There's a serious lack of quality Genesis homebrews, so maybe this could be an incentive and inspiration? Sorry for the short post, really cool game!
2020 is truly a bizarre year. Paprium, of all games, actually released and is the real deal ! Soundtrack is dope though, made by Groovemaster 303 who worked on Streets of Rage Remake and Jredd.
I'm curious to how it actually plays myself. It looks and sound great, but I dunno....the combat looks a bit "off" to me.
I haven't kept up with news on this game. Now that it's out, is the seemingly impossible transparency effect from that old trailer still in it? And if so, do we know how they accomplished it?
My copy's been stuck in France for two weeks, and I'm guessing I won't be seeing it until the new year now. But when I do... Oh boy, will I will be doing a deep dive. From eyeballing it, yes you're right. The mechanics don't look very inspiring. There's some really off hitbox stuff going on, and some really offputting low frame count animation for certain moves. It's pretty clear to me that it lacks the flow that separates an average beat 'em up from a good or a great one.... But I guess you never know for sure until you play it.
Pre-ordered this way back in March 2017 and it finally showed up at my door yesterday. Been enjoying it so far. Can't wait for the inevitable hacks of SOR2 or 3 with Paprium assets.
What I'll be looking forward to is how emulation will take hold of this. This uses some extra chips, like Super FX and SVP. How will Everdrive and Terraonion get this working? As much as I want to support the continuation of homebrew, you can't charge $170 for a cartridge and expect it to sell well. Put out a Steam version, like Tanglewood and Xeno Crisis. Include a ROM file, and let people play on original hardware if they want.
Well my copy has finally turned up, and just looking at how "sealed" the packaging is, I'm all but tempted to flip it for a profit, rather than play it and be hideously disappointed. Edit: Opened it, plug it in, doesn't work in a Japanese Model 1 No-TMSS VA5. Tried every troubleshooting option Sega 16 forums have come up with, Mega CD attached with power off/on, with a 32X, without a 32X, nothing, just hangs on it's anti-TMSS copyright screen. On the bright side, it works on my Nomad, so I can enjoy it on a terrible screen for all of 5 seconds before the battery runs out.
I've read reports of some graphics not showing up on the Nomad, such as the "Toasty" style announcer.
Hmm, I'll have to check. Not that any of it matters any more, I ended up sourcing an earlier revision. I now have a Japanese VA1, and it works absolutely fine on that. Through discussions on the Sega-16 Discord, and a post on the forum where Mask of Destiny developed a ROM to document various "quirks" of MD revisions, it appears that the reason Paprium doesn't work on a VA5 might be that the routine to check what Mega Drive it's running on THINKS it's a VA6. They both output the same hex value from the version register. VA5 and 6 use an identical motherboard, with the only difference being the chip in position IC4. The chip is functionally identical aside from the VA5's 315-5402 doesn't have TMSS, whilst the VA6's 315-5433 does. When the routine then tries to gather info from the TMSS, which isn't IN the VA5, the game hardlocks. Mask of Destiny's version/quirk checker did exactly the same thing on a VA5 until they provided a version that didn't poll the TMSS. Why any game would need to poll the TMSS registers at all once it's passed the check and the game's code is running, who bloody knows. maybe Fonzie was trying to be clever and attempting to gatekeep the game from running on clone systems. Why the VA6 only actually runs if the expansion port is terminated appears to be a separate quirk of these later model one revisions, it was something that effected the 32X, too, hence the little doodad to replace the regular cover if you didn't have a Mega CD. Apparently to get Paprium running on the VA6 it's as simple as plugging in one of those or having a Mega CD attached to get the game to work.
Makes me wonder if they just broke something when adding the Mega CD 2 easter egg. It also doesn't work properly on a Mega SG, but that may be Analogue's fault.
From everything I've read about this guy, this is probably spot-on. Trying to be clever means he's fucked up, with legitimate systems that the game won't run on as a result. Great job he's done there.
Interestingly, this is actually a regional difference! The game detects your console region and adds some additional items for Japanese consoles (or Japanese special edition cartridges which are hardwired to run in JP mode), the toasty-style Showtime popup is one of those. The game does have some extremely comprehensive detection code. It can detect your specific console revision, Sega CD version, and presence of a 32X. It actually will run on some clone systems and even seems to know that it is-- and will promptly display your console configuration on the sound test as a pile of poop. Classy. To make things about this game even worse/better, there are actual hidden areas in the game that are direct tributes to other Genesis/MD brawlers, including ripped graphics. Fonzie is absolutely insane to take that risk, and I kind of hope that Sega notices and gives him a reality check. Shameless plug: I am the author of Paprium: The Unofficial, Incomplete Guide, which is an effort to document all the weird stuff in this game (as well as eventually provide a proper walkthrough). Several of us are digging deep into the game to find things and new discoveries have been being made on a very regular basis.
I can't decide whether all the insanity this game comes with is hilarious or really annoying, cuz it does look like it would be cool to play if it was possible to get a copy.
Honestly, it is a fun game. I am really enjoying it! And the music is just fantastic. The stellar presentation does carry it a lot -- it's not as deep as some other games in the genre, but I think it is solid enough to have a good time. But the controversy surrounding it? If I'd known before I preordered I probably wouldn't have bothered. But I based my preorder on the previous record of Watermelon delivering Pier Solar, which I had also bought. I didn't realize things would spiral out of control.
Why not hook the Nomad up to your TV with a Genesis model 2 composite AV cable? And plug in an AC adapter instead of trying to use the battery.
