DF Developers: Brand New Mega Drive/Genesis Games With Bitmap Bureau and Big Evil Corp [Sponsored]

[@ArmVM]

Thanks for your video John. I was the animation and opening/cinematics director on Tanglewood as well as on games such as piersolar/hd on the MD and modern consoles, Kraut Buster on the neogeo and Battlekid 1/2 on the nes. Congratulations to the Xenocrisis and Tanglewood creators.

[@WildVoltorb]

now, Paprium, when?

[@ArmVM]

@@WildVoltorb I didn't participate to this game and was never involved or associated to it whatsoever, so I unfortunately don't know anything about its status.

[@AlexvrbX]

@@WildVoltorb It's dead, Jim. Watch the series "What Happened to Paprium? A Documentary" - it's a three parter. The only way it could ever see the light of day, even in a REDUCED form, would be if Crazy Fonzie sold the rights to Paprium, along with all the art assets, to a company like Bitmap Bureau. He should also sell the rights to Pier Solar, so they can reprint the Dreamcast and Genesis editions.

[@pferreira1983]

@@AlexvrbX I mean Fonzie could have saved everyone so much stress had he just communicated.

[@AlexvrbX]

@@pferreira1983 ​ @P Ferreira Fonzie appears to be an egomaniac and a total whackjob. A lack of communication is only ONE of many problems. He spents gobs of money without consulting anyone, including paying third parties for stuff they either didn't deliver on, or delivered unusable garbage. Watch the three part documentary "What Happened to Paprium? A Documentary" here on KZbin if you're really interested in what went down at Watermelon during this era.

[@renatoborba1987]

We cannot thank you enough John, please realize how much we appreciate your work and keep up the AMAZING job as all your friends AND colleagues at DF. Thank you once again!

[@djseamus]

The production quality on this is sublime. Great work as always DF!

[@MarceloTezza]

Really something very professionally put.

[@Carsonj13]

Am I the only one who noticed how at the beginning he has the Japanese version of Sonic 1 inserted but is clearly playing the US version?

[@K3zster]

@@Carsonj13 The cartridge contents of Sonic 1 are identical worldwide and it reads the region settings from the console.

[@Carsonj13]

@@K3zster Really? Cause I thought the Japanese version had more parallax scrolling than what was shown.

[@K3zster]

@@Carsonj13 Ahh, no you're right I was thinking of Sonic 2! He probably just has a bunch of stock capture footage.

[@matheuswerly5320]

The good of Digital Foundry is the transparency when a content is sponsored. That is great!

[@arials101]

Barclays Bank sponsoring a DF vidio about a developer called big evil corp lol.

[@alonsojett]

Congrats on the new series and on the sponsorship! Someone at Barclays must be a big fan of yours lol

[@MrKlawUK]

Most random sponsorship ever - but I’d it means more like this then thank you Barclays

[@rvfiasco]

Absolutely!!

[@brentgreeff1115]

Awesome content - glad to see there is an SDK for the MegaDrive - but that debugger sure looks sweet :) - I used to do Pascal programming in the 90s with inline assembler using Borland's registry watcher - Tech like this seemed completely out of reach in those days.

[@TechRyze]

Exactly. DF are really delivering the goods. Wow.

[@pferreira1983]

Seeing Barclays as a sponsor is really weird yeah.

[@venomgtsr5702]

Great video (as usual) and I appreciate getting a glimpse of how these games were made. I haven’t played Tanglewood yet but I am interested in the Switch port, however I did pick up a XenoCrisis Genesis cart. The game is amazing and has to be one of the most technically impressive Genesis games. And the sound is amazing. I highly recommend it to anybody even remotely interested. Also, I need to give a shoutout to Bitmap Bureau. I had questions about the physical cartridge and original hardware. They sent me back a plethora of information regarding the steps they took to ensure that it safely interacts with the hardware.

[@UserInterface00]

Digital Foundry releasing two videos in a day. This is some welcoming news. Hope we get multiple videos per day when the new consoles launch.

[@TedThomasTT]

Please be realistic

[@JimBob1937]

Small team, videos take time. That's where youtube burnout comes from, content creators start to feel pressured.

