R-Type and its many ports

[7800Knight]

Who here remembers the arcade game R-Type from Irem, released in 1987?  

 

 

It was also the last arcade game Nintendo distributed in North America.  You are a spaceship, the R-9 Arrowhead, and you fight a one-man war against the evil Bydo, an alien race obsessed with destroying humanity.  While it is a shooter, you have a glowing ball called a "Force" that is both protection from enemies and additional firepower.

 

R-Type has been called one of the best videos games ever but also one of the hardest.

 

I never played the arcade version but did play the excellent port on the Sega Master System years ago.  Besides that, it had great ports to the Turbografx-16/PC Engine as well as the ZX Spectrum computer.  It was ported to many systems but for some reason was never ported to the NES/Famicom.

 

This is a good game but indeed hard.  I wouldn't mind seeing a port for the Atari 2600 or Atari 7800 (cue to developers out there!).

 

Anyone else play this?

[Mitkraft]

I love R-type!  I’m not very good at it and haven’t played a ton of it but it’s still one of my favorites in Arcade and NES.

[eightbit]

Has anyone played R-Type? Well, I'd be surprised to find someone who had not

 

I have played many versions of the game on various platforms over the years. I think the first version I ever played was on the SMS. But I have to say still to this day that the TG16 version is probably the best arcade to home version of this title (in my book). I did love the Amiga version as well, but the TG16 version is just more fluid to me. The ZX Spectrum version was of course limited in terms of color/graphics/sound but I still thought that was a pretty good attempt. Come to think of it, the C64 version was pretty great as well.

 

If you have not played Super R-Type and R-Type III on the SNES you should. They are amazing and add to the great R-Type legacy and experience.

Edited November 12, 2020 by eightbit

[Mitkraft]

Oh yeah, I can’t believe I forgot about the SMS version.  That’s a great one also!

[Cynicaster]

Arcade R-Type, for me, is one of the quintessential shooters of my childhood arcade days.  I didn't play much of it back then because it was just too quick of a drain on my limited supply of quarters.  Still, I clearly remember seeing it all the time and hearing the excellent music and sound effects emanating through the arcade.  

 

I've become much more acquainted with the game in recent years and it's definitely a classic.  If I'm being brutally honest, I do have my complaints about it, though.  Just like Ghosts 'N Goblins and others, I really dislike how you get sent backward when you die and have to retread parts of the game.  This is acceptable in home console games but IMO it's a very dickish design feature for a game you're paying to play.  It's especially maddening in a shooter because in shooters you have to gradually build up your power-ups to the point where you're able to survive the onslaught.  You lose a life and get reverted back to a wimpy pea-shooter weapon, and as if that doesn't make it difficult enough, R-Type adds insult to injury by also moving you backward in the game, thus forcing you to re-try the very section of the game with a pea-shooter that only seconds ago killed you when you had a powerful weapon.  ?  Just seems like a bit more balance and fairness would have made R-Type a much more enjoyable game than it already is.  

 

I agree the TG-16 version is outstanding and the SMS version is very impressive, especially for that era of console gaming.  It would be interesting to see how well the game could be executed on NES but I have a feeling it would be a bit disappointing due to flicker and fewer onscreen colors as compared to SMS.  Then again, the game did make it to Game Boy and while it's not a great version of the game relative to others out there, I'd file it under "exceeds expectations."  

 

 

 

 

[7800Knight]

10 hours ago, Mitkraft said:

I love R-type!  I’m not very good at it and haven’t played a ton of it but it’s still one of my favorites in Arcade and NES.

I thought there was no NES port of R-Type?  I checked and found no record of one.  Was this a bootleg version?

[youxia]

R-Type on 2600? That could be...interesting But, I guess anythings is possible in the days of "minimalistic demakes".

[turboxray]

24 minutes ago, Cynicaster said:

 It would be interesting to see how well the game could be executed on NES but I have a feeling it would be a bit disappointing due to flicker and fewer onscreen colors as compared to SMS.  

 

Unclear why you think it would have more flicker than the SMS version. Both systems have the exact same sprite limitations.

[Cynicaster]

35 minutes ago, turboxray said:

Unclear why you think it would have more flicker than the SMS version. Both systems have the exact same sprite limitations.

