Paprium: The Official Thread Mk 2

[loempiavreter]

By the way, I tried the super glue on the loos shield plate thing, and that worked like a charm. Just a couple drops and I held in place for a minute. Haven't had an issue since. Oddly enough, the only time the game got warm was when I played with the shield off. Hmmm.

On which places should i affix the glue? Excuse my tech ignorance, but should I just put super glue on the Paprium-board and make sure the glue doesn't cover the caps? And then put the metal plate on top of it?

[zborgerd]

Okay, I've assembled the Monster Joystick and the game is compatible with it, unlike the Fighter Stick MD-6. It's no Grand Stick III, but it does the job. Couldn't resist taking a picture!

But I got my first game freeze at this dramatic moment. Not sure what suddenly caused that. My console is a Euro 1600-09 so should be safe.

Anyway... Marry Christmas all!

What is your power supply? Aftermarket or original? Ever have problems with official carts?

[Barone]

But I got my first game freeze at this dramatic moment. Not sure what suddenly caused that. My console is a Euro 1600-09 so should be safe.

Bringing this over from the other thread for documenting purposes.
Another 50Hz console.

[SEGA-Jorge]

Okay, I've assembled the Monster Joystick and the game is compatible with it, unlike the Fighter Stick MD-6. It's no Grand Stick III, but it does the job. Couldn't resist taking a picture!



But I got my first game freeze at this dramatic moment. Not sure what suddenly caused that. My console is a Euro 1600-09 so should be safe.



Anyway... Marry Christmas all!

Is that a custom stick you made? Or a Build-It-Yourself kit?

[SEGA-Jorge]

On which places should i affix the glue? Excuse my tech ignorance, but should I just put super glue on the Paprium-board and make sure the glue doesn't cover the caps? And then put the metal plate on top of it?

I put just a few drops on the black goo that was already there. I didn't want to touch the actual IC's on the board. I then laid the shielding over that and pressed it lightly till it set. After that I closed up the casing and put the cart back in the clam shell and laid it cover-up, to let it set for about an hour. (It doesn't take that long, but I stepped away to do this or that, which allowed it to set nicely.)

Hope that helps!

[SEGA-Jorge]

So, it turns out that, in my haste to play Paprium, I dropped that letter that Fonzie included in the packaging. (The one with the explanation about the game, the details about the delays, and changes to the comicbook/instruction manual?) Anyway, my lovely wife found that paper and assumed it was trash. As a result, the letter is somewhere in the city dump. If anyone has a moment to scan the letter, or can point me to a link that has that information, that would be awesome.

I hope you're all having a great Christmas Eve/Holiday!

-SEGA-Jorge!

[Joe Redifer]

My Genesis Model 1 VA2 works fine. Haven't tried it with Sega CD yet. Will test on all of my other Genesises soon.

[Rapha7]

I don't have the game yet, but for science I've done some testing with my Japanese Model 1 VA5 by trying to run some versions of the Sega/Mega CD bios through an Everdrive x3. I can confirm that the Genesis is able to check wether or not a turned off Sega/Mega CD is attached. Something curious is that only the Wondermega and X'Eye versions of the bios could give me this answer. With any other than these, the console would just freeze and need to be powered off.

Here's what i've done: Loaded the X'Eye bios with my Model 2 Sega CD detached and got black screen >> attached the Sega CD and the bios showed up on screen but static >> detached it again, the animation started and pressing the start button lead to another black screen >> atached it again and the cd player program showed up >> at last, detached it and the cursor appeared. After that, nothing else occurs. The Wondermega does the same, but by pressing start when the animation is on just changes the text and attaching it again freezes the console. Through this whole process the Mega Drive was switched on and the Sega CD was off. I filmed it just in case anyone wants to see it in details.

So, yeah, it very much seems like Paprium's boot up peripheral recognition routine is not really optimised for every Genesis/Mega Drive version.

Another suggestion for people with this add-on recognition problem:
- At the copyright screen where it gets stuck, try carefully connecting a turned off Sega/Mega CD. If it goes past this screen, it reinforces that the routine waits for an add-on. If it doesn't work, it might mean that the bootup sequence is so deep into an infinite loop that it crashes the console.

[afro man dan]

How do you do the special attacks?

[Sanjo]

forgive me if this was already explained before

but what does the special chip do?
from what wikipedia says, it is mostly devoted to extra sound channels
and i guess also, to provide more memory

anything else?
im just curious memory and sound aside, how much could the genesis hardware do itself

[SEGA-Jorge]

How do you do the special attacks?

So far, the only special attacks are the f,f+B (dashing attack) and the special move you do when you take the Blue Pill. Taking the Blue Pill also has a sort of burst/area of effect attack, that stuns all enemies. Outside of that, no secret special attacks have been discovered, to my knowledge, but I'd be surprised if at least something isn't hidden in there. I will have to experiment with x,y,z combinations, and release combinations, and perhaps something with the Mode button. The game seems to have a lot of inspiration from SoRIII and GAIII, and both of those games had hidden special moves, in addition to the base special moves, so that style of activation may be a good place to start experimenting.

