Released: Irritating Maze working with regular controllers

This is your only warning. Keep this shit up and I will remove your account. Learn to act like a decent poster.

 

Thanks Veggav. Sadly I have no means to test this, but great work!

To those that have, does it play as well as the Unibios route?

I also heard that the NGF standard joystick version didn't actually work (which would make it odd that SNK sent them a modified rom..but anything is possible with SNK / NGF lol), but can anyone confirm that? Just keen to know exactly what is out there that plays smoothly. Fun title for sure!

 

236
It is the exact same ngh number, 236.

Works 100% perfect
I don't know why people would claim the NGF release of Irritating Maze: Standard Joystick Version didn't work.
It seemed to be another immature attempt for ng.com members to try and devalue the NGF release. (I'm not saying you're doing that wheelaa).


Distributor, not a developer
Even if people were to speak bad about the game it would be of no significance to NGF because we didn't program the game.

NeoGeoFreak was only a distributor and not a developer and all we did was sell and distribute the games.
Take Legend of Success Joe or Fight Fever for example; the consensus is pretty much in agreement that those games are
horrid with terrible gameplay, but snk and NGF still sold and distributed those games.
I fail to see why people try and put NGF down if they personally don't like a particular game.


Fun and unique - waiting for more trackball games to be found
In my personal opinion, Irritating Maze was one hell of a fun game and that is why I am always mentioning and on looking out for
the unreleased part two: Irritating Maze Returns, and for other unreleased trackball games, such as Bowling Revolutions, Golf, and the
"new progressive shooting" game that snk mentioned in their promotion leaflets for their trackball cabinet.

 

If you found those games, can we expect a public rom dump?

 

*SIGH* Another one of you N-G lot unable and/or unwilling to obey the rules.

Dion remains here because he obeys the site rules. It really isnt that hard to grasp.

We heard all of the stories about Dion. Some of them may be true, but a lot of them are not or are somewhat exaggerated. What will become of the stories about TonK? *rhetorical question* We have grown tired of hearing the scammer alert. Even the Neo Geo collectors here have grown tired of it and politely told you to STFU plus another moderator had already given you your last warning.

Seriously... how hard is it to stay on topic, or even digress without some form of stupid bullshit?

Enjoy your ban.

 

Dion, do you have any pictures of the NGF Special IM box-set that came with the trackball and standard version of the game on AES, please? I couldn't find any pictures of it on a Google search, but I did come across !Arcade!'s MVS release that came with a dedicated trackball unit, which I didn't know existed:



Out of the 10 box-sets you made, did either Chris or yourself keep one for your collection? It's got to be among the rarest AES games out there, do you have any idea of current value?

It's a shame there wasn't a decent amount of trackball games released and a dedicated AES controller. It'd certainly be a lot more appealing than all the mahjong stuff...

 

Unfortunately, both Chris and I have sold our collections. I have a handful of games left.
I'm sure we have photos of the original Irritating Maze trackball version somewhere. We'll
have to check some of our old dvds and thumbdrives. But it looks similar to the one above.


Irritated by the name was the self proclaimed proto king - Lol
When Irritating Maze was first issued in 1997, it came out of nowhere and was a shock to most people.
The funny part is that member of the Fraudulent 3 scammers, the self proclaimed "Proto King" aka supergun/Billy Pitt
argued, and yelled at us for calling the game "The Irritating Maze." He thought we called it "irritating maze" as a description. lol
He challenged us to give him the real name, and both Chris and I kept using the name "Irritating Maze" and told him to calm down,
wait till he sees the game in person, and then he can report on what the name is. Lol. (I wish the old DHP lists were still archived)


Maze on AES
Upon release of Irritating Maze, both Chris and I knew we had to have that game in our collection.
At the same time, two other serious collectors wanted us to make copies for them. So we did the "original 4."
Other serious collectors also wanted to add Irritating Maze (trackball) to their collection, and we made the special
"second edition 6" for them, bringing the total trackball versions to a nice round number, 10.

Irritating Maze: original 4 - made in 1998



Irritating Maze: second edition 6



As you can see in the photos, both the original 4 and second edition 6 have a special blank white box for
numbering the editions: 1,2,3,4 (mine being #1 and Chris being #2) and 1,2,3,4,5,6 for the second edition 6.


**
Irritating Maze: Special Joystick Version


**


As to what they are worth, that is up to the buyer and how serious he is in adding those carts to his collection.
All estimated prices can be seen on the NGF price guide. (it may need some updating)

http://www.neogeofreak.com/price_guide.htm

Even when snk was around, many games were passed on and never released.
The hunt for unreleased and/or proto games is the same on all systems (atari 2600, ColecoVision, etc...)


