Home conversions gone wrong

[Nebulon]

Inspired by seeing vector classics like Gravitar and Major Havoc running too fast on the Xbox One, I decided to start this thread. 

 

The question is, what home ports of classic games do you think ended up being a disaster? It could be for any console from the SNES/Super Famicom on up to present day. In particular, the ones that I find most interesting are when the console clearly has the stats to bring the arcade experience home but, due to whatever reason (usually a lack of attention to detail on the part of the programmers or studio), just doesn't.

[NE146]

NES Joust and Defender come to mind.. I thought they were pretty poor. NES Donkey Kong while not a “disaster” just obviously could have been so much closer/better. Yes I know about the later version.

[Steven Pendleton]

PC Engine Golden Axe comes to mind.

[Tanooki]

I doubt I'll get agreement on some of these, but for one Pac-Man on NES, didn't look right by color and design, didn't feel right either, and was just shameful against what they did just after with Ms Pac Man.

 

I don't feel right about it because it was a launch window title, clearly rushed to get out there early and fast so it has some technical problems, but the game is otherwise truly fantastic and that is Gradius III.  The game has slow down even from just a bunch of things moving/shooting without a background in the opening parts, but then when you throw in the backgrounds + larger/largest objects like the big bubbles or the giant plant boss where it both gets really slow and getting the graphical break up/drop out on the visuals too.  The game is sound otherwise, very well done with stunning design, visuals, audio, it just gets crippled.  Recently a MSU-1 update was done or was it SA1?  Either way someone patched it to use the expanded chip and it rocks it.

[zzip]

Marble Madness on the Atari ST seems worse than it should be.  The game is too easy and less thrilling than the arcade.  The graphics are lacking shading, but it doesn't seem to strain the color palette either, so it seems like they could have done it.   It supports music over MIDI, but even the Midi soundtrack sounds weak.

 

Congo Bongo on several platforms has the wrong perspective and looks terrible,  even on platforms that should be able to do the correct perspective. 

 

Pacman on the 2600 goes without saying...

[Steven Pendleton]

18 minutes ago, zzip said:

Marble Madness

Oh, man... you have reminded me of the EA Genesis version of Marble Madness. The horrible music alone most likely makes it worthy of this thread:

 

 

I guess the Japanese Mega Drive version has better music but plays worse. Never played the MD version, but I did try the US version to see if the music really is that bad, and yes, it's only one step away from the CrazyBus title screen.

[mbd30]

14 hours ago, NE146 said:

NES Joust and Defender come to mind.. I thought they were pretty poor. NES Donkey Kong while not a “disaster” just obviously could have been so much closer/better. Yes I know about the later version.

NES Defender II is dumbed down by not requiring you to return humanoids to the planet surface. Nor does the planet surface explode. There may be some more minor changes from the arcade. Not sure why they changed that stuff. It's not too bad otherwise.

 

[mbd30]

NES Karate Champ is almost universally panned. There must be a lot of issues adapting the dual joystick controls of the arcade to a dpad.

 

 

 

[Steven Pendleton]

I've never played Virtua Fighter (or almost any other fighting game, for that matter), but I remembered that that the Genesis/MD version of Virtua Fighter 2 is supposed to be absolute trash or something. I wouldn't know what makes a fighting game good or bad compared to other fighting games, though, so even if I played it, I wouldn't be able to say with any authority if it's bad or not.

[The Usotsuki]

Game Boy Mortal Kombat 3.  Mortal Kombat 2 at least felt right even though it was missing about a third of the game (I suppose if they had a 1 MB ROM instead of 512K they might be able to cram a bit more in), but Mortal Kombat 3 was only about half the game and felt way off (and don't get me started on MK4 for the GBC).

[Atariboy]

While I've not yet played the Switch and XB1 versions of the Atari Flashback Classics line, I have played the other two versions and the associated Atari Vault counterpart. Gravitar and Major Havoc on these Code Mystics collections run as they have always done in past compilations and MAME for me (Alas, I have no experience with these two on original arcade hardware).

Edited August 14, 2020 by Atariboy

[roots.genoa]

5 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

I've never played Virtua Fighter (or almost any other fighting game, for that matter), but I remembered that that the Genesis/MD version of Virtua Fighter 2 is supposed to be absolute trash or something. I wouldn't know what makes a fighting game good or bad compared to other fighting games, though, so even if I played it, I wouldn't be able to say with any authority if it's bad or not.

Well, Virtua Fighter was (supposed to be) the first 3D fighting game, so the fact that the MD port of VF2 is a 2D game makes it a little pointless.

[DeathAdderSF]

The US Gold conversion of Street Fighter II for IBM-PC (DOS) was absolute 100% unplayable rubbish; an insult to the game, and to PC games in general. It was so bad, that even a freeware pirate version of the game, coded from the ground up by a fan in South Korea, completely blew it away. Sad!

 

Thankfully, Gametek published a very good port of Super Street Fighter II Turbo a few years later.

 

Edited August 14, 2020 by DeathAdderSF

[carlsson]

The home versions of Out Run on nearly every system but Sega's own ones (SMS, Genesis) were rather lackluster. In particular the Amiga and ST versions I think could've been better. I'm part of the people who think Sega ordered the home versions to be lacking on purpose to make their own formats shine extra. Even the C64 version was improved a few years later with Turbo Out Run (and Out Run Europa).

