Nightdive Studios, SNEG, Ziggurat, Piko Interactive and others rereleasing classic games

[LESS T_T]

Why not? Whether a game is shit or not, I always prefer everything is available from everywhere possible, from all sort of stores to pirate's bay.

 

[Infinitron]

lmao, here's some drama we missed. Apparently the person who owned the KEEN DREAMS license was a nutjob and got his company banned from Steam: https://pckf.com/viewtopic.php?t=4096

So he handed the license to Nightdive and now it's back:





P.S. All their games seem to be on sale now.

 

[LESS T_T]

Forsaken is one of the two I think.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Moonstone!

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Moonstone!

Yeah, but DISCWORLD!

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Kingpin, Red Faction, Daikatana and Outlaws are already on GOG so those can be ruled out.

Soldier of Fortunes, Mechwarriors and old Bungie games would be too good to be true.

 

[CryptRat]

Legend Entertainment catalog would be nice too.

 

[Don Peste]

Something from here: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-games-are-not-available-on-steam-gog.110953/

Legend Entertainment catalog would be nice too.

The Wheel of Time?

 

[CryptRat]

Callahan's saloon and Mission Critical are in the list. However Hoboken and text adventure ones are not unfortunately.

 

[karoliner]

I want Urban Chaos: Riot Response,the Silent Hill games and the Mechwarriors games.

 

[Black]

Mechs are white man's vehicle of choice, of course they have to be in.

 

[LESS T_T]

Well I posted this in GOG thread last week but since this news is more about retro re-release in general...: https://pikointeractive.com/blog/happy-2018-important-announcements-for-2018-and-the-future/

Piko Interactive (the retro re-release publisher that was known for Super 3-D Noah's Ark re-release) acquired IPs of Legend Entertainment, Infogrames, Accolade, Microprose, Ocean Software, and others from "a large known publisher" (most likely Billionsoft, a Hong Kong company behind the last year's Bubsy reboot, and Tommo/Retroism).

They re-released Legend Entertainment's Death Gate on GOG last week in case you missed it.

Happy 2018! Important Announcements for 2018 and the Future

Hello Retro Gamers!

We would like to wish you all a Happy and Successful 2018 full of blessings and work, and surrounded of friends or family (or both!)!

First, I would like to start this announcement by thanking all of our customers that ordered from our website in 2017! Thank you for buying game carts, digital games, or any sort of product on our website! You Rock! We couldn’t be here with out you!

Second, I would like to give a small update on our current Pre-orders. The Wisdom Tree KS, is still on track. All software is ready for a final testing before production run, and packaging should be going out to print shop by the end of the week, if not the beginning of next week. In regards of the 2017 wave of Pre-orders, we are about 60% or so ready for production. We need to fix a few bugs, final test, and finish up the packaging. Thank you for your pre-orders, and we will be giving more updates as things come up.

Third, Smaller announcement of acquisitions; during 2017 we acquired several titles (keep reading for a bigger announcement on this regard). Some of these included the Super Famicom title Gourmet Sentai Bara Yarou. The game is currently being translated and is about 90% done. Hopefully this game leads to more Japanese acquisitions.

Now, I can comfortably go towards the main announcement. Here at Piko, we slowly pivoted from a homebrew developer that produced retro mini games, to a retro publisher that acquired IPs. When we acquire the rights to a game, we feel like we are giving it a new cozy home which would give it a new purpose in life. Through the years (since 2013) we have increased the budgets or the caliber of acquisitions we do. From indie unreleased games, to popular games from the 90s. Back in Oct 2017, we did the biggest investment for Piko to date. We are very excited to announce that we closed a 60 titles catalog acquisition. This acquisition we worked on virtually since the beginning of Piko Interactive LLC. For many reasons we could not close until Oct 2017! These new titles allow us to hit a very important milestone of owning over 100 IPs. The list of titles will not be revealed at the moment; but we can give you a general idea of what it includes.

We acquired these titles from a large known publisher who over the years of operation, they themselves acquired many smaller developers that eventually closed shop. The titles included in this new catalog have mainly original IPs from the following developers:

• Infogrames
• Ocean Software
• Legend Entertainment
• Beam Software
• Accolade
• Hasbro Interactive
• GT Interactive
• Microprose/Spectrum Holobyte

The purpose of this acquisition is to expand our operations.

Piko Interactive will still concentrate in publish and distribute game cartridges. Some of these titles would be ported to Jaguar, or will be finally produced to NES, SNES, N64, Genesis etc.

A New Label will be launched called “Classics Digital” which will concentrate in publishing these games in Steam.

A New Label will be launched called “Virtual Consoles” which will concentrate in bundling these games in different plug and play consoles.

So, our business operations will be split in 3, Carts, Digital, and Plug and Plays; among other partnerships for licensing and digital distribution.

Major announcements and marketing campaigns for each specific section will be launched at a later date with more details.

We hope to recoup our investment quickly so we can keep acquiring more and more games to includue in our catalog, expand our intellectual property universe, and giving purpose to these “old” video games.

Thank you all, please email us if you have any comments or questions.

Cheers!

And it looks like they're going to release more emulated console games on PC: https://www.facebook.com/pikointeractive/posts/1172685762867410

Any more goss/info about what other retro PC games we could be expecting to either be distributed on GOG or Steam in the future?

A Bunch! some others for Legend, Infogrames, Ocean, and then other non PC games emulated

 

[Black]

What a time to be alive, I get more happy about re-re-releases of old games than anything new.

 

[Morgoth]

Legend Entertainment
GT Interactive

Wheel of Time incoming!

 

[Infinitron]

5 Inforgrames re-release coming from Piko Interactive's Classics Digital label:

 

[CryptRat]

I used to love Bubble Ghost, it's such a unique game.

