Why the PCE? Why Not the Genesis or Snes???

[sunteam_paul]

I have a theory that back in the days of the Spectrum and C64, the only access they had to the games they were converting was to go down to the local arcade and play them, then write their own version from memory. Of course, some games would not have the sound on, or be a bit quiet, meaning that the musicians either had to invent their own tunes or come up with incomplete versions (Out Run, Rastan..). This would explain a lot  O:)

[SuperPlay]

Why the PCE? Why Not the Genesis or Snes???

Back in the day I had used to work at a console importer here in the UK, so I had access to pretty much every console that came along.  And as such most of my wages also went this way ;-)

To be honest the reason why I am continuing my PCE collection rather than focusing on the other systems is for a few reasons:

* Must OBEY PCE!

* I just think that the design of the unit and the cards is awesome

* I lost my back job in the day (Company closed) so I had to sell my PCE collection at the time and I missed it ;-)

* The PCE has a bit more of a wow factor with friends who only know of the mainstream consoles such as Genesis and Snes.

[sunteam_paul]

Back in the day I had used to work at a console importer here in the UK,

Which one?

[SuperPlay]

Console Concepts (PC Engine Supplies)

Which one?
[/quote]

[SignOfZeta]

I have a theory that back in the days of the Spectrum and C64, the only access they had to the games they were converting was to go down to the local arcade and play them, then write their own version from memory. Of course, some games would not have the sound on, or be a bit quiet, meaning that the musicians either had to invent their own tunes or come up with incomplete versions (Out Run, Rastan..). This would explain a lot  O:)

I'm pretty sure this was the case with a lot of ports in the early 80s.

[sunteam_paul]

Console Concepts (PC Engine Supplies)

Heh, I think I still have one of your newsletters somewhere (cover- 'The creature that ate Concole Concepts' I think, unless I'm getting you mixed up with another company)!
You probably knew of my friend Chris, he used to buy tons of PCE stuff back in the day.

[TheOldMan]

I have a theory that back in the days of the Spectrum and C64, the only access they had to the games they were converting was to go down to the local arcade and play them

Probably not, but it may have been easier to do that way.
A LOT of those games were in assembler, and it's very raer to find a good programer who knows two different assembly languages, and can convert one to the other. I doubt the arcade versions were done on 6502 compatible cpus...

And having access to the original assembler source-code probably wasn't much help, anyway. Well, except for figuring out some basic structure.

[Joe Redifer]

A perfect example of this is Super R-Type on the SNES.

Excellent example.  But see what they did there?  They called it Super R-Type instead of R-Type 2.  If they had called G&G for the Commodore Ghouls & Ghosts Legends or some shit like that, nobody would have complained about any differences they chose to put in there because it would be seen as a mostly original game unto itself.

[Black Tiger]

A perfect example of this is Super R-Type on the SNES.

Excellent example.  But see what they did there?  They called it Super R-Type instead of R-Type 2.  If they had called G&G for the Commodore Ghouls & Ghosts Legends or some shit like that, nobody would have complained about any differences they chose to put in there because it would be seen as a mostly original game unto itself.

Like Super Darius II or even Super Darius to a lesser extent. Darius Plus didn't offer anything unique, but it did have two less screens of play area. Even the split PCE R-Type chapters added something to the title to indicate that the content was different.

[Tatsujin]

So why didn't they call Gradius III = Super Gradius, or Final Fight = Final Fight 1/2? Following by that same rule, they must have do this, since the content is quite different to the original.

[Arkhan]

lol, did anyone ever came across an arky not ranting about anything? Extremely rare case in my book.

I hope he's not such a grumpy person in RL.

You call it ranting, I call it going against the grain.  I don't care if the Amiga / C64 were the most popular at the time and everyone touches themselves to the games.  I don't like them and I'm not afraid to say it.  I have enough experience with the both of them to be justified in my criticism.  I spent around ... hmm.  7 years playing C64/Amiga extensively, not including the 5ish years we had an Amiga growing up.

As for the Amiga, I've had a bunch of Amigas over the years.  The exclusives aren't worth a damn and the rest of the stuff is better elsewhere.  Too many games are up to jump, one button centric disasters because of stupidity.  Some games support multi button, but the majority... nope.  You are atari-joysticking that crap.

and I stress the term crap. 

