If you read the title, then yes you heard... read it right. Cave story for genesis, and for the rest of the world sega mega drive. If you are not familar with Dokutsu Monogatari which is Literally translated to Cave Story, is a freeware game released in 2004 by studio pixel, I think Is called Daisuke Ayama if i remember, was the single developer for this gem, much like toby fox's undertale game. Despite being released in 2004 where modern tech at the time was PS2/Xbox/Gamecube and such, it uses retro 8 bit style nes like graphics and sound. Is a homage to retro games like Metroid and castlevania which i will obviously now say "Metroidvania" gameplay.
Welcome to Cave Story, the genesis mega drive port. Is a work in progress as you can see, by the "MEGA DRIVE VERSION 0.1 2016.07" Is a recent port, about 2 months ago, in July. It has Sound test which you can see here. Not bad, allows you to listen to all in game music and sound effects, may i remind you is a genesis port so if you are familiar with the sound quality of the megadrives FM PSG or whatever is called, that Synthisizer, then expect it to be much like it. Me personally is ported well for a genesis game. Below is a NCP test. Supposed to display all sprites and test the animation, sound effects, and other such things. It shows interesting information, such as how much health the enemies have, what type of object is it, how much damage it can inflict on you, is it a collectable and such. Worth looking at. Remember is incomplete so not everything will be there for both menus.
Anyway after playing some of this, i decided to make some screen shots, I was using a Image filter during the time of screen capture so sorry if is not your thing, for curiosity reasons i used what is called "HQX2" with Linear. Is how i play most of my retro games now. So is just gonna be a few snapshots with comments addressing some issues.
So here is the first screen of the game, after the title menu and story. Looks good so far, except is very small. To be honest i noticed this to be maybe a small issue, the genesis original resolution was umm... 240x224 (Someone correct me if i am wrong) But this game seem too be adapted to wide screen the 16:9 Ratio instead of 4:3 or whatever the official original system was. It makes the game a bit confused, while it looks okay in full screen i think the actual programming may be messed with for the graphics being displayed, i may explain more later. Also notice the save point, yes it works, for a demo or WIP It works like it should. Let's go outside the room.
So far this looks okay, no problems noticed, looks like cave story. Before i go further, i will say it being a genesis game, there is lack of animation in many things over the original, only noticable if you play or saw video at 60FPS, while the game originally and this port runs at Something like 60FPS, is a genesis console so expect those frame drops and lag like when many stuff is on screen at once.
Okay, there goes some enemies, bats, and a the first life upgrade, one of the things i noticed is how collecting items or interacting works, i'll show you.
Notice in this picture, the character is in the air but aquired the upgrade. Usually to get this you need to be standing in front of it, and press down, he will then look at it by staring into the back ground, just figure i should point it out.... let's move on.
To the hermit's room, to collect the polar star gun. Obviously something is wrong, the center, it supposed to have the gun picture like the previous one with the life upgrade, obviously layering problems, characters interfere with this a lot. Sometimes is other things but this is one of the main things. Also notice the text box, at the border on both sides, produces black bars to fil the bottom of the screen even though the text box isn't as big, another issue with overlays and layers. Let's get out of the cave.
Outside the "First Cave" We see King and Tokoro, Two local Mimiga in dialoge. We can see some color and background here, looks impressive, again notice the small sprites and the screen format as i metioned earler about the 16:9 wide screen Against the official. Not bad for large monitors. 
Checking my inventory is obviously something is wrong. Arms is my weapons, and item is my other collectables, well were is the polar star i collected? It should be there, also the dialog is messed up.... "h!" Umm what? Well least i know the key is there. Why does it take up the whole screen? Oh well move on.
Here we have a room with the which misery, and the bar of soap, or suitcase, or cinderblock (I dunno what it is) His name is Balrog. The screen shows a bit more outside the room itself than necesary you can see by looking left and right.
