What's the best port of an arcade game (that's not emulation) on a home console?

[Zoyous]

Super Mario Bros. for the NES is pretty much identical to the coin-op version, isn't it? I think the coin-op version is tuned to be more difficult but otherwise they seem to be the same.

[mr_me]

The nintendo vs arcade machines are based on nes hardware.  The games are literally ports of nes cartridges where the nes game code is directly ported to the vs machine with modifications as needed.

Edited August 4, 2019 by mr_me

[Tanooki]

1 hour ago, Zoyous said:

Super Mario Bros. for the NES is pretty much identical to the coin-op version, isn't it? I think the coin-op version is tuned to be more difficult but otherwise they seem to be the same.

Yes and no, the VS SMB game in the arcade while having the same general set of stages had the layouts, enemy placement, and hidden items moved around quite a bit making the game notably harder.  And when I say harder with the changes, it's enough you can not comfortably go into it being cocky like some NES SMB1 master and breeze it as it's more like a new game plus situation like SMB 1.5 as far as changes go.

 

Now if you're talking playchoice 10, they're just NES games basically with the option to input money to play and with or without a timer installed on there by the operator to get more quarters out of you as you go.  Those games are just NES chips slapped onto a mini PCB that slots into a multi-slot arcade machine much like the Neo Geo that came after.

[+davidcalgary29]

Having just played the arcade version of “Crazy Taxi”, I’ve got to give this round to...the Dreamcast. I absolutely loved the idea of physical controls, but in reality the wheel was too sensitive and the pedals placed much too closely together. I actually spent my first game spinning my wheels until I looked down and saw that that my driving foot was covering both pedals. I ended up two-footing the game, which is not optimal for any extended play.

[DragonGrafx-16]

1 hour ago, davidcalgary29 said:

Having just played the arcade version of “Crazy Taxi”, I’ve got to give this round to...the Dreamcast. I absolutely loved the idea of physical controls, but in reality the wheel was too sensitive and the pedals placed much too closely together. I actually spent my first game spinning my wheels until I looked down and saw that that my driving foot was covering both pedals. I ended up two-footing the game, which is not optimal for any extended play.

That's got me thinking... I really should try the PS2 version of Crazy Taxi on my fat PS3 with my Logitech steering wheel controller...

[Trinity]

I think the Tengen port of Ms. Pac-man is great for the NES.

 

 

[negative1]

14 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Yes and no, the VS SMB game in the arcade while having the same general set of stages had the layouts, enemy placement, and hidden items moved around quite a bit making the game notably harder.  And when I say harder with the changes, it's enough you can not comfortably go into it being cocky like some NES SMB1 master and breeze it as it's more like a new game plus situation like SMB 1.5 as far as changes go.

 

Now if you're talking playchoice 10, they're just NES games basically with the option to input money to play and with or without a timer installed on there by the operator to get more quarters out of you as you go.  Those games are just NES chips slapped onto a mini PCB that slots into a multi-slot arcade machine much like the Neo Geo that came after.

Ice climber for the NES was a very cut down version of the arcade one. it only had 32 levels instead of 48.

 

An alternate version was released in the arcades as part of the Vs. series, known as Vs. Ice Climber. It includes gameplay features not found in the home console release, such as an animated title screen, a stage select menu which appears at the start of the game and after completing each level, 16 additional mountains, occasional blizzard and wind effects, more enemy characters, and bonus multiplier items.

 

Gameplay is the same.

Versions:

 

Name    Date    Platform    Notes
Ice Climber    1985    NES/Famicom    [8]
Ice Climber    1985    NEC PC-8801    Published by Hudson Soft
Vs. Ice Climber    1985    Arcade    Nintendo Vs. Series
Ice Climber    1988    Famicom Disk System    Port of Vs. Ice Climber
Ice Climber-e    2002    e-Reader    Barcoded cards, readable with e-Reader and Game Boy Advance.
Ice Climber    2004    Game Boy Advance    Classic NES Series
Ice Climber    2007    Wii    Virtual Console
Ice Climber    2011    3DS    Virtual Console
Ice Climber    2013    Wii U    Virtual Console
Ice Climber    2018    Nintendo Switch    Nintendo Switch Online
 

