{"id":123976,"date":"2022-04-17T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-17T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-130013"},"modified":"2022-04-17T15:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-04-17T15:00:00","slug":"feature-how-limited-runs-new-engine-respects-the-legacy-of-classic-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2022\/04\/17\/feature-how-limited-runs-new-engine-respects-the-legacy-of-classic-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Feature: How Limited Run’s New Engine Respects The Legacy Of Classic Games"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Limited Run Games Booth (Image: Nintendo Life \/ Zion Grassl)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The world of physical media in brick-and-mortar stores has dwindled in recent years due to the proliferation of digital storefronts readily and conveniently available on modern platforms. While some would never think to pay the same (or more) on a digital game versus one they can hold with their hands, plenty of folk are just fine with buying a game and installing it on their SD card without having to leave the house.<\/p>\n

However, the success of boutique labels and companies like Limited Run Games has proven that tangible video games still have a place in the world, especially since a digital game store like the Wii Shop Channel, or more recently the 3DS and Wii U eShops<\/a>, can be closed forever \u2014 in turn making digitally exclusive games inaccessible.<\/p>\n

Limited Run Games in particular has been an incredible boon in the industry, making physical versions of previously digital-only titles like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World The Game<\/a>, The Mummy Demastered<\/a> and plenty more available to the enthusiast masses. Sure, these physical editions will often cost you more than they do digitally on the eShop, and they’re only available for purchase for a certain amount of time, but they are helping guarantee that these games won’t be entirely lost in the digital sands of time.<\/p>\n

Making a limited edition print of a video game is only half the battle, however. Once a game sells out, there’s no way to control demand with supply and the price of a game on the secondhand market may well rise. We see this all the time when a well-regarded sequel comes out and fans want to go back and play the original, or when a game doesn’t sell well and is produced in low quantities. Take EarthBound<\/a> on SNES, Chibi-Robo<\/a> on GameCube or even Attack on Titan 2<\/a> on Switch \u2014 all of these games took some time to gain popularity and now are essentially inaccessible for most in their original forms. Every retro game player or collector has at least one title on their list they wish<\/em> they could buy, but can’t justify an entire paycheck to acquire it.<\/p>\n

Limited Run is trying to do something about this. Shantae<\/a> on the Game Boy Color is not only one of the best titles on the handheld<\/a>, it also released during a time where the Game Boy Advance was already on the market. Much like in 2017, when people started forgetting to feed their 3DS and spent their free time with the Switch instead, Shantae released to critical praise but commercial indifference. This unfortunate timing made the game a highly-sought treasure that you’d be lucky to play in its original form. But then, in 2020, Limited Run Games announced not only a digital re-release of the game on Switch eShop, but also a physical re-release on an authentic Game Boy Color cartridge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The Limited Run Games physical Game Boy Color re-release of Shantaer (Image: Nintendo Life \/ Zion Grassl)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This port and re-release was thanks in part to Limited Run’s new development tool, the Carbon Engine. A Swiss army knife of sorts, it allows LRG to take games from the classic era and port them efficiently and authentically to every modern platform and, in turn, also offers the chance to bring back games in their original format. More recently, Limited Run used the Carbon Engine to bring over the previously Japan-only exclusive Super Famicom game Shin Nekketsu Koha: Kunio-tachi no Banka<\/a>, to the West for the first time, re-branded as River City Girls Zero<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Given the frequency with which LRG releases physical games and the desire for them, the impact this effort could have on the retro game community is huge. We recently sat down with LRG co-founder & CEO Josh Fairhurst, marketing director Alena Alambeigi, and game developers Dimitris Giannakis and Joe Modzeleski to dig deeper into the process and find out where they hope to take the Carbon Engine.<\/p>\n

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Nintendo Life: The Carbon Engine is basically a development tool that you\u2019ve created that works with emulators to make classic games playable on modern hardware. But what truly makes this truly easier for developers to work with and what makes it different from other methods that are currently being utilized?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Joe Modzeleski:<\/strong> The way we approached developing our toolset was a very frontloaded way. We did a lot of the development and the R&D in advance. What we try to provide for people that have legacy content and don\u2019t really know what to do with it or how to bring it to modern customers is to offer them an all encompassing tool that supports every modern platform. Our Carbon Engine has a variety of emulators it supports and it\u2019s one central tool base that we work out of that we\u2019re super familiar with since we\u2019re using and expanding it all the time. It\u2019s a situation where partners don\u2019t have to come in and invest a lot of money or resources, we just need software.<\/p>\n

Josh Fairhurst:<\/strong> I don\u2019t want to simplify it this much, but, we\u2019re building a tool that\u2019s basically plug and play for retro re-releases. Every game is going to have things we need to adjust the emulation for, but then once we make those adjustments, every other game that uses that emulation going forward can also be that much better. It\u2019s a continuous thing that the tool will keep getting stronger, more powerful with each release.<\/p>\n

Joe:<\/strong> You\u2019ll find weird quirks too, like the first game we really focused on, Shantae, worked great, almost perfect! Then you start messing with some other games and find weird edge cases, weird CPU instructions that aren\u2019t commonly used and we fix it!<\/p>\n

Dimitris Giannakis:<\/strong> When we talk about a retro throwback game sometimes there\u2019s a stigma about \u201cwell that game can never come back because there\u2019s no source code, assets were lost or there\u2019s some piece that doesn\u2019t exist anymore\u201d so it\u2019s difficult to bring back. With Carbon we\u2019ve tried to simplify that as much as we can to really say, \u201cLook, we can get this game up and running.\u201d Ultimately we can kind of break those barriers to bring any game we choose to.<\/p>\n