American hype for SuperGrafx Strider started here in EGM!

[handygrafx]

some Japanese magazine articles on SuperGrafx Strider






what a tease, using Arcade and-or X68000 screens, like EGM  

[Bonknuts]

The game would have needed to be bigger than 8megs to be even close to the arcade version. Both 1941 and G&G suffer from not enough rom storage - evident in the tiles changed for pattern compression (the genesis version of strider suffers from this).

 What mag are those scans from?

Wikipedia has Galaxy Force II listed as an unreleased prototype    Verified by who?

[Keranu]

Awesome magazine scan, it looks like it could have some usefull information. Is it possible for anyone here to translate it? (No need for fancy photoshop stuff, just a straight down text translation posted here )

[Bonknuts]

HandyGrafx, do you have a higher res/less compressed version of sgx_Sept90.jpg image?

I can tell you those are probably not the arcade screens.

First level pic:(upside down strider)

That exact frame of Strider is not in the arcade version - I looked. Also the red sash blowing to the left of him in not the in arcade as well as the curved edges of the blades energy.

 This part of the game in the arcade has 3 BG layers, but the pic is missing the stars BG layer - they would have shown out even in the dark photo graph as they are close to white.

The "time" text is there, but there is no time displayed in any of the pics - player has no points in any pic and player one 3 guys in all pics. Also the enemy holding the gun is missing the green visor around his eyes.

 It hard to tell, but the green building in the background doesn't appear to have the arcades level of gradient (even with the pic being dark). I've done some Strider to PCE conversions of the backgrounds and sprites and this looks ver much like a 9bit palette conversion.

Moon pic:

 Hmm, the pic with the moon has no stars - all the life bars in all the pics are red. The moon is much brighter and whiter than the arcade.

2nd level:(snow ledge)
 The 2nd background layer in the snow ledge is in the wrong position in relation to the forground (BG 2 is too far up) - you can tell because there is only 1 broken stump like that in the snow ledge part - I used this as the maker.


I'm not saying this means those pics are from the SGX version, just not from any arcade version I know of.

[handygrafx]

The game would have needed to be bigger than 8megs to be even close to the arcade version. Both 1941 and G&G suffer from not enough rom storage - evident in the tiles changed for pattern compression (the genesis version of strider suffers from this).

agreed.

as is evident from this comparison


Arcade


SuperGrafx

What mag are those scans from?

I don't know. I'm assuming it might be from Famitsu, or could be from a PCEngine magazine.  not too familar with Japanese game mags

Wikipedia has Galaxy Force II listed as an unreleased prototype    Verified by who?

not verified 100% but it's mentioned on a number of websites including The Strange And Rare Videogame Pics Page

Galaxy Force II was probably shown to the public in a very early stage of development and it was listed on many PC Engine magazines as a "Soon to be published" title.

[Bonknuts]

Some pics are taken from a monitor/tv and some look to be from a some sort of capture device. The one of the pics of the first level(the machine gunner) - right before the first boss, has some sort of graphic glitch to the left( right above the arrow) - not in the arcade either. The colors used for the BG tiles looks different in that pic(keeping in the mind the darkness of the pic).

Edit:

Ok, the Lightning/Electricity pic is also different - the 2nd BG in the wrong place as well and it is drawn a little different than the arcade.

 I checked out the X68 version and status text is in a different area - not overlayed like in the pics, but in a black bar on top of the screen. Also the x68 has player 1 on the right, not the left. I've only played level 1, but I did notice the x68 isn't arcade perfect - missing color/less gradients in some areas. The x68 though is also missing the stars BG 3 layer. But does not have the curved edges of the blade white energy, nor does it have the exact upside down frame the pics.

 So, I think it's safe to assume those pics are not from the arcade or the x68.

[Keranu]

Wow, that's incredible investigation on your part, Malcucci/Tomaithous. What other close-to-arcade Strider ports were there besides the X6800 version? If there are any others, it would have to be from this time period of that article in the PCE magazine, or else it couldn't compare with the screenshots found in the article. If the shots are not from the arcade original or x6800, where could these mysterious shots be from then?