 

Balloon fight, had similar ports also:

List of Balloon Fight games, ports and sequels
Name    Released in Japan    Released in the United States    Released in Europe    Genre    System
Vs. Balloon Fight    November 1984    1984        Action    Arcade
Balloon Fight    January 22, 1985    August 1986    March 12, 1987    Action    Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom
Balloon Fight    October 1985            Action    PC-88
Balloon Fight    November 1985            Action    Sharp X1
Balloon Fight (PlayChoice-10)        1987        Action    Arcade
Balloon Fight        1986    1986    Action    Game & Watch
Balloon Kid        October 5, 1990    January 31, 1991    Action/platformer    Game Boy
Balloon Fight GB        July 31, 2000        Action/platformer    Game Boy Color (Nintendo Power)
Balloon Fight        September 2001        Action    Sharp Zaurus
Balloon Fight-e    September 16, 2002            Action    Game Boy Advance (Nintendo e-Reader)
Famicom Mini Balloon Fight    May 21, 2004            Action    Game Boy Advance
Tingle's Balloon Fight    April 2007            Action    Nintendo DS
Balloon Fight    November 13, 2007    July 16, 2007    June 8, 2007    Action    Wii Virtual Console
Balloon Fight    August 31, 2011    August 31, 2011    August 31, 2011    Action    Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console
Balloon Fight    January 23, 2013    January 23, 2013    January 23, 2013    Action    Wii U Virtual Console
Balloon Fight    November 10, 2016    November 11, 2016    November 11, 2016    Action    NES Classic Edition[23]
Balloon Fight    September 19, 2018    September 18, 2018    September 19, 2018    Action    Nintendo Switch Online

 

later

-1

 

 

 

[Noah98]

On 8/3/2019 at 2:18 PM, John Stamos Mullet said:

Ok, 

 

this thread asked for for the best PORTS of arcade games to home consoles. This should make it reasonably understood that any PORT is going to be played at the native video resolution and audio capabilities of the home console it has been ported to. 

 

Discounting MAME, other arcade emulation apps, Joust for the Atari 7800 is as close to arcade perfect there is, understanding that it is a PORT to an 8bit home console that obviously has different resolution and audio capabilities than the original arcade machine. 

 

I would also add that given Joust for the 7800 was coded and released in 1984 (in the New York and northeast test market) that makes it much more impressive looking, sounding, and playing than any other port of Joust before, or since.

 

 

No argument here. it's an excellent port, and very impressive for 1984. It is way better than the nes port as well. I guess my only semantic hangup was the phrase "arcade perfect," but I admit, that was my bad. 

 

I do kind of think the snes version of Joust, and maybe even the Sega Genesis one might be better than the 7800. They did come out much later though. I'm also not sure if those are emulated. I wouldn't think so, given the hardware, but it's hard to say.

[Cynicaster]

For my circle of friends at least, I think living with the Atari 2600 for so many years influenced how we judged ports in the mid-late 80s.  I mean, I love the 2600 dearly, but let's face it: there was almost always a fairly sizable and conspicuous gap between arcade games and their 2600 versions.  We spent several years playing blocky abstractions of beloved arcade games, then later consoles came out and had stronger capabilities, making it possible to get a lot closer to the arcade games.  In retrospect, such leaps in console capability caused us to throw around language like "this version is almost exactly like the arcade!" very loosely, when in reality, many of the games weren't anywhere near that level of fidelity. 

 

In these types of discussions, personally, I don't like the apologist qualifiers that get tacked on, like "it's an impressive version... considering the limitations of such-and-such console" or "it's a great version... for 1982."  Who cares about those qualifiers?  All these games come from a long time ago.  The question on the table is, which ports are the best relative to the originals?  Release dates and hardware specs be damned.    

