ecmyers

Fantastic interview! I'm so hyped for this game, as the aesthetic is adorable and jet-based games seem to be my jam. I am also a big fan of pandas, especially anime pandas like the dad from Panda Go Panda! and Genma Saotome from Ranma 1/2. Did Ben also make the anime-style ad for the game? I love it!

I'm curious to see how this does, and wishing them success with their first cartridge run. They're currently at 234 copies remaining "in stock" so there will be time to grab one if they get low and you're overtaken by FOMO.

Congrats! I can't believe I missed that this was released in June, but I guess I've been busy this summer. I just purchased it, and I'm looking forward to trying it out. Hopefully it will work on my Steam Deck! I hope more people discover and play this great game.

I believe it's shipping on Tuesday!

Thanks for the interview! I've been holding off on trying the C64 game because I wanted to play it on NES, and I'm excited that it's finally coming out! I'm considering getting the C64 version now too, and I wonder how different the two games are or if one if them is considered the "definitive" version.

Exciting! I preordered this in 2017.

I would suggest sending Steam keys for the game to YouTube creators like John Riggs with big followings and an appreciation for NES homebrew games, as well as some Twitch streamers who play games like this, so they can review and/or stream the game and raise awareness. If the game is priced at $9.99 (seemingly the sweet spot for digital versions of NES homebrews) or less, some people who watch these videos would just buy the game to try it for themselves.

This is impressive and fast work, and I agree that it's a good path forward for the series. I'm very glad more people will be able to experience your wonderful game.

Meanwhile, apparently this has been hanging out on Twitter since October 2021.

I would love to see a second run and a ROM release — games should be played, particularly games of this high quality. The original run will retain what value the current market sees fit, by virtue of it being an extremely limited edition (many of them numbered on the title screen) and an artifact with historic significance in itself. I agree wholeheartedly that collectors should not be a major consideration in what to do with the original game. I don't think most of the people who purchased it back then had any expectation that it would never see a wider public release one day. A reissue of this game today would sell phenomenally well, partially because of its reputation, but especially because it's fantastic and worth playing.

I only know enough about NFTs to know I don't really care for them as a business model or a product. It sounds like you're just selling a license to make derivative works but in sort of a complicated and unintuitive way—and to multiple developers at once? I think you would be better off partnering with a particular developer to make new works and/or adapt or publish the original, if that's possible. I think most people really just want to play the original game, and as someone fortunate enough to own a copy, I really want more people to be able to play it too. It's great and it's a shame it's not more widely available. To be honest, I think you may be overestimating the value of an IP that is only meaningful to a small group of people in an already niche market. Why would people be interested in purchasing a new game loosely related to the original Star Keeper, a game they have never played, maybe never even heard of, when the original developer isn't even actively involved? And if there is some value there, making the IP available to multiple people who can potentially churn out Star Keeper clones will only serve to dilute an already small market.

Did @dbarrett0928finish it fast and sell it already?

Welcome! I've got #42.

Thanks for all your efforts!

Airball is going on sale for NES and GBA tomorrow: EDIT: Whoops, looks like this was a canceled game that's now being released, so that probably doesn't count as homebrew.

Here's a new NES platformer that seems to have come out of nowhere, Bobby Six Seven from calgames, available now for $4.49: https://calgames.itch.io/bobby-six-seven I quite like the look of this! Edited to add: In-browser demo: https://theretroverse.com/product/bobby-six-seven/

This is awesome! Also, I haven't contributed anything to NES PRO (yet); however, I did copyedit a bunch of the articles for the first issue, before I got swamped by book deadlines.

I'm going to be away all three days with slow/unreliable internet

I would, but I have to be available to play during that weekend, right?

Oh no! I'm at a wedding the weekend of the 22nd I'll be playing this anyway and rooting for everyone! I'm so glad this is happening. Hopefully this is just the first of many tournaments.

Congratulations! I love that box art. I'm guessing there won't be a digital release, so maybe it's finally time I incorporated a Genesis into my console setup.

I guess that person or group would be the Star Keeper Keeper.

My understanding is that the RE copies are "worth" more because they're more limited than the limited editions, so enjoy your clean copy! I'm glad my limited edition doesn't have a special message on it, and as a science fiction geek it's really cool that I ended up with #42, the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

I didn't say I was going to dump it or release the ROM, just that someone has been bugging me to do so over on my YouTube post. I'm aware that 87Arts does not want it to be released publicly, so of course I wouldn't share the ROM even if I could. I assumed it was OK to share pics of the PCB though, since I haven't seen them documented anywhere else.

Someone on YouTube is on me to dump the game, claiming "anyone" can modify the custom mapper to get it to work in an emulator. This did prompt me to finally open the game up to check out the PCB though, since I've never seen images of it. I meant to do it earlier, but I saw someone here comment that the fifth screw in the middle was glued in or something—however, my cart only has three screws, and it opened up no problem. Just for the curious, here are some shots of the custom PCB. If we aren't supposed to post images of it for some reason, feel free to delete this.