Older examples should be on the left and newer on the right.
We've been using this simple convention of reading the forward passage of time from the left to the right for literally centuries and even millenniums in all kinds of media (books, comics, drawings, paintings, photos, film, TV, graphs/charts, literal timelines, etc). I just don't get how so many people posting comparisons between the old version and the new version these days are not aware of this, especially people working in any kind of supposed "professional" capacity.
Does no one these days do any basic learning of the fundamentals of their crafts and jobs anymore, or even just adhere to basic eons-old standard practices and principles?
One of my absolute pet peeves.
It would be like if people started drawing comics with the first panel at the bottom of the page and just expected it to be intuitive for people to read it from bottom to top. Or, if we started to use red traffic lights to indicate when to go. Or, if we suddenly started using terms like "Xmm thin" rather than "Xmm thick"--screw you, Apple!
Anyway, all the scenes and such in this new version of the game look great. But I just don't like the cg characters. I really wish they'd have just used some tool to upscale the original live action or something if they weren't able to improve upon the original in that area.
If they put it in VR, I think they should use volumetric captures of actual people, like the ones in the recent The 7th Guest VR or that VR museum experience where they have a volumetric version of David Attenborough talk to you as if he were right there in front of you, as that would be a much better way to go there imo.
It's probably hard for some people to process that when they first showed the game, it looked so good to most people's eyes that it just seemed far beyond what most people at that time thought was even possible on a 16-bit console. It wasn't just another example of a typical 16-bit game with a couple more explosions or a neat graphical effect that was actually present in plenty games of the time already. No one had seen full-on pre-rendered visuals like this running on a 16-bit console at this level of all-round almost Pixar-esque quality, including top class animation and such too. That was the stuff of Silicon Graphics workstations as far as people knew. And when they saw it on the screen at CES, I can very easily believe it initially made them think they were seeing footage of Nintendo's next cutting edge 64-bit console. When gamers found out it was the SNES doing this, it totally blew their many of their minds, and sales of the system surged as a result. In fact, in the Americas, I think that was the year Nintendo pulled ahead of the competition again. It was a huge deal that Nintendo got a game of this all round stunning quality when it did.
With the current rewriting of the narrative around the 16-bit-gen consoles in particular that I've noticed online these days, I worry this tale might not tell the story quite true to how it was in the day in those chapters, and maybe slightly skew more to how some people would like it to be portrayed today. But we'll see if the journalists can stay professional, keep personal company/console allegiances out of the equation when reporting the facts, and not let the current distorted zeitgeist seep into something that's supposed to be a chronicle of how it actually was back then.
Because, the further we move away from the actual time when each of these systems came out, the more I see people in current times remembering things rather differently to how they actually were. And, in fact, the more I see some people actually trying to deceive others about the pure objective timeless facts of these system, particularly the set in stone technical details and capabilities, which it gets easier to lie about and manipulate people's understandings about as each new generation of gamers is less informed about these ancient consoles and these old games they are playing in modern times. As per the Internet, they just accept what others tell them, especially if it fits their own personal preferences and opinions, and roll with it and the new facts.
And I'd like to hope such a book can avoid that and just give a more honest and true to the times and circumstances account of things, with the facts clearly being the facts, personal opinions clearly being personal opinions, and no bias in the writing towards one system just because that's the one they personally think is better.
Anyway, I'm sure the book will still be of high quality either way.
Well, I wish them the best and hope it gets funded, purely because all new SNES games are welcome. It doesn't look like anything special, one more mascot platformer for the system, but it doesn't look bad either.
But, if they could actually update the game to look a bit closer to the PS1 version, even simple stuff like making the HUD look nicer and update the main character to look like his PlayStation counterpart, etc, I think these kinds of things would go a long way to increasing its appeal and encourage more people to support the project.
There's a bunch of premade assets in the PS1 version that could likely just just be copy and pasted across and used to really noticeably update and enhance the SNES game before release.
The PS1's "Chill Out! loading screen character image could be used to spruce up the title screen on the SNES version:
I bet most of the far nicer looking PS1 tiles could be just ripped right out and use to replace of the kinda fugly ones in the SNES version.
Etc.
They're ain't that much going on there in the PS1 version that would be impossible on SNES with a bit of rejigging here and there and taking proper advantage of all the system's capabilities. And with both games already existing and all the assets already made and such, it's a least a far easier job to do some updating and polishing like that than it would be to make a brand new full game scratch. They're already in the same 256x224 resolution for a start.
Now, I doubt any of that will happen at all, but that's my two cents.
Saw this previously and it's coming along very nicely.
But the Amiga really is a weird beast: Sometimes it looks like it's so much more powerful than the 16-bit consoles of the time, and sometimes it looks like it can barely even keep up with them. I'm really torn on how I feel about it as a system. I guess it's a machine that's really good at some things, but just wasn't made for others. Which I suppose is true of all these classic systems.
Anyway, we now have great evidence of what over three decades of additional wisdom and learning about the hardware plus greatly improved modern development tools and such can achieve with current versions of Final Fight on both Amiga and Genesis at this point, which is a pretty sizeable jump in both cases.
That being the case, it's beyond clear the same level of improvement would be possible on the SNES version too in modern times--there's already plenty of evidence with both the sequels and various ROM hacks, including the recent Final Fight 3 optimization by MaxwelSeven*--should anyone try to do a modern peak-quality version of the original Final Fight on SNES too.
That would be cool. But, what's the best if it is a new game in the series that they mess up the art style with either some overly rendered look or some high-res Flash style or some junk like that.
Axelay, Parodius Da!, U.N. Squadron, R-Type III and Super Aleste are absolute banger shmups on SNES. Parodius Da! and U.N. Squadron are actually my personal favourite shmups of that generation, with Super Aleste right up there too. Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie is also well worth a go too. Oh, and Star Fox is frikin' brilliant as well, probably even a top 3 shump for me, maybe between that and Super Aleste.
