Hidden Palace & SEGASaturno: Sega Saturn, surprise game

Has anyone actually played this? It's unplayable! The game will either crash after less than a minute walking about or if you grab that flashing icon at the beginning of the level your character will grow way too big. So big in fact that it won't fit on the screen resulting in glitch city. Strangely the game will play longer like this.

The version shown on the SEGASaturno YouTube video is a much more advanced complete with running ability, collision detection to hit enemies and a different direction radar.

I don't know if I an getting this wrong but if this game was released by Hidden Palace & SEGASaturno then why wasn't the build shown in the video released rather than this unplayable build? It all seems a bit of a rip off to those who donated when they were told it was a playable beta. This is NOT playable in the game sense. The fantastic Fighting Force beta from drx while very early IS playable.

Yakumo

 

I did that video; it came from my version. Which it still very early, but -indeed- more playable.

 

Ah, so the versions do differ. I feel a post coming on lol.....

 

LOL. Well..I'm going to PM someone..

 

First of all, i must tell that i'm impressed by the fact that the first ones that usually moan and complain about the releases are those who didn't donate for this release, sorry but I think there's absolutely no reason in bashing us.

Yakumo, if you really consider the proto as something really unplayable, i'm safe to say that the SegaFreak proto looks -at least to me- near in therms of unplayability.

It's amazing how you can mix up the SegaFreak Youtube video with a supposed unseen and new SegaSaturno Werewolf video. We never released any video of a Werewolf proto in the name of SegaSaturno, so, please, before accusing us like that (something that can put us in a compromise with the donators), investigate a little bit more.

The proto is playable, by the fact you can control a character and it's not a mere rolling demo. I know and accept that it's not a great proto, it doesn't match by miles the Fighting Force beta Drx released one year ago. But the price is not that high (in this case it costed us 1000$, we released it for a little more than the half).

The proto is not much earlier than SegaFreak one, keep in mind that on the SegaFreak proto, he doesn't get that lightball that makes the game freeze.why? maybe for the same reason? You can both run (yes,you can) and jump, even transform the werewolf into a man or woman, even a wolf.

Would be really great if SegaFreak can release his proto and we can see the differences. That would be interesting. We don't know if you can also transform the player into a man/woman/wolf in the SegaFreak proto because maybe he doesn't know how to do that or maybe it's not featured in there.

I don't want you guys to feel bad about this post, because there isn't any reason, just understand that when people makes an effort as we did and get bashed this way, our mood decreases and we ask ourselves if is worth all the effort.

Oh! And i don't (and maybe mustn't) tell or defend this proto our this communitary release. We did what we promised and we released something that was not available to the people. I don't want to argument this, and of course, this is something together with Hidden Palace and drx, maybe he got his own oppinion about this also, and i don't want to compromise him in any way. But i'm sure that your words are not going to be well received by him.

But by now, we will still on this, for the players.

And you?

 

x

 

?

 

Edit: Nevermind, I was remembering the details wrong.

 

The problem here is that this could have went very smoothly. It didn't. People feel a little rubbed, regardless of their status in relation to the release.
I, who have no intention of play this game nor feel any attachment to this release personally, see that everything's a bit rough around the edges.

My main complaint is that if you're going to ask for money via forums, then you should relay updates to those forums instead of, later, saying we could have emailed you at any time for info. It's not like knowing the title was at the bottom of people's lists. Seems superficial and straightforward to me to just type it out.

Yeah yeah yeah.
I don't think people are really bashing, but more confused and a little dissapointed. Bashing is attacking.
If the release was for just the people who donated, then we could say no one has the right to complain (but them), but it wasn't. At least I am under the impression it was for everyone, the "community" if you will.

I'm sure the releasers will clear up all the confusion to the best of their ability.

 

Thanks again to the people at SEGA Saturno for this new release!

Instead of critizising, all the people that haven't donated should either shut up or be grateful for a "free" release... you like it you play it; you don't like it you erase it. What's the point of hating this release? :shrug:

By the way, I'm impressed by these words:

I know the staff of SEGA Saturno and they are trustworthy, I can tell you.

DRX has something to clear up here.