[akamichi]

Whoa... thanks for posting these pix!  I've been looking for these for a while!

Well, the last pic I can say for sure is from PC Engine Fan.  I don't think it'd be much of a stretch to say that all the of pictures are from PCE Fan.  The layout and text look the same to me.

Very rough (ie likely incorrect) translations follow...
The first pic basically talks about how the SGX should be able to accomplish the same things as the arcade ver (gamplay, big sprites, multiple bgs).  They base this on the SGX hardware specs and the fact that Ghouls and Ghosts and Forgotten Worlds were decent translations.  The upper right part of the pic says that SGX should be able to pull off large/detailed/multiple BGs due to the fact that there's another BG layer.  "However, high quality BGs eat up a lot of memory."

Right above the page number is a note that says that the screenshots are the ones used for business purposes.  Usually "business use" refers to the arcade version.

The second pic basically says that Strider is no longer a SGX only game but a  PCE/SGX compatible card.  The game is still scheduled to be 8Mb.

The last pic basically rehashes the first two pics but mentions that the characters would be smaller than the arcade version but everything should be in the game.  Possible release is sometime next year (1992).  "Current development status: 20%"

Personally, the only pic that looks like an actual arcade pic is the one with the the mechanized gorilla (third article).  All the others look like mock-ups or prototype/pre-production versions.  I'm betting that these are official promotional pics.  Although I can't be sure, I could have sworn I've seen some of them before when the arcade version came out.  Also, none of the articles claim to be posting PCE/SGX pix of the game.  I don't think there was ever a picture anywhere of the SGX version.

[handygrafx]

thanks for the translation.   it should be noted that Forgotten Worlds never got released for the SuperGrafx, even though it was listed as TBA in import ads.  maybe EGM said Forgotten Worlds was coming too, I don't remember.

of course, an 8-meg Strider on SuperGrafx could not have possibly come anywhere near close to being equal to the CPS arcade. arcade Strider is 32 meg at least, maybe 43 meg.  Even if they doubled the rom storage to 16-meg for a SG version, it still could not have come close, though I'm sure a 'decent' version could've been made, ala Ghouls 'n Ghosts.

If only Hudson had made the Supergrafx equal or superior to the Sharp X68000 which was released the same year as the original PC-Engine,  things would've been alot brighter for the future of the SuperGrafx.


my dream SGX:

specs:  68000 at 10-12 MHz.   256 sprites of 16x16 size on-screen.  
4096 colors on screen at once out of a 65,536 palette.  
128-256K main memory, 512K of VRAM,  3 or 4 background layers,
hardware scaling & rotation,  15 channels or more of audio,  
ROM sizes of 16-meg and higher.   384x224 resolution minimum (like CPS)

late 1989 or early 1990 launch with:  a Battle Ace game that rivals arcade
Galaxy Force , Ghouls 'n Ghosts, R-Type 2, Granzort.  
with arcade quality Thunder Blade,  Forgotten Worlds, OutRun, 1941
on the way for 1990 release, then Strider, Final Fight, Legendary Axe 3,
Super Shadow of the Beast and some RPGs and other games on the
way for 1991.

even if it still died by 1992, it gets at least 20 or more solid releases
with half or more being exact or near-exact arcade ports. and becomes
a truly worthwhile collectors system that justifies spending a few
hundred on the system and $100 per game.

/dream

[Bonknuts]

the only pic that looks like an actual arcade pic is the one with the the mechanized gorilla (third article).

I noticed that pic was different. Player 1 has 2 red bars of life instead of 3, it also has a score unlike the others, and the time shows 1:57. This would indicate a playable game. Whether it's an actually SGX/PCE playable/running demo screen shot or not, is the question. Notice the moiré effect from a monitor in the pic.

 I really don't find it hard to believe that a prototype existed, albiet in a very early stage of developement. The first screen shots released were probably mock-ups running on the SGX hardware. Hell, wanna see a mock-up of Final Fight running on the SGX hardware?