[@steffennilsen2132]

Soundtrack on Xeno Crisis is awesome, Savaged Regime really has the YM2612 down

[@ItsYoYoHo]

In this video the developer mentioned Savaged Regime, a youtube channel that creates megadrive music. I went to the channel and was blown away.

[@stephenhall2980]

Yes,he's incredible,really makes the MD FM chip sing! My favourites are contra 3 and castlevania Simon's theme.

[@comeonman7290]

YEP I cant belive people have just discovered his channel. I been watching him for a while now and his md to snes remixes are just as amazing

[@GustavoYmusica]

What a great documentary. I really enjoyed this content.

[@Exoamylase]

No problem.

[@HotakXvi]

Yea keep it up!

[@pentuplove6542]

An advert paid for by Barcleys.

[@themissinfowar6629]

Yes I too enjoined this video content. You should watch it again and again!

[@namakudamono]

This was absolutely fascinating! Many thanks to everyone involved in the creation of this documentary, and congrats to the developers for realising one of their childhood dreams!

[@CommodoreGT]

It really was a great documentary. I really enjoyed that. I had a Sega Genesis when I was young. Blew my whole first paycheck after getting my first job on getting a Sega Genesis and I have no regrets, LOL. But even before then, when I got my first computer, I always had that dream of creating my own video game. Never got to that skill level, so it was kind of cool living vicariously through these guys and seeing their projects come to fruition. Really cool!

[@obredaanps3]

Sega Genesis was my childhood. It truly was a machine ahead of its time not only for its tech but the sleek design that really stood out against everything on the market at the time. Thanks for this video.

[@Notsram77]

Miles Morales: i sleep New Genesis Games: 8)

[@cristi8183]

@J.C. Denton 😂😂 And other people approve stupid comments with details not reflecting reality. 😂

[@BocaRetroGames]

Exactly

[@StormsparkPegasus]

Agreed...I don't give a damn about the next gen consoles because I'm not going to be buying one. Sticking with Switch, PC, and retro systems.

[@cristi8183]

@J.C. Denton Already mentioned, it's stupid mentioning when it's just not reflecting reality. I played the first souls game Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, all Dark Souls.

[@zeemonkeyman1]

@J.C. Denton I know exactly what you are talking about, Indie games are some of my favourite games ever! Unfortunately a lot of people only ever play AAA games with the latest graphics ugh

[@septic1502]

Great start to a new series, excellent production values and I like getting a look into the industry that we don’t usually get to. Good to see some of the processes behind games development.

[@JohnRiggs]

Crazy to see what ALL goes into making a game. thanks for this.

[@desktorp]

Wow-- that nearly-devastating head injury sure was an unexpected turn in the story!

[@theMaster...]

The Megadrive is my favourite console of all time, and my favourite game of all time was exclusive to it: LANDSTALKER. It was the first 64mb cartridge ever made for the system at that point I believe, and I remember it was significantly more expensive than the other games on the system. Never played an RPG to rival it, although the Shining Force series came close.

[@mashk]

That would me 64 Megabits, which would be 8mb? I was always under the impression Super StreetFighter 2 was the biggest cart at 40Megabits

[@mjy]

@@mashk Correct. That was the largest commercial game. Pier Solar was larger than that though at 64Mb (8MB). Landstalker is 16Mb (2MB).

[@pferreira1983]

@@mjy That sounds about right from previous stuff I've read.

[@lustechsource5197]

This video is amazing! Can’t wait for more on this series!

[@Rafa-Silva-Alt]

What a great and relaxing video, a refreshing break from Triple A studio stuff. It was so nice to see the backstage for these new 'old' games and see that to the eyes of the fans an already 'dead' console has a brimming community striving around it. Keep it going.

[@bangerbangerbro]

I haven't even paid attention to new stuff in the last 3 years. The only thing mildly interesting is the hardware which itself isn't that interesting, other than peripheral like Joy Cons, VR stuff and Kinect.

[@hotdogflavoureddrink]

Xeno looks amazing, can't believe its on the MD!

[@neoKushan]

This is the kind of sponsorship video I am happy to see. Much better than that Flight Sim / Origin PC one from a few weeks ago, this was clearly signposted and yet the content was fantastic.