@Hexapus Yeah, what those remakes and updates and ports and so on show is that you can always do even more on these consoles with enough time, talent, and effort.
I have literally zero doubt almost every game on both Genesis and SNES could be made even better in modern times if both pushed to the max and polished to the max. Maybe not the best Treasure games, as I think they really are about as good as you could squeeze out of the Genesis and use pretty much every trick it's capable of to be honest, but almost every other game for either system.
And I'd love to see some of them, especially on SNES, as right now that system ain't getting anywhere near its fair share of indie/homebrew/hacker love (outside of a LOT of SMW ROM hacks mostly).
@KingMike The official 16-bit versions were terrible though, unfortunately. So I'd rather take a direct port of the NES game and just have some talented SNES artist update to 16-bit colours (and they can add an MSU! audio option too if that exists). Job done.
Next, I really wanna see Batman: Revenge of the Joker get ported across to SNES. And then some SNES ROM hacker can add 16-bit colour for the ultimate version of the game.
@sdelfin The palette would definitely be an issue if you want it to actually look the same as the original. It could get a decent approximation to the casual observer though, just obviously with less colours, likely more dithering, and a slightly more contrasting and garish look due to the greatly reduced colour gamut.
But, get Pyron on it and I'm sure he'll do the best possible job.
Like I said though, if the goal is just to get a decent enough representation of a game from one system on the other, it's possible to do that with basically every console of that generation to varying degrees.
Even the humble PC Engine could do most of what you see in the typical Genesis and SNES game, if you are cool with less background layers and overlapping parallax in 99% of cases, no proper transparency effects, probably the most basic impersonation of any Mode 7 stuff, potentially increased sprite flicker, etc.
I think it would be a very interesting experience to port the main Castlevania game from each system to the others, making sure to actually do the best possible job and even push each port to get the most out of its new home in some of the ways that make sense and are pretty standard for that respective console, and see what results we'd get.
@bryce951 There's certainly some things in X that couldn't be done on Genesis, such as the lovely semi-transparent fire in the very first level that also uses three proper fully-overlapping background layers for example, at least not without some pretty big visual/aesthetic compromises there. I expect most of the game would be pretty standard to port across though.
But Yoshi's Island did use the FX2 chip on SNES, so I guess it would be fair of Genesis to use the SVP chip in that case if a port were ever to be attempted. I'm sure it could do a basic version of the game even without the SVP chip, but then quite a lot of the cool rotation and scaling sprite effects and such would definitely be compromised in that case. And there's still some cool transparency effects in that game that just wouldn't look anywhere near as good on Genesis, and some levels with three proper overlapping background layers, smooth backdrop colour gradients, use of the windows, and so on.
This is one of these things like I said above, where it's possible to port almost any game from one console to the other for the large part, if you're just going for the obvious core elements with maybe some compromises here and there to get an approximation of the original. So it doesn't really prove much as far as I'm concerned.
What would be far more interesting to me--if we're going down the whole port to prove a point route--would be to see whatever game ported across and then stuff added to it that actually wasn't/isn't even possible on the other system. I think then people would start to understand what makes each console unique and special.
If that's the aim, I would love to see some Genesis games ported to SNES like that for sure.
I can, for example, imagine Bloodlines getting ported across, and then someone going in and improving the colours throughout so it looks just orders of magnitude prettier, adding in proper transparency effects like on that level with the water reflecting the scenery and when it rises up through the level too, adding in more overlapping background layers and added parallax to every level, making the HUD properly overlaid rather than in an opaque bar, adding in Dolby Surround sound to every tune and sound fx, taking full advantage of the SNES' controller for some really cool mapping there, and so on.
Now that's something that would actually capture my imagination and impress me personally. Although, I imagine it would upset a whole lot of people if it ever did happen, because then it would be real and undeniable.
@Hexapus I agree regarding childish name calling and console wars stuff, which there has been a lot of in recent times, especially initiated by one set of fans in particular in my experience. Although, calling someone a fanboy is about as tame as it gets and an actual dictionary term, so I'm not sure we should be banning its use or people who use it.
And to that point and to be completely fair, a port of this game to Genesis really only exists for one reason in my opinion. So, I guess certain reactions are just an expected response to these kinds of needless exercises trying to prove by demonstration some long-irrelevant system vs system argument. This is just what such motivations breed.
Imagine the reactions if, for example, someone started a port of Bloodlines to SNES right now, and maybe even added in more colours, proper transparency, additional background layers, Dolby Surround sound, improved SNES controller button mapping, a "move player faster [to the point of clunkiness]" option just because, etc. . . .
And, to be honest, I don't think he will see it through to the end, if the end is a complete port of the SNES game to Genesis with everything up to the same level of quality across the board as the original, with nothing missing and the only changes being things that literally had to be adapted to work on Genesis.
But, it's an interesting example showing you can basically port anything from one console onto the other, which is true of really any systems of that era when just quickly ripping assets and getting the core basics down while ignoring the finer details that are more specific to each system.
Very realistically, you could even port basically any Neo Geo fighter to PC Engine for example, if you don't mind losing some background layers and additional particle effects and seeing some sprite flicker and so on.
@MysticWangForce Yeah, for me, PlayStation Doom is still my favourite version of the game. The Aubrey Hodges soundscape just makes it something different from the PC and other versions, and it's more "Doom" than any other version imo. Also, even though mouse and keyboard is the way to go now, that PS1 control scheme really delivered. A great version of the game for its time, and one that still absolutely holds up today too.
Mean Machines was about as good as it got with gaming magazines imo.
