On October 12th, the French video game company New Old Pixels announced via its website that it is currently developing three new ports of the classic arcade game Toki. One is for the Sega Mega Drive, also known as the Sega Genesis in North America, another for the SNK Neo Geo, and a third one for the Commodore Amiga AGA, or the Amiga Advanced Graphics Architecture. The licensing agreement New Old Pixels made with Microids, the current rightsholder for Toki, specifies that New Old Pixels is only permitted to release ports of Toki for “retro platforms” although it was not immediately clear how this phrase is defined between the two companies.
Microids itself released a remake of Toki for the Nintendo Switch in 2018, later porting this version to the Playstation 4, Xbox One, Windows, and Amazon Luna platforms. Toki was also ported to retro platforms back when they were still contemporaneous, including a Mega Drive version, Toki Going Ape Spit. It was not immediately clear how the New Old Pixels version of Toki will differ from the previous ones. New Old Pixels appears to be prioritizing faithfulness to the original arcade game. Though there is a preexisting Amiga port as well, it does not use the third-generation AGA, and the superior hardware of the SNK Neo Geo will also allow for a closer arcade experience relative to the 1991 ports.
Toki stars the title character, a large, slow-moving, fragile ape, using powerful fire shots from his mouth to move through a jungle environment, rescue a princess, and undo the magic spell cursing him to this unusual form. It was originally developed by the TAD Corporation in Japan. There is no word yet on when these new versions will receive a physical release, but New Old Pixels appears to be working fast. The original announcement proclaiming their deal with Microids was announced on October 1st.
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Original article by www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com