 

The whole misunderstanding could have been avoided had this not been an overhyped "secret" release.

SEGA Saturno promised the release of an unknown, unseen game.

They gave everyone an early build of a prototype that has been in collector hands for a few years.

What was promised/advertised is not what was delivered.

Had the game been annouced at the start, you wouldn't be seeing this sort of critical reaction from people.

-hl718

 

I disagree, I think everyone has a right to criticize me or my releases or say what's on their mind about it. Treating me like some kind of god-king just because I release stuff would be really bad, actually.

edit:

I agree, and I probably won't make this mistake again. You have to understand the context here, the Segasaturno forum members are much more enthusiastic about this stuff, for them it's a cool game, an unseen surprise game.

I agree that overhyping it on other boards was unfortunate, and while I had no part in that, I still feel somewhat responsible. I don't really know what I could do that would make it better, though. I can't really control everyone in the universe.

edit2:
I actually periodically ask people not to hype my fundraisers on other forums, and not be pushy, etc.

 

Yep, this pretty much sums it up.

If people don't like the results of the release, just choose not to support them with your money anymore. I've never been a fan of the "community release" idea, I'd rather just buy the proto and release it myself one way or another.

 

As someone who released tens of thousands of dollars worth of protos for free I can say that's it's hard to keep something like that up while not at the same time being rich. Community releases are a viable alternative to that.

I agree with voting with your money.

 

I've released about $2k worth of my own stuff since August, and I'm just a lowly Middle School Science teacher so I'm far from rich.

I've been releasing a free NES ROM once a month with my brother since the summer, and with 50+ NES protos already at our disposal, we can keep it up for the next 4+ years without buying a single extra proto.

We'll be releasing the ROM for Kitty's Catch next month (hopefully) after we sell out of our repro run. That'll be another $1.5k worth of proto goodness out to the public. With a repro run, we at least produce something tangible that we had to put some solid man hours into, and for those in the community who can't stand the thought of someone making money off of the work it takes to reproduce the game, they can play it for free after about a week.

 

Hey, I'm not saying it's impossible. After all I've been doing it for years and will keep doing it as long as I can, not all of my recent releases are fundraisers.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself. No one here I'm sure is outright attacking them. But regardless of whether anyone donated or not, it is still a release for the whole gaming community, not just those who donated. Anyone should be able to point out any errors they see and not have to feel like they're being unfair to the people who dedicated their time and money to make this happen.
We are all a part of this after all, whether we donated or not.

Glad to see that you're not taking this so much to heart drx. Hopefully you know I surely never have those intentions.

 

It's not hating the release but I feel the original post about this release was misleading which stopped me from donating and I would have if I knew exactly what I was donating for and if I thought it was worth while. I've donated to many releases over the years. To me the original post for this release made it sound as if the release was going to be something worth while. Unreleased Capcom game, playable are two phrases that spring to mind. But the lack of any hint's to what the game could be put me right off as this normally means it's a dud. OK, it is an unreleased Capcom game but I'm sure most people out there would expect the phrase playable to mean you can actually play the game at least a little. Not walk a few inches then have it crash out.

I'm not trying to start a war or anything, just expressing my opinion.

I don't think anyone is having a go at you, drx but more in the way this release was hyped up. I have no bad feelings towards you at all. The amount you have done over the years for the community is outstanding. The problem I have is being mislead by forums.

Yakumo

 

Well, I gotta say to everybody that 'moaned' (or rather: was disappointed with this release); get into the prototype world. SegaSaturno made clear this was an early version and unlike 16-bit games, 32-bit games are differently structured which means early versions can have all kinds of bugs, things that lock up the game and are generally fun for about 15 minutes; I know, I own these things.

None of the prototypes I own were spectacular or fun for much more than 30 minutes. (bar Return Fire and Clockwork Knight P.W. but those were reasonably complete). Everybody that paid knew they could end up being disappointed so it's their own decision, you can't go back and criticise the people releasing it.

As for releasing my updated version (Saturn_worship is right, I didn't pick up the orb because it messed up the game ) it not unlikely now.

 

This could of been a good game in time. but from what i have seen on the youtube vid the game looks dull im downloading this beta now.