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Rikki & Vikki


TailChao

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1 hour ago, Trebor said:

Misery The Inconvenient (AKA Misery Dragon) will NOT be pleased with what I have done. ?

What a TERRIBLE act of convenience!

 

Since most of the bullet points just state library upgrades, here's the details on each :

  • Graphics API (GAPI) abstraction layer and NULL Render Path
    • This is a modular method for drawing graphics, so it's easier to add support for more than just Direct3D 9 and DirectDraw in the future. Y'all want 3dfx glide support for your fancy Voodoo 2's, right?
    • You can also disable the render path if you want to see how much that's affecting performance.
  • Upgraded to BupSystem Core v0.9.6.1
    • Improved emulation accuracy, I'd like the Windows version of Rikki & Vikki to follow BupSystem's improvements whenever possible.
    • BupSystem's history is available here.
  • Upgraded to JoyFish v0.8.6.1
    • Much improved controller support, including profiles for all these.
    • Uses a different method to read the keyboard (by default) to better support virtual keyboards and sharing the keyboard over services like Valve's new Remote Play Together.
    • Prompts for when controllers are removed or improperly mapped.
  • Upgraded to FishClip v0.7.1.0
    • This is just our shim for using Steam's services, there were only a few updates to its diagnostic features.


A note regarding updates, since the software is still "living" - the core content of the game will never change. Such that, the experience will be identical if you were to download a copy or buy a cartridge in five years. We did have speedrunners playing the game, and it is important to me that any revisions to the software not affect their experience (or anyone else's).

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Taco Tuesday is long past, but Foxy Friday is here and Rikki & Vikki for the Atari 7800 is back! Order now through g_PayPal.gif.

 

RnV_Complete_7800_VF_640x480.jpg

 

…wait, is something different in that photo?

 

RnV_Comparison_7800_640x320.jpg

 

Yep, we’ve got a fancy new foil label (on the right) and an F.A.Q. to go with it!

 

NEW F.A.Q.

 

Q : So what’s with the new labels?
A : The cartridge labels were one of the things I wasn’t satisfied with when we launched back in February. We were able to meet (and I think exceed) the quality of the game boxes from the 7800’s heyday - including the silver color, and I wanted the cartridges to match this.

 

If we were to develop another title for the 7800 a new style label would have been part of it. But since Rikki & Vikki performed poorly and another game isn’t likely, I decided to try and remedy this with the remaining copies. We tried several stocks before the foil paper was recommended to us. This doesn’t match the box color, but I think it looks much cooler - kind of like a hybrid Atari 800 cartridge design!

 

Q : Has anything else changed?
A : Nope.

 

Q : Why wasn’t this style of label used at launch?
A : It took six months of discussion with different print shops and getting tests made before settling on this new stock, there wasn’t enough time.

 

Q : If I have an old label, can I get it replaced with a new one?
A : Not yet. I’d like to allow customers who aren’t satisfied with their old style label to mail in their cartridges if they’d like it “upgraded,” but don’t have a workflow ready for this. I’ll try to set something up early next year.

 

Q : How many copies are left?
A : As of writing, 190.

 

Q : Will you manufacture more copies?
A : Everything I’ve written in the Original F.A.Q. still holds. This is not intended as a limited run and if there is enough demand I’d like to make more copies available.

 

Q : Anything else?
A : There may be some time between submitting your order and when it’s shipped out, please be patient. You’ll get a notification from PayPal when your copy is in transit.

Edited by TailChao
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Just a heads up, all orders will start shipping out tomorrow afternoon.

 

Quote

I wish it would have sold more so you could have made more games...maybe one day you make a R & V Part II where Misery turns good and R and V evil. Kinda donkey kong switcharoo roles.

It's not necessarily that I'm not making any more games, only that I can't guarantee anything regarding what I'll work on or when it'll be released. If the Steam sales were sufficient and there was demand for another title on the wedge (or X68000, CD-i, or whatever), I could make a promise regarding what we could deliver and when. But that wasn't the case.

 

I did at least finish a draft for new cartridge hardware I'd use for another 7800 title, so that'll at least get released at some point - whether or not another 7800 game happens.

