RVG Interviews Super Fighter Team

[zapiy]

Here is our latest interview with Super Fighter Team Founder Brandon Cobb. A huge thanks to him and Super Fighter Team.

Enjoy


zapiy
Tell us a bit about you and the rest of the team?

Brandon
I'm a 30 year old businessman from the quaint little city of Santee, California, which is located in San Diego county. I enjoy snacks, good conversation and long, moonlit walks on the beach. I founded Super Fighter Team as an homage to Super Fighter, my favorite fighting game from childhood. This was the first IP we acquired, which inspired me to seek out partnerships with other companies across the world.

We've got a good-sized crew here, some of whom have been with us since our (very!) humble beginnings -- or in some cases, even before that! Classic gaming is our passion, and sharing that passion with the world is why we are here. Here, friends, is a company that is not driven by the love of money. Go figure! We ain't worried about making two bits, we just dream in 16-bit!
 
The Laird
What got you guys into the classic gaming market?

Brandon
It's simple: I wanted to buy and enjoy great new games for my favorite classic machines, because those are the only machines I like. The big companies had stopped producing them, and the small "homebrew" outfits weren't putting anything out that I felt was worth the money. Rather than sit around and mope, I decided to do something about it.
 
zapiy
For a game like Zaku, how hard is something like this to get off the ground in terms of what you and the programmer wants?

Brandon
Zaku was easy. Osman Celimli of PenguiNet and I got along immediately, which as you can imagine made interaction between us quite pleasant. Plus he was young, determined and bursting with talent, which made for the perfect programming powerhouse.

The experience was like a dream, because I really like the Lynx and had for years been jonesing to oversee the production of a new game for it. Then Osman appears on the scene with this little demo of a scrolling shooter, and I pointed to the computer screen and cried, "That's it!"
 
The Laird
Have you thought about doing more translations? There is a brilliant Chinese beat 'em up for the Mega Drive I would love to see translated.

Brandon
We'll localize some additional titles in the future, sure. No Mega Drive beat 'em ups, though; we'd sooner build one from scratch.
 
The Laird
Any more products for the Lynx or any other Atari machines coming up?

Brandon
I'd love to work with the Lynx again. Despite Zaku's brilliance, I think it's possible for us to wring even more power out of that hardware. Atari really had no concept of how great that system was...

If nothing else, perhaps the Jaguar would be nice to muck about with. I think it's due for a really nice, high quality title. From what I've seen of its existing software library, I'm not impressed. Would be nice to do something to change that.
 
AmigaJay
What happened to Super Fighter? I thought it was due on numourous CD formats?

Brandon
A small outfit named OlderGames approached me to license Super Fighter, so they could adapt the game to several different CD-based systems. As it turned out, they lacked the resources to adapt the game to any machine, so nothing ever materialized. I would say it was an error in judgement on my part, but as people are still talking about it to this day, eleven years later...

Super Fighter turns 20 next year, which is quite a landmark. I think a surprise party is in order.
 
DreamcastRIP
How much of a challenge was it to manufacture the curved lip cart for Zaku? As far as I know, no Lynx game other than those produced by Atari themselves has ever come on such an authentic-looking cart.

Brandon
I just took a copy of the worst Lynx game I could find (Ninja Gaiden III) and shipped it out to our factory. There, the game card's plastic shell was studied so we could create a mold. Quick and simple. Not cheap though, as those molds cost a pretty penny. But to ship the game on just a bare circuit board wasn't an option; that's too pedestrian a way to go about producing a professional product.
 
DreamcastRIP
Any Dreamcast games planned?

Brandon
At first I was just going to dismiss this with a straight "no," but then it occurred to me we have a few nice titles that could easily be adapted to the Dreamcast, and make a fine complement to the system. With that said... no. No plans for the Dreamcast.
 
zapiy
What's been your best seller to date?
 
