Planet Virtual Boy

During the last coding competition a new member going by the nickname Red Metal joined planetvb. He planned to submit a VB port of Snatcher, a game that I had never heard of. After 7 post he stopped writing updates. Almost exactly one year ago someone else posted that Red Metal had passed away.

That post choked me up quite a bit. I had never talked to him but from his post I could tell that he was a very nice person. I felt like I missed my chance to get to know him. I tried to express that in a post but somehow my words felt meaningless to me.

It sparked an idea though... I could create a Snatcher port in his memory. So I started learning about the game and all the different versions. After playing it for a bit I came to the conclusion that it's too complex. But somehow I couldn't let the idea go.

One year and something like 200-300 hours of work later I have a first demo done. You can play up to the point where you leave for Alton Plaza. The Jordan Computer, inventory and shooting games are fully working. I had to skip the save feature and the video phone for now. To my knowledge it is furthers a homebrew Snatcher port has ever gotten.

Here are some features:
- Dynamic dialog system with alternating answers
- Dynamic inventory (Select button) that reacts to people in the room
- Every image has been converted to 3D
- PCM music and sound effects
- In game Jordan computer fully working
- Shooting games fully ported

Special Thanks go to:
- Bigmak and Minestorm for testing.
- Horvat for sharing his PCM code. In the end I wrote my own but it sure helped allot.
- Benjamin Stevens for testing and helping out with the transcripts.

I'm well aware that there are some imperfections in the game. I will continue polishing what is there and extending it until the game is fully completed. Even if it takes till the 25th vb anniversary.

I hope this is something Red Metal would have enjoyed playing.

Happy 20th anniversary everyone.

http://youtu.be/HbE8Zg908u4

It was such a great thing for you to do this in his memory, thunderstruck.

The current demo looks great! Keep up the good work! :-)

That is a touching story, im sure red metal would be pleased with this, and you should be very proud of yourself thunder.

Just watched the video, looks good. When I get the chance I'll download the demo and give it a try.
Great work as always.

Thank you for this!

Looks great, can't wait to try it out.

Just played through a little. This looks GREAT!. I love the practice range. Runs great on mednafen. Nice work Thunderstruck!!!!

Too bad I don't have the time right now to play though the complete demo but I definitely need to reserve an evening soon.

But wow, the 10 minutes or so I just played were really cool. That's some amazing sound quality! And some of the best stereo backgrounds since Virtual Bowling, did you 3D-fy them by hand?

I was a bit surprised though that Jordan didn't have anything on file when I entered "Thunderstruck".

I wish Red Metal could've played this in his lifetime, I am sure he would have totally loved your version!

This looks fantastic! What a wonderful way to celebrate his memory! Will be a fantastic day when this is finished! Keep up the great work!

Looks cool.

i greatly respect your reasons behind this project and i think he would have been proud.