I used to and wish I still had all the physical issues for nostalgia's sake, but at least I have digital versions of them all now. Dunno about Issuse Zero now that I think about though. . . .
PS. That Issue 15 with the awesome autostereogram Super Mario Bros. 3 cover and Issue Zero included is just special.
PPS. It's crazy how long it took before the SNES and its games properly started turning up, despite it being promoted since the first issue.
@gingerbeardman Seems like getting bought out really destroyed that project. At least, I know absolutely nothing about where it's at now. And it's been like a decade. That's just so disappointing and frustrating. It was looking genuinely great. I bet if it does eventually release, they'll have found some way to ruin it or something too.
"The other only title outside Sega IPs I'd love to work on would be a next-gen remake of WipEout 2097. Same music, same gameplay, just a bump in the graphics. Again, the Over Jump Rally formula in action."
Oh, my God, yes!
Just like the situation with Sega and it doing modern versions of its beloved IPs, I don't think anyone has truly captured that classic WipEout/WipEout 2097/WipEout 3 look and feel in any of the modern versions. They keep over designing the course details, especially how much markings and details are on the actual track part, to the point that all the new more "realistic" versions actually look less realistic and more artificial than ever imo. In racing, especially if you're going at hundreds of miles per hour, it's sooo important to be able to visually read the track at a glance. The newer games completely screw that aspect up, with all these weird random textures and holes and reflections and transparencies and colours and whatever on the track surfaces.
If you can make a modern 2097 on par with your Over Jump Rally game, I'd be all over that.
It kinda says something though, when one dude can do a better job on a new "Sega Rally" game than the whole of Sega.
And, honestly, I'd apply that thinking so almost every new version of a classic Sega IP in recent times. With Sonic Mania being easily better than anything Sega has churned out in that franchise is decades imo.
Here's a genuine question: Will she put on any makeup at any point in the game?
Woman often actually do that, especially if they're trying to use their feminine ways and sexuality to appeal to, distract, and manipulate men in the kinds of situations that I fully expect an agent type character like Joanna Dark to find herself in at times. Even if they're just attending posh dos or going out for a nice meal and stuff, they do indeed tend to put on some makeup and get all dressed up to look their best. It's really perfectly normal stuff that literally multibillion dollar industries are based on.
Because, no offense, but this person ain't gonna be distracting anyone.
I guess she will be totally cool for blending into a crowd without anyone giving her a second look though, or infiltrating a modern university and fitting right in with the average person there.
But, just to double check, because I might have missed some development blog on this where they've specifically said they're trying to update the character for a modern audience: She is still being portrayed as a hetronormative hetrosexual biological women who uses she/her pronouns and is totally cool with using her female sexuality to get her way in certain situations in the field as just one of her non-violent methods of infiltration and so on, yes?
I mean, it wasn't made explicit in the original game that this was what she was doing as I recall, but her look, outfits, demeanour and so on certainly gave an impression of the type of character she was, which is one who knows exactly what she's doing and is fully aware of how to use every tool in her box to get her way. And, much like classic James Bond's unapologetic masculinity and oozing of sexual charm and such, which he used to great effect on multiple occasions, she certainly didn't seem afraid to dress up and play the part in the first Perfect Dark game.
Not a fan. She has a bit too much of a masculine shape to her face that doesn't work for me. I think it's maybe in her jaw and chin or something.
I'm not sure why so many modern artists don't seem to understand what makes a classically beautiful and more universally aesthetically appealing female face and form and such. Or, if they do, they're certainly not creating that as often these days imo.
If she looked more like say Gillian Anderson from the first few seasons of the X-Files, I think that look would work perfectly for this character:
The game is brilliant, and probably in my top 3 racers of all time personally, but I'm not sure I'll be able to sit through a 4 hour documentary on it. I'll give it a start and see.
Question. Can I play the games full screen with no visible window or buttons or logos anything like that, just the full screen [and obviously black borders to the sides since the games aren't in the same aspect ratio as modern TVs, but I definitely want to keep the correct aspect ratio and not stretch them]?
So, while the GB Operator is cool, I think the SN Operator one will be even better and makes more sense for me personally too.
Obviously, GB/GBC/GBA games were really meant to be portable. And, as cool as it is to see them on a big screen, it's obvious they really weren't made for that, so it doesn't feel quite like the right place for them for me. The SN Operator is kinda ideal for me though, since I currently use my PC as the main device connected directly to my TV for basically everything anyway. So, if I plugged in the SN Operator then I would be playing real SNES games via a tiny and very slick-looking device directly on my 50" 4K TV while sitting back and chilling on my sofa.
I already have a hacked SNES Mini [with extension cords for the controllers] that does what I need brilliantly digitally anyway, but using the SN Operator seems like a really cool way of being able to do the same thing with physical cartridges and without having to buy some big clunky clone box or an old yellowed original SNES console that's probably nearing it retirement, which just makes it a little more magical. And the idea of seeing the carts there in that little stand like some kind of SNES statues to admire really makes me smile.
Right now I have a single physical SNES game in my house, which is a brand new but opened French copy of F-Zero--it's one of the ones that was recently discovered had been sitting in some warehouse in storage for decades--and I kinda love the idea of buying the SN Operator as a little display stand for it that also lets me actually play it too, since I don't have a real SNES or any clones systems either.
Might get the wife to buy me this as a birthday present or something.
@Hexapus It's all fine, so long as we have the choice to play them with one or the other in these ports. I'm totally cool with that way of doing things.
Another great NES port to SNES to add to the growing list.
I'm actually also looking forward to some future time when modders will come in and add full SNES colour to these amazing ports too, now that they're in a perfect position do so.
@PKDuckman Now that these NES game are converted to run directly on SNES, that's exactly what any rom hacker could do. It just takes someone going in and adding the extra colours as they please. Basically, they're now ready to be "All-Star-ified". Someone will probably do it at some point (both the extra colours and quick weapon switching), but it has to start somewhere, and infidelity is doing all the hard groundwork there. I give him major kudos for that.
