Mega Man 9 Retro Promo... so awesome!

[SystemFreak]

WANT!

http://kotaku.com/5050627/capcoms-amazing-mega-man-9-box-art
http://www.capcom-unity.com/johndmoney/blog/2008/09/16/mega_man_9_retail_package

Apparently a few WILL be available via the Capcom store. Greatest packaging ever.

[poloplayr]

Omg Omg Omg

[heybtbm]

I read this on Kotaku this morning. How f'ing cool is that? Capcom is really showing some vintage NES love as of late.

[fpbrush]

Oh boy... I don't even want to know how feverish collectors are going to get over these things ^^; press-only with ~200 avaliable at the Capcom store? ^^; heh.

Though this throw-back/retro packaging was pseudo-predicted towards the middle/end of the other MM9 thread.
http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=118041&page=6

edit: gah, I can't find the exact place in the thread, but there was some fun hypothesizing about this happening (though I think some were hoping for a working-NES cart). However, with the realization that this would be impossible/difficult, I kind of assumed it wouldn't happen. But here we are :)

[gum_drops]

Very nice! 200 is pretty low. They could put it at 1000 and still sell out quickly.

[The 1 2 P]

Very nice! 200 is pretty low. They could put it at 1000 and still sell out quickly.

So why not make 10,000-100,000? It would be so much more money for them. I thought the point of being a successful business was to make money for your company and your investors. I'm tired of fighting over limited edition promos with my fellow collectors when the real culprit for this is the big companies themselves.

Now that I'm done ranting I have to admit that this package looks very cool. I want one....or five:)

[SegaAges]

disappointment. that is cool as well, but I thought 200 was going to be a promo for how many m$ points that game would cost.

[dao2]

maybe they just aren't anticipating how much this would be sought after :S? I want to be one of those 200 :|

[MrSparkle]

I hope someone rips the rom so nes reproductions can make me a megaman 9 cart :) that would rock pretty damned hard haha. Hopefully its a true nes rom and not just made to look similar though i wouldnt put it past them as i saw a massive multisprite enemy that didnt appear to be flickering.

[TonyTheTiger]

It's already been confirmed that it's not written in NES code so the only conceivable way you'd see Mega Man 9 running on NES hardware is if someone took on the massive task of writing an NES bootleg of the game from scratch.

And, yes, that item is damn sweet.

[Press_Start]

So why not make 10,000-100,000? It would be so much more money for them And I thought the point of being a successful business was to make money for your company and your investors. I'm tired of fighting over limited edition promos with my fellow collectors when the real culprit for this is the big companies themselves.

Now that I'm done ranting I have to admit that this package looks very cool. I want one....or five:)

I absolutely agree. It's awesome Capcom captured a moment of our childhood and transposed it for this promo. Seriously, why are they making 200? Do they think no one cares for the Blue Bomber anymore? That's bullsh!t. Any fan of Megaman worth his salt will love to get their hands on this.

[MrSparkle]

aww thats harsh :( oh well i still appreciate the direction of this game.

[Sudo]

Echoing the comments about it being limited to 200 as a terrible idea. I'd love to get my hands on one of these, but I know they'll be instantly sold out the moment they're put up for sale. The sad part is that many of them will most likely be put on eBay for jacked up prices.

[kewlrabbit]

Damn, that's cool. I'm not even a fan of Megaman but I'd buy that at $20.

[CosmicMonkey]

It's a shame the disc doesn't contain the full game, but this is still very cool. I'm not normally into this sort of stuff, but I'd really like this. Unfortunately, I can see this very limited run fetching a rediculous price on eBay.

[SegaAges]

It's a shame the disc doesn't contain the full game, but this is still very cool. I'm not normally into this sort of stuff, but I'd really like this. Unfortunately, I can see this very limited run fetching a rediculous price on eBay.

good call, that would be awesome if they at least put the game in the disc. They do it with other xbl live games (Uno and others that I can't remember, bejeweled maybe).