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I Love this game!  You totally hit it out of the park!   I get that you want to make money, but it's a bummer,...because I'd love for you to make more 7800 games.   That said, if you do I will buy them.

 

I would also buy a game if you made it for Atari 2600, ColecoVision (Phoenix/Omni too), NES, Genesis, SNES, or Turbografx...Possibly PS1/2/3, Wii, or Dreamcast also ...

 

Cheers!

 

 

(As you can tell I don't do modern systems or PC, but that's just me)

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18 hours ago, Jinks said:

That is all cool. It was a major shocker to everyone when this came out. 

10 hours ago, GoldLeader said:

I Love this game!  You totally hit it out of the park!   I get that you want to make money, but it's a bummer,...because I'd love for you to make more 7800 games.   That said, if you do I will buy them.

Haha, thanks - that's very appreciated. I'm still very proud of what we were able to ship despite it being a massive flop.

 

10 hours ago, GoldLeader said:

I would also buy a game if you made it for Atari 2600, ColecoVision (Phoenix/Omni too), NES, Genesis, SNES, or Turbografx...Possibly PS1/2/3, Wii, or Dreamcast also ...

I'd love to work with most of those. But the Genesis is serious business, 'cause that's the one I actually had ;)

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I also bought a copy of this beautiful game. It's an awesome work of art. Thanks for that, @TailChao

For future projects and for your wallet I'd think you should develop for a console that was worldwide a huge success and still has a lot of fans today (8bit -> NES / 16bit -> SNES/Genesis).

The 7800 was and still is a too small niche market...

I don't know if you followed the mega successful kickstarter & indiegogo campaigns for Micro Mages (NES):

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/morphcat-games/micro-mages-a-new-game-for-the-nes

The income what these guys gained is what you deserve as well! ;-) 

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20 hours ago, TailChao said:

... despite it being a massive flop.

 

 

 

For a 7800 game, selling over 300 copies so far is very far from a flop. Those kinda numbers easily put it at the top of the best selling 7800 homebews of all time. Perhaps expanding to sell it on both ebay and amazon would help generate more sales as well? 

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16 hours ago, Kosmic Stardust said:

They selling Rikki and Vikki at gas stations now? ?

Nah, Ocean State Job Lot.

 

 

5 hours ago, ongikong said:

For future projects and for your wallet I'd think you should develop for a console that was worldwide a huge success and still has a lot of fans today (8bit -> NES / 16bit -> SNES/Genesis).

The 7800 was and still is a too small niche market...

Sure, but I think these consoles already have great libraries which explore the nuances of their respective hardware. While it's always possible to bring something new to a platform, I was hoping there'd be enough interest in the ones that weren't - which is also why we made the game available on Steam, with significant effort behind that.

 

The target was always "a new game which also happens to be available on the for old hardware" rather than "a game which you should buy because it's on old hardware" - We had a few cases where players on Steam finished the game and enjoyed it without knowing it was even on the 7800, that was the point I wanted to make.

 

 

Quote

I don't know if you followed the mega successful kickstarter & indiegogo campaigns for Micro Mages (NES):

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/morphcat-games/micro-mages-a-new-game-for-the-nes

The income what these guys gained is what you deserve as well! ;-) 

I've followed Morphcat's work for years and think they did an incredibly good job with Micro Mages. Everything on this, including the game content, Kickstarter campaign, and "educational video" were all tip-top. To be honest, I think they also had a way better product than us.

 

 

1 hour ago, Shawn said:

For a 7800 game, selling over 300 copies so far is very far from a flop. Those kinda numbers easily put it at the top of the best selling 7800 homebews of all time. Perhaps expanding to sell it on both ebay and amazon would help generate more sales as well? 

Here's the thing, we weren't defining success based upon the number of cartridges sold - but rather how many copies were moved on Steam. I discussed this a few pages back, but it was completely infeasible to profit exclusively from the cartridge sales unless we were charging several hundred dollars per unit. This was not due to hardware costs, plastics, or packaging - but the investment in the game software. We were trying to offer something competitive with similarly priced titles on Steam. Having the cartridges available through more outlets would probably move tens of units, not thousands.

