Flight of Pigarus - caravan shmup for the Sega Master System

[OmegaFlareX]

Indeed. It's really nice hardware to develop for.

Would it be possible to make homebrew using arcade hardware? I am wondering why we don't see more of that. There were plenty of dev houses who had capable Z80 boards - Toaplan, SNK, UPL, etc. I guess unlike a game console, you'd be most limited by a lack of documentation. Also emulation would not be so straightfoward due to the extreme fluidity of MAME and its complex ROM dumps.

[louisg]

Indeed. It's really nice hardware to develop for.

Would it be possible to make homebrew using arcade hardware? I am wondering why we don't see more of that. There were plenty of dev houses who had capable Z80 boards - Toaplan, SNK, UPL, etc. I guess unlike a game console, you'd be most limited by a lack of documentation. Also emulation would not be so straightfoward due to the extreme fluidity of MAME and its complex ROM dumps.

It's been done with stuff like Fantasy Zone II DX (which was super cool IMO). I think that was a homebrew project by a couple ex-Sega devs that got picked up..? I'm guessing it's less-frequent because it's harder for most people to ever get it running on real hardware. These old consoles often have cult followings, like the AtariAge community, where you know you'll have X number of people lining up to try your game-- that can be pretty encouraging as a dev.

[Despatche]

I made a score topic thinger because why not. Give me an excuse to actually play 5 minute modes!

[Herr Schatten]

Just a quick heads-up and shameless plug on my behalf:

The game is getting a physical release, so you can play it on an actual Master System. There's a preorder site here:
https://www.2minds.fr/en/

(That site also offers another game of mine, namely the single screen platformer Bara Burū.)

[donluca]

Neat! I really enjoyed it back when I played it, although caravan shmups are not really among my favorite shooter genre.

Hope it sells well!

[Bawa]

I just discovered this game and I'm really enjoying it!
My recent appreciation for Caravan Games have made me try some new games and this one goes to the top of the list!

[FRO]

Funny, I've been planning for months for this to be the December game for my Shmup Club, and literally just posted that here in my thread, and now I see it's getting a physical release, and getting some love here on this forum

[Wittischism]

Just discovered this game from this post, and just ordered it. The gameplay looks pretty smooth. Hard to pass up when I can plug it right I to my main tv using my Mega SG.

[dmk1198]

What's definition of caravan?
Just limited time?

Sent from my Redmi Note 8T using Tapatalk

[Wittischism]

For anyone that happened to order a physical copy (besides me lol), just got a shipping notification for mine.

[BrianC]

What's definition of caravan?
Just limited time?

Sent from my Redmi Note 8T using Tapatalk

It's based on a Japanese high score competition where players tried to get the highest score in a limited time.

[MachineAres 1CC]

Just tried this on my real hardware and I love everything about this game! The aesthetics are adorable and fun and the game system is really fun to me. It's not overly complex like some caravan shmups, it feels just right and kept me playing for almost an hour when I first turned it on.

My score for 2 minute mode is stuck around 25,000, but I just had to stop playing and do other things for now.

Kudos for making one of the most technically impressive and fun Master System shmups ever

[Wittischism]

http://imgur.com/gallery/ldIDxtv

Came today. That has to be the most epic cartridge warning label ever.

[Mortificator]

I've posted here for years and somehow missed this until now! Love the title and art.

[Fudoh]

Lovely caravan shoot'em up - really!

Can I ask a technical question: when I run this on Retroarch teh game defaults to the same speed, no matter if I boot into a PAL machine or a NTSC one. In both cases I don't really get really smooth scrolling though (well, not at all surprising with a 60Hz monitor), but when I boot into PAL and change the system to 60Hz while the game is running I get butter smooth 60fps.

Other SMS games using the same emulator do as I would expect: run slow and internally at 50fps when booted into PAL and run faster and internally at 60Hz when booted into NTSC. Why does Pigarus' speed remain identical on both region settings ?

[Herr Schatten]

The game actually checks which system it's running on on startup, then makes sure it always runs at 50 Hz. If it runs on a 60 Hz system it stops for one frame regularly to achieve this. I guess your 60 Hz monitor does the same for you if you're running it in 50 Hz mode, so the result looks quite the same. If played on an actual 50 Hz machine and a CRT, it's as smooth as it gets.

I'm sorry there's a bit if stutter on 60 Hz setups, but I think in a game like this it is important that one second is really always one second. Besides, I don't think you really notice it all that much in the heat of battle. If you trick the game into thinking it runs on a PAL machine and then switch to NTSC, it will be too fast and not run as intended. (Btw, the game not only checks the FPS of the system but also the region. If it detects a japanese system, it will change the title screen accordingly.)

[Fudoh]

Thanks! Makes sense.

Sounds like what I'm seeing on the emulator is what I would see running on a real 60Hz hardware setup. Good enough