[ClassicGameTrader]

It's like Capcom actually.......cares......once again.

Now they just need to sell more of these, that's quite a collectors item.

[Sabz5150]

I have to clean my monitor now.

[TonyTheTiger]

We should make a blood pact. We each take shifts doing nothing but pressing the reload button on the Capcom Store website. The second the item comes up for sale whoever sees it orders a copy for everyone who's part of the pact.

[Sabz5150]

Where do I sign? The devil's already told me that my credit's too bad so that's out :(

[exit]

What the fuck Capcom! Here you go creating one of the most bad ass game cases I've ever seen and it's not going to be release to the public in (at least) limited quantities? I think they did this just to tease and taunt us, it's working.

Good job Capcom, I knew you still had it in you.

[Oobgarm]

I think I peed, just a bit.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

That's absolutely brilliant.

If they're scarse expect to pay hundreds for these on eBay ...

[TonyTheTiger]

I'm rarely a conspiracy theorist but you think they would intentionally produce 400 and only sell 200 so they can then trickle the extra 200 on Ebay and reap the rewards?

Hell, with only 200 I'd bet they'd all get snatched up by Capcom employees before they even made it to the public.

[The 1 2 P]

I'm rarely a conspiracy theorist but you think they would intentionally produce 400 and only sell 200 so they can then trickle the extra 200 on Ebay and reap the rewards?



The last time this happened(to my knowledge) was when Sega was set to rerelease a second printing on Rez on the PS2. Official Playstation Magazine reported it was coming but almost a year passed with no rerelease. Then after someone wrote in to the letters section of the magazine about what happened, the magazine said Sega had sold every copy of the rerelease second printing of Rez on ebay. I was a bit shocked that they did this. But what better way to guarantee every copy gets sold out and at no less than retail price? Kind of a smart move if you ask me, but not a very fan-friendly one.

[NEOFREAK9189]

this is for pc, ps2 or wii?????

[Sudo]

this is for pc, ps2 or wii?????

It's being released on PSN, WiiWare and XBLA Monday for $10.

[c0ldb33r]

I'd be more interested if that disc had a game on it, instead of extra artwork.

The NES cart itself is awesome though. :)

[slip81]

while this is cool and all, I do understand why they're only makeing 200 or so. You guys gotta step into other people's shoes. We, on this board, are some of the hardest of the hardcore when it comes to gaming and collecting.

In an age when Wii Play is still one of the best selling console games, I doubt many people are gonna care about retro themed game packaging that basically serves no other purpose than to look nice.

Yes, just about every person on this board, and others like it would buy that thing at once, but we represent a very small percentage of the gaming community.

[The 1 2 P]

we represent a very small percentage of the gaming community.

I can assure you that our percentage is MUCH more than 200 people.

[TonyTheTiger]

I still think 200 would barely make it out the door. Even if we did reload the page every 2 seconds for the next week, I'd imagine that somehow these 200 would be sold before they even went up for sale. Seriously. Unless you work at Capcom you're not getting this outside of Ebay. That saddens me. Not because we can't have it but because it's a tease. If they said "yeah, press only" then so be it. But for them to say "yeah, for public sale but you can't have one" it makes me a sad tiger. Though 200 is better than nothing. So no reason to be ungrateful.

I'm not even a huge memorabilia kind of guy but this is something I genuinely want. If only because it's the closest thing I could get to an official hard copy of what is without a doubt my #1 most anticipated game of 2008.

[chrisbid]

It's already been confirmed that it's not written in NES code so the only conceivable way you'd see Mega Man 9 running on NES hardware is if someone took on the massive task of writing an NES bootleg of the game from scratch.

And, yes, that item is damn sweet.



ive read this before, but where was it actually confirmed? link?

