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[Aaron Strife]

Sorcerer's Stone is pretty similar

I didn't find Azkaban to be as good

 

[Dreamwriter]

Lots of people get stuck at Aragog, because we balanced the game figuring most people would fight most of the random fights rather than avoid them, just dodging one once in a while or when backtracking. Silly us

oh yeah nasty shit. one of the objectives in the first game was to gather some boomslang skin. iirc, if you get the other ingredients first, the skin will disappear and you have no choice but to start a new game

Yeah, that was Sorcerer's Stone. Actually, the bug happens if you talk to the school nurse after getting the quest but before finding the skin. The bug was discovered while the game was being translated to other languages, so only the U.S. version had it (and I dunno if they made future printings of the cart, but if they did those would have the fix too). All you can do once you talk to the nurse and save, is restart the game.

 

[Nickle]

This is one of my favorite games. I loved how you can randomly press A when facing the environment and somehow find tons of hidden items. New Game + was really cool, too.

 

[WaffleTaco]

I remember playing these games on the PS2. They were always some of my favorites.

 

[jack_package_200]

Lots of people get stuck at Aragog, because we balanced the game figuring most people would fight most of the random fights rather than avoid them, just dodging one once in a while or when backtracking. Silly us

=D

Funny how that happens.

Someone earlier said you were a dev on this game. Got any fun insight? I can tell a lot of love and ambition went into this game

 

[Josh7289]

So if Nintendo actually had managed to license the rights to the Harry Potter franchise, I imagine these early JPRG-like Harry Potter games probably would never have existed then, huh?

More on Nintendo and Harry Potter: http://www.unseen64.net/2015/02/09/nintendo-harry-potter-games-pitch/

 

[Dreamwriter]

=D

Funny how that happens.

Someone earlier said you were a dev on this game. Got any fun insight? I can tell a lot of love and ambition went into this game

Oh, it was great - we were a fairly young dev team, many of us just on our second video game ever (though the team was headed by some long time veterans). We had just finished Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone, and had a lot of ideas for a sequel, and we really wanted to push the GBC as far as it would go. For example, we would reload the GBC's color palettes while the screen was still being drawn, to get hundreds of colors per screen (mainly used in character portraits and Wizard Cards, though we also used it to just get a few extra colors here and there, like between the combat area and the menu below). And though we used the largest GBC cart Nintendo manufactured (I think it was 32 megabits/4 megabytes), we filled it up to the brink, and really had to cram things in to get them to fit.

Our game was the only one of the various Harry Potter ports of the time to have events from the books that didn't make it into the movie, like Nearly Headless Nick's DeathDay Party, because the publisher (EA) didn't really pay attention to the GBC game (as GBA was already out). They would check it out once in a while, give us a thumbs up ("We didn't think GBC could do that!") and then go back to micromanaging the other platforms (which happened to us next year with Prisoner of Azkaban GBA.)

We had a complete minigame get cut: Butterbeer Tapper. The game was finished and really fun, but it was so close to the Root Beer Tapper arcade game that there were worries about legal issues.

Edit: now that I think about it, Butterbeer Tapper may have been from Azkaban...

 

[Dr. Benton Quest]

I wish more devs could get a looser leash when it comes to cool IPs.

 

[jack_package_200]

Oh, it was great - we were a fairly young dev team, many of us just on our second video game ever (though the team was headed by some long time veterans). We had just finished Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone, and had a lot of ideas for a sequel, and we really wanted to push the GBC as far as it would go. For example, we would reload the GBC's color palettes while the screen was still being drawn, to get hundreds of colors per screen (mainly used in character portraits and Wizard Cards, though we also used it to just get a few extra colors here and there, like between the combat area and the menu below). And though we used the largest GBC cart Nintendo manufactured (I think it was 32 megabits/4 megabytes), we filled it up to the brink, and really had to cram things in to get them to fit.

Our game was the only one of the various Harry Potter ports of the time to have events from the books that didn't make it into the movie, like Nearly Headless Nick's DeathDay Party, because the publisher (EA) didn't really pay attention to the GBC game (as GBA was already out). They would check it out once in a while, give us a thumbs up ("We didn't think GBC could do that!") and then go back to micromanaging the other platforms (which happened to us next year with Prisoner of Azkaban GBA.)

