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First of all, sorry if this is the wrong place to post this and please move it mods if it isn't!

My name is Kieren and represent Epyx Software, yes, the very same Epyx that produced such classics as California Games, Impossible Mission, World Games, Chip's Challenge, Temple of Apshai and Jumpman (among many many others!)

This year the Epyx name and brand is being relaunched with a bang and we will be releasing ports of our existing I.P., sequels to these classics and a host of new and original titles too for current gen consoles, Steam, mobile and, of course, retro machines too!

So where do you lot come in I hear you ask?

Well one of the formats we really want to support is the Sega Master System! And I am lead to believe that this is the very best place to recruit coders, artists and musicians to work on these new games.

So do you have a Sega game you would like to get professionally published where you can get paid and earn generous royalties on every cartridge sold?

Maybe you would love to port Epyx classics such as Chip's Challange, Temple of Apshai, Jumpman, Pitstop, Barbarian, Slime World, Rad Warrior, World Karate, Super Cycle or Winter Games to the Master System?

Or perhaps you would like to get involved in producing cartridges, PCBs or designing boxes for these games?

If you answered yes to any of the above or you have any questions then please reply or get in contact with me to discuss further!

Epyx wrote

I am lead to believe that this is the very best place to recruit coders, artists and musicians to work on these new games.

... and you're probably right in that :D

Funny how you mention Chip's Challenge, a few years ago I actually looked into making a clone of it as an exercise to learn Z80 programming, but I ended up not doing that for a number of reasons. Still, it's probably one of the best candidates for this opportunity, the internet is full of informations about it, there's even a dedicated wiki, while I was doing my research I was overwhelmed by the amount of hacking resources about it.

Also yeah, this is awesome, first Sega outsources Sonic Mania to people from Sonic Retro, and now this. It's at times like these that I wish I was actually good at something. If only I kept on working on that Chip's Challenge clone when I wanted to...

Tom wrote

Funny how you mention Chip's Challenge, a few years ago I actually looked into making a clone of it as an exercise to learn Z80 programming, but I ended up not doing that for a number of reasons. Still, it's probably one of the best candidates for this opportunity, the internet is full of informations about it, there's even a dedicated wiki, while I was doing my research I was overwhelmed by the amount of hacking resources about it.

Also yeah, this is awesome, first Sega outsources Sonic Mania to people from Sonic Retro, and now this. It's at times like these that I wish I was actually good at something. If only I kept on working on that Chip's Challenge clone when I wanted to...

It's definitely a game that would work really well on the SMS and like you say, there are already loads of resources out there.

I should also mention we have an official Sega license too, so any games we release would be 100% approved and legit!

To be brutally realistic, it is always going to be cheaper and easier to get developers to produce a retro style game in a current framework - even if totally faithful to the original system limitations - than to develop for the original platform. The only meaningful difference is that you will not be able to run the resulting game on original hardware, for which there is a very small market (maybe 4 digits sales). See what happened with Retro City Rampage - which then went beyond any system limitations to allow a better game to be produced.

Most of the people actively developing and skilled for the Master System are in expensive countries and are old enough to have kids and mortgages and careers and such like, making it harder to tempt them onto a gig like this. The modern framework would at least make it a step into game dev, and vastly increase the pool of developers.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see new software released, especially if it's better than just a hobby port of an early 80s game. But the financial practicality is tough.

Maxim wrote

To be brutally realistic, it is always going to be cheaper and easier to get developers to produce a retro style game in a current framework - even if totally faithful to the original system limitations - than to develop for the original platform. The only meaningful difference is that you will not be able to run the resulting game on original hardware, for which there is a very small market (maybe 4 digits sales). See what happened with Retro City Rampage - which then went beyond any system limitations to allow a better game to be produced.

Most of the people actively developing and skilled for the Master System are in expensive countries and are old enough to have kids and mortgages and careers and such like, making it harder to tempt them onto a gig like this. The modern framework would at least make it a step into game dev, and vastly increase the pool of developers.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see new software released, especially if it's better than just a hobby port of an early 80s game. But the financial practicality is tough.

As I said in my original post we are also releasing games for Xbox One, PS4, Steam, Ni****do Switch, 3DS and Mobile. So we are not staying exclusive to retro systems and this is not where we are expecting to make the majority of our money. But because of Epyx's legacy in the industry and our own love of retro gaming this side of the business is something close to our hearts and something we feel can only be a positive thing.

You would actually be surprised at the level of interest we have had, particularly from the Atari and Ni****do scenes where I am being absolute inundated with people who want to work with us! We also have several Mega Drive games in development already on the Sega side of things, one of which is very likely to be our first new retro game!

I have already had a couple of people from here PM me, so that is a good thing and I look forward to speaking with them more to see what they can come up with.

Another thing that occurred to me is that the Master System is largely compatible with the ColecoVision and MSX, so it might be possible to port some existing Epyx games over from those systems fairly easily. There is also plenty of existing Z80 versions of Epyx games for other machines too. Porting an existing game is generally a lot easier and far less time consuming than starting a brand new project.

I always liked Gates of zendocom!

Epyx wrote

Maybe you would love to port Epyx classics such as Chip's Challange, Temple of Apshai, Jumpman, Pitstop, Barbarian, Slime World, Rad Warrior, World Karate, Super Cycle or Winter Games to the Master System?

Hey, wasn't someone like doing that already?

eruiz00 wrote

I always liked Gates of Zendocon!

Me too! I am hoping somebody will do a Mega Drive or SNES port but nobody has bitten yet!

Wesker wrote

Epyx wrote

Maybe you would love to port Epyx classics such as Chip's Challange, Temple of Apshai, Jumpman, Pitstop, Barbarian, Slime World, Rad Warrior, World Karate, Super Cycle or Winter Games to the Master System?