When you've got a PCE+CD and a Sega Genesis + CD, what the hell do you need an Amiga for besides a doorstop?

Really don't understand the Amiga hate.  It's spiritually the closest machine to the PCE IMO.  Conversions of PC Kid, Bomberman, Rainbow Islands, Parasol stars, NewZealand story etc, that are all closer to the PCE than anything else, and in some cases better.

There are no PCE games on the Amiga that are better than the PCE ones.   I hope that's the meth talking.

The Amiga controller setup is retarded.  The hardware itself is a bit of a pain in the ass.  Try running A500 games on an A4000.  Its fun. Not really.

The action games seem forced, or generic (Menace, lol), the conversions usually have coked out European disaster soundtracks instead of the real tunes.  The hardware is overpriced for what gaming you will get out of it.  All of the RPGs are western style, and that sucks even though theyre fun.  There isnt enough variety in them.

All of these RPGs are accessible on the PC also, and really, they are much simpler to get going.  Use an MT-32, and you have just destroyed Paula, that stupid whore.

The Amiga boasted really nice graphics.  *really* nice ones.   The games themselves however, are rarely as great as people make them out to be. 

especially BC kid.  What the hell were they doing when they made that.  Like I said before they somehow managed to make it look worse on the Amiga despite it having 3500something extra colors.  The sky should have been the limit in porting it.  More shading/detail, parallax out the ass.  None of it happened.  Its washed out and crappy looking.   then you have to listen to some awful congo music, and then you wonder why you are playing it on an overpriced computer that takes up more space than a betamax VCR, when you could play it on a nice, sexy PCE.

Find me an Amiga game that is on par with Lords of Thunder, Sapphire, or Cotton.   I bet you can't.

[Joe Redifer]

So why didn't they call Gradius III = Super Gradius, or Final Fight = Final Fight 1/2? Following by that same rule, they must have do this, since the content is quite different to the original.

I have no clue what Gradius 3 is like in the arcades nor do I really care, but Final Fight should not be renamed.  It tries to be like the arcade but system limitations forced them to leave some crap out.  The soundtrack is the same from what I recall (only SNES-ized).  Any actual differences are not as significant than a completely redone soundtrack by some random guy.

[spenoza]

You know, honestly, the companies which licensed the porting/reprogramming duties to these Euro dev houses are just as much to blame. Their contracts should have included the right of review and approval.

[esteban]

If you want some variety, you wouldn't buy the same game for a bunch of different platforms.  I always find it interesting to see how each system handles an arcade translation, but when they don't even bother and just change it completely, that tells me that they couldn't handle it.  Why don't they chang the stage graphics to be outer-space as well?  After all you want some variety!

I hear you, and I do not disagree with you... it's just that I thought you appreciated the variety (see below) because we benefit from it.

Yes, as a person obsessed with video games, I enjoy the nuanced (and not so nunaced) differences between various versions/ports of the same game. Remember, I am talking from the vantage point of someone who will EVENTUALLY try multiple versions of a game because I have nothing better to do.

I will certainly LISTEN to most, if not all, of the music offered by these multiple versions.

From this vantage point, I don't want too many clones/duplicates, because then I have fewer things to listen to.

I have a disease, Joe. So do you.

[Jibbajaba]

To answer the original question...

I never had a Turbo back in the day, but to me the 16-bit era was the golden age of gaming.  I was in high school at the time, and I was all about the Genesis, my computer, and regular trips to the arcade.  So needless to say, I really like playing games from that period.

I've been collecting games for about 12 or so years, so by this point I've played (or am at least familiar with) most games on the SNES and Genesis that are worth playing.  I've dipped my toe in the TurboGrafx pool before, but now I have more disposable income than I once did, and one of the first things that I bought was a Duo-R from doujindance.  I also have a PCE flash cart, but I like collecting the real games so I don't use it very much.  My point is that now I have this whole new huge selection of games that I have not only never played, but many that I have never even heard of (on the PCE side of things).  So even though the console is over 20 years old, to me it almost feels like a brand new system, and that feels exciting because I look forward to exploring its library. 

I certainly don't play my PCE *instead* of the Genesis or SNES, but for me right now it is a lot more fun to play and collect for.  That being said, I love my other two 16-bit systems and would never want to give them up.

Chris