PCE, SNES and Genesis, screen comparison.

[fragmare]

I think the best way to compare PC-Engine screenshots to Genesis screenshots is to adjust them to appear as they would on a normal NTSC/PAL TV screen in 4:3 ratio, scanlines, etc.  I've made an example out of a couple of screenshots i took of Afterburner II from each system below...

  <- PC-Engine
  <- Genesis

[Tatsujin]

why can't i see all the pix you hosted on mindrec?

[fragmare]

the ".../~fragmare/" directory on mindrec.com is private and not accessible to the public.  I can, however, link to individual files within that directory at my whim.   

[Tatsujin]

but all you pictures, including your avatar, are not showing up on my pc?

[fragmare]

No clue about that.  Maybe there's a broken router between mindrec.com and your machine somewhere.  Maybe you could try a tracert.exe or something?

[Tatsujin]

since i also can't access mindrec.com, I tracer'd it and it stopped here:

r-1.core04.st1.rosehosting.com [206.196.99.250]

after that only timeouts.

 

[awack]

Ghouls n ghost.

Strider is next, which i think looks better overall on the genesis.


             pce sg                                                     genesis










 

[ceti alpha]

Hard to tell which Afterburner is better. A matter of preference there, I would say. Now, the Supergrafx GnG is superior to the Genny's.

I just wish the PCE had a Ghosts 'n Goblins. 

[Tatsujin]

daimakaimura on the md is such out of competition. the only thing which looks better, is the grass in the first stage.

even the sgfx daimakaimura is not arcade like, so it's still milles closer to it, than the md version.

[Necromancer]

As for Raiden, the SNES version looks like crap compared to the SNES version, & I mean that!

Now who can argue with such flawless logic?  It's so damn shitty, comparisons are entirely unnecessary. 

[Tom]

Awack, are you manually cropping those SGX pics to 320 res or is ME doing that? If ME's doing it, then it's stretching out the image when you're playing in game/emu.

 Thought I mention that PCE/SGX mid res mode has a pixel aspect ratio of 0.839 (Genesis high res is 0.9).

 The original SGX shot (342x232):


And both SGX and Genesis pics aspect ratio fixed:



 A much slimer Arthur on the SGX version like the arcade version 

[Joe Redifer]

First off, those pics of Afterburner look FAR too dim.  They look much brighter on a real TV so I don't think that is a good way to display them.  The way Awak is doing it is just fine (aspect ratio issues aside which we can correct ourselves if needed).

Secondly, although this particular comparison has been beaten to death, Ghouls & Ghosts on the SuperGrafx definitely gets points for including all of the BGs and slightly more arcade-faithful artwork.  However level 3 in the Genesis looks MUCH better when you are scrolling upwards and I do not like the way the trees blow in level 1 of the SuperGrafx version.  The level 4 boss on the SuperGrafx version seems to have odd/missing tiles in the far BG.  Neither version seems to show the defeated boss as in the arcade.

Both games are good.  I wonder how the Genesis version would have looked if it were 8 MEGA POWER like the SuperGrafx version.


Also, when adjusting images to 4:3, one must account for the overscan border that the emulators rarely display.  Only with these borders in place can you get the true shape of how it would appear on a 4:3 TV.  Stretching a 320x224 image to 320 x 240 would give artificial results, for example.

[Tom]

Also, when adjusting images to 4:3, one must account for the overscan border that the emulators rarely display.  Only with these borders in place can you get the true shape of how it would appear on a 4:3 TV.  Stretching a 320x224 image to 320 x 240 would give artificial results, for example.

 For Genesis, it is showing overscan in the emulator. The edges of the 320 wide image is in overscan area. 320 pixels across is it. You can't show more(have graphics) in the clipped areas beyond that. For PCE/SGX, it can. It can show data right up to either end of the active scanline - but rarely does and as there's not point in doing so. The 342 res is the same width as the 320 on the Genesis viewable area, the SGX game just added additional software clipping (not sure why, it doesn't do anything). 256 pixel mode of either system is also the same width as 320 Genesis and 342 PCE/SGX.

[awack]

Awack, are you manually cropping those SGX pics to 320 res or is ME doing that? If ME's doing it, then it's stretching out the image when you're playing in game/emu.

No, those are untouched, its all magicengine...i see what you mean though.

Strider.


                pce                                              genesis

[ceti alpha]

I know the PCE port of Strider is supposed to play like crap, but only judging by the screenshots, the PCE stands up. I can't say it's better than the Genny, but I do prefer the look of some of the PCE screenshots over the Genny, and vice versa.

For an Arcade Card game they really could have done a lot better with Strider. I know the PCE port has some cool cinemas and sequences that do show off some of the Arcade Card's capabilities, but the actual game looks like a SuperCD.

This thread is just driving the point home that the system specs don't matter as much as the effort and ability of the developers. Though, of course, each of the 16 bit systems do have their specialties.