[Flojomojo]

Because many of us have childhood memories which are hard to forget

Because some people grew to like the home version and never saw the real thing

Because 90% of everything is crap, including the arcade games we once put on a pedestal because they cost money for a single play

[VectorGamer]

17 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:

Because some people grew to like the home version and never saw the real thing

Yeah my favorite is "I like 2600 Pac-Man cuz I never played the arcade game"

[NE146]

6 hours ago, Cynicaster said:

  In retrospect, such leaps in console capability caused us to throw around language like "this version is almost exactly like the arcade!" very loosely, when in reality, many of the games weren't anywhere near that level of fidelity. 

That's true. When I went to Japan around 1984 (before the NES came out in North America) I was absolutely flabbergasted when I saw Mario Bros. (not Super) running on a store display and could not contain my excitement and disbelief that it was pretty much arcade perfect. And that's how I described it to my friends when I got home that it was "EXACT!". I specifically said that to emphasize that in my belief it was exact. Of course it wasn't truly "exact".. but during that timeframe our reference point was totally different with probably the A8-bit ones being the closest I had seen.

 

  

 

 

To be fair though that continued even through to the 90's when something like SNES Street Fighter 2 I pretty much deemed to be arcade perfect. Now it's easier for me to see the differences with the graphics and audio, but back then, hey...  ?

 

 

 

 

[+wongojack]

3 hours ago, VectorGamer said:

Yeah my favorite is "I like 2600 Pac-Man cuz I never played the arcade game"

Raises hand

 

I played the 2600 version first, and for a time, I had only seen Ms PacMan in the arcade.  It wasn't until emulation in the early 2000's that I really could discern all the differences and understand the disappointment with 2600 Pac Man.

 

In the case of Space Invaders, I didn't even recognize the arcade version as Space Invaders for years and years.  Space Invaders to me was the 2600 version.

[negative1]

i never owned a colecovison, nes, atari 2600, anything prior to that, until the sega genesis era.

 

i was used to much better ports of games, but i still played games mostly in the arcades.

 

so that's why i have a much higher standard when it comes to games on consoles.

 

i've played a lot of older games now on original consoles, and also due to emulation.

 

i still enjoy some of the games on them, but its mostly out of curiosity, the more basic the game,

the more likely some of that translates down. 

 

but mostly it comes down to the controller implementation, which makes a huge difference to me,

even more so than graphics.

 

later

-1

[Mcin]

On 8/2/2019 at 4:21 PM, Cynicaster said:

There are anomalies, though.  I think NES Contra is a better game than the arcade version.

I wanted to bump the topic answering that the Contra is the only right pick in this topic. Just think of the impact, the game is loved by many, of whom majority does not even know it was an arcade game in the first place. The remaining "minority" counts NES port as superior (example above), which it is, not by technical standards (number of elements, resolution, color scale etc) but by how refined and fun the gameplay is. Plus, the game and continuations was de facto were de facto golden standard for run and gun until Metal Slug came in.

[Tanooki]

I know I saw a topic like this before where this was asked, but I think this one really deserves some appreciation.

 

Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits - SNES version.  I'll put the link here as a proof, but I'll paste the brief contents and the bolded part below is the point: http://cpmarchives.classiccmp.org/trs80/mirrors/www.vavasour.ca/jeff/games.html#snes

This was a port of Defender, Joust, Robotron, Sinistar, and Stargate (Defender II). I was fortunate to have made the acquaintance of Larry DeMar, one of the programmers on Defender and later head of Williams pinball division. He'd been kind enough to provide me with the original source code to these games, which his team had meticulously archived. This source code was used to render these games as accurately as could be done without emulation. All AI bugs and the like that created the game play dynamic were reproduced authentically, where possible. (Side note: he also sent a Stargate T-shirt for which I'm most grateful, and the partial source code for an incomplete game called Conquest. It was a cross between Defender and Sinistar that used an encoder wheel like Tempest's. It was an early prototype that was abandoned due to its resemblence to Sinistar, which was more complete at the time.)

 

George Phillips and his brother Peter, whom I'd met through our mutual interest in TRS-80 emulation, worked on the Genesis version of this same package, from the same source code. George and Peter had previously ported Williams Arcade Classics to the Sony PlayStation for us.