Edit:
Some minor garbage I noticed:
- Characters seem to have different Blue Pill duration. There is the initial burst (that causes the stun - within area of effect) These are approximations:
--- Tug: 13 seconds (7-8 second depletion cooldown)
--- Alex: 13 seconds (7-8 second depletion cooldown)
--- Dice: 20 seconds (7-8 second depletion cooldown) Outlier (I tested this on arcade mode with and without enemies on screen (outside first breakable door.))
--- Electra 23 seconds (~10 second depletion cooldown) This it the only unlockable character I have, but she has crazy blue pill duration.
--- Baba: 13 seconds (7-8 second depletion cooldown)
NOTE: On top of this, Electra's Blue Pill has 2 phases, the initial depletion cooldown has the mirage/mirror effect, after that cooldown, the meter starts to deplete, she loses the mirror and just has the flip kick special attack.
- The initial burst of the Blue Pill has an AoE, only the characters around the player will get stunned. Length may vary by enemy?
- All characters obviously start at a different addiction level
- Getting hit while on Blue Pill will deplete the Blue Pill Meter
- All the characters seem to have some sort of character-specific trait. More than the level of addiction they carry by default, and perhaps how long the high from the blue pill may or may not last, but stuff like:
- Alex can roll up and down the screen, like SORIII
- Tug can pick up different "weight" enemies. Everyone can pick up (Grapple + Up + B) the basic small enemy (first enemies in Dice's apartment) but Tug can also pick up the deformed arm guys.
- Dice doesn't have a noticeable special thing, but it might be the duration of his Blue Pill power.
- Electra has a really low jump height
- Electra can't seem to hit doors in the background.
- Electra can pick up level 2 weight enemies (like tug) (The mutant arm guy, Buddy)
- Electra can't use weapons as normal, she'll pick up chains/knives etc. and immediately throw them, but can pick up the electric baton and use it as a laser whip (secondary still throws it) Whip as a melee still goes away after a certain amount of attacks
- Electra's f,f+B looks airborne, but for the purposes of going over an open pit, it will stop at the edge. (no dash attack over pits like Golden Axe... Boooo)
- Electra gains life of the Bad Pick Up (Moutay) as well as the other packs.
- Electra doesn't take electric damage the same as other enemies: The first boss just freezes her in place, no knock down, and the 3rd rail on the subway (bottom of the screen on the subway platform) does next to no damage to her. Floating booby robot lasers don't knock down and do almost no damage.
- Electra picking up the fire extinguisher gets a special immediate throw, it goes randomly zigzagging up and down the screen or back and forth, spraying the contents.
- As of yet, I've never seen a PIPE when playing arcade mode with Electra. EDIT. I saw a pipe, finally. She just throws it immediately if she picks it up.
- Electra doesn't see to get thrown, or get grabbed from behind by the chain enemies. (Mojo/Rutumbo) She might be able to, but I haven't seen it, and I tried. A lot. (I did get tied up by the base cop enemy)
- Baba has the same thing goin with weapons. They all get picked up and tossed immediatly.
- Baba can still open doors
- Baba was still getting tied up by Mojo/Rutumbo
- Baba gets damaged by Moutay
- Baba has weird move with Mode buttons (is this the Hacking for red kiosk thing?)
- Baba has super-fast walk speed, no run?
- Baba can roll up/down like Alex/Electra (L.Ectra... whatever.)


Another weird thing: I'm sure we all know you can MOVE a meat shield from behind. You can still move an enemy in a front grapple as well, you want to grab them, C to move behind them, C to move back to the front, HOLD C on that second side-switch, pressing B + Forward/Up/Down cancels and re-grabs, you move a bit, similar to the jab gliding. Electra moves... A lot. You can reposition enemies on the screen from front grapple like this. Can be useful.

Pause + A+B+C+Start soft resets.

[afro man dan]

So far, the only special attacks are the f,f+B (dashing attack) and the special move you do when you take the Blue Pill. Taking the Blue Pill also has a sort of burst/area of effect attack, that stuns all enemies. Outside of that, no secret special attacks have been discovered, to my knowledge, but I'd be surprised if at least something isn't hidden in there. I will have to experiment with x,y,z combinations, and release combinations, and perhaps something with the Mode button. The game seems to have a lot of inspiration from SoRIII and GAIII, and both of those games had hidden special moves, in addition to the base special moves, so that style of activation may be a good place to start experimenting.

They are listed in the manual but I can't seem to do them. I wonder what I'm doing wrong?

[majinga]

...

There's a hole in the bottom, on the right next to the pin connectors... kinda looks like the plastic has melted. Did anyone else notice something like that?
...

No, this is a production issue on your cart.

I'm thinking of using hot glue, the kind that you often see on PCBs to prevent capacitors from vibrating.
...

That's not hot glue. It's silastic, a silicone based stuff. Both are not the best in this case. I would not bother to reattach the metal plate, but if you wish, a double sided tape will do the job.

...I guess paying the $10 fee was a waste of cash.
...

Indeed it was.

[Devil N]

So, it turns out that, in my haste to play Paprium, I dropped that letter that Fonzie included in the packaging. (The one with the explanation about the game, the details about the delays, and changes to the comicbook/instruction manual?) Anyway, my lovely wife found that paper and assumed it was trash. As a result, the letter is somewhere in the city dump. If anyone has a moment to scan the letter, or can point me to a link that has that information, that would be awesome.

I hope you're all having a great Christmas Eve/Holiday!

-SEGA-Jorge!

chilled made a photo of it before: https://imgbox.com/yjQWWWIM

[otobo]

What is your power supply? Aftermarket or original? Ever have problems with official carts?

It's an original one, 1602-05 although I got that one with another console, a modded 1601 while I was in the UK. I don't remember having freezing issues with other games on my original console; I'll try again with the original adapter.

Is that a custom stick you made? Or a Build-It-Yourself kit?

It's a Build-It-Yourself kit indeed, from Monster Joysticks, a UK business which started with Raspberry Pi kits, then sticks for retro consoles and computers.
I discovered them thanks to a nice Youtube retro computing channel, RMC, which they sponsor.
I also built 2 Master System ones. They offer artwork covers for those, so you can design your own decoration, as they work with various machines. The SMS has virtually no arcade stick properly speaking, so it's awesome to be able to build your own.