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Lestrade Bug Fister
Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 1760 Location: Toronto
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Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 6:44 pm Post subject: The Cross-Platform Game Comparison Thread |
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I love playing different versions of the same game. Back in the nineties, I loved playing and comparing the multi-format releases that littered the market (mostly by Acclaim!), because unlike the identical releases across many formats we see today, chances are the same game looked, sounded, and played a bit differently whether it was on SNES or Genesis (for example).
So I'm starting this thread for people to post images and invite discussion on different versions of classic games. Did you prefer the arcade or TG-16 version of R-Type? SNES or Genesis Samurai Shodown? Let's talk!
For my part, I felt like puttering around today in two different versions of Doom; the first for the Playstation, the second for XBLA.
Of course, the latter is a perfect port of the original, while the Playstation version has a lot of differences; the sound effects and music from Doom 64, tweaked levels, coloured lighting, a lower resolution, and other things. Here then, are five side-by-side screenshots (read: photos of my TV) for your perusal.
(EDIT: I've added more commentary and some additional images.)
Whoa! The PS1 port has lots of needless coloured lighting to distract you from its greatly simplified levels and basic texturing (which, of course, the SNES version actually got right!)
The area behind the dying Former Human is supposed to be textured as on the right. I always assumed that this kiosk was actually one of the interdimensional gates. Doom was always so abstract, that there was never anything else that really looked like one, so I assumed this was it. Not that you'd have a clue in the PS1 port; it's all SPARTAN66 and FLOOR2 (or whatever those textures were; man I miss making Doom wads).
The GameFan Shot™. Notice how the skybox is reversed, and how the courtyard uses the same basic textures as everywhere else. The sludge glows green in the PS1 version though! Added below is GameFan's comparison of the Jaguar, 32X and SNES renditions of this scene.
This walk-through wall has a neat transparent effect not found in the original. The room beyond, though, is just one big overkill of green lighting.
I actually prefer the hellish ground and over-the-top, burning sky on the PS1. It just makes the level seem that much more intense.
Last edited by Lestrade on Sat May 26, 2007 11:06 am; edited 4 times in total |
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Winged Assassins (1984) .
Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 996 Location: Super Magic Drive
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Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 7:34 pm Post subject: |
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Someone who owns the Saturn and Playstation ports of HeXen please compare them, I would be dead interested in that. _________________
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Lestrade Bug Fister
Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 1760 Location: Toronto
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Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 11:34 pm Post subject: |
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Throw in Hexen 64 for the ultimate triptych of eeeeevillll! |
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Lestrade Bug Fister
Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 1760 Location: Toronto
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Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 2:00 pm Post subject: |
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I'm probably going to do a Street Fighter II comparison next! |
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ryan .
Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999
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Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 6:13 pm Post subject: |
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What's a good capturing device? I used a Hauppauge TV tuner from 1998 for a while, but I'm guessing the technology has improved a good bit since. Dscaler did help quite a bit though. _________________ Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart. |
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Harveyjames the meteor kid
Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636
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Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 8:40 pm Post subject: |
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Lestrade wrote: | Throw in Hexen 64 for the ultimate triptych of eeeeevillll! |
Hexen 64 was the first time I ever saw texture anti-aliasing; I was blown away! 'WHOA it doesn't pixellate when you get close up, WHAT IS THIS DEVILRY??' |
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Lestrade Bug Fister
Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 1760 Location: Toronto
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 6:15 am Post subject: |
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Hey! Listen!
I was sick this weekend, and last night was I bored, waiting only to become tired enough to knock myself out with drugs and go to sleep. So, what did I do? Take some comparison photos!
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
All right, here's the deal. It's the PS1 (in this case, the Japanese game) versus the XBLA game. Both systems are hooked up to my 32" Samsung HDTV via component cables. I've cropped the images to show just the game area. In the Xbox version, I've resized the play area to match the 4:3 output on the Playstation. Click the images for larger versions iffin' you like.