Hey, wasn't someone like doing that already?

Already contacted them ;-)

Epyx wrote

Wesker wrote

Epyx wrote

Maybe you would love to port Epyx classics such as Chip's Challange, Temple of Apshai, Jumpman, Pitstop, Barbarian, Slime World, Rad Warrior, World Karate, Super Cycle or Winter Games to the Master System?

Hey, wasn't someone like doing that already?

Already contacted them ;-)

That's great!

It's always good seeing a publisher so interested in retro platforms, but even more when it's actually one that was already around at the time they were new and therefore has enough legacy of titles in their vault, willing to bring them back to the retro consoles where they actually fit best, with official support and all! Other established companies from long (there are some new ones which tend to license or even buy old properties, but it's not really the same) should take note of this commitment. Many of them together would end up making the retro systems market growing a lot for sure.

Say, wouldn't the first logical step for your company be doing reprints of the versions of your games that were actually developed back in the day? There were several Epyx games developed for the Master System in fact. Most of them were developed and/or published by Sega (or some other company like US Gold in the case of Impossible Mission) with license from Epyx, and in this case I suppose they would revert back to you to be self-published like the original computer versions were. I guess this is partly where the official license by Sega (can't believe they are still granting it) makes sense?

All Epyx's SMS titles are so common it wouldn't really make sense. If they were rare or hard to find then that would be something we'd consider but right now it doesn't seem worth it.

We are going down that route with some other systems though. For example we have already reissued a couple of Epyx's ZX Spectrum games.

How exciting!!! Personally id love to see this ported to the master system

Todd's Adventures in Slime World

Hope all this comes off! Is there a website/facebook page to follow for all this?

Segamaster wrote

How exciting!!! Personally id love to see this ported to the master system

Todd's Adventures in Slime World

Hope all this comes off! Is there a website/facebook page to follow for all this?

I am keen to get Slime World ported to other platforms too, we consider it to be one of our key I.P.'s so will definitely be pushing it.

The website is under construction, it's still very early days and there isn't a lot to put up on it yet apart from the classic games.

Just so everyone is aware, there has been some doubt and controversy about this project in other communities - I would advise anyone getting involved to make sure they are confident in the project, which so far exists only as forum threads, and to have a read of the equivalent thread at sega-16.

http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?33170-Looking-for-programmers-to-wor...!

Maxim wrote

Just so everyone is aware, there has been some doubt and controversy about this project in other communities - I would advise anyone getting involved to make sure they are confident in the project, which so far exists only as forum threads, and to have a read of the equivalent thread at sega-16.

Or just contact the owners directly. I mean this is a company who worked with some of the biggest publishers in the world such as Sega, Capcom, Ni****do, Namco, Taito, Square, Atari, Warner Bros. etc.

Definitely not legit with those clients right?

I mean the people behind this: https://thec64.com/
And the people behind this: http://www.antstream.com/
Oh and this absolute "rogue" is the owner: http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,35327/

Don't believe everything you read on the internet, especially from people who hang around AtariAge too much!

A friend send me a confidential file from Interplay which presents revenues/IPs etc. Barbarian is in this IP list.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/u3nte5zb2shd7ci/Interplay%20Entertainment%20Corp_Sep20...

Maybe you've got the rights/licence for Death Sword and not Barbarian ?

Ownership of the Epyx brand has changed over the years, and copyright/trademarks may have split from the name. All we have so far is talk - the best thing to do is release something that proves you can do it.

For me, I'm more interested in a publisher (manufacturing, selling, fulfilment) for Sega 8-bit systems than I am in the Epyx IP (if you have it).

Maxim wrote

For me, I'm more interested in a publisher (manufacturing, selling, fulfilment) for Sega 8-bit systems than I am in the Epyx IP (if you have it).

Same here

ichigobankai wrote

A friend send me a confidential file from Interplay which presents revenues/IPs etc. Barbarian is in this IP list.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/u3nte5zb2shd7ci/Interplay%20Entertainment%20Corp_Sep20...

Maybe you've got the rights/licence for Death Sword and not Barbarian ?

Interplay don't exist anymore, all their IP was sold at auction fairly recently

I don't own Epyx so can't comment on legal stuff but Retro Games acquired far more than just the Epyx I.P.

They also licensed lots of I.P. for the C64 Mini and Antbox projects too so have a pretty huge list of titles to work from.

Kieren,

The situation is simple. In light of the various accusations it will be your job to earn the trust of developers - on any community - and you'll most probably earn that trust by being extra transparent, provide as many proof as you can and connect as many dots as you can so people don't have to play detective. It's not an ideal situation for anyone nor the project but this is the situation you are in. I am pretty sure everyone here and on other communities wishes for those projects to succeed.

Omar

Bock wrote

Kieren,

The situation is simple. In light of the various accusations it will be your job to earn the trust of developers - on any community - and you'll most probably earn that trust by being extra transparent, provide as many proof as you can and connect as many dots as you can so people don't have to play detective. It's not an ideal situation for anyone nor the project but this is the situation you are in. I am pretty sure everyone here and on other communities wishes for those projects to succeed.

Omar

The situation is simple. People are trying to drag up things from 10 years ago that mostly aren't true anyway and completely ignoring all the great things I have done for the community over that period that got me recognised and involved with Epyx in the first place.

Things like my own homebrew releases, organising and hosting huge events such as Revival, writing a huge amount articles (including covers) for the award winning Retro Gamer magazines, contributing to a stream of hugely successful books, raising thousand of pounds for charity, appearing on Sky News at prime time, doing panels and Q&As at expos . . . . . the list goes on.

The fact I am working with people such as this should really tell you everything you need to know.

