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BitJag

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  1. As I think about this, it seems to me that most homebrew that can be found in a CD format comes from a time before Saint's Jaguar Game Drive, BigPEmu's CD emulation, and AtariAge being a Jaguar homebrew publisher. Also, it was a time were there was less interest in the Jaguar generally, and most people who were actually interested in playing new games for the platform had a Jag CD. Another thing to note about the difference between carts and CD's, especially for the couple decades after 1996, is that even though many homebrew games can easily fit on a cart, a stack of encrypted CD's (after the encryption keys were found) is far easier to produce. Especially for the typically one or two person team involved in making a game. It is important to note that CD's were not exclusive for this time, with publisher Songbird Productions making cart releases of abandoned games like "Skyhammer" and "Phase Zero". I believe at the time there was a calculus being made by developers that made a CD release the obvious choice. That calculus may have included: The cost and availability of parts (shells and pcbs for carts were new old stock, and were a dwindling supply). Time taken to actually physically produce the game (carts take much more time to physically produce). How many people from the tiny pool of people capable of playing the game will actually play the game. How many of these small handful of interested players had a CD unit that worked (probably most if I had to guess). I believe a slow reversal in the preferred format has happened within the past ~10 years, in favor of cartridge releases, for the following reasons (in no particular order): Having the original Jaguar cartridge shell molds being in good hands to produce new plastic for carts has made new plastics more accessible. Custom PCB's that use modern parts that make producing and flashing the actual cart less tedious for a small team or individual. The general disappearance of local and online shops that can produce a professional looking small batch of CD's at a reasonable price. Seemingly the amount of people who want to play games and don't have a Jag CD now outweighing those who do have a Jag CD. AtariAge being a publisher that is willing to produce cartridge copies of homebrew releases for the foreseeable future. As well as Songbird Productions continuing to be a publisher for new Jaguar content. This is just my perception, but there seems that there are a considerable amount of new people showing up to the Jaguar party 25 years late, and there aren't enough CD units to for them to enjoy the older homebrew releases on real hardware. At least when I was considering what format to publish Flappy McFur on, this was the perception I had. I'm inclined to believe that this has been one of the largest incentives for developers to begin favoring a cart release for new homebrew games, and the other pieces of the puzzle appeared naturally and miraculously (the molds for the shells) and fell into place as a result. Thankfully, it seems many homebrew developers are taking advantage of this reversal of incentives, looking back at their older games, and opting to do cart re-releases of older homebrew titles, often as a compilation of games. Reboot is a good example of this with their compilations "Brawn and Brains" and "Rebooted" including most of their older releases, as well as the "Dr. Typo Collection" that includes Dr. Typos work over the years. A good example of this transition from CD to carts as a preferred homebrew format happening in real time are @Orion_'s consecutive CD/cart releases of many of his games starting about a decade ago. I believe it is also important to note that Piko Interactive has opted to use carts exclusively for their licensed Atari ST ports, like "Custodian" and "Impossamole", showing an example of a preference for carts from a relatively newer publisher. I obviously went beyond your question @KrunchyTC, but it was fun to think through this a bit for my own sake as I have been lucky enough to experience both formats being used by homebrew Jaguar developers.