[TonyTheTiger]

I don't have a link but someone at Capcom (might have been Inafune himself) confirmed that they don't even have NES dev kits anymore. So there are two ways someone could get this game on an NES cart. One, they build a bootleg Mega Man 9 from scratch. Or two, they just dump Mega Man 9 as it is onto a rom chip and stick it in an NES cart. It won't play of course but it will technically be Mega Man 9 in a cart.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

ive read this before, but where was it actually confirmed? link?

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3752/he_is_8bit_capcoms_hironobu_.php

Fully confirmed by Capcom and the game's producer.

[Leo_A]

It never made sense to develop it on NES development kits, it was just just a unrealistic wish among MM fans because it would've been very cool if true.

But they're not going to throw programmers into a project working with hardware they've most likely never touched on development kits that haven't been used in 15 years(that probably would have to be reacquired anyways at places like Digital Press and eBay); and expect those people to reverse engineer the NES Mega Man source code across 6 titles and produce something in a programming environment they're clueless about that comes anywhere close to what experts did 15 years ago with hardware they'd been working with for the better part of a decade that they knew inside and out.

Especially not when the style and gameplay is easily enough replicated in modern ways in a programming environment they're familiar with at a far cheaper cost and using far fewer resources comparatively than the NES projects, which were major undetakings for Capcom then. And I'm sure this way is probably quicker and needs less manpower (Maybe, I have no way to know that last part).

Not to mention the added cost of developing emulators to accurately reproduce a NES title across three different platforms As far as I know, that's something Capcom has never developed, they used a free GBA NES emulator on their Capcom Mini Mix and the Mega Man Anniversay Collection was done outside Capcom and were ports of Playstation era ports (No emulation of the NES code involved), and they're not going to have access to Nintendo's VC emulator to produce this title across all three platforms like someone suggested in a earlier thread.

[slip81]

I can assure you that our percentage is MUCH more than 200 people.

yes, I realize that. what I was getting at is that if they made 10,000 of these they probably wouldn't sell out.

[TonyTheTiger]

I don't think any of us are asking for 10,000. 1,000 would be fine and even then I'm sure a bunch of people would get left in the cold. But 200 would not last 5 minutes. At that point, you'd just have to be lucky enough to load up the Capcom Store's website at the moment they put it up for sale. Just for reference, the Capcom employee who spilled the beans on his blog has, at this moment, 256 responses, most of which are people just saying how they want one. And the vast majority of the posts are one offs. Meaning there are already over 200 people just on the blog who want one. What most of them are saying is sort of true. If they do only sell 200 that will do nothing except pad the pockets of Ebay profiteers.

[Cobra Commander]

I would say I want this thing so so bad, but at this point, what's the point?
I'll never own it.....and that makes me sad.

[Graham Mitchell]

I don't have a link but someone at Capcom (might have been Inafune himself) confirmed that they don't even have NES dev kits anymore. So there are two ways someone could get this game on an NES cart. One, they build a bootleg Mega Man 9 from scratch. Or two, they just dump Mega Man 9 as it is onto a rom chip and stick it in an NES cart. It won't play of course but it will technically be Mega Man 9 in a cart.

I've talked to someone in the industry who has played the game who tell me there is no way the game could run on the NES or an emulator because there are cut-scenes that appear SNES-quality in color. Other than that though, he couldn't tell that it wasn't an NES game.

[unbroken]

anyone know when this is going to go up for sale?

[Jorpho]

I would say I want this thing so so bad, but at this point, what's the point?

What's the point anyway? It would be another expensive tchotchke to sit on the shelf and collect dust next to the Super Scope 6 or whatever.

[Nirvana]

Damn. Now that's the true definition of limited edition.

I'd pay an arm and a leg for one.

Not my limbs, though. Someone elses.

[rbudrick]

Why only 200? Well, for starters, that makes huge press as people scramble to try to get theirs. Second, you know they had to make these by hand by destroying some old SMB/World Class Track Meet/Duck Hunt carts, which is way less expensive than having a factory make new ones.