Playstation
Xbox 360, "Original" graphics mode
Xbox 360, "Enhanced" graphics mode (sorry, this one's a bit blurry)
Pretty close by the looks of it. If I ever get the Saturn version, I'll add that here too.
Street Fighter II Turbo
The PS game is from Street Fighter Collection 2; the Xbox is of course via XBLA; and the SNES version is running via the Wii's Virtual Console, also over component cables. I haven't added the straight Super Famicom version yet. The same cropping/sizing notes as above apply here. You'll notice the odd moire pattern. I didn't do any Photostop trickery to hide that. That's something that only appears in-camera. You'll also notice I had to use the "still" function of my TV so I could get a clear image for certain versions.
Playstation
Xbox 360
SNES / Wii Virtual Console
(I think I have the letterboxing cropped correctly.)
Super Famicom (Composite)
Last edited by Lestrade on Thu Aug 30, 2007 5:39 pm; edited 4 times in total |
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Shapermc Hot Sake!
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 7:44 am Post subject: |
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Oh, hey, I did something like what you're doing. I'll just paste the following in from an older thread:
Well, let’s just have some fun shall we? Retro systems: comparison shots from original hardware to 720p emulation. Ignore the word {Still} at the bottom, I just used it to freeze the image with the original hardware.
I am going to start with the SNES, which I think ended up looking the worst out of all the retro consoles that I have tried on the TV. I am picking a game that everyone should be familiar with: Super Mario World. These images really speak for themselves.
SMW Hardware Far
SMW Hardware Close
SMW Emu Far
SMW Emu Close
Next up is the Genesis. The screen we all know from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. While the genesis fared a little better than the SNES, you can’t really tell with a still frame (see more after the photos). The Genesis used some tricks so that it looked sharper with interlacing, and it really shows when you have a TV upscale it.
Genesis Hardware Far
Genesis Hardware Close
Genesis Emu Far
Genesis Emu Close
What can’t you see in the photos? Well, mainly you are missing a lot in the motion. Of it again. The SNES I originally said was worse because when anything is in motion the colors will all change just slightly like a minature rainbow effect. A single thin black line will change from brown, to a shade of purple, then to black as it moves across the screen for whatever reason. The Genny keeps its color and distinction while it moves without this weird rainbow effect. But which system fared the best: The PCE. I am needing to finish up, so if there are really enough requests I will take pictures, but this is already taken 4 hours to put together. _________________ “The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932
"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"
Last edited by Shapermc on Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:49 am; edited 1 time in total |
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ryan .
Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 8:10 am Post subject: |
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Is that from a PC hooked up VGA to your television or are you running emulators off a console? _________________ Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart. |
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Lestrade Bug Fister
Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 1760 Location: Toronto
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 8:29 am Post subject: |
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I think Shaper is running a laptop for the emulated versions and straight hardware for the original versions.
Shaper, is your TV DLP?
I can't find my fucking Super Famicom power cable—AKA the giant 10-pound brick from Hong Kong. I'm going to have to buy a new one (gladly, I'm sick of this beast). I want to show SF2 Turbo running on original hardware over composite cables. |
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ryan .
Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 8:52 am Post subject: |
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I hooked up my laptop to my new hdtv to try out gametap - faaaantastic. I haven't followed emulation in years though, aside from dabbling with PSP stuff, and I recall tracking down roms being a huge pain. My previous experience was when nestacle was fairly new and roms flowed through standard links without care. I have noticed that virtual console games tend to be a bit blown up though, but shaper's shots look pretty good, so I think I might be giving emulation a go again.
I assume nesticle is still the standard nes emulator, but from my PSP finaglings I ran across tons of others for the other consoles, any idea which are the best? _________________ Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart. |
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SJ .
Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 61 Location: swamp
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 8:54 am Post subject: |
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ryan wrote: | I assume nesticle is still the standard nes emulator, but from my PSP finaglings I ran across tons of others for the other consoles, any idea which are the best? |
For NES, you'll definitely want to check out Nestopia instead of nesticle. |
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dessgeega loves your favorite videogame
Joined: 16 Jun 2005 Posts: 6563 Location: bohan
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:21 am Post subject: |
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i use fceu, but it tends to get the hiccups. _________________
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Lestrade Bug Fister
Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 1760 Location: Toronto
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:22 am Post subject: |
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SNES/Wii version of SF2 added above. |
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Shapermc Hot Sake!
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:45 am Post subject: |
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ryan wrote: | Is that from a PC hooked up VGA to your television or are you running emulators off a console? |
Laptop (a shitty 3 year old one at that!). I was using KegaFusion for the Genesis game, but I don't remember what I was using for SNES (I have issues with both of the big ones looking good but I try to use SNES9X)
Lestrade wrote: | Shaper, is your TV DLP? |
Yeah, that's why the color is off on the images. My camera isn't that good either, so... anyways, it makes my TV not look good, which is kind of embarrasing because my TV looks so good it stuns people! I have a few friends with LCD and Plasma TVs that told me my TV looks better than theirs. They were shocked when I told them it was DLP technology.
EDIT:
I fixed the genesis close with original hardware link. I also am linking to the thread this was taken from (which is a year old now!). OG Thread. Things that have changed since I did this testing: I have a PS3 now which nulls most of my complaints. The 360 has 1080p now, which I use. And the Wii VC sucks! It only uses 640X480 resolution which is not 480p.
DOUBLE EDIT: most TVs now are virtually lag free (being literally lag free is impossible) and I retract my initial LCD statement. I would get an LCD over Plasma today but wouldn't a year ago. _________________ “The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932
"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!" |
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Lestrade Bug Fister
Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 1760 Location: Toronto
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Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 5:42 pm Post subject: |
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Hey, found my power cable and so I just added the Super Famicom version. |
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Scratchmonkey .
Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439
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Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 9:52 pm Post subject: |
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Man, why did they recolor Alucard's cape in the 360 version? That's such an odd decision. |
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Slonie .
Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 141
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Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 10:16 pm Post subject: |
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I dig this thread and everything in it. If I can, I will find a page that took comparable screenshots from the key moments of every single port of Ys I+II (there are a lot!). It was awesome!
Also I could probably give a pretty good lecture on the various versions of the original Contra...Including the MSX version with awesome PSG music, no scrolling, and like 8 extra levels after you destroy Red Falcon's heart. Seriously, that actually broke my worldview when I saw it (god knows how shocked I would have been if I had discovered that at the age of 7 while sitting on my living room floor, as opposed to the age of college on a MSX emulator) _________________ -Slonie
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Slonie .
Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 141
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Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 10:19 pm Post subject: |
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Scratchmonkey wrote: | Man, why did they recolor Alucard's cape in the 360 version? That's such an odd decision. |
Given the difference in hitpoints between the two screenshots, I'd venture that he has an upgraded cape in the 360 screenshot that happens to be red.
(I could be wrong though!) _________________ -Slonie
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Scratchmonkey .
Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439
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Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 10:22 pm Post subject: |
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Slonie wrote: | Scratchmonkey wrote: | Man, why did they recolor Alucard's cape in the 360 version? That's such an odd decision. |
Given the difference in hitpoints between the two screenshots, I'd venture that he has an upgraded cape in the 360 screenshot that happens to be red.
(I could be wrong though!) |
I am certain that you're right. It makes more sense than them re-coloring the cape. |
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Winged Assassins (1984) .
Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 996 Location: Super Magic Drive
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Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 11:33 pm Post subject: |
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He is right. I think you can also get a cape that you can customize the colour of though I might be mixing that up with the option to change the menu background colour. _________________
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Lestrade Bug Fister
Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 1760 Location: Toronto
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Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 4:58 am Post subject: |
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Winged Assassins (1984) wrote: | He is right. I think you can also get a cape that you can customize the colour of though I might be mixing that up with the option to change the menu background colour. |
Yes, it's Joseph's [technicolour dream-] cape. For the record, this cape pulsates from red to black, and happened to be red when the shot was taken.
Slonie wrote: | I dig this thread and everything in it. If I can, I will find a page that took comparable screenshots from the key moments of every single port of Ys I+II (there are a lot!). It was awesome |
Oh yeah, this would be terrific. |
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kirkjerk .
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227
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Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 9:32 am Post subject: |
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Focused on a previous generation than most of the content in this thread there's a site
Retrogaming Times Monthly:
http://my.stratos.net/~hewston95/RTM/RTM_Home.htm
clearly a rough and ready labor of love... one of the regular features is "The Many Faces Of..." which is a comparison of multiplatform releases back in the day. And when one of those platforms is often the venerable (but limited) 2600... that's when the platform REALLY meant something. _________________ =/ \(<D)_/
==/\/ >_ kirkjerk.com |
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Slonie .
Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 141
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Lestrade Bug Fister
Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 1760 Location: Toronto
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Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 1:41 am Post subject: |
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Oh yes, Hardcore Gaming 101! I have read a lot of stuff on there. That site has days worth of juicy content... |
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Lestrade Bug Fister
Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 1760 Location: Toronto
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Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 10:09 pm Post subject: |
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NOTE: I'm bored at work, so I'm remixed my previous post into a side-by-side comparison. Yup.
Don't look now, it's:
Mortal Kombaaaaaaat
I definitely will be adding to this as I foolishly increase my Mortal Kombat port collection. Yeah, you heard me.
The Genesis version of MK was fucking godawful—of course that didn't stop it from outselling the SNES port three to one. It's amazing what some badly rendered gore can do for sales!
The Sega CD improves on the Genny version a bit; it's got slightly better sound. The music is all fucked up, but it sounds better; the Fatality music is there, though it gets clipped all over the place by the disc loading. Still, it adds a lot—in the Genesis your hard-earned finishing move was accompanied by mostly silence! The only sound effect in the whole game for Fatalities was a muffled whoooopf when you played as Scorpion. Riveting.
The graphics are still fucking ass, but at least—wow!—Sub-Zero actually has his real standing animation. On the Genny, he's a blue Scorpion. How inept was Probe that they couldn't squeeze in the three extra frames of animation for this? (Short answer: very. Everything they touched was garbage.)
The Fatalities are all still animated poorly, and the backgrounds still have all of 16 colours in them, but the game technically is a better port of the original. Not by much, though.
Oh yeah, and that 120x90 remixed commercial (mostly showing off the better SNES version of the game) is dope.
Arcade (left): This is (essentially) the original. Big characters, detailed backgrounds, awesome sound. There is a lot of colour in these character portraits, isn't there?
Sega CD (right): Love that 64-colour palette. :-(
Arcade (left): Poppin' Johnny Cage in the air. Note the number and arrangement of monks in the background.
Sega CD (right): This is where the game really shows itself. Looks just like the arcade, huh? Those teeny-tiny life bars? The completely out-of-proportion background? The stunning use of grey? Yeesh.
Arcade (left): Yeah yeah, murdalize that sonuvabitch! The rolling-drum of doom that you hear when performing a Fatality is perfectly ominous. Back in the arcades it would give me shivers. (Sorry for the washed-out highlights.)
Sega CD (right): Fatali—wait, what the fuck? Why did the background turn MS-Paint grey?
Arcade (left): Another take on the Sub-Zero favourite. Holy fuckin' lots of blood.
Sega CD (right): More vibrant, colour-rich backgrounds. Don't ask me how I know this (seriously, don't) but in the Genny version, the animation for Sub-Zero's spine rip was really screwed up. I think it was like this so Probe could recycle some of that precious animation they were incapable of dealing with. On the Sega CD it seems to render better.
