Graphics: Turbo vs. Genesis - ye old debate

[Black Tiger]

Put me in with Chris and Joe on this issue: I wasn't playing the Genesis for the sports games. I don't think all of the western-developed games for Genesis were bad, but many of them had a lot to be desired. That said, you have to admit that Genesis got a bunch of neat ports  (Star Control, King's Bounty, etc.) that make it a lot easier to dismiss the crappy stuff.

What first attracted me to the TurboGrafx-16 as a Genesis owner, was the 'original'/console games like Neutopia and Dungeon Explorer. I've always loved arcade games and it was cool to have faithful home ports of some, but I wanted some great SMS/NES games with next gen aesthetics. I liked stuff like Revenge of Shinobi, PSII, Sword of Vermillion and Last Battle more than GnG, Golden Axe and Strider.

I had a passing interest in the TG-16 from what little I'd seen of it, I really liked some of the colorful grafx. One day an aquantence of mine (real game nerd) invited me over to see his new TG-16 in action. He was playing Neutopia and Dungeon Explorer mainly that night. I didn't pay DE much attention, since it looked like a Gauntlet rip-off and I hated Gauntlet. Neutopia looked cool, but again I kinda brushed it off probably from console-bias of being a Genesis player.

But in the weeks that followed I started thinking about those games and couldn't get them out of mind. I quickly realized that they were exactly what I wanted (long questy 16-bit games). I got a TG-16 that X-Mas/Birthday and not long afterwards I found an ad in the newspaper in which that guy was selling both Neutopia and Dungeon Explorer.

Although I'd ocassionally sell and later buy new Genesis & SNES systems over the years, the TG-16/PCE is the one console I've always hung onto from that time onward.

[Tatsujin]

dammit. just played altered beast on the PCE today and this game is a real bitch! even couldn't pass stage one. this game really sucks big dicks in hell. what an awful gameplay. after three tries you like to smash your whole pce set on the next wall. fortunately i just tried twice.

have to say that the MD port is light years better than that crap here!

[Keranu]

But in the weeks that followed I started thinking about those games and couldn't get them out of mind.

Haha, I love this line.

[ceti alpha]

Yes, the TG-16 is insipid. It seeps into the mind and doesn't go away. 

[Black Tiger]

dammit. just played altered beast on the PCE today and this game is a real bitch! even couldn't pass stage one. this game really sucks big dicks in hell. what an awful gameplay. after three tries you like to smash your whole pce set on the next wall. fortunately i just tried twice.

have to say that the MD port is light years better than that crap here!

One version is ridiculously hard and the other is supposed to be fairly easy.

I'm guessing that you're playing the hard one(HuCard?).

[Keranu]

I've only played the HuCard one and yeah it's a bitch to play! The main problem is with the jumping since you have to press UP to jump and the jumping itself in Altered Beast is very rough, so it makes really hard to perform jump kicks and such.

[WoodyXP]

I enjoyed both formats of Altered Beast on PCE.  My only gripes are that you only get like 2 continues and on the CD version the gameplay pauses
two or three times in a stage to load data(usually around mid-way and before & after boss)... kills the flow of the game.

[Joe Redifer]

Altered Beast on CD offers two difficulty levels: Normal and Hard.  The HuCard doesn't offer either of those difficulties.  It is stuck on "Bleeding Anus" difficulty.  I broke a controller while playing it.  You can beat the CD version with any system card as long as you never turn in to a beast.  That means you have to meet up with Neff 3 times before he will fight you.

[Turbo D]

You can fight him as a human? I never knew that 

[nat]

I had no idea the cart version was harder than the CD. I always thought the CD version was identical to the cart but with some generous load times thrown in for good measure.

I only own the cart and it's not that hard! I've never beat it though. I can make it to stage 4.

I wonder how they made the game easier for the CD? I can't really see anything making it easier unless they rewrote the control code.

I actually like the game. The graphics are nice and crisp and the songs sound nice on the Turbo's sound chip.

[Keranu]

You can fight him as a human? I never knew that 

Neither did I! Now I'm gonna have to try playing through the game like that! 

I actually like the game. The graphics are nice and crisp and the songs sound nice on the Turbo's sound chip.

Yeah same here. When I first got into the PCE, Altered Beast was one of the first games I played and I thought the graphics looked really polished compared to the Genesis version from memory. I also dug the music in the PCE version, but what really hurt the PCE version is the lack of voices! That's one of the main reasons why I play the game in the first place!

[malducci]

The CD version has the voices though.  CD version is a strange port. The changed some of tiles, but they don't look any better and some look worse. I never realized before, but the PCE CD version has better (sprite) gfx than I thought. At first glance you wouldn't think so.

some comparison pics. PCE has green BG, and MD has blue BG.









The genesis one uses 320pixel mode while the PCE use 256pixel mode, but the PCE has more shades and doesn't repeat colors as much. Plus, it has the animation of the debris similar to the arcade, instead of generic "clumps" of stuff. Too bad the backgrounds are pretty generic (atleast for the first stage).

 I also noticed poor use of sprites for some of the enemy parts- they overlay a second and third set of sprites to save animation, but increases flicker. The zombies arms and the headless-purple-dress-guy's head are some examples.

[Keranu]

Great comparison, the Wolf's kicking stances look way cooler in the PCE version.  There are a few sprites I prefer on the Genesis version though. It's funny you mention the clouds because when I first played the PCE version, it was those clouds that made me notice what I thought gave the PCE version a more polished look.

[Turbo D]

Great comparison  I've always liked the grafx in the pce version better. Especially that kicking stance 

[Tatsujin]

wow..yes..great comparison there. just a shame, the BGs in the PCE version didn't look that great as well and then the horrible gameplay