Gianas Returns OUT NOW

Ian Micheal · Post by **Ian Micheal** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 8:02 pm

Sweater Fish says::
but I'm afraid they were actually conscious decisions on the developers' parts and will remain.

Yeah they would be It was allways a bit of of problem with the retail versions as well it plays pretty true to the orginal game. Which many games of the time had these problems. Try playing the amiga or c64 version.

impetus · Post by **impetus** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 8:10 pm

Freeze wrote: I prefere Scheisse.

I prefer schnitzel or bratwurst, but to each their own.

back to topic, I'm sure the developers of GR would appreciate your comments and bug reports. Not to mention a well-deserved "thank you". Hit up their message board here: http://www.pdroms.de/phpbb/index.php?si ... 0eb622abbc

Ian Micheal · Post by **Ian Micheal** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 5:30 pm

Been playing this today it does not feel like gina sisters c64 or amiga version but like mario gina sister hack for one the controls are changed making it odd for me to play.In gina sisters pressing up and left or right made her jump. also she does not shoot when she gets big hair once.
This makes it not like gina sisters to play takes abit away from the fun really. Still good But If you not played the c64 ot amiga game this is based on i would say go do it.

Hope things get changed the 2nd level at the start is allmost impossable.

You could hexedit the bin and change the paths to the grafix every thing is in the roms disk.

Not that any one wants to thou. I hope we get a changeable version like Bor one time.

az_bont · Post by **az_bont** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 5:46 pm

Ian: she shoots when she picks up a lightening bolt. And to be perfectly honest, I prefer having a jump button - that was the only thing that really annoyed me on the Amiga (that and constant disc-swapping); a complete lack of buttons.

It's been years since I last played the original, but wasn't there a way to play as the fatter sister before?

Hobbes T Tiger · Post by **Hobbes T Tiger** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 5:57 pm

Yeah, I'm just stoked enough to actually have a new game to d'load. Homebrew on this scale is a relatively new thing, so I think it's to be encouraged, and I look forward to everything else that's in the pipeline.

I'd post bug reports if, as a coder, you can suggest improvements, but let's not scare them off... please?

MetaFox · Post by **MetaFox** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 6:18 pm

Ian Micheal wrote:This makes it not like gina sisters to play takes abit away from the fun really

Hence why it's not a remake, but a sequel. It adds things that the original didn't have (button to jump instead of up - lighting bolt and double lightning bolt powerups, etc.)

MetaFox · Post by **MetaFox** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 6:19 pm

It's been years since I last played the original, but wasn't there a way to play as the fatter sister before?

Yep, another reason this is a sequel, rather than a remake. As Kojote said in the FAQ, Maria isn't in the game - she is at home

- it's Giana's Return, otherwise it would be known as The Giana Sisters' Return.

XDelusion · Post by **XDelusion** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 12:19 am

Sux, I won't be home for a few days. I CAN NOT wait to test this out!!!

As far as collision detection goes, I can say I have never had problems with that on the Amiga version, so if it is infact an issue, it is one that belongs to this new game and not the classic.

Secondly.... Password system? We do have mem cards, why didn't they use them?

Third: It REALLY bumbs me out that they will not release the level editor, I could REALLY go for a Platform or RPG construction set, and for once my dreams almost come true, but no.... Oh well.

Well anyhow, I am grateful that this finally came out, I'll have to stay in touch with the authors once I get a chance to burn this puppy!

P.S. A Jump button is ALWAYS a good thing, that's how I assign my up button for the Amiga version on the XBOX.

Warmachine · Post by **Warmachine** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 1:36 am

The OK Pope wrote:The sbi is up here now:

Thanks Pope, I will try it once I get to.

ZacMc · Post by **ZacMc** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 2:00 am

Mirrors..

Discjuggler Image
Plain Files

Hopefully I get a chance to burn this tomorrow.

JMD · Post by **JMD** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 6:08 am

Fixed

Storminator16 · Post by **Storminator16** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 6:23 am

Hobbes T Tiger wrote:Homebrew on this scale is a relatively new thing, so I think it's to be encouraged, and I look forward to everything else that's in the pipeline.

Was that a mini-smack in the face to everyone else's hard work? Not trying to judge you, but that's the way I would take it. You are getting it for free, who cares of the "quality" someone perceives of homebrew.