@MARl0 Yeah, that's not a great first impression when playing any new [or old] SNES game.
Definitely agree that attack/action should be Y and jump B, just like on all the very best SNES games of this type.
I presume this will be getting fixed in a newer build, but it's not a great sign that they'll truly be getting the most out of the SNES to be honest if they don't even understand those basic things out the gate.
Hopefully the final result is at least a solid port of the Genesis game [with some cropping] if nothing more. I guess for now that's about the best we should expect. And that's quite disappointing really. But hopefully the situation will improve over time on SNES.
Either way, I'm happy SNES is at least getting another proper new commercial indie/homebrew game. That I will always welcome.
Happy to see and hear the SNES version is still coming along.
Edit: I just tried the SNES demo and there's some ways to go:
It's just a couple of levels, there's no more colours than on Genesis, there's no use of transparency anywhere, the third background layer hasn't been used for anything at all, you can tell that some elements have been quickly adjusted to fit the smaller horizontal resolution on SNES and haven't been entirely optimized to look as good as they can in the smaller screen space, the controls aren't mapped correctly, and so on.
They've mentioned there's a newer build, and I think there's probably still quite a bit of development time left on the SNES build, so I'd definitely like to seem them use that time to really polish things up and ideally add a few extra details and flourishes to make that version feel properly at home on SNES.
I think I'd rather go with an original SP with an updated screen to be honest. I like that it can flip down to protect the screen and also ends up being a smaller form factor that's truly portable.
I definitely want to see Nintendo stores like this in the UK. One in every major city would be ideal. Put one right next to the Apple store in Edinburgh.
I'm not entirely sold on the design (mainly the fatter bottom part), and I wasn't even that interested in this system in general (all these clones systems and so on aren't usually my thing)--until I watched the video and saw it was Palmer Lucky who's making this (and that's a good thing).
Comments 831
Re: Interview: "I Was Not Sure We Were Going To Pull It Off" - Cyan's Rand Miller On Remaking Riven From The Ground Up
Older examples should be on the left and newer on the right.
We've been using this simple convention of reading the forward passage of time from the left to the right for literally centuries and even millenniums in all kinds of media (books, comics, drawings, paintings, photos, film, TV, graphs/charts, literal timelines, etc). I just don't get how so many people posting comparisons between the old version and the new version these days are not aware of this, especially people working in any kind of supposed "professional" capacity.
Does no one these days do any basic learning of the fundamentals of their crafts and jobs anymore, or even just adhere to basic eons-old standard practices and principles?
One of my absolute pet peeves.
It would be like if people started drawing comics with the first panel at the bottom of the page and just expected it to be intuitive for people to read it from bottom to top. Or, if we started to use red traffic lights to indicate when to go. Or, if we suddenly started using terms like "Xmm thin" rather than "Xmm thick"--screw you, Apple!
Anyway, all the scenes and such in this new version of the game look great. But I just don't like the cg characters. I really wish they'd have just used some tool to upscale the original live action or something if they weren't able to improve upon the original in that area.
If they put it in VR, I think they should use volumetric captures of actual people, like the ones in the recent The 7th Guest VR or that VR museum experience where they have a volumetric version of David Attenborough talk to you as if he were right there in front of you, as that would be a much better way to go there imo.
Re: Rare Artist Shows Donkey Kong Country Concept Art 30 Years After It Stunned The World
It's probably hard for some people to process that when they first showed the game, it looked so good to most people's eyes that it just seemed far beyond what most people at that time thought was even possible on a 16-bit console. It wasn't just another example of a typical 16-bit game with a couple more explosions or a neat graphical effect that was actually present in plenty games of the time already. No one had seen full-on pre-rendered visuals like this running on a 16-bit console at this level of all-round almost Pixar-esque quality, including top class animation and such too. That was the stuff of Silicon Graphics workstations as far as people knew. And when they saw it on the screen at CES, I can very easily believe it initially made them think they were seeing footage of Nintendo's next cutting edge 64-bit console. When gamers found out it was the SNES doing this, it totally blew their many of their minds, and sales of the system surged as a result. In fact, in the Americas, I think that was the year Nintendo pulled ahead of the competition again. It was a huge deal that Nintendo got a game of this all round stunning quality when it did.
Re: This Rare Promo VHS For Nintendo's Satellaview Has Been Lovingly Restored
Not too shabby. It still wouldn't have convinced me to get the thing if it were available here back in the day, but interesting to see this.
Re: The Console Chronicles Heads To Retail This September, A Little Later Than Planned
Should hopefully be a good read.
With the current rewriting of the narrative around the 16-bit-gen consoles in particular that I've noticed online these days, I worry this tale might not tell the story quite true to how it was in the day in those chapters, and maybe slightly skew more to how some people would like it to be portrayed today. But we'll see if the journalists can stay professional, keep personal company/console allegiances out of the equation when reporting the facts, and not let the current distorted zeitgeist seep into something that's supposed to be a chronicle of how it actually was back then.
Because, the further we move away from the actual time when each of these systems came out, the more I see people in current times remembering things rather differently to how they actually were. And, in fact, the more I see some people actually trying to deceive others about the pure objective timeless facts of these system, particularly the set in stone technical details and capabilities, which it gets easier to lie about and manipulate people's understandings about as each new generation of gamers is less informed about these ancient consoles and these old games they are playing in modern times. As per the Internet, they just accept what others tell them, especially if it fits their own personal preferences and opinions, and roll with it and the new facts.
And I'd like to hope such a book can avoid that and just give a more honest and true to the times and circumstances account of things, with the facts clearly being the facts, personal opinions clearly being personal opinions, and no bias in the writing towards one system just because that's the one they personally think is better.