[@nppj1407]

DF knocking it outta the park with their videos lately

[@ParsianTV]

OMFG DF, you hit a jackpot with this series. I loved the amount of work that has gone into these games, I wish I had my MegaDrive with me today, meanwhile Ill get these on PC.

[@tylergrice9085]

Thanks so, so much for this. Tanglewood is one of my favorite games and I can’t wait for it to release on Switch with some new bells and whistles.

[@serbenton]

Incredible production value on this video. I honestly would have paid for this developer series

[@SwissTHX11384EB]

If sponsored content on other channels had that much quality I'd have sponsored content all day without complaining for a second.

[@shaunvrabel4428]

John, your storytelling, choice of imagery and editing are becoming next gen!!!

[@iv4nx3]

the Mega Drive was my second ever console and my first love, while everyone else around me had a SNES I was the outcast.

[@turrican4d599]

Noone with Amiga?

[@turrican4d599]

@@eskanda3434 Nein.

[@pferreira1983]

@@turrican4d599 I had an Amiga.

[@turrican4d599]

@@pferreira1983 Yeah! That's the way!

[@pferreira1983]

@@turrican4d599 Amiga 500+.

[@miltonbates6425]

Shining Force 2, Streets of Rage 2, Sonic The Hedgehog 3, Gunstar Heroes, Contra Hard Corps, NHL '94, Phantasy Star II, TMNT Hyperstone Heist, Castlevania Bloodlines....the list of stellar Sega Genesis games just goes on and on and on.

[@Blvo1]

Those graphics feel a lot better and real than than today's game.

[@Dirk1Steele]

More of these type of videos please! Incredibly interesting, and given I backed both of these games, wonderful to get a bit more under the hood of both.

[@zeemonkeyman1]

The Megadrive is what made me fall in love with games as well, I got a Sonic 1 & 2 bundle, as soon as I booted Sonic up I was changed forever

[@gojohnniegogo]

Excellent video! It really must have been a sweet moment for Bitmap Bureau when those doubters did finally see Xeno Crisis running on actual hardware. Both games are very welcome additions to the MD library.

[@treefroggy]

The last shot of the game imagery reflected atop the Genesis' chassy is epic. . . Great job.

[@Stupidlyepic]

Brilliant idea for a series. Hilighting the developers and the work they put into making a game. Too many games don't have enough names and faces to them. Great work!

[@CleafKnowsVLOGS_nl]

Amazing to see a game start from scratch to a complete project!

[@Khaostheory1980]

I felt like I was watching High Score on Netflix. Your production is so good it wouldn't be out of place on main stream TV. This is amazing!!

[@AvyScottandFlower]

Thanks to all these dev gentlemen, for making my childhood much more bearable! 👊

[@Aelwyn666]

I still have my original Sega Megadrive that I was bought for Christmas when I was 5 years old. I'm almost 37 now and my Megadrive still sits next to my Playstation 4, taking pride of place, on my Entertainment Stand.

[@DCGX]

Nice to see a big sponsor like this (though I think having the video say "sponsored" is hurting views), and an excellent video! I have the double-cart for the Evercade and 'Xeno Crisis' on Dreamcast. It's a blast to play with the official Twin Stick.

[@mehitsdan]

I don’t think I ever commented on a KZbin video, but I wanted to say that I really enjoyed this short documentary. You did a great job and the amount of effort put into it very much shows.

[@jvillaro]

Wow great job! Both the documentary and these guys work. Thank you.

[@GreenSwede]

Perhaps the most important part of the video for me personally was about the soundtrack for Xeno Crisis. Really cool to hear how well it replicates Thunder Force IV.

[@mediaminutedaily]

Fantastic storytelling. Can't wait to see more of this in the future. Great work DF team!

[@WickedRibbon]

Amazing work on this! Really enjoyed seeing the process for both games.

[@haroldasraz]

Congrats to both teams for undertaking and succeeding in their 16-bit challange.

[@sniper007uk]

John, you’ve only gone and done it again. Another superb video from Digital Foundry!! You have earned every single one of those 1 million+ subscribers.

