Twinkle Star Sprites now on Steam!

[Shepardus]

Pulstar is already in the bundle right now.

Oh god. Buying this right now!

Since you're picking it up, can you let us know how the Twinkle Star Sprites port is? Is it decent, and does it (miraculously) have online play?

[LordHypnos]

Just bought this (hard to resist). IDK about online play yet (though I doubt it), but the linux version of TSS (haven't tried win ver yet) comes with a rom. Seemed kinda laggy using the provided executable, but presumably would run just fine in Shmupmame or other version (I tried it in the latest (maybe) version of UME in linux). Also would probably run fine on mamehub or wtv for online multiplayer (I should really install that one of these days.)

Also comes with a neogeo binary zip file, but I did not try it, except using the executable that came with the download
Haven't touched the steam keys yet.

[donluca]

Those are games to play in your browser, so my guess is that it's just an emulator running on a web script.

[Observer]

You can also download and install the games locally, no need of a browser.

Unfortunately, they are dotEmu through and through. Games run fine for me but they have no online at all. Interesting to see Humble logo in the DRM-free builds too.

HOWEVER, these seem to be ROMs, like, the ROMs some are used to and you can perhaps plug these into another frontend that supports online. Either way, a legal way to have these is nice.

[Danny]

I should point out that the Steam key games are actual proper ports while the drm free stuff if DotEmu jobs. That said it does appear that the roms are in the download so you don't have to use DotEmu's awful emu-wrapper.

[NeoStrayCat]

So, majority of these are just straight ports, not on steam, and DRM-Free. Well...cool, I guess, but yeah, some of these titles will make it to that service anyways.

But this is a nice surprise...for now. At least you can demo some of them, lol.

[LordHypnos]

^Not actually ports, just emulation (minus the steam ones). Unfortunately, TSS has no steam port (in this bundle, anyway). On the plus side, the DRM free versions have roms that run in MAME in tact (I only tested TSS, though).

[NeoStrayCat]

I see then, well, whatever works I guess.

[Blinge]

Whoa, there's a Pulstar on steam..

that ain't pulstar

http://store.steampowered.com/app/280460/

[MathU]

Well color me surprised, they finally ended up removing the Steam DRM from that Metal Slug 3 port.

Curious that King of Fighters 1998 and 2002 are locked to Steam while everything else isn't though.

Ooh neat, Shock Troopers is in this too.

[The Coop]

I grabbed that bundle as well, namely for Garou, Samurai Shodown V Special, and Pulstar. Everything else is gravy

[GSK]

Just so people know: the games in this bundle are DotEmu jobs, minus KOF '98UM & KOF '02UM which are the existing Steam ports by Code Mystics.

[cj iwakura]

Why can't Pulstar be the pay-whatever title... I gotta budget too tightly to go to the average. I own the other NG games in some form via PS2 or Dreamcast, but never Pulstar.

[MathU]

Just so people know: the games in this bundle are DotEmu jobs, minus KOF '98UM & KOF '02UM which are the existing Steam ports by Code Mystics.

Would they just give up this charade already and start selling actual ROM licenses?

[The Coop]

Just so people know: the games in this bundle are DotEmu jobs, minus KOF '98UM & KOF '02UM which are the existing Steam ports by Code Mystics.

Would they just give up this charade already and start selling actual ROM licenses?

They basically are. From what I've been reading, the games in this Bundle are just non-renamed ROMs (both game and Neo-Geo bios) with a DotEmu front end. Others have been plopping those files into various emulators and playing them just fine, so it sounds like DotEmu went the Taito Legends 1+2 route.

And really, for all the imperfections that DotEmu stuff has, it's still better than the alternative of spending thousands of dollars to legally get these games. The aural and visual emulation isn't perfect, and yeah, MAME does it better, but the emulation is serviceable. And hey, in a week, we'll get a few more games added to the pile. With any luck, they'll be Blazing Star, Last Blade 2 and Samurai Shodown III.