Anyway, I'm sure the book will still be of high quality either way.
Re: Cancelled SNES Game 'Cooly Skunk' Could Finally Be Getting A Cartridge Release
Well, I wish them the best and hope it gets funded, purely because all new SNES games are welcome. It doesn't look like anything special, one more mascot platformer for the system, but it doesn't look bad either.
But, if they could actually update the game to look a bit closer to the PS1 version, even simple stuff like making the HUD look nicer and update the main character to look like his PlayStation counterpart, etc, I think these kinds of things would go a long way to increasing its appeal and encourage more people to support the project.
There's a bunch of premade assets in the PS1 version that could likely just just be copy and pasted across and used to really noticeably update and enhance the SNES game before release.
The PS1's "Chill Out! loading screen character image could be used to spruce up the title screen on the SNES version:
https://youtu.be/UzyXkEAjLh8?si=CkGAvl7wi3nIyOIX&t=2888
And the screen below could be used on the Stage Clear screens on the SNES version:
https://youtu.be/UzyXkEAjLh8?si=n4xhC4tjiq4IwMze&t=2845
And compare the background layer tiles in this level from each version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICckn4X_AwU&t=48s (SNES)
https://youtu.be/UzyXkEAjLh8?si=WygFbiptBhjp7xvj&t=2896 (PS1)
I bet most of the far nicer looking PS1 tiles could be just ripped right out and use to replace of the kinda fugly ones in the SNES version.
Etc.
They're ain't that much going on there in the PS1 version that would be impossible on SNES with a bit of rejigging here and there and taking proper advantage of all the system's capabilities. And with both games already existing and all the assets already made and such, it's a least a far easier job to do some updating and polishing like that than it would be to make a brand new full game scratch. They're already in the same 256x224 resolution for a start.
Now, I doubt any of that will happen at all, but that's my two cents.
Re: You Can Now Play 3DS Games Natively Via A Virtual Reality Headset
@Peteykins Why should it look awful?
Re: You Can Now Play 3DS Games Natively Via A Virtual Reality Headset
That's very cool.
Re: Unearthed Footage Shows Early '90s Office Of Star Fox Developer Argonaut
It shows that not a lot has changed other than our monitors are now flat.
Re: "Don't Kill Your Enemies, Purify Them" - The Inside Story Of Michael Jackson And Sega's Moonwalker Coin-Op
Always thought this was a very cool arcade game, with just loads of style and charm.
Re: Super Final Fight Promises A "More Authentic Arcade Experience" For Amiga Fans
Saw this previously and it's coming along very nicely.
But the Amiga really is a weird beast: Sometimes it looks like it's so much more powerful than the 16-bit consoles of the time, and sometimes it looks like it can barely even keep up with them. I'm really torn on how I feel about it as a system. I guess it's a machine that's really good at some things, but just wasn't made for others. Which I suppose is true of all these classic systems.
Anyway, we now have great evidence of what over three decades of additional wisdom and learning about the hardware plus greatly improved modern development tools and such can achieve with current versions of Final Fight on both Amiga and Genesis at this point, which is a pretty sizeable jump in both cases.
That being the case, it's beyond clear the same level of improvement would be possible on the SNES version too in modern times--there's already plenty of evidence with both the sequels and various ROM hacks, including the recent Final Fight 3 optimization by MaxwelSeven*--should anyone try to do a modern peak-quality version of the original Final Fight on SNES too.
*https://youtu.be/C13XLqxQQ5E?si=ZUAk_yh2ugLc5nbr
Re: We Could Be Getting A New Parodius After 17 Years MIA
That would be cool. But, what's the best if it is a new game in the series that they mess up the art style with either some overly rendered look or some high-res Flash style or some junk like that.
Re: Konami Renews Trademark For Axelay, One Of The Best SNES Shmups
Axelay, Parodius Da!, U.N. Squadron, R-Type III and Super Aleste are absolute banger shmups on SNES. Parodius Da! and U.N. Squadron are actually my personal favourite shmups of that generation, with Super Aleste right up there too. Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie is also well worth a go too. Oh, and Star Fox is frikin' brilliant as well, probably even a top 3 shump for me, maybe between that and Super Aleste.
Re: Here's Super Castlevania IV On The Sega Genesis / Mega Drive
@Hexapus Yeah, what those remakes and updates and ports and so on show is that you can always do even more on these consoles with enough time, talent, and effort.
I have literally zero doubt almost every game on both Genesis and SNES could be made even better in modern times if both pushed to the max and polished to the max. Maybe not the best Treasure games, as I think they really are about as good as you could squeeze out of the Genesis and use pretty much every trick it's capable of to be honest, but almost every other game for either system.
And I'd love to see some of them, especially on SNES, as right now that system ain't getting anywhere near its fair share of indie/homebrew/hacker love (outside of a LOT of SMW ROM hacks mostly).
Re: Zelda II Has Been Ported To The SNES
@KingMike The official 16-bit versions were terrible though, unfortunately. So I'd rather take a direct port of the NES game and just have some talented SNES artist update to 16-bit colours (and they can add an MSU! audio option too if that exists). Job done.
Re: Zelda II Has Been Ported To The SNES
Next, I really wanna see Batman: Revenge of the Joker get ported across to SNES. And then some SNES ROM hacker can add 16-bit colour for the ultimate version of the game.
Re: Zelda II Has Been Ported To The SNES
Keep them coming.
Re: Here's Super Castlevania IV On The Sega Genesis / Mega Drive
@sdelfin The palette would definitely be an issue if you want it to actually look the same as the original. It could get a decent approximation to the casual observer though, just obviously with less colours, likely more dithering, and a slightly more contrasting and garish look due to the greatly reduced colour gamut.
