We don't know about you, but back in the '90s, we recall a lot of playground arguments breaking out whenever Japanese consoles and western home computers were mentioned. While the likes of the Spectrum, C64, Atari ST and Commodore Amiga had a massive market share at one point, they were losing ground to the new wave of Japanese gaming platforms, such as the Mega Drive and SNES.
While we're not going to debate which option is best, as both had their advantages, we do recall the topic of ports of leading arcade titles being brought up when these debates reached their apex. Simply put, computers like the Amiga tended to get shoddy conversions by third-party publishers like US Gold, while console owners got much better versions – often coded by the company behind the original coin-op release.
One such example is Final Fight; sure, the original SNES port was missing a lot of content – including the two-player mode and the character Guy – but at least it looked and felt right. The Amiga version, ported by US Gold, looked good in still screenshots, but it played like a dog and wasn't an accurate reflection of the arcade original.
Thankfully, after decades of waiting, Amiga fans are about to get a much-improved version of the 1989 classic. Homebrew coder Prototron is working on Final Fight Enhanced, an "almost complete re-write" of the entire game (thanks, Indie Retro News).
Here's what Prototron has to say:
"After an almost complete re-write of the entire game code, I thought it was time for a new demo. This features a 2-Player mode with Guy and Cody, plus some new music. There's a few bits and bobs still missing, and some of the larger baddie types are just there to stress test the sprite routine, but the features and correct enemy placements will be there in the final game."
This isn't the only port of Final Fight that's in development at the moment; the Mega Drive is getting Mega Final Fight, while the NES is soon to be treated with a fan-made Mighty Final Fight sequel.