R-Type

[nat]

I was playing R-Type last night and I was thinking... HuCard or CD? And why? Having owned both, I think I like the CD better. The only thing about the CD I dislike is that they changed the music for the first level. The CD has some electronic voice saying "R-Type" repeatedly throughout the song. I have no idea why they did this. The original level 1 music was classic. The rest of the CD music just seems to be higher quality versions of the original music. I don't understand why they didn't do this with level 1. It's because of the better sound, however, that the CD version is my pick. That, and the neat intro. And the cooler user manual.

Also, I wished they'd fixed the sprite flicker for the CD version. I know the TurboGrafx/PCE is capable of handling this game without flicker. During some parts of level 5, the flicker is so bad you honestly don't know how many enemies are on screen. The CD version was released in 1991. That was late enough in the life of the console that most folks had figured out how to make games with minimal or no sprite flicker. Seeing as how R-Type is possibly the worst case of sprite flicker of all-time, if I were Irem I would have made damn sure to reverse this embarrassment. R-Type on the TG is a killer port of a great game, but IMO playability is hindered by this issue. And I mean, they had obviously already made the decision to go to the trouble of re-releasing the game with updated sound. Why didn't they go the whole distance and fix the graphics at the same time?

Anyhow... HuCard or CD? What do YOU think? Discuss.

[runinruder]

I only own the card version, but superior audio won't spur me to buy the CD rendition anytime soon.  I appreciate the level design in R-Type but I've never enjoyed playing the game.  As far as slow-and-tough Turbo sidescrollers go, I'd much rather play Sinistron or Psychosis. 

[nat]

I only own the card version, but superior audio won't spur me to buy the CD rendition anytime soon.  I appreciate the level design in R-Type but I've never enjoyed playing the game.  As far as slow-and-tough Turbo sidescrollers go, I'd much rather play Sinistron or Psychosis. 

I enjoy the game, but I would enjoy it a lot more if the flicker were absent. For me, my biggest pet peeve in games is flicker. Momentary slowdown I can deal with (*cough* Gradius *cough*), but flicker? No way. At least not to the extent of R-Type. There's nothing more frustrating than playing a level, frantically blasting away at anything in sight, and then things come screeching to a halt as your ship is obliterated by an unseen bogie popping up out of nowhere at point-blank range and landing a fierce barrage of laser blasts on your hull. K-O! The worst part is, you literally never even saw him coming. You never had a chance. It's times like these I throw down the controller in frustration and turn off the game. In all fairness, this doesn't really become an issue until level 5 in R-Type. But they should have fixed it, dammit. But I digress.. I still like the game, especially the CD version.

As a side note, Psychosis is a kick ass game. There is very little flicker or slowdown. The graphics are extremely vibrant and it has some cool parallax, especially in level 5. It's also pretty challenging. I think Psychosis is a very underrated game-- I highly recommend to any shooter fan. It's got to be in my top 5 favorite shooters for the Turbo.

[runinruder]

Right on, Psychosis rules.  Awesome idea for a shooter, with great music (especially in the first two stages) and an admirable level of challenge.  I also like how you can get various creatures to help you out (the butterflies in stage one and turtle in four). 

[Joe Redifer]

I prefer the HuCard version for it's all-around superior music (I do not care for the CD versions of the tunes).  I think I prefer the Japanese version because it only has the first four levels.  The final four levels are extremely dull for me so having just the good levels on one card is great!  On the US version I always turn the game off upon reaching stage 5 anyway.

As for the flicker, at least it has a little bit less than the Sega Master System version.

[Tatsujin]

Also, I wished they'd fixed the sprite flicker for the CD version. I know the TurboGrafx/PCE is capable of handling this game without flicker. During some parts of level 5, the flicker is so bad you honestly don't know how many enemies are on screen. The CD version was released in 1991. That was late enough in the life of the console that most folks had figured out how to make games with minimal or no sprite flicker.

the flickering in the cd-version is even much worse than in its 3 year older hucard pendant. therefore i prefere the hucard-version much more.

[vestcoat]

The hucard music is classic.  The CD music is...quirky.

I doubt even the supporters of the CD music would like it as much if they hadn't first been exposed to the original soundtrack.

Imagine it's the eighties or nineties and you're going to going to play an awesome looking, arcade shooter called "R-Type" for the first time and you hear some lame techno crap kick in. 
No way.

That said, something about playing the disc version feels more like a finished product to me.  The Turbochip feels a little plain somehow.  I also have R-type on the SMS and PS1; but I like the Turbochip and Complete CD the most and they're tied in my book.

[TR0N]

SCD>Hucard

I perfer it on the hucard more since it has the original music.

Still does suffer from flicker as well.

Realy the, best the port of it that i ever played of it was r-types for the ps1.

Still if you realy like r-type that much i would recomend, Pulstar for the NeoGeo.