Arcade (left): The Pit; a gruesome scene indeed! There was a lot of detail down here. That's Ed Boon, [someone else] and John Tobias all stuck on spikes.
Sega CD (right): The Pit... sorta. I see at least two Ed Boons!
Arcade (left): The scene that inspired a thousand techno remixes. Huh-huh, he said "wood."
Sega CD (right): Just stunning.
Last edited by Lestrade on Thu Oct 30, 2008 5:48 am; edited 7 times in total |
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Slonie .
Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 141
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Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 2:59 am Post subject: |
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The Sega CD version of Mortal Kombat 2 really impressed me when my friend showed it to me a couple years ago. It actually seemed to have color!
(or maybe it was the 32x version I was playing...Oh, crap. Yeah, I think it was the 32x version. My friend has lots of Sega stuff!) _________________ -Slonie
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Lestrade Bug Fister
Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 1760 Location: Toronto
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Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 6:05 am Post subject: |
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Yeah, it was the 32X version. They only made MK1 for the Sega CD. The 32X version is basically the Genesis version with the 32X handling a few extra colours and effects. Once again, Probe are programming slackers. |
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Shapermc Hot Sake!
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279
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Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 12:33 pm Post subject: |
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See, with the way that consoles were then it's kind of like how PCs were compared to the PS2 in it's prime. There was no way to catch up. The best you could hope for was a faithful translation of the gameplay, which the genny version did really well.
Also: Sweat VS Blood! _________________ “The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932
"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!" |
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Lestrade Bug Fister
Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 1760 Location: Toronto
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Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 2:34 pm Post subject: |
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Just revised my MK post. |
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Slonie .
Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 141
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Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 8:02 pm Post subject: |
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Lestrade wrote: | Just revised my MK post. |
Well, that sure ain't pretty. Look on the bright side, I played the Game Gear version, primarily. _________________ -Slonie
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Six .
Joined: 15 Jul 2006 Posts: 313 Location: montreal
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Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 1:19 am Post subject: |
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Slonie wrote: | Lestrade wrote: | Just revised my MK post. |
Well, that sure ain't pretty. Look on the bright side, I played the Game Gear version, primarily. |
Oh man, me too! I'd completely forgotten. Wasn't blocking mapped to the Start button? |
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Shapermc Hot Sake!
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279
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Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 8:04 am Post subject: |
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You're right! Oh god! I had that and SamSho on the Game Gear. I played SamSho all the time. Ugh, what awful ports. _________________ “The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932
"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!" |
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Lestrade Bug Fister
Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 1760 Location: Toronto
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Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 6:43 am Post subject: |
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Bringin' this shit back to life, yo.
I rented Dead Rising for Wii last week. Here's a comparison photo between it and the 360 version.
I'm glad I played this version, not just to sate my own curiosity but because it helped me to better understand Dead Rising in general. I always found the Xbox demo completely obtuse, and so was turned off the game because I was confused about how it worked.
The Wii version, being stripped back and simplified somewhat, let me understand how the game functions and how the narrative works. But don't let that fool you; it's an interesting effort, but not really worthwhile.
After playing the Wii game on and off for a little while, it was exhilarating to return to the 360 demo. Frank no longer has a stiff leg, the camera is fluid, the colours aren't washed out, those goddamn parrots are gone, and the zombies are plentiful. It's also amazing how many artificial barriers are thrown at you in the Wii version — the lack of jumping, the inability to traverse water or break through glass, and the barricades that funnel you down certain areas of the mall.
You can also see in the screenshot that the mall has been "squeezed" somewhat. It all looks similar, but the actual area it takes up is much smaller on the Wii (which makes sense). I was standing in roughly the same spot for both these screens, but what's around in the Wii version is a lot closer.
This is all obvious, I'm sure, but I thought the process of discovery was interesting. |
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