Author Topic: Why did many companies during this era reuse a LOT of resources?  (Read 2035 times)

guyzis

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C'mon, we should all not forget Sintax's hundreds of gba platformers that only now could be played on emulators because of that shitty "YJ" copy protection. On gbc they used their Castlevania thing a couple times (even releasing a demo after the real thing, for some reason) only changing the graphics and some gameplay things like this NPC won't appear anymore etc.


Vast Fame also reused their engines, but not as blatantly; like in both of their game boy Zook Heroes games and also SKXS and Shui Hu Shen Shou.


Those are the only ones I remember.

Ankos

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Re: Why did many companies during this era reuse a LOT of resources?
« Reply #1 on: July 21, 2020, 08:31:15 AM »
Lots of licensed companies reuse engines and assets, so seeing unlicensed/bootleg companies reuse engines is not surprising. It is cheaper and easier to build a game based on existing assets than to build it up from the ground. Sintax/SKOB/BBD (not the same company, but use each others engines) and Makon Soft definitely were the worst offenders of just retiling games and calling it a day. Vast Fame and Gowin made something new but reused engines

guyzis

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Re: Why did many companies during this era reuse a LOT of resources?
« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2020, 08:39:04 AM »
Makes sense, any other companies outside these we mentioned?

And yeah, SKOB had their own strategy game engine, which they used in their Super Robot Wars games. (Gangdan Wuyu 2 and SWR Final Vol 1, and possibly V2 if it exists)

Ankos

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Re: Why did many companies during this era reuse a LOT of resources?
« Reply #3 on: July 21, 2020, 08:50:18 AM »
I am pretty sure there was overlap with engines between Makon and Sachen, and then there was that one company that stole Vast Fame's rpg engine (I am pretty sure that Sintax version of Beggar Prince was by them). I think they were called Tian Cai Xiao Zi. There may have been some overlap between Hitek and Waixing based on what I have heard, but I don't know much about those two. Honestly, I think that making a family tree of all the unlicensed gameboy companies could make for a good poster

Edit: I must have been tired when writing this originally, there has never been evidence of Makon and Sintax being related to my knowledge
« Last Edit: December 12, 2020, 09:35:19 AM by 瓜瓜龍 »

Stoffhimel

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Re: Why did many companies during this era reuse a LOT of resources?
« Reply #4 on: December 12, 2020, 01:10:03 AM »
All game companies reuses assets and engines. Its just far more noticeable with pirates. Its the most efficient way to cut costs without paying people less.