 

On this Super NES version, I was responsible for the ports of Defender, Joust, Robotron, and Stargate, as well as the main structural code, while Chris Burke (of Burke & Burke fame in the TRS-80 Colour Computer community) ported Sinistar. John Kowalski (another active CoCo programmer) did the meticulous recoding of the arcade games sound for the Super NES sound chip.

 

Trivia: In addition to descriptions of the five games in the package, due to an error on the part of the publisher, the back of the box shows the logo for Bubbles. It is accompanied by a brief description of the game. Fortunately, Bubbles is a virtually unknown arcade game, and so, I am not aware of any consumer complaints regarding its absence.

 

-- So what we have here is a relatively (as it was then) weaker piece of home hardware where emulation could not have been done, which is why emulation wasn't done until the PS1/N64 era so they had to find a way.  They got the source, used it and recoded it to SNES machine language every last character down to reproduction of the arcade shipped bugs.  Then, they took the arcade boards, sampled recordings of all the FX and music, and then re-sampled them as SNES sound files and made the games spot on.

 

I find that remarkable and amazing, and as such it's no wonder why these guys at Digital Eclipse did so many future emulation packages of games, but also some stunning unique works too thinking outside the box like the GBC Dragon's Lair game going with just 2bit color and few relative cuts to fit its laserdisc version onto a 4MByte cart vs those shitty swamp slow moving side scrollers the GB, NES, SNES, 80s computers etc got.

[+GoldLeader]

It's kind of interesting to revisit this thread and realize how meaning(s) change(s) depending on how you interpret the question;  And whether (or not) you get hung up on the word PORT or the word BEST.

 

I gathered my thoughts up,  was about to write,  when I decided to look back on the responses from some 4 and a half years ago,  and I already said my piece earlier(!),  down to me even being hung up on the word BEST and whether it means most accurate or most fun.

 

As time goes on I probably will repeat myself here on AtariAge...Hopefully it's lack of sleep and not dementia...

 

 

At any rate I think as time goes on here at AtariAge I may repeat myself...(jus kidding)...

[Flojomojo]

Hee hee, another necro-topic! I had an answer in my head but when I realized this is from 2019, I had to go back and see if my thoughts had changed. 

 

Nope! I still feel this way. Apparently Taito doesn’t like the Atari port of Space Invaders, which is a shame. 

 

I would also add Frenzy for Colecovision because of the little musical ditties it adds. 

[+davidcalgary29]

I was just destroyed by Defender (arcade) at PRGE -- it's too damned hard for the casual player. The A8 version just gets so many of the essential gaming elements right, including difficulty ramping, that it's really hard to surpass. It's still probably my favourite brown-label Atari cart.

[NE146]

6 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits - SNES version. 

I always dug that cart because it is more or less accurate as far as gameplay and sound but they're all obviously ports! And by that I mean.. look at SNES Robotron as the example, the playfield is obviously smaller than the arcade, but yet the gameplay of the arcade game is intact. I always found that so interesting 

 

 

 

  

Edited November 16, 2023 by NE146

[+wongojack]

On 8/3/2019 at 7:50 AM, Flojomojo said:

I think Burgertime on Intellivision is BETTER than the arcade. 

I am with you on the 3 you posted above AND I was also with you on this in 2019, but I've since played the Intellivision version A LOT, and I can say confidently that while it replicates the game very well, the gameplay suffers quite a bit in terms of how you actually play.  It's mostly about how you interact with the pepper and how the Intellivision just tends to miss inputs here and there.  It is definitely NOT better than the arcade.

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/339525-intellivision-hsc-season-17-game-5-burgertime/?do=findComment&comment=5114687

 

[negative1]

10 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I know I saw a topic like this before where this was asked, but I think this one really deserves some appreciation.