You guys get caught up in emulation and what not too much.

chn · Post by **chn** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 8:11 am

Ian Micheal wrote:Been playing this today it does not feel like gina sisters c64 or amiga version but like mario gina sister hack for one the controls are changed making it odd for me to play.In gina sisters pressing up and left or right made her jump. also she does not shoot when she gets big hair once.

Not true. As az_bont pointed out, Giana can shoot in the Amiga and C64 versions after collecting the lightning bolt, that's the same in Giana's Return.
About the controls, the Amiga/C64 versions were written with a joystick with one fire button in mind. The Dreamcast has a Joypad, it's not really comfortable to press up to jump there.

Ian Micheal wrote: This makes it not like gina sisters to play takes abit away from the fun really. Still good But If you not played the c64 ot amiga game this is based on i would say go do it.

Giana's Return is not Giana Sisters. If you want to play Giana Sisters, don't play Giana's Return and vice versa. Giana's Return doesn't try to copy Giana Sisters.

Ian Micheal wrote: Hope things get changed the 2nd level at the start is allmost impossable.

It's very simple if you know how to do it. Maybe wait a bit in the title screen to see how I played it

Ian Micheal wrote: You could hexedit the bin and change the paths to the grafix every thing is in the roms disk.

The game does not use a romdisk. And please read the readme.txt that comes with the game, patching and manipulation is forbidden.

You know, I'm a bit frustrated at the moment, I somewhat regret having programmed the game. It seems like many people out there are too much used to playing emulators and can't appreciate the work that goes into making a game completely from scratch. That's my personal opinion, other team members may think differently. But I won't program games for free anymore after Giana's Return is finished. Maybe I'm too sensitive, but that's how I feel.

I'd like to thank the ones who praised the game or even donated some money for it, that's very much appreciated.

/chris

Hobbes T Tiger · Post by **Hobbes T Tiger** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 9:41 am

Mini smack? From me? No. I have ALL the homebrew that's been released and I play it all and love it to bits. I just meant that recently we've seen a move towards coding or porting full games to DC. That's not a criticism of what's gone before, it's just a fact that people's ability has grown over time and there have been some interesting incentives for ppl to spend their own spare time adding more levels, bigger gfx, custom music etc to their games.

I'm appreciating the time and effort that the coders are putting in that has lead to some wonderful releases. And the particular point I was trying to put across was that quality **isn't** the most important thing, if people are giving us highly playable, fun releases we should be willing to accept a few niggles or bugs. Heck, we do that with the commercial releases don't we?

Anyway, I've never started a flame war yet and I don't intend to start now. Everybody who codes something for Dreamcast is a wonderful, generous person and a pong clone or Breakout or anything is a lot of fun. Some things that have come out recently have shown a move forward in what's possible, but I won't diminish what those who have gone before them have done. They're all important and all pioneeers of the DC scene.

And I've spent blommin' ages typing this and editing it to avoid contradicting myself or mini slapping anyone. So, please, go easy on me, I'm not trying to make anyone my bitch, k?

impetus · Post by **impetus** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 10:50 am

hello chris, congrats on a sehr toll homebrew relase! I'll be keeping an eye on you guys in the future.

BTW please don't get bogged down by any criticisms, they'll come with any project, for better or worse.

"Gluck Auf" (I hope I did that right).

petteri · Post by **petteri** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 12:31 pm

Thanks for the game. I was a big Giana fan back in the day and this looks and feels just amazing :)

Ian Micheal · Post by **Ian Micheal** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 12:33 pm

I was just giving feed back like requested in your readme. It's great work chn Ive prasied your work a lot including your sid player which i love. My comments were before i had seen your readme so im sorry about how to mod the game. But it came as a cdi image and thats all i looked at not the files included i was in a rush ive had my whole dev system distroyed by viruses sent via email . Hope you can undertand I was not measured in my comments.
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But Dont worry about what people say your doing the game for you right that's what matter's. There's allways good and bad reviews Remember Zzap and reviews in that. If you make retail games people will make good and bad comments you cant stop that. My comments are based on how it plays for me. I did not grow up playing a console like the nes which allways had a jump button. So i dont find it easyer to use at all.
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Good luck on it . I was use to playing it with out a jump button which made it hard for me to play. Other c64 amiga games had used the firebutton as the jump button wonder boy for example.
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So it was done not because there were a lack of buttons it was so it was not like mario on the nes if it uses the jump button it would of been an even worst ripp off of the mario game on nes.
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I like this it's a bit to hard for me dont know why. Again i think if you ask for feed back some if not all will be to your liking.
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Great work i love your work and use sidplayer a lot for dreamcast. Your have been a shining light for my commodore hart.