 

Even if that's the case and flicker is the same between the two, my point remains mostly unchanged - namely, that the style of R-Type's graphics play to the advantages of the SMS onscreen color capabilities more so than NES.    

[Hakogame 箱亀]

There was an unlicensed nes port of the first 4 stages. I can't recall the name it goes by at the moment though.  It looked reasonably good from what I remember.

 

Edit: it was called Magic Dragon

Edited November 12, 2020 by Raccoon Lad

[+GoldenWheels]

Love R-type...but it's one of those shooters that once I die and lose the power ups....game is basically over for me.

[Mitkraft]

4 hours ago, 7800Knight said:

I thought there was no NES port of R-Type?  I checked and found no record of one.  Was this a bootleg version?

i think I was misremembering and thinking of the SMS version.  Since I always think of it as a Nintendo game I just thought NES was the console I played it on.

[thegamezmaster]

Have it for the SMS and the SNES versions. Need to play them again!

[turboxray]

23 hours ago, Cynicaster said:

 

Even if that's the case and flicker is the same between the two, my point remains mostly unchanged - namely, that the style of R-Type's graphics play to the advantages of the SMS onscreen color capabilities more so than NES.    

It IS the case. And yeah, I didn't say anything about color capabilities.

[Eltigro]

I only have two R-Type games. 

 

 

[7800Knight]

1 hour ago, Eltigro said:

I only have two R-Type games. 

 

 

 

Cool!  The Turbografx-16 port is considered one of the best ports along with the Sega Master System!

[Eltigro]

It's supposed to be really pretty close to the arcade, I believe.  Just a bit of scrolling vertically that the arcade doesn't have because of resolution differences.  And I think there may be an extra boss?  Not sure on that though.  Going by what someone else was saying.  It's on a level I haven't gotten to.  lol

[+Black_Tiger]

19 hours ago, Eltigro said:

It's supposed to be really pretty close to the arcade, I believe.  Just a bit of scrolling vertically that the arcade doesn't have because of resolution differences.  And I think there may be an extra boss?  Not sure on that though.  Going by what someone else was saying.  It's on a level I haven't gotten to.  lol

Yeah, there's an extra boss and less slowdown than the arcade version.

 

The PCE port came out only 8 months after the arcade version and 4 months before the launch of the Mega Drive.

 

The SMS version was actually released in Japan the same month as the Mega Drive and is very impressive for the hardware, but it was already a full year into the 16-bit generation.

[Austin]

On 11/12/2020 at 9:39 AM, Cynicaster said:

Just seems like a bit more balance and fairness would have made R-Type a much more enjoyable game than it already is.  

Perhaps. But without the unforgiving checkpoint system--and the same goes with the Ghosts 'n Goblins series--I doubt R-Type would be as notorious today without the punishing difficulty. You "balance" it, or make it easier, and the victory becomes less meaningful. No more of that, "I just did this very difficult thing that few others have done". Which is fine I guess, it would still be a great game in its own right thanks to good game flow, solid level design, music, great sprite work for the time, etc., but the luster of overcoming a notorious challenge would be lost.

 

I'm not 100% defending checkpoints here, but the game (and series) does force players to evolve their skill in a number of ways, successfully recovering from checkpoints being one of them. There's value in that, IMO (especially R-Type, where no checkpoint is impossible to recover from). Checkpoint systems were standard fare in Japan as well, so the deeper one dives into this genre, they should start to realize it's a skill that translates to many other shooters, such as the Gradius series, Japanese versions of Seibu Kaihatsu or Toaplan games, etc., etc. Many of us growing up in the late '80s and early '90s are spoiled because a lot of shooters over here were set to toss the player right back in, while it was the exact opposite in Japan. We didn't have to develop that skill as much.

 

It's obviously not something for everyone, especially if you just want to casually fly and shoot stuff. It can be frustrating. I think it's worth the trouble though, R-Type is great.

[Cynicaster]

46 minutes ago, Austin said:

Perhaps. But without the unforgiving checkpoint system--and the same goes with the Ghosts 'n Goblins series--I doubt R-Type would be as notorious today without the punishing difficulty. You "balance" it, or make it easier, and the victory becomes less meaningful. No more of that, "I just did this very difficult thing that few others have done". Which is fine I guess, it would still be a great game in its own right thanks to good game flow, solid level design, music, great sprite work for the time, etc., but the luster of overcoming a notorious challenge would be lost.

