PCE Golden Axe

[nodtveidt]

I tossed it and started anew... that's what I did.

[munchiaz]

**posted in wrong thread

[RyuHayabusa]

This looks amazing! Telenet did such a horrible job on the original PCE port so it's cool seeing what could've been done. Of course the original was a pre-Super System Card CD port and not an Arcade Card port but still it's terrible. This is an example of something that I always wonder about: How much better could lackluster ports have been with better programmers? For instance, Final Fight on the SNES or Strider PCE. Could a 16meg port of Final Fight made later in the SNES' life have been 2 player, included Guy, and had all the missing stuff put in? Could Strider PCE have been made to look better and play smoother had it been handled by different developers? Just from what has been shown in these preview videos it shows that the PCE could've had a much, much, much better port of Golden Axe. Can't wait to see how this progresses. Great job so far!!

[imparanoic]

I am impressed with this homebrew remake

[SegaSonic91]

Wow, very impressive results there.  I was always pissed that SEGA never made a proper MEGA-CD version of GA ( and sooooo many others!) so this looks like a nice alternative, even with the Wii/360 versions I have.

It's a damn shame that NEC Home decided not to make the arcade card/SFII' combo in '93.  By the time the arcade card arrived, it was far too late and apart from Hudson's very impressive NEO-GEO conversions, it was wasted.  Other AC only games such as Mad Stalker and of course, the giant turd that is Strider Hiryu, wasted their potential.

Strider could most certainly have been a hell of a lot better if NEV had not given it to the crappy, inexperienced team that made it.  Just as an 8-mbit Daimakaimura on the MD could have matched the SGX version.  Whether ACD version of SH could live up to the MD version, I am not sure.  It could have been close though.

As for a 16-mbit Final Fight on the SFC being better than the original, I doubt it would have made much of a difference.  The SFC would NEVER be able to touch the MEGA-CD version anyway.  That shitty, ancient Famicom processor they stuck in the SFC could never compare to the CPS-I or MEGA-CD.  Every beat em up/fighter on the SFC ran at a greatly reduced resolution with only 2 or 3 enemies on screen at a time because that's all it could handle.  All the colour in the world could not make up for that processor and it never had a hope in hell of an arcade quality game like Bare Knuckle II.  Maybe if the CD system had been released but the arrogant morons decided against that because CD was not the future.  That worked out so well for the N64, lol!

[ccovell]

Strider could most certainly have been a hell of a lot better if NEV had not given it to the crappy, inexperienced team that made it.  Just as an 8-mbit Daimakaimura on the MD could have matched the SGX version.  Whether ACD version of SH could live up to the MD version, I am not sure.  It could have been close though.

As for a 16-mbit Final Fight on the SFC being better than the original, I doubt it would have made much of a difference.  The SFC would NEVER be able to touch the MEGA-CD version anyway.  That shitty, ancient Famicom processor they stuck in the SFC could never compare to the CPS-I or MEGA-CD.  Every beat em up/fighter on the SFC ran at a greatly reduced resolution with only 2 or 3 enemies on screen at a time because that's all it could handle.  All the colour in the world could not make up for that processor and it never had a hope in hell of an arcade quality game like Bare Knuckle II.  Maybe if the CD system had been released but the arrogant morons decided against that because CD was not the future.  That worked out so well for the N64, lol!

Um, while some of us here would agree with a few things you say, your arguments are scattershot.

[Black Tiger]

Wow, very impressive results there.  I was always pissed that SEGA never made a proper MEGA-CD version of GA ( and sooooo many others!) so this looks like a nice alternative, even with the Wii/360 versions I have.

It's a damn shame that NEC Home decided not to make the arcade card/SFII' combo in '93.  By the time the arcade card arrived, it was far too late and apart from Hudson's very impressive NEO-GEO conversions, it was wasted.  Other AC only games such as Mad Stalker and of course, the giant turd that is Strider Hiryu, wasted their potential.

Strider could most certainly have been a hell of a lot better if NEV had not given it to the crappy, inexperienced team that made it.  Just as an 8-mbit Daimakaimura on the MD could have matched the SGX version.  Whether ACD version of SH could live up to the MD version, I am not sure.  It could have been close though.

As for a 16-mbit Final Fight on the SFC being better than the original, I doubt it would have made much of a difference.  The SFC would NEVER be able to touch the MEGA-CD version anyway.  That shitty, ancient Famicom processor they stuck in the SFC could never compare to the CPS-I or MEGA-CD.  Every beat em up/fighter on the SFC ran at a greatly reduced resolution with only 2 or 3 enemies on screen at a time because that's all it could handle.  All the colour in the world could not make up for that processor and it never had a hope in hell of an arcade quality game like Bare Knuckle II.  Maybe if the CD system had been released but the arrogant morons decided against that because CD was not the future.  That worked out so well for the N64, lol!

How many enemies do you need at once in a <2 player game?

If you really need more than 3 on-screen, here you go:




At least many SNES beat em ups have huge sprites and unlike Final Fight CD, decent color.

[Punch]

more enemies at once does not necessarily mean better game.

[nodtveidt]

This is an example of something that I always wonder about: How much better could lackluster ports have been with better programmers?

Better programmers are just one of the many details. It normally takes several people to make a successful game. Each person focuses on their specialty, which has the potential to raise the overall quality of the product. You also have to have someone who can manage this team of specialists. Whoever was working on the Telenet version of Golden Axe clearly didn't have a lot of skill. The in-game graphics and sound effects are deplorable, and the cutscenes, while interesting, are very basic. The gameplay is downright broken and that comes from horrible coding. So you've got at least three areas where their production was a total failure, and one where it just barely makes the grade. Paranoia Dragon's sound and music expertise will ensure that our version sounds great, Black Tiger's pixel wizardry will make sure it looks great, and my coding experience will make sure it plays great. We don't have a deadline for this, so we are not forced to work under pressure, plus we don't have to cram everything into 128KB (I'm sure the Telenet version used the ADPCM RAM for things other than ADPCM data, considering I never heard a decent sample in the whole game). We could technically do this on the normal System 3.0, but utilizing the ACD means that not only can everything be preloaded, but we can also display more complex tilemaps, load more samples, and greatly reduce (maybe even eliminate) load times, making it feel so much more like the arcade game (only without the obnoxious bugs the arcade game has in it).

[geise]

What is BT working on graphic wise?  Is the game mostly sprite/ background rips?  I take it a lot of rework?

[Black Tiger]

The background in the PCE version is converted, the sprites are not.


Arcade<---------> PCE



MD:

[nodtveidt]

BT is doing the background graphics. They are taken from the arcade game, but he spruced them up and did PCE-friendly recoloring to make them bright and vibrant. The sprites didn't need any modifications; they're direct copies from the arcade ROMs, although the colors have been aligned to PCE specs.

[nodtveidt]

Wow, I just realized how horrid the MD version looks compared to ours.

[GohanX]

I ordered some white two CD cases so that I could have original disc and one translation/hack in the same case. I'm throwing Golden Axe in one in anticipation.

[toymachine78]

Man that looks spectacular! What is your estimated release date?