Video Game "Look what I found"

[flojocabron]

Here’s the stuff I got today! Went late to the wednesday fleamarket. Pretty much everything was up and gone. But the three places I hit up gave me goodish stuff. $7.00 got me a couple of sheets of mismatched yugioh cards, one rock candy Wii Nunchuck and a Gears of War mini Artbook. Second place: for $6.00 I found DDR MAX ps2, Tony hawk Ps2, Big Brain Academy DS and an xbox demo disc. The last place I hit up was a fill a bag deal. Same seller I went to last week. A Three dollar bag got me some music cd and movies, blank dvds. Wii games and DS games! More to sell off for store credit. Not too shabby!

[Thierry Henry]

Got a nice copy of Mickey Mania for the Sega CD.

I tried it on one of my garage sale finds (cheap LCD projector) in a room that's decently lit. Unsurprisingly, it really needs a darkened room to be effective.







And a few N-Gage games. Total $10 for those.

[Tanooki]

Hah wow n-gage, rarely see that.

I had Mickey Mania on SNES last year, total halfassed port that didn't handle very well but the game did still have charm. I take it I think the Genesis was the 'master' copy of the game, how is it? I may have to poke around the flea market over the weekend as we're getting an odd 'hot' day for this time of year tomorrow and if I see it I may grab it.

[Thierry Henry]

Hah wow n-gage, rarely see that.

When I find some extra time I'm kinda looking forward to playing Pandemonium.
I've heard it's a decent port.

I had Mickey Mania on SNES last year, total halfassed port that didn't handle very well but the game did still have charm. I take it I think the Genesis was the 'master' copy of the game, how is it?

I think I recall a while back someone here mentioning that the Playstation port was the, as you put it, "master" version of the game. I haven't played that so I can't say.

How is this game on the Sega CD?

It's a great game. It's fun and challenging. Overall a really fine platformer. You probably caught an ever so slight glimpse of that even if the SNES port you played sucks monkey balls.

And as you would have thought- better audio and music than the cart versions.
Awesome orchestrated score here.
A ton of excellent sounding voice samples.

[Tanooki]

I was speaking from cart level as master as the SNES was a known sloppy port, but I got it cheap so I figured I'd see how bad. The fact the Genesis one looks/sounds (why?!) better, has less stuff cut out of it, lacks the long loads(wtf?!) it makes you wonder if someone got fired over it. I don't know about any PS1 version but I remember people really talking up the extra bits and CD audio of the SCD release.

The only good Mickey on SNES are the sequels of Magical Quest and Great Circus Mystery by Capcom.

[Thierry Henry]

The fact the Genesis one looks/sounds (why?!) better, has less stuff cut out of it, lacks the long loads(wtf?!) it makes you wonder if someone got fired over it.

Why do you think those not-so-subtle loading times were there?
And it's not like it's the only SNES game with that infamous distinction. I do believe there are a few others as well. Batman Forever?
Nary a loading time in the Genesis versions.

So, shit programmers?
Or maybe they compressed the hell out of the data in order to save cart space?

[Stark]

You guys realize that the SNES and Genesis have completely different architectures right? Porting games between systems like these is much more of an undertaking then it is with today's systems. The strengths and weaknesses were far more pronounced. I don't envy the job of the developer or perhaps a porting house the job of trying to take something precisely developed for one of these systems and moving it to a different system entirely, it was likely a huge headache and hardly worth the effort monetarily.

[Thierry Henry]

I managed to dig up an technical explanation:

It's more related to the Mega Drive using packed pixel while the SNES uses planar graphics (+ its slow CPU). Packed pixel is better for compression (especially when you think about the sort of schemes those old CPUs could handle), so you usually store the graphical data using packed pixel. Since the SNES uses the planar format for exhibition, you need to convert the graphical data after having decompressed it. So, uh, the SNES CPU would already be slower than the MD's one for most of the decompression methods, which would already result in more noticeable loading times and, then, you still need to add the packed pixel-to-planar step (something the MD doesn't need to do since packet pixel is its native format); in the end, you'll get many more games with noticeable longer loading times on the SNES.
Some other examples: Another World (again, SNES loading times longer than the Sega CD ones!!!) and Phantom 2040 (in game loading only on the SNES).

[Tanooki]

The fact the Genesis one looks/sounds (why?!) better, has less stuff cut out of it, lacks the long loads(wtf?!) it makes you wonder if someone got fired over it.

Why do you think those not-so-subtle loading times were there?
And it's not like it's the only SNES game with that infamous distinction. I do believe there are a few others as well. Batman Forever?
Nary a loading time in the Genesis versions.

So, shit programmers?
Or maybe they compressed the hell out of the data in order to save cart space?

Honestly probably one of those two. They either didn't know how to properly convert the game from one console to the other or wanted to save a buck on a smaller chip and compression+corner cutting equaled many load times. Given the depth of the complexity of the visuals and audio, it doesn't surpass Capcom's efforts made for SNES using Mickey material so it's hard to say but I'd point that way first. I know it wasn't the only one, but it's the newest memory I have as I had it a year ago if that. CHIP or DISC you find when a game is shoveled one format to another you can get longer load times depending how its handled, but it's just sad thinking of it on a cart over a disc where it's expected.

I get there's a format reason if you don't bother converting to one format to the other when doing a port, it makes sense from a cash stand point as it's more time and money to do so. It's easier to do a fast sloppier port and just throw in a load screen than re-do a lot of work because two systems don't behave the same way.

[noiseredux]

my take on the SCD port of Mickey Mania: http://noisereduxvsdreamcast.weebly.com ... mouse.html