Drakkhen is interesting, its combat system is very bad and you've got no freedom regarding party composition but it also has cool dungeons, enemies, traps and overall sense of progresion.

 

[LESS T_T]

Quite recent drama around Piko: https://www.libretro.com/index.php/...-the-new-retro-emulation-industry-in-general/

They used an SNES emulator for a Steam re-release but refused to pay license fee that required to use it commercially. And when the developer of the emulator (Byuu. Emulation enthusiasts here may know him, even if you're not, you may remember the 100 lost SNES cartridges accident last year.) complained, the founder of Piko apparently sent this to him:

Byuu,

Dude Nobody asked you to drain your 401k and max out credit card to spend on super famicom stuff or projects. Thats you own decision. If you are looking for sympathy and/or praise you are not going to get them from me. You did it for the love of the console? Then great, don’t complain. Im pretty sure you are old enough to make your own financial decisions.

As I told Daniel, why would I pay you for something that you offer no support and it is hard for a regular programmer to compile? The whole 6 months (which I think it was far less) shiru spent all his time and effort trying to understand the spagetti code that higan was. He just couldn’t get it to work the way you provide it, sorry, Im not going to pay for something I cannot use. That is like me going to buy a car for my communte but the salesman is giving me all the engine in parts that I have to assemble; I can look into assembling the engine, but if doesn’t work out, Im not going to buy it, And I am expecting the salesman to undersatnd that I am not going to buy something I cannot use.

If you are too concern about making money off your emulator (which is a good product) why do it GPL? Why not just sell a license and not offer it for free? Like flying tigers, digital eclipse, nintendo, and others?

We posted instructions online on how to get the source code, which was by request. I could even made it difficult and do it by mail only and charge a mailing fee and would be still ok. Also, Im pretty sure that there is credit to mednafen there somewhere on the steam page, at least on the listings we control. Bubsy I dont control, and we gave instructions on what to write in regards the mednafen licensing and instructions to post on how to get the source code. If Tommo didn’t posted them, that is not my problem.

Also, why would I give credit to byuu if we are using mednafen? If someone is curious what emulator is using, then they go to the page where it gives that information, and then they read up on mednafen, and see it uses bsnes core.

Call me what you want, (worst than hyperkin, yada yada) at least I don’t talk behind people’s back, specially the ones that make me money .

Take a couple of business classes, may come in handy. Or may I suggest to partner up with someone that understand basics in business.

 

[felipepepe]

5 Inforgrames re-release coming from Piko Interactive's Classics Digital label:

Oh FFS, why can't they re-release the Amiga version? Or respect the goddamn aspect ratio?

EDIT: Just read the drama above.... damn, the guy is a jerk and clearly doesn't give a fuck. That's why we get this lazy shit. :/

 

[Infinitron]

EDIT: Just read the drama above.... damn, the guy is a jerk and clearly doesn't give a fuck. That's why we get this lazy shit. :/

Yeah seems like a common thing with these businesses (see the Keen Dreams guy above)

Still, at least he's releasing stuff. These games were hoarded by their license owners for ages for no reason.

 

[LESS T_T]

Press release of Piko's Infogrames re-releases. Time Gate: Knight's Chase, Dragon View (SNES side-scroll action that originally meant to be Drakkhen II), and Marco Polo are also coming.

The retro gaming community was buzzing today with the announcement of the imminent release of 10 classic titles from 80’s publishing behemoth INFOGRAMES.

New label Classics Digital, a division of Piko Interactive, will be bringing these titles to Steam and all major digital retailers, with impulse-buy prices ranging from just $4.99 to $6.99.

The full title list is as follows:

• Dragon View
• Time Gate: Knight’s Chase
• Bubble Ghost
• Chaos Control
• Hostage Rescue Mission
• Drakkhen
• Eternam
• Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess
• Mystical
• Marco Polo

The genres covered range from good old-fashioned shooters and platformers, to complex RPG and adventure titles.

All 10 titles will release on February 8th and will be discounted by 15% for the week of launch.

‘There is something for everyone in this range of timeless classics – and this is just the beginning. We are aiming to publish many more retro and classic titles over the coming year, bringing them to a new audience, as well as satisfying the appetite of the ever-growing retro gaming community’ – says Eleazar Galindo, CEO of Piko Interactive.

ABOUT PIKO INTERACTIVE:

Piko Interactive LLC is a game development and publishing company that concentrates in the development of new games for old consoles. Our consoles of interest include but are not limited to the NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, and handhelds like Game Boy Advance, Gameboy Color and Gameboy.

Piko Interactive is the leading content provider for retro video game consoles, plug and play consoles, and retro digital distribution platforms. With over 30 different titles under our library, we constantly work in bringing the highest quality of new retro video games for our beloved consoles.

 

[Ash]

Regarding that drama: So from what I gather, Byuu released his emulator on the GPL license, but still requested/put in the terms of use that there's a fee for commercial usage of the emulator. Nobody is required to follow that request/author's "requirement" by law, and so he got unethically shafted by your typical scummy piece of shit businessman despite providing the core means of actually running the game? And the excuse given was "it's too complex and/or poorly written for my "regular" programmer to understand, who wasted his time and therefore my money with it, so fuck you".

Maybe don't get "regular" programmers to look at emulation software? It's highly specialised and rather complex stuff, from what I understand.

 

[TripJack]

no the issue is that they incorporated GPLicensed software in their game release and haven't made the source code available (which is a violation of the GPL), they would only have to pay a fee to the emulator guy if they wanted to use his software under a different license

 

[Destroid]

So yeah, abandonware > retroreleases.

 

[LESS T_T]

Nightdive is teasing the re-release of Acclaim's Forsaken:

 

[catfood]