But, get Pyron on it and I'm sure he'll do the best possible job.
Like I said though, if the goal is just to get a decent enough representation of a game from one system on the other, it's possible to do that with basically every console of that generation to varying degrees.
Even the humble PC Engine could do most of what you see in the typical Genesis and SNES game, if you are cool with less background layers and overlapping parallax in 99% of cases, no proper transparency effects, probably the most basic impersonation of any Mode 7 stuff, potentially increased sprite flicker, etc.
I think it would be a very interesting experience to port the main Castlevania game from each system to the others, making sure to actually do the best possible job and even push each port to get the most out of its new home in some of the ways that make sense and are pretty standard for that respective console, and see what results we'd get.
Re: Here's Super Castlevania IV On The Sega Genesis / Mega Drive
@bryce951 There's certainly some things in X that couldn't be done on Genesis, such as the lovely semi-transparent fire in the very first level that also uses three proper fully-overlapping background layers for example, at least not without some pretty big visual/aesthetic compromises there. I expect most of the game would be pretty standard to port across though.
But Yoshi's Island did use the FX2 chip on SNES, so I guess it would be fair of Genesis to use the SVP chip in that case if a port were ever to be attempted. I'm sure it could do a basic version of the game even without the SVP chip, but then quite a lot of the cool rotation and scaling sprite effects and such would definitely be compromised in that case. And there's still some cool transparency effects in that game that just wouldn't look anywhere near as good on Genesis, and some levels with three proper overlapping background layers, smooth backdrop colour gradients, use of the windows, and so on.
This is one of these things like I said above, where it's possible to port almost any game from one console to the other for the large part, if you're just going for the obvious core elements with maybe some compromises here and there to get an approximation of the original. So it doesn't really prove much as far as I'm concerned.
What would be far more interesting to me--if we're going down the whole port to prove a point route--would be to see whatever game ported across and then stuff added to it that actually wasn't/isn't even possible on the other system. I think then people would start to understand what makes each console unique and special.
If that's the aim, I would love to see some Genesis games ported to SNES like that for sure.
I can, for example, imagine Bloodlines getting ported across, and then someone going in and improving the colours throughout so it looks just orders of magnitude prettier, adding in proper transparency effects like on that level with the water reflecting the scenery and when it rises up through the level too, adding in more overlapping background layers and added parallax to every level, making the HUD properly overlaid rather than in an opaque bar, adding in Dolby Surround sound to every tune and sound fx, taking full advantage of the SNES' controller for some really cool mapping there, and so on.
Now that's something that would actually capture my imagination and impress me personally. Although, I imagine it would upset a whole lot of people if it ever did happen, because then it would be real and undeniable.
Re: Here's Super Castlevania IV On The Sega Genesis / Mega Drive
@Hexapus I agree regarding childish name calling and console wars stuff, which there has been a lot of in recent times, especially initiated by one set of fans in particular in my experience. Although, calling someone a fanboy is about as tame as it gets and an actual dictionary term, so I'm not sure we should be banning its use or people who use it.
And to that point and to be completely fair, a port of this game to Genesis really only exists for one reason in my opinion. So, I guess certain reactions are just an expected response to these kinds of needless exercises trying to prove by demonstration some long-irrelevant system vs system argument. This is just what such motivations breed.
Imagine the reactions if, for example, someone started a port of Bloodlines to SNES right now, and maybe even added in more colours, proper transparency, additional background layers, Dolby Surround sound, improved SNES controller button mapping, a "move player faster [to the point of clunkiness]" option just because, etc. . . .
And, to be honest, I don't think he will see it through to the end, if the end is a complete port of the SNES game to Genesis with everything up to the same level of quality across the board as the original, with nothing missing and the only changes being things that literally had to be adapted to work on Genesis.
But, it's an interesting example showing you can basically port anything from one console onto the other, which is true of really any systems of that era when just quickly ripping assets and getting the core basics down while ignoring the finer details that are more specific to each system.
Very realistically, you could even port basically any Neo Geo fighter to PC Engine for example, if you don't mind losing some background layers and additional particle effects and seeing some sprite flicker and so on.
Re: Here's Super Castlevania IV On The Sega Genesis / Mega Drive
Well, you know what they say: [rough] imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Re: Doom II Comes To The SNES, Thanks To Fans
@MysticWangForce Yeah, for me, PlayStation Doom is still my favourite version of the game. The Aubrey Hodges soundscape just makes it something different from the PC and other versions, and it's more "Doom" than any other version imo. Also, even though mouse and keyboard is the way to go now, that PS1 control scheme really delivered. A great version of the game for its time, and one that still absolutely holds up today too.
Re: Doom II Comes To The SNES, Thanks To Fans
Well, it's a nice start.
Will be interesting to see how far they can take this, and also just to see if they're able to optimize and improve the base game furhter too.
I think the SNES def has more to give here.
Re: Iconic Issues: Mean Machines Issue Zero
Mean Machines was about as good as it got with gaming magazines imo.
I used to and wish I still had all the physical issues for nostalgia's sake, but at least I have digital versions of them all now. Dunno about Issuse Zero now that I think about though. . . .
PS. That Issue 15 with the awesome autostereogram Super Mario Bros. 3 cover and Issue Zero included is just special.
PPS. It's crazy how long it took before the SNES and its games properly started turning up, despite it being promoted since the first issue.
Re: Meet The Solo Dev Whose Sega Rally Tribute Could Become An Official Sequel
@gingerbeardman Seems like getting bought out really destroyed that project. At least, I know absolutely nothing about where it's at now. And it's been like a decade. That's just so disappointing and frustrating. It was looking genuinely great. I bet if it does eventually release, they'll have found some way to ruin it or something too.