  2. It's a resource management/survival game, in the vein of Oregon Trail, but with a predefined narrative that continues the parody of Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy and Flappy McFur. The goal is to survive 64 days, stranded on an alien planet, by collecting and wisely managing resources, repairing a droid and transponder that is necessary for flagging an incoming rescue ship, and exploring the area around your base camp. I'm planning on adding in some basic item puzzle elements in the wider world that you will get to explore, and some very, very basic item crafting that affects the "potency" of your team's needed resources. Repairing the droid CAT5 also includes some mini games to restore his natural functions, and some other optional depth to the story and world. If you want to do some digging for some more specific information, and get a good laugh at my amateur coding skills, I've done some older livestreams on YouTube where I talk about details here and there. Look for the thumbnails that say "Jag Dev & Talk", and mention Crescent Memories in the video title. https://www.youtube.com/@jagcorner/streams
  3. One hundred copies were made and distributed (Most were sold, the remainder were gifted to individuals that helped me). I would suggest not spending your money on something that is probably being priced way too high for what it is. I will be re-releasing a far superior version of the game, along with two other games, in Crescent Memories. The current plan is to publish this through AtariAge, which will make the game available to everyone who wants it for the foreseeable future. More info can be found at https://jagcorner.com/crescent-memories/. I try to send out an update on this project, and other related things, once a month through my newsletter. I would suggest following the email newsletter for the most recent information, to have a non intrusive reminder that these projects are still being worked on, and other newsletter subscriber only perks. I just read some of the Q&A in that original thread, and there was something that I agreed to do, but I didn't ever end up doing for whatever reason. That was to release a ROM of the game shortly after release. I should probably work on getting that done for that old version of the game, 7 years late, and because I now I have a way of protecting the ROM thanks to @CyranoJ Keep an eye on the newsletter for updates
  4. I imagine space would be an issue if WAV/RAW PCM was used for a cartridge based game. RAW audio is massive compared to small instrument samples that are composed into a song using a tracker. If the game was Jaguar CD based available space for uncompressed audio is less of an issue. The Amiga demo scene might be a place to look into, since the .mod format is commonly used on the Amiga. They do an annual event called Revision, and it's possible that sending a few messages to people who recently participated in that event as music composers could get you to someone who would be willing to help. A couple more ideas. You mentioned modarchive.org. They have a recent users page. Clicking through a few of these shows that there are people who are currently practicing the art of making tracker based music. Many of them are dabbling in more complex/or modern formats (.it .xm), but I'm sure there are a few that are familiar with the specific restrictions that come with .mod (I spotted a few that had .mod on their profiles' module list). I don't believe it will hurt to send these people a message about what you are looking for, but it might be tough to find someone that wants to work on a IP that someone else owns. Another idea is to research who might be composing on places like Twitter and YouTube. On YouTube I found this individual and this one, who seem to have some skills in at least transcribing to the .mod format. I don't want to do all the work for you, but using search terms like Milkytracker, ProTracker, and FastTracker (common trackers for .mod music), and then filtering the results to see more recent posts/videos could reveal some individuals who can help. You will also have to manually filter out individuals that are just uploading old compositions done by someone other than the uploader themselves. It's been fun to see your progress on this port. Good luck!
  5. Thank you @ggn for taking the time to make sure this repository maintained and is available! It means allot to me and I'm sure to the rest of us that rely on these tools.
  6. I don't believe so. I still don't have a 7800, but I'll most likely pick one up once I have my copy of Harpy's Curse.
  7. It looks like these rubber feet are 3/8" in diameter and could be 1/16" or 1/8" thick (using royal measurements here since it seems like that was how they were originally measured). Here are some suggestions, please keep in mind I haven't tried any of these myself. 3M with adhesive 3/8" diameter 1/8" thickness - https://www.ebay.com/itm/254481693726, https://www.ebay.com/itm/254476778950 (a bit cheaper) Another option is to get a 3/8" diameter hole punch and a rubber sheet with adhisive. Finding a good thickness for the sheet of rubber seems to be a bit difficult but not impossible. Heavy duty 3/8" hole punch - link Rubber sheet with adhesive 1/16" thick - link
  8. This is awesome! It's great to see how quickly this came together on Patreon. Now I can play another fun classic on my Jaguar. Thank you and Merry Christmas!
  9. I didn't have a 7800 growing up, this meant that I went from the 2600 straight to the Atari Jaguar (outside of the 8-bit and 16-bit personal computers). Working on this game, and playing some of the available builds has convinced me that I need to invest in this console just for this game. It scratches a strange itch for me. It's a great mix of Legend of Zelda and Joust, both games I enjoy. Having the opportunity two work on the artwork and packaging for this game was quite satisfying as well, and it's work that I'm quite proud to have in my portfolio. @Revontuli was a joy to work with! With his and @Albert's valuable feedback and ideas, the final packaging came out beautifully. I hope others enjoy it, along with the game as well. Before it's release in the AtariAge store, enjoy this timelapse of the box art illustration, as well as some concept art for the harpy herself.