[@ianguitarman4800]

Why are there so many dislikes?! People need to get a life and appreciate the effort that goes into creating this cool stuff. Great work DF 👌

[@lowrider007007]

This has been one of favourite videos you guys have done, fantastic work, this has got me checking out eBay for a Megadrive!

[@DeVstatrOmga]

The Sega Genesis to this day is *THE* greatest home game console ever made. Great to see it’s still alive and well.

[@jabarijones9588]

Man, the Sega Genesis is straight up trash ass system.Along with the Sega CD and that so-called add on piece of junk 32X.

John, nothing against the usual review or benchmark video, but this kind of video, wow. To put it simply: excellence through passionate professionalism. It feels good to be a patreon. Looking forward for more of the series.

[@akaNekete]

Really nice content, thank you :) It's great to have developer interviews

[@creamyj3888]

This was fantastic. Brilliantly crafted. Should be a Netflix series!

[@MJFLIX]

Amazing series. Long live Sega!

[@stevec00ps]

At 40 years old I just got my first Megadrive this week so good timing! I have been playing Ori and the Will of the Wisps on the Xbox One recently and I get the similar vibe from Tanglewood

[@MentatOfDune]

Love new games on old machines. The most impressive imo have been 'Sam's Journey' from 2017/2018 and 'Metal Warrior Ultra' which has just released in 2020. 'Isle of the Cursed Prophet' and 'Steel Ranger' are 2 other standout titles. And all on the Commodore C64.

[@jc_dogen]

yeah, sam's journey is insane

[@tokyobassist]

I just got my copy of Xeno Crisis yesterday. What a coincidence!

[@BSM7702]

I have Xeno crisis for both Genesis and Sega dreamcast, both graphically are top notch but as far as controls and functions I play it more on the Dreamcast. Its especially intense with 2 players COOP action!

[@knightofvirtue613]

Great documentary, and congratulations to the team to making their game on the mega drive!

[@BokuPower]

Amazing work by all those people!

[@Alianger]

Great episode, one of your best so far!

[@OscarCastillo1]

Nice. Always like seeing old school console and PC dev videos.

[@KGRAMR]

Well done John! Looking forward to episodes of this new sub-series :)

[@madfinntech]

This is cool. You can never have too much Mega Drive in your life! I just wish this kind of development happened someday on the original PlayStation.

[@zanychelly]

Amazing episode guys. Can’t wait for the next videos.

[@pokomothe2nd]

One of the most genuinely interesting episodes to date

[@rekware9320]

how good is that megadrive music??!!!

[@jamesingram7151]

absolutely brilliant mini doco. Congrats to all the contributors. Looking forward to buying and playing the retro style games next year :)

[@abushaikh]

please please more of this. What an amazing documentary.

[@timm_3r]

I hope this continues to inspire others to create new originals for Sega hardware.

[@krono5el]

Sega Channel took me to gaming levels i never thought id reach back then. loved it.

[@finaltheorygames1781]

For me, I grew up on NES, Genesis, SNES so these consoles will always be special in my opinion. You can have an Xbox Series X, which is 100,000 times more powerful than the older consoles, but the older consoles will always be important because they represented an important time in video game history.

[@vileCR999]

I have been waiting for this video for a year!!

[@Stanjara]

John is the best from DF. Fantastic video.

[@ren7a8ero]

Nice video! DF Retro is a true jewel on YT Besides, nice story! I'm not unboxing my old consoles in a long time, but it warms my heart to see the scene which never dies! Long life Mega Drive! Long life 16-bit high performance graphics!

[@SEGASaturnLad]

Watermelon could learn a lot from these guys and how to conduct retro game development.

[@pferreira1983]

Meanwhile Fonzie offers zero communication and everyone apart from his most loyal fans thinks he's done a runner with the preorder funds. Great video!

[@IamMarkSmith]

This series is AWESOME! I really enjoyed this video and look forward to more like these.

[@oliexe]

I remember an old video with Matt from Big Evil Corp where he showed a game prototype. what an outstanding job, inspiring guy. Hope I will get back to Playstation 1 homebrew development someday, as it was my first device.

