gamescom Day 2 – Strictly Limited Games panel

First stop Gamescom congress, Track 1: Living with games. Strictly Limited Games’ (SLG) panel was the first in this track and hosted by the 2 co-founders. Their topic: “Physical games – more than a niche?”.
They started by explaining the importance of video game preservation and how small indie publishers like SLG support this important topic.

Finally, they illustrated “video game archeology“ by going into detail of one of their latest projects. He gave an in-depth view of how they recovered Project Hardcore – the Sega Mega Drive (US: Sega Genesis)/Amiga game which was originally developed by DICE almost a quarter century ago. A few days before Gamescom, SLG  announced they are bringing this game to modern consoles. The game was almost lost forever, as the code was stored on a hard drive that was barely alive when SLG acquired it. They gave the hard drive into the hands of a technician with magical skills and he was able to save the game’s code from eternal doom.
Hardcore was officially 99% finished and close to release when it was canned. SLG is working together with a Mega Drive guru who is fixing the final 1% of the code to complete the game. And as if that is not cool enough – he’s adding extra levels which were planned for an extended Sega Mega CD version.
A nerd’s dream come alive.

NIS America – presentation of the lineup 2018/early 2019

14 games were presented by NISA. It’s plain to see that NISA pays tribute to classic video games in almost every game they release. Some games are designed upon proven game designs/mechanics from past game series with modern enhancements (e.g. Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk/Disgaea), others are a re-imagination of old classics (e.g. Metal Max Xeno/Metal Max (Famicom)) or straight up compilations of retro classics (e.g. SNK 40th Anniversary Collection).
The host made sure that he highlighted every relation to older games/game series, showing that it’s important to him personally and to NISA as a company. This is what gave me a heartwarming feeling throughout the complete presentation. Let’s hope that they stick with this philosophy going forward.

My personal highlights of all the games shown:
SNK 40th Anniversary Edition – I love that they pay homage to all the great SNK classics
SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy – note: PS4 physical only available in the Collector’s Edition
Metal Max Xeno – it’s great that they bring this almost 3 decades old game series to the West
Yomawari Long Night Collection – bundles Night alone + Midnight Shadows, the latter never before physically released

I hope to work together with the host and his team going forward to bring you even more in-depth information about their releases.

Wired Productions

Next up was a short meeting with a PR Consultant of Marchsreiter Communications, who is working with Wired Productions. I was fortunate enough to sneak myself into a short talk with him even without a proper appointment and I was fortunate enough that he was willing to spend a few minutes with me.
I introduced myself and Limited Game News. He liked the concept and asked me to get in touch with him sometime after Gamescom 2018 to discuss possibilities of future co-operation related to future game releases. Some of their games seem to have EU region only releases (e.g. Vostok Inc on PS4), that’s why their releases are interesting for collectors worldwide.

Microïds

To continue my adventures without a proper appointment, I was fortunate enough to meet with a PR representative of Microïds. I like their current lineup a lot as it has a strong retro connection with games like Flashback & Toki (remakes of retro classics) and Asterix XXL 2 (PS2 remaster) are based on retro games. Microïds puts out some of their releases in EU only, making it an important publisher for collectors worldwide. I hope to work together with Microïds going forward to provide you with exciting news on LGN in the future.

FDG Entertainment

Last, but not least, I had a brief meeting with one of FDG Entertainment’s Co-Founders. I went to this meeting with 2 different intentions:
Firstly to introduce myself and LGN.
Secondly straight up fanboyism because I love the Wonder Boy game series.

They had a Monster Boy and the cursed Kingdom game case complete with mock-up stickers and full-color manual on display which I was able to hold in my hands (proof to the right). Awesome.
Unfortunately, there was not enough time for me to play the game during our short meeting.

Needless to say, I can’t wait for the release of Monster Boy.

Conclusion

Before leaving Gamescom I met the myth, the legend of physical PS4 video game collecting: @Toadsanime. He is a hardcore PS4 collector same as me and I’m glad to know him. His mirror news article he posted a while back and his Twitter profile inspired me to start Limited Game News.
Day 2 was the final day for me at Gamescom and I left with mixed feelings. On the one hand, I was glad it was over because I was really exhausted. On the other hand, I would have loved to spend more time with all the great people I met and then some more.
But as they say: After the con is before the con.
Hope I can come back next year again to meet old and new friends.