[trap15]

The emulators are stolen from Gametap and the ROM files are ancient ROM sets, and the NeoGeo BIOS archive includes every version of Unibios. If DotEmu was going for the sloppiest and least legal job possible, they sure achieved it. I recommend avoiding the thing entirely unless you really want to not feel bad about downloading the ROMs, because this is worse in every way.

[AntiFritz]

Guess they haven't changed.

[DotEmu]

Hello,

Here are our official clarifications about the 25th anniversary Neo Geo Humble Bundle project:
http://www.dotemu.com/Letter/NeoGeo.html

The DotEmu Team

[zuq_]

No reconfigurable control options nor the ability to choose which controller you want to set for each player. Games run at incorrect speeds if display refresh rate is higher than 60hz. Good effort, just as expected.

[Jelloman581]

A single front end for these games would be nice as well. Sure, separate installers are fine to install what you want, but having a front end like the Capcom Arcade release on X360 and PS3 would bring the package together nicely. Yeah games run too fast on a 144Hz monitor, have to set to 60Hz to play. Some scanline options (exists in Steam Metal Slug version at least) would help too.

I supported it, mostly as a cheap way to get the Steam releases. I hope once the issues are ironed out that more releases can see the light of day. I'm sure a lot of it is licensing (Taito for Bust-A-Move, for example).

[MathU]

Hello,

Here are our official clarifications about the 25th anniversary Neo Geo Humble Bundle project:
http://www.dotemu.com/Letter/NeoGeo.html

The DotEmu Team

Do you think you could ever fix the stability issues in IREM Arcade Hits? I am still quite interested in that if those can be worked out.

[The Coop]

Hello,

Here are our official clarifications about the 25th anniversary Neo Geo Humble Bundle project:
http://www.dotemu.com/Letter/NeoGeo.html

The DotEmu Team

Do you think you could ever fix the stability issues in IREM Arcade Hits? I am still quite interested in that if those can be worked out.

Don't hold your breath. I was on their forums back when it was being actively patched. They promised a 1.2 patch that would fix the stability problem, add the Japanese version of Undercover Cops, and all of that. After a long wait, I finally asked what the hell was going on, and was flat out told they wouldn't be patching the game anymore, and that the new patch was dropped. I ended up being refunded because the game wasn't playable due to the stability problem, and that was the end of that. I sincerely doubt they're going to have a change of heart nearly four years later.

[BrianC]

I'm really curious what is up with G1M2, who was responsible for Gametap's emulation, the Data East Wii compilation, and some SNK compilations. Their website hasn't been updated since 2011. I'm not surprised that Gametap's emulation has switched hands considering some of the issues of that site and it's new ownership.

[spmbx]

You must be seriously allergic to money if you biy this instead of just firing up mame

[genetik]

You must be seriously allergic to money if you biy this instead of just firing up mame

The 3 slugs and 2 kof are steam keys. Those are proper ports, fully playable, and totally worth it. It's worth the 10 bucks just for that. The dotemu stuff are very barebone and crappy emulators.

[MathU]

Wait I'm confused. Are the Metal Slug games locked to Steam DRM or not?

[Danny]

Wait I'm confused. Are the Metal Slug games locked to Steam DRM or not?

Look on the humblebundle page and find out...

[BrianC]

Wait I'm confused. Are the Metal Slug games locked to Steam DRM or not?

Telling from the page, 1, X, and 3 have both DRM free and Steam versions. 2 doesn't have a Steam version. The Steam page says they are still done by DotEmu.

[MathU]

So the bundle is actually selling two different versions of the game, and the one you get from a Steam key happens to be locked to Steam DRM?

[BrianC]

So the bundle is actually selling two different versions of the game, and the one you get from a Steam key happens to be locked to Steam DRM?

That's how it worked when I bought Volgarr from humble bundle.