Best Home Console For Arcade Ports?

[VectorGamer]

I know the lines get blurry, but the C64 is a computer and is not eligible for consideration. Although the 2600 et al are also computers, they are game consoles by trade.

 

A previous post mentioned pre and post 1983, which I agree is a good dividing line. Much of the games released in 1984 were incorporating laser disc technology and the play was unlike the classic games up to 1983. Having said that, I believe the only game in the list of 41 to be removed would be Millipede. But, correct me if I am wrong.

 

What I think we should do is expand the list (of now 40) to every pre-1983 title that was ported to home console. That would include Pong (Video Olympics), Space War, Tank (Combat) and others. That would make it "black and white" versus "my opinion" of whether a game like e.g. "Popeye" is worthy of mention. Please do not include all the pong hardware variants that were released - we are only looking at cartridge-based home consoles not dedicated consoles.

 

Please post suggestions for additional games to be included in the list to this thread and I will compile a master list as we go. Also, it would help to name at least one known console that the game was ported to. e.g. Tank (Atari 2600)

 

Going forward, what would be the opinion of having users submit rankings of the arcade ports as played on the respective hardware console (i.e. no emulators)? Also, anyone know of another site/books besides videogamecritic and the book by Weis that grades classic console games?

 

After this data is collected and submitted, should we then vote on which one console should be elected via a forum poll?

 

Then to put the icing on the cake, I think we should select the best accessories for the winning console. The best joysticks, paddles etc...Heck, maybe even so far as best audio/video output...

[Ransom]

Thanks for the detailed analysis, Bobby!

 

It looks like my suspicion was right, and the XEGM holds its own against all comers, including the CV. OTOH, the CV has significantly more arcade titles than the 5200.

 

For early-80s arcade ports that are high quality, XEGM wins hands down. VCS has more, but we all know that quality is widely varying on those. Next up would be CV.

 

But, IMO, the ports on the 5200 are better than on the XEGM or CV (albeit more limited in quantity).

 

Of course, my own solution is to work toward having them all (except the C=64; there's just not enough room for yet another computer system, whereas there always seems to be room for another console).

[vdub_bobby]

You should try mobygames for much better numbers. They track 276 for the C64 (still too low I think), 187 for the NES and 99 for the 2600:

 

http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/x,10/

For a couple of reasons:

1) digitpress.com allows filtering on US releases, so I don't have to click through every game to see if it was a JP-only release (which is big for the NES, that's probably a big reason why the NES numbers are higher).

2) They have detailed notes so you can track down which game it is supposedly a port of, which is helpful for games with altered names (Air-Sea Battle=Anti-Aircraft, The Ninja=Ninja Princess). And by the way, for the record: I used digitpress.com for the lists of ports and got 99.9% of the dates from klov.com.

3) They might have better numbers for the computers but - they're still wrong, I'd bet. For a detailed counting you'd probably have to go to AtariMania (for 800/XL/XE) or lemon64 (or?) for C64. And that is just way too much work!

 

Much of the games released in 1984 were incorporating laser disc technology and the play was unlike the classic games up to 1983.

This is just nonsense. Laser disc games were then, and always have been since, a small minority. And very very few of that small minority were ported to home consoles, for obvious reasons.

Edited March 9, 2009 by vdub_bobby

[Mechamania]

Yeah, I own over 30 cartridges on that list of 41 that I can play on the XEGS, most of which are noticeably better than their Coleco counterparts, about 10 of which I own, for both systems. Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong, Jr., with only three boards, is a good place to start, in pointing to the superiority of the XEGS, the guts of which were essentially made in the 1970s, even though the parts in an XEGS weren’t manufactured, then...

[Flojomojo]

I think there's a clear winner. 

 

 

I guess that's emulation/cheating, but seriously, as the British kids say, it pisses on all the others from a great height. It's THE old-person machine, bar none, as far as I'm concerned.

 

In the spirit of your question, if I had to have a single retro machine that replicated old arcade games from the golden era, I would pick Colecovision, because of the weird quirky stuff they chose or managed to license. There are some Colecovision games I've never actually played in an arcade, and I used to live for arcade games. 

