Together Retro March 2020 - The Arcade @ Home on 8/16-bit

[marurun]

I'm hoping to see it before too long. I'd like to get it hooked up in time to play a couple titles for this month!

[BoneSnapDeez]

I enjoyed the first 50 levels or so until it started to get a bit un-fun levels of difficult. A fun game, but the arcade-y roots definitely shine through in how frustrating it can be. At least it has infinite continues though.

Bubble Bobble is a lot of fun, but undeniably overindulgent.

Some of the later stages are just terrible. And I'm not fond of the final boss at all,

not to mention the ending!

It's also way way too long for an arcade title.

[marurun]

If you like shooters and like the SNES, I recommend Super EDF. It’s on the Switch now as part of the Switch Online SNES collection. It is a rather accurate arcade port and is one of those rare shooters with a level-up system. You pick your weapon going into a level and power it up by killing enemies to advance your experience bar.

[PartridgeSenpai]

I enjoyed the first 50 levels or so until it started to get a bit un-fun levels of difficult. A fun game, but the arcade-y roots definitely shine through in how frustrating it can be. At least it has infinite continues though.

Bubble Bobble is a lot of fun, but undeniably overindulgent.

Some of the later stages are just terrible. And I'm not fond of the final boss at all,

not to mention the ending!

It's also way way too long for an arcade title.

There are so many stages past the halfway point that are just "I bet you won't bother to try and win this one. Eat shit." And it is also REALLY weirdly long, especially given you need to beat it twice, for an arcade game. You're 100% right on that. It's almost like a bridge between pre- and post-arcade boom games where points were becoming kinda redundant.

[BoneSnapDeez]

On that note, how many other arcade games had a save/password added to the console port??

[prfsnl_gmr]

All right! I finished backing up my Sega Master System collection, and I spent some time with a lot of Sega Master System arcade ports today. What I learned is...Sega was pretty rubbish at porting it’s own games to the Sega Master System.

Here are my impressions of some of the Sega Master System ports I played today:

After Burner - Forget it. Goes way too fast, but the scrolling is way too choppy. You just rotate the screen around a few times and die. Not recommended.

Alien Syndrome - OK. It takes a while for the aliens to appear in each room; so, you just run around grabbing hostages. Other than the title screen, it looks kind of dull too. Kind of boring and inferior to the NES port.

Altered Beast - More atrocious than normal. Choppy gameplay. Only one credit. You have to press both attack buttons at the same time to jump...but pressing up makes you jump higher. What?! Finally, the two headed dogs you kick for power ups are too small, which makes it appear you’re kicking puppies...

Double Dragon - Pretty horrible. Looks like an enhanced version of the NES games, but the levels more closely resemble the arcade game. The hit detection is way off, though, making this one hard to recommend.

Fantasy Zone - Amazing port. One of the system’s best games. Great music; great music; and fantastic gameplay.

Golden Axe - You get to choose you magic type, but you only get to play as the warrior. It looks OK, but there are never more than two enemies on the screen at a time. Finally, the hit detection is atrocious. Avoid.

OutRun - Fun game. Not as good as other ports, but captures the basic gameplay. The scrolling is smooth, and the game moves fast. Not as many cars on the road, either!

Rastan - Pretty good! Looks OK, and sounds OK. Plays just like the arcade game. The enemies are too small, making them much less intimidating. Still fun, though.

R-Type - Amazing. Another one of the system’s best games. Looks and sounds great, like the arcade original, but is a bit more forgiving. The screen goes black to show off the incredibly detailed bosses. Highly, highly recommended.

Shinobi - Shockingly, the Sega Master System is worse than the NES port. It plays like Rolling Thunder (i.e., an 8-bit sidescrollimg cover shooter), and it generally looks and plays OK. Unlike the NES version, however, your jumps down from platforms are usually blind, causing you to run into enemies unexpectedly. The vertical scrolling is also really choppy for some reason.

