Home conversions gone wrong

[DragonGrafx-16]

18 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

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.

The NES port was perhaps the best home version, but I freakin love the FM Towns music for the practice stage... THOSE PADS.

[Lost Dragon]

3 hours ago, newtmonkey said:

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.

Lynx Super Off Road should of been so much better. 

 

Whilst not disasters, Lynx Ninja Gaiden and APB were compromised. 

 

The former missing a level and the latter the prisoner confession stage, if only they'd been allowed to use bigger carts... 

 

I'm going to nominate Lynx Hard Drivin to start with, over sensitive controls completely cripple it, needed more courses to add VFM. 

 

ST Final Fight also needs to go in, but it's coder hated the Arcade game and the hardware not designed to handle massive sprites, so I can't be overly hard on it. 

[Lost Dragon]

19 hours ago, zzip said:

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...

Going off memory, the Amiga version isn't all it could be either, missing the secret level, which even the awful C64 version has, for starters. 

[pablum]

The current best and perhaps only accurate port of the original Contra arcade game is the PS4 stand-alone version by Hamster.

 

Every other version I've seen, including the more recent Contra Anniversary Collection and MAME (last I've checked anyway) has the barrels that roll towards you in the corridor stages veer to the right. Only that PS4 Hamster one has the barrels moving forward as they should.

[Lost Dragon]

As a C64 owner at the time, i have to mention:

 

 

Super Hang On

Bomb Jack

Rygar

Rastan Saga (again here, coder hated the Arcade game) 

Double Dragon

Golden Axe

Chase HQ

Karnov 

Paperboy 

Star Wars 

Empire Strikes Back

 

As an 800XL owner:

 

Green Beret

Gauntlet (cassette version) 

Star Wars (Domark/Zeppelin) 

[Steven Pendleton]

1 hour ago, DragonGrafx-16 said:

The NES port was perhaps the best home version, but I freakin love the FM Towns music for the practice stage... THOSE PADS.

I'd love to have a nice version of Marble Madness with a trackball and stuff. I found that crazy expensive trackball controller for the Mark III recently, but I'm not paying that much cash for a trackball!

 

Speaking of the FM Towns, I found a Marty recently only a few feet in front of where I found my SuperGrafx in April. They wanted 75000 yen for the FM Towns Marty with no box, no manuals, no controller, and no cables, so I instantly knew I am never buying one!

[zzip]

7 hours ago, Lost Dragon said:

Going off memory, the Amiga version isn't all it could be either, missing the secret level, which even the awful C64 version has, for starters. 

I just compared, and yes the Amiga version is kinda weak, but still a better effort than the ST.   The C64 looks like a good port considering the hardware.

 

The ST version graphically, shadows are virtually non-existant.  I see they are there, but using very light colors as opposed to the dark shadows of the arcade.  I don't think it's a hardware limitation either because I'm not seeing 16 distinct colors on screen in many cases.   And musically it's weak on the Yamaha, but hardly spectacular on midi.

[Classic Pac]

To me the absolute worst conversion was 10 Yard Fight from arcade to NES The arcade version is a rather fun football game. The NES version on the other hand is as much fun as watching snails race. Which is faster than what the games moves.

[Noah98]

Double Dragon for the 2600 and 7800

Hat Trick for the 7800 (loved the arcade version)

Mat Mania Challenge for the 7800

Defender for the 2600 (I did play this a lot as a kid though!)

Donkey Kong for Intellivision

Burgertime for 2600

 

 

[NE146]

I think it supposed to be bad conversions on consoles that you know could do it well or better. Double dragon was always kind of a stretch on the VCS

[Zap!]

Since the OP said "SNES/Super Famicom on up", would the Genesis version of Time Killers count? I know the Genesis came out before the SNES, but the Time Killers game on that system came out in July 1996. Horrible port!

[Atariperson23]

Don't forget:

[NE146]

ah yeah I remember now. Pit Fighter on the SNES was pure turd.  Then again Pit Fighter was never exactly good in the first place ?

[DavidD]

11 hours ago, Atariperson23 said:

Don't forget:

Which version is that?  

[Steven Pendleton]

1 hour ago, DavidD said:

Which version is that?  

Intellivision

[Bloodreign]

On 8/15/2020 at 12:31 AM, newtmonkey said:

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 Genesis and Sega CD versions of Samurai Spirits weren't as great as they are always painted to be.The SCD version is missing the announcer, and I hear there is a bug that doesn't allow you to go past Amakusa and finish the game. Also lost a bot of animation. Genesis version of Sam Sho may have bigger sprites, but fewer animations than the SNES version, like win poses and such. Couple that with less background detail, half the endings of most characters were cut, the game doesn't even feel right, at least the SFC version feels closer to the arcade version, has a bit more animation, bit better background detail (the SNES version is right in between, with less animation than the SFC version, but more than the Genesis version), everyone's endings are intact, the meeting with Amakusa when he is in flame form is still there (the Gen version, that is missing). Post victory screens,with character sprite artwork, gone from the Genesis port entirely, but is intact in the SNES/SFC versions. The Genesis port of Sam Sho paid a heavy price for those larger sprites, way too much missing to even be considered great. It's good and fun, but nothing like people make it out to be.