 

I'm not 100% defending checkpoints here, but the game (and series) does force players to evolve their skill in a number of ways, successfully recovering from checkpoints being one of them. There's value in that, IMO (especially R-Type, where no checkpoint is impossible to recover from). Checkpoint systems were standard fare in Japan as well, so the deeper one dives into this genre, they should start to realize it's a skill that translates to many other shooters, such as the Gradius series, Japanese versions of Seibu Kaihatsu or Toaplan games, etc., etc. Many of us growing up in the late '80s and early '90s are spoiled because a lot of shooters over here were set to toss the player right back in, while it was the exact opposite in Japan. We didn't have to develop that skill as much.

 

It's obviously not something for everyone, especially if you just want to casually fly and shoot stuff. It can be frustrating. I think it's worth the trouble though, R-Type is great.

 

I guess it's just one of those game design cues where opinions will differ from player to player. 

 

For me, I just prefer to be dropped right back into the game after dying.  This need not compromise challenge level - look at Cave games.  

 

When you're paying quarters to play, it just seems a bit wierd to have to keep pumping quarters into an an arcade game only to potentially re-do the same section of the game over and over again.    

  

Edited November 16, 2020 by Cynicaster

[Austin]

19 minutes ago, Cynicaster said:

 

I guess it's just one of those game design cues where opinions will differ from player to player. 

 

For me, I just prefer to be dropped right back into the game after dying.  This need not compromise challenge level - look at Cave games.  

 

When you're paying quarters to play, it just seems a bit wierd to have to keep pumping quarters into an an arcade game only to potentially re-do the same section of the game over and over again.    

  

When you're paying quarters to play, you will likely take the game more seriously and actually try to get better at it, so you spend less quarters on subsequent runs. That's why getting one credit clears was special at the arcade. "Yeah, I can do that on one quarter."

 

Cave games are vastly different beasts. Terrible comparison, but I digress.

[Mitkraft]

2 hours ago, Austin said:

When you're paying quarters to play, you will likely take the game more seriously and actually try to get better at it, so you spend less quarters on subsequent runs. That's why getting one credit clears was special at the arcade. "Yeah, I can do that on one quarter."

 

Cave games are vastly different beasts. Terrible comparison, but I digress.

 

Trying to get better at it costs quarters!  That’s the whole point.  Not like you can go home and practice.

[Austin]

1 hour ago, Mitkraft said:

 

Trying to get better at it costs quarters!  That’s the whole point.  Not like you can go home and practice.

Well, you could when the home ports hit.

 

I always loved getting a home conversion, practicing there, then going back to the arcade and seeing how much better I could do.

[+Black_Tiger]

4 hours ago, Austin said:

Well, you could when the home ports hit.

 

I always loved getting a home conversion, practicing there, then going back to the arcade and seeing how much better I could do.

Over the years I've heard people say that Daytona USA for Saturn doesn't play anything like the arcade version, especially when using a gamepad.

 

But playing the Saturn version exclusively with stock North American launch controller, I went from rarely finishing the easy track in the arcade to finishing all of them.

 

Even home ports with changes but similar gameplay made it easier to master the arcade originals.

 

I never new that Darius was actually an arcade game until I stumbled upon it in a different town. I'd played Super Darius for a few years by then and even though the arcade game is 3 screens wide, I had no problem playing through it.

 

Not having turbo switches was the biggest challenge.

[Tanooki]

I did the play at home, go to arcade racket back in 1992.  That year where both SF2 and MK1 sat side by side, and I had access to an arcade at a camp then.  I got aggravated by people stepping in when I was working on getting better playing various characters to finish the game as it was a real toss up win-loss, and it would set me back to first fight.  I bought the games and put hours in at home, such as like with SF2 I could take down the AI on LV7 across the board other than Zangief with Lv5, just didn't care, hated that full circle motion for that large attack.  After a couple weeks, went back in, people thought they could push me off, and quickly people learned don't bother putting a quarter on the glass for the most part when I was there.  MK1 was pretty much the same despite the lame dumbing down of the fatalities in the SNES game, the motions were still there.