Space Harrier - I haven’t played it, but it’s hard for me to believe the Famicom port is worse. Choppy scrolling and gameplay that’s too fast make for an experience that is more frustrating than fun.

Thunder Blade - Better than Super Thunder Blade, at least...It’s a shmup where you guide a helicopter with an enormous hit box capable of only shooting one bullet at a time. Looks as dull as it plays.

Vigilante - Sucks. The arcade game sucks; the TG16 port sucks, and this port sucks too. The same sluggish controls and poor hit detection that defined the arcade game are here too. Looks pretty good, though.

Wonder Boy - An absolute gem, and a beautiful port. The music is more than a bit repetitive, but the game looks and plays great. Colorful graphics on par with the arcade game and smooth control. It is tremendously fun and better in every way than Adventure Island. Highly recommended.

Next...I’ll see how a few of these games fared on the Sega Genesis!

[marurun]

An insane number of those titles are on the PC Engine.

[dsheinem]

Double Dragon - Pretty horrible. Looks like an enhanced version of the NES games, but the levels more closely resemble the arcade game. The hit detection is way off, though, making this one hard to recommend.!

I like this port - it is the best 8-bit version of Double Dragon I think there is. Weird that you had hit detection problems, I don’t remember that at all...

[BoneSnapDeez]

I think a lot of Sega arcade games weren't that much fun in their original state, if I'm gonna be honest. Like OutRun... It's gorgeous and the soundtrack is killer, but it's one of those "memorization" games that just demands too much precision from the player. The gameplay clashes hard with the chilled out ambiance of the aesthetics, and the whole experience just ends up feeling clunky and weird.

Also....... prfsnl_gmr may be the biggest Wonder Boy fan on the planet.

(by the way, you forgot Quartet!!)

[Sload Soap]

I also played a few of those SMS ports namely Shinobi, Space Harrier and Outrun. I look on them a bit more favourably as I have played some of the computer ports and none of those games come out particularly well. These are all the best ports of that era, I think the PC Engine is really more a contemporary of the Mega Drive/Snes although I do still prefer the SMS port of Outrun to the PCE.

Shinobi is probably the best port, it's not missing too much other than the boss appearances at the end of regular stages and obvious downgrades in graphics and sound. I actually had never really put any time into any version of the game before but enjoyed it enough to beat it, albeit with the aid of the level skip code to get back where I left off. I found it an oddly strategic affair for an arcade game but very satisfying. Can't beat those damn bonus rounds though. I can't say I can compare it with the Famicom port because aside from Prof nothing I've ever read has stated it to be superior so I never bothered to pick it up.

Outrun I'd also say is a very respectable port for the time. It's stripped back of course not just in audio-visual terms but there are literally fewer lanes to race in for most sections. This makes it quite a tough port to get to grips with if you're more familiar with the arcade. But it does keep the split routes and music selection which was not always a given, see the C64, Spectrum ports for that.

Space Harrier I agree with Prof with, though I do also find it decent attempt. The SMS just doesn't have the power to replicate the experience and it is really punishing. I can't make much headway with the game and it does feel sometimes like enemy fire just materialises inside you. It does have the voices and speed though which I understand the Famicom port does not.

I also played Scramble Spirits which is Sega's attempt at a 194X style vertical shmup. I can't compare it to the arcade version but I enjoyed it. I'm not a huge fan of pre-90s vertical shmups as I find them a bit slow and bland but this one is okay. I did force it to 60hz to pick up the pace so that helped. It has an issue with flicker and bullets being tiny orange dots so that hinders it but it looks nice and actually sounds pretty good for an SMS game. It's also pretty generous with lives and continues so you can make good progress even if like me, you suck.

I guess Enduro Racer doesn't count here but I did do a run or five. The original is kind of the forgotten superscaler but this port is more like Excitebike in execution. I just love the game so any excuse to mention it I will take.