-Rob

[heybtbm]

According the Kotaku (quoting the Capcom blog) this morning, Capcom will be making more than 200. They won't (can't?) say how many will be produced, but it will be more than 200.

These things are still going to sell out in 5 minutes. I predict an "Amazon Gold Box"-type server failure when they go up on the Capcom store.

[TonyTheTiger]

They can do this one of two ways.

1) They announce when they'll be put up for sale and then watch the site crash under the strain once that second arrives.

2) They sneak it on quietly and let the people lucky enough to load up the site at the right time score a big win.

Neither option sounds particularly attractive. One one hand, I'll be seeing a series of "page load error" messages and by the time I get to the site I'll see "sold out" written there. On the other hand, I'll have to reload the page every 30 seconds I'm at a computer over the next week.

[Bojay1997]

The last time this happened(to my knowledge) was when Sega was set to rerelease a second printing on Rez on the PS2. Official Playstation Magazine reported it was coming but almost a year passed with no rerelease. Then after someone wrote in to the letters section of the magazine about what happened, the magazine said Sega had sold every copy of the rerelease second printing of Rez on ebay. I was a bit shocked that they did this. But what better way to guarantee every copy gets sold out and at no less than retail price? Kind of a smart move if you ask me, but not a very fan-friendly one.

That story is completely untrue. Rez for the PS2 was reprinted by Gamequest and they sold some on Ebay, some on their site and distributed some through Gamestop as used but really new just not sealed games.

[diskoboy]

IGN has already reviewed MM9.

8.6 ain't too shabby. But I think the 3 for gfx was unnecessary when it was designed like that on purpose.

http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/911/911740p1.html

[joshnickerson]

But I think the 3 for gfx was unnecessary when it was designed like that on purpose.
[/url]

Agreed. Geez, IGN, what were you expecting for an NES game, fully rendered bump mapping?

[theChad]

Yeah, I don't get the "3" - I mean, they explain Presentation in pretty much the same way ("what Capcom was going for...") yet it gets a 7.

?!?!

[heybtbm]

After debating for a few weeks, I've made up my mind and will be buying this for the Wii. Again, the 360 looses out based on it's "2-D unfriendly" controller design. That left PS3 vs. Wii. My Wii Super Famicom controller just arrived yesterday so the decision was made. Perfect timing.

[TonyTheTiger]

Yeah, I don't get the "3" - I mean, they explain Presentation in pretty much the same way ("what Capcom was going for...") yet it gets a 7.

?!?!

I think that's always a contentious issue when dealing with "creative choices" versus "objective analysis." For instance, some stories are intended to be cliche. I don't think the writers of any Tales game sit down hoping to match wits with Mass Effect. They're "goal" is to tell a tried and true story of swords and sorcery. Yet just because the bar was set lower from the start doesn't mean critics aren't justified in throwing their punches. Even if someone likes those cliches, they are still cliches.

It's always easier to slam something that was aiming high and fell short. But if something has a clear goal and meets that goal, how do you grade the performance? Do you grade it against similar things, such as by comparing Tales of Vesperia's plot to past Tales games and other cliche RPG stories of yore? Do you compare Mega Man 9's visuals to late-gen NES titles? Or do you compare everything to the contemporary standard regardless of creative intent? In the latter case, Mega Man 9's visuals really do warrant a 3. But this is where IGN's policy of not having the overall score be an average works out. They can still laud the game without having to worry about the score for the visuals pulling it down.

[chrisbid]

considering what homebrewers can do with a 2600, i dont find it too far fetched to make MM9 into a full-fledged NES game. will it happen? who knows, but if the graphics and sound are dumbed down to NES specs, there is little reason they cannot be recreated in an NES environment.

and cut scenes can be downsampled, or eliminated

[Wraith Storm]

We should make a blood pact. We each take shifts doing nothing but pressing the reload button on the Capcom Store website. The second the item comes up for sale whoever sees it orders a copy for everyone who's part of the pact.