As I asked on other forums, judge me on my current achievements and reputation in the industry. Not something that some guy says happened 10 years ago.

FWIW I haven't any reason to think Kieren is going to scam us - we're discussing deals seriously and he seems to me to have his feet on the ground. Also he isn't promising anything to us, which is usually instead what scammers do.

Of course I might be wrong. Just my 2 cents.

Quote

all the great things I have done for the community over that period that got me recognised

The point is that I and most people not overly involved in those communities don't know about those things. If I were a developer, considering the allegations it shouldn't be up to me to have to stalk your history to find all the great things you've accomplished.

All the references you can clearly share will help you, and the closest those references are to the actual current project will help. In_my opinion, "Appearing on Sky News at prime time" has near zero value in this specific context (all kind of people have appeared on Sky News), it may even have a negative perceived value that you may consider this info to be valuable. "I worked with XXX on game XXX and it got released and here is their feedback" or "Here some info about my involvement with the Epyx deal" or "Here are links to my work", "Here what happened ten years ago" would have more weight. You are talking about "my homebrew releases", as I casual observer I don't even know what they are.

I am trying to help here..

*EDIT* It appears that Flygon has posted at exactly the same time as I have, and has iterated some points I have also made ;)

Regardless of the circumstances, I should advise that being meek may help you in this sort of circumstance.

It must be understood that, in the SEGA-16 case, the community is, quite simply, feeling very burnt by the going ons at Watermelon, involving Fonzie in particular.
Whilst I won't elaborate on those circumstances fully here - It would be inappropriate, the fact is that it involves a man, with a commercial homebrew project, not quite holding up to the promises that he gave.

You may see where I am going with this.

Reacting aggressively towards people that're suspicious of you only antagonizes them. That gets you nowhere.

No, I haven't attended exhibitions, written important articles, appeared on television, raised money for charity, or any sort of remarkable thing at all.
The small claims to fame I do have, are things that I am either not proud of, or astoundingly insignificant.

So, what do I do?
I come up to you, and ask you to calm down, to not be antagonistic, and to understand why people may feel suspicious of you.

People here really want a Master System publisher, and more competition on the publisher space for older machines is always a good thing.
We don't want this screwed up.
So seeing a potential hero turn out to potentially be a fraud, and then seeing that prospective hero react aggressively and antagonistically... well, you may understand, that isn't a good look.

Please understand.

EDIT - It appears that Bock has posted at exactly the same time as I have, and has iterated some points I have also made.

I understand yes, but I should also point out that 108 Stars (Daniel) is clearly somebody with an agenda who was looking for a fight, he knew exactly what he was doing and the moment he mentioned somebody I had to file a police report against for harassment as a friend it all became clear.

Some links then that might interest you:

A Jaguar CD homebrew I released called 9 Lives. I produced 50 copies of this (all numbered) with 100% of the proceeds going to an autism charity for children called Magic Moments (I am autistic myself so speak about about this often) and Cancer Research UK (again for personal reasons)

One of the many lost prototypes I helped get out into the wild for people to enjoy:

A selection of books I have had published through Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B06XC3HF8C?ref_=pe_1805931_64002121

My article on the cover of Retro Gamer magazine. I have written nearly 100 articles for the magazine in the last 6 years!

https://www.retrogamer.net/blog_post/issue-132-is-in-shops-now/

A video of the huge Revival event that I co-organised in 2014, which featured John Romero as a special guest:

Funny to see your The A-Z of Sega Master System Games: Volume 1 cover on amazon with a screenshot of one of my old dev/demo... without asking/telling me.

ichigobankai wrote

Funny to see your The A-Z of Sega Master System Games: Volume 1 cover on amazon with a screenshot of one of my old dev/demo... without asking/telling me.

Sorry I wasn't aware I had to ask you before reviewing something?

That isn't usual practice.

Disagree. One thing is a review, other is a book which is being sold. Last year a guy from Spain asked for permission to include Baluba balok in his book. Two emails. A quick and easy thing. :(

eruiz00 wrote

Disagree. One thing is a review, other is a book which is being sold. Last year a guy from Spain asked for permission to include Baluba balok in his book. Two emails. A quick and easy thing. :(

I have worked in journalism for over 10 years and never had to ask permission to review a product and have never heard of anyone who has.

There are 78 reviews in each book, do you honestly think I would email every publisher and developer to ask them if I could do a review of their game? Also most of them don't even exist anymore so finding emails would be an absolute nightmare.

Once a product is in the public domain you are free to review it under fair use policy.

To claim I should seek permission to review a product is honestly one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard and it seems very much like certain people are looking for a way to cause trouble and start an argument.

You would think people would like to see a niche product like this given a positive write up in the press, obviously not!

I would think this would be common courtesy to ask a developer but I have no idea what is usual practice.I've not heard of anyone asking for permission to review a game for a book,when said game is already released into the public.I would assume if the game wasn't released then permission would be needed.

OmegaPrime wrote

I would think this would be common courtesy to ask a developer but I have no idea what is usual practice.

Let me ask you this, before a newspaper reviews a movie do you think they ask the film studios if this is ok?

When a music magazine reviews an album do they ask the artist and record company first?

When a critic reviews a restaurant on their website do they ask the chef or owner in advance?

No of course not,that's why I stated it would be common courtesy to get permission,I don't think it's a necessity.

No, but each picture must be credited.

ichigobankai wrote

No, but each picture must be credited.

Under fair use you don't have to credit any screenshots as long as you took them yourself, which I did.

Otherwise there would be huge list of credits in every single book and magazine, and there isn't.

What if he took the pictures himself?

I see raw clear the difference between a magazine critic and a recopilation book.

