Hover Strike: Cartridge VS CD

[T.A.P.]

Anyone have a good source of information on what's different between the cartridge and CD versions of Hover Strike?

 

Are they different games? Is one just an enhanced port of the other? Are they different enough to warrant collecting both? Is the game even worth getting?

[Austin]

CD version is an enhanced port with added content. Also includes CD music, FMV, some more lighting effects and an ever-so-slightly better framerate (it's nowhere near the jump in performance people make it out to be).

 

Personally I find the games dull.

[Hyper_Eye]

If you get the CD version of the game there is no reason to get the cart version besides having it in your collection. The CD version has everything that's in the cart version and more.

[Wilco]

Controls in the CD version are much better than on cartridge, and the added content is great as well. I don’t like the original but the CD port is a pretty good game imo. 

[Isgoed]

1 hour ago, Wilco said:

Controls in the CD version are much better than on cartridge, and the added content is great as well. I don’t like the original but the CD port is a pretty good game imo. 

The original is not that bad imo, but I agree with what you said.

 

Do you play this in 50 or 60Hz. setting?

[Wilco]

I play it on 50Hz, my CRT doesn’t work properly with 60Hz consoles.

 

Does it make a big difference? I can imagine it plays a bit faster but I do like the extra scan-lines you get with 50Hz in most games. 

[vrocko]

I've got them both but don't see too much of a difference. I did watch a Youtube video where they played the game and others. I didn't realize that the Jag had so many games similar to Hover Strike. Air Cars, Phase Zero, Cyber Morph, Battle Morph, I-War, Sky Hammer seem to be very similar in play. Kind of odd. 

[+jgkspsx]

Skyhammer and Phase Zero are very different games from the others, but 3D vehicular shooters were also a popular genre at the time… 3DO had Return Fire(not FPS but similar gameplay wise), Total Eclipse, Off-World Interceptor, Star Fighter, and more; PS1 and/or Saturn had Cyber Sled, Shellshock, Tunnel B1, Assault Rigs, and lots more… probably because tank based FPSes looked better in polygons than humanoid based. You could even argue that the extremely popular 16 bit Strike series was similar, and then there was SoulStar for Sega CD, and others I am probably forgetting.

 

Personally I miss this genre of games and am glad the Jag has a lot of them.

[+cubanismo]

IMHO, the music on the CD version is a major improvement. Also noticeably higher frame rate, and the extra content doesn't hurt.

[vrocko]

2 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

Skyhammer and Phase Zero are very different games from the others, but 3D vehicular shooters were also a popular genre at the time… 3DO had Return Fire(not FPS but similar gameplay wise), Total Eclipse, Off-World Interceptor, Star Fighter, and more; PS1 and/or Saturn had Cyber Sled, Shellshock, Tunnel B1, Assault Rigs, and lots more… probably because tank based FPSes looked better in polygons than humanoid based. You could even argue that the extremely popular 16 bit Strike series was similar, and then there was SoulStar for Sega CD, and others I am probably forgetting.

 

Personally I miss this genre of games and am glad the Jag has a lot of them.

Oh not knocking them! Hover Strike can be kind of boring at times but I like I-War, Cyber Morph, Battle Morph and Skyhammer but I've only played Skyhammer on an emulator. I have Total Eclipse, Off-World Interceptor and Star Fighter for the 3DO. Played Star Fighter a lot. Still do! Cyber Sled isn't bad but I like Tunnel B1 and Assault Rigs more. You are right the 3D vehicular shooters were popular at that time. I'm pretty sure they were trying to get in on the action and you might be able to reuse some of the same code to program them so you wouldn't be starting from total scratch. Easier to get the game up and running and out to the public. 

Edited March 23, 2022 by vrocko

[Atlantis]

Just look and listen at the CD version, better at everything, much already mentioned but +1 from me: better graphics, music, look at the crisp 64 bit ish pannel in game, better fps more missions, fmv, pollished in all ways. I like the cart version but i love the cd version! Even though i m stuck at normal difficulty, after Beating it on easy on cart. Look at it:

 

 

Edited March 24, 2022 by Atlantis

[Atlantis]

The gray metal levels have, I believe, other kind of maps more than the gloomy cart vesion:

 

 

 

 

 

There is also a pitch black level mode, you can see at end of first video in this post 

 

Edited March 24, 2022 by Atlantis

[vrocko]

4 hours ago, Atlantis said:

Just look and listen at the CD version, better at everything, much already mentioned but +1 from me: better graphics, music, look at the crisp 64 bit ish pannel in game, better fps more missions, fmv, pollished in all ways. I like the cart version but i love the cd version! Even though i m stuck at normal difficulty, after Beating it on easy on cart. Look at it:

 

 

Okay I do see what you mean. The CD version does have better graphics, cleaner, brighter, not as jagged, than the Cart version. Not a terrible game over all but like I've said it before I wish they'd have followed through with a Battlezone 2000, which is what Hover Strike started out to be, and made it along with Hover Strike.

Edited March 24, 2022 by vrocko

[Lostdragon]

On 3/22/2022 at 4:38 AM, T.A.P. said:

Anyone have a good source of information on what's different between the cartridge and CD versions of Hover Strike?

 

Are they different games? Is one just an enhanced port of the other? Are they different enough to warrant collecting both? Is the game even worth getting?

From someone sadly no longer with us, who worked on both:

 

MT> You were the lead designer for both Atari Jaguar Hoverstrike games. Do you have a particular preference towards one version or another?
LL> Not really, but technically speaking, the CD version had a few extra perks. For instance the engineering crew managed to boost up the frame rate by a stunning 2-3 fps... And some of the terrain textures we were able to load as high res. Oh and the soundtrack was CD-quality instead of MIDI. Seriously though, I always felt the game was unnecessarily trashed in the magazines and flamed in newsgroups. It may not have been a GREAT game, but a lot of people put a lot of time and effort into making that game ship.

Source:http://gooddealgames.com/interviews/int_Lance_Lewis.html
 

 

[Lostdragon]

11 minutes ago, vrocko said:

Okay I do see what you mean. The CD version does have better graphics, cleaner, brighter, not as jagged, than the Cart version. Not a terrible game over all but like I've said it before I wish they'd have followed through with a Battlezone 2000, which is what Hover Strike started out to be, and made it along with Hover Strike.

Sadly, you've only got to look at Atari's treatment of the solid 3D and much enhanced version of Battlezone 2000 on the Lynx by HMS, to see how they were handling Battlezone updates. 

 

 

Whilst Rob Nicholson and Jim Gregory accounts differ on exactly why it had to be hidden as an Easter Egg, the fact it got treated as it did, was just bloody awful ?

[T.A.P.]

Thanks for the heads up.

 

I ended up snagging a CD copy. Here's hoping I like it.

[UHATEIT]

Where there any differences in the levels on the Cart vs the CD versions? Or is just the same game with more upgrades, graphics, sound? I cannot remember the differences between the 2 to contribute to the conversation on the topic. Something I hated one one of these games, not sure if it was the cart or the CD but the draw distance was terrible and the game was just WAY too dark for me to see far enough ahead most of the time, making it hard to aim at enemies properly as you approached from a distance. Making you have to focus more on the map and the little dots/icons versus looking at the playfield to see things at least for me.

[tripled79]

My only gripe with both versions is that occasionally you'll get gang raped by multiple enemies. They'll just blast you from all directions and you'll be ping ponging around and unable to gather your bearings...

If you can strategically move around and take out one target at a time, it can be fun. So I always take a slow approach.