Mad Stalker - Arcade or Super System game?

[lkermel]

Hi everyone,

While updating the review of Mad Stalker on my site, I bumped into something very interesting I would like to discuss here. I've always found weird that Mad Stalker was an Arcade Card game - I feel that it could have totally worked with a Super System Card (and many people seem to share that idea). Anyway, I noticed that there are two hidden screens in the game, and one of them looks like a Super System Card v.3.0 warning screen - was Mad Stalker originally designed as a Super System Card game? And was maybe changed at the last minute for technical or marketing reasons? The current system warning screen in the game feels really cheap and that hidden one would have been much better - could it be because the Arcade Card move was a last minute decision? What do you think?

Here's the review page with images of what I think is the Super System Card v.3.0 warning screen:

Mad Stalker - PC Engine

[Black Tiger]

It feels like a second-rate CD2 game.

[esteban]

Ha! That warning screen is a great find.

I wonder if the game uses the Arcade capacity  simply for the cinemas...to reduce the frequency of loading sessions.

Pure speculation, of course.

[deubeul]

Despite the lack of parallax, I always found the game great to watch. Robots are big and well animated.

[Digi.k]

Despite the lack of parallax, I always found the game great to watch. Robots are big and well animated.

The thing that strikes me about this game is just how meaty the sound fx are.  I wish it had parallax that would have been the icing..

[Koa Zo]

It wouldn't be surprising if Mad Stalker was bumped to Arcade Card so that there would be more product supporting that late format.

[Artabasdos]

Hi everyone,

While updating the review of Mad Stalker on my site, I bumped into something very interesting I would like to discuss here. I've always found weird that Mad Stalker was an Arcade Card game - I feel that it could have totally worked with a Super System Card (and many people seem to share that idea). Anyway, I noticed that there are two hidden screens in the game, and one of them looks like a Super System Card v.3.0 warning screen - was Mad Stalker originally designed as a Super System Card game? And was maybe changed at the last minute for technical or marketing reasons? The current system warning screen in the game feels really cheap and that hidden one would have been much better - could it be because the Arcade Card move was a last minute decision? What do you think?

Here's the review page with images of what I think is the Super System Card v.3.0 warning screen:

Mad Stalker - PC Engine

Those graphics look like they could run from a HuCard if SFII is any comparison

[Black Tiger]

Those graphics look like they could run from a HuCard if SFII is any comparison

CD games are the same as HuCard games, only they're bottlenecked by only being able to run a small segment at any given time.

That's why SFII' wasn't also released for Super CD, because a match wouldn't fit within the tiny space that CD games have to run out of.

[Artabasdos]

Those graphics look like they could run from a HuCard if SFII is any comparison

CD games are the same as HuCard games, only they're bottlenecked by only being able to run a small segment at any given time.

That's why SFII' wasn't also released for Super CD, because a match wouldn't fit within the tiny space that CD games have to run out of.

Er, have you seen Art of Fighting or Fatal Fury Special on PCE CD? Both are considerably more advanced than SFII!

[Necromancer]

Er, have you seen Art of Fighting or Fatal Fury Special on PCE CD? Both are considerably more advanced than SFII!

They're also not Super CDs.  If they were, they'd be far less impressive, as an awful lot of sprite frames and background tiles would have to be cut to fit in 1/9th as much ram.

[Artabasdos]

Er, have you seen Art of Fighting or Fatal Fury Special on PCE CD? Both are considerably more advanced than SFII!

They're also not Super CDs.  If they were, they'd be far less impressive, as an awful lot of sprite frames and background tiles would have to be cut to fit in 1/9th as much ram.

He said CD games. He mentioned nothing of system card type.

[Black Tiger]

Those graphics look like they could run from a HuCard if SFII is any comparison

CD games are the same as HuCard games, only they're bottlenecked by only being able to run a small segment at any given time.

That's why SFII' wasn't also released for Super CD, because a match wouldn't fit within the tiny space that CD games have to run out of.

Er, have you seen Art of Fighting or Fatal Fury Special on PCE CD? Both are considerably more advanced than SFII!

It's still just sprites and tiles and no kind of "hardware parallax" or anything else. Instead of a gameplay segment being stuck with half a meg or 2 megs, the Arcade Card expands upon the Super CD's space to allow up to 18 megs used at once.

All three CD formats use identical hardware, which only adds parallel adpcm and redbook audio channels. Otherwise CD games are pretty restricted for what can be done compared to HuCards and cart games in general.

That's why many CD versions of HuCard games have neutered assets.

[Artabasdos]

Those graphics look like they could run from a HuCard if SFII is any comparison

CD games are the same as HuCard games, only they're bottlenecked by only being able to run a small segment at any given time.

That's why SFII' wasn't also released for Super CD, because a match wouldn't fit within the tiny space that CD games have to run out of.

Er, have you seen Art of Fighting or Fatal Fury Special on PCE CD? Both are considerably more advanced than SFII!

It's still just sprites and tiles and no kind of "hardware parallax" or anything else. Instead of a gameplay segment being stuck with half a meg or 2 megs, the Arcade Card expands upon the Super CD's space to allow up to 18 megs used at once.

All three CD formats use identical hardware, which only adds parallel adpcm and redbook audio channels. Otherwise CD games are pretty restricted for what can be done compared to HuCards and cart games in general.

That's why many CD versions of HuCard games have neutered assets.

I assume you're talking about non-arcade system cards right? Otherwise your SFII statement makes no sense.

[Necromancer]

He said CD games. He mentioned nothing of system card type.

He specifically called out Super CD: "That's why SFII' wasn't also released for Super CD, because a match wouldn't fit within the tiny space that CD games have to run out of."

Try harder next time. 

I assume you're talking about non-arcade system cards right? Otherwise your SFII statement makes no sense.

No matter the system card, there's no special graphical capabilities afforded by the CD hardware; other than redbook and adpcm stuff, if it could be done on CD it could be done on huey and visa versa.

[Artabasdos]

He said CD games. He mentioned nothing of system card type.

He specifically called out Super CD: "That's why SFII' wasn't also released for Super CD, because a match wouldn't fit within the tiny space that CD games have to run out of."

Try harder next time. 

I assume you're talking about non-arcade system cards right? Otherwise your SFII statement makes no sense.

No matter the system card, there's no special graphical capabilities afforded by the CD hardware; other than redbook and adpcm stuff, if it could be done on CD it could be done on huey and visa versa.

Yup, I'm an idiot and missed that. My bad.

I'm aware of that, but it does allow for storage of graphics data.