This is a optional battle against Balrog, you can simply skip it if you select no when he ask if you want to fight. I said yes for the purpose of the demostration. Some details are missing, all bosses should have health bars, but there is none, i foght at least 3 bosses, no bar ever. Also the layering problem again, the player is in front of the enemy, where he should be behind. He Also has a strange problem of looking into the background like he should when pressing down. The number represents total damage dealt to the enemy at one time, Kinda like a combo. Moving on.
While not important, i was exploring, another layer problem, character behind back ground objects. I find this funny as if they were trying to hide, but sadly is a bug or glitch in the game, not legit compared to official, they should be in front and visible.
Just another example of Layering problems with sprites, textboxes and background objects.
Entering the Egg chamber through teleporter, now is a lot to see all at one, Oh another upgrade, a Elephant.... i mean Behemoth according to the NPC test pic, and a robot, and whatever that thing down there is.
Okay, one weird thing here. During this scene the moster beats up on sue, but she standing a good distance away, in the official game the characters should be closer together, imagine the confusion when i saw this. The character is supposed to be closer, then after the savage beating, he picks her up and takes her away, walking to the right, instead she disappears (probably cause animations are missing for the full sequence) And he walks right being stuck at invisible wall before the game contines and despawn sprite.
And here is the pause for the sequence when he walks away, stuct at... nothing. This is why i mentioned the wide screen resolution issue earlier, reasons like this. Is obvious the game was designed for 4:3 size so displaying more tend to show some errors.
I have more screen shots but i had intended to keep this short and easy to stomach, so sorry if i messed up. Honestly this is ineresting and impressive, one thing is why port it to genesis/mega drive? Would someone actually consider playing it once completed? I mean i did cause Is cave story... on the genesis. If i had not recoginzed the title or game maybe i would not care but now that this is a thing i want to care and hope it completed. So far there is more to mention but again i wanted it to be short so... Let's see how much of this will continue.
Remember, this is a work in progress port that is Public domain as far as i am conserned and not Licensed content so don't worry, i dunno who made this rom but I find it of valued interest. Why Mega drive, why not nes or snes or anything else? I dunno, just have to wait and see.
While this a freeware pc game a indie game publishing company known as nicolas has ported to sever systems, the wii on wiishop (NOT WII U ESHOP) the DSI shop Steam computer platform, 3DS ESHOP (the dsi version still exist on 3ds eshop as well as 3DS eshop port,) and even a actual 3DS cart which is much the same game but visually different than the Downloaded versions, it features full rendered 3d characters visuals and enviroments instead of sprites and overlays. The freeware title was not offically localized but there is fan translations and various sites where you can find it. The purchased versions by nicolas featured more content, like easy and hard modes, time attack, minigames and sound test, steam has achiecvements if is your thing and image filters. There even been ports unofficial to other systems, Like PSP If you can run homebrew (E.G. Custom firmware) 3DS, ect. Is also able to be used on retroarch emulators, by downloading the NXengine plugin whatever is called, but that enough about all the ports, now is time for the reason why you probably clicked this post.
Welcome to Cave Story, the genesis mega drive port. Is a work in progress as you can see, by the "MEGA DRIVE VERSION 0.1 2016.07" Is a recent port, about 2 months ago, in July. It has Sound test which you can see here. Not bad, allows you to listen to all in game music and sound effects, may i remind you is a genesis port so if you are familiar with the sound quality of the megadrives FM PSG or whatever is called, that Synthisizer, then expect it to be much like it. Me personally is ported well for a genesis game. Below is a NCP test. Supposed to display all sprites and test the animation, sound effects, and other such things. It shows interesting information, such as how much health the enemies have, what type of object is it, how much damage it can inflict on you, is it a collectable and such. Worth looking at. Remember is incomplete so not everything will be there for both menus.