Keranu wrote:

,

Ditto, sooooo ditto.

[akamichi]

I noticed that pic was different. Player 1 has 2 red bars of life instead of 3, it also has a score unlike the others, and the time shows 1:57. This would indicate a playable game. Whether it's an actually SGX/PCE playable/running demo screen shot or not, is the question. Notice the moiré effect from a monitor in the pic.

Exactly.  It's the only one that's different than the others.  I personally don't believe it's a pic of the PCE/SGX ver, but that's just my opinion.  The only reason I think that is because I believe the magazine would have stated that it was.  Again, there's really no way of knowing for sure.

I really don't find it hard to believe that a prototype existed, albiet in a very early stage of developement. The first screen shots released were probably mock-ups running on the SGX hardware.

I agree with you about the prototype.  It's likely that it existed in some form.  Can we confirm that any of these pictures were generated on the SGX?  I doubt it.  However maybe we can compare the mech gorilla pic to the arcade ver.  That pic seems well within the reach of SGX's capabilities.  I have no doubt in my mind that the SGX could pull off Strider brilliantly given a competent programmer/team.  It's the only way we'll see the game on SGX.

Hell, wanna see a mock-up of Final Fight running on the SGX hardware?

Sure.   That reminds me... a number of years ago, I actually ripped all the Cody sprites from the arcade version and attempted to make a Final Fight demo of sorts on PCE.  Never got very far.  When it came to programming on the PCE, I realized I didn't know what the hell I was doing. :oops:  

One day... one day.....

BTW, Another Strider mystery... supposedly the ACD version was supposed to have two extra stages.  Of course there's only one.  I wonder what the deal was with that.

[Bonknuts]

Sure.  That reminds me... a number of years ago, I actually ripped all the Cody sprites from the arcade version and attempted to make a Final Fight demo of sorts on PCE. Never got very far. When it came to programming on the PCE, I realized I didn't know what the hell I was doing.  

One day... one day.....

Haha, Nice! Do you have a PCE file of it?

Just the other day I was thinking how easy it would be to replace the main character from Riot Zone with Cody from Final fight - especially since the palette of both characters is similar.

PCE CDs are pretty easy to rip/change the tiles and sprites. I was planning to put up some tutorials sometime in the future(I tend to get sidetracked ).

Anyway, I'll post the mock-up soon . I have the building BG 2 layer converted, BG 1 layer (only one screen long) converted, and one frame of Guy and one enemy frame - just need to assemble it for SGX code.

 Btw, did you use Magickit or HuC for you FF project?

[Bonknuts]

Here's an early Strider sprite test. VDC2 is disabled so it should run with magicengine, but since it uses 7mhz pixel clock, its better to view it with Mednafen for accuracy (magicengine work around - turn on full screen stretch).

http://pcedev.net/strider_sgx/str_sgx.pce

[akamichi]

Haha, Nice! Do you have a PCE file of it?

I might have it somewhere.  But like I said, there wasn't much to see.  Basically it just displayed one of the sprites.  

Just the other day I was thinking how easy it would be to replace the main character from Riot Zone with Cody from Final fight - especially since the palette of both characters is similar.

That's what I noticed with the arcade ver of Cody.  Only like 15 colors.  Not sure if the colors would match up perfectly with the PCE's palette, but it looked pretty close to me.

PCE CDs are pretty easy to rip/change the tiles and sprites. I was planning to put up some tutorials sometime in the future(I tend to get sidetracked ).

I'd love to see those!  I'm sure a lot of people would be interested in hacking some gfx.  

Btw, did you use Magickit or HuC for you FF project?

Yeah.  It was a really early version of HuC.  I just downloaded the newest one  so I might try my luck again.

Also, that's a pretty cool strider test screen.  The colors match much better than the ACD version IMO.

[Bonknuts]

To write the tutorials, I need to find a utility that can do screen captures from full screen DOS apps. Any ideas?