 

Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits - SNES version.  I'll put the link here as a proof, but I'll paste the brief contents and the bolded part below is the point: http://cpmarchives.classiccmp.org/trs80/mirrors/www.vavasour.ca/jeff/games.html#snes

This was a port of Defender, Joust, Robotron, Sinistar, and Stargate (Defender II). I was fortunate to have made the acquaintance of Larry DeMar, one of the programmers on Defender and later head of Williams pinball division. He'd been kind enough to provide me with the original source code to these games, which his team had meticulously archived. This source code was used to render these games as accurately as could be done without emulation. All AI bugs and the like that created the game play dynamic were reproduced authentically, where possible. (Side note: he also sent a Stargate T-shirt for which I'm most grateful, and the partial source code for an incomplete game called Conquest. It was a cross between Defender and Sinistar that used an encoder wheel like Tempest's. It was an early prototype that was abandoned due to its resemblence to Sinistar, which was more complete at the time.)

 

George Phillips and his brother Peter, whom I'd met through our mutual interest in TRS-80 emulation, worked on the Genesis version of this same package, from the same source code. George and Peter had previously ported Williams Arcade Classics to the Sony PlayStation for us.

 

On this Super NES version, I was responsible for the ports of Defender, Joust, Robotron, and Stargate, as well as the main structural code, while Chris Burke (of Burke & Burke fame in the TRS-80 Colour Computer community) ported Sinistar. John Kowalski (another active CoCo programmer) did the meticulous recoding of the arcade games sound for the Super NES sound chip.

 

Trivia: In addition to descriptions of the five games in the package, due to an error on the part of the publisher, the back of the box shows the logo for Bubbles. It is accompanied by a brief description of the game. Fortunately, Bubbles is a virtually unknown arcade game, and so, I am not aware of any consumer complaints regarding its absence.

 

-- So what we have here is a relatively (as it was then) weaker piece of home hardware where emulation could not have been done, which is why emulation wasn't done until the PS1/N64 era so they had to find a way.  They got the source, used it and recoded it to SNES machine language every last character down to reproduction of the arcade shipped bugs.  Then, they took the arcade boards, sampled recordings of all the FX and music, and then re-sampled them as SNES sound files and made the games spot on.

 

I find that remarkable and amazing, and as such it's no wonder why these guys at Digital Eclipse did so many future emulation packages of games, but also some stunning unique works too thinking outside the box like the GBC Dragon's Lair game going with just 2bit color and few relative cuts to fit its laserdisc version onto a 4MByte cart vs those shitty swamp slow moving side scrollers the GB, NES, SNES, 80s computers etc got.

thats all great and good until you actually play the games on the SNES Version.

 

none of them are even close to the arcade speed and difficulty. the ai is wrong on them,

joust behavior is different. shadowlords are different, and the pterydactls  come out in the wrong place

(*note : yes, i'm running the emulation through MAME, but i've tried other SNES emulators too,

and i've tried the actual cartridge on the Genesis)

 

robotron runs too fast. the list goes on and on.

 

its one thing to say what you did, but its another to do it.

 

the genesis version had similar problem but much better controls.

 

later

|| || | | |

nega tive1

Edited November 17, 2023 by negative1

[Jess Ragan]

Konami Arcade Classics on PSOne has got to be up there. You would think that such a diverse collection of games on such an advanced system would be emulation, but no! They're ports! I couldn't believe it myself, but the Retro Core guy says they are!

[Lost Monkey]

I am having a chuckle at the responses to this necro-bump.  Everyone seems to be in agreeance with themselves from years ago.     I clicked on the thread tonight to post "Atari 7800 - Ms Pac Man" - then I saw I already did, in 2019.  😄

[+davidcalgary29]

2 hours ago, Lost Monkey said:

I am having a chuckle at the responses to this necro-bump.  Everyone seems to be in agreeance with themselves from years ago.     I clicked on the thread tonight to post "Atari 7800 - Ms Pac Man" - then I saw I already did, in 2019.  😄

I changed my original answer! I swear!

 

And I'm going to add two more: Klax and S.T.U.N. Runner on the Lynx are the superlative home versions of the games. Yeah, yeah, 160x102 and handheld controls don't fully capture the feeling of straddling a futuristic space racer, but few other ports capture the true feel of the game. And I have to say that, after playing Klax arcade again at PRGE, that I actually like the Lynx version better than the original. The height of the arcade cabinet is weird and the joystick just isn't as responsive as the d-pad.