Dawn of Kernel - a new favourite!

[Gryzor]

   So after getting Dawn of Kernel a few days back, and having waited patiently for it to arrive so I could play it on a real machine instead of emulating it, yesterday evening I finally opened it, marvelled at the 3" and the bits and bobs in the package and switched my trusty Schneider 6128 on.


   ...ten minutes later, and having found out that its drive was dead, I sighed and fired up WinAPE.


   ...two hours later and after the wife shouted for the tenth time "what are we going to have for dinner?" I had to quit, palms all sweaty.


   Oh boy. That was, really, the most fun I've had with my (virtual) CPC in quite a while!


   Now, for several years I've been replying to people complaining about how hard Rick Dangerous, or Cybernoid I and II were, that it only takes patience, a good memory and attention and you can finish them for sure. Time to eat my hat. DoK sure does feel like a spiritual successor to Cybernoid, though I have no idea if that was @Reidrac 's intention. But everything is there - split screens, turrets, flying patterns, secondary weapons, pixel-level accuracy, and added to these a few extras like mines or gates to disable. That's a good thing in my book!


   The screens are really well designed and executed, and the multiple paths you'll have to follow make it somewhat more taxing than a linear screen-to-screen romp. It really has the one-more-go factor going for it, even after the umpteenth time you mutter under your teeth "not that bastard again!".


   Graphics are super cute and nice, very well drawn, with lovely colours and easily recognisable enemies and tiles. Though of course you'll have to find the hard way what each of them does. The overall graphics make very good use of mode 0 and overall it makes the most out of the limitations of the machine; to the extend that it's one of those games I can't really see needing one of those high-rez remakes.


   The sound is really good too, with jolly nice tunes you won't get soon bored of, though in that regard perhaps more variety would be nice.


   As I said, the game is hard. But this is not to say it's unfair or unpredictable. It's a set-piece title, with great collission detection and no matter how hard a screen can be you know that if you die (and you'll do that a lot!) it's your fault and not some unforeseen reason or glitch that sent your little sprite to its demise.


   Still have a long way to go, and I don't want to cheat, but I'm betting I'll have several more hours of fun.


   Oh, did I mention the box it came in? Lovely stuff. A really gorgeous looking silver, big cardboard box with beautiful art and the usual (though a bit poor) bits in it like a folding-out instruction poster, a cover art poster and a couple of stickers. A bit on the expensive side -I mean, I often balk at €20 Steam titles!- but certainly worth it, if for nothing else then to support Reidrac who's been creating stuff for us like there's no tomorrow.


   Right then, let's play some more before the wife gets out of her bath!

[Nich]

Oh, did I mention the box it came in? Lovely stuff. A really gorgeous looking silver, big cardboard box with beautiful art and the usual (though a bit poor) bits in it like a folding-out instruction poster, a cover art poster and a couple of stickers. A bit on the expensive side -I mean, I often balk at €20 Steam titles!- but certainly worth it, if for nothing else then to support Reidrac who's been creating stuff for us like there's no tomorrow.

I bought five of the six CPC titles available from poly.play (the 3" disc version of Magica is unfortunately out of stock as I write this), at an eye-watering cost of €135.50 (including shipping). The games, including The Dawn of Kernel, arrived very quickly - and when I opened the box, I could not believe the quality of the packaging! I love the shiny, silver box that The Dawn of Kernel comes in, and I was also really surprised at how big the box is.

I've attached two photos in an attempt to show how wonderful the packaging is, but I can't really do it justice - the metallic silver surface of the box doesn't really show all that well in the photos.

[attach=1] [attach=2]

Seeing how professional the production is on all the poly.play games has made spending €135.50 a lot more bearable.

[reidrac]

Needless to say I'm very happy with the physical releases, and I find amazing that Poly Play keeps restocking "old" games like Golden Tail and Magica (both from 2016), which is quite uncommon in new games for old systems that very often release n units and when they're gone, that's it.

IMHO the games aren't expensive considering what you get. Other publishers charge more for a similar quality!

[Schneckenwerk]

Really REALLY nice one. This is quality-CPC-stuff.

[Gryzor]

Certainly not cheap, but come on, it's a niche product, and very well made too, so I have no issue supporting the dev(s) and publisher...

[remax]

Certainly not cheap, but come on, it's a niche product, and very well made too, so I have no issue supporting the dev(s) and publisher...

If i have well understood, devs don't get a lot of money (nothing?)... But encouraging such products is essential.

[Arnaud]

Certainly not cheap, but come on, it's a niche product, and very well made too, so I have no issue supporting the dev(s) and publisher...

Yes you can, see in the @reidrac signature :

If you're not into physical releases and want to show some appreciation, you can buy me a coffee.

[reidrac]

If i have well understood, devs don't get a lot of money (nothing?)... But encouraging such products is essential.

It really depends on the deal, but in my case I don't want any money from the physical releases. I guess it would make the games a bit more expensive if I wanted some quid for each copy. Given the number of units sold per CPC game, is not worth it. I rather invest it in Poly Play so they can release more games.

I put a lot of time on each game, and that's something I do for fun anyway.

Re: the signature. Some people have told me few times they would like to show some appreciation and don't want to buy physical releases for whatever reason. Well, I do drink coffee 

[Gryzor]

@remax : I really have no idea but either way I doubt there's much to be had. People do it for fun and for others I'd guess, not to get rich?


@Arnaud : oh, how I've completely missed that!

[reidrac]

@Arnaud : oh, how I've completely missed that!

Thanks for the coffees! Very kind of you, and that reminds me I'm due for my annual donation to cpcwiki! haha

[Gryzor]

Are we exchanging donations now? Is it Christmas?


Cheers mate, much appreciated!

[mr_lou]

IMHO the games aren't expensive considering what you get. Other publishers charge more for a similar quality!

Exactly this.

People who says it's expensive needs to sit down and ponder about how much work was put into these productions.
And there's always the option of a non-physical edition too - with the option of donating - if you want - or not  if you don't want.
In short: All options are there, so everyone ought to be happy.
I did the same thing with 8-bit Memoirs. Physical version with a price that's definitely fair considering the amount of work it was. And a free version for those who's not into physical versions. I also heard a few complaints about the price, which I just can't take serious - but I decided to offer a "budget version" because of this - and did actually sell quite a few copies of that version. That was a bit unexpected. And I doubt it would work for a CPC game.

[awergh]

Exactly this.

People who says it's expensive needs to sit down and ponder about how much work was put into these productions.
And there's always the option of a non-physical edition too - with the option of donating - if you want - or not  if you don't want.
In short: All options are there, so everyone ought to be happy.
I did the same thing with 8-bit Memoirs. Physical version with a price that's definitely fair considering the amount of work it was. And a free version for those who's not into physical versions. I also heard a few complaints about the price, which I just can't take serious - but I decided to offer a "budget version" because of this - and did actually sell quite a few copies of that version. That was a bit unexpected. And I doubt it would work for a CPC game.

On poly.play for Pentomino there is both a cassette only version as well as a boxed version. So that would be pretty equivalent to a budget release.
I personally would prefer the boxed version as its bigger and better but if I was really stingy I guess the cassette only version would be fine.

[mr_lou]

On poly.play for Pentomino there is both a cassette only version as well as a boxed version. So that would be pretty equivalent to a budget release.
I personally would prefer the boxed version as its bigger and better but if I was really stingy I guess the cassette only version would be fine.

That's cool. Didn't know that.
It would be interesting to see some numbers on sales. Somehow I can't imagine that cassette-only version would sell much - unless it's a big collector who wants both versions just for the sake of collecting. I think most (if not all) collectors will go for the boxed version.