You play as the silent protaginst who name is even a mystery much like the girl or boy main player from undertale, and you weild different guns to combat the mosters mutated by evil doctor scientist on a island of creatures known as Mimiga where is some ruins that a umm much like a floating rock, try comparing it much to like sonic has angel island and it floats in mid air.... cause master emerald and knuckles is the guardian. Basically is just about as much comparable story. You are "QUOTE" (According to intel i gathered) Who is trying to save the island from the evil professor... doctor who is trying to awaken the core to cotrol it, along the way he has a few tricks up his sleeve, a witch known as misery, and umm a bar of soap or look more like a cinderblock known as Balrog, for some reason is already a strange name. The doctor and a family of scientist are all on this island, There is Sue sakomoto who was a human girl who was turned into a mimiga, her brother Kazuma, the grand father Professor booster, and their mom, who i forgot her name and the dad, and there is some other mimiga, like King, Tokoro, and Charo, Santa.... for a story about a cave is epic okay?
Anyway after playing some of this, i decided to make some screen shots, I was using a Image filter during the time of screen capture so sorry if is not your thing, for curiosity reasons i used what is called "HQX2" with Linear. Is how i play most of my retro games now. So is just gonna be a few snapshots with comments addressing some issues.
So here is the first screen of the game, after the title menu and story. Looks good so far, except is very small. To be honest i noticed this to be maybe a small issue, the genesis original resolution was umm... 240x224 (Someone correct me if i am wrong) But this game seem too be adapted to wide screen the 16:9 Ratio instead of 4:3 or whatever the official original system was. It makes the game a bit confused, while it looks okay in full screen i think the actual programming may be messed with for the graphics being displayed, i may explain more later. Also notice the save point, yes it works, for a demo or WIP It works like it should. Let's go outside the room.
Checking my inventory is obviously something is wrong. Arms is my weapons, and item is my other collectables, well were is the polar star i collected? It should be there, also the dialog is messed up.... "h!" Umm what? Well least i know the key is there. Why does it take up the whole screen? Oh well move on.
Here we have a room with the which misery, and the bar of soap, or suitcase, or cinderblock (I dunno what it is) His name is Balrog. The screen shows a bit more outside the room itself than necesary you can see by looking left and right.
This is a optional battle against Balrog, you can simply skip it if you select no when he ask if you want to fight. I said yes for the purpose of the demostration. Some details are missing, all bosses should have health bars, but there is none, i foght at least 3 bosses, no bar ever. Also the layering problem again, the player is in front of the enemy, where he should be behind. He Also has a strange problem of looking into the background like he should when pressing down. The number represents total damage dealt to the enemy at one time, Kinda like a combo. Moving on.
While not important, i was exploring, another layer problem, character behind back ground objects. I find this funny as if they were trying to hide, but sadly is a bug or glitch in the game, not legit compared to official, they should be in front and visible.
Just another example of Layering problems with sprites, textboxes and background objects.
Entering the Egg chamber through teleporter, now is a lot to see all at one, Oh another upgrade, a Elephant.... i mean Behemoth according to the NPC test pic, and a robot, and whatever that thing down there is.
Okay, one weird thing here. During this scene the moster beats up on sue, but she standing a good distance away, in the official game the characters should be closer together, imagine the confusion when i saw this. The character is supposed to be closer, then after the savage beating, he picks her up and takes her away, walking to the right, instead she disappears (probably cause animations are missing for the full sequence) And he walks right being stuck at invisible wall before the game contines and despawn sprite.
And here is the pause for the sequence when he walks away, stuct at... nothing. This is why i mentioned the wide screen resolution issue earlier, reasons like this. Is obvious the game was designed for 4:3 size so displaying more tend to show some errors.
Remember, this is a work in progress port that is Public domain as far as i am conserned and not Licensed content so don't worry, i dunno who made this rom but I find it of valued interest. Why Mega drive, why not nes or snes or anything else? I dunno, just have to wait and see.
like a 250 dollar kit back when DDR4 was Intel only
