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We are streaming Katakis 3D (unreleased GBC shooter) on Twitch

A

Aku-Audi

Member
vUigTMe.png


Chris Huelsbeck (Turrican, Star Wars Rogue Squadron composer) and I are streaming the unreleased GBC shooter Katakis 3D on Twitch today. Chris worked with co-creator Andreas Escher on the original Katakis as well as many other games back in the C64 era, so we managed to talk him into joining us and letting us play through the final build of Katakis 3D.

Katakis 3D has some pretty amazing graphics for a Game Boy Color title, and it is a shame it didn't see release. As for a public release of the ROM, well I am doing my best to get something done about that!

None of us are in contact with Manfred Trenz, so don't expect any updates on him.

We are broadcasting the game at http://www.twitch.tv/c_huelsbeck, starts at 3PM EST

You can read about Katakis 3D at Unseen 64
 
N

Nerdkiller

Membeur
Development took 5 months that sadly were unfruitful because the completed project couldn’t find a publisher interested to shipping it so from 2001 the game gather dust in a safe. Quite unfortunate cause it would have been very interesting to witness what Manfred Trenz amazing low level programming skills could have produced on the weak Game Boy Color hardware.
Click to expand...
So, would a ROM dump be possible, if it hasn't already been done yet? It seems a shame that this finished game would be left as this relic of history that might only have a single copy in existence.

Ed: Ahhh. Nevermind. Just noticed the rest of your post.
 
A

Aku-Audi

Member
So in addition to Katakis 3D on GBC, Escher also allowed us to play the unreleased dev version of Katakis on Commodore 64, which includes some differences from the released version which was taken down by Activision due to R-Type similarities.

The Twitch broadcast is archived for a few weeks if you want to check out a full run through of these unreleased games http://www.twitch.tv/c_huelsbeck/v/13266370
 
A

Aku-Audi

Member
Manfred was never much of a people person... No hard feelings or differences, just not possible to locate and talk to him.
 
Bobs Big Boy

Bobs Big Boy

Member
This is great stuff, thanks for sharing.

Somewhat Axelay vibes and maybe something to that combined with the form of the first game, can't believe this runs on the GBC.
 
C

CO_Andy

Member
Manfred Trenz was a real programming prodigy. I don't think any one programmer from the 16-bit era got more out of the SNES era than he did.
 
J

Jakabok

Member
Good stuff. Wasn't the original C64 Katakis changed substantially late on to avoid comparisons with R-Type? Or am I thinking of Io?
 
K

Knurek

Member
Aku-Audi said:
Katakis 3D has some pretty amazing graphics for a Game Boy Color title, and it is a shame it didn't see release. As for a public release of the ROM, well I am doing my best to get something done about that!
Click to expand...

Were you in contact with the Shin'en guys back then?
I mean, the game just screams Iridion 3D - were they inspired by your work or is this just a coincidence?
 
Yoshi

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
If the game is done and was just missing a publisher, why don't you try to bring it to 3DS Virtual Console :)?
 
A

Aku-Audi

Member
Knurek said:
Were you in contact with the Shin'en guys back then?
I mean, the game just screams Iridion 3D - were they inspired by your work or is this just a coincidence?
Click to expand...

Escher spoke on this yesterday on the stream, but I believe it was a coincidence and Katakis was being worked on earlier than Iridion. Great minds think alike I guess.

Yoshi said:
If the game is done and was just missing a publisher, why don't you try to bring it to 3DS Virtual Console :)?
Click to expand...

There are several reasons, but mostly just that the people behind the game aren't in touch with each other, and copyright is up in the air.
 
Yoshi

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
Copywright would still be a problem with releasing the game as a romdump, too, no? And I think getting a few people togehter to agree to making some late but easy (now) money on their work should be manageable?
 
S

spaceveteran

Neo Member
Hello there, this is my first post on this forum.

I'm sorry for necroing this thread but I was wondering as of late if there was any news regarding the possibility of releasing the katakis 3d prototype? Has Aku-Audi made any progress on that front? I was able recently to contact one of the persons involved in the game (former silmarils programer Andre Burger) and talk about the possibility but as was said previously this is still up for grabs given no one knows who owns the rights (a shame, really).

Should Aku Audi be active again I could point him towards that programmer.

Best regards.
 
CamHostage

CamHostage

Member
There were some great efforts on GBC that sadly didn't get much notice in the "handheld ghetto" (and then some of them didn't come out or get past prototyping because the GBC had a short run.) It was a very easy platform to develop software for independently, and then because the market was hungry for titles in the post-Pokemon boom phase, publishers might actually pick up your game even with no track record.

Wayforward did great stuff in this time, Vicarious Visions started coming up (they really caught fire when they did GBA 3D stuff,) VD-DEV started its Punching Weight Hall of Fame run, lots of European studios got started or did interesting things...

It's a shame Katakis fell just outside that short window of opportunity, but I'm glad to see it out.
 
cireza

cireza

Member
I have a soft spot for these 160x144 handhelds to be honest. GBC, Game Gear and Neo Geo Pocket have a very unique charm to them.

Game Gear is actually a very interesting system as it was never constrained by any "white & black" origins, which means that the console offers two palettes of 16 colors, unlike GBC and NPC (which only have palettes of 4). It is also based on Master System hardware, which was pretty great hardware, really. Despite the palette limitations of GBC/NPC, I have been several times impressed by some background works. Really inspiring. The video posted above is a great example. These "full-motion" backgrounds are only 4 colors. Incredible work. And being able to stream them smoothly is an achievement.
 
Last edited:
wondermega

wondermega

Member
cireza said:
I have a soft spot for these 160x144 handhelds to be honest. GBC, Game Gear and Neo Geo Pocket have a very unique charm to them.

Game Gear is actually a very interesting system as it was never constrained by any "white & black" origins, which means that the console offers two palettes of 16 colors, unlike GBC and NPC (which only have palettes of 4). It is also based on Master System hardware, which was pretty great hardware, really. Despite the palette limitations of GBC/NPC, I have been several times impressed by some background works. Really inspiring. The video posted above is a great example. These "full-motion" backgrounds are only 4 colors. Incredible work. And being able to stream them smoothly is an achievement.
Click to expand...
Agree, definitely a neat tech achievement, although these presentations in general (no matter how fancy) always left me kind of cold since it was purely aesthetic for those glorious 3D backgrounds, they were simple loops that had no real effect (generally) on the actual gameplay. Even if a game like the original Starfox was much simpler in presentation, it always felt more fun to me because it "felt" like you were playing in that world, as opposed to just shooting over a video overlay.
 
cireza

cireza

Member
wondermega said:
Agree, definitely a neat tech achievement, although these presentations in general (no matter how fancy) always left me kind of cold since it was purely aesthetic for those glorious 3D backgrounds, they were simple loops that had no real effect (generally) on the actual gameplay. Even if a game like the original Starfox was much simpler in presentation, it always felt more fun to me because it "felt" like you were playing in that world, as opposed to just shooting over a video overlay.
Click to expand...
I think it depends on the games.

Radiant Silvergun or Ikaruga are technically doing the exact same thing, streaming pre-rendered visuals in the background, and overlaying obstacles and enemies. And the final result looks awesome. This is true for most shmups actually.

You get this loop effect on cartridge games where the available memory is highly limited. It does get old pretty quickly.
 
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