Last Hope - Neo Geo

[CosmicMonkey]

There's a new homebrew NeoGeo shmup coming out called Last Hope.

http://www.ngdevteam.com/

No idea of cost yet. Not sure if the guy is gonna be converting carts, or is getting new ones made. It's currently slated for an AES release, but I'm sure there will be an MVS release too. No idea on NeoCD atm.

It does look pretty damn good. Hopefully we'll see some more high quality Neo homebrew in the near future. Although cart releases are very nice, it'd be much cheaper and easier to do CD releases for homebrew though.

[cowmando6]

Wow...now I need to buy a Neo Geo so I can pick this game up. Looks pretty sweet!

[max 330 mega]

oh man, when i read this i about shot thru the roof. this is a great achievement, i plan to pick this up immediately when it releases.
i hope this paves the way for more titles, and a strong homebrew scene.
yay happy happy woo

[Six Switch]

here is hoping for a mvs release

[Darren870]

At a $700 price tag...no thanks!

[rbudrick]

At a $700 price tag...no thanks!

And you can bet plenty of people will pay it. Oh yes. They will.

I don't know wy more people don't make Neo games. They are the most profitable.

-Rob

[Ed Oscuro]

Not the best website layout there...does anybody have fullsize screenshots? The ones I see are pretty small, but I can see the sprites look sorta clumsy. Maybe that'll be fixed up by time of release.

[Darren870]

http://www.ngdevteam.com/teaser/lasthope_rgb_crt_screen1.jpg

http://www.ngdevteam.com/teaser/lasthope_rgb_crt_screen2.jpg

http://www.ngdevteam.com/teaser/lasthope_rgb_crt_screen3.jpg



And you can bet plenty of people will pay it. Oh yes. They will.

I don't know wy more people don't make Neo games. They are the most profitable.

Im sorry but you are totally wrong. People are not going to pay $700 for a homebrew game. You obv. arn't a Neo-Geo collector (not that its a bad thing) but people don't pay $700 for a game no one has ever heard of. I rather front the extra $300 and get metal slug 1.

So many neo-geo forum members have said "no way" to the $700. They would of payed $150-$200 but not $700.

If they sell more then 5 at $700 id be surprised. They could sell probably 100+ at a $150 price range.

[Ed Oscuro]

Thanks for the large-size Neo pics. They look somewhat better than I had thought, with the possible exception of the goofy-looking bubble/manta ray ships no the bottom shot LOL

Oh, and I'm quite sure rbudrick has at least a few Neo titles...be careful when you accuse people on the board of being know-nothings.

Personally, I'd pick up one of the NG titles I don't have yet. You could (probably still) buy both Last Blade games (JP editions, minty) for $700 and have change left over! So this wouldn't appeal to me for that reason. However, if I was a NG completist and had already gotten games for the tons of other systems I am interested in, I'd look at it. That price is too high for me, though. :(

[ClubNinja]

I will not pay $700 for this. If an MVS version is released (ought to be), then I'd break no more than $150 on it. Tops.

[Videogamerdaryll]

I will not pay $700 for this. If an MVS version is released (ought to be), then I'd break no more than $150 on it. Tops.
\

Ditto....

[Ed Oscuro]

I will not pay $700 for this. If an MVS version is released (ought to be), then I'd break no more than $150 on it. Tops.
That's pretty much it. I still agree with Rbudrick that some people would...but it won't be very many, even out of neo-geo.com posters...

[Ed Oscuro]

Wow...now I need to buy a Neo Geo so I can pick this game up.
You know, even aside from the whole money aspect...why would you choose this over the sweet, sweet first-party titles?

[Whiskers the Wonder Cat]

$700? Fuck that. If I did have that kind of money, I would rather blow it on official Neo Geo AES carts rather than a fan made game.

$700. Hahaha, funny.

[TurboGenesis]

I will not pay $700 for this. If an MVS version is released (ought to be), then I'd break no more than $150 on it. Tops.

Yeah, me too.

Sure I'd like to get it but the price is too prohibitive. I could get Blazing Star and Pulstar instead for that kind of money. Oh well maybe there will be a price drop down the line? Say around $150-$200?

[rbudrick]

Oh, and I'm quite sure rbudrick has at least a few Neo titles...be careful when you accuse people on the board of being know-nothings.

Well, not any more...I did have some for a short while. I have to get a new Neo some time soon. But, thanks, Ed. So, I am a Neo collector, I just don't have anything Neo right now, if that makes any sense, LOL. So while in a way, Darren is right, it's kind of odd to jump the gun like that.

Anyway, I based my theory on the notion that Neo collectors are THE most die-hard collectors out there, as far as dishing out the dough goes. Sure, not everyone is going to dish out $11k for a Euro Kizuna Encounter, but Neo games on average sell for higher prices than any other used titles.


but people don't pay $700 for a game no one has ever heard of.

Of course they don't. They pay for it once they hear about it. It is far from uncommon for people to pay this much for titles on various systems, but granted, it's usually due to rarity. You say you'll be surprised if they sell five. Maybe I shouldn't have used the word "plenty," but for this price, five IS plenty, in my opinion. This is especially when you consider the number of dedicated Neo collectors. People will pay. Neo collectors may be a rare breed, but they are very dedicated and I simply will never underestimate them.

-Rob

[Snapple]

$700 is a ridiculous ammount of money to pay for anything less than a universally recognized Holy Grail.

If I'm going to pay $700 for a game, that thing had better be able to give a Lewinsky.

[Skyway_Recreation]

DAMN 700 for a NEO cart!?!? lemme paly a demo first. so that i STILL DON'T BUY IT. but seriously though. this is the first neogeo homebrew i've ever seen. BTW anybody have a neogeo CD 4 sale? willing to trade for discounts on it too. including a SEGA flourecent light dealer sign in good shape!(sorry for going off topic).

[le geek]

It looks cool, but yeah $150 for an MVS cart would be more my price range. And that would be if it got great reviews. But I applaud the effort of the developers!

Cheers,
Ben

[ClubNinja]

This is especially when you consider the number of dedicated Neo collectors. People will pay. Neo collectors may be a rare breed, but they are very dedicated and I simply will never underestimate them.

And here's the majority of them, all in agreement that they won't pay $700 for this one:

http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134414

[jajaja]

Where can you find the price?

[howdoin]

one of the dev. mentionned it after we all asked.

I really think that they should revise their business plan with this one as I beleive that even 30 x $700 carts will be had to sell given the response.

Let's hope the dev team would accept to rethink their plan and make a release that would:

- make them some $$$
- please the Neo scene (we don't really talk colelctors here as this is a homebrew)
- sell a few 100

[max 330 mega]

oh man, when i read this i about shot thru the roof. this is a great achievement, i plan to pick this up immediately when it releases.
i hope this paves the way for more titles, and a strong homebrew scene.
yay happy happy woo
i seem to have missed what the price was gonna be... lemme revise what i said.
FUCK THAT , i agree with all others who have said this, i was planning to pay $200 tops for a copy of this, so im gonna definitely change my decision to no way will i be buying this at the ridiculous price of $700.

[LAGO]

they'll keep it at $700 for a couple months then drop the price after a few people buy it. LOL

[Six Switch]

I will not pay $700 for this. If an MVS version is released (ought to be), then I'd break no more than $150 on it. Tops.
\

Ditto....

same here

[nik]

Damn, thats like an ebay XboX 360 right there!

[ubersaurus]

Christ the neo-geo forums are full of the biggest fucking whiners and fanboys in the world.

But yeah 700 bucks is way out of my league.

[Ed Oscuro]

Christ the neo-geo forums are full of the biggest fucking whiners and fanboys in the world.

But yeah 700 bucks is way out of my league.
Changing my stance to this.

Christ, why are some of those people even registered? ("Fran" in particular belongs on GameFAQs or something, I think).

I see how they could possibly need that much money to do the game at this price...but you know, I'd think most all of that would be tied up in production as they don't have the resources that SNK had, no economies of scale. Tools? Available for free on the net. Those graphics? NOT $700/game quality: for that much I'd expect, you know, arcade quality stuff, and not first-gen NG quality, either. Have to think of this from my perspective.

They really would do well to release this on the MVS, but I can see how it would be risky to make more releases. At $350 I would think they'd attract a much higher number of buyers, but there's also a chance they'd end up alienating people paying that much.

Hmm, this is why the PC-Engine CD-ROM projects seem a MUCH better choice.

You also have to wonder how that last recent fighter - uh, you know the one, non-SNK release semi-within the Power Instinct series recently - came out at the price it did if you believe all this about the game being so expensive. Seems they need to work on their contacts...

Also, couple good quotes on page 7:


lithy: Why does no one realize that HPMAN and Chamagne had no problem finding 25 buyers for Ghostlop 10 US, 10 JPN home carts, and 5 MVS kits at a almost 800 Euro. He will find 30-40 buyers at 700 bucks.
Shawn has some interesting things to say, as well.

[XianXi]

$700 O_O , they're smoking something. I wouldn't shell out that money for a new release. I collect all Neo systems but thats bad representation for Neo lovers. I'd only pay $100 tops for a homebrew.

For $700 that game better have 6 $100 bills in the case with it.

Or better yet why dont they give me $700 then I will slap them.

[Whiskers the Wonder Cat]

Anyone want to buy a piece of potato chip from me that looks like a Neo Geo logo? $700.

[CosmicMonkey]

When I posted this thread, the price hadn't been announced. It was only the next morning when I checked over at Neo-Geo.com that I found out about the $700.

Now I appreciate that small production run fan-made items of any kind are more expensive than a mass produced official item. But this really is taking the piss. There's really no way to justify that price. I want an MVS version. And I'd pay a good £200 for the game in a Shockbox with insert (assuming it's damn good). But I think this guy needs to change his business plan and find a Publisher or partner in this.

He's planning on converting 30 - 40 AES carts, which is terrible tbh. Vektorlogic are full tooled-up to do a run of MVS carts. But this guy is adamant that he want to do AES only, now that I don't understand. He has the opportunity to get the game released on brand new MVS carts and hopefully make enough profit to invest in an AES run. The more hardcore Neo shmuppers could then use an !Arcade! converter to play it on AES before the official AES release. But he's also refusing to do a NeoCD conversion and doesn't seem to want to consider a DC conversion.

Either he has no business sense what-so-ever, or he's just plain stupid. He's living in a dreamworld if he thinks he's gonna get a decent turn-around on sales. I think that he will sell a few at $700, maybe 10 or so, but it'll take forever. And this is only is the game is damn good.

So, if it does turn out that this is a good game, I will have it on an MVS cart. Official or not, I will have it.

[Darren870]

Oh, and I'm quite sure rbudrick has at least a few Neo titles...be careful when you accuse people on the board of being know-nothings.

I never said he was a know-nothing, nor was I ever bashing him. I simply said he probably wasnt a neo-collector. Because unless you own it all you arn't going to fork over $700 when there are plenty of good titles in that price range you might not have yet.




Anyway, I based my theory on the notion that Neo collectors are THE most die-hard collectors out there, as far as dishing out the dough goes. Sure, not everyone is going to dish out $11k for a Euro Kizuna Encounter, but Neo games on average sell for higher prices than any other used titles.

While that is true, as I have dished out over $1000 on one game, its just we KNOW the games are quality SNK products. It just seems way to high for a game only Shawn has played. Yes, he says its really good and very well done for a homebrew. And yes I would love to play it and would probably pay $400 for it. But when $700 pops up its like hmmm should I get this homebrew game for should I get Metal Slug X and Metal Slug 2 for the same price, when I have played them both and know they are quality SNK games.



. Maybe I shouldn't have used the word "plenty," but for this price, five IS plenty, in my opinion. This is especially when you consider the number of dedicated Neo collectors. People will pay. Neo collectors may be a rare breed, but they are very dedicated and I simply will never underestimate them.

Yea but they are trying to sell 30-50. I just think that might be hard. I can think of about 10 people on the NG boards that would eventually buy it within a month or two. Would they buy it though? Judging by what I have read ... they said no. So IDK 5 seems realistic within the first month.

Just my input...

[ubersaurus]

Well, it's like this.

My beef is with the people on the forum constantly pissing over how Playmore "abandoned" the neo geo, when previous to that, they were bitching about Playmore making sequels to popular games, you know, business sense.

It's like, the neo geo was 15 years old. It needed to be retired. Be glad it went out on such a high note in terms of gameplay, graphics, and sound, and stop bitching over the minorest of minor things. I mean, what, did they want a weak beatemup like Sengoku 3 for the neo's last gasp?

As for Last Hope's pricing, 700 is way out there. Is it really that much cheaper to buy up AES carts for a run, rather than commission so many cart casings? Further, where is an MVS release a bad idea, considering the cases are already there, and there isn't really much in way of conversion needed? I can understand no DC port, since the DC architecture is different from the neo's, and the neo cd to an extent, but there's just a certain level of sense to a business model that the guy just isn't following.

I'd say if his game is so good to be worth 700 bucks, release the ROM beforehand so people can try it out. The people who would buy at 700 bucks, are still going to-he just may build up a couple more buyers that way.

[XianXi]

AES release I would buy for $200 tops

Neo CD I would absolutely buy if it was $60 or less.

[rbudrick]

Interesting...I notivced that the developer never actually said it was going to be $700...others said that and the developer didn't deny it. In a roundabout way he hinted that it may be the case, but never confirmed that at all.

Nonetheless, he has heard peoples' cries and is seriously considering another game plan, it seems.

-Rob

[ClubNinja]

You also have to wonder how that last recent fighter - uh, you know the one, non-SNK release semi-within the Power Instinct series recently - came out at the price it did if you believe all this about the game being so expensive.

What are you talking about? Matrimelee? That was a legit release.

[ubersaurus]

You also have to wonder how that last recent fighter - uh, you know the one, non-SNK release semi-within the Power Instinct series recently - came out at the price it did if you believe all this about the game being so expensive.

What are you talking about? Matrimelee? That was a legit release.

And it was only 350 bucks, half of the 700 bucks talked about here.

Matrimelee was also fan-fucking-tastic, but that's another story.

[hbkprm]

they need to sell last hope to a big time devolper
for modern systems

[Eternal Champion]

Anyone who charges that amount of money for a homebrew game for a 15-year-old system is certifiably insane.

In the PC gaming world, Thief 2X took 5 years of development and is totally free.

[jajaja]

I agree. Taking $700 for 1 single game for a console thats like 15 years old is crazy. But I guess they mainly focus on the diehard Neo Geo fans. I wonder how much expences they have on making one complete copy.

[Darren870]

Interesting...I notivced that the developer never actually said it was going to be $700...others said that and the developer didn't deny it. In a roundabout way he hinted that it may be the case, but never confirmed that at all.

He said it was going to be 2X the price that a SNK usually comes out for.

They ended coming out at 350 about. So thats where everyone got the price.

[Ed Oscuro]

You also have to wonder how that last recent fighter - uh, you know the one, non-SNK release semi-within the Power Instinct series recently - came out at the price it did if you believe all this about the game being so expensive.

What are you talking about? Matrimelee? That was a legit release.
Okay, it wasn't Matrimelee. I'm talking about a recent homebrew fighter that came out, it was an unofficial sequel to some game or other...

[max 330 mega]

got any links to info on the game?? i havnt heard about it, and now im interested

[ubersaurus]

You also have to wonder how that last recent fighter - uh, you know the one, non-SNK release semi-within the Power Instinct series recently - came out at the price it did if you believe all this about the game being so expensive.

What are you talking about? Matrimelee? That was a legit release.
Okay, it wasn't Matrimelee. I'm talking about a recent homebrew fighter that came out, it was an unofficial sequel to some game or other...

As far as I know there aren't any other homebrew games on the neo geo. You must be mistaken.

There was an unofficial sequel to the double dragon games, but it sure as hell wasn't a homebrew.

[Darren870]

Maybe you are thinking of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon?

[Ed Oscuro]

There was an unofficial sequel to the double dragon games, but it sure as hell wasn't a homebrew.
Yes, that is what I'm talking about. I used the term "homebrew" ironically, here...Last Hope isn't exactly a homebrew, either...though it seems somewhat below the DD sequel in terms of graphics.

[ubersaurus]

There was an unofficial sequel to the double dragon games, but it sure as hell wasn't a homebrew.
Yes, that is what I'm talking about. I used the term "homebrew" ironically, here...Last Hope isn't exactly a homebrew, either...though it seems somewhat below the DD sequel in terms of graphics.

I dunno, Rage of the Dragons looked REALLY good.

As I recall it was made by Noise Factory, one of Playmore's game development teams. My understanding is that they made the game assuming they'd get the license, didn't get it at the last minute, changed a few names and put the game out anyway.

I don't know the development history behind Last Hope, but the screenshots do look good-though in a different way from Noise Factory's games.

[Ed Oscuro]

Yeah, I know what you mean. Last Hope looks more like an early NG title, except perhaps with more sprites onscreen. RotD was in a totally different class - but it wasn't meant to push huge numbers of sprites, I don't think.

In any case, people paid $350 for RotD. So far it looks like the Last Hope crew might meet their quota, but if they were able to release it for a fraction of the cost they'd get a lot more purchases (but then folks who would only buy it if it hit $200 might complain it wasn't good enough to merit such a price).

[ClubNinja]

Since when was Rage of the Dragons NOT an official release? Last Hope is a homebrew (a nice one, but a homebrew). Super Bubble Pop for the MVS is a homebrew. Rage of the Dragons is not.

[Biff_McFresh]

I'll take 10 please.

[tonyvortex]

considering the small of amount being made somewhere in the $700 range sounds fine to me.i dont make the largest amount of cash around but i sure the heck will save up for this.considering what some small run carts go for this sounds like a bargain .unless im mistaken most neo carts towards the end had runs of 400 or so,unless it was a metal slug or a sam showdown.or am i thinking wrong,i thought at the time there was about 200 jap and 200 american rage of the dragons.mayne im crazy but i like the idea of helping out a group of people trying to keep the neo aes alive .

[jsiucho]

There could be a DC port in future, Nice!!

http://www.ngdevteam.com/lasthope_faq.htm


JS

[jsiucho]

Video download

http://www.ngdevteam.com/download.htm

8-)

[Darren870]

He lowered the price to $550. Still not sure If I want it though.

[Ed Oscuro]

He lowered the price to $550. Still not sure If I want it though.
Do you have every Samurai Shodown, both Last Blade games?

yeah...

[max 330 mega]

from the video, it looks like its going to be a VERY hard game.. lets hope thats not on easy mode!

[Darren870]

Every SS yes...not every last blade though.

[jsiucho]

Ill probably wait till the Dreamcast release. $550 is still a lot



JS

[Buyatari]

$700 is too much.

I don't think it will sell well at that price. Still its good to see people working on this system.

[Nez]

There are still too many Neo games I don't have. And at that price I can knock off quite a few offical NG games off of my list. Glad there is a homebrew sceen but I'm not rich enough to support it.

[rbudrick]

Whoa...they're considering a Gamecube release...damn. How will people be able to play these without a mod to their GC?

Anyone got any links for info on the DD pseudo sequel game?

-Rob

[Darren870]

Where did you read that?


NGCD is Neo Geo CD

[rbudrick]

Where did you read that?


NGCD is Neo Geo CD



* Is a MVS/NGCD/DC release planned?

Yes.

Ah, my bad. I was thinking Nintendo GameCube. A man can dream, can't he?

-Rob

[XianXi]

A man can dream, can't he?

-Rob

I hope it comes out for the Gamecast.

[Bratwurst]

I bet this group would want to charge 50-60 USD for a Dreamcast port if it happened.

[Six Switch]

better than $700 or $550.

i am still waiting for word on a mvs release and price.