Brandon
That would be Beggar Prince, our first commercial product, which sold a total of 1,500 copies. Really though, sales numbers are quite irrelevant. We only cut off our production of a particular title because we have to, in order to introduce new products. We're not a huge operation, so we can only manufacture copies of one game at a time. (Though I guess if that's your biggest problem as a company, you're in fairly good shape.)

zapiy
Do you have a lot of people approaching you to release or make games or do you approach them?

Brandon
People pitch us projects every once in a while, sure. When it comes to partnering with other game companies, however, it is usually us that approaches them. After all, who among them could figure there's a market for new Mega Drive software? We have to tap them on the shoulder and let them know. It's fun.
 
zapiy
How do you select which games to release and where?

Brandon
I choose the titles myself. Seems I have a pretty good "spidey sense" about it, considering our continued success. For a game to be good enough for us to produce and publish, it has to really grab me; knock my heartbeat up a couple of paces. That's when you know it's love, baby.
 
zapiy
Will you ever look at releasing some of these games or any other game for that matter on modern systems?

Brandon
I don't think that would be very much fun. Besides, it's not our focus as a company. I think the modern day consoles have enough companies supporting them, whereas the Mega Drive and Lynx, et cetera, are in dire need of us.

[The Laird]

Really fantastic interview!

There are some great teasers in there 

[zapiy]

Yeah, i really enjoy doing these more and more.. Would be great to see what this lot could do for a Jaguar game.

[AmigaJay]

Nice interview! He seems a nice bloke too.

Great numbers for that Megadrive game, usually home brew carts are in the tens or hundreds at the most, but 1,500!

These are the sort of home brew titles that needs to be covered in RG more, esp with pictures and reviews.

[The Laird]

Nice interview! He seems a nice bloke too.

Great numbers for that Megadrive game, usually home brew carts are in the tens or hundreds at the most, but 1,500!

These are the sort of home brew titles that needs to be covered in RG more, esp with pictures and reviews.

I remember reading that some of the Songbird Jaguar and Lynx releases have broken 1000 too.

Shows what a differnce it makes when thinks are done professionaly.

[AmigaJay]

Nice interview! He seems a nice bloke too.

Great numbers for that Megadrive game, usually home brew carts are in the tens or hundreds at the most, but 1,500!

These are the sort of home brew titles that needs to be covered in RG more, esp with pictures and reviews.

I remember reading that some of the Songbird Jaguar and Lynx releases have broken 1000 too.

Shows what a differnce it makes when thinks are done professionaly.

Yeah I agree, I'd much rather have a curved lip Lynx cart than a pcb in whatever colour it is!
Interesting about Songbird, I was under the impression they were in the hundreds, if you can find out which ones they were that would be interesting...

[The Laird]

I seem to remember that Total Carnage and Protector / Protector: SE had broken 1000 units and so did Championship Rally and Cyber Virus on the Lynx.

[AmigaJay]

I seem to remember that Total Carnage and Protector / Protector: SE had broken 1000 units and so did Championship Rally and Cyber Virus on the Lynx.

Cool, thanks for the info.
Any new Lynx or Jag cartridge games (not cd) on the way from Songbird, I know those Lynx games have been on hold for many a year now..

[The Laird]

I seem to remember that Total Carnage and Protector / Protector: SE had broken 1000 units and so did Championship Rally and Cyber Virus on the Lynx.

Cool, thanks for the info.
Any new Lynx or Jag cartridge games (not cd) on the way from Songbird, I know those Lynx games have been on hold for many a year now..

We are hoping to do an interview with Carl Forhan very soon so you can ask him!

I know he has a few things up his sleeve! 

[AmigaJay]

Ah good, will keep an eye out when you want some questions.

[nakamura]

Nice interview, enjoyed the read. The guy seemed really down to earth and his company seems very open to ideas.

[Shadowrunner]

Great interview. Really excited at the prospect of them doing a jag game.

[zapiy]

Thanks guys, make s it worth while with great feedback like this...

[TrekMD]

Great interview!  I really hope they decide to develop a high-quality game for the Jaguar!  He seems to be interested and I'm sure they'd do an excellent job.

[DreamcastRIP]

Great work, guys.