I could do (I suppose i could!) a book about all the paintings in the Museum of Prado, in Madrid, with images taken by myself, and sell it.

Other way different thing could be a critic of a film in a newspaper.

I do my games for myself and others to play, and getting fun learning development and design. I like when someone publish a review.

But I dont want others making cash with this activity, I suppose I cannot stop them, but this is the raw truth.

Now we can stay here writing two days about this.

Epyx wrote

ichigobankai wrote

No, but each picture must be credited.

Under fair use you don't have to credit any screenshots as long as you took them yourself, which I did.

Otherwise there would be huge list of credits in every single book and magazine, and there isn't.

Maybe you should ask to Darkunfold which receive a lawyer's letter from Sega themself for screenshots used without permissions...

L'Encyclopédie des Jeux Vidéo vol.1 : Master System et Game Gear
https://fr.ulule.com/game-gear/
And precisely, this part :
https://fr.ulule.com/game-gear/news/lencyclopedie-des-jeux-video-nouveau-depart-...
(should use google translate as its in French)

Just to be clear my question"What if he took the pictures himself? " is not to start a debate but I'm curious if it does make a difference or not.

ichigobankai wrote

Epyx wrote

ichigobankai wrote

No, but each picture must be credited.

Under fair use you don't have to credit any screenshots as long as you took them yourself, which I did.

Otherwise there would be huge list of credits in every single book and magazine, and there isn't.

Maybe you should ask to Darkunfold which receive a lawyer's letter from Sega themself for screenshots used without permissions...

L'Encyclopédie des Jeux Vidéo vol.1 : Master System et Game Gear
https://fr.ulule.com/game-gear/
And precisely, this part :
https://fr.ulule.com/game-gear/news/lencyclopedie-des-jeux-video-nouveau-depart-...
(should use google translate as its in French)

I am assuming they either used the Sega logo or trademarks without permission or used Sega promotional images without permission, which is very different indeed!

You seem to forget I work for the 2 largest publishers in the UK. We already have permissions for such things like that and know about fair use law.

ichigobankai wrote

Funny to see your The A-Z of Sega Master System Games: Volume 1 cover on amazon with a screenshot of one of my old dev/demo... without asking/telling me.

eruiz00 wrote

Last year a guy from Spain asked for permission to include Baluba balok in his book. Two emails. A quick and easy thing. :(

I don't know if that's the same thing, but some time ago we got contacted from Homebrew Encyclopedia authors for a short quote to add under the review of Waimanu. They didn't ask us *if* we'd like to get reviewed, which, frankly, would be very weird

(the question is: are we free to say NO to a review of something we released to the public? I don't think so - of course IMHO)

Epyx wrote

You seem to forget I work for the 2 largest publishers in the UK. We already have permissions for such things like that and know about fair use law.

Even professionals can make mistakes.
I'm woking in an advertising agency for ~20 years (with huge clients likes banks) and legals are a common problem.

Professionals do make mistakes all the time :)

As a personal feeling, I have to side with Kieren on this specific matter. I find it a little silly to be asking permission to review something. Especially as this whole site and community here didn't ask permission from anyone to post screenshots, scans, dumps. And e.g. many of your _excellent_ work ichigobankai are riffing on Sega's and others work. Writing retro games books compiling own reviews isn't exactly an overly profitable activity that people do to enrich themselves, and there's enough of a new work in the form of writing description that I think it's fine to sell those books. It's nice to ask beforehand but when you are dealing with a million things going the way of tracking people's contact info and exchanging a hundred e-mails isn't exactly the first thing that comes to mind.

I think it would be wise if we didn't derail this topic even further than the initial derailing/controversy. We are 2 levels deep of derailing and Epyx has enough on his plate with finding ways to earn people trust.

You're right !
I'm stopping here.

I'm sure we're very reasonable people here :)
As for Kieren, we all will keep an eye on him - but I think we shall trust him unless otherwise proven.

I also suggest you Retro Games guys to create a website with an an about page that describes who you are, what is each of you in charge of and what you do.

Author	Message
Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	Looking for programmers to work on exciting new projects! Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 10:31 am
Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	First of all, sorry if this is the wrong place to post this and please move it mods if it isn't! My name is Kieren and represent Epyx Software, yes, the very same Epyx that produced such classics as California Games, Impossible Mission, World Games, Chip's Challenge, Temple of Apshai and Jumpman (among many many others!) This year the Epyx name and brand is being relaunched with a bang and we will be releasing ports of our existing I.P., sequels to these classics and a host of new and original titles too for current gen consoles, Steam, mobile and, of course, retro machines too! So where do you lot come in I hear you ask? Well one of the formats we really want to support is the Sega Master System! And I am lead to believe that this is the very best place to recruit coders, artists and musicians to work on these new games. So do you have a Sega game you would like to get professionally published where you can get paid and earn generous royalties on every cartridge sold? Maybe you would love to port Epyx classics such as Chip's Challange, Temple of Apshai, Jumpman, Pitstop, Barbarian, Slime World, Rad Warrior, World Karate, Super Cycle or Winter Games to the Master System? Or perhaps you would like to get involved in producing cartridges, PCBs or designing boxes for these games? If you answered yes to any of the above or you have any questions then please reply or get in contact with me to discuss further!

sverx Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Posts: 3823 Location: Stockholm, Sweden	Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 12:57 pm
	Epyx wrote I am lead to believe that this is the very best place to recruit coders, artists and musicians to work on these new games. ... and you're probably right in that :D

Tom Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 1356 Location: italy	Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 1:43 pm
Tom Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 1356 Location: italy	Funny how you mention Chip's Challenge, a few years ago I actually looked into making a clone of it as an exercise to learn Z80 programming, but I ended up not doing that for a number of reasons. Still, it's probably one of the best candidates for this opportunity, the internet is full of informations about it, there's even a dedicated wiki, while I was doing my research I was overwhelmed by the amount of hacking resources about it. Also yeah, this is awesome, first Sega outsources Sonic Mania to people from Sonic Retro, and now this. It's at times like these that I wish I was actually good at something. If only I kept on working on that Chip's Challenge clone when I wanted to...

Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 1:49 pm
Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	Tom wrote Funny how you mention Chip's Challenge, a few years ago I actually looked into making a clone of it as an exercise to learn Z80 programming, but I ended up not doing that for a number of reasons. Still, it's probably one of the best candidates for this opportunity, the internet is full of informations about it, there's even a dedicated wiki, while I was doing my research I was overwhelmed by the amount of hacking resources about it. Also yeah, this is awesome, first Sega outsources Sonic Mania to people from Sonic Retro, and now this. It's at times like these that I wish I was actually good at something. If only I kept on working on that Chip's Challenge clone when I wanted to... It's definitely a game that would work really well on the SMS and like you say, there are already loads of resources out there. I should also mention we have an official Sega license too, so any games we release would be 100% approved and legit!

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14736 Location: London	Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 2:19 pm
	To be brutally realistic, it is always going to be cheaper and easier to get developers to produce a retro style game in a current framework - even if totally faithful to the original system limitations - than to develop for the original platform. The only meaningful difference is that you will not be able to run the resulting game on original hardware, for which there is a very small market (maybe 4 digits sales). See what happened with Retro City Rampage - which then went beyond any system limitations to allow a better game to be produced. Most of the people actively developing and skilled for the Master System are in expensive countries and are old enough to have kids and mortgages and careers and such like, making it harder to tempt them onto a gig like this. The modern framework would at least make it a step into game dev, and vastly increase the pool of developers. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see new software released, especially if it's better than just a hobby port of an early 80s game. But the financial practicality is tough.

Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 2:57 pm
Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	Maxim wrote To be brutally realistic, it is always going to be cheaper and easier to get developers to produce a retro style game in a current framework - even if totally faithful to the original system limitations - than to develop for the original platform. The only meaningful difference is that you will not be able to run the resulting game on original hardware, for which there is a very small market (maybe 4 digits sales). See what happened with Retro City Rampage - which then went beyond any system limitations to allow a better game to be produced. Most of the people actively developing and skilled for the Master System are in expensive countries and are old enough to have kids and mortgages and careers and such like, making it harder to tempt them onto a gig like this. The modern framework would at least make it a step into game dev, and vastly increase the pool of developers. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see new software released, especially if it's better than just a hobby port of an early 80s game. But the financial practicality is tough. As I said in my original post we are also releasing games for Xbox One, PS4, Steam, Ni**do Switch, 3DS and Mobile. So we are not staying exclusive to retro systems and this is not where we are expecting to make the majority of our money. But because of Epyx's legacy in the industry and our own love of retro gaming this side of the business is something close to our hearts and something we feel can only be a positive thing. You would actually be surprised at the level of interest we have had, particularly from the Atari and Ni**do scenes where I am being absolute inundated with people who want to work with us! We also have several Mega Drive games in development already on the Sega side of things, one of which is very likely to be our first new retro game! I have already had a couple of people from here PM me, so that is a good thing and I look forward to speaking with them more to see what they can come up with. Another thing that occurred to me is that the Master System is largely compatible with the ColecoVision and MSX, so it might be possible to port some existing Epyx games over from those systems fairly easily. There is also plenty of existing Z80 versions of Epyx games for other machines too. Porting an existing game is generally a lot easier and far less time consuming than starting a brand new project.

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 6:15 pm
	I always liked Gates of zendocom!

Wesker Joined: 14 Jul 2008 Posts: 158	Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 6:27 pm
Wesker Joined: 14 Jul 2008 Posts: 158	Epyx wrote Maybe you would love to port Epyx classics such as Chip's Challange, Temple of Apshai, Jumpman, Pitstop, Barbarian, Slime World, Rad Warrior, World Karate, Super Cycle or Winter Games to the Master System? Hey, wasn't someone like doing that already?

Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 10:00 pm
Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	eruiz00 wrote I always liked Gates of Zendocon! Me too! I am hoping somebody will do a Mega Drive or SNES port but nobody has bitten yet!

Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 10:01 pm
Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	Wesker wrote Epyx wrote Maybe you would love to port Epyx classics such as Chip's Challange, Temple of Apshai, Jumpman, Pitstop, Barbarian, Slime World, Rad Warrior, World Karate, Super Cycle or Winter Games to the Master System? Hey, wasn't someone like doing that already? Already contacted them ;-)

Wesker Joined: 14 Jul 2008 Posts: 158	Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 11:01 pm
Wesker Joined: 14 Jul 2008 Posts: 158	Epyx wrote Wesker wrote Epyx wrote Maybe you would love to port Epyx classics such as Chip's Challange, Temple of Apshai, Jumpman, Pitstop, Barbarian, Slime World, Rad Warrior, World Karate, Super Cycle or Winter Games to the Master System? Hey, wasn't someone like doing that already? Already contacted them ;-) That's great! It's always good seeing a publisher so interested in retro platforms, but even more when it's actually one that was already around at the time they were new and therefore has enough legacy of titles in their vault, willing to bring them back to the retro consoles where they actually fit best, with official support and all! Other established companies from long (there are some new ones which tend to license or even buy old properties, but it's not really the same) should take note of this commitment. Many of them together would end up making the retro systems market growing a lot for sure. Say, wouldn't the first logical step for your company be doing reprints of the versions of your games that were actually developed back in the day? There were several Epyx games developed for the Master System in fact. Most of them were developed and/or published by Sega (or some other company like US Gold in the case of Impossible Mission) with license from Epyx, and in this case I suppose they would revert back to you to be self-published like the original computer versions were. I guess this is partly where the official license by Sega (can't believe they are still granting it) makes sense?

Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 11:54 pm
Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	All Epyx's SMS titles are so common it wouldn't really make sense. If they were rare or hard to find then that would be something we'd consider but right now it doesn't seem worth it. We are going down that route with some other systems though. For example we have already reissued a couple of Epyx's ZX Spectrum games.

Segamaster Joined: 24 Sep 2017 Posts: 21	Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 11:05 am
Segamaster Joined: 24 Sep 2017 Posts: 21	How exciting!!! Personally id love to see this ported to the master system Todd's Adventures in Slime World Hope all this comes off! Is there a website/facebook page to follow for all this?

Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 1:11 pm
Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	Segamaster wrote How exciting!!! Personally id love to see this ported to the master system Todd's Adventures in Slime World Hope all this comes off! Is there a website/facebook page to follow for all this? I am keen to get Slime World ported to other platforms too, we consider it to be one of our key I.P.'s so will definitely be pushing it. The website is under construction, it's still very early days and there isn't a lot to put up on it yet apart from the classic games.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14736 Location: London	Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2018 6:55 am
	Just so everyone is aware, there has been some doubt and controversy about this project in other communities - I would advise anyone getting involved to make sure they are confident in the project, which so far exists only as forum threads, and to have a read of the equivalent thread at sega-16.

OmegaPrime Joined: 18 Dec 2014 Posts: 95 Location: Canada	Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2018 2:05 pm
	http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?33170-Looking-for-programmers-to-wor...!

Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2018 4:48 pm
Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	Maxim wrote Just so everyone is aware, there has been some doubt and controversy about this project in other communities - I would advise anyone getting involved to make sure they are confident in the project, which so far exists only as forum threads, and to have a read of the equivalent thread at sega-16. Or just contact the owners directly. I mean this is a company who worked with some of the biggest publishers in the world such as Sega, Capcom, Ni****do, Namco, Taito, Square, Atari, Warner Bros. etc. Definitely not legit with those clients right? I mean the people behind this: https://thec64.com/ And the people behind this: http://www.antstream.com/ Oh and this absolute "rogue" is the owner: http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,35327/ Don't believe everything you read on the internet, especially from people who hang around AtariAge too much!

ichigobankai Joined: 04 Jul 2010 Posts: 540 Location: Angers, France	Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2018 5:15 pm
	A friend send me a confidential file from Interplay which presents revenues/IPs etc. Barbarian is in this IP list. https://www.dropbox.com/s/u3nte5zb2shd7ci/Interplay%20Entertainment%20Corp_Sep20... Maybe you've got the rights/licence for Death Sword and not Barbarian ?

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14736 Location: London	Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2018 5:28 pm
	Ownership of the Epyx brand has changed over the years, and copyright/trademarks may have split from the name. All we have so far is talk - the best thing to do is release something that proves you can do it. For me, I'm more interested in a publisher (manufacturing, selling, fulfilment) for Sega 8-bit systems than I am in the Epyx IP (if you have it).

OmegaPrime Joined: 18 Dec 2014 Posts: 95 Location: Canada	Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2018 5:31 pm
	Maxim wrote For me, I'm more interested in a publisher (manufacturing, selling, fulfilment) for Sega 8-bit systems than I am in the Epyx IP (if you have it). Same here

Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2018 5:32 pm
Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	ichigobankai wrote A friend send me a confidential file from Interplay which presents revenues/IPs etc. Barbarian is in this IP list. https://www.dropbox.com/s/u3nte5zb2shd7ci/Interplay%20Entertainment%20Corp_Sep20... Maybe you've got the rights/licence for Death Sword and not Barbarian ? Interplay don't exist anymore, all their IP was sold at auction fairly recently I don't own Epyx so can't comment on legal stuff but Retro Games acquired far more than just the Epyx I.P. They also licensed lots of I.P. for the C64 Mini and Antbox projects too so have a pretty huge list of titles to work from.

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 8649 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 11:19 am
	Kieren, The situation is simple. In light of the various accusations it will be your job to earn the trust of developers - on any community - and you'll most probably earn that trust by being extra transparent, provide as many proof as you can and connect as many dots as you can so people don't have to play detective. It's not an ideal situation for anyone nor the project but this is the situation you are in. I am pretty sure everyone here and on other communities wishes for those projects to succeed. Omar

Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 11:51 am
Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	Bock wrote Kieren, The situation is simple. In light of the various accusations it will be your job to earn the trust of developers - on any community - and you'll most probably earn that trust by being extra transparent, provide as many proof as you can and connect as many dots as you can so people don't have to play detective. It's not an ideal situation for anyone nor the project but this is the situation you are in. I am pretty sure everyone here and on other communities wishes for those projects to succeed. Omar The situation is simple. People are trying to drag up things from 10 years ago that mostly aren't true anyway and completely ignoring all the great things I have done for the community over that period that got me recognised and involved with Epyx in the first place. Things like my own homebrew releases, organising and hosting huge events such as Revival, writing a huge amount articles (including covers) for the award winning Retro Gamer magazines, contributing to a stream of hugely successful books, raising thousand of pounds for charity, appearing on Sky News at prime time, doing panels and Q&As at expos . . . . . the list goes on. The fact I am working with people such as this should really tell you everything you need to know. As I asked on other forums, judge me on my current achievements and reputation in the industry. Not something that some guy says happened 10 years ago.

sverx Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Posts: 3823 Location: Stockholm, Sweden	Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 12:11 pm
	FWIW I haven't any reason to think Kieren is going to scam us - we're discussing deals seriously and he seems to me to have his feet on the ground. Also he isn't promising anything to us, which is usually instead what scammers do. Of course I might be wrong. Just my 2 cents.

