fighter Team.

I guess Super Fighter Team was responsible for similar Shenanigans? Inquiring minds want to know! :-)

[Black Tiger]

I don't have time to get into detail, but after a year or two of silence, it's finally come out that Fonzie really is a control freak who pushed Tulio out and has never had any intention of providing the service they sold investors with the magical gems factory. He has told everyone that there will be nothing previewed until Project Y is released and if you don't like tgat, you can apply for a refund.

From what gas slipped out from others who contributed ti the gane, it us currently receiving yet another iverhaul abd now peopke are veginnjng to wonder if it will ever get rekeased.

[GaijinD]

I guess Super Fighter Team was responsible for similar Shenanigans? Inquiring minds want to know! :-)

I'd be sorry to hear that, as aside from his baffling love affair with a terrible fighting game, the guy that runs Super Fighter Team always seemed decent enough to me. Of course, I've never bought anything from him, and I'm sure I haven't talked to him in over a decade.

[Trenton_net]

I guess Super Fighter Team was responsible for similar Shenanigans? Inquiring minds want to know! :-)

I'd be sorry to hear that, as aside from his baffling love affair with a terrible fighting game, the guy that runs Super Fighter Team always seemed decent enough to me. Of course, I've never bought anything from him, and I'm sure I haven't talked to him in over a decade.

I would tend to agree, which is why I am curious to hear what exactly happened. Though I will say, while Super Fighter is a terrible game, 武将争霸 (Aka Sango Fighter) was much better.

[Arkhan]

I don't have time to get into detail, but after a year or two of silence, it's finally come out that Fonzie really is a control freak who pushed Tulio out and has never had any intention of providing the service they sold investors with the magical gems factory. He has told everyone that there will be nothing previewed until Project Y is released and if you don't like tgat, you can apply for a refund.

From what gas slipped out from others who contributed ti the gane, it us currently receiving yet another iverhaul abd now peopke are veginnjng to wonder if it will ever get rekeased.

Fonzie was the dickshit that was telling paying people they didn't deserve anything.   Dude needs a reality check.

I generally don't follow this sort of stuff. I know that Watermelon became famous for Pier Solar, but what went wrong?

So, f*ck Watermelon.

they're about as bad as Super Fighter Team.

I guess Super Fighter Team was responsible for similar Shenanigans? Inquiring minds want to know! :-)

Cobbweb is just full of himself and makes things up.    His site has stupid ego-stroking shit all over it.

Like claiming he's the first to do Japanese partnership.   Sorry, that already happened on the MSX, years ago.

He takes way too much credit for the games that are produced by him.   

OH, and his clamshells suck.  They shatter like a 90 year old's hip at a kickboxing tournament.

then there was that Beggar Prince thing where the game didn't work, and you had to pay for a replacement.

dick.

[Trenton_net]

I don't have time to get into detail, but after a year or two of silence, it's finally come out that Fonzie really is a control freak who pushed Tulio out and has never had any intention of providing the service they sold investors with the magical gems factory. He has told everyone that there will be nothing previewed until Project Y is released and if you don't like tgat, you can apply for a refund.

From what gas slipped out from others who contributed ti the gane, it us currently receiving yet another iverhaul abd now peopke are veginnjng to wonder if it will ever get rekeased.

Fonzie was the dickshit that was telling paying people they didn't deserve anything.   Dude needs a reality check.

I generally don't follow this sort of stuff. I know that Watermelon became famous for Pier Solar, but what went wrong?

So, f*ck Watermelon.

they're about as bad as Super Fighter Team.

I guess Super Fighter Team was responsible for similar Shenanigans? Inquiring minds want to know! :-)

Cobbweb is just full of himself and makes things up.    His site has stupid ego-stroking shit all over it.

Like claiming he's the first to do Japanese partnership.   Sorry, that already happened on the MSX, years ago.

He takes way too much credit for the games that are produced by him.   

OH, and his clamshells suck.  They shatter like a 90 year old's hip at a kickboxing tournament.

then there was that Beggar Prince thing where the game didn't work, and you had to pay for a replacement.

dick.

How was the game defective? Like game braking defective? Seems like a pretty crummy move not to fix them for free :/