[VectorGamer]

10 year old thread comes back to haunt me...

 

I would still pick the ColecoVision if emulation didn't exist.

 

But since emulation does exist, my opinion is now why bother with console gaming.

[Flojomojo]

Heh, I didn't realize it was a necro-thread. Glad I wasn't the one to dig it up, but it's still a fun question. 

 

My answer still stands. I would have LOVED Nintendo Switch in 2009!!

[+sramirez2008]

I just received my CollectorVision Phoenix, and am having lots of fun playing through the Coleco library of games.  However, I would go with the 5200 and an AtariMax cart.  I love the 5200 trak-ball, twin-stick games and all of the 8-bit conversions (e.g Satan’s Hollow, Dropzone etc).

[VectorGamer]

14 minutes ago, sramirez2008 said:

I just received my CollectorVision Phoenix, and am having lots of fun playing through the Coleco library of games.  However, I would go with the 5200 and an AtariMax cart.  I love the 5200 trak-ball, twin-stick games and all of the 8-bit conversions (e.g Satan’s Hollow, Dropzone etc).

Phoenix doesn't have wireless controllers so that was a deal breaker for me.

 

 

[Cynicaster]

On ‎11‎/‎22‎/‎2019 at 10:34 AM, VectorGamer said:

10 year old thread comes back to haunt me...

 

I would still pick the ColecoVision if emulation didn't exist.

 

 

A few years back, weren't you a big "original hardware" guy?  Am I remembering that right?  

 

If so then this statement...

 

Quote

But since emulation does exist, my opinion is now why bother with console gaming.

... represents quite the 180, indeed. 

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm with you.  I still play Atari 2600 on real hardware, sometimes NES, and even more rarely, some other systems.  But the advantages of emulation are very seductive...

 

- less "stuff" to store and trip over

- easy connection to modern TVs

- less "stuff" to store and trip over

- widespread availability of inexpensive "all in one" solutions (e.g., old computers, tablets, RPis, etc.)

- less "stuff" to store and trip over

- easy to sit one's fat wide ass on the couch with cordless controller and surf through thousands of games across multiple platforms without having to so much as stand up (I use Launch Box / Big Box - outstanding)

- less "stuff" to store and trip over

- less "stuff" to store and trip over

 

 

[VectorGamer]

3 minutes ago, Cynicaster said:

 

A few years back, weren't you a big "original hardware" guy?  Am I remembering that right?  

 

- easy to sit one's fat wide ass on the couch with cordless controller and surf through thousands of games across multiple platforms without having to so much as stand up (I use Launch Box / Big Box - outstanding)

 

Yes the nostalgia of playing on real hardware has worn off.

 

Now I'm at the point in my life where I'm overwhelmed by stuff I've accumulated and I want to simplify. Sure everything I have is neatly organized on shelves and out of the way, but it's also stuff that doesn't get any attention which to me seems pointless to hold on to it. I don't want my house to be a museum.

 

Raspberry Pi and SD card cost me less than $100 and as you say I can sit my fat ass on the couch and go through thousands of games through emulation station without having to burn any calories.

[deepthaw]

On 11/22/2019 at 9:18 AM, Flojomojo said:

I guess that's emulation/cheating, but seriously, as the British kids say, it pisses on all the others from a great height. It's THE old-person machine, bar none, as far as I'm concerned.

 

In the spirit of your question, if I had to have a single retro machine that replicated old arcade games from the golden era, I would pick Colecovision, because of the weird quirky stuff they chose or managed to license. There are some Colecovision games I've never actually played in an arcade, and I used to live for arcade games. 

 

Sega Ages + ACA Neo*Geo + assorted other ports has truly made the Switch fantastic for the old-man gamer. Do PS4 and XBone get as much love in that area?

[Cynicaster]

24 minutes ago, VectorGamer said:

Raspberry Pi and SD card cost me less than $100 and as you say I can sit my fat ass on the couch and go through thousands of games through emulation station without having to burn any calories.

 

Yeah, burning calories while playing videogames is for suckers.  That's why I always thought Wii was stupid.

