Battle of the Ports

[Baseley09]

The arcade Final Fight soundtrack is totally jammin, i really like the one they did for the PS3 version mind.

[Nu-Eclipse]

The arcade Final Fight soundtrack is totally jammin, i really like the one they did for the PS3 version mind.

Final Fight Double Impact's soundtrack is excellent.

It is the re-arrangement that Final Fight CD wishes it had.

[Leon Retro]

Let's just say the SNES version of Final Fight is lame because Capcom weren't committed to delivering a port that does the console justice. An 8mb cart meant that everything had to be heavily compressed - including the music - and lots of stuff omitted.

I'm sure Final Fight could be far better on the SNES given a 16 or maybe 24mb cart and produced by a talented team. The game we got in no way does the SNES justice, so it's pointless going on about how weak it is.

But despite it being a bad port, I still liked it quite a bit back in the day. Coming from the Amiga version, it at least had far nicer graphics and music during gameplay.

[Asura]

Man, watching a bunch of Yakumo's videos back-to-back, it makes you wonder why they even bothered with Amstrad-CPC versions of these arcade games. I owned a CPC back-in-the-day, and though I have rose-tints (I was very young) I do at least remember that some of the original games were playable enough. Just the arcade ports it seems were diabolical.

I understand why they were made - that enough people probably bought them to cover the (at the time) meagre development and distribution costs. What I don't understand is how they persisted for so long, and people kept buying them. You'd think after the second or third time people would just get the idea.

I remember as a kid being stung by the Amiga version of STUN Runner. My dad bought it for me so we could stop putting money in the arcade machine whenever we went bowling. It was awful. That being said, it's weird that I remember it, when I've doubtless forgotten so many superior Amiga titles.

[Leon Retro]

Man, watching a bunch of Yakumo's videos back-to-back, it makes you wonder why they even bothered with Amstrad-CPC versions of these arcade games. I owned a CPC back-in-the-day, and though I have rose-tints (I was very young) I do at least remember that some of the original games were playable enough. Just the arcade ports it seems were diabolical.

The Amstrad has the same CPU as the Spectrum, but its hardware was designed to put more colours on the screen, which really slowed down the CPU. Of course, clever programming helped, but a lot of developers(especially those doing arcade ports) didn't know how to handle the Amstrad well. It's why a lot of Amstrad games are simple Spectrum ports.

But there are examples of Amstrad arcade ports looking good and playing well. Chase HQ is one of them. Rainbow Islands is also quite a good port.

Back then, even the mighty Amiga received lots of terrible ports. Not because the hardware was weak, but because developers didn't do good jobs for one reason or another. It's a shame that standards were so low back then, but the industry was in its infancy. At least some programmers were skilled and delivered quality games.

[Asura]

Back then, even the mighty Amiga received lots of terrible ports. Not because the hardware was weak, but because developers didn't do good jobs for one reason or another. It's a shame that standards were so low back then, but the industry was in its infancy. At least some programmers were skilled and delivered quality games.

I always assumed Amiga ports are poor because the Amiga could display the kind of resolution/colour fidelity that approached the arcade machines of the day (and the X68000), so they tended to go for stuff which looked good in screenshots over quality gameplay. I think this is borne out by most of Battle of the Ports, where the Amiga games tend to look very good in screenshots and only fall apart when moving.

Certainly, as a kid, I remember being really wowed by the Amiga Final Fight for this reason.

[Strider]

Yeah there are naff Amstrad ports, but plenty of great ones too. One of the biggest issues was that devs rarely had access to the original hardware, meaning a lot of the time they were just simply copying what they saw. Companies would pretty much give them an arcade machine and that would be it, and sometimes even that didn't happen.

Good Amstrad ports include Chase HQ, Renegade, Combat School, Gryzor (Contra) Donkey Kong (which has all the levels, something the NES can't even manage) Rainbow Islands, Pang, Arkanoid 1 and 2, Operation Wolf and Operation Thunderbolt off the top of my head.

[Baseley09]

Those are good examples Strider. As a child who owned a CPC 464, as did my mates, we never noticed games being slow or painful at the time, we lapped it up - in those days we waited with baited breath for arcade ports to play our favorite coin guzzlers indoors, no matter how bad they turned out.

When a few people upgraded to Amigas the likes of Dynamite Dux literally blew our minds, there are good ones out there.

[Strider]

Those are good examples Strider. As a child who owned a CPC 464, as did my mates, we never noticed games being slow or painful at the time, we lapped it up - in those days we waited with baited breath for arcade ports to play our favorite coin guzzlers indoors, no matter how bad they turned out.

When a few people upgraded to Amigas the likes of Dynamite Dux literally blew our minds, there are good ones out there.

Agreed, it's well known that the Amstrad is ****, but that's typically an opinion of those who grew up with Speccys and C64s. There's no doubt that it suffered from a lot of poor Z80 ports, but there's also a lot of great games on the system. It gets beating by the Spectrum for sheer diversity and by the C64 thanks to its stunning soundchip and super smooth scrolling, but it's certainly not the woeful runner up that many like to make it out to be.