 

 

Yeah, it is a bit more censored, Japanese version included, than the Genesis version, and the sprites are smaller, but there is more packed into the game than the Genesis and Sega CD versions have. People overhype the Genesis version, but to be honest, neither 16 bit port was all that great to begin with, but it was all we had in the home in those days. The PS1 version, though it had a lot of loading, is the truest to the arcade, non Neo console version there is out there (plus you get the second game as well). The Sega CD port of Fatal Fury Special is also quite terrible.

Edited August 20, 2020 by Bloodreign

[Lord Innit]

Afterburner on the Amiga.  Before you Americans say  whaaaaaaaat,  us Europeans got a shitty version filling up a small window with cruddy graphics on screen by Argonaut  while you guys got a pretty decent version.  

[Magmavision2000]

On 8/14/2020 at 9:44 AM, 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.

I personally like Virtua Fighter 2 Genesis. Whoever worked on it did a great job making a 3D game 2D.

 

As for home conversions gone wrong... It's kind of hard for me to pick. Burgertime on the 2600 is pretty bad, but it's still (somewhat) playable. Yie Ar Kung Fu om the Famicom looks nothing like the arcade version, but plays great. Maybe the Famicom version of Tetris? 

 

Off-topic, but a home conversion that went perfectly is Double Dragon on the NES. Temco took a horrible, nearly unplayable arcade game and turned it into a great NES game.

[Steven Pendleton]

7 minutes ago, Magmavision2000 said:

I personally like Virtua Fighter 2 Genesis. Whoever worked on it did a great job making a 3D game 2D.

I've never played it and I am planning not to since I don't play fighting games except on the Neo Geo (only because I can't afford non-fighting games for the Neo Geo, sadly), so I suppose I'll just have to believe you!

[Tanooki]

10 hours ago, Bloodreign said:

The Genesis and Sega CD versions of Samurai Spirits weren't as great as they are always painted to be.The SCD version is missing the announcer, and I hear there is a bug that doesn't allow you to go past Amakusa and finish the game. Also lost a bot of animation. Genesis version of Sam Sho may have bigger sprites, but fewer animations than the SNES version, like win poses and such. Couple that with less background detail, half the endings of most characters were cut, the game doesn't even feel right, at least the SFC version feels closer to the arcade version, has a bit more animation, bit better background detail (the SNES version is right in between, with less animation than the SFC version, but more than the Genesis version), everyone's endings are intact, the meeting with Amakusa when he is in flame form is still there (the Gen version, that is missing). Post victory screens,with character sprite artwork, gone from the Genesis port entirely, but is intact in the SNES/SFC versions. The Genesis port of Sam Sho paid a heavy price for those larger sprites, way too much missing to even be considered great. It's good and fun, but nothing like people make it out to be.

 

 

Yeah, it is a bit more censored, Japanese version included, than the Genesis version, and the sprites are smaller, but there is more packed into the game than the Genesis and Sega CD versions have. People overhype the Genesis version, but to be honest, neither 16 bit port was all that great to begin with, but it was all we had in the home in those days. The PS1 version, though it had a lot of loading, is the truest to the arcade, non Neo console version there is out there (plus you get the second game as well). The Sega CD port of Fatal Fury Special is also quite terrible.

Glad you said it before I got there.  SS1 was small sprites aside as a logical compromise most likely, was a great conversion of the game to the SNES.  Face it neither it or the Gen are on the level of the Neo-Geo, the Gen did as you said and paid horribly for it, and the CD version there was even less of an excuse to suck but it still did in ways.  The SNES went small, but it retained a more fluid game, far less losses in background, audio, detail etc.  It's in a way like how you never hear the GB game get praised, but someone will mention how the game gear one looked nice...but again same problem.  GG looks obviously nicer, but it loses to having a lot of detail lost and the fluidity isn't there it's choppy garbage.  GB went with these cute Japanese SD/Chibi style characters but it retained EVERY fighter, every move, every sequence and even added the ability to play extra characters like the boss and the referee too.  It's cute, but the stage detail while colorless is there, the characters move smoothly, it doesn't chop or feel slow, all the attacks are intact as well, it's the colorless, cuter, better game.  These days I keep SS1 (and 3) on GB, but since i have the arcade cab I have SS on there instead of console but if I didn't I'd get the SNES again.