[@BIGNOIDS]

The MegaDrive coincided with the weed smoking days of my youth, so many great memories.

[@happyspaceinvader508]

Haha... same!

[@TheGebs24]

I own both and they are absolutely blissful! Long may Sega live.

[@voradorpt]

This was really good! Thank you for all the hard work.

[@Daniel189HLL]

Great video, cheers John.

[@pleasedontwatchthese9593]

this video got me inspired to go back working on my small game

[@wulver810]

So glad to back these 2 among others, I'd love to do what they did one day.

[@Gametropolis]

Great interview Mike!

[@Redshift1360]

Incredible work putting this episode together. So interesting! I’m looking forward to more DF Developers👍

[@tomalexander4327]

Looking forward to this series. Thanks DF.

[@rodrigomolinsky]

22:16 Savaged Regime is THE MAN in Mega Drive/Genesis music landscape.

[@leexin1984]

12:13 Robot spider creatures, it looks like FixEight , a wonderful acade shooting game. Really love these SEGA game developers, you are developing amazing games.

[@MrDavis-ic8yh]

16 bit art is still beautiful as it ever was

[@skip-ratgaming8682.]

Enjoyed this documentary nice to see some life breathed back into a fantastic system , look forward to more

[@joysticksnjukeboxes]

OMG I love these guys and their games. I'm so happy I stumbled back into Genesis games!

[@doriphor]

Great stuff! The SNES deserves this level of love and dedication!

[@jc_dogen]

Someone needs to make a really good high level library like sgdk for it. It's a very complex system to work with. One problem is that the CPU isn't very friendly to C (unlike the 68000 sega used), but I think with enough work it could be done.

[@nattila7713]

nintendo will crush any fan who attempts it!

[@jc_dogen]

@@nattila7713 nah, there's been some homebrew. just not as much

[@shiru8bit]

@@jc_dogen reasonable library is a matter of couple day. The main issue is lack of a good (reliable at least) C compiler for 65816. There is no 65816 support in gcc, and making a new compiler is not something many people could pull off (let alone making it efficient and reliable).

[@jc_dogen]

@@shiru8bit Yeah, it needs both.

[@stephenelliott7071]

A Developer Series, excellent idea. :)

[@CarlTSpeak]

Credit to Barclays - this is genius. Think about the age of the people that are going to be most interested in content on the Mega Drive / Genesis. Check the table of people's earnings each year across their lifetime. Fair play, Barclays.

[@bangerbangerbro]

What? Millennials working minimum wage as pizza delivery drivers or something? How does that help Barclays? They can con them out of their money easier?

[@CarlTSpeak]

@@bangerbangerbro Or perhaps those who remember these systems from their first time around. Generation X and earlier. These are nostalgia bombs for folks of my age, not just retro novelties.

[@bangerbangerbro]

@@CarlTSpeak What? Generation X were mostly adults when this was new. Anyone earlier than that would more likely be a designer. Of course there would be some people in their 30s, 40s or 50s into video games but I can't imagine that there were a great many, and those are not the kind of people you see on the internet, who are mostly gen Y or very late gen X.

[@CarlTSpeak]

I'm going to take a wild stab on Barclays having a better idea of ad targeting than a guy who thinks banks exist to con people on low wages out of their money and that millennials on zero hours contracts are the major consumers content referencing the 16-bit era.

[@bangerbangerbro]

@@CarlTSpeak I don't think banks exist to con you out of your money, but why else would you want a typical internet Millenial?

[@antivanti]

Hey I got the physical releases of both these games. Shamefully I have to admit I have yet to play them but I got my retro corner set up now with CRT-TV and all so should get to that soon. The CRT is a vital component btw

[@happyspaceinvader508]

Hmmmm.... they both look amazing on an LG CX OLED, using the Mega-SG with 4.7 firmware (advanced scanlines settings). ;-)

[@Der_Kleine_Mann]

Yes it is, and that is undeniable, a CRT is the only way to get the real Retro-Experience. HDMI Upscalers, no matter how expensive, can simply not compete.

[@Der_Kleine_Mann]

These older consoles are specifically made to work with CRT TV's, and there is no optimal way around it. Maybe acceptable, but not ideal.