Re: Meet The Solo Dev Whose Sega Rally Tribute Could Become An Official Sequel
"The other only title outside Sega IPs I'd love to work on would be a next-gen remake of WipEout 2097. Same music, same gameplay, just a bump in the graphics. Again, the Over Jump Rally formula in action."
Oh, my God, yes!
Just like the situation with Sega and it doing modern versions of its beloved IPs, I don't think anyone has truly captured that classic WipEout/WipEout 2097/WipEout 3 look and feel in any of the modern versions. They keep over designing the course details, especially how much markings and details are on the actual track part, to the point that all the new more "realistic" versions actually look less realistic and more artificial than ever imo. In racing, especially if you're going at hundreds of miles per hour, it's sooo important to be able to visually read the track at a glance. The newer games completely screw that aspect up, with all these weird random textures and holes and reflections and transparencies and colours and whatever on the track surfaces.
If you can make a modern 2097 on par with your Over Jump Rally game, I'd be all over that.
And, again, VR support, please.
Re: Meet The Solo Dev Whose Sega Rally Tribute Could Become An Official Sequel
It kinda says something though, when one dude can do a better job on a new "Sega Rally" game than the whole of Sega.
And, honestly, I'd apply that thinking so almost every new version of a classic Sega IP in recent times. With Sonic Mania being easily better than anything Sega has churned out in that franchise is decades imo.
PS. VR support at some point, please.
Re: Poll: What Do You Think Of Jo's New Look In Perfect Dark?
Here's a genuine question: Will she put on any makeup at any point in the game?
Woman often actually do that, especially if they're trying to use their feminine ways and sexuality to appeal to, distract, and manipulate men in the kinds of situations that I fully expect an agent type character like Joanna Dark to find herself in at times. Even if they're just attending posh dos or going out for a nice meal and stuff, they do indeed tend to put on some makeup and get all dressed up to look their best. It's really perfectly normal stuff that literally multibillion dollar industries are based on.
Because, no offense, but this person ain't gonna be distracting anyone.
I guess she will be totally cool for blending into a crowd without anyone giving her a second look though, or infiltrating a modern university and fitting right in with the average person there.
But, just to double check, because I might have missed some development blog on this where they've specifically said they're trying to update the character for a modern audience: She is still being portrayed as a hetronormative hetrosexual biological women who uses she/her pronouns and is totally cool with using her female sexuality to get her way in certain situations in the field as just one of her non-violent methods of infiltration and so on, yes?
I mean, it wasn't made explicit in the original game that this was what she was doing as I recall, but her look, outfits, demeanour and so on certainly gave an impression of the type of character she was, which is one who knows exactly what she's doing and is fully aware of how to use every tool in her box to get her way. And, much like classic James Bond's unapologetic masculinity and oozing of sexual charm and such, which he used to great effect on multiple occasions, she certainly didn't seem afraid to dress up and play the part in the first Perfect Dark game.
https://youtu.be/qnfiilL_Clk?si=HdQl7aRaoD_qQjrV&t=1046
https://youtu.be/qnfiilL_Clk?si=dRRIebm3CA9JwUae&t=1477
Note: I just realised that this version of Joanna Dark I linked has a very [young] Victoria Beckham look about her.
So, yeah, I genuinely want to know if this Joanna Dark is going to, dare I say it, sex it up at any point in the game.
Re: Anniversary: The Super Game Boy Is 30 Years Old
This free online tool that lets you rather easily add your own created borders to Super Game Boy games is rather awesome:
https://x.com/marc_robledo/status/1756017924286845403
Make it even more fun replaying these games in modern times.
Here are a couple of example images people have created with it:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJs6GpeXEAAIacp?format=png&name=small
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKfaaR8XIAAxlq0?format=png&name=medium
Re: Random: Who Designed Konami's Famous "Bacon Strips" Logo?
I prefer the old design.
Re: Poll: What Do You Think Of Jo's New Look In Perfect Dark?
Not a fan. She has a bit too much of a masculine shape to her face that doesn't work for me. I think it's maybe in her jaw and chin or something.
I'm not sure why so many modern artists don't seem to understand what makes a classically beautiful and more universally aesthetically appealing female face and form and such. Or, if they do, they're certainly not creating that as often these days imo.
If she looked more like say Gillian Anderson from the first few seasons of the X-Files, I think that look would work perfectly for this character:
https://c.tenor.com/vETcjT5HmSgAAAAd/tenor.gif
But I think this new design would fit much better into a game like The Last of Us 3 or something.
Re: First Marvel Super Heroes, Now Samurai Shodown's Earthquake Lands On Sega Genesis
Of course, @AJB83, when it looks just a little too good to be 100% entirely true:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yvjGcdmhZc&lc=UgxEhGyd5YhNkq-g0zV4AaABAg (look at the comment this links to, which should be at the top)
Still, if we ignore the inevitable sprite flicker that's accidently been hidden here, it's basically showing exactly what's possible on Genesis.
Either way, these Earthquake demos on both Genesis and SNES are very impressive.
Re: New Four-Hour Documentary Delves Deep Into The Creation Of Sega Rally Championship
The game is brilliant, and probably in my top 3 racers of all time personally, but I'm not sure I'll be able to sit through a 4 hour documentary on it. I'll give it a start and see.
Re: Review: Epilogue GB Operator - A Handy Tool For Game Boy Collectors
Question. Can I play the games full screen with no visible window or buttons or logos anything like that, just the full screen [and obviously black borders to the sides since the games aren't in the same aspect ratio as modern TVs, but I definitely want to keep the correct aspect ratio and not stretch them]?
Re: Review: Epilogue GB Operator - A Handy Tool For Game Boy Collectors
So, while the GB Operator is cool, I think the SN Operator one will be even better and makes more sense for me personally too.