Good luck on your projects CHN

Sweater Fish · Post by **Sweater Fish** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 1:32 pm

Ian Micheal wrote:Yeah I said it was good thanks for your thanks. Im too close to the first game it's a fav game i own both amiga and c64 in unopened packs So of course I have a alted view. Great work Brings back some memorys But im not use to playing it on a emulator at all. And i remember also the hardwork of the team who created the game great gina sisters in the first place.

If you love the game so much, you'd think that you could at least spell the name right.

XDelusion wrote:Third: It REALLY bumbs me out that they will not release the level editor, I could REALLY go for a Platform or RPG construction set, and for once my dreams almost come true, but no.... Oh well.

There's always Will Sams' port of Super Tux (now with controller support!). That game is fully editable, including the levels and the title screen and the graphics. Of course, it doesn't have the beautiful animated backgrounds of Giana's Return, but aside from that, it's pretty flexible.

Metafox wrote:Quote:
It's been years since I last played the original, but wasn't there a way to play as the fatter sister before?
Yep, another reason this is a sequel, rather than a remake. As Kojote said in the FAQ, Maria isn't in the game - she is at home - it's Giana's Return, otherwise it would be known as The Giana Sisters' Return.

There actually is a way to play as another character, a sort of alien looking thing. At first I though it was a bug, but looking at the sprite more closely, I think it must have been put in intentionally, the character doesn't look great on the Dreamcast, but on the GP32, I bet it would really look like an alien.

chn wrote:You know, I'm a bit frustrated at the moment, I somewhat regret having programmed the game. It seems like many people out there are too much used to playing emulators and can't appreciate the work that goes into making a game completely from scratch. That's my personal opinion, other team members may think differently. But I won't program games for free anymore after Giana's Return is finished. Maybe I'm too sensitive, but that's how I feel.

Come on, chn, don't be like that. I think you are indeed being too sensitive about this. I don't think anyone in this thread doesn't like your game, I certainly love it even though at the same time I have a number of criticisms of it. If you're reading my post's or anyone else's here as negative, then you're reading them wrong I'd say.

At least people are playing your game and thinking about ways that it could become even better. Most homebrew games don't get that level of attention, most are just ignored and so they never receive any updates or improvements because the authors have no way of knowing that anyone is even playing them. You guys should be happy that so many people have played your game and played it extensively enough to find the small problems in it. Personally, I've played it through already two times from start to finish (I prefer to play games that way rather than using passwords or save slots), which is the only reason I've found problems in its gameplay. If I wasn't playing it, I wouldn't have any criticisms.

If you don't want me criticizing it, I suppose I could stop, but I don't see how that would do you or the game or anyone any good. This was a public beta release, which I assumed meant you wanted feedback from a large number of play testers in order to have the best playing possible final release. Posting things like what you did is just counter productive to that because it scares people into being quiet and/or obsequious, which is not the kind of thing you need if you want to improve your game and it's just not good for the homebrew scene in general if people are scared to give honest criticisms to the authors.

Anyway, I'm sorry if you got the wrong idea from any of my or anyone else's posts, but your game is good, maybe great, and a lot of fun, but it's not perfect. So it's only natural that you'll get some criticisms, people want to see the small problems in it fixed so that it can be the best possible game.

...word is bondage...

Ian Micheal · Post by **Ian Micheal** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 1:40 pm

I tend to agree with your Sweater Fish . Sorry About spelling but it's not my thing. I spell my own last name wrong some times. Heh.

I edited the post you quoted from any way it's gone. I dont want CHN to give it does scary me like you said.

az_bont · Post by **az_bont** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 2:44 pm

chn wrote:The game does not use a romdisk.

Isn't a ROM disc a game compiled into a single binary, rather than spread across multiple files? Because that's what Giana's Return is.