[Asura]

One of my memories of the machine was a tinge of smugness, because it was a disc-loader. I never actually owned a tape-loading machine, though my friend had one for the C64; I remember thinking that it took ages and was woefully inconsistent, often failing to load - whereas load times were shorter with discs and rarely failed.

[Leon Retro]

I always assumed Amiga ports are poor because the Amiga could display the kind of resolution/colour fidelity that approached the arcade machines of the day (and the X68000),

Amiga resolution: 320x200[NTSC] or 320x256[Pal]

Capcom CPS-1: 384x224

Mega Drive: 320x224

This shows that the Amiga has the same sort of resolution as other 16-bit hardware of the time. It also has hardware scrolling, which was vitally important for 2D games. The only bad point of the Amiga is in its standard, most efficient graphics mode, it only displays 32 colours. So half the colours a Mega Drive delivers - and far fewer than Capcom's CPS-1.

There are plenty of original games that show off the Amiga hardware and prove that arcade ports were often badly made. Shadow of the Beast was made to show off the hardware and it does that in spectacular fashion, despite the gameplay being quite weak. A 2D action game called Lionheart released in 1992, really pushed the A500 tech.

If you look at Amiga arcade ports such as The New Zealand Story & Rainbow Islands, they show that the Amiga could handle arcade games of the day. Golden Axe is quite impressive on the Amiga, but I think it could have been even better. It's just a sad fact that development standards tended to be pretty low back then, so with not many skilled graphics artists and programmers, a lot of Amiga games, especially arcade ports, were quite poor.

[Team Andromeda]

Agreed, it's well known that the Amstrad is ****, but that's typically an opinion of those who grew up with Speccys and C64s.

Yeah from people who never played on the system, which always winds me up a little. Even back in those early days developers would favour one type of system and take the easy route of trying to port code over, instead of trying to use each system to its fullest.

Let's just say the SNES version of Final Fight is lame because Capcom weren't committed to delivering a port that does the console justice. An 8mb cart meant that everything had to be heavily compressed - including the music - and lots of stuff omitted.

I think it was more do with the SNES CPU holding back Capcom myself for that style of gameplay. I'm pretty sure that if the same team were to have made a Mega Drive version at the same time with the same size cart, the MD would have done a better job of it.

I always assumed Amiga ports are poor because the Amiga could display the kind of resolution/colour fidelity that approached the arcade machines of the day (and the X68000

Would have thought its more to do with only having weeks to port games , no access to source code and in same extreme cases, only being to use video tapes footage for reference, not even having the Arcade machine in the office.

[Asura]

I think it was more do with the SNES CPU holding back Capcom myself for that style of gameplay. I'm pretty sure that if the same team were to have made a Mega Drive version at the same time with the same size cart, the MD would have done a better job of it.

Well, we don't really have to guess. Streets of Rage 1 and Final Fight are similar enough for us to know that the Megadrive could've easily handled a version of Final Fight with perfect gameplay and pretty good aesthetics. Given, the game is quite different but it still conveys the general idea.

It's just a sad fact that development standards tended to be pretty low back then, so with not many skilled graphics artists and programmers, a lot of Amiga games, especially arcade ports, were quite poor.

I suppose games only sold for a few quid, and the market was comparatively small.

[Leon Retro]

I think it was more do with the SNES CPU holding back Capcom myself for that style of gameplay. I'm pretty sure that if the same team were to have made a Mega Drive version at the same time with the same size cart, the MD would have done a better job of it.

The SNES was always going to have less sprites on the screen, but I don't think it killed the gameplay. But we must remember that Final Fight was an early game and I'm sure the SNES could run a version of Final Fight that is a lot better than what we got.

Retro Gamer recently interviewed lots of programmers about the SNES - and many said that the slow CPU wasn't too much of an issue once you learned to use the hardware properly. The SNES actually has a lot of tricks up its sleeve to help programmers with performance. But it is a sad fact that not all programmers were able or willing to use the machine properly.

The Mega Drive doesn't use magic compression, so an 8mb cart would have come with the same problems. But I'm sure a 16mb Mega Drive version would have been a must-have. It's just a shame that Capcom didn't fully commit to the SNES version with their best people and a 16mb cart. Instead, they delivered a disappointing port and then a stupid Final Fight Guy update, when they really should have just delivered the full product from the start. I think the only weakness of a SNES version of Final Fight should be less sprites on the screen.

[Leon Retro]

I suppose games only sold for a few quid, and the market was comparatively small.

Amiga games were ?24.99 RRP, but you could get new releases for ?19.99 at computer fairs. Piracy was rife, though, so that was a huge problem for software publishers. But the fact that publishers kept producing games must mean that it was worth it.

The simple fact is - games development was in its infancy and far from as professional as it was today. If we had had the same standards and approach to development as we have to today back then, all the weak ports would have been much better. People look at lots of Amiga games and say the hardware is "weak", but it's more a case of bad art and poor programming. There are good examples of what the Amiga can do in the right hands, but they are few and far between.