[Steven Pendleton]

4 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

Well, Virtua Fighter was (supposed to be) the first 3D fighting game, so the fact that the MD port of VF2 is a 2D game makes it a little pointless.

Yeah. I wonder what could have happened if they'd used the SVP to make it an actual 3D game like it's supposed to be. Virtua Racing turned out to be reasonably good with the SVP, so I imagine a 3D SVP VF2 would be at least playable.

[Tanooki]

Since Gameboy Mortal Kombat 3 came up, and yeah it's pretty bad, why is the original getting a free pass?  That should not stand.

 

Missing characters, unplayably smambling frame rate, input lag, all the moves not dumbed down but re-done and horribly, multiple moves removed that shouldn't have been, various background stages and other effects gone that should have been dumbed down but retained like sequels did, audio was even for GB considered bad.  The ONLY redeeming value was the spray was colored dark instead of white, so it was the only 'bloody' MK1 on a Nintendo device in the day.

[ChildOfCv]

On 8/13/2020 at 6:10 PM, NE146 said:

NES Joust

Hear, hear!  Besides the missing special wave cycles, the pteradactyls always appeared at the same level you were, so if you were crossing the edge of the screen, it was a good chance you got insta-killed, unless you were lucky enough to have the right vertical motion to take it out instead.

After seeing the tiny arcade version, I think they just used the NES version as a foundation and slightly improved the graphics and sound.  It's pretty much an identical turd.

[ChildOfCv]

14 hours ago, mbd30 said:

NES Karate Champ is almost universally panned. There must be a lot of issues adapting the dual joystick controls of the arcade to a dpad.

You'd have to find a way to hold both D-pads at once, to use the dual joystick style that God intended.

[Steven Pendleton]

Thought of another easy one: Thunder Force AC -> Thunder Spirits. Thunder Spirits is an absolutely terrible conversion. It slows down literally every time you shoot, even if there is nothing else on screen. I like Thunder Force III more than AC anyway, but if you absolutely need to play AC for whatever reason and don't own the original arcade PCB, play it on Thunder Force Gold Pack 2 for your 32-bit Sega Saturn instead.

[ChildOfCv]

NES Section Z was ... unrecognizable.  I played the arcade version at the local Pizza Hut until it disappeared.  Was excited to see there was a NES version.  Another customer noticed and confirmed that I thought it was awesome.  Got it home and... WTF is this?  The only similarity was the background music.

[newtmonkey]

On 8/14/2020 at 9:17 AM, Steven Pendleton said:

PC Engine Golden Axe comes to mind.

Was going to post this.

 

Some other awful conversions:

Raiden Densetsu (SFC) - Looks quite nice, but plays like garbage and appears to run at 30 fps.

Samurai Spirits (SFC) - An insulting port of an awesome game with laughably tiny characters.  Completely blown away by the Megadrive and Sega-CD ports.  This port should not have been so bad.

Super Off Road (Lynx) - Looks VERY nice, but the framerate is so low the game is nearly unplayable.

[The Usotsuki]

3 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Since Gameboy Mortal Kombat 3 came up, and yeah it's pretty bad, why is the original getting a free pass?  That should not stand.

 

Missing characters, unplayably smambling frame rate, input lag, all the moves not dumbed down but re-done and horribly, multiple moves removed that shouldn't have been, various background stages and other effects gone that should have been dumbed down but retained like sequels did, audio was even for GB considered bad.  The ONLY redeeming value was the spray was colored dark instead of white, so it was the only 'bloody' MK1 on a Nintendo device in the day.

Because I didn't play MK1 on GB. =p 2 and 3 I owned and I recall playing 4 on metal.

[Steven Pendleton]

28 minutes ago, newtmonkey said:

Was going to post this.

Yeah, it's pretty terrible. The worst part is that it makes my beloved PC Engine look weak when it should have absolutely no problem with an actual good port of this game. Edit: if nothing else, the SuperGrafx could do it without question.

 

Then again, it's Telenet, and I'm pretty sure the only game they ever made that can truly be called "good" is Gaiares (which is supposedly an absolutely awesome game from what I have heard), unless I'm missing something. I actually almost bought a nice copy Gaiares the other day, but I got Cotton 2 instead.

Edited August 15, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[roots.genoa]

6 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Yeah. I wonder what could have happened if they'd used the SVP to make it an actual 3D game like it's supposed to be. Virtua Racing turned out to be reasonably good with the SVP, so I imagine a 3D SVP VF2 would be at least playable.

I'm not sure. Even if a fighting game seems less complex than a racing game (in terms of speed and background), the 32X port of Virtua Fighter was not as convincing as Virtua Racing's. I haven't played it for decades, but what I remember is the polygon count was quite low (hands were cubes without any fingers for instance), and would only jump up for the victory sequence since the loser character would disappear.

[Steven Pendleton]

Just now, roots.genoa said:

I'm not sure. Even if a fighting game seems less complex than a racing game (in terms of speed and background), the 32X port of Virtua Fighter was not as convincing as Virtua Racing's. I haven't played it for decades, but what I remember is the polygon count was quite low (hands were cubes without any fingers for instance), and would only jump up for the victory sequence since the loser character would disappear.

Yeah, I expect such a version of VF2 would look kind of like SVP Virtua Racing with super low poly counts and a low but steady frame rate, just like SVP Virtua Racing. Still, it would be really cool to see it!