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 8649 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 12:43 pm Last edited by Bock on Sun Mar 11, 2018 12:48 pm; edited 3 times in total
	Quote all the great things I have done for the community over that period that got me recognised The point is that I and most people not overly involved in those communities don't know about those things. If I were a developer, considering the allegations it shouldn't be up to me to have to stalk your history to find all the great things you've accomplished. All the references you can clearly share will help you, and the closest those references are to the actual current project will help. In_my opinion, "Appearing on Sky News at prime time" has near zero value in this specific context (all kind of people have appeared on Sky News), it may even have a negative perceived value that you may consider this info to be valuable. "I worked with XXX on game XXX and it got released and here is their feedback" or "Here some info about my involvement with the Epyx deal" or "Here are links to my work", "Here what happened ten years ago" would have more weight. You are talking about "my homebrew releases", as I casual observer I don't even know what they are. I am trying to help here.. EDIT It appears that Flygon has posted at exactly the same time as I have, and has iterated some points I have also made ;)

Flygon Joined: 30 Jun 2016 Posts: 196 Location: Melbourne, Australia	Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 12:43 pm
	Regardless of the circumstances, I should advise that being meek may help you in this sort of circumstance. It must be understood that, in the SEGA-16 case, the community is, quite simply, feeling very burnt by the going ons at Watermelon, involving Fonzie in particular. Whilst I won't elaborate on those circumstances fully here - It would be inappropriate, the fact is that it involves a man, with a commercial homebrew project, not quite holding up to the promises that he gave. You may see where I am going with this. Reacting aggressively towards people that're suspicious of you only antagonizes them. That gets you nowhere. No, I haven't attended exhibitions, written important articles, appeared on television, raised money for charity, or any sort of remarkable thing at all. The small claims to fame I do have, are things that I am either not proud of, or astoundingly insignificant. So, what do I do? I come up to you, and ask you to calm down, to not be antagonistic, and to understand why people may feel suspicious of you. People here really want a Master System publisher, and more competition on the publisher space for older machines is always a good thing. We don't want this screwed up. So seeing a potential hero turn out to potentially be a fraud, and then seeing that prospective hero react aggressively and antagonistically... well, you may understand, that isn't a good look. Please understand. EDIT - It appears that Bock has posted at exactly the same time as I have, and has iterated some points I have also made.

Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 1:00 pm
Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	I understand yes, but I should also point out that 108 Stars (Daniel) is clearly somebody with an agenda who was looking for a fight, he knew exactly what he was doing and the moment he mentioned somebody I had to file a police report against for harassment as a friend it all became clear. Some links then that might interest you: A Jaguar CD homebrew I released called 9 Lives. I produced 50 copies of this (all numbered) with 100% of the proceeds going to an autism charity for children called Magic Moments (I am autistic myself so speak about about this often) and Cancer Research UK (again for personal reasons) One of the many lost prototypes I helped get out into the wild for people to enjoy: A selection of books I have had published through Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B06XC3HF8C?ref_=pe_1805931_64002121 My article on the cover of Retro Gamer magazine. I have written nearly 100 articles for the magazine in the last 6 years! https://www.retrogamer.net/blog_post/issue-132-is-in-shops-now/ A video of the huge Revival event that I co-organised in 2014, which featured John Romero as a special guest:

ichigobankai Joined: 04 Jul 2010 Posts: 540 Location: Angers, France	Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 1:20 pm
	Funny to see your The A-Z of Sega Master System Games: Volume 1 cover on amazon with a screenshot of one of my old dev/demo... without asking/telling me.

Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 1:31 pm
Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	ichigobankai wrote Funny to see your The A-Z of Sega Master System Games: Volume 1 cover on amazon with a screenshot of one of my old dev/demo... without asking/telling me. Sorry I wasn't aware I had to ask you before reviewing something? That isn't usual practice.

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 2:12 pm
	Disagree. One thing is a review, other is a book which is being sold. Last year a guy from Spain asked for permission to include Baluba balok in his book. Two emails. A quick and easy thing. :(

Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 2:21 pm Last edited by Epyx on Sun Mar 11, 2018 2:24 pm; edited 1 time in total
Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	eruiz00 wrote Disagree. One thing is a review, other is a book which is being sold. Last year a guy from Spain asked for permission to include Baluba balok in his book. Two emails. A quick and easy thing. :( I have worked in journalism for over 10 years and never had to ask permission to review a product and have never heard of anyone who has. There are 78 reviews in each book, do you honestly think I would email every publisher and developer to ask them if I could do a review of their game? Also most of them don't even exist anymore so finding emails would be an absolute nightmare. Once a product is in the public domain you are free to review it under fair use policy. To claim I should seek permission to review a product is honestly one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard and it seems very much like certain people are looking for a way to cause trouble and start an argument. You would think people would like to see a niche product like this given a positive write up in the press, obviously not!

OmegaPrime Joined: 18 Dec 2014 Posts: 95 Location: Canada	Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 2:24 pm Last edited by OmegaPrime on Sun Mar 11, 2018 2:31 pm; edited 1 time in total
	I would think this would be common courtesy to ask a developer but I have no idea what is usual practice.I've not heard of anyone asking for permission to review a game for a book,when said game is already released into the public.I would assume if the game wasn't released then permission would be needed.

Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 2:28 pm
Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	OmegaPrime wrote I would think this would be common courtesy to ask a developer but I have no idea what is usual practice. Let me ask you this, before a newspaper reviews a movie do you think they ask the film studios if this is ok? When a music magazine reviews an album do they ask the artist and record company first? When a critic reviews a restaurant on their website do they ask the chef or owner in advance?