 

The flip-side of the super-emulator-box concept is that you get buried in options and sometimes it's hard to focus and pick something to play.  Part of the problem is ROMs are often obtained as full sets, which contain a lot of crap.  It would be sweet to have a setup with nice, curated lists of "all killer, no filler" for each platform.  Anybody is free to make their own lists but the time required to go through everything makes it easier said than done.  

 

  

 

 

[VectorGamer]

11 minutes ago, Cynicaster said:

The flip-side of the super-emulator-box concept is that you get buried in options and sometimes it's hard to focus and pick something to play.  Part of the problem is ROMs are often obtained as full sets, which contain a lot of crap.  It would be sweet to have a setup with nice, curated lists of "all killer, no filler" for each platform.  Anybody is free to make their own lists but the time required to go through everything makes it easier said than done.  

 

Downloading the full sets doesn't bother me. That stuff is there in the event I want to discover a game in the future. There are some platforms where I only downloaded games I'm familiar with though so I don't have complete sets of every platform on my Pi.

 

One more thing on nostalgia - my wife and I played Combat and two player Space Invaders 2600 emulated last night and I did get nostalgic because those were the first two games I had the night I got my 2600 back in 1980. So nostalgia is possible at least for me through emulation.

[derFunkenstein]

On 11/22/2019 at 10:17 AM, Flojomojo said:

Heh, I didn't realize it was a necro-thread. Glad I wasn't the one to dig it up, but it's still a fun question. 

 

My answer still stands. I would have LOVED Nintendo Switch in 2009!!

Even today it's pretty cool, and it's absolutely the right answer for a console for arcade ports. I picked up a handful of the ACA Neo Geo ports when they were on sale last week, and they're really well done. Better than the Neo Geo mini. Too bad the Joycons don't have a proper microswitched D-pad. The micro switch buttons feel great, though. 

 

Also the port of Virtua Racing is *amazing*. Oh my goodness. 

 

Does Nintendo's pro controller use microswitches or rubber membranes for buttons and dpad? 

Edited November 26, 2019 by derFunkenstein

[Tanooki]

Isn't there kind of in a way no real answer to the question?  Each few years or so another console would come out, and in general would be a good jump over the last in quality and in turn since arcade games were being converted up into really the Dreamcast era, each piece of hardware tended to be the best for that time frame.  Like if you wanted arcade titles, as the topic says console(which I discount home computers for PC, C64 etc) it was the NES in the 8bit era, though the SMS did have its moments too on some Sega arcade properties along with Double Dragon and Rampage too.  In the 16bit era again, Sega on their stuff was tops, but when it came to arcade conversions more shared the SNES won that bout, and in some cases when it was the PCE or GEN the PCE would stomp the Genesis in that regard.

[Cynicaster]

30 minutes ago, VectorGamer said:

Downloading the full sets doesn't bother me. That stuff is there in the event I want to discover a game in the future. 

 

Exactly.  This, for me, is what makes the task of generating more focused ROM libraries so daunting.  If it were just a matter of creating lists of games I already know I like, that would be easy.

 

But since I love discovering new-to-me games, there's no good way to separate the grain from the chaff without going game by game through vast libraries and deleting the Olsen Twins games and RPGs (a genre that doesn't interest me in the slightest) one by one.  

 

 

Edited November 26, 2019 by Cynicaster

[Flojomojo]

I dunno ... we kind of have the best of both worlds now. 
 

No more playing $60 roulette to see if a game is any good

 

"oh no, too many choices!" is not a "problem" from where I sit. It's easy enough to solve with just a little focus and effort

 

-- from someone with very little focus and effort

[VectorGamer]

26 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:

No more playing $60 roulette to see if a game is any good

 

Pretty much. I spent a lot of money on home brews over the last 10 years. Some games were better than others. I haven't kept financial records on everything I bought and sold but my hunch is I at least broke even.

 

In my case, I no longer have to be held hostage by pre-orders. I would still entertain buying home brew ROMs though if they were made available.

 

 

 

 

[NE146]

1 hour ago, Cynicaster said:

The flip-side of the super-emulator-box concept is that you get buried in options and sometimes it's hard to focus and pick something to play.  Part of the problem is ROMs are often obtained as full sets, which contain a lot of crap.  It would be sweet to have a setup with nice, curated lists of "all killer, no filler" for each platform.  Anybody is free to make their own lists but the time required to go through everything makes it easier said than done.  