We had a complete minigame get cut: Butterbeer Tapper. The game was finished and really fun, but it was so close to the Root Beer Tapper arcade game that there were worries about legal issues.

Edit: now that I think about it, Butterbeer Tapper may have been from Azkaban...

Thanks for your input.

The bolded made me go back and look at the game. Pretty sure Chamber of Secrets is the most technologically advanced GBC game. You guys did a hell of a job with the environments. You all brought Hogwarts to life.

I found the actual Chamber of Secrets section looked great as did the Basilisk spritework and animation.

 

[gerudoman]

Awesome games. I wish I could play them in my DS Lite or 3DS, but they're so technologically advanced that Lameboy can't emulate them properly, and no way in hell are they going to be ever released in the VC.

Yeah, that was Sorcerer's Stone. Actually, the bug happens if you talk to the school nurse after getting the quest but before finding the skin. The bug was discovered while the game was being translated to other languages, so only the U.S. version had it (and I dunno if they made future printings of the cart, but if they did those would have the fix too). All you can do once you talk to the nurse and save, is restart the game.

I played the European version (the Spanish one, in particular) and also came across it the first time I played it. By the way, I'm surprised you haven't mentioned the hidden minigame in Chamber of Secrets

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

Lots of people get stuck at Aragog, because we balanced the game figuring most people would fight most of the random fights rather than avoid them, just dodging one once in a while or when backtracking. Silly us


Yeah, that was Sorcerer's Stone. Actually, the bug happens if you talk to the school nurse after getting the quest but before finding the skin. The bug was discovered while the game was being translated to other languages, so only the U.S. version had it (and I dunno if they made future printings of the cart, but if they did those would have the fix too). All you can do once you talk to the nurse and save, is restart the game.

I live in Australia and had the bug, so it was defo in the PAL release down under.

 

[Chris1]

The old harry potter games were fantastic. I remember getting the Philosophers stone on PS1, getting to the 3 headed dog and my game glitched and wouldn't let me finish it, ended up quitting as I didn't want to restart. Really pissed me off at the time.

 

[Winnie the Pimp]

I keep hearing about this game but not sure i can be arsed in this day and age to get my eyes used to a GBC game again hmmm, is there an HP game in the same vein on the GBA by chance that is AS good as this one?

 

[Pancakes R Us]

I bought this game for about $5 after I read another thread on here singing it's praises. The developer posted in that thread. I've not got around to playing it though.

 

[HGH]

My first encounter with this game was seeing my friend get to the final boss and failing repeatedly. Turns out he's not much of an RPG player, and he never equipped a single item! After finishing that part for him, I hunted down both games and basically tried to 100% them as much as possible. Some collectible cards really did not want to show up though...

I remember the game having a ton of sidequests that would get you equipment and new spells to learn! It was pretty great. Not to forget the above mentioned book only parts that made it into the book, those were neat.
Actually, the worst part is that since this was super accurate to the stories, after a certain part in Chamber of Secrets Ron's spells would have a chance to backfire and hit him every single time. It was pretty annoying to try and cast an evasion buff and it somehow ended up doing damage to him.

 

[Cody_D165]

I keep hearing about this game but not sure i can be arsed in this day and age to get my eyes used to a GBC game again hmmm, is there an HP game in the same vein on the GBA by chance that is AS good as this one?

closest thing is Prisoner of Azkaban but it's still slightly inferior to the GBC games imo

 

[jack_package_200]

My first encounter with this game was seeing my friend get to the final boss and failing repeatedly. Turns out he's not much of an RPG player, and he never equipped a single item! After finishing that part for him, I hunted down both games and basically tried to 100% them as much as possible. Some collectible cards really did not want to show up though...

I remember the game having a ton of sidequests that would get you equipment and new spells to learn! It was pretty great. Not to forget the above mentioned book only parts that made it into the book, those were neat.
Actually, the worst part is that since this was super accurate to the stories, after a certain part in Chamber of Secrets Ron's spells would have a chance to backfire and hit him every single time. It was pretty annoying to try and cast an evasion buff and it somehow ended up doing damage to him.

The desire to follow the book accurately made this game pretty special