OmegaPrime Joined: 18 Dec 2014 Posts: 95 Location: Canada	Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 2:34 pm Last edited by OmegaPrime on Sun Mar 11, 2018 2:43 pm; edited 2 times in total
	No of course not,that's why I stated it would be common courtesy to get permission,I don't think it's a necessity.

ichigobankai Joined: 04 Jul 2010 Posts: 540 Location: Angers, France	Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 2:38 pm
	No, but each picture must be credited.

Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 2:45 pm
Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	ichigobankai wrote No, but each picture must be credited. Under fair use you don't have to credit any screenshots as long as you took them yourself, which I did. Otherwise there would be huge list of credits in every single book and magazine, and there isn't.

OmegaPrime Joined: 18 Dec 2014 Posts: 95 Location: Canada	Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 2:46 pm
	What if he took the pictures himself?

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 2:58 pm
	I see raw clear the difference between a magazine critic and a recopilation book. I could do (I suppose i could!) a book about all the paintings in the Museum of Prado, in Madrid, with images taken by myself, and sell it. Other way different thing could be a critic of a film in a newspaper. I do my games for myself and others to play, and getting fun learning development and design. I like when someone publish a review. But I dont want others making cash with this activity, I suppose I cannot stop them, but this is the raw truth. Now we can stay here writing two days about this.

ichigobankai Joined: 04 Jul 2010 Posts: 540 Location: Angers, France	Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 3:03 pm
	Epyx wrote ichigobankai wrote No, but each picture must be credited. Under fair use you don't have to credit any screenshots as long as you took them yourself, which I did. Otherwise there would be huge list of credits in every single book and magazine, and there isn't. Maybe you should ask to Darkunfold which receive a lawyer's letter from Sega themself for screenshots used without permissions... L'Encyclopédie des Jeux Vidéo vol.1 : Master System et Game Gear https://fr.ulule.com/game-gear/ And precisely, this part : https://fr.ulule.com/game-gear/news/lencyclopedie-des-jeux-video-nouveau-depart-... (should use google translate as its in French)

OmegaPrime Joined: 18 Dec 2014 Posts: 95 Location: Canada	Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 3:08 pm
	Just to be clear my question"What if he took the pictures himself? " is not to start a debate but I'm curious if it does make a difference or not.

Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 3:15 pm
Epyx Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 18 Location: UK	ichigobankai wrote Epyx wrote ichigobankai wrote No, but each picture must be credited. Under fair use you don't have to credit any screenshots as long as you took them yourself, which I did. Otherwise there would be huge list of credits in every single book and magazine, and there isn't. Maybe you should ask to Darkunfold which receive a lawyer's letter from Sega themself for screenshots used without permissions... L'Encyclopédie des Jeux Vidéo vol.1 : Master System et Game Gear https://fr.ulule.com/game-gear/ And precisely, this part : https://fr.ulule.com/game-gear/news/lencyclopedie-des-jeux-video-nouveau-depart-... (should use google translate as its in French) I am assuming they either used the Sega logo or trademarks without permission or used Sega promotional images without permission, which is very different indeed! You seem to forget I work for the 2 largest publishers in the UK. We already have permissions for such things like that and know about fair use law.

sverx Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Posts: 3823 Location: Stockholm, Sweden	Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 10:28 pm
	ichigobankai wrote Funny to see your The A-Z of Sega Master System Games: Volume 1 cover on amazon with a screenshot of one of my old dev/demo... without asking/telling me. eruiz00 wrote Last year a guy from Spain asked for permission to include Baluba balok in his book. Two emails. A quick and easy thing. :( I don't know if that's the same thing, but some time ago we got contacted from Homebrew Encyclopedia authors for a short quote to add under the review of Waimanu. They didn't ask us if we'd like to get reviewed, which, frankly, would be very weird (the question is: are we free to say NO to a review of something we released to the public? I don't think so - of course IMHO)

ichigobankai Joined: 04 Jul 2010 Posts: 540 Location: Angers, France	Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 6:12 am
	Epyx wrote You seem to forget I work for the 2 largest publishers in the UK. We already have permissions for such things like that and know about fair use law. Even professionals can make mistakes. I'm woking in an advertising agency for ~20 years (with huge clients likes banks) and legals are a common problem.

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 8649 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 8:42 am Last edited by Bock on Mon Mar 12, 2018 1:27 pm; edited 1 time in total
	Professionals do make mistakes all the time :) As a personal feeling, I have to side with Kieren on this specific matter. I find it a little silly to be asking permission to review something. Especially as this whole site and community here didn't ask permission from anyone to post screenshots, scans, dumps. And e.g. many of your _excellent_ work ichigobankai are riffing on Sega's and others work. Writing retro games books compiling own reviews isn't exactly an overly profitable activity that people do to enrich themselves, and there's enough of a new work in the form of writing description that I think it's fine to sell those books. It's nice to ask beforehand but when you are dealing with a million things going the way of tracking people's contact info and exchanging a hundred e-mails isn't exactly the first thing that comes to mind. I think it would be wise if we didn't derail this topic even further than the initial derailing/controversy. We are 2 levels deep of derailing and Epyx has enough on his plate with finding ways to earn people trust.

ichigobankai Joined: 04 Jul 2010 Posts: 540 Location: Angers, France	Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 11:44 am
	You're right ! I'm stopping here.

sverx Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Posts: 3823 Location: Stockholm, Sweden	Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 12:05 pm
	I'm sure we're very reasonable people here :) As for Kieren, we all will keep an eye on him - but I think we shall trust him unless otherwise proven. I also suggest you Retro Games guys to create a website with an an about page that describes who you are, what is each of you in charge of and what you do.

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