What's new
By:

Project Neon: New Shmup for the Neo Geo

I'm absolutely keen on checking out your GBC shmup, @CoinFeeder!

I'm kind of with @Aurich, because despite owning two Neo cabs, this means I'll need to buy another MVS board just to play your game.

It's fine for CMVS guys, but I think there's only one MVS cab model that has proper mounting to rotate the monitor? And for only two games in the library at that (at least I think one of the NG:DEV titles is tate?)

The collector in me says I need it, and I'll buy it because supporting small devs doing Neo stuff is pretty much mandatory, but it probably won't get played very much given the circumstances. And that's kind of sad.
 
Aurich said:
I'll be honest, tating a Neo Geo game definitely reduces the appeal for me. I'm just not going to rotate my Neo Candy monitor for one game, when the entire Neo Geo library is horizontal.
Click to expand...
Technically, there is one more vertical Neo Geo game - Neo XYX by NG Dev Team. But that game suffered from poor sales and NG Dev refuses to reprint it for the same reason Aurich mentions - the entire first-party released library of games is horizontal and they got a ton of complaints about releasing a vertical-only game.
 
ShootTheCore said:
Technically, there is one more vertical Neo Geo game - Neo XYX by NG Dev Team. But that game suffered from poor sales and NG Dev refuses to reprint it for the same reason Aurich mentions - the entire first-party released library of games is horizontal and they got a ton of complaints about releasing a vertical-only game.
Click to expand...
I think most people think of the Dreamcast release for that, where vertical made sense. Or at least I do. It wasn't Neo Geo only at the very least.

Don't take this as trying to be negative, I think people should do their own thing, and if you want to make a vertical Neo Geo game more power to you. But ...

It just feels like a mis-step to me. It's not really in the spirit of Neo Geo, and you're going to definitely find resistance. I'm not saying anyone is cashing in on the lucrative Neo Geo aftermarket (lol) but it does feel like it's forcing a retro hardware thing into a hole that it doesn't really fit right in. Like you're just picking Neo Geo out of a hat, and not really respecting the legacy of the system, and how people use it.

Best of luck regardless of what you decide. I wouldn't buy it personally, if for no other reason than listed above, but I hope you finish it and it comes out great.
 
on the other hand, if the game is good, a one slot is cheap. could just stereo mod it, and treat it as a jamma game at that point that goes into a tate cab. Neo is approachable especially if you've done MD/Genesis dev, so I get wanting to use that as a platform. I'll def be interested in picking one up! (though I too wish it was after the holidays)
 
  • Like
Reactions: nem
What @Aurich said is the reason I asked in the first place.

Even the vertical shmups on Neo play on a horizontal display because the entire library is designed to be easily switched out. Not to mention the big red cabs don't have a rotatable monitor.

Like @rewrite I'll definitely still be looking to purchase just because it's awesome these games are being released and even more so by an Aussie.

There are a couple of games I'm aware of where there are both vertical and horizontal variants on the same hardware but with different ROMs which I assume just changes the resolution. How possible is something like this on Neo?

Either way I'm happy to see more development on the Neo and new games coming out :)
 
Last edited:
Schwwweet! Ignore any haters comments and push ahead with your own vision. :D
You can't please everyone all of the time so don't even try to.

All the very best of luck with it, and erm.. I pixel for food (really) if you need a hand :thumbsup:
 
Aurich said:
CoinFeeder said:
It's TATE. It would be easy to add an option to rotate controls, so you can at least play on a horizontal setup. But the graphics and text would not be actually rotated.
Click to expand...
I'll be honest, tating a Neo Geo game definitely reduces the appeal for me. I'm just not going to rotate my Neo Candy monitor for one game, when the entire Neo Geo library is horizontal. That basically flies in the face of Neo Geo's use case, which is easily swappable games, and makes this feel like a bit of a gimmick. Like, why even use Neo Geo hardware then? I wouldn't put this in my 4 slot, it would look broken any time it rotated in.
I like vertical shmups, and I don't want to sound negative or critical, just trying to be helpful by pointing out that I doubt I'm alone in this before you launch your Kickstarter.
Click to expand...
Thanks for all the comments. Based on everyones open and constructive feedback, we'll look into the possibility of turning things around. It would be pretty much now or never for obvious reasons.

To provide a little bit of context to why this is not necessarily a no-brainer at the stage we're already at: we've designed our sprites (ships, bosses, etc.) to be relatively large, and reducing the available screen height might potentially impact the overall gameplay.

Here's a mocked horizontal version screen, which might make the problem more apparent. We've also put a stage boss into the background, to give you on how this might impact the boss fights.

What you folks think? Still enough vertical space? Keep in mind that there will also be the HUD overlay and that it's relatively fast-paced action.

project_neon_horizontal_mock.png
 
Last edited:
I think the shmup community will get behind this, the fact it is TATE is a unique thing. I hate horivertical shooters. And serious shmup players will have their cab vertical already. It might not follow protocol, but make the game you want the way you like it and I’m sure people will see the vision. Good luck again mate.
 
djsheep said:
I think the shmup community will get behind this, the fact it is TATE is a unique thing.
Click to expand...
Neo XYX definitely didn't hit with the shmup community. And it's the only other tate MVS title. Hard to say if that's because of that, or because it just wasn't a good game. And just because they have a tate cab doesn't mean they have a 1-slot kicking around to throw in it (because why would they, there is only one other tate MVS game and it wasn't well-received).

Regardless, the choice would limit the potential playerbase. Food for thought, that's all. If the game stands on its own, I'm sure it'll do well any which way.
 
Neo XYX is a fairly mediocre shooter. I don’t think flipping it to Hori would have saved it ;)
 
Why not just do TATE and offer the controller flip option? I mean, the dedicated TATE guys would grab a 1-slot, everyone else would make do, vision is saved, bada-bing, bada boom!
 
xtrasmiley said:
Why not just do TATE and offer the controller flip option? I mean, the dedicated TATE guys would grab a 1-slot, everyone else would make do, vision is saved, bada-bing, bada boom!
Click to expand...
Yes - It's still very likely that this is what we're going with! There's also a bunch of people reaching out that they're used to flip their crts anyway today, even for Dreamcast and such. That also puts Neo Geo CD back on the list then I think, potentially at some stage even AES.
 
Im also interested in purchasing a physical copy but as far as backing it for kickstarter the first and most important question is will backers get their copies first or last?

I backed bloodstained and Im still waiting for my backer copy. Games were shipped out to non backers first, then North America and Europe, and Asia regions still havent gotten anything. Best Buy sold special edition copies as well so there wasnt any point in spending all that money.

Unless there is a really good benefit to being a backer then buying it when its released is the best option for me.
 
I'm interested depending on price always excited to play new vertical shmups.

I don't think you should change your game to horizontal if thats not what your original design was for.

though I wonder how difficult it would be to switch to PGM as a platform since it's similar to MVS in specs price and format but also home to a handfull of wonderful vertical shmups already.
 
Strongly suggest that you don't rework the game away from your original vision!

Another vote here for just adding a control rotation option.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top