Alphas, protos, lost, and unreleased
I think it's very appropriate to mention the names of unreleased games and to search for them.
Many unreleased games have already been found: Bang Busters, Crossed Swords 2, Diggerman, Fun Fun Brothers,
Ghostlop, Jockey Grand Prix, Last Odyssey, Warlocks of the Fates, etc...


Some of lost games were eventually released by snk years after they were first mentioned: Bang Bead, Captain Tomaday,
Flip Shot, Ganryu, Ironclad, and 8 years later - Zupapa!

Knowledge is key
There have been some homebrew titles released that could have been passed off as lost/unreleased games.
Knowing and sharing the names of games that were being developed is good for everyone and it gives us all something
more to talk about and keeps us all on the lookout and hunt for these lost treasures.
This will also prevent scams from homebrew programmers releasing their homemade game as a lost/unreleased title.

 

You meant other rich collectors, right?

Dion, serious, all the NGF releases are marked as ER or ER2 (extremely rare 2?).

You are the one making more copies of those games, the game is only rare because you want to.
Now I understand why people get so pissed off. I really do.

I'll talk about myself here, I only think it's nice to have something rare if other people know it and it's declared rare.
Or else I would collect underground demo released from my neighboor's band.
If I get a CD staple Fandangos on it and say it's a fandangos edition it doesn't make it rare, it makes it sad, who am I pretending?

The games you make according to you are licensed by SNK, ok, fair enough.
But you don't even have a factory?!
You have to disassemble old released games to create the edition 1,2,3 Do Re Mi?

Do you pay royalties for SNK for every new copy of game you "make"? I would like to know that.

Remember when I talked about responsability? If you have the powers over licensing you have and you know people are looking for complete editions, you can't toy around with others people money.

In the end it doesn't make a rare edition, it makes a sad edition of this and that game.

I know that what you are doing is just what banks do with dollars and euros, for example, you are a good entrepreneur I give you that but you are toying with something people love and devote their time and passion.
You aren't toying with something like oil that just moves the car. You're playing with SNK's legacy!

I read your interviews, all that I could find, you made a FORTUNE according to yourself, with NeoGeo. Congratulations! You are a great businessman.
Now drop the bone and let things follow their course.

I'll make an addendum here:
According to you, you have last odyssey, crossed swords 2 (cartridge) and warlock of fates. DUMP THE ROMS!
It won't reduce the profit you'll make. People that feel like having the original cartridges will pay for it.
You're not reducing the rareness of the game, you're just avoiding other people to be able to enjoy it too.

You said in the Racketboy interview you won't sell Last Odyssey to someone that might dump it and regreat selling Ghostlop to someone who did.
you said, let me quote "you have to protect your investment"!
I know this is a business but this is part of VIDEO GAME HISTORY. This is part of a culture.

I'm sorry about the rant but goddamit, this was getting into my nerves.
Stop thinking about yourself and think about the community NeoGeo is.
It's a little rotten but we can fix it.
Many great things changed in 2012, scammers have fallen, lies got broken.

Help improving the community with anything else besides stories about yourself!

 

Concerns on value and production
veggav, I completely understand where you're coming from or where other people may have some concerns,
but the Irritating Maze original 4 and second edition 6 are valued according to rarity on their release.
There is only 4 and only 6 respectfully. No more were made. No more have ever been made since our original sales
of those special editions. All other Irritating Maze aes cartridges were the reprogrammed Standard Joystick Version.

As for the NGF full releases, they were all done in one shot as well. No more will ever be printed or made of those titles either.
NeoGeoFreak is not in business as a company any more and we're not mass producing or distributing games further than
what we originally licensed and planned on during our stint as exclusive distributor. Now both Chris and I are just fans.


Limited print runs
Let's say we originally printed (offset) stickers, manuals for our NGF releases of say Zupapa or Irritating Maze, the order
we placed was for 200, 300, or 500 prints. That's it! Done! Over with! The games listed as ER2 rarity are because of the
small production run run from 12 years ago. Most neogeo aes titles that were released by snk have runs of 1000-10,000!!


Licensed royalties
As for royalties, those fees were paid in advance to snk-japan during our negotiations.
Zupapa had an agreed 500 count production run and snk-japan worked that number into the licensing agreements and fees they wanted.


Think about the community??
You ask me to stop thinking about myself and think about the community? Are you serious? What community????
There's nothing but a small group of loudmouths who create arguments, mostly at the the expense of Chris, myself, or NeoGeoFreak.