 

To be blunt : we needed 8,000 - 10,000 full priced downloads before August of this year in order to continue. I don't mean to belittle anyone else's work, but this is the cost of doing software development full time rather than as a hobby and paying your collaborators barely above minimum wage.

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1 hour ago, TailChao said:

 

To be blunt : we needed 8,000 - 10,000 full priced downloads before August of this year in order to continue. I don't mean to belittle anyone else's work, but this is the cost of doing software development full time rather than as a hobby and paying your collaborators barely above minimum wage.

 

Completely understood.

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2 minutes ago, Gray Defender said:

I agree, and I know it's not much but I also purchased a second copy to throw in my support...

I already had Rikki & Vikki on stream but wanted to support the Creator as well, also I wanted to be able to play the game with friends without sitting in front of my awkward computer, and so I could take it over places to play it at my little brothers house

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I only recently heard of this, or I would have been in on the first run. I did recently get a 7800 though I believe I have one in storage that's interested with no cables. SainT's announcement that he was working on a 7800 GD device prompted me to get an AV modded one and a handful of games, which lead to me hearing about this one, because his cart won't support this sound chip, just pokey, meaning the real thing will be there only way to play on real hardware. Even before now I tend to get unique carts for systems I plan to get some day.

I also wish we could see more from this team, but that goes for a lot of my favorite games!

 

I'm waiting on my cart to play this one but sounds like it's pretty great!

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28 minutes ago, Hastor said:

I only recently heard of this, or I would have been in on the first run. I did recently get a 7800 though I believe I have one in storage that's interested with no cables. SainT's announcement that he was working on a 7800 GD device prompted me to get an AV modded one and a handful of games, which lead to me hearing about this one, because his cart won't support this sound chip, just pokey, meaning the real thing will be there only way to play on real hardware. Even before now I tend to get unique carts for systems I plan to get some day.

I also wish we could see more from this team, but that goes for a lot of my favorite games!

 

I'm waiting on my cart to play this one but sounds like it's pretty great!

Wait a minute, does that mean if I get my atari s-video modded, (and also get the"pokey mod") pokey games will still have audio but Rikki and Vikki won't?

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I'm not sure how that mod works. Why does it need a pokey mod when pokey games come with a pokey in the cartridge?

Mine is RCA modded, not S-video, and pokey games like ballblazer work fine. I think Commando was the only other official one.

 

But this game doesn't use a pokey, it uses a different chip and passes it through the audio pin in the cartridge slot just like the pokey games do.

 

SainT's possible upcoming cart I believe will use an FPGA to simulate pokey but he's confirmed this wouldn't work. He'll leave the specialty chips to exist only in their own carts.

 

I didn't mod my own so I'd like to be sure about it too.

Edited by Hastor
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From what I can find most mods just connect the audio input pin to the outgoing audio. It's just analog sound coming from the pokey. If it works with pokey I'd assume it passes through audio from this chip. The pokey itself doesn't even communicate with the system directly, just sends audio over a pin. Unless it is some mod that changes where the pokey sound is generated, I'd expect this to work like any passthrough. Just other games all use the pokey so that's often all they refer to. It's actually passthrough audio that only happens to be used for pokey elsewhere.

 

If I'm wrong please let me know! I'd hate to be unable to play!

Edited by Hastor
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1 hour ago, Theallknowingsause said:

Wait a minute, does that mean if I get my atari s-video modded, (and also get the"pokey mod") pokey games will still have audio but Rikki and Vikki won't?

The audio chip used in Rikki & Vikki is just using the external audio line off the cartridge port. Pokey is what was available and used back in the day. But technically, any cartridge with any sound chip that is able to send the audio output to that line would be heard through the system provided the audio is balanced properly to the RCA jacks.

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1 hour ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

The audio chip used in Rikki & Vikki is just using the external audio line off the cartridge port. Pokey is what was available and used back in the day. But technically, any cartridge with any sound chip that is able to send the audio output to that line would be heard through the system provided the audio is balanced properly to the RCA jacks.

 

Yep, including things like an MP3 decoder :)

 

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