LOL... Damn that made me laugh!

I have to say however that this is the coolest packaging I have ever seen.

[evil_genius]

I'm not sure which system to download this game on. XBOX 360 would be my ideal choice but the d-pad sucks balls. I will probably go with PS3.

[portnoyd]

They went on sale last night for.... $1999.95. However, if you responded in the original capcom-unity thread early enough, they emailed you a code to take 97% off the final price. $50 is steep but eBay prices will create a worldwide lube shortage.

I know this because I got a code. I am going to stick this down my pants when I get it because it is that sexy.

[Mayhem]

Guess I didn't respond early enough in the thread then... I figured it might go on sale yesterday however.

[Cobra Commander]

They went on sale last night for.... $1999.95. However, if you responded in the original capcom-unity thread early enough, they emailed you a code to take 97% off the final price. $50 is steep but eBay prices will create a worldwide lube shortage.

I know this because I got a code. I am going to stick this down my pants when I get it because it is that sexy.
Anybody know about this? I mean why wait until it's done to bring it up?

[portnoyd]

A PM on the Capcom Unity site was waiting for me when I woke up. It had a link to here:

http://store.digitalriver.com/servlet/ControllerServlet;jsessionid=F6F75EAD2C7874BD9F012 E4615EDB065?Action=DisplayPage&Locale=en_US&SiteID=capcomus&id=ShoppingCartPage

[Bojay1997]

Anybody know about this? I mean why wait until it's done to bring it up?

They only have a very small amount, so they sent codes directly to a couple hundred registered users on Capcom Unity. Although I wasn't lucky enough to get a code, at least I know that they tried to go after the hardcore fanbase which is nice, instead of risking massive numbers of these turning up on Ebay.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Two grand? Are they nuts? :\

[portnoyd]

It's to prevent someone without the invite from buying it. The code they give on the Capcom site PM takes 97% off.

[Kitsune Sniper]

It's to prevent someone without the invite from buying it. The code they give on the Capcom site PM takes 97% off.

I'm pretty sure several people on the boards will flip the thing on eBay anyway.

[joshnickerson]

I'm pretty sure several people on the boards will flip the thing on eBay anyway.

Yep.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Mega-Man-9-limited-edition-launch-pack-press-kit_W0QQitemZ120312829580QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item1 20312829580&_trkparms=72%3A570|39%3A1|66%3A2|65%3A12|240%3A131 8&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

[Cobra Commander]

Yep.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Mega-Man-9-limited-edition-launch-pack-press-kit_W0QQitemZ120312829580QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item1 20312829580&_trkparms=72%3A570|39%3A1|66%3A2|65%3A12|240%3A131 8&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
Sorry, but that's bullshit. If Capcom had made 5,000 and either offered them for a small fee or extended an offer to the first group who bought the game, more people could've enjoyed it. There's no way Capcom didn't know that people would be making money hand over fist off this thing.

[ProgrammingAce]

Remember, they're destroying original NES carts to make these things... i'm not sure how many you want them to make

[backguard]

this really isn't as cool as it might first seem and I bet it won't be worth more than 100 bucks or so in the next couple years. it is not even close to as cool as the metal gear solid 3 limited edition, and that only sells for around 150 for an opened copy and it includes a game and can be considered part of the ps2 canon. all this is is a funky piece of swag.

[Bojay1997]

this really isn't as cool as it might first seem and I bet it won't be worth more than 100 bucks or so in the next couple years. it is not even close to as cool as the metal gear solid 3 limited edition, and that only sells for around 150 for an opened copy and it includes a game and can be considered part of the ps2 canon. all this is is a funky piece of swag.

I don't think either this or the Metal Gear Solid 3 LE are worth getting worked up over. Ultimately, this is a cool little piece that will gather dust on your shelf. The MGS3 LE contains a DVD you will play once and never watch again. Both are pretty worthless and needlessly expensive for what they are.

[TonyTheTiger]

Sorry, but that's bullshit. If Capcom had made 5,000 and either offered them for a small fee or extended an offer to the first group who bought the game, more people could've enjoyed it. There's no way Capcom didn't know that people would be making money hand over fist off this thing.

They're actually being extremely fair. In fact, they're being as fair as they possibly can. The ones they're selling on their site haven't shipped yet. So whatever ones are on Ebay are probably ones given out earlier to members of the press. What they're doing on the site is offering first dibs to people they deem worthy through either tenure on the site or other factors. It actually probably will minimize the Ebay flipping as much as possible as the majority of people who are given the first dibs want this for keeps.


I don't think either this or the Metal Gear Solid 3 LE are worth getting worked up over. Ultimately, this is a cool little piece that will gather dust on your shelf. The MGS3 LE contains a DVD you will play once and never watch again. Both are pretty worthless and needlessly expensive for what they are.

Oh, I think it's worth getting worked up over. It's the closest thing to a physical copy of Mega Man 9 there will ever be.

[Mayhem]

I saw your long post on the Unity boards about wanting a promo Tony heh... still, luck of the draw if they do make some generally available in the store.

[Bojay1997]

They're actually being extremely fair. In fact, they're being as fair as they possibly can. The ones they're selling on their site haven't shipped yet. So whatever ones are on Ebay are probably ones given out earlier to members of the press. What they're doing on the site is offering first dibs to people they deem worthy through either tenure on the site or other factors. It actually probably will minimize the Ebay flipping as much as possible as the majority of people who are given the first dibs want this for keeps.



Oh, I think it's worth getting worked up over. It's the closest thing to a physical copy of Mega Man 9 there will ever be.

But the thing is, it's not. It's a NES cartridge shell made into a box for a press CD-rom in a comedically fake cardboard box. It really has no more to do with the game itself than a promo poster or a T-shirt. Ultimately, they're not giving you a code for the game or a copy of the game itself. As such, it's just another promo item, albeit a cool, clever one, but not anything that gives you the sense that you own the game. If they had pressed 10K copies of the game to an Xbox or Wii disc and then created NES like packaging, they could have sold those for a much higher profit margin than what they're doing here and made a lot of people happy. Nobody really wants a press asset CD and they could have easily pressed fake NES shells using a mold and plastic. In fact, I recall buying candy in a fake NES cart shell way back in the 80s when the NES was all the rage. Surely, they can do the same thing here.

If anything, this proves that there is still a large segment of the market that wants to own physical copies of these games with packaging materials and will pay dearly to do so. I wish Capcom and others would get the hint and actually start making money from our desires.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I know it's not the same as the real thing, but for novelty's sake - if anybody has a high-rez scan of the promo art, I'll be willing to make "mock up" NES carts with high-gloss labels for whoever wants them.

I can't really do a full box, but I can do very high quality NES cart labels on glossy paper.

[Kyle15]

I know it's not the same as the real thing, but for novelty's sake - if anybody has a high-rez scan of the promo art, I'll be willing to make "mock up" NES carts with high-gloss labels for whoever wants them.

I can't really do a full box, but I can do very high quality NES cart labels on glossy paper.

How much? I'd like one. :)

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

How much? I'd like one. :)

Well, I'd need a scan of the actual cartridge label ... I've checked the web and the graphics that are up right now are sub-par.

I certainly wouldn't want to profit off of this.

If anybody wanted to send me an NES donor cart, and enough to cover 1 or 2 glossy printouts (in case there's some type of problem with the 1st print) and return packing postage I'll do it at cost.

So, If anybody knows anybody who gets one of these, get them to scan the label and we're in business.

[TonyTheTiger]

:D:D:D I got one! I got one! :D:D:D

[The 1 2 P]

:D:D:D I got one! I got one! :D:D:D

How much do you want for it? $100? $200? How about apendages? An arm? A leg?