That's why I really liked The Smokemonster sets because they totally lent themselves to that. It contained full romsets of course categorized A-Z for both jap & us sets, but then someone sat down and created additional categories it would take countless hours to do yourself.  And you could go through the folders to browse what you just happen to be in the mood in... kind of like a library that went beyond the alphabetical organization.  Granted some consoles were better categorized than others, but still, it was nice. 

 

Like for NES for example it had folders for:

Jap #-A-Z

US #-A-Z

By Developer (Capcom, HAL, Irem, Konami, Namco, Nintendo, etc.)
By Year (1983,1984,1985, etc.)
Black Box games
PAL Exclusive
Vs Arcade
Playchoice-1 arcade
Four Score Compatible
"Mario" Games
Pinball games
Racing games

Sports Games

Puzzle Games

Shootemups

Betas / Revisions
Famicom 3D system
Demos
Hacks
Tools & Service Test carts
Top 100 List - Gamefaqs 
Top 100 List - (some other web content I forget..)

 

And that's just what I remember..
 

 

[Cynicaster]

31 minutes ago, NE146 said:

That's why I really liked The Smokemonster sets because they totally lent themselves to that. It contained full romsets of course categorized A-Z for both jap & us sets, but then someone sat down and created additional categories it would take countless hours to do yourself.  And you could go through the folders to browse what you just happen to be in the mood in... kind of like a library that went beyond the alphabetical organization.  Granted some consoles were better categorized than others, but still, it was nice. 

 

Like for NES for example it had folders for:

<snip>

And that's just what I remember..
 

 

 

^^ that would be really handy.  I have my Atari 2600 ROMs set up in a similar way on my Harmony cart. 

 

What exactly is this "smokemonster sets" thing?  Is that just ROM files that were distributed in a zip file that contains a folder structure?  

 

[Tanooki]

1 hour ago, NE146 said:

That's why I really liked The Smokemonster sets because they totally lent themselves to that. It contained full romsets of course categorized A-Z for both jap & us sets, but then someone sat down and created additional categories it would take countless hours to do yourself.  And you could go through the folders to browse what you just happen to be in the mood in... kind of like a library that went beyond the alphabetical organization.  Granted some consoles were better categorized than others, but still, it was nice. 

 

All my packages I have for kits I own are just like that, and if something was entirely un-usable I'd just cut the folder.  I got a N64 kit coming finally, and I could not find a compiled file loaded smokemonster, best was the stuff that can be posted up on archive.org a no intro one.  It just has them all A-Z game after game with no sub-folders for regions.  I'm going to have to create the SM directory tree of sorts so it's not a nightmare sitting on a 16GB SD card in the end and that kind of sucks.  At least it's just 300+ games and not 1500.

[VectorGamer]

Despite the fact that this 10 year old thread has generated new discussion, it certainly hasn't aged well. At the time I started this thread, yes I was hardcore into playing on original hardware cuz the alternative at the time was playing emulation on my laptop with some USB controller. Three years before Raspberry Pi came out and I have no idea when Retropie was released.

 

My opinion now is this thread sucks donkey dinks and should be deleted.

 

The horror.

 

The horror.

[Flojomojo]

2 hours ago, Cynicaster said:

 

^^ that would be really handy.  I have my Atari 2600 ROMs set up in a similar way on my Harmony cart. 

 

What exactly is this "smokemonster sets" thing?  Is that just ROM files that were distributed in a zip file that contains a folder structure?  

 

It's better/more legal than that. A series of scripts that puts your ROMS (bring your own) into folders for you. 

 

https://github.com/SmokeMonsterPacks/EverDrive-Packs-Lists-Database

 

I have these collections on my FPGA machines and it's a nice way to browse your stuff. 

[Tanooki]

That would be handy, if you had the programs and the knowledge to program to compile such things.  It's a bloody shame no one creates a tool for those who can't to utilize it because it wasn't that long ago they were distributed not as scripts only but with all the games too.