Obviously, GB/GBC/GBA games were really meant to be portable. And, as cool as it is to see them on a big screen, it's obvious they really weren't made for that, so it doesn't feel quite like the right place for them for me. The SN Operator is kinda ideal for me though, since I currently use my PC as the main device connected directly to my TV for basically everything anyway. So, if I plugged in the SN Operator then I would be playing real SNES games via a tiny and very slick-looking device directly on my 50" 4K TV while sitting back and chilling on my sofa.
I already have a hacked SNES Mini [with extension cords for the controllers] that does what I need brilliantly digitally anyway, but using the SN Operator seems like a really cool way of being able to do the same thing with physical cartridges and without having to buy some big clunky clone box or an old yellowed original SNES console that's probably nearing it retirement, which just makes it a little more magical. And the idea of seeing the carts there in that little stand like some kind of SNES statues to admire really makes me smile.
Right now I have a single physical SNES game in my house, which is a brand new but opened French copy of F-Zero--it's one of the ones that was recently discovered had been sitting in some warehouse in storage for decades--and I kinda love the idea of buying the SN Operator as a little display stand for it that also lets me actually play it too, since I don't have a real SNES or any clones systems either.
Might get the wife to buy me this as a birthday present or something.
I like it.
Re: Mega Man 3 Has Been Ported To The SNES, And You Can Play It Now
Here's some nice footage of the game in action with a few of the different options and stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKVyv2rJqtY
Re: Mega Man 3 Has Been Ported To The SNES, And You Can Play It Now
@Hexapus It's all fine, so long as we have the choice to play them with one or the other in these ports. I'm totally cool with that way of doing things.
Re: Fanmade Double Dragon SNES Port Adds New MSU-1 Intro & Audio
Another great NES port to SNES to add to the growing list.
I'm actually also looking forward to some future time when modders will come in and add full SNES colour to these amazing ports too, now that they're in a perfect position do so.
Great stuff. Keep up the good work.
Re: Mega Man 3 Has Been Ported To The SNES, And You Can Play It Now
@NinChocolate Totally agree with you on that one.
Re: Mega Man 3 Has Been Ported To The SNES, And You Can Play It Now
@PKDuckman Now that these NES game are converted to run directly on SNES, that's exactly what any rom hacker could do. It just takes someone going in and adding the extra colours as they please. Basically, they're now ready to be "All-Star-ified". Someone will probably do it at some point (both the extra colours and quick weapon switching), but it has to start somewhere, and infidelity is doing all the hard groundwork there. I give him major kudos for that.
Re: Mega Man 3 Has Been Ported To The SNES, And You Can Play It Now
Another welcome port for my favourite console.
Re: Action Epic 'Black Jewel Reborn' Is Coming To Classic Sega And Nintendo Consoles
@MARl0 Yeah, that's not a great first impression when playing any new [or old] SNES game.
Definitely agree that attack/action should be Y and jump B, just like on all the very best SNES games of this type.
I presume this will be getting fixed in a newer build, but it's not a great sign that they'll truly be getting the most out of the SNES to be honest if they don't even understand those basic things out the gate.
Hopefully the final result is at least a solid port of the Genesis game [with some cropping] if nothing more. I guess for now that's about the best we should expect. And that's quite disappointing really. But hopefully the situation will improve over time on SNES.
Either way, I'm happy SNES is at least getting another proper new commercial indie/homebrew game. That I will always welcome.
Re: Action Epic 'Black Jewel Reborn' Is Coming To Classic Sega And Nintendo Consoles
Happy to see and hear the SNES version is still coming along.
Edit: I just tried the SNES demo and there's some ways to go:
It's just a couple of levels, there's no more colours than on Genesis, there's no use of transparency anywhere, the third background layer hasn't been used for anything at all, you can tell that some elements have been quickly adjusted to fit the smaller horizontal resolution on SNES and haven't been entirely optimized to look as good as they can in the smaller screen space, the controls aren't mapped correctly, and so on.
They've mentioned there's a newer build, and I think there's probably still quite a bit of development time left on the SNES build, so I'd definitely like to seem them use that time to really polish things up and ideally add a few extra details and flourishes to make that version feel properly at home on SNES.
I wish them all the best in their endeavours.
Re: Modder Builds "The Ultimate Game Boy"
I think I'd rather go with an original SP with an updated screen to be honest. I like that it can flip down to protect the screen and also ends up being a smaller form factor that's truly portable.
Re: "A Ton Of Money" Has Been Spent On ModRetro's Chromatic Screen To Ensure Accuracy
@Nahhhtendo We can blame the journalist for that one.
Re: "A Ton Of Money" Has Been Spent On ModRetro's Chromatic Screen To Ensure Accuracy
Sounds like the display is going to look very nice in terms of replicating the original(s).
Re: One Of The Most Underrated SNES JRPGs Just Got A Fan-Made Upgrade
Well, this sounds like a very nice and welcome update.
Re: Retail Therapy: Nintendo Stores, Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto)
I definitely want to see Nintendo stores like this in the UK. One in every major city would be ideal. Put one right next to the Apple store in Edinburgh.
Re: Chromatic Is A FPGA-Based Game Boy From Palmer Luckey
I'm not entirely sold on the design (mainly the fatter bottom part), and I wasn't even that interested in this system in general (all these clones systems and so on aren't usually my thing)--until I watched the video and saw it was Palmer Lucky who's making this (and that's a good thing).
Re: Sega Wants You To Know It Isn't Announcing Any New 'Mini' Hardware In 2024
I don't understand, why should we watch the old 2022 conference again?
PS. If Sony could make the PlayStation Classic in 2018, there's no genuinely legit technical reason Sega couldn't make a Saturn Mini in 2024+.
Re: 10 Forgotten Gaming Magazines That Are Worth Remembering
I the only one of those I read was Go.