  10. I didn't grow up with the Ultima games, but they have always been on the periphery of conversations and other games that I have played over the years. Working on the illustration and other artwork for the packaging for Penult gave me a reason to dive into the visuals that surround these games in order to give Penult the artistic treatment it deserves. As I have said with another recent 2600 game that I helped put the packaging together for, it's incredible to see what the Atari 2600 can do. I would have scoffed at someone casually telling me that an RPG of this depth would be possible, but here it is. I've put quite a bit of time into the demo, and I look forward to putting more time into it once I get my hands on my own copy. I'm honored to have been a small part in bringing Penult, a game that wears it's inspirations on it's sleeve proudly, to it's final form for others to enjoy. I'm incredibly thankful for @Karl G his amazing work on this game. I'm also thankful for his and @Albert's feedback to get all the physical materials to a point that I hope other's feel does this standout game justice. To celebrate it's impending release on the AtariAge store, I recorded a time lapse of the primary illustration. This illustration was only one of quite a few illustrations done for all the packaging, so there are going to be plenty of visual treats to see when we get our hands on this game. Enjoy!
  11. BitJag

    Growing Ties

    I've been playing the earlier version of this game on and off for a few years now, and it's quite addictive. This game is a great fit for the Lynx, especially in this updated form, and it's great to see it get a packaged treatment. While we wait for this gem to show up in the store, here is a time lapse of the box art illustration. I shifted away from my usually semi-realistic style to a flat shaded style. I believe it fits well with the flat nature of ties in general, and with the overall look and feel of the game. Thank you to @drludos and @Albert for inviting me to work on this one, and for their guidance and feedback to get this illustration to where it needed to be for this game.
  12. With Immunity coming to the store soon, I wanted to personally thank @Sohl and @Albert again for allowing me to work on the box art illustration and manual for this incredibly involved and fun Atari 2600 game. It's astounding to me what the 2600 can do, and Immunity does this in a way I haven't seen before on the system. With a 30 page "Lab Notebook" (manual), this is a ton to wrap your head around, but it's very satisfying when the mechanics of the game set in. Here is a short time lapse of the illustration coming together. Something I don't often mention with these illustrations is that they are done in a way were they are horizontally seamless, so the artwork is continues as you flip it around. It can be tricky to design for this, but it does make the overall box feel more cohesive. Enjoy!
  13. Another day closer to seeing the AtariAge store update with a pile of new releases, so here is another time lapse. This time, the creation for the box art of Novagen Volume 1, a pair of fun arcade shooters that have made their way over to the Jaguar. I grew up with an Atari ST and I never knew these games existed until @CyranoJ and @Albert approached me about doing this 3D illustration and the layout/design for the packaging/manual. I was aware of the Mercenary games, other games by the late Paul Woakes, so it was a bit of treat to discover Encounter and Backlash for the first time, and that they were both making it from the ST to my favorite cat. To be a part of this migration was also a treat, and opportunity I'm very grateful for. I hope people enjoy this new official collection for the Jaguar, and the small recorded bit of my processes of adding to the total experience these memorable games. (Don't forget to look at the manual when you get this, there are some additional renders for the various enemies and tank to look at and enjoy).
  14. Since this one is close to release in the AtariAge Store, here is a time lapse of the box art illustration and some of the design artwork to establish what these characters/aircraft might look like in more detail. Be sure to take a look at the manual when you get it. It features a bit more artwork that isn't in this video, as well as some of the beautiful pixel artwork done by @agradeneu . Seeing a new shooter on the Lynx is always welcome, and to be part of a carefully put together and fun game is always an honor. Thank you to @LordKraken and @Albert for asking me to work on Odynexus as the artist for the packaging.
  15. The rom is working as intended. Meaning that it boots and plays fine in BigPEmu, runs on Skunkboard, and runs on JagGD. I'm personally not familiar with the MiSTer Jaguar core, please don't expect what are probably unnecessary adjustments to the software to accommodate this use case.
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