Even though those people have been talking badly about NGF, both Chris and I are still willing to meet people and
share photos of rare items and our insider information. We've always helped people in regards to the neo.

Everything Chris and I have done as NeoGeoFreak was to help, provide more titles, and promote the neogeo for all the fans.
Even now, Chris and I are still post insider information in threads such as this one, give various video and online interviews
(such as the interview you emailed me about for your website neogeobrasil), and participate on various sites around the world.


Sharing our Neo knowledge/experience. Always 100% on topic
This is all done because we enjoy sharing our knowledge and speaking about the neogeo and our experiences as NeoGeoFreak.
We're always 100% on topic, never argue or flame anyone, and yet people still attack us...
just to try and make a name for themselves, to make themselves feel important, or to make friends with the so called "in crowd."


The bullying is old and childish. Most people have matured and grown up
Sure, bashing NGF may be fun for some people, but I think most have matured and outgrown the childish attacks. It's all old bullshit.


Biggest neo fans
All Chris and I do now is for the good of the neo scene and to protect it. We're offering KoF2000 CoAs, CoOs, registry archives, etc...
and all for FREE to initial owners. We're registered with eBay and Paypal as experts for validation if people make claims against fraudulent sellers.
We do all this as for our passion for the neogeo. Chris and I still care about the neo.

Remember, we got into the business because we were, are, and remain... THE biggest neogeo fans in the world.

 

The question is why didn't you make more, say 50 or 100 in the first or second run. You either wanted to make them rare on purpose, which I don't think is necessarily evil, or there was some other reason, but in any case you are not explaining your decision. Would your profits be more or less if you made 100 instead of 10, and do you regret now you didn't make more?

 

So anyway, back on topic..good work veggav!

But can anyone confirm / deny the glitches mentioned earlier over the unibios route?

Ok, so I like OT...

Trackball Duck Hunt lol!

 

Look Dion, I was reading my rant now, with a good night of sleep over my head, and I would like to apoligise if I offended you in any way.

I don't agree with the way you run things and I believe I have expressed that. If you could agree with a few things I said it would be great for the community but I think you mind is made up on those subject for over a decade now.

This is my last point and I'll stick to on topic discussion.
I believe you were too long in contact with scammers and bad people that's why you can't see a nice community under it.

http://wiki.neogeodev.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

If you're not familiar with that, this is the Neo Geo Dev Wiki, this is just to show a nice, friendly, and sharing part of the community.
The NeoGeo community exists even that if it's small.

I'm done with NGF discussion or Dion's way of running things.
Sorry for the off topic discussion, it's over for me.

 

Full release had 400 units
You ask a good question, but I think you're getting confused between the special editions and the full release.

We originally made announcements of the trackball edition for ourselves (for Chris and I), as a side project.
During that time, two long time and good customers requested if we could make two more for their collection,
so we honored their request and we came out with the original 4.

Later we did the second edition 6 because a few more good friends/collectors requested to have the trackball
versions as well. Since it required trackball controller to be built to play the game, it was too difficult, time
consuming, as well as costly. We did those special editions 15 years ago as a side project just for fun and for
our collection, and it was not intended for mass/public distribution or sales.


Irritating Maze did get a lot of people talking when it was first released and a lot of people wanted the game.
The Irritating Maze: Standard Joystick Version had a full release of 400 units and originally sold for $399, which
sounds like a great deal compared to today's prices of $1600-$1800+.




All in all, there is exactly 410 official, licensed, and authorized aes carts of Irritating Maze from NeoGeoFreak.
A full 400 production release of the joystick version and only 10 of the special trackball editions.

 

I guess the most obvious question is, how well does a trackball game play with no trackball... Is Irritating Maze any good with a joystick and is it better or worse for it?

 

That sounds fine to me. It doesn't look you did it for profit or to take advantage of anyone, but rather to save on investment for this "special" edition, and if you indeed made 100 instead of 10 it seems it would be a bad decision due to lack of interest at the time.

 

IMO it's garbage. Then again playing it on the dedicated machine was the only way to have the true experience. Nothing like getting the crap scared out of you when you hit the wall and a blast of air blow in your face + a loud sound from the speaker.

Edit: Spelling/Grammar errors, I was tired..

 

that sounds very cool

 

It is: http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8209 probably one of the more interesting dedicated cabinets.

 

So I'm guessing that you just kept some of the games that you liked, personally? Particularly NAM 1975, Super Side Kicks 2, Art of Fighting 2, Fatal Fury Special, Money Puzzle Exchanger, Puzzled, ZedBlade, World Heroes Perfect, and King of Fighters 2000. :friendly_wink: