New NES Homebrew Game: Sudoku

[Jumpman Jr.]

Hey Everybody,
My good friend and big-time NES collector albailey (who posts on here) has recently finished writing a Sudoku game for the NES.
He started writing the game in November and just finished burning a few onto carts in the past week or so. It's not completely finished though, as he is fine-tuning some of the elements as we speak.
At the moment, there are 2 copies, one of which he has and the other one is in my hands. I'm currently beta testing it for him to see if there are any elements to the game that should be tweaked.

Here are some screenshots taken on his emulator:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y68/JumpmanPOE/al.jpg

I'll try to get some pictures of the cart (it looks nice) and other stuff up tomorrow when I have time.

I was able to run through one of the puzzles today, and it runs really well. There are 99 puzzles (ranging from easy, medium and hard) that are there to complete, and you can choose one specificially or at random.
I just thought I'd let some of you guys know if you're interested. If you have any questions, I'm sure Al will see this thread and answer them, if not, I'll try to do my best at giving some answers.
Enjoy!

[DefaultGen]

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[goemon]

Looks cool! I'd be interested in buying a copy at some point. Is the label art nice?

[Azraelscross]

I could never figure out how to do the sodoku puzzles. looks cool though

[wallydawg]

I do these at breakfast haha. Guess I'll have to get a tv in the kitchen or something.

[mb7241]

Yeah, about how much for one of those?

Also, if there are any protos to spare (figured it's worth a shot, at least)...how much for one?

[The Shawn]

I would be interested in one of these for my Mother-in-law when they are finished.That's all she does is these things.(And play sonic!)

[kaedesdisciple]

My fiancee would probably love one of these. Keep us posted!

[jajaja]

I never liked Sudoku, but this is great! :) Homebrew NES stuff are always welcome.

[MachineGex]

Sign me up for one. I would love to buy one for myself and pretend it is for my wife. That way she can't complain that I am alway spending too much on NES games.

[FantasiaWHT]

Think we can get this on VC? =D

[albailey]

The label art on the prototype carts is fairly basic.
My wife (who is more artistic) has volunteered to make me up some nice labels. The labels will be laminated/waterproof/whatever its called.

The game will be made available at the Toronto game show at the end of April. I think I have enough EPROMs for 50 carts. Don't know if I'll make that many.

Whatever I don't sell there, I'll sell at cost to Jumpman and you guys on DP can bug him for a copy. I'm keeping the number produced low and individually numbered to try and drum up enthusiasm.

I'll make the ROM available for download so people planning on attending can try before they buy.

(as you can see from my number of posts, I actually almost never post on here)

Al

[xtremegamer]

I love Sudoku. Hopefully there will be some left over and I can pick a copy of this up from Jumpman Jr. Looks great from the screenshots.

[Jumpman Jr.]

If I end up getting any of them (ie - whatever doesn't sell at the Toronto Swap Meet in a month), one will most likely end up at the auction at CGE. We'll see though.

[Lady Jaye]

Niiiice. I have a Sudoku game on my cell phone (published by Gameloft) and it does help kill some time when I have to wait in lineups or what not and I happen to not have my GBA or a book with me.

[Gradius]

This sounds excellent! I just recently got into Sudoku by playing BrainAge on the DS, so I'd be very interested in seeing this on my favorite system!

[Speedy_NES]

I'd be interested in a left-over one as well :)

[zikuta]

I'm interested in 3 copies!!!

Regards from Spain!

[coreycorey2000]

Looks like it will be tough to get one after the show. Guess I'd better make the drive and pick one up.

[jajaja]

Shouldnt be a problem to make more copies if the demand is high :)

[DreamTR]

I'm interested in one. Jumpman, save me one for CGE ;)

[mb7241]

What's your price point for these? Or do you have one in mind yet?

[Sph1nx]

I want one. NOW.

[rbudrick]

WTF? Wherez t3h romzorz?!

-ROb

[Vectorman0]

I'm very interested, it will depend on price though.

[albailey]

I dont have a price yet, because I'm still ordering stuff to make them.
My aim is no more than $25. If I can sell them at $20, even better but the reality is that manuals and boxes are not cheap for such a small number of games.

Al

[PSerge]

That is awesome... Sudoku on Nintendo.... WOW...

Let me know if you start selling them.. I would love one..

[carlcarlson]

I would definitely be interested in one of these.

[leonk]

Bravo!

That looks amazing! See ya at the Toronto show!

[kainemaxwell]

Looks great!

[dougman999]

So you are planning on making boxes and manuals for this as well? Awesome!

[DefaultGen]

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[rbudrick]

Small number? If you ebayed these demand wouldn't stop :D

Word. Truth.

Dude...this could be huge...biggest NES homebrew ever, now that you say that. It is not a hack, but a pure homebrew, and thus would be 100% legal, Sudoku is huge, NES is very popular among folks of the non-collector type right now, and this is basically like Tetris in the way that it is the killer app that is simple, addicting, and in demand.

Seriously man, I would personally eBay a few first to make some money for the REAL production run. And if the above is wrong? Carry on as you were, you lost nothing more than you would have. :)

-Rob

[jasonlotp]

I dont have a price yet, because I'm still ordering stuff to make them.
My aim is no more than $25. If I can sell them at $20, even better but the reality is that manuals and boxes are not cheap for such a small number of games.

Al

At $20 or $25 I'm in for sure. Just mass produce several hundred. Sell all you can here, after demand dies down put the rest on Ebay. I promise they will all sell.

[slapdash]

I'd be up for one too...

[Sph1nx]

Side note:

If you'd consider taking preorders and shipping them out, I'd be more than happy to prepay, and I'll willing others would too.

This might be what we need to finally jump start the NES homebrew scene.

[Kroogah]

Put me down for one too!

[tmlfan]

I would be interested in one also, either at the show or since I am in Ottawa also, in person, or I see jumpman at the gym I could grab one off him as well.

But if you were looking for an outlet to sell them, I could hook you up with that as well, although it sounds like you wont have a problem moving the first bunch.

nice work though, and if there was a box and manual, that would be amazing.

[albailey]

The ones at the show will be individually numbered.

My apologies to people here who have asked me for a copy. I won't be mass producing these or selling them online. I'm not doing this for money, and in all truth, I'll likely be losing money. I'm doing it because I love NES and I wanted to create something exciting like back when the NWC occurred. Thats why it's only for people at the shows.

The ROM will be made available. Keep checking www.nesworld.com
I'll ask the site owner there to host it for me. I'll eventually provide label art as well for people who want to make a repro. It's an NROM game.

For people who really want a real copy, I may see if someone wants to produce these , but that wont be for a while. The label and puzzles (and any bugs) would be different than the carts at the show. I also asked a friend to email Nintendo and ask if they wanted it on their Virtual Console. I can almost guarantee they will say No.

Al

[FantasiaWHT]

If you're going to contact Nintendo at all, for god's sake don't email them. Send a real letter.

[DefaultGen]

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[albailey]

Martin at Nesworld is hosting the ROM. You can find info here:

http://www.nesworld.com/homebrew_sudoku.htm

Try it out. Tell me what you think.

Al

[DefaultGen]

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[albailey]

If I display the active number on the grid it looks cluttered since I am not "removing" the number underneath. Its OK for a blank square, but not one with stuff in it.

The first 40 puzzles are easy
The next 40 are medium
The last 20 are hard.

I determine difficulty based on how many blank squares I removed.

Al

[DefaultGen]

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[The Great Dane]

Wow! I have to say that this is extremely cool. I love that people are still making games for the NES. I have never played a homebrew NES game before, so I'm not really sure how they work, but can it be played normally on an NES without any alterations to the system?

Anyway, keep up the hard work on it :)

[XianXi]

Do you think you can program one for the Neo Pocket?

[FantasiaWHT]

Did you write the sudoku yourself or did you borrow them from another source?

[CosmicMonkey]

Do you think you can program one for the Neo Pocket?

Good call. Much more NGPC homebrew is needed.

As far as putting this on cart, what about doing a Famicom cart or two, what with Sudoku being a Japanese game and all that...

[albailey]

Answers to some questions:

The code and graphics are done from scratch. The puzzles are randomly generated.

I think I am just sticking with NES for now. I'm not planning on porting this to other platforms, I would like to make more games for NES though.

If you want to try the ROM, run it in Nintendulator.

Its just an NROM game meaning no memory mappers or other fancy stuff.

if you run this on a PAL system, the timer will appear to be about 15% slower than realtime.

Al

[rbudrick]

Bummer you don't wanna mass produce it. I really think you could make some serious dough, and not one person in their right mind would think you are selling out.

I fear that a game as "current" or "chic" as this one will end up on pirate knock offs everywhere.

-Rob

[vintagegamecrazy]

Good Deal, maybe I can find one sometime. Nice to see the Homebrew scene picking up here too.

[albailey]

FYI,

There are going to be about 15 copies at the game show outside cleveland on May 26 (www.ccagshow.com). There will also be one of the gold carts available as a prize.

Al

[Jumpman Jr.]

For those who are interested in this, check out the thread in the Classic Gaming Expo forum:
http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=103932