PC Engine appreciation thread

[AllYourBase]

Yeah it's true the pc engine shone at the time for it's excellent arcade conversions, but it does seem there were many other classics like Bonk's adventure which never really saw the light of day on other platforms (ok i know it came to the snes years after!) - the console itself is a joy to look at still in terms of design, lovely bit of kit!

[Mad Gear]

I thought PS was a prototype, also, old boy.

Sorry babs, but I spent way too much time in arcades between 1984-1992 (it's what made me the man I am today), and I never saw a Parasol Stars coin-op, doesn't mean the board doesn't exist, like.

Also, question to Mad Gear. Ninja Warriors? You been gone and ****ed up, maybe. Actually I'm, drunk and should read your post properly, maybe I'm the bad guy here.

Sorry dude, i've messed up (started using a new glue). I meant Ninja Spirit.

[Il Postino]

Originally posted by: Mad Gear
Sorry dude, i've messed up (started using a new glue). I meant Ninja Spirit.

Are you taking the piss now?

Is it white boy day? Why wasn't there something about this on the radio?

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=N&game_id=8891

[gamerade]

Sorta answered yourself there Il Postino regarding the PCEs popularity.
The ARCADE CONVERSIONS were 99% perfect for that era (PCBs were unavailable) not half-assed. Although there are just as many if not MORE high quality ORIGINAL games available for the machine, but a CD-ROM2 was necessary for the full experience. (certainly asfar as my collection is concerned)
Emulation is a pretty poor excuse for dismissing a gaming format, whatever it is/was, but I suppose if you didn't experience it 1st hand, when 8/16 systems were the norm, then its a bit hard looking at your **insert latest spec PC/console** running the latest mame/emus with all the fancy filtering etc. to see what all the excitement is about.
Regarding the Parasol Stars PCE version, follow this link concerning cracking the Amiga version for more insight on the Parasol Stars PCE/Coin Op version..? As the PCE version is discussed in detail further down.

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...=parasol+stars

If you've just returned (or can't be arsed) then apparantly there was not a PCB/Arcade board developed, rather the PCE was the original version, used inside the cabs.

[wheelaa]

Although there are just as many if not MORE high quality ORIGINAL games available for the machine,

Exactly. It pains me when peeps just go for the well known arcade games etc. The pce is at its best doing its own thing.

[babs]

Well bugger me backwards, I'd always thought that the arcade Parasol Stars was the original.

You live and learn.

[Il Postino]

Originally posted by: gamerade
The ARCADE CONVERSIONS were 99% perfect for that era (PCBs were unavailable) not half-assed.

I don't recall saying the PCE conversions were "half-assed", although I would say that in 2005 most of the machine's conversions seem irrelevant. Also, "99% perfect", oh that's good, I like that, but I'll take the traditional 100% perfect if it's all the same to you.

Originally posted by: gamerade
Emulation is a pretty poor excuse for dismissing a gaming format, whatever it is/was, but I suppose if you didn't experience it 1st hand, when 8/16 systems were the norm, then its a bit hard looking at your **insert latest spec PC/console** running the latest mame/emus with all the fancy filtering etc. to see what all the excitement is about.

Oh God, I'll just let this one go, yeah you're right and all, like, mate.

Originally posted by: gamerade
apparantly there was not a PCB/Arcade board developed, rather the PCE was the original version, used inside the cabs.

I'm not sure that I would pay too much attention to that dlfrsilver chap in that link:

"Taito gave us some original artwork, which we had to convert for a per-sprite 16 color palette to a global 16 color palette. They did not give us any code or other information, so I just had to play the game over and over to figure out how everything worked. I don't know anything about an arcade version".

Read any mag of the era and you'll find interviews, with the western developers involved in converting Japanese coin-ops to home systems, telling you that they (the developers) received little to no help from the original Japanese development teams.

It sounds like these guys pretty much came up against a wall of silence. I remember, vaguely, an interview with (at a guess Mike Follin? can't be arsed to check, it's late) saying that working out the structure of the bonus system in Bubble Bobble was almost impossible and that Taito itself, had, by all accounts, lost documents and explanations concerning this information (true or false? You decide).

Obviously, emulation would sort this kind of stuff out at a later date (but hey, emulation is no reason to dismiss a gaming format right?)

Indeed, as that guy confirms, most Speccy, C64 Amiga/ST ,etc ports were based on video footage of people playing through the arcade original, this explains why most of these conversions were so poor (sorry, but they were, Shinobi on the Amiga anybody?).

My point being? Well, I wouldn't accept the ramblings, of some bloke who worked on the piracy protection of Ocean's Parasol Stars ports, as confirmation that a genuine (non PCE-based) prototype/concept arcade version of Parasol Stars doesn't exist, and isn't, even as we speak, stacked away in a dusty crate, sitting right next to the Ark of the Covenant.

Come on, the truth is out there we just need to keep digging. Of course, I accept that talk of an original Parasol Stars PCB could be pure horse ****, but we a like a good conspiracy theory and this one could go *all the way to the top.












*Well, perhaps at least the second level of a three storey building.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Indeed, as that guy confirms, most Speccy, C64 Amiga/ST ,etc ports were based on video footage of people playing through the arcade original, this explains why most of these conversions were so poor (sorry, but they were, Shinobi on the Amiga anybody?).

Fair point, Il Postino - Amiga Street Fighter II was laughably poor imo. If I had ?1 for every Amiga nut trying to favourably compare it with the console conversions, I'd have been made rich at age 11!

That said, at least Amiga Shinobi had the famous Bonus Stage in it, more than can be said for the PCE version. (a moot point, I know )

As far as Parasol Stars goes, I can't find any clips of the Arcade Cabinet, and KLOV list it but they haven't got any photographic proof either, so I would probably guess that it sounds like Taito perhaps planned to bring Parasol Stars to coin-op format and then scrapped it at the last possible moment.

[Il Postino]

Originally posted by: Nu-Eclipse
Amiga Street Fighter II was laughably poor imo. If I had ?1 for every Amiga nut trying to favourably compare it with the console conversions, I'd have been made rich at age 11!

Yes that whole episode was testing to say the least. The tragic thing was, I think some of the poor fools really believed the Amiga version (of Street Fighter II) was as good as, if not better than the console ports.

Before anybody attempts to stab me in the eye for posting anti-Amiga comments, I'd just like to state that the Amiga played host to some fine original titles, my problem was with the coin-op conversions; which with one or two notable exceptions, were bad beyond belief.