8th December 2018, 10:22 PM
So something interesting showed up in the mail recently. Earlier this year, I backed a kickstarter. After a few months of delay the game is out, and my boxed copy arrived. I haven't done much of that this year -- in fact, it's the only kickstarter I've backed this year -- but I decided to because it's the first homebrew release of an N64 game! It isn't a new development, though, but an old cancelled but just-about-finished game:
N64 (unlicensed release)
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40 Winks - complete, $45 (kickstarter price). This came with the cart and manual in a N64-style box. It's a good box, with the colored sides as expected. Of course there isn't a real N64 logo or such because it's not licensed, but it's a good box. As for the game, 40 Winks is a collection-heavy 3d platformer. The game did release on Playstation back in '99 and got mediocre reviews, but despite getting better reviews the N64 version was cancelled because the publisher (GT Interactive) was heading towards bankruptcy and it hadn't sold well on PS1. A PAL rom of a mostly-finished build leaked ten years ago, but not a final NTSC version. Well, that's not true anymore because Piko Interactive got the rights to the game, just-about-done NTSC and PAL roms of the game, and released it on actual carts! I still haven't played the PS1 version, but based on this one, yeah, it's a decently good game. The graphics are nice, it has expansion pak support for higher res graphics (with the usual framerate hit, though), and the gameplay seems fun enough. It's not the best game, but isn't bad either and I'm glad to have it. It's awesome that the N64 version of 40 Winks is finally available, and it is better than everything I've seen of the PS1 version as you'd expect. Developer Eurocom did mostly good work on the N64.\
The purchase also came with a key for Piko's PC DD (Steam) release of 40 Winks, so I redeemed that and have that now as well. However, that isn't the N64 version, it's the Playstation version, running, somewhat shoddily, in an emulator. Piko's PC releases are all questionably-emulated roms so this is not a surprise, but it's too bad that it is only the PS1 version. The N64 release is definitely better. There is a N64-exclusive 2 player co-op splitscreen mode, too.
N64 (unlicensed release)
--
40 Winks - complete, $45 (kickstarter price). This came with the cart and manual in a N64-style box. It's a good box, with the colored sides as expected. Of course there isn't a real N64 logo or such because it's not licensed, but it's a good box. As for the game, 40 Winks is a collection-heavy 3d platformer. The game did release on Playstation back in '99 and got mediocre reviews, but despite getting better reviews the N64 version was cancelled because the publisher (GT Interactive) was heading towards bankruptcy and it hadn't sold well on PS1. A PAL rom of a mostly-finished build leaked ten years ago, but not a final NTSC version. Well, that's not true anymore because Piko Interactive got the rights to the game, just-about-done NTSC and PAL roms of the game, and released it on actual carts! I still haven't played the PS1 version, but based on this one, yeah, it's a decently good game. The graphics are nice, it has expansion pak support for higher res graphics (with the usual framerate hit, though), and the gameplay seems fun enough. It's not the best game, but isn't bad either and I'm glad to have it. It's awesome that the N64 version of 40 Winks is finally available, and it is better than everything I've seen of the PS1 version as you'd expect. Developer Eurocom did mostly good work on the N64.\
The purchase also came with a key for Piko's PC DD (Steam) release of 40 Winks, so I redeemed that and have that now as well. However, that isn't the N64 version, it's the Playstation version, running, somewhat shoddily, in an emulator. Piko's PC releases are all questionably-emulated roms so this is not a surprise, but it's too bad that it is only the PS1 version. The N64 release is definitely better. There is a N64-exclusive 2 player co-op splitscreen mode, too.