Paprium: The Official Thread Mk 2

[DarkKobold]

I agree with youe points, but in the unique case of Paprium it has been held up to the highest standards by Fonze in every possible way, including ways we'd never have thought of, since development was first announced as beginning.

He promised that it was going to be the most technically advanced MD game ever (Tea Time sprite demo), the biggest 16-bit game ever made, it's worth thousands of dollars, etc. He compared it to Neo Geo and CPS games.

Watermelon had previously identified as being a professional company and not simply homebrew. Some time after the fundraising goal was reached, it came out that their biggest expense was paying Fonze a salary.

During development it was announced that an animation studio was being hired to do the sprite animation.

A professional TV commercial was made years ago.


These are not things that homebrew or indie devs do.



When some copies finally began to ship, Fonze sent out spam emails which included the following:

"SIZE shock: No other game packs so much original art, sound and gameplay in so few yet so many MEGs.
SPEED shock: No other game plays faster, better and stronger than PAPRIUM.
SOUND shock: No other game casts a more advanced score and astonishing sound quality than PAPRIUM.

PAPRIUM is the pinacle of video game programing, engineering and artistic excellence, nothing less, believe it or miss it!
Actually, PAPRIUM is much more than a game, it's the total and absolute victory against the odds."



No one is holding Paprium to a standard as high as Fonze is insisting it beats.

Man, things have changed from the PCEFX days! I agree with you. I think as a late comer, I showed up during the hatorade binge-fest, and had missed out on the hype-fest. I also sipped some of that delicious hatorade, so I know the appeal. When Paprium was finally released, I was impressed that he did actually deliver a game, and to me, it's impressive *for what it actually is.* Given what the hype was, it definitely didn't live up to that.

That said, it is the biggest Genesis game ever, so at least that wasn't a lie.

[Black_Tiger]

That said, it is the biggest Genesis game ever, so at least that wasn't a lie.

I think that Paprium, like Pier Solar, was actually marketed as the biggest "16-bit" game. Even if you're only counting consoles that aren't Neo Geo, it's still silly considering CD games exist and many are much larger even when you don't count wav files, the extra hardware decompressed audio and fmv.

There are also SNES games with roms that are larger when decompressed by their cart's dedicated chip. I understand that most games use some kind of compression and it gets subjective at this point...

But all of those games were officially released bitd using current practical technology. Paprium uses a super powerful chip from decades in the future and adds much than say the PC Engine CD-ROM did.

Looking at actual the game, with the limited amount of animation for the given number of unique sprites... and the backgrounds being built so much by tiles instead of being set pieces like SFII... it looks like aside from sampled audio, at most Paprium is comparable in size to SFIICE and much smaller than the uncompressed SSFII port for Mega Drive.

Just look at a sprite sheet for a single character from Eternal Champions.The same game also has backgrounds that look like unique paintings.

Even if the rom chip(s) totals 80 megs capacity, it was budgeted before work on the game began. The audio is noticeably muffled for a chip that can handle 32 channels at 48kHz. So if the full rom space is used, it's mostly for the non-Mega Drive hardware audio.

Just like Sega-CD games.

But again, it's silly to even hype something like that instead of producing a product first and then promote the game on actually achieved merits.

[Reputator]

I'm glad some people have gotten the game and are enjoying it, but I consider pre-ordering the game to be a mistake. I should have done more research, because this seems like an absolute nightmare for the people who have waited (and for many, still waiting) to receive it. And seeing people's refund requests delayed and not fulfilled is the nail in the coffin for me. Well, that and the possibility of a C&D notice being issued. I decided to go through PayPal to get my refund, which has been approved.

[Stifu]

But again, it's silly to even hype something like that instead of producing a product first and then promote the game on actually achieved merits.

It is indeed twisted, but SNK did more or less the same. NeoGeo games were made artificially huge just for bragging rights. Paprium was advertized as comparable to NeoGeo games, so that is fitting.

[axel]

If file size is a selling point then Slam City with Scottie Pippen for the 32XCD must be the best Genesis game ever. A whopping 2.26 GB (that's over 18,563 MEGs) spread across four discs, plus you need two add-ons just to handle it's awesomeness. Why would anyone want to play a boring, stupid game like NBA Jam instead?

[RvR]

This discussion makes me hope we get some awesome SCD homebrews one day that push the limits on the 2D style games its capable of.

[turboxray]

This discussion makes me hope we get some awesome SCD homebrews one day that push the limits on the 2D style games its capable of.

Would probably just be a whole lot easier to make MD+ games than SCD games.

[xelement5x]

My copy has moved from "Packing" to "Shipping"
Soon I'll be a cool kid too!

[Rapha7]

My copy has moved from "Packing" to "Shipping"
Soon I'll be a cool kid too!

Yeah, mine moved to "Shipping..." yesterday! It's from Las Vegas as well, so it's safe to say that the whole continent is beeing handled by this warehouse.

[stlpaul]

My copy has moved from "Packing" to "Shipping"
Soon I'll be a cool kid too!

That's encouraging! On the other hand mine has been in "Shipping" status since Dec 14 so you may need to broaden your expectations of the word "soon"

[matteus]

This discussion makes me hope we get some awesome SCD homebrews one day that push the limits on the 2D style games its capable of.

The Mega Drive market is niche enough without narrowing it down to Sega CD owners only lol

[cawley1]

That's encouraging! On the other hand mine has been in "Shipping" status since Dec 14 so you may need to broaden your expectations of the word "soon"

Yeah, I second this. I just logged in to check any movement on my order and the status has not changed - '15/12/2020 - 19:56 - Las Vegas USA - Shipping...'

It's actually seven weeks today since I got confirmation my game was 'Shipping...' Manage your expectations, I'm not sure you will see it anytime soon, but I would love to be proved wrong.

[Aaron]

Mine shows the same.
Status: Shipping...
Last Update: 15/12/2020 - 19:56
15/12/2020 - 19:56 - Las Vegas USA - Shipping...
Would be nice if Watermelon had any customer service at all....
So those of us getting the game in 2021, does that mean we get an updated and fixed version that works with every console now? That MUST be the reason for the delay.

[Gentlegamer]

My pre-order just moved to Shipping status.

[NeoVamp]

That MUST be the reason for the delay.

Doubtful, most likely the only thing fixed will be the internal shield.