It was made by the same ppl that did r-type.... not to mention pulstar plays so much like r-type.

Heck it's one of the best r-type clones i'd ever played.

[esteban]

I'm too lazy to get into this again, but R-Type CD's soundtrack is a welcome change :

In defense of R-R-R-R-R-R-R-Type

As far as flicker is concerned, I never found it crippling, but of course I would have loved it if they reduced flicker in the CD version. I guess one's tolerance for flicker is relative to their yardstick: I'm used to the flicker of famicom /nes games, including the shooters, so the flicker in R-Type HuCard / CD seemed "acceptable."

[nat]

Also, I wished they'd fixed the sprite flicker for the CD version. I know the TurboGrafx/PCE is capable of handling this game without flicker. During some parts of level 5, the flicker is so bad you honestly don't know how many enemies are on screen. The CD version was released in 1991. That was late enough in the life of the console that most folks had figured out how to make games with minimal or no sprite flicker.

the flickering in the cd-version is even much worse than in its 3 year older hucard pendant. therefore i prefere the hucard-version much more.

Is it really?

See, I used to own the R-Type HuCard "back in the day". I sold it five or so years ago when I was "cleaning house" on some of my Turbo games. I guess I just hadn't played it in a while and thought I wouldn't miss it.

About a year ago I was really fiending for a game of R-Type, so I picked up the R-Type CD.

I always thought the flicker on the CD version was worse than I remembered but I thought my memory had to be tricking me since it had been roughly five years since I'd played the HuCard.

[nat]

The hucard music is classic.  The CD music is...quirky.

I doubt even the supporters of the CD music would like it as much if they hadn't first been exposed to the original soundtrack.

Imagine it's the eighties or nineties and you're going to going to play an awesome looking, arcade shooter called "R-Type" for the first time and you hear some lame techno crap kick in. 
No way.

That said, something about playing the disc version feels more like a finished product to me.  The Turbochip feels a little plain somehow.  I also have R-type on the SMS and PS1; but I like the Turbochip and Complete CD the most and they're tied in my book.

Actually, I don't think the CD music is lame at all. Aside from the first song which blows chunks compared to it's HuCard equivalent. But it's still decent. The rest of the tunes sound like an "upgrade" of the same music, basically, and I actually prefer the CD versions.

However, I agree completely on the rest of your points. Especially that the CD feels more like a finished product. Better manual, neat intro and cutscenes and technically superior music.

[nat]

As far as flicker is concerned, I never found it crippling, but of course I would have loved it if they reduced flicker in the CD version. I guess one's tolerance for flicker is relative to their yardstick: I'm used to the flicker of famicom /nes games, including the shooters, so the flicker in R-Type HuCard / CD seemed "acceptable."

I was an NES player in the late '80s before I got a TurboGrafx. While there was quite a bit of sprite flicker and slowdown on the NES at times (even in games like SMB2 no less), the TG/PCE was a much more powerful machine. In the early days virtually none of my TG games had any flicker at all. It wasn't until a few years later, maybe 1994 or 1995, that I got my first copy of R-Type.

At the time it was like WOAH, this is a step backwards, technically. I knew the hardware was capable of so much more.

[esteban]

As far as flicker is concerned, I never found it crippling, but of course I would have loved it if they reduced flicker in the CD version. I guess one's tolerance for flicker is relative to their yardstick: I'm used to the flicker of famicom /nes games, including the shooters, so the flicker in R-Type HuCard / CD seemed "acceptable."

I was an NES player in the late '80s before I got a TurboGrafx. While there was quite a bit of sprite flicker and slowdown on the NES at times (even in games like SMB2 no less), the TG/PCE was a much more powerful machine. In the early days virtually none of my TG games had any flicker at all. It wasn't until a few years later, maybe 1994 or 1995, that I got my first copy of R-Type.

At the time it was like WOAH, this is a step backwards, technically. I knew the hardware was capable of so much more.

I hear ya . I think if you got R-Type sooner, you would have been more forgiving of the flicker . At the time the HuCard was released for TG-16, it was a great port, flicker and all. Like the venerable NES and SMS, the new crop of consoles ("16-bit" era) didn't offer "flicker-free" gaming, so while flicker was undesirable, I didn't consider it unacceptable. It was just a part of life. We got fancier, nicer graphics, but there was still flicker, whether it was the result of sloppy coding, pushing the hardware to its limits, or otherwise.

[Kaminari]

I've never been bothered by the flicker in R-Type either. I consider it as a mark of craftsmanship: a fantastic arcade game ported on a so-called 8-bit system by a bunch of garage coders still exploring its untapped power. Playing at the arcade machine by day and going back home to play at almost the exact same game on an obscure console, that made many of my Amiga friends kind of violent I tell you

[esteban]

Playing at the arcade machine by day and going back home to play at almost the exact same game on an obscure